Husband got me a new microphone and I’d like to try reading a short story for people to listen to.
This is very nerve-wracking but I want to do it.
Please suggest one of my short stories – Probably something short enough you say “not done yet!” – preferably under 2000 words max – for me to record myself reading for you.
First: Purchased: Negotiation
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“This is what you have in mind? You picked this out all by yourself?”
Leander tensed, because Melody’s tone was the sort of thing she could get away with taking with him, but she wasn’t talking to him, she was talking to Sylviane, and whether or not Leander liked the tone — he didn’t, people shouldn’t talk to her like that — Sylviane wasn’t likely to put up with it.
Was she?
“I’m not twelve.” Sylviane huffed quietly. “Yes. I picked out these options all by myself, Melody. The tux for Leander —”
“Rather plain, isn’t it?” Continue reading
Ethan glared at Lina and Jackson. “I mean it. Stop beating yourself up. We slept, yeah, and now – this time.” He took a deep breath. “This time, we know what we’re going into, and we can call a taxi, rent a limo if we have to, and we won’t need as much sleep, because we won’t have just stopped that riot and then the end of the world. Just the end of the world,” he added, trailing off on that happy note. Continue reading
Fae Apoc, early on in the apoc.
If you’d like a good sense of the Fae Apoc, check out faeapoclive.tumblr.com – a site on which I posted news articles of the beginning of the Faerie Apocalypse.
To know enough to read this story: there are godlike creatures attacking the cities, and there are fae – including young fae, 20-somethings – who were born on earth and lived like humans until their teens.
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This was written just because of that idea, that might-or-not-be-a-Mr. Rogers-quote, the one that is the end of the Look for the Helpers quote – if you’re an adult, Be the Helpers.
I started this June 12 this year. It’s taken me a while to finish!
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“-and down on Court Street, you can see that the Banner Building has collapsed. We don’t know how many people are still alive on the other side of the devastation; all communication seems to be down.”
The local reporter looked tired; more than tired, she looked desperate. The first building going down could’ve been coincidence, but now a four-block area of downtown was completely blocked off, and at least some of it had to have been deliberate. Continue reading
This story is the eighth one to my Squish-Squash, Pumpkins and Gourds Prompt Call. It comes pretty much exactly after Lexiconal.
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At least when you were snowed in, you had no shortage of ice packs.
Maddy held one to her face, where she’d gotten in the cross-slapping of swinging dictionaries. Continue reading
I am doing a Halloween Choose Your Own Adventure one post/day from now through the end of the story/Halloween/as I feel it!
I am only doing this on the Fediverse – Mastodon, etc. – but it’s easy to get an account.
My suggestions:
wandering.shop/ – If you want an invite code, ask me; I have lots. This is the instance I’m posting this story from.
mas.to – an open-registration site that seems pretty friendly. I have an account there as my backup.
If you want the lowest-effort account just to take part in this Choose The Adventure, I suggest mas.to.
I don’t suggest the “flagship” mastodon.social; they’re having issues lately.
mastodon.art is very nice; I can get you in touch with their mod.
Ditto elekk.xyz – it’s got a lot of really nice people!
I’ve heard good things about scholar.social.
A longer thread on good instances – https://ping.the-planet.space/notes/8d1tusnstl
This story is the Seventh one to my Squish-Squash, Pumpkins and Gourds Prompt Call.
This story is Fae Apoc, but nothing is needed to be known about the setting to read it except there is an apoc and magic exists.
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Winter was fast approaching – well, it was September, but that was close enough to start worrying – and, as Grishma looked around her little clearing, she realized she had no more shelter than she’d had last year.
Last winter had been brutal. There were things Grishma was good at and things she wasn’t, and one of the things she really wasn’t all that good at was, well, surviving in the wilderness. Continue reading
Warning: Horror.
This story came out of nowhere, honestly. I just started typing and this is what I got.
The water slipped through the canal, snuck along the rocks, and whispered along the muddy bank. There wasn’t a burble to be heard, not a whisper, not a splash.
In this place, even the water was silent. In this place, there was no sound at all louder than a breath, and even the breaths were held when they could be.
In this place, those that walked did so on muffled feet and every wall was as thick as it could be. In this place, even a whisper could be too loud. Continue reading
They walked away from Mr. Lee, from the remaining people that seemed more confused than anything else. She didn’t know if it was a victory, but it was – well, it was a clear path at the moment.
“So.” Jackson cleared his throat. “So, something of an adviser role puts us in a position where we aren’t immediately submissive to Lina – sorry, guys-”
“She saved our lives.” Dylan shrugged jerkily. “It’s a price to pay, that’s all.”
She noticed he didn’t say small price but then again, it wasn’t. Continue reading
This story is the sixth one to my Squish-Squash, Pumpkins and Gourds Prompt Call.
This story is Fae Apoc, BeeKeeper – it is set before the Beekeeper series. Sorry Momerath, I was being a bit of a brat (I prefer not to write continuations of extant long series as part of a prompt call. 🙂 )
What you need to know about the setting/story: Mieve is a hermit who can talk to/control insects; the apocalypse is rather recent; most trade right now is in barter.
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She hadn’t left the clearing in almost six months and, as she walked around the market, Mieve remembered why. Continue reading