Turbula
Online since August 2002
Fiction

May 31, 2009
If we're going to bring Turbula out of its semi-dormant state, we can't do it without a contribution from Dan McClenaghan. He shares The First Annual Loma Alta Frog-Jumping Contest, a different version of Some Day My Prince Will Come which we published in June 2005. We think you'll like both ...

New fiction:

MAY 2009:

Dan McClenaghan:
The First Annual Loma Alta Frog-Jumping Contest

Recent fiction:

NOVEMBER 2007:

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 9

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 8

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 7

OCTOBER 2007:

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 6

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 5

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 4

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 3

SEPTEMBER 2007:

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 2

Dan McClenaghan:
The Holy Land: Chapter 1

Previous fiction

AUGUST 2007:

Jerry Mikorenda:
When My Dead Uncle Calls

MARCH 2007:

Michael McLaughlin:
The Man Was Known As Ray

DECEMBER 2006:

Dan Robbins:
Life's Rich Pageant Takes a Breather

OCTOBER 2006:

Dan McClenaghan:
Johanna's Stroganoff

AUGUST 2006:

Torrey Meeks:
Animus

Dan McClenaghan:
Poop and Tendencies

JUNE 2006:

Dan Robbins:
This Poisoned Paradise

APRIL 2006:

Dan McClenaghan:
Snuggle-Bunny

MARCH 2006:

Greg Gunther:
Verona

JANUARY 2006:

Dan Robbins:
Yancy in the Afternoon

Dan McClenaghan:
Hare Krishna, Baby
Part 2 of the "Girls" triptych

DECEMBER 2005:

John Whalen:
Wingmen

NOVEMBER 2005:

Dan Robbins:
The Jimbo Project

OCTOBER 2005:

Dan McClenaghan:
Sin's Angel (Juliet Catches a Baby)
Chapter 2 from "A Baby is Born in the Holy Land"

Dan McClenaghan:
Disco Night

SEPTEMBER 2005:

Dan Robbins:
My One Bar Fight Story

JULY 2005:

Dan McClenaghan:
Magnum Man

JUNE 2005:

Dan McClenaghan:
Some Day My Prince Will Come

Torrey Meeks:
Jack

Zachary A. Pugh:
Chaos
(from "The Zephyr Chronicles")

WINTER 2004:

Dan McClenaghan:
Stubblefield

Dan McClenaghan:
Our Girl

John E. Shea:
The Canary Bird

Philip K. Ireland:
Shakespeare on a Rollercoaster

AUTUMN 2004:

Dan McClenaghan:
A Baby is Born in the Holy Land
A chapter from a forthcoming novel

Michael J. Williams:
Elvin's Waiting

Charlene Baldridge:
Time

SUMMER 2004:

Dan McClenaghan:
Uma Thurman in a Push-up Brassiere

Jessica Cortez:
Among Admirers, Among Strangers

SPRING 2004:

Dan McClenaghan:
The Employee of the Month

Dan McClenaghan:
The Breasts of Klingon Maidens

Torrey Meeks:
Tenuous Lives

Zachary A. Pugh:
Mother City

WINTER 2003:

Dan McClenaghan:
Tango

Michael J. Williams
Corona Mas Fina

Dan McClenaghan:
White Christmas

AUTUMN 2003:

Ken Kalman
Evidence of Innocence

Dan McClenaghan:
Mortification Blues

Dan McClenaghan:
Torch Songs

SUMMER 2003:

Dan McClenaghan:
Ruth's Ankles

Mark Lambert
Conversation on a Train

SPRING 2003:

Jacqueline Zhang:
Rosalina

Jim Trageser:
Degas' Last Model

Dan McClenaghan:
Last Night's Thong

meranda Blue:
Recovery

WINTER 2002:

Dan McClenaghan:
Women's Work

Patrick Holloran:
Artichoke Man

AUTUMN 2002:

Dan McClenaghan:
The Bra, the Blonde and the Boxers
microphoneAudio version
(read by the author; 13Mb MP3)


Michael J. Williams:
Bitter Melon

Patrick Holloran:
Invention No. 1

Patrick Holloran:
mothers and other furry creatures

November 18, 2007
Dan McClenaghan's dark, disturbing sci fi novella comes to a fitting conclusion with Chapter 9 ...

November 11, 2007
They've vacated Vegas for Mendocino, but they can't get away from the Tyn ...

November 4, 2007
Get out of Vegas, baby, go. Chapter 7 of The Holy Land ...

October 28, 2007
Chapter 6 of The Holy Land, and it seems that when space aliens arrive to take over Earth, the path to global domination and subjugation of the human species runs through restaurant management ...

October 21, 2007
In Chapter 5 of The Holy Land, things might not be much clearer, but our protagonist is learning more about the space aliens who are taking over Las Vegas ...

October 14, 2007
The Holy Land, Chapter 4, and things get disgustingly violent (those of a sensitive, or even sensible, nature might want to skip this one) ...

October 10, 2007
The Holy Land, Chapter 3, continues with our protagonist unable to stop messing with the alien help ...

September 30, 2007
Chapter 2 of Dan McClenaghan's new novelette, The Holy Land, picks up the story of the Christian casino in Vegas where the space aliens have gone wild ...

