Right! The story is done. A long stand in the pissing rain waiting for that bird. Fecking camera in the fecking phone pish. What twat thought of that? I bet it was some weirdo with an ear fetish!
OK now the easy bit…Oh fuck I do make myself laugh.
Tag: writing
Literally Stories – Week 38
When I visited the back door portal to Literally Stories Friday morning charged with the task of ordering random words into something a little less random my first thought on typing Week 38 was; Is there any significance to the number 38?
In short. No significance.
The best ‘fact’ I came up with was it is the probable year of the marriage of Claudius and Messalina.
Fascinating.
However if you add ‘th’ to 38 and then parallel, too, the plot thickens into something almost but not quite significant, as you now have the 38th parallel. The demarcation between North and South Korea. An imaginary line that also passes just north of Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, all of which makes one wonder how newspaper columnists survived before the advent of the internet search engine? None of which leads me to this week’s litany of literary marvels that began with The Aviator.
Still Working by Tobias Haglund
December sweeps her dead hand around my throat. My capuche swooshes open and I come to life in the morning hour rush. A beggar scratches the furrows between the cobblestones outside the metro station. When I get close to him, the automatic doors open and the warm breath of the subway hits me. He looks up at me, then back down again to the cobblestones.
I walk out on to the escalator, a boy runs past me, then a girl, then another boy. The latter boy shoves the girl when he rushes by her, down the escalator. She yells, but keeps going. Yesterday the fungus to the right was green, but today it’s covered in white foam.
The subway train comes in and I get on. It’s full, so I stand. I can always tell which state the country is in by looking at the adverts. Education, insurances, job seminars and cheap groceries. I’m reminded of what the prime minister said; the lowest unemployment rate in Europe by 2020.
Promises aren’t worth much to the poor. That’s why the adverts look the way they do, and why the beggar scratches the furrows of the cobblestone.
A Writing Piece by Tobias Haglund
Tobias sat down, put his cup of cinnamon coffee beside the keyboard and stretched out his fingers. He moved his neck from side to side making a cracking sound and spoke to himself, but only in his own head.
“Alright, here we go!”
The first couple of sentences were clunky, it took him a while to get into the rhythm. Very much like the first couple of steps of jogging. Not that he ever jogged, whom is he fooling? But the analogy could stay. For now. Maybe he’ll come back to it, like a revisit of- No. No more analogies. On with the story. A setting and a problem. What did he want to say? Ah, he remembered. His girlfriend told him about a tourist guide who literally got into a fist fight with another tourist guide. Oh, but he didn’t like that last sentence. Why didn’t he just write ‘a story about two tourist guides who fought’? Well, it was necessary to part the two since one of them initiated the fight, that’s why.
Literally Stories Week 34
Sunday used to be the day LS maintained radio-silence. Well not any longer baby. We sexed up Sunday weeks ago. Anything goes on a Sunday. Well almost. Witness In Conversation with…and Editor Picks and now something outrageously entitled A Writing Piece.
A Writing Piece indeed!
Imagine how long we sat around in blue-sky think-tank style working parties debating the ins and outs of various off-the-wall titles before arriving at that humdinger.
Sunday – A Writing Piece – Tobias Haglund.
But first, Story of the Week. No. A different first before that.
The week that was, began incredibly, yet again, on Monday.
Editor Picks by Dave Louden
We invited Literally Stories author and friend, Dave Louden, to be Editor for a day and choose his three favourite stories from the site. Here is what Dave had to say about the three stories he chose and why he felt they were special…
If there was ever a task that was as enjoyable as it was difficult it’s this one. On the one hand I got to re-read some of my favourite stories this site has offered up but on the other I had to narrow down months of great reading to three stories. Three titles across a cornucopia of genres. How do you compare a Noir to a light-hearted comic fable? A piece of science fiction to a poignant piece of personal history? In the end I had to simply say “F*ck it! Which stories made me wish to Christ I wrote them?”
Literally Stories Week 33
Sunday sees another LS author take the helm as Editor (for a day) to choose their three favourite stories from the site in Editor Picks.
Step forward Dave Louden.
Week 33…
Not satisfied with two new authors in one week, Literally Stories pushed the boat out and made it four in a row Monday through Thursday as we welcomed Elizabeth Swann Lewis, Bill Runyan, Michael C. Keith and Jeffrey Miller.
dm gillis who took this week’s Friday berth, needs no introduction.
Literally Stories Week 32
This week’s Fab Five was made up of one old boy, two Literally Stories Editors and two newcomers.
Des Kelly began the week briskly, setting a good pace with Running. James McEwan commented: “A clever and metaphoric piece, that is absorbing from within the character.”
Tuesday saw LS newcomer Jon Beight — welcome Jon — introduce a rarity to this neighbourhood of cyberspace. Namely a love story. Elizabeth Swann Lewis commented on Miguel, Lola and Ted – A Love Story: “I will probably never ever get the image of the guy melding with his chrome out of my mind. HILARIOUS.”
Wednesday, yet again, occurred in the middle of the week. I suspect, Wednesday’s author, Nik Eveleigh, couldn’t give two hoots whether or not you clicked on his story, Apathetica. Des Kelly wasn’t so indifferent when he observed: “Enjoyable and trippy stuff. You’ve gained entry into the magic lands of Terry Pratchett and escaped to tell the tale.”
Hugh Cron posed a question that felt more like a plea in his gritty tale Why Can’t She See The Difference? Diane Dickson remarked: “By approaching this from a less usual angle – that of one of the less obvious victims of a crime – you have produced a powerful piece of writing about the aftermath of a dreadful deed. Uncompromising and heart rending.”
The week finished on Friday in a not too distant future with another addition to the LS fold, Jaclyn Adomeit. Welcome Jaclyn and thank you for writing Drafted. Hugh Cron said: “This caught my interest very quickly. You have crafted a futuristic story with the recognisable attitudes and problems of today.”
Editor Picks by June Griffin
We invited Literally Stories author and friend, June Griffin, to be Editor for a day and choose three great short stories from the site. Here is what June had to say about the three stories she chose and why she felt they were special.
The forces of nature, human and otherwise, are at work in my three top picks, which I heartily recommend to every LS reader and writer, past and future.
Without a shade of murkiness, each story reveals these forces in their own distinctive way and pays tribute to the human comedy with clarity and precision. Each of the writers has perfected a beautiful writing style, and their intriguing plots and characters keep us engrossed from start to finish.
Literally Stories Week 31
Another week of fantastic stories from some old faces and a new one in JB Mulligan.
Welcome JB.
It’s not always easy to find a common thread linking five stories together. This week has seen us travelling through several continents. Graveyards, hospitals, tattoo parlours, lost in the woods. We even found time to go to the pub.
Five very different stories from five very different writers.
And the common thread? High quality writing.
literally stories 