Top Stories
New stories you'll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
The Orphans in the Woods. Top Story - January 2025.
Rohan washed the dishes and put them away. He was grateful that his sister had cooked dinner. It wasn't as good as Mom's cooking, but for her first try it wasn't that bad. She'd get better. Gertrude had begun looking around the house for money as Rohan had told her. After Rohan was done putting the washed dishes away, he double checked the front door to make sure it was locked. He glanced at the telephone on the wall in the kitchen. No one had called yet and he was glad. He wondered if he should disconnect the phone or leave it alone. He decided to leave it alone for now. He walked through the living room to his bedroom to find his large suitcase. He had to pack the suitcase carefully with his best camping clothes.
By Shanon Angermeyer Norman2 years ago in Chapters
The Soundtrack of Your Year Challenge Winners
The Soundtrack of Your Year Challenge invited writers to reflect on the defining moments of their year through the music that accompanied them and share those stories in the Beat community, complete with music embeds from Spotify, YouTube, and beyond. Whether it was the song that played during moments of quiet reflection, the melody that lifted their spirits on their happiest days, or the playlist that provided strength during challenges, participants crafted narratives that highlighted how music is more than background noise—it’s the soundtrack to our lives. By weaving together their personal soundtracks, these stories showed how each song represented a chapter of growth, resilience, and joy.
By Vocal Curation Team2 years ago in Resources
Meta Yields to the Right. Top Story - January 2025.
Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg recently announced META (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) will no longer use fact checkers and rely on a community notes to report information. Zuckerberg announced the decision after meeting with President-elect Trump. However, what Zuckerberg did not announce was overturning protection for LGBTQ+ community, women, and BIPOC. In other words, META users will be able to attack these marginalized groups with no consequences. Since the announcement, many users on Threads have already begun looking for an alternative social media space, or deleting their accounts from all social media. However, it is vital we stay on these apps and continue to make our presence known in the META-verse.
By Iris Harris2 years ago in Pride
To Finish a Series. Top Story - January 2025.
It’s always great when you realize your mistake 2/3s of the way through writing the series. For a while, I could not figure out why reception for my second book had been so much more muted than my first book. Certainly, it’s not as novel (hehe) the second time you publish something. Perhaps I should have spaced it out more than six months. Did I not do enough promotions?
By Stephen A. Roddewig2 years ago in Motivation
Coyote and the Council. Top Story - January 2025.
Coyote had called yet another council meeting. I was getting rather disturbed by it all. One can only do so much about the natural order and the food chain. And even Coyote was annoyed by all the meetings; a millennium of punishment for being too much of an incarnation of chaos, and not enough of a clever problem solver, that may or may not disturb the rules set by Father Sun and Mother Moon, was taking its toll. Yes, this is why there are so many names for deities. One word just doesn't sum them up; they're too complicated for that. Their names become some sort of hollow place holder. It's complicated. Coyote once tried explaining it to me, and we ended up debating the nature of what constitutes an egg for six days.
By Meredith Harmon2 years ago in Fiction
Questions of The Apocalypse in "Moon of the Crusted Snow" a Novel by Waubgeshig Rice. Top Story - January 2025.
How would you react if the world went dark? In the novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, he asks his readers to consider this question while he unfolds the chilling story of a small northern Anishinaabe community who loses power at the start of a stark winter. With community members being at different levels of preparedness for winter, some having hunted and fished over the warmer seasons, some having not, tensions begin to rise. As news of the city losing power makes its way to the northern community, visitors begin to make their way to the community too. Not all of the visitors have the best intentions, though, which becomes clear as resources begin dwindle. Adjustments are made within the community as families try to re-organize themselves and learn how to live in the fallout of society's upheaval.
By sleepy drafts2 years ago in BookClub
The People That Shape You. Top Story - January 2025.
When I was in my twenties and thirties, I was an English teacher at a high school in Staffordshire in England. Previous to this, I had been performing administrative posts and wondering what the hell was I going to do? I knew that I was underperforming but I've never been a particularly driven person or rather, to qualify that statement, not by money or status.
By Rachel Deeming2 years ago in Humans
Tiffany's Epiphany. Top Story - January 2025.
Tiffany Higgins had been sitting on the hard plastic chairs, feeling her behind get numb and her courage failing. She was still in her office clothes and the sweat was gathering in her polyester armpits. The sudden silence and the anxious stares became the prompt for her rehearsed lines. Her voice was hesitant.
By Rachel Robbins2 years ago in Fiction
Let There Be Light. Top Story - January 2025.
God said let there be light, and then there was you. Standing in the dark corner of a room that I tried so desperately to ignore but could not seem to live without. You were the spark that lit a flame in me to reveal the truth.
By H. J. Levon2 years ago in Poets
Re-Greening The World.. Runner-Up in Future Fragments Challenge. Top Story - January 2025.
Water sloshed around my ankles, though that was nothing new. My parents told tales of a world where there was much more land above sea level, where the North and South poles were much larger than they are now. A world with clean air. A World Before.
By Natasja Rose2 years ago in Futurism
Quarter Century. Top Story - January 2025.
Twenty-five years… It just seems to be a small blip in time once you’ve reached my age. Young people always think that as soon as they hit a certain number that the party’s over. Well, that ain’t true. Not at all. Not a chance.
By Kendall Defoe 2 years ago in Futurism
Lifeless Intelligence. Top Story - January 2025.
You wake to the repeating sound of birds singing on a loop outside your bedroom window at precisely 5.30am. Trying your best to ignore the noise that grates against your ears, you roll over in bed and pull the covers over your head to dull the noise.
By Maddy Haywood2 years ago in Futurism
