Current Issue

Chapter Twelve: August (by Don Lafferty)

“Ben, Ben, over here!” The media formed a semicircle around the makeshift podium outside the courtroom. “Ben, what’s your next move?” “Ben, what about you and Special Agent Simon?” “Ben, how does it feel to be a free man again?” asked Action News’ Dan Cuellar. The August humidity was stifling and he loosened his tie. [...]

Chapter Three: Pants (by Gregory Frost)

Vincent “Pants” de Leon sat at the end of the long table in the front room of Hub Bub Coffee. The place was bustling. Almost every chair was taken.

About the Authors: Naked Came the Cheesesteak – A Serial Novel

Fiction writer and editor Diane Ayres is the author of the novel Other Girls (Kensington Hardcover), the Bella Vista story “Seeing Nothing” in Philadelphia Noir (Akashic), and the poetry chapbook Rotation Stabilizes. A graduate of Chatham College, she has taught writer’s workshops at Penn, the GLVWG, and many other conferences.

Chapter One: Angela & Josh (by Kelly Simmons)

Look, I know I’m not the only blue-eyed blonde Italian girl living in South Philly. I saw another one outside Dante & Luigi’s last week, but I think she was an exotic dancer.

About the Editors

Co-editorsMitchell SommersTori Bond Assistant editorsJon BuschTiffany SumnerEmi London Intern

Q&A with Chapters 1-3 Authors

How did you get on board with “Naked Came the Cheesesteak?”  

Chapter Two: Logan & Katie (by Merry Jones)

The apartment walls were thin, so when Logan howled, I heard him.

Chapter Four: Vegan (by Tony Knighton)

As he locked his front door, Mickey Marcolina spoke into his cell phone. “Carol, please, I didn’t have a cheesesteak.

Q&A with Chapters 4-6 Authors

How did you get on board with “Naked Came the Cheesesteak?”

Chapter Five: The Cop Shop (by Victoria Janssen)

On her way to the precinct, Detective Chelsea Simon clutched her Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee from Ray’s Café and a croissant she’d snagged at Reading Terminal Market mor

Chapter Six: Arshad and Josh (by Kelly McQuain)

A crisp, fall Monday morning and already Arshad Mirou had missed his psychology class, no thanks to SEPTA and the 61 line, the bus always l

Chapter Seven: A Writer Stabs Blindly in the Darkness (by Nathaniel Popkin)

At what point do you realize you’ve gone too far? I suppose it’s possible you get a tickling somewhere and that’s the sign.

Q&A with Chapters 7-9 Authors

How did you get on board with “Naked Came the Cheesesteak?”

Chapter Eight: Chelsea & Howard (by Warren Longmire)

Change was coming to Allegheny West, if that was indeed its name.

Chapter Nine: Olive You (by Randall Brown)

 

Chapter Ten: Cock and Bull (by Shaun Haurin)

Arturo jumped up, toppling his freshly poured espresso in the process, as something splattered against the plate-glass window behind him. He turned just in time to catch a trio of hooded figures darting up the glorified alley to his left, a street with no name, a street he privately thought of as Limbo Road. It [...]

Q&A with Chapters 10-13 Authors

How did you get on board with “Naked Came the Cheesesteak?”

Chapter Eleven: Assaulted (by Diane Ayres)

CNN pulled out all the stops with their virtual set technology graphics by recreating a life-sized illusion of their own homicide investigation bulletin board for the “Chees

Chapter Thirteen: Cities of Light and Brotherly Love (by Mary Anna Evans)

Life goes easier without love.  The poets would damn this for a lie, but it is true. I should retreat into hiding. I’m good at it, and I’m safer when no one really knows me. But I want to be here. I want to be with her. Perhaps I can blame my indecision on Paris [...]