Top in Fiction is the place where fiction lives, but it’s also the place where a community of fiction writers and readers come together every week to share in our mutual love (and respect) of fiction. Please read the guidelines as some things may have changed and check HERE for further explanation on these guides, if needed.
OPEN FEBRUARY 21 - 22
Guidelines:
Only fiction shared between February 15th - February 21st on Substack!
This post will be open from NOW until 9pm EST on Saturday, February 22nd.
Use the TEMPLATE FOR RECOMMENDATION below when submitting a story.
Submit NO MORE THAN 2 stories! This is a strict rule that will be enforced.
TEMPLATE FOR RECOMMENDATION
Copy/Paste in the Comments Section. Anyone who does not use the template will be passed over for selection.
Story Title: Writer: [Name on Substack] Publication Name: [Substack Name Ex.: Erica Drayton Writes] Genre: [Choose 1 ONLY] See List Here Category: [Choose 1: **Note**, Comic/Cartoon, Poetry, Micro/Flash Fiction, Short Story, Short Serial, or Serial] URL: [Must be a Substack URL] Extra: Tell us about your story in three sentences or less.
Tune in to the next TiF Weekly, Live! on Monday, February 24th! You never know what new gems you’ll discover. All we ask in return is that you share Top In Fiction to your email list and Restack the post on Monday in Substack Notes.
Share fiction LOUDLY AND PROUDLY!
Love reading fiction? Why not consider joining the TiF Team as a Genre Curator where you can help select the best that genre has to offer every week! Click the image below to fill out the application:
Extra: Wiley botches a bike theft, has bizarre bar encounters, and breaks into his family house to reclaim the past, only to engage in a vicious battle with his stepfather. Meanwhile, Eddie, fed up with his urban life, reluctantly answers Wiley's urgent request and prepares to depart the city to find the elusive off the grid paradise in northern Ontario.
Extra: When confronted with the tragic news of her partner's imminent death, two lovers agree to undertake a controversial treatment where their consciences are Entangled. The story explores themes of identity. Sexuality and the individual and how love is a quantum state of mind beyond science's understanding.
Extra: Observations of a wintry Sunday morning from the heights of an apartment block balcony. Why are the magpies behaving so oddly, and why are the church bells still ringing?
Extra: I'm trying something new this week. This one is a quick romantic story, with some accompanying music. It's Fiction, with a soundtrack! Have a great weekend... 🎶🎸😎🎸🎶
Extra: A Roman soldier who gambles for Christ’s robe is thrust into a vision of time’s unraveling, where a divine force commands him to abandon war and forever be bound to perform the truth through art.
Extra: A grieving snowboarder and a jaded journalist, forced into an uneasy companionship on a turbulent flight, find unexpected connection and catharsis when their plane crashes on an icy Toronto runway.
Extra: Next chapter in a cozy, sci-fi story about the building of a space station. Leah has been able to deal with curious cops, an ancient (and illegal) AI, and the sundry issues that come with fixing up an old, derelict space ship. But it's time to come clean and explain what's happened over the last couple of centuries.
Extra: A dystopian series exploring the dark intersections of power, technology, and control. The X (Formerly Known as REDACTED) Files peels back the layers of a world where the future belongs to the highest bidder. Think X Files meets Black Mirror meets Twilight Zone.
Extra: In this second chapter of a four-part journey, Solomon’s a shadow slipping through Elliot Van Alen’s high-rise world—whiskey, Coltrane, and cryptic smiles pulling the architect closer to a city he’s only ever seen from above.
Mike invites a troubled ex girlfriend to spend Christmas with he and he's fiancé. This ex-girlfriend brings a gift with her. That gift is a human child. A human child that doesn't belong to her.
Extra: A little rollercoaster of story that tackles the highs and lows of this strange dream-like existence and finds a way out of this our socially enforced practice of atomised separateness.
