So this guy walks into a bar…

If there’s one setting the average writer is familiar with, it’s probably a bar. It’s almost second nature to associate heavy alcohol consumption with the greats like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cheever…the list could go on. And of course you don’t have to be a writer to be familiar with the social aspects of bars–these dimly lit, warm places where people gather in the evenings to connect with others.

This is a collection of stories, each written by a different author, inspired by a single fictional setting: a dive bar in an undisclosed location with a few notable quirks. Although the setting is the same, the stories vary greatly. Troubled relationships, danger, even talk of alternate dimensions–plenty of strange and interesting scenarios can happen at a bar. So read on. Enjoy. Have a drink. Stay a while.

-Anna Mavromati, August 2013

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Any Given Tuesday By Ronnie Roberts

Choices By S. Paul Bowen

Etched By Laura King

Fight By Anna Mavromati

Living in Harmony with the Five Hard Facts of Life By Jesse Blake McCann

The Other Side of Things By Bobby Mattern