We all know them,
the ones that never stop talking
or take a breath and allow others to speak.
The men are big boors,
the women are clacking teeth.
Maybe it’s a disease,
or they like listening to their own voice.
The simple solution?
Equip them with an OFF button!
Carole Nese enjoys reading people and observing and writing fiction, creative nonfiction, editorial prose, and sometimes poetry. Her stories are a combination of imagination, daily conversations, and real world experiences.
The gunshot echoes through the alley.
“That’s what you get for leaving me for this pig!”
She falls. He drops to his knees.
“Stay with me, baby, please! Don’t go!”
Sirens echo in the distance; too late.
His sanity is leaving him. Laughter fills the alley.
His lover is dead.
Alaina Umscheid is in 8th grade and loves to read and play her french horn.
Running in the cold rain had made my breathing shallow. Fierce lightning illuminated the alleyway. I stopped, knowing I would never find Buster tonight.
I studied the rhythm of my footsteps though my vision was blurred by tears.
His bark rang through my ears. “Buster! Oh thank goodness you’re safe.”
Gabby is a 13-year-old who enjoys playing basketball hanging out with friends.
The ship halted; the black grains of sand slowed it.
Was this how it should look?
Taking another look at the brochure, I looked up and squinted. The picture looked like paradise.
Were those skulls on spears? Maybe I was just sea sick.
But it looked nothing like the advertisements.
Victoria is a 13-year-old girl who enjoys writing, reading, and drawing, all with her cat, of course.
The story of the week for October 17 to 21 is…
Patience by Penny Jo McAllister
Fun, creative, and with a ton of implied depth. Some great competition this week, but Penny Jo stood out!
My greatest loves have all been in my head.
Safe from failure, I dive into passion; into romance; into perfection. I know things will go as I plan; I am planning them all.
Sometimes I wake from these daydreams, longing for them—struggling to remember their lips are not mine.
Rebecca Milton is a writer from London, England who was once described as “cute like a polar bear sliding down a rainbow”. Coincidentally, that has always been her aspiration in life.
The day after my exam results, Dad took me to the beach. He showed me how even the flattest, smoothest stone – skimmed over a perfectly calm sea – could stumble and trip beneath a sudden wave. And how any rock, pitched directly into the ocean, could make rainbows in the spray.
Mark Farley (mumbletoes.blogspot.com) is attempting to write 1,000,000 words in 2016. Please wish him luck!
Some day, the world will know the truth. They think that because of their ridiculous brains and silly thumbs they can do anything. We’ll let them think that for a while. Remember: stay away from their video cameras. We don’t want to go viral yet. They might stop feeding us.
Penny Jo McAllister is a freelance writer who lives among several innocent looking critters.
Furious, I walked fast to the park and sat down on a bench next to a stranger.
“My wife says she has seen a ghost laughing. Ridiculous. How do people believe in such stupid things, I wonder. Do you believe in ghosts?”
“I’m not stupid,” the stranger laughed, and vanished.
K.L.Prasad is a playwright and screenplay writer in India, as well as an actor and an activist. K.L. also teaches screenplay writing in film institutes and conducts workshops.
When we discovered every crater was a childhood wound or a pockmark of despair, we conferred a diagnosis of major depression and put the moon on suicide watch, monitoring its position every fifteen minutes. All night we watched the moon creep and wane. Winking stars and chirping crickets didn’t help.
Over the years Bob Thurber’s work has received a long list of awards and prizes. His most recent book is a collection of brief stories titled “Nothing But Trouble.” His first novel, “Paperboy: A Dysfunctional Novel,” was recently rereleased. Visit BobThurber.net.