Extra: Men Are Dogs of God and Dogs Are Men of God, He Who Wanders Bound To Eternity Will See The Light Fade And The Dark World Shriek Again In Rebirth
Story Title: Lemmings
Writer: Mitchell Todorov
Publication Name: The Deer Run Hollow Files
Genre: Spec-Fic
Category: Serial
URL: https://thedeerrunhollowfiles.substack.com/p/lemmings
Extra: Wiley botches a bike theft, has bizarre bar encounters, and breaks into his family house to reclaim the past, only to engage in a vicious battle with his stepfather. Meanwhile, Eddie, fed up with his urban life, reluctantly answers Wiley's urgent request and prepares to depart the city to find the elusive off the grid paradise in northern Ontario.
Story: Jumping With Janus
Writer: Jon T
Pub Name - Ferns of Columbo
Genre - Speculative Fiction
Cat: short Story
https://open.substack.com/pub/sumflux/p/jumping-with-janus?r=1asdvc&utm_medium=ios
Story Title: Entangled
Writer: S M Garratt
Publication Name: The Oort Cloud
Genre: Spec-Fic
Category: Short Serial
URL: https://theoortcloud.substack.com/s/limited-series
Extra: When confronted with the tragic news of her partner's imminent death, two lovers agree to undertake a controversial treatment where their consciences are Entangled. The story explores themes of identity. Sexuality and the individual and how love is a quantum state of mind beyond science's understanding.
Story Title: The Church Bells Ring in the Early Morning
Writer: Adriaan Odendaal
Publication Name: Now Maybe Later
Genre: Cli-fi
Category: Micro/Flash Fiction
URL: https://todaymaybetomorrowtoo.substack.com/p/the-church-bells-ring-in-the-early
Extra: Observations of a wintry Sunday morning from the heights of an apartment block balcony. Why are the magpies behaving so oddly, and why are the church bells still ringing?
Story Title: Dust
Writer: Nuno Pinto
Publication Name: Nuno's Substack
Genre: Poetry
Category: Couldn't tell you
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/pinton/p/dust?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=pn26y
Extra: what does it mean to be made from dust?
Writer: Maximilian P Siddell
Publication Name: Mythscape
Genre: Fantasy
Category: Serial
URL:https://mythscape.substack.com/p/hero-quest-episode-eighteen
Extra: Your brother made whole.
Story Title: Our Brother of the Wind
Writer: Maximilian P Siddell
Publication Name: A Stream of Counsciousness
Genre: Poetry
Category: Poetry
URL: https://mpsiddell.substack.com/p/our-brother-of-the-wind
Extra: Honouring the wind.
Story Title: Mountains of salt
Writer: Oscar Ruto Chemelil
Publication name: Oscar Ruto
Genre: Literary Fiction
Category: Short Story
Link:https://open.substack.com/pub/oscarruto/p/mountains-of-salt?r=1of53q&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Story Title: You Are Happy.
Writer: Paul Imgrund
Publication Name: I've thought of an inciting incident for my book
Genre: Speculative fiction
Category: Micro/Flash Fiction
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/paulimgrund/p/you-are-happy?r=1tl7mn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Extra: An experiment in 2nd person present tense that shows your reaction to the truth of our time.
Story Title: The Soulmates
Writer: Chris J. Franklin
Publication Name: Tales of the Zeitgeist
Genre: Romance
Category: Micro/Flash Fiction
URL: https://chrisjfranklin.substack.com/p/the-soulmates
Extra: I'm trying something new this week. This one is a quick romantic story, with some accompanying music. It's Fiction, with a soundtrack! Have a great weekend... 🎶🎸😎🎸🎶
Story Title: Gaius And The Crescent Moon
Writer: Jim Minns
Publication Name: Reality Dispatch
Genre: Lit-Fic
Category: Short Story
URL: https://jimminns.substack.com/p/gaius-and-the-crescent-moon
Extra: A Roman soldier who gambles for Christ’s robe is thrust into a vision of time’s unraveling, where a divine force commands him to abandon war and forever be bound to perform the truth through art.
