Off-Platform Publications and Medium Contests — Building a list of my best as judged by others. — Contest Winners, Honorable Mentions and Longlisted Stories. Edit descriptionarpad56nagy.medium.com

I’ve heard the voice of God twice in my life–this was our introduction — It was on a late July morning in 1993 the first time I heard God speak to me. His voice did not come through the words of the homily during Mass, nor were they echoing in my head from reading scripture; back then, that happened only on rare occasions without…

Shorten Your Scroll. New Releases and Compiled Lists! — Click on the Banners below “New this week” to see my writing by category for easier access. New Additions: Off Market — Part Five Repeating a centuries-old ceremony, the battle for the Sampo, the ancient heart light of the world is underway. Into…medium.com The Date the World Changed “Thack. Thack. Thack.” The knock on the heavy door echoed inside the log cabin. Capri, wrapped in the grey woolen…medium.com

Repeating a centuries-old ceremony, the battle for the Sampo, the ancient heart light of the world is underway. Into its midst, a woman with a different destiny in mind, stumbles into the fray. — Previous chapters can be found here. Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five “Smelted in the volcanic forge of the first age and bludgeoned by blacksmith hammers, the Põhjanael, the iron pillar of the earth, carried the scars of the world when neither men nor gods stood as victors.” Her face painted in a battle…

“Thack. Thack. Thack.” The knock on the heavy door echoed inside the log cabin. Capri, wrapped in the grey woolen blanket, huddled in the corner beneath the table. They had lied. All her life. She hated them. “Capri? Capri, it’s your mother. Will you let me in, sweetie?” How could…

Hoping to raise their young daughter in safer surroundings, a family moves from Dublin to the idyllic rural village of Hayshem’s Pot unknowingly placing the child in harm’s way — Elly McKenna glanced in the rearview mirror as she drove slowly along the red clay lane leading away from the quiet, rural homestead. Their new surroundings, a country home twenty minutes east of the village of Hayshem’s Pot, seemed like a different world from the hustle of Dublin. …

Discovering kinship beyond borders and bonds beyond words — I’m home on my week off rotation; it’s a weekday, early afternoon, and I’m busy in the kitchen. There’s been a gap of time since our last sit-down family supper that wasn’t a flurry of forks and quick catch-ups with wife and child before I shoot out the door and…

A flaky, fancy, sweet pastry treat I cheated nearly all the way through, and you can too! — Good friends pitch in when you need a simple favour, and for us, running one vehicle leaves my wife arranging rides home from hockey practices and games while I have the car for work. …

Creativity vs. Connection vs. Content — Writing nonfiction is much easier than writing fiction, as the structure for any good story is already in place. You know the main character, initiating incident, motivation, crisis, and resolution. Your personal essay or memoir already has empathy and conflict built in. It’s authentic because you lived it, and true…