If you’ve sent in a story in the past month and a half or so, I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get back to you.
Unfortunately, the wait times are going to get longer before they get shorter. I’m not sure why, but over the past few days I’ve received a massive flood of submissions. It’s going to take a long time to go through all of the new stories, so if it takes two months or longer to respond, please be patient!
Thanks,
Tim
Robert lived for the thrill of breaking into a house—the cool strength of the pry bar, the snap of a lock, the tinkle of busted glass, the adrenaline high, the solitary trespass through another’s intimate space, the absolute power of looking and touching and taking and—BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Gary Wadley lives in Louisville with his lovely wife and beautiful children. He does creative stuff; he can’t help it.
The boy who hated Dick and Dora
And found writing difficult
Now writes books
The boy who kicked against authority
And school discipline
Now commands a lecture hall
The boy who “failed” the 11+
Went on to prove himself
And became a professor
This boy will always be my boy
Ann Sangwin is a retired teacher, now a career grandmother. She has written all her life but until recently has not thought of submitting for publication. She lives in Kent and is part of a writing group, which has changed her life.
I would listen from bed as Father scribbled upon paper. To the soundtrack of snoring I would sneak into the study, steal his pen, and muffle the click with my pyjama top.
I stared at blank pages and waited: but Father had not left any words in the pen tonight.
Guy Preston writes with a pen he found abandoned in a train station car park. He has never changed the ink, and hopes there’s at least another 50 words left.
A second ago, I knew the answers to all questions a human mind might invent. I knew the true reason of everything in the Universe. I was omniscient, like God.
But I’m not any more. With my first gulp of air I forgot everything I’d known before I was born.
Victor Bort is Russian, and English is a lifelong hobby of his.
When he resisted with a cold “No!” the girl who was in love with him turned and fled like a little child, her thin hands flailing about by her side.
That was the image he had in mind as he sucked at the cigarette long and hard, one last time.
Arjab is a post-graduate student of English from India. Currently he’s staying alone in a flat overlooking a busy road. Often he’s lost for words. Check out his photoblog.
And then it hit me.
I realised that nothing I know is true. That person I loved is dead. People change.
The world is continuously moving around me. I’m caught in the past. In slow motion. And then it hit me.
Again and again it, he, hit me.
My lover.
Rosa’s pastimes include working cattle and co-owning two cattle stations. With only a year-7 level education she does her best with writing and is working on her second novella.
“Bobby, when does your wife get back from her four-week holiday in Paris?”
“In three days. Sunday.”
“Well, can I recommend you do some tidying up around your house?”
“No way! If I do that, the risk is that she’ll walk in and say, ‘You’ve had a woman in here.'”
Barry O’Farrell is an actor living in Brisbane,Australia. Barry’s other stories have appeared in Cyclamens & Swords, A Story In 100 Words and here at 50 Word Stories.
“Sad to say,” said the young nurse, frowning at her clipboard, “slight miscalculation in your regrown feet. Size 11 now, not size 10 like original. So you’ll need new shoes.”
“Shame,” I replied. “I’d grown fond of my old sneakers.”
“At least,” the nurse said, “everything else was sized correctly.”
Chad Slocum is a life-long lover of the written word, quirky stories, and pizza. He lives in Southwest Michigan, and endeavors to see as many sunsets on as many foreign beaches as possible.
The story of the week for May 18 to 22 is…
Handyman by Kathryn Trattner
There’s so little room in 50 words to set up emotional tension like this, let alone a thematic parallel. Very well done, Kathryn.