Story Title: "Being alive feels pretty cool today"
Writer: Jim Minns
Publication Name: Reality Dispatch
Genre: Historical fiction
Category: Short Story
URL: https://jimminns.substack.com/p/being-alive-feels-pretty-cool-today
Extra: A grieving snowboarder and a jaded journalist, forced into an uneasy companionship on a turbulent flight, find unexpected connection and catharsis when their plane crashes on an icy Toronto runway.
Story Title: Episode 8: Things That Are Known, And Things That Are Unknown
Writer: Chris Lynch
Publication Name: The Amazing Adventures of Tortoise & Gecko
Genre: Fantasy
Category: Serial
URL:
https://tortoiseandgecko.substack.com/p/episode-8
Extra: …
Story Title: Looking down
Writer: Rostislava Pankova-Karadjova
Publication Name: Airings
Genre: Literary Fiction
Category: Flash Fiction
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/rostislava/p/looking-down?r=zcxsb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Extra: A story about the invisible - things and people too.
Story Title: Guarding You
Writer: Kimberly Kisner
Publication Name: Kimberly's Writing Fiction with the Door Open
Genre: Fantasy
Category: Micro/Flash Fiction
URL: https://writingwiththedooropen.substack.com/p/guarding-you
Extra: Sometimes being a bodyguard means prowling across rooftops and fighting doom witches; sometimes it means holding her hand.
Story Title: The Exhibitionist
Writer: Blace Alcock
Publication Name: Blace Alcock
Genre: Literary fiction
Category: Micro Fiction
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/blacealcock/p/the-exhibitionist?r=3vpd6z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Extra: Art is just entertainment now, vapid and distant
Story Title: Black Mass
Writer: Blace Alcock
Publication Name: Blace Alcock
Genre: Poetry
Category: Free Verse
URL: https://blacealcock.substack.com/p/black-mass?r=3vpd6z
Extra: An ode to a sacrilegious ritual
Story Title: Je m'appelle toi
Writer: James Worth
Publication Name: Just Wonderin'
Genre: Horror
Category: Short story
URL: https://jworth.substack.com/p/je-mapelle-toi
Extra: Why would you like to know yourself closer?
Story Title: Honesty: Nothing More, Nothing Less
Writer: ZK Hardy
Publication Name: Inkdrift: Rainbow Station
Genre: Science Fiction
Category: Serial
URL: https://inkdrift.substack.com/p/honesty-nothing-more-nothing-less
Extra: Next chapter in a cozy, sci-fi story about the building of a space station. Leah has been able to deal with curious cops, an ancient (and illegal) AI, and the sundry issues that come with fixing up an old, derelict space ship. But it's time to come clean and explain what's happened over the last couple of centuries.
Story Title: Why Teach? - chapter 18
Writer: Peter Shull
Publication Name: lower midlist
Genre: Literary Fiction
Category: Serialized Novel
URL: https://pshull.substack.com/p/why-teach-chapter-18?r=2ler3z
Extra: Teaching Othello doesn't go so well as William has imagined it will. Not so well at all... [preorder for the Kindle edition is now available!]
Story Title: A new Mother
Writer: A.M. Ward
Publication Name: Heaven and Earth: The Heshra Chronicles
Genre: Fantasy
Category: Serial
URL: https://byamward.substack.com/p/15-a-new-mother
Extra: Azayan hunts the sacred lynx and becomes the new Mother of her people. Meanwhile, Rahn is done with people and seeks the company of goats.
Poem Title: I find out that social anxiety exists in heaven
Writer: Gabby
Publication Name: Tinfoil Diaries
Genre: Poetry
URL: https://tinfoildiaries.substack.com/p/i-find-out-that-social-anxiety-exists
Extra: An existential & comedic poem on the human plague that is social anxiety and its lingering impact in the afterlife.
Story Title: Chuckaboo
Writer: Nancy Waddell
Pub Name: Nancy Waddell
Genre: Sci-Fi
Category: Flash Fiction
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/nancywaddell/p/chuckaboo?r=1qpj5d&utm_medium=ios
Extra: Thus story touches on the ongoing theme, what is real? Has technology eroded reality or enhanced it for us?