September 23, 2007
Today we start a serial novelette from Dan McClenaghan, "The Holy Land." Longtime readers will recognize the Holy Land as Dan's vision of a Las Vegas casino, with a Jesus and God motif, like a nightmare combination of blow-dried TV evangelist, cheesy theme park and Vegas vibe. Throw in some carniverous space aliens ...

We'll be posting a new chapter every Sunday for the next couple of months. It's pretty doubtful that we're going to be the only ones hooked on this dark, twisted and very funny work.

August 16, 2007
Exploring a theme similar to that in Michael McLaughlin's short "The Man Was Known as Ray," Jerry Mikorenda asks what should a family do when their dead relations just won't stay away?

March 23, 2007
We'd all love to live forever, right? Maybe ... but maybe it wouldn't be all that, as Michael McLaughlin explores in "The Man Was Known as Ray" ...

December 31, 2006
What is it with Dan Robbins and the California desert? Does nothing good ever happen there? And why are his dark tales so impossible to stop reading ...

December 18, 2006
Ellis Leahy is back, in another of Dan McClenaghan's tales from fictional Loma Alta, California ...

October 14, 2006
Torrey Meeks returns with another dark, troubling tale ...

August 19, 2006
Dan McClenaghan is back as Ellis' mouth gets him in trouble once again ...

June 12, 2006
Has any publication in history ever had two such talented writers both named Dan? We didn't think so ... this month, Dan Robbins takes up our Dan literary tag-team, with a dark, sad and very, very well-written tale from south of the border ...

April 19, 2006
Do you think this is what it was like being part of P.G. Wodehouse's inner circle? Getting to read twisted, hilarious stories that make you laugh out loud? Dan McClenaghan is back with another ...

March 20, 2006
Back from hiatus, we're more than pleased to publish Greg Gunther's "Verona." Part love story, part science fiction, it's a tale that had us unable to stop until the end.

January 6, 2006
2005 saw some really wonderful works in these pages; 2006 is certainly starting out as its equal. Dan Robbins, who goes back with Turbula's founders a quarter-century, starts things off with his third entry in Turbula, "Yancy in the Afternoon." Perhaps the first-ever short story about a Jimmy Buffett tribute act in Deadwood, S.D. ...

Dan McClenaghan is best known 'round these parts for his Wodehousian take on Southern California living in his Ruth and Ellis stories. But he's got a darker side to his writing, too, as Part 2 of the "Girls" triptych shows. There's some fairly graphic sexual stuff in there, so we've stuck it behind a "Yes, I'm old enough to view this" menu. Great writing – over the top cyberpunk stuff, but not for the squeamish – or the underage ...

December 30, 2005
Dan Robbins does as good a job as anyone we've met of capturing the spirit of the American West from the 1970s to the present. Definitely blue-collar, his characters are the modern-day cowboys. "Yancy in the Afternoon" is another slice of Robbins' West.

December 10, 2005
John Whalen is normally found in our Culture section, writing his true-life tales of a San Fran cabbie. This time, though, he's sent us a war tale with a real twist.

November 13, 2005
Dan Robbins is back – with a strange tale of a reunion of old friends that doesn't go quite as planned ...

October 14, 2005
It was a year ago, in our Autumn 2004 issue, that Dan McClenaghan shared the first chapter of his upcoming novel, "A Baby is Born in the Holy Land." Featuring the characters from his Loma Alta short stories, Chapter 1 ended just as Ruth Leahy delivered a son on the floor of a Christian-themed casino (look, don't bother us with questions about that – just click on the link above and read that first installment for yourself). Now, Chapter 2 picks up the action.

October 2, 2005
Dan McClenaghan's tales of the mythical Southern California town of Loma Alta have been a staple of Turbula since our first issue. Anytime we can get a new installment from him in our e-mail account, it's cause for racing heart in anticipating of laugh-out-loud mayhem. "Disco Night" is up there with his best.

September 2005
Dan Robbins has long ties with Turbula, having published Jim Trageser's anti-poem, "Wisbies," in an underground paper at Grossmont College in the mid-1980s. Trageser and Andy Rathbone then published Robbins' short story "The Dummy Room" in the ridiculously titled arts and literary journal "A Critique of America" in the late '80s, although Robbins was not invited to the staff trip to Bimini. Despite his simmering resentment at missing out on the Caribbean junket, Robbins still said hi when he recently ran into us at Pete's Place in La Mesa where The Farmers were playing. Resuming old acquaintances is rarely as rewarding as seeing Robbins was that night, for he has sent us another wonderful short story, "My One Bar Fight Story."

June 2005
The three authors we're kicking off the re-launch of Turbula with are all familiar to regular readers. Dan McClenaghan, of course, was in every quarterly issue of Turbula – and we've sworn to do whatever it takes to keep him happy so that his twisted little Wodehouse-in-Socal tales find a permanent home here.

Zachary Pugh and Torrey Meeks both appeared for the first time in these pages in the Spring 2004 issue, and we're glad they've found their way back to us. Torrey brings us a heartbreakingly sad but riveting tale of dying, while Zak is out in orbit somewhere beyond Steve Aylett! Mesmerizing, staccato beat on your skull kind of weird but wonderful – even if you think you don't like experimental fiction, you ought to give his new piece a try.




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