Being offered the chance to work with Professor Trent in the university Cybernetics Department seemed an ideal opportunity for about-to-be-made-redundant lab technician, Mike. Little did he know that it was far more than a lab technician that Prof Trent wanted.

For Daddy
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

He called me “Daddy” in the emails and text messages I received from him. I guess I thought that it had been so long since we had been together as father and son that he would still think of me like that. But really, that made no sense. My son was over 18 at the time. He would have only been 11 or 12 when I left his mother.

Wife needs attendant care. Husband provides care.

Spinal Tap
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

The device was a simple spinal implant. Something injected into the fluid of the spinal column, carrying the capacity to deliver tiny electrical impulses. These impulses were so small that the minute battery had sufficient capacity for one hundred single tiny surges. But directly in the spine those surges translated to bursts of incredible pain. Julie felt that one hundred such jolts would be all that was needed to adjust behavior. In the case of her own son Chris, she had used less than fifty.

What have we done?

Another perspective to the short story Lara Croft 2.0 and some further development.

by MonicaS

Lara Croft 2.0

by MonicaS

How a role model can influence your life

Originally posted 2005/02/01

Remember how courteously inefficient all that old correspondence by snail mail used to be? It often seemed as if you would never be able to get anything straightened out by dealing with people who weren't even reading your letters...

Gentlemen;

‘You don’t mind if I call you Mike do you?’ When forced to reply they usually replied by saying something like, ‘I didn’t realise you were talking me, Cinderella, because my name is Michael.’ That was of course if the questioner were male. They substituted a name like Arnold if the questioner were female.

Hope is a luxury not everyone can afford.
 

Twister
A Short Story inspired by a Captioned Image
By Maryanne Peters

I put it down to good policework. My policework. Checking the scenes thoroughly. Interviewing the witnesses. Understanding the clues. Good policework. Dedication.

My father was a policeman. I respected him and I respected the work that he did, but he did not achieve great heights. He said that it was about the satisfaction of doing good. That is the measure of achievement that a policeman should be aware of, not their rank or salary bracket.

This next story is a bit personal for me. It's one I'm still having trouble coming to terms with. One one hand, it could have been a trick of the mind. I was on some pretty powerful painkillers at the time. My life too it seemed had fallen apart, like a piece of priceless china that had been dropped on the floor. The tiny porcelain shards scattered to the four winds. I guess I should start at the beginning of the story.

Hidden Intent Part 5

That summer will stay with me for ever. We had the two lions to look after and show to the public and the horses seemed to know exactly what they should be doing. The act was a real hit and Jenny and I were interviewed and photographed at almost every place we stopped.

Hidden Intent Part 4

As we moved from town to town I settled into my life as a girl. My injuries had healed and Jenny had been teaching me the finer points of girl-dom. The tigers had become very friendly with everyone and their previous minder was happy to leave me to look after them.

Hidden Intent Part 3

I kept to the shadows as I walked to the station, feeling the strangeness of the breasts with the tightness of the bra. I had the back-pack on and the shoulder bag on my shoulder and did start to feel as if I was walking into a new future.

Bordello Boys
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

My mother said that she prayed that her children would not be male. A brothel is no place for boys.

But I was a boy, and so was my real cousin Dee, and my pretend cousin Jay.

Dee was older than me by three years, but Jay was only a few months younger than me, so we played together. Dee looked after us a bit, I guess. Both of us looked up to Dee.

Christian Feminization

From a series of Captioned Images

Positively Patsy Part 45

I settled into a life of being a song writer and business woman. The partnership in K Beat meant that Joanne and I were in there on a regular basis, taking care of administration and even backing new singers with Jake and the boys. Alice looked after every day things very well.

Hidden Intent Part 1

I did not have what they call a happy childhood. My father was a drunkard and a bully and I grew up spending a lot of time hiding in, or sometimes under, my bed. He was a road-worker and played as hard as he worked, leaving my mother and me to scrape along as best we could.

Positively Patsy Part 43

Papers, what papers? I went to the reception and asked about papers and the lass behind the counter smiled and gave me four different ones and told me that I would be very interested in what was in them. I took them back to Joanne and we started with the first paper.

It was getting near the end of our fifth counseling session and I still hadn't made any headway against his delusions. This was definitely one of my more difficult cases. Every time I thought we were finally getting somewhere he would dig in his heels and I'd run smack into the brick wall of his denial. I sighed, and started again, “Look, we all have feelings, a sense of who we are in the world. But simply feeling like you are something doesn't make you that...”

Positively Patsy Part 41

My first priority was to get the whole cast up to speed with a three week stint in New York. I was surprised that all of my stars were happy with it as they had all had dreams of appearing on stage as genuine actresses when they were young, rather than being pop stars. Greg was more than happy and said that it was the idea of change that kept him alive.

Positively Patsy Part 39

In the morning our driver took us into the old town and when we stopped the car was surrounded by children. “Do not get out of the car; they will have your wallets and hand bags in a second. Just wait for my cousins. Just then the second car pulled up behind us and two big guys stepped out and approached our car.