I have a few recommendations and a self recommendation!
Story title: You're to Blame
Writer: Maryellen Brady
Genre: Fiction
Category: flash fiction
URL
https://open.substack.com/pub/mebrady/p/youre-to-blame-275?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=57hpsx
Story title: Viking Funeral
Writer: Morgan Sperry
Genre: Fiction
Category: Poetry
URL
https://open.substack.com/pub/morgansperrywrites/p/viking-funeral?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=57hpsx
Story title: The Flames of Redemption
Writer: Bradley Ramsey
Genre: Fiction
Category: Serial
URL
https://open.substack.com/pub/bradleyramsey/p/the-flames-of-redemption?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=57hpsx
Story title: In the Wakefulness
Writer: Annieguile Bentulan
Genre: Fiction
Category: Flash Fiction
URL
https://open.substack.com/pub/jairahbentulan/p/in-the-wakefulness?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=57hpsx
Story title: Turn Back the Clock
Writer: Mina Howell
Genre: Fiction
Category: Flash Fiction
URL
https://open.substack.com/pub/minahowell/p/turn-back-the-clock?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=57hpsx
Story title: Am I Too Much
Writer: Hazel Allen
Genre: Fiction
Category: Poetry
URL
https://open.substack.com/pub/hazelallenwriting/p/poem-am-i-too-much?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=57hpsx
Story title: The Painted Veil
Writer: T.P. Kaaos
(Kaaosnovels)
Genre: Fiction
Category: Flash Fiction
URL
https://open.substack.com/pub/kaaosnovels/p/the-painted-veil?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=57hpsx
I couldn't choose between these two
Story title: Drowning in the Quiet
Writer: T.P. Kaaos
Genre: Fiction
Category: Flash Fiction
URL
https://open.substack.com/pub/kaaosnovels/p/drowning-in-the-quiet?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=57hpsx
Sorry this is so long! Just so many good stories to share! The world needs to see these wondrous creations!
Story Title: The Potential Well
Writer: Blueshift
Publication Name: Infuriatingly unfinished stories (and some finished ones?)
Genre: (Absurd) Science Fiction
Category: Short Story
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/nothingpretentious/p/the-potential-well?r=xk5v7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Extra: A person falls down a well and starts hallucinating. Math ensues.
Title: Chapter VIII (of Swells Over Still Waters)
Writer: Keith Long
Publication: Loser’s Fiction
Genre: fantasy
Category: serial
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/losersflashfiction/p/chapter-viii?r=3517l8&utm_medium=ios
Notes: includes audiobook by the author
Story Title: MYRTLE DEANE ( in 2 parts )
Writer: Sharron Bassano
Publication Name: 🌿LEAVES
Genre: Literary fiction
Category:Flash Fiction (4 minutes)
URL: https://sharronbassano.substack.com/p/copy-myrtle-deane
https://sharronbassano.substack.com/p/myrtle-dean-part-2
Myrtle rejects her husband and rejects Kansas
Story Title: Deepwish
Writer: A.P. Murphy
Publication Name: The Strangeness Kit
Genre: Literary Fiction
Category: Flash Fiction
URL: https://thestrangenesskit.substack.com/p/deepwish
Extra: Moby-Dick from the whale's POV. That's it.
Story Title: The Flood of Andrei
Writer: Terry A. Fries
Publication Name: Thin Air Fiction
Genre: fantasy
Category: Short story
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/terryfries/p/the-flood-of-andrei?r=1uaih4&utm_medium=ios
Extra: The lost clans come out of hiding to save people from the Prophet.
Story Title: The Fire Burns in Sadness
Writer: Egor Korneev
Publication Name: Blue Planet Stories
Genre: Literary Fiction
Category: Short Story
URL: https://www.blueplanetstories.com/p/the-fire-burns-in-sadness?r=34ufld (Substack URL)
Extra: Two former friends face old trauma and conflict while fighting a wildfire in the Mission Mountains of Montana.
