Essay
Don't Be Afraid To Do The Unusual Thing. Top Story - July 2026.
“Last saved 2 years ago”. That’s what my draft page says, though I know it’s actually been more like 3. This is a true story, about a real person who was born over 130 years ago. It’s the first piece that I ever started writing for Vocal Media, and it has been sitting in publishing limbo since the very first day I got the nerve to try and be a real writer on a public platform.
By Mama Magdalene4 months ago in Critique
Haunted by Potential. Top Story - July 2026.
It started in June of 2021. I was visiting the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in Southwest Virginia, where my mother-in-law is from. One night during my stay, after a few glasses of wine, my mother-in-law and her cousin decided it would be a good idea to show me the Haunted Graham Mansion.
By Ashley Lima4 months ago in Critique
The Book I Still Haven’t Read: Go Set a Watchman
I preordered it and awaited its arrival with great anticipation. That was when we lived in the Vineland house. Patrick had been working in Charlotte, doing weekly commutes and coming home on the weekends. I was teaching at a career college and didn’t have much joy in my life in Augusta. Too many people knew where I lived and dropped in on me without calling, to the extent that I started doing what my paternal grandmother did when she didn’t want company: answering the door with my purse over my shoulder. Sorry, I was just on my way out. Nana would even get in the car and drive around the block to rid herself of unwanted company. I had yet to take it that far, and I had a better solution in mind: move to Charlotte.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Critique
Still Waiting
I have a story that has been sitting unfinished for years. Not abandoned. That would be easier. Abandoned things have a certain honesty. You admit they failed, close the folder, place them somewhere quiet, and let them become part of the archive of who you were.
By Alain SUPPINI4 months ago in Critique
Heat & Humidity
Why does it have to be so hot and humid? I know I live in the Deep South, but why does it have to stay so long? For some reason it seems that this type of weather thinks that it has to stay around till Christmas and yes even into January. Then it cools off MAYBE for only four weeks maybe usually three weeks and the thermometer rises again. Then you hear from the local news when is it going to warm up again like 10 months of hot and humid and at times rainy that makes it even more humid and hot. That's when I would like to reach through the television screen and slap the dickens out of the reporters. El Nino is a giant pain in the you know where. El Nino or even sometimes Le Nina is just about the same where I live for some reason it seems to be always hot and humid the 10 to 11 months of the year. This is really my only gripe for living in tropical area. Great for short vacations but not living a life. Heat and humidity together just to me short be short term maybe since it's the South at least four months to deal with it.
By Mark Graham4 months ago in Critique
To Be Verified or Not to Be Verified
Oh, to be verified. After almost a week I am still waiting to be that all important word VERIFIED. I keep submitting my information and says I am PENDING and then a few minutes or at times a few seconds later it goes back to ACTION NEEDED. I have been going back and forth between these two entities and have still after almost a week for I started last Wednesday when I wanted to publish a poem and found out after Vocal had a maintenance day and now this. I just tried again and everything was submitted, but I still see PENDING and I believe right before I started typing this short 'essay' it was again said ACTION NEEDED!
By Mark Graham4 months ago in Critique
When History Is Exchanged for Hero Worship
There are few subjects that demand greater care from the artist than history. A fictional tale may invent kingdoms, heroes, villains, and calamities without committing any offense beyond the ordinary hazards of poor storytelling. History affords no such liberty. It concerns itself with men and women who lived, suffered, erred, achieved, and whose decisions still cast long shadows across the present day. When a filmmaker undertakes the life of such a figure, he does not merely entertain an audience for two hours. He enters into an unwritten covenant with the public: that invention may serve drama, but it must not bury the essential reality of the subject. That obligation becomes especially grave when the subject is that of George Washington.
By Jacob Herr4 months ago in Critique
Independence
Today, Americans all around the country will be smiling and happy. Maybe not content; after all, who could be, in the world we live in these days? But for this entire day, people will forget their woes and those of the world, and they will engage in merriment, sunshine, and good times.
By Alexandra Grant4 months ago in Critique
The Critical Tipping Point: not quite there
When I go to write “my story” I always find a new place to start. It is as if the first sentences make a lasting impression and there is a need to reframe the parameters. As if that makes a difference. My writing a story is a selfish endeavour. I use it to clarify my thoughts using the skills of life and science that have taken a lifetime to learn. Seeing what is and interpreting signals, and then transmitting knowledge gained, is pretty much a futile enterprise. People learn what they need and want to know when they are ready.
By Katherine D. Graham4 months ago in Critique
Painting With Water
I want it to be lyrical. I want it to be powerful. I want it to be a warning, a klaxon on the path of life, an irresistible demand, that you stop, pay attention to my warning, so that you can avoid the pitfall I fell into, so that my own experience isn’t in vain.
By Meredith Harmon4 months ago in Critique
