Latest News

Literally Stories – Week 59 – Somewhere Over the Rainbow

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According to Wikipedia no-one was born in the year 59. Two people died. They were Roman. Or possibly Greek. I have never heard of them or know anyone who has, therefore I must set aside any attempt to find some common ground, some tenuous link between the 59th week of publishing on Literally Stories and events1957 years ago.

Instead I will announce the forthcoming Author Galleries. They are happening soon. Coming forth. Pages and pages of head-shots of the writers who patronise LS.

If you have sent us a photo you will be there. Alongside another writer. Randomly situated amongst your fellow authors, each picture an alternative portal to the author’s published works on the site.

Opportune to ask anyone who has employed the services of a professional for the purpose of capturing their image, their author-ly avatar, to confirm whether that photograph is subject to copyright and if so to let us know if there is any attribution required to accompany it.

Copyright being what it is we don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

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All Stories, General Fiction

The Last First Friday by Donald Baker

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Brandt Colson silently watched his frenetic daughter as she flitted from room to room in her usual style, talking about ten different things at once and fussing over details and generally majoring in the minor. Brandt noticed the bored and frowning, mostly grown boy, his grandson, as he stood at the front door leaning against the wall. The boy took no pains to hide his sullen, brooding, teenage impatience.

She stopped flying around the room and paused in front of the chair. Brandt looked up. “Plenty to eat and all laid out. Your list is on the counter. Sure you feel up to it, Dad?”

“Feel fine.” He replied. The stroke was jumbled memory now.

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All Stories, Historical, Humour

RuPaul Saves the Universe by Michael Patrick Marino

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San Luis Obispo, California – August, 1939

Inside a private screening room, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer and his right-hand man, producer Mervyn LeRoy, have just finished watching a test print of The Wizard of Oz. Mayer is not satisfied with the cut and has instructed the projectionist to run it again, this time with the sound turned off.

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All Stories, General Fiction

A Walk in the Woods by Adam Kluger – Adult Content

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“If some guy is gonna fuck my wife, you had better make sure he’s wearing a condom,” he yelled at her, “…and why did you have to fuck such an asshole?”
 
“I used something, don’t worry.”
 
“What’s that?”
 
“I used a diaphragm.”
 
“I don’t care about him getting you pregnant… who knows how many skanks he’s fucked before you?”
 
“I wouldn’t worry about that.”

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All Stories, Horror

Mourning Becomes Her by Frederick K. Foote

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The local bus huffs and heaves its way into Way Stop, West Virginia. It halts with a shudder and a sigh in the mid-morning sun.

I collect my duffle bag and straighten my fatigue uniform jacket. On Main Street, there’s an honest to goodness general store, a diner, Bob’s Gas Station, a few empty store fronts and two small white churches almost directly across the street from each other. The June morning is moving toward hot. I move toward the diner for coffee and directions.

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All Stories, General Fiction

Out of Place by Adam Kluger

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It was a snowy Saturday and I was headed to King Carol Record store on the Upper East Side to check out what new albums were in. Zig-Zag Records was nearby so I could swing by there as well.

It was the 1980’s and I was totally into music like the Talking Heads, Duran Duran and Devo and all the other bands that were becoming popular on a new channel called MTV.

It was late afternoon and I don’t remember if I was baked but I’d say the odds of that were 50-50.

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Latest News

Literally Stories – Week 58 – One million words

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Our resident Statsmeister, Nik Eveleigh — as he doesn’t give a fig feel free to mangle the pronunciation of his fine family name any which way you like for instance try Evil-Eye, Evel-Eeee or in Afrikaans I am reliably informed,  Ever-LICCCCHHHHHHH — has been busy tweaking his spreadsheet.

Cape Town this time of year is a trifle warm I understand, so we mustn’t judge. However, for once Mr. Ever-LICCCCHHHHHHH’s obsession with figures — I mean extremely useful hobby — has produced a stat worth dwelling on for more than 0.37 seconds.

A submission we received at Literally Stories in the past couple of days tipped the total word count for all said submissions over the one million mark.

Yeah. I know. I should have warned you to sit down first.

Folk as far afield as Reykjavik and Rotherham, Berlin and Barnsley are reeling in the face of this earth-shattering revelation and no doubt wondering if in fact it was their story that triggered this sensational milestone and what exactly this means to them.

In an ideal world a pop-up box should have appeared on the ‘lucky’ author’s screen informing them that as the writer of the one millionth word to be read by the Literally Stories Editors they had won a holiday for two to the Seychelles.

Sadly, Pop-Up blockers being what they are these days thrills such as that are a thing of the past.

What hasn’t changed is Monday’s promptness at the beginning of our literary week…

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All Stories, General Fiction

Mouse, Party of One by Nikki Boss

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Every day I get to work and there’s dead guys all over the floor. I hate those fuckers, with their naked pink tails and stupid broken necks. Most days I don’t even want to come in. Dead guys, everywhere.

The kitchen I work at is in a busy corner of the city. It’s dirty but I don’t mind any, mostly because I’m a dirty boy myself. A dirty bird.

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All Stories, Crime/Mystery/Thriller, General Fiction

All About the Truth by Hugh Cron – Adult Content

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“Please! Please!!”

“I’ll get the pliers.”

“You really are the type of individual who goes home of a night and masturbates over the bodies in your basement, aren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“… Please, don’t hurt me!”

“Shut your hole!!”

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All Stories, Horror

A Deal With the Devil by Christa Carmen

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As an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr College, Clementine Hamilton had majored in psychology. For the department research requirement, she had pursued her studies in abnormal psychology, so she was aware there was no formal diagnosis for what she was. There were elements of obsessive-compulsive disorder in that her need for constant stimulation was recurrent and persistent, and the impulsivity aspect of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder characterized past behaviors. If she had been forced to ascribe a name to it, it would have been something like ‘stimulus deprivation disorder,’ and the symptoms that had manifested themselves over the years were readily measurable.

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