breakdown Archives - Spillwords

breakdown

Francis Sullivan

Sean O'Leary·October 7, 2025

Francis Sullivan written by: Sean O’Leary - Sullivan picked up the phone, almost put it straight back down but then went ahead...

English Literature Featured Post

·10 mins read

The Girl On The Bus

Dawn Pisturino·November 17, 2022

The Girl On The Bus written by: Dawn Pisturino The bus driver watched you in the mirror,...

English Poetry

·1 min read

The Formula of My Breakdown

Kika Man·October 6, 2021

The Formula of My Breakdown written by: Kika Man @kikawinling After Lynne Thompson Let y equal the...

English Poetry

·1 min read

Lisa H. Owens, a retired flight attendant and former syndicated humorist columnist, resides in North Texas with a multitude of long-suffering houseplants and a senior rescue dog called Fred, who rules the roost. Her first published story was a mini-memoir about her close-call with the infamous Ted Bundy in 1978. A variety of Lisa’s multi-genre stories and poems are published in magazines and anthologies, and a collection of her own fictional pieces, as compiled by a boutique publisher, is scheduled for release in 2026. Her stories are often inspired by skeletons in the closet, and she’s not afraid of spiders and snakes.

Shuttered by Lynn Newman

Night shift has its own rhythm. By eleven, the ward had settled into the soft machinery of after-hours care. The corridors dimmed to permanent twilight. Monitors hummed like distant insects, and the wheels of the trolley learned to whisper. After enough years, the nurse had come to recognise the small patterns that meant someone was nearing their end. It wasn’t written in the notes. It happened at the windows and doors. People closed things. Both families and nurses complicit. Blinds first. Then curtains....

Features

The (un)importance of Parents

Messages In Bottles From The Lake After Dark

Endings & Beginnings

Interviews

Spotlight On Writers – Courtney Glover

Spotlight On Writers – Rich Watson

Spotlight On Writers – Arshi Mortuza

Musings on the Countryside

In From The Cold

Another Day in the Life

The Breaking Point

The Aquarium

Devils

Mean Green Fiction Machine

Dead Fish

breakdown

Francis Sullivan

The Girl On The Bus

The Seven-Letter Word

An Unexpected Present

Endings & Beginnings

Messages In Bottles From The Lake After Dark

Inconvenient Prophecy

The Stone of Destiny

The (un)importance of Parents

I Hear the Drum

Wounded Souls

The Studio

Sea and Sky

Waves of Anger