[This story is based upon a conversation I overheard the on the train to work in 2011].

“Hi Wendy. I’ve not seen you on this train for a while?”

“Oh, hi Kylie. Yeah, I’ve been at the branch in Slough for the past few months. I could drive there in twenty minutes from home. Now I’m working in Reading for the next six months. The assistant manager is off on maternity leave. So here I am on the commuter express that stops at every station!”

“How are your kids?”

“Davy is a real handful. All he wants to do is play football.”

This is a sequel to “The Editors Dilemma”

https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/47384/editors-dilema

The tale resumes at the Hotel in Cynthia’s room after Cynthia has poured a cup of tea for Jennie.

Jenny sat down totally stunned by the person who was in front of her.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Cynthia smiled.

“I know that both my manuscript and how I look now is a bit of a shock but this is me now. Oh, and the final three chapters of it are on the table.”

“Cynthia…?”

the story has been removed...

Hal Jordan encounters a dying alien but initially refuses to accept the power of the Green Lantern. Instead, his boss and friend Carl Ferris takes up the job only to be kidnapped, changed, and brainwashed by the Violet Lantern Corp. Now, Hal Jordan must take on the difficult task of protecting the Earth from his best friend's wrath.

"The latest information about the continuing saga of the mutilated noses has come to light from, of all places, social media," the talking head read from his script. "More news after this message from our sponsors."

A smile appears on Jessica’s face as she looks at herself in the mirror. Today, was her anniversary of being a Were and of being the slave of her Mistress and Master. She owes them her life for saving her from herself and from the sadist guy who had abused her.

The tight leather outfit she had on was revealing and showed her figure off. She knew it was her owners’ favorite outfit. She checks her collar before leaving her bedroom. She heads towards their bedroom to wake them up.

When a coven's spell to spice up their Halloween party goes wrong, it affects everyone in costume for thousands of miles, instead of just the people at their party. See how it affects people from Tokyo to Boston in seven stories by MrSimple, Rellawing, Roberta J. Cabot, and Trismegistus Shandy.

I am reposting this original post from 2009. It did okay the first time and I got some really good stories which added to it in great ways... but I've always felt so much more could be done and written, so I'm re-opening

THE HOME THAT LOVE BUILT universe.

I was stunned by what Barbara had just said about becoming a sperm donor.

“Say something even if it is ‘No’?”

“I never even considered having another child.”

“Well, and thanks to the bracelets, we are going to have a new start in life, aren’t we?”

“This is a big… A big surprise.”

She laughed.

“And?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

Being known in one’s professional circles helps to get gigs and assignments, but this kind of gig wasn’t what Debbie Delaney, professional photographer and reluctant ghost chaser, was hoping for. That’s because this assignment involved visiting a cemetery…

“Do you like wearing a dress, Daddy?”

“Can you believe it used to be that Men told Women what to do, what to wear, their hair, clothes, everything!!!”
“You mean – we used to be in charge - and that women spent all their time wearing pretty clothes and looking after the house and the men? Weird!”

An AP-500 story
(posted quickly because a recent story got 1000 hits in less than 2 days! Yay!)

“Land of Confusion”
"The Last Domino"
"In Too Deep"  
"Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"  
"Throwing It All Away"
"Anything She Does"  
"In the Glow of the Night"
“Take a Look At Me Now”

Land of Confusion

It’s been three years.

I sat for a while when I was back in the Depot at the end of my first week back from holiday. It had been working for the company for almost ten years and very soon, I’d be giving it up for good. Letting go was hard but it had to be done. It was time to move on to pastures new.

On my way out of the Depot, I checked my schedule for the next day. I smiled when I realised that I’d be returning to the Depot in the middle of the afternoon to change both the type of bus and the route. I’d have a chance to go into the supervisor’s office to hand in my notice. In a strange way, I’d miss the place and a good few of the regular passengers that I carried almost on a daily basis.

Jon was waiting for me when I got home. The expression on his face told me that he had something he wanted to tell me.

“Out with it!” I said as we sat down to eat.

“I was sort of wondering if I could go and see Christine for a couple of days?”

This story is set in the same "world" as LadyDragon623's stories about werefolk, vampires, fae and other supernatural creatures.

I have her express permission to use the "world" and characters she has mentioned in her stories if I feel they would fit into this story.

Another week passed as Callista finalized the purchase of the land and the change of title and deed.

After quite a bit of juggling and working extra days to allow other drivers time off to do their Christmas shopping, I managed to secure a decent period off over Christmas. I didn’t tell Jon/Fiona until I’d booked a week in Tenerife over the holiday. It wasn’t cheap but I’d secured a self-catering apartment and flights for a week away. The downside was that the flight was from Birmingham on the 21st. We’d need to set off really early in the morning to check in by 07:00. The other downside was that the return flight was not due to land until 23:00. I booked a Hotel close to the Airport for that night as I guessed that neither of us would want to drive home in the small hours of the next morning.

When all the tickets and everything arrived, I showed them to Fiona.

“Dad?” she said when she’d seen everything.

“Don’t you want to go?”

“You know I do but I don’t have anything to wear for that amount of time away.”

“Funny that, neither do I. Why don’t we go shopping in Manchester a week on Saturday?”

Lazy dancing and strange lights at sea and the Sunderland is scrambled!

Being a parent is stressful even at the best of times. You are always worrying about your children no matter how old they are.
But, being a single parent is just doubly or even triply so. Since ‘she’ left me to go off with ‘him’ because of … well, just about everything, it had just been my son Jonathan or, as he preferred to be called ‘Jon’ and me.

Jon was growing up fast but the worry of being a patent didn’t reduce as he grew older. Teenagers have their own special set of issues.

This particular Friday night, he was out god knows where with some friends. At least that’s what he told me via a text message earlier. The weather was filthy so I’d stayed up waiting for the inevitable phone call, ‘Dad, can you come and pick me up?’

For once in my life, I was lost for words.

“The thing with George is just business,” said Pritti in a total expressionless manner.

Those words seemed so cold, so out of place for her.

Pritti reached up and kissed me. Part of me I wanted to break away but I didn’t. I just wanted to savour every second. The woman I loved was going to marry someone else.

When we broke off, I said,

“How can it be just business?”