Draft
Mirror Image. Honorable Mention in Not Quite There Yet Challenge.
I started this short story for a Vocal Challenge that called for the first line. I didn't finish it in time to submit to the challenge, but I keep coming back to it. A woman loses her earring. A woman loses her earring. A woman's earrings are stolen from her tomb. The connections haven't all been made between the women. The lost earring and the way it was lost is real. I still have the other one. So is the gatehouse, the main house and the antique mirror that has an angry spirit. They are all cobbled together over time and place. I've handled ancient Egyptian tomb beads while cataloguing a fashion collection. Shivers. The rest is imagined, I think.
By Natalie Wilkinson4 months ago in Critique
MARTA morning . Content Warning.
Tom Jabowski slid from behind the wheel of his Lexus, adjusted his tie, and checked his phone one more time before slipping it into the jacket pocket of his plaza taupe Versace suit and approaching the bus depot. Yesterday was slim pickings, but he had a good feeling today, almost as good as that day back in Manhattan before 9/11 in his twin towers office before those fuckers at the SEC got him disbarred. Now, he was scrambling for cash with a bunch of hicks in Atlanta fucking Georgia who thought the SEC was the strongest conference in NCAA football instead of the Securities and Exchange Commission. So here he was in this shitty life he'd been forced into. He shot a quick text to his wife to see where she was spending her day. Great--at the jewelry store, then lunch with her mom. The coast should be clear until midafternoon.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Critique
The Lab Coat Killer. Runner-Up in Not Quite There Yet Challenge.
"The papers are calling him the lab coat killer on account of the fact that all of the dead have been scientists. Four so far, all men, each an expert in a different scientific discipline." As he spoke, detective Moss slid today's newspaper across the table to his partner, detective Jimmy Valentine. The headline screamed "Lab Coat Killer Strikes Again" in big bold letters. Jimmy digested that headline, turned it over in his head a few times, before speaking "Stupid name, but it is sort of catchy. The media are gonna have a field day with this, and that is going to make our jobs even harder than they already are." He slid the paper back across the table with a spinning motion which sent it careening directly back into the hands of his ten year partner on the force. Moss slammed both his hands down hard on the table, momentarily stunning Jimmy. "God damn it Jim, those media assholes better stay the fuck out of my way."
By Everyday Junglist4 months ago in Critique
Authorship vs Refinement
Much of the confusion surrounding artificial intelligence and writing comes from a failure to distinguish between two fundamentally different acts: originating ideas and refining their expression. These acts are often treated as interchangeable, as though whoever touches the final form must also be the source of the thought itself. That assumption does not reflect how writing has ever worked, nor does it reflect how human thinking actually unfolds.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Critique
Expression vs Distortion
One of the most persistent frustrations in communication is the gap between what a person intends to say and what others actually receive. This gap exists regardless of intelligence, sincerity, conviction, or depth of understanding. Someone can hold an idea with clarity internally, yet watch it arrive distorted, flattened, reduced, or misinterpreted once it is expressed. The failure is often blamed on the idea itself, when the deeper issue is frequently translation.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Critique
Productivity as Preservation
Productivity is often framed as the visible accumulation of outcomes. Words written, posts published, episodes released, metrics improved, engagement gained, and projects completed become the evidence that work has happened. Under this framing, anything that does not immediately result in external output is treated as inefficiency, distraction, avoidance, or delay. The productive person is assumed to be the person who can show visible results.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Critique
Output vs Oversaturation
The Fear of Adding to the Noise The modern anxiety around oversaturation is not unfounded. People are surrounded by more words, videos, opinions, explanations, reactions, and interpretations than they can meaningfully absorb. In that environment, producing more content can feel irresponsible or self-defeating, as though adding anything further only contributes to the noise. This concern often causes thoughtful people to hesitate. They hold back ideas, not because the ideas lack value, but because they fear that volume itself will devalue what they have to say.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Critique
Created Risk, Inherited Risk, and the Moral Line We Keep Erasing (A Society That Tells the Truth: Chapter 3)
The Distinction Modern Rules Refuse to Make One of the quiet failures of modern rule making is the refusal to clearly distinguish between risk created by choice and risk inherited by existence. When this distinction collapses, responsibility becomes confused, guilt spreads outward indiscriminately, and ordinary behavior is treated as morally suspect. This is not a minor philosophical oversight. It is the foundation beneath many of the injustices people now experience in public life, from transportation and health policy to everyday regulation and enforcement. When systems fail to differentiate between what someone causes and what simply exists, moral clarity erodes at every level.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast5 months ago in Critique
The first-ever "smell map" fills in the gaps about how olfaction functions.
One of those senses that most people hardly notice until it goes away is smell. It offers crucial alerts regarding smoke, spoilt food, and other potentially dangerous situations. In addition to influencing flavour and evoking memories, our sense of smell has the power to completely alter a moment's mood.
By Francis Dami5 months ago in Critique
You Mugged the Wrong Guy
Look, man, I feel so fucking bad about what happened that I’m only reporting it because I have to. Sorry about that, too. Normally, a mugging pisses me off, makes me feel stripped of my humanity, but I was pretty deep in my feels today, and I hope you understand why, that it wasn’t some intentional joke from some asshole who’s been watching you work this train with no repercussions.
By Harper Lewis 5 months ago in Critique
