Top Stories
New stories you’ll love, handpicked for you by our team and updated daily.
Alternate Reality: Gaston's Story
To my loving daughter, Belevia, My only goal in raising you was to ensure you had the future you deserved, a path paved by your own free will, and not by what is expected of you. You can have a family and be a wife and mother, like your mother and the women around you, or you can venture out of this town, and explore the world, defy the limitations others try to push onto you. Or...really who says you can’t be a mother and explore the world at the same time? You can do anything you set your mind to. However, I fear I may not live to see the adventures you set out on. After I have passed I want to leave you with one final story, of how I met, and lost, the one woman I truly loved.
Victoria RiveraPublished about a year ago in Fiction- Third Place in 2023 Vocal Writing Awards - Young Adult Fiction
Waiting to go to School
Malika wrapped her small fingers around the stainless steel tumbler for warmth as she stepped into the crisp, foggy mountain dawn. Her bare feet gently thudded on the ground as she moved to sit on the stair that surrounded the one-room mud hut she called home.
R. J. RaniPublished about a year ago in Fiction I’m Not Thankful To Be An American
Well, it’s Thanksgiving Weekend 2022. A day of family, friends, food, and thankfulness. I have a lot to be thankful for. I’m thankful for many things this year. One of the new ones for me is being thankful for being a writer. I couldn’t say the same last Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for the opportunity to write so many blogs and to make so many wonderful friends. It’s been awesome to have a voice these past 11 months.
Jason ProvencioPublished about a year ago in The SwampSome Alternate Poets
Introduction When you were at school who liked poetry really? I think I hated Shakespeare but it may just have been the way I was taught and how the works were actually presented to me. I do like a lot of Shakespeare though find some a bit over the top.
Mike Singleton - MikeydredPublished about a year ago in Poets- Second Place in Christopher Paolini's Fantasy Fiction Challenge
Qapkas
Everything was orange, starting with the trees that ringed the clearing: aspen, birch, cottonwood, maple, and the larches whose needles paled to gold in the Fall.
Jennifer AshleyPublished about a year ago in Fiction An Artist's Triumph
I grew up in a home where there was art all around me. My father was an avid art collector, and his passion included art magazines and books. Not only that but he was an artist himself, or more accurately what used to be called a “Sunday Painter”, which meant that he painted as a hobby. It was hardly surprising then that I soon developed a keen love for art, and began drawing pictures from a very young age, something that my father encouraged.
Tristan BiggsPublished about a year ago in Motivation- Second Place in Christopher Paolini's Fantasy Fiction Challenge
Ember and Sky
The smell reached her first. It wasn’t her kind, nor was it Elven or Dwarf. She’d smelled this scent only a few times before; the first time was long ago when her dam taught her to hunt and track. They’d come across a wide trail that cut through a lush pine thicket. Her dam stilled her before she could move forward into the clearing.
Kelly BelmontPublished about a year ago in Fiction Thanksgiving in Sicily
Heavenly aromas filled the air of our Sicilian townhouse with such density you could almost taste them. Conversation hummed in the air, a strange, beautiful medley of Italian and English from our Italian and American guests that was as familiar to me as breathing. After thirteen years in Sicily, I understood both, but I didn't have time to listen much, rushing around as I helped my parents with the finishing touches of the meal.
Wednesday Addams Thanksgiving Play Monologue
If you have watched Addams Family Values, you might be familiar with the Thanksgiving Play scene where Wednesday Addams (played by Christine Rucci) and Pugly Addams (played by Jimmy Workman) are sent to summer camp thanks to their new nanny Debbie (played by Joan Cusack) who encouraged their parents Gomez and Morticia Addams (played by Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston) to send them to Camp Chippewa. At camp, they meet the counselors Becky Martin and Gary Granger (played by Peter MacNicol and Christine Baranski), Amanda (played by Mercedes McNab), a rich snobby girl who has dreams of becoming an actress, and Joel (played by David Krumholtz), a nerd boy who Wednesday first sees and met at the camp. Throughout the film, Things didn't go well at Camp with Wednesday and Pugly, they were having a horrible time at camp and they tried to escape. They cast Wednesday as Pocahontas in Gary's Thanksgiving visionary play. When she refuses to participate, she, Pugsley, and Joel are sent to the camp's "Harmony Hut," where they're forced to watch several upbeat, heartwarming Disney and family films. After they were done watching all the family friendly movies, the three exit out of the Hut. Wednesday realized she is not perky, which we all know that, she ends up smiling with a creepy smile creeping the fellow campers including Amanda. The play opens with the "Thanksgiving Day" song then Pugsley dressed as a gigantic turkey saying "Eat me" . Amanda playing as Sarah Miller a pilgrim introducing Wednesday as Pocahontas and her tribe giving the gift the turkey/Pugsley as the turkey (which I thought all this time what Thanksgiving is about). Sarah was pleased with the gift, she welcomes her and her tribe, Pocahontas thanks her then compliments her. Miller tries to get them to sit until Wednesday as Pocahontas snaps and improved into a dark Thanksgiving monologue.
