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Literally Stories Week 15

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It has been another week on Literally Stories. Began Monday. Went through several days and ended Friday.

I could review it all for you but I am inclined not to as I’ll no doubt make a hash of it.

Least said soonest mended is my maxim. Strictly speaking I didn’t actually think that one up.

Anyway. I’ll belt up. Keep schtum (I cannot repeat what my spell-checker suggests.)

Say nada, zip, or nowt as we say in my native city of Seven Hills.

Not Rome, Italy folks. No. Sheffield, England.

Say nothing and let others do the talking…there, I’m done now.

Talk!

Monday – The Hobby by LS Editor and master of dirty realism, Hugh Cron. Tobias Haglund said: A very, very interesting experiment with the format. Placing the unsettling feeling of discomfort in the head of the reader. Something unsaid or intangible is often scarier.

Tuesday – Cor Pulmonale by Todd Levin. June Griffin said: The river, the bus stop, the poppy designs, the constant cold and the broken heater were just some of the vivid elements in this fine story of two lost souls snatching at a comfort never meant to last.

Wednesday – Pater Noster by Bi-lingual LS Editor and master of a multitude of genres, Tobias Haglund. Some grinning buffoon who seems to have spent too much time in the sun said: PK Dick renowned as a science fiction author would have approved of this Tobias, the line: One misstep. Two paths in a forest. If both lead to the river how can either be wrong? There aren’t shades of darkness. epitomises the central, arguably spiritual theme to his philosophical writing.

Thursday – Son of Violence by LS newcomer, Michelle Assaad. Vic Smith said: Whatever happens next, it won’t be good, will it? I enjoyed this, Michelle, and I’m looking forward to your next story.

Friday – Ray’s Vision by LS Editor Adam West. Richard Ardus said: A very satisfying short; the pithy one line admonitions; the sinister identification of the protagonist with the son of God, knowing that there’s a kind of get-out clause – like Christ, he’s doomed.

Forgot to mention there is a poll. A new one (see link below), and there is/was an old poll and that poll was a tumultuous battle. Two T’s – Todd and Tobias – an Englishman and a Swede – went to war. And it was terrible. Titanic. Turbulent. Like two people called Titan fighting and someone (called Titan) had to win, and someone had to lose (unless it was a dead-heat then it didn’t have to end in defeat). Was it a dead-heat? No. Who won? Tobias won that’s who. But Todd won too. It was his third story to be published on Literally Stories which puts him one behind Des Kelly as most published author on the site.

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Latest News

Literally Stories Week 14

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Another week of  words where verbs very welcome were. Verbosity? No. Not us. Never. We would never use a very unnecessary word. Why do I begin the news piece this way? An important lesson, of course. An edited piece stands a stronger chance. Remove unwanted verbosity. Look up the word verbosity, then add back those words you removed and cut the fat. Now, to some lighter news.

Light bulbs are on sale.

Continue reading “Literally Stories Week 14”

Latest News

Literary Stories Week 13

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The task of writing Week 13 News fell to someone (me) who has made a habit of late of staring at blank pages. Bereft of inspiration (I tidy up and make tea and send out a load of emails to make myself useful) I’ll leave the wordy stuff to the reader/writers of Literally Stories.

Continue reading “Literary Stories Week 13”

Latest News

Literally Stories Week 12

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I seldom get invited to poker games as I never carry cards but always sad short stories. Read ’em and weep. Now that we got that awkward first sentence out of the way I can begin summarising the past week.

Sweet Surrender by our Diane focuses on a poor woman with an addiction.

Last Tuesday featured a dystopian story about something which kills off most of humanity. Speaking of a thing which kills, Kill Switch is the name of Nik Eveleigh’s story. It’s bold. Not just because I wrote in bold but the story is also bold.

Following those two stories was a comedy called A Captivating Meeting by crazily Swedish tough guy Tobias. One of those three is not true.

The Thursday story came from Vic Smith. Its speculative theme resonates in modern technology and it’s called The Conscious Coward.

Finishing the week is usually Sunday, but not here at LS. It’s the Friday story (Well technically it’s this news update, but no one reads this). Des Kelly, who will become our most prominent external author, gave us Snow On The Ground.  About the complexity of love between two even complexier persons.