Story Title: The Trip to Katie's Party
Writer: John Cardamone
Publication Name: Postcard Inkblot
Genre: Lit-Fic
Category: Short Story
URL: https://postcardinkblot.substack.com/p/the-trip-to-katies-party
Extra: A married couple goes to a family function. (It's not as boring as it sounds.)
Story Title: Whisky Demon
Writer: Aurelius Thaddeus Ashmore
Publication Name: Tales of Grit and Sin
Genre: (Psychological) Horror
Category: Short Story
URL: https://talesofgritandsin.substack.com/p/whisky-demon
Extra: Frank drinks his last bottle. A story about the cruelty of addiction and the abyss that lurks in the depths of whisky.
Story Title: Steel Flowers
Writer: Tai An Zhou
Publication Name: Tomato of Justice
Genre: Fantasy
Category: Short story
URL: https://taianzhou.substack.com/p/steel-flowers
Extra: All Lily knows are missions, flowers and blades. Is there more to her life? Can she even ask that question?
Story Title: The X (Formerly Known as REDACTED) Files
Writer: Nocturnal Narrator
Publication Name: Nocturnal Narrator
Genre: SpecFic
Category: Short Serial
URL: https://nocturnalnarrator.substack.com/s/the-x-formerly-known-as-redacted
Extra: A dystopian series exploring the dark intersections of power, technology, and control. The X (Formerly Known as REDACTED) Files peels back the layers of a world where the future belongs to the highest bidder. Think X Files meets Black Mirror meets Twilight Zone.
Story Title: The Grief Assignment
Writer: Nocturnal Narrator
Publication Name: Nocturnal Narrator
Genre: Literary Fiction
Category: Short Story
URL: https://nocturnalnarrator.substack.com/p/the-grief-assignment
Extra: A poetic meditation on existence and loss. The Grief Assignment is a quiet but powerful reckoning with what it means to be remembered.
Story Title: “Skyline” (Part 2)
Writer: Michael Arturo
Publication Name: Michael Arturo
Genre: Literary Fiction
Category: Short Serial
URL: https://michaelarturo.substack.com/p/skyline-part-2
Extra: In this second chapter of a four-part journey, Solomon’s a shadow slipping through Elliot Van Alen’s high-rise world—whiskey, Coltrane, and cryptic smiles pulling the architect closer to a city he’s only ever seen from above.
Story Title: And so could anyone
Writer: Hamish Kavanagh
Publication Name: The Sudden Walk
Genre: Horror
Category: Short Story.
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/hamishkavanagh/p/and-so-could-anyone-a-short-story?r=yo86p&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Mike invites a troubled ex girlfriend to spend Christmas with he and he's fiancé. This ex-girlfriend brings a gift with her. That gift is a human child. A human child that doesn't belong to her.
Story Title: Black Magic
Writer: Gerard DiLeo
Publication Name: The FRICTION SECTION
Genre: Fiction
Category: Microfiction
URL: https://gmdileo.substack.com/p/black-magic
Extra: Predators and prey. And praying.
Story Title: All Good Things Must End
Writer: Gerard DiLeo
Publication Name: The FRICTION SECTION
Genre: Fiction
Category: Microfiction
URL: https://gmdileo.substack.com/p/all-good-things-must-come-to-an-end
Extra: The Sweet Life!
Story Title: Riding The Wind
Writer: DW Dixon
Publication Name: The Steam Stack
Genre: Science Fiction
Category: Serial
URL: https://dwdixon.substack.com/p/riding-the-wind?r=3onfnc
Extra: A young boy discovers his passion for innovation
Story Title: The Game
Writer: DW Dixon
Publication Name: The Steam Stack
Genre: Science Fiction
Category: Serial
URL: https://dwdixon.substack.com/p/the-game?r=3onfnc
Story Title: We Are Stars
Writer: Mark Jarret
Publication Name: DarkLight
Genre: Science Fiction
Category: Serial
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/mjporter/p/20-people-are-like-stars?r=1ujboa&utm_medium=ios
Extra: A child making shadow puppets realises their story is hidden in starlight.
