Thirty-Word Story Contest Winners selected by Robert Swartwood selected by Robert Swartwood art by Colin Milligan Buck Season in McKean County Pennsylvania 1946 by Ted Chiles At a buck's first spotting; the woods fill with the sound of rifle shots. My father drops to the ground, not hit, but back to the bloody slopes of Sicily. Dear John by Sion Dayson The biscuits sat half-eaten, crumbs scattered on the table. The note didn't say much—it never did. He finished her orange juice, wondered if she would come back this time. Interference by Kevin O'Cuinn She spins the dial. Static. She spins again. At the end of FM she swivels back, starts over. He tightens his mouth, accelerates. The sky outside is blue and green. Marriage by Jan Ellison After the affair ended, he began to roll toward his wife in the mornings. He felt strangely protective of her, strangely tender, as if his own sacrifice made her sacred. Still Life by Patricia Anderson He was an engineer. Now the watercolor class is all the structure he can manage. He's rustling around the kitchen, way late. "What are you doing?" "I'm organizing the bananas." Ted Chiles' stories have appeared or are forthcoming in several literary journals including Moon City Review, Canteen, and Revisitations. Vestal Review nominated his story "A Recursive Love Affair" for a 2010 Pushcart. Chiles lives in Santa Barbara, California with a poet and three cats. Sion Dayson is an American writer living in Paris, France. Her life is not as clichéd as that statement sounds. Her work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, The Chapel Hill News, Girls' Guide to Paris, and a National Book Foundation anthology, among other venues. In 2007 she won the Barbara Deming Award for fiction. She is currently finishing her MFA in Writing degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is at work on her first novel. She blogs about the quirkier side of the City of Light at http://parisimperfect.wordpress.com/. Kevin O'Cuinn lives and loves in Frankfurt, Germany. Jan Ellison is a fiction writer who grew up in Los Angeles and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their four children. Jan won a 2007 O. Henry Prize for her first published short story. Her second published story was short listed for both the Best American Short Stories 2007 and the 2008 Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her work has appeared in New England Review, Gulf Coast, Hudson Review and the O.Henry Prize Stories 2007. She holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford and an MFA from San Francisco State University. Patricia C. Anderson writes personal essays and short fiction. She has been published in South Loop Review and Good Bird! magazine. She also reads, travels, and trains parrots. Colin Milligan's photography can be found on Flickr. All content in SmokeLong Quarterly copyright 2003-2012 by its authors. Issue Thirty (December 22, 2010): Eulogy for Maria Mamani, Fire-eater by Ed Bull «» Language Barrier by Thomas Cooper «» A Goblet Falls by Barbara Diehl «» Life Lesson by Damian Dressick «» Yams by Gary Fincke «» How We Handle Our Midnights by Charles Hale «» The Corn by Kathleen Hale «» Amelia by Aubrey Hirsch «» Inside by Ashley Inguanta «» About Things That Are Lost and the Places That Things Get Lost Andrea Kneeland «» The Good Woman by Sara Levine «» Buckaroo by Ravi Mangla «» Her New Friend Jesus by Michael Meyers «» Conjugation by Jen Michalski «» Dairy Queen by Jennifer Pashley «» What Do You Do? by Dariel Suarez «» Up, Up and Away by Art Taylor «» Three Jokes by M. Thompson «» Between Budapest and Dying by Dean Marshall Tuck «» Crash-o-rama! by Chris Wiewiora «» Thirty-Word Story Contest Winners «» Interviews: Ed Bull «» Thomas Cooper «» Barbara Diehl «» Damian Dressick «» Gary Fincke «» Charles Hale «» Kathleen Hale «» Aubrey Hirsch «» Ashley Inguanta «» Andrea Kneeland «» Sara Levine «» Ravi Mangla «» Michael Meyers «» Jen Michalski «» Jennifer Pashley «» Dariel Suarez «» Art Taylor «» M. Thompson «» Dean Tuck «» Chris Wiewiora «» Cover Art "Holiday Wishes" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editors Interested in subscribing to SmokeLong's weekly newsletter? Click here. An email should be created. Send it as is, and you'll be subscribed. If the link does not work for you, send an email to imailsrv@smokelong.com with Subscribe slq-info in the body of the email (no subject is necessary). You'll receive updates detailing the release of new issues, new reading periods, contests, etc. We do not make our mail list available to anyone else.