The Story of the Week from 9th to 13th February 2015 has been decided. It was close. How close? Like a near-sighted dyslectic would spell clothes. Because he would write very close and also spell it close. The very definition of exciting couldn’t even begin to describe how inspiring and exhilarating this Story of the Week competition was. I guess that is the definition of exciting, so yes the very definition could describe it. It was very dramatic. It started from the stomach and ran all the way up to the throat. It’s a tie. But enough about my attire. The competition was a draw.

The winners are Talk To Me by June Griffin and  Thinking In Nature by Tobias Haglund

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Vote for your favourites and stop voting for Tobias. It’s the equivalent of voting for the Beer Party in elections. Go ahead and click on your favourite story.

Latest News

Literally Stories Week 9

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Another week has passed and I still haven’t grown younger. Santa’s not paying his dividends. I guess I’ll live. Speaking of living (cheapest segway possible or maybe it’s segue – the one with the wheels): We Lived by our Adam West started the week. Once again we are engulfed with interest – yes it’s a fire and war reference –  into the historical fiction which Senõr West delivers so well.

Continue reading “Literally Stories Week 9”

Latest News

Literally Stories Week 8

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This past week has been a smörgåsbord of thought-provoking pieces.  Yes we are very international and know words like smörgåsbord and… international.

The stories have given us moments of fear followed by moments of deliberation. And speaking of moments, we started the week off with Lissa’s. Lissa’s Moment that is. For a moment it lasted pretty long, in fact by the time the sequel came out it could no longer be called a moment, it had to be called: Lissa’s Flight.

That can’t be true, you say. Yes it is. It’s the way Diane chooses titles and speaking of titles and things that are true. Desmond Kelly’s True was our Wednesday story.

How could you possibly do a segment to the Thursday story? It will not be easy, in fact I have already lost my train of thoughts. Where was I? Oh yes, The Whereabouts of Mrs. Trisha by W D Frank is a dark and twisted tale, recommended for readers wanting a frightful experience or for people named Mrs. Trisha who are currently lost.

“Lost” you say? A bit like Elsa, the Friday story, about a young woman making a life changing decision.

Lastly but least leastly the story of the week for 12th to 16th January. Without fixing the numbers or allowing the lobbyist too much say. The last week winner is: Literally Stories Week 7. What? That has to be the rigged results. No the real winner is: The Front Page by David Louden. Congratulations to David Louden!

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Don’t forget you can vote for your choice of Story of the Week for the week ending 23rd January either here – right now – right on this page OR by clicking the link on the Header Menu or the cute little letter box in the side bar

Three Choices – No excuse – Come on support your favourite – please 🙂

Latest News

Literally Stories – Roundup

DSC_0592So there we are, the first full week of Stories for 2015. We hope you found something that you enjoyed. Actually we hope you liked them all.

As you know we like to give all the stories a fair crack of the whip so the first Oscar for story of the week will only be handed out next weekend. Please keep reading, “liking” and commenting to make sure your favourite gets the nod.

Continue reading “Literally Stories – Roundup”

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Literally Stories – Week 2

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Week 2 on Literally Stories and no one can say we did not live up to our globe-trotting promise.

Monday witnessed a Welshman, living in South Africa, writing disturbing American based horror.

Tuesday, Swedish funny man Tobias Haglund landed us in Germanville trick-or-treating Nietzche et al.

Wednesday and it was but a short trip to Dover for an Englishman and his Romanian girlfriend.

Thursday saw a return to the USA. More unpleasant goings on in the backwoods with squirrels and…sorry folks, that would be telling.

Friday brought Week 2 to a close with a suspect Russian Product’ which was up for negotiation in an offer you really would want to think twice about.

Continue reading “Literally Stories – Week 2”

Latest News

Literally Stories – Week 1

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We said we were going to put our feet up come the weekend. Heave a collective sigh. Have a lie in. Take the dog on a long walk.

We changed our minds. Decided Saturday was an opportune time to say thank you to our readers.

Thank you.

Literally Stories began the week with 8 WordPress followers and a handful of Facebook likes. It finished the week with 31 fellow WordPress folk keeping tabs on us and 56 Facebook ticks and in total 270 story reads.

It is, as they say, a good, solid start. Continue reading “Literally Stories – Week 1”