Story Title: The Jeans Store
Writer: Jonathan Foster
Publication Name: Jonathan Foster's The Crow
Genre: LIT-FIC
Category: Short Story
URL: https://jonathanfostersthecrow.substack.com/p/the-jeans-store
Extra: A little rollercoaster of story that tackles the highs and lows of this strange dream-like existence and finds a way out of this our socially enforced practice of atomised separateness.
Story Title: The Wicked Among Us
Writer: Jack Croxall
Publication Name: The Jack Croxall Newsletter
Genre: Horror
Category: Short Serial
URL: https://jackcroxall.substack.com/p/interactive-story-the-wicked-among-72d
Extra: You voted, now see who lives or dies in the final part of this interactive story!
Hey! I'd like to recommend one I read today that made an impression on me.
Story Title: Grey Goo Of The Self
Writer: Ashley T.K.
Publication Name: Ashley T.K.
Genre: Horror
Category: Short story
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/atkthegroovyking/p/grey-goo-of-the-self?r=1k4ty7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Extra: A body-horror with emotional depth (my words, not the author's)
A Collaboration of art and poetry
Title: Welcome to the Void
Writer: S.L. Stallings
Publication Name: For Art's Sake!
Genre: Poetry
Category: Free Verse
URL: https://sharonart.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-abyss
Extra: This is a collaboration with Zora Leigh (Wildflower) Her piece features her words and my art. https://zoraleigh.substack.com/p/waiting
Recommending another Stacker, let me know if not allowed. . .
Story Title: What Lives in the Static Part 4
Writer: Dev Henry
Publication Name: What Lives in the Static
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Type: Serial
URL: https://whatlivesinthestatic.substack.com/p/what-lives-in-the-static-part-4
Note: A woman happens upon strange happenings at an abandoned military base.
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Recommending another Stacker, let me know if not allowed. . .
Story Title: What Lives in the Static Part 4
Writer: Dev Henry
Publication Name: What Lives in the Static
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Type: Serial
URL: https://whatlivesinthestatic.substack.com/p/what-lives-in-the-static-part-4
Note: A woman happens upon strange happenings at an abandoned military base.
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We love recommending others! Please do!
Story Title: What's a Dragon? Chapter 33 - Of Legends
Writer: Dragon Writer Luc
Publication Name: The Dragons' Den
Genre: Fantasy
Category: Serial
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/dragonwriterluc/p/whats-a-dragon-chapter-33
Extra: It's finally time to check out what was probably the most fun chapter to write!
Story Title: Love Bomb
Writer: Scott MacLeod
Publication Name: Son of Ugly
Genre: Noir
Type: Flash Fiction
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/sonofugly/p/love-bomb?r=2sz29p&utm_medium=ios
Note: NYC Valentine’s Day detective story
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Story Title: Melmoth
Writer: Bence Ádók
Publication Name: The Great Beyond
Genre: literary fiction
Category: Flash Fiction
URL: https://open.substack.com/pub/benceadok/p/melmoth?r=4ghqkq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Extra: Men Are Dogs of God and Dogs Are Men of God, He Who Wanders Bound To Eternity Will See The Light Fade And The Dark World Shriek Again In Rebirth
Story Title: Jerusalem, 1997 - Occupations of the heart
Writer: Sue Meredith Mann
Publication Name: On the Road to Jericho
Genre: literary fiction
Category: serial
URL: https://ontheroadtojericho.substack.com/p/41-jerusalem-1997-occupations-of
Extra: Faith meets reality. The "Holy Land" defies easy answers
Story Title: Jerusalem, 1997 - Another door opens
Writer: Sue Meredith Mann
Publication Name: On the Road to Jericho
Genre: literary fiction
Category: serial
URL: https://ontheroadtojericho.substack.com/p/40-jerusalem-1997-another-door-opens
Extra: Once again, Eleanor is captivated. But Jerusalem is very different to Cairo. And she's been warned to be careful this time…