Gladys W. MuturiPublished about a year ago in FYIBeginners Guide to Music Photography
So you're interested in pursing a career as a Live Music Photographer? Enjoying a show, snapping some pics, having a few beers and connecting with the artists are just a few of the experiences that make this a well-rounded skillset.
Pierre GildenhuysPublished about a year ago in Photography- First Place in Christopher Paolini's Fantasy Fiction Challenge
The Rain Maiden
A thousand years ago a drought plagued the village of Shan Yu. Not a drop of rain had fallen on the village in three years. Believing Shangdi was angry with the villagers, they danced in his name, praying for storms and rain to fall on Shan Yu. But after dancing for seven days and seven nights, not a single cloud appeared in the sky.
M. Fritz WunderliPublished 2 years ago in Fiction Write Here, Write Now: Phone Calls With Mom by J. Delaney-Howe
From Write Here, Write Now: A Vocal Podcast, Phone Calls With Mom by J. Delaney-Howe. After a reading of “Phone Calls with Mom,” author J. Delaney-Howe talks with host Erica Wagner about how his deep gratitude to his mother sustains him as well as the power of expressing vulnerability in writing and life.
Write Here, Write Now: A Vocal PodcastPublished about a year ago in ResourcesA different kind of love letter part 2
Back in 2018, which now feels like ages ago , and certainly belonging in the BC (before Covid) era, I wrote a love letter… to the greatest city on Earth, called London. If you like, you can read it by clicking on the link below:
Eva SmittePublished about a year ago in WanderSeven Servings of Tasty Thanksgiving Haiku Poems
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, but it’s not all gravy. Here is a sampling of the many moods it inspires.
Denise SheltonPublished about a year ago in PoetsCrantastic Cranberry Sauce
There is no need to scour the internet for the best cranberry recipes. Right here will serve as a quick refuge from the onslaught of varied spins on the holiday classic, cranberry sauce. Long gone are my personal days of watching hours of cooking shows sporting their best and newest twists on traditional favorites.
Stephanie J. BradberryPublished about a year ago in FeastCongress: An Intentional Giant Mess from the Start
» KEY POINTS The House of Representatives is supposed to be the “Legislature of the People” and the Senate the “Legislature of the Land”. Neither are doing the job as intended. How did we get to this point and why is there no cure? No adjustment to legislative rules is going to fix a fundamentally broken system. We must Constitutionally overhaul how the Legislative Branch is set up in its entirety.
Rock, Paper, Scissors: Nature's Playful Strategy.
Almost everybody learns the two-player “Rock, Paper, Scissors” game quite early on in life - but beyond being just a bit of fun, or perhaps a means to determine whose turn it is to take the trash out - were you aware that this simple game also embodies a strategy that plays an important role in the evolution of life and the maintenance of biodiversity?
Gordon WebsterPublished about a year ago in EarthTwitter, Musk, and Trump
I was inspired by the High-Ku challenge to write about one of the most important developments in the social media world, i.e. Musk's takeover of Twitter and his desperate attempts to attract more eyeballs to the platform and stop exodus of advertisers and reputable news organizations. So here are my haiku verses on Twitter's demise and impending death:
Lana V LynxPublished about a year ago in PoetsThese Songs Helped Me - I Hope They Help You
I don't know what you're going through and I may never be able to understand. I know you can't put it into words or make sense of it all; that's okay because neither can I. So, let's let the music do the talking.
Riley FongerPublished about a year ago in MotivationTwitter Probably Isn't Going Anywhere
(I do not work for Twitter and I have no experience or visibility into the internals of their tech stack. This is an opinion based on my recent experience supporting and maintaining complex softwares. The opinions expressed here are my own and it's important that everyone do their own research and base their decisions on their own due diligence)
Ashley McGeePublished about a year ago in 01