Quote by verbal
Right now some guy has ben running a leaf blower for two hours.

Two hours? How big is his property?🤔

You know, I am a big fan of Finnish metal soprano Tarja. But, um, a dark, gothic take on "Frosty the Snowman" might be a bit much, even for me. See what you think.

An ape comes dancing and singing into the cafe. After a moment of stunned silence, the crowd rushes out screaming in horror.

Good morning! I'm putting some Fire Roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe on for the coffee drinkers. For tea, we have Scottish Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream. Cold drinks are lookin' good.

I hear the baseball season ended with Texas getting their first World Series. Good on them. Now I guess we start talking about spring training again. 😜

Later, alligators.

Ape pirouettes and prances merrily out of the cafe.

Winter. At least I am likely to see more Canada on the podium (though we have the odd good year at the Summer Games, too)

Ride a horse or ride a motorbike?

Sort - Fort

Sigh. With the passing of Halloween comes ... winter. Snow on the ground and still falling on and off. Maybe I should retire and start snowbirding somewhere.

Since I mentioned that my most-viewed story is my first, thought I would highlight it since it doesn't have many comments and I suspect many of my regular SS and (redacted) friends missed it.

Voice of Ice actually predates StoriesSpace. I wrote the original version during a blizzard in 1993-94 or thereabouts. Back in those days, I wasn't publishing anywhere, just sharing with friends.

Years later, one of those friends asked permission to use it in a webzine he was editing. I said "yes" and provided a new draft. Which he ignored and did his own edit of my original, which I no longer especially liked for various reasons. Oh well, at least I had actually had a story in "print". My friend passed away not long after that and his webzine, while still up, stopped publishing new material and became archival.

Then along came StoriesSpace into my life. Wanting to get in on the writing side of the site and still not happy with my friend's edit of Voice of Ice, I grabbed a copy and edited it into the form I wanted. Voila, my first story on here.

Voice was supposed to be part of a "horror mythos" a la Cthulhu but I never really did any more stories in that milieu (well, some of my more recent work like Down in the Well and maybe Something could easily fit, but were not written with that intention).

https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/horror/voice-of-ice

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I absolutely detest football (soccer), but I don't hate this...

I've had a few favourite songs that came out of footie tournaments. "Waving Flag" by Knaan, "Forca" by Nelly Furtado, probably some more.

Here's Nelly from the 2004 Euro. She's Canadian but her family are Portuguese and she has always been heavily influenced by that culture's music.

So apparently I was the top author and has the top story in October? Cool. Got notifications when I came in and shiny new badges, too.

Rearranged my featured stories on my profile. First is my latest, second is my most liked, third is my most viewed (which, not surprisingly, is my first).

We have some Flowerpot Island coffee on in the coffee pot. Teas are English Breakfast and Russian Caravan. Iced tea and lemonade are fresh in the fridge.

Hope you had a nice Halloween, all.

Kind of depends on mood. Have not seen a play in a long time, though, so that.

Learn something new: Take a formal class or self-study?

Seer - Sear

Casual.

Movie or concert?

Going back a bit and listening to a playlist of the now-defunct Dutch symphonic metal band After Forever. The band gave us, among many good things, singer Floor Jansen of Nightwish and the unrelated guitarist-growler-songwriter Mark Jansen of the current bands Epica and Mayan (who announced recently that he and partner Laura Macri are having a baby). And, of course, lots of terrific music.

'Tis the day to do the Monster Mash, eh.

And to help you do that, you can load up your pumpkin mug (see above) with some Deathwish Coffee Dark Roast (very dark, I would imagine). For teas, we have Wakoucha (Japanese Red/Black) and Pumpkin Spice Chai (I hate the stuff myself but some might appreciate the seasonal blend). I made some nice red cherry Kool-aid for one of the cold drinks so you can pretend it is .... BLOOD!!!! Mwahahaha.

Have a happy and safe Halloween, gang!

vanishes in a poof of smoke

Broccoli but only by a hair. I used to detest cauliflower but my wife has a way of doing it that is mwa.

Dress up to shell out candy ornleave the costumes for the kids?

Quote by verbal
Man does that guy have some great screenplays to his name.

William Goldman is probably one of my favourite screenwriters when I actually look at his output over the years. And he also wrote novels like The Marathon Man and The Princess Bride and wrote the screenplays for the adaptations of his novels. He even had unused drafts for movies like The Right Stuff and Mission Impossible 2 (hard to imagine someone rejecting a screenplay from Goldman, but apparently it happened).

One day until the big day when the dead rise and living pretend to be dead. Mwahahaha! And I have put out special coffee mugs for today and tomorrow to celebrate.

Coffee is Valhalla Java Odinforce blend from Deathwish, created for legendary heavy metal guitarist Zakk Wylde, currently playing in the band Pantera but who has played in many other bands over the years, including Ozzy Osbourne's backup band. Teas are English Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream. Cold beverages are mixed up and on standby. And don't forget the cookies (I'm having a vampire and a bat).

And just so you can see who I am talking about, Zakk Wylde plays guitar in this performance by metal legend Ozzy Osbourne.

Good morning! Ape feeling better, though still achy. Having surgical mesh implanted in your side does that, I guess. Still, at least I am improving.

Coffee du jour is PC Gourmet Medium. For teas, we have Assam and Irish Breakfast. Pitchers are washed and refilled with fresh iced tea and lemonade.

Toying with an s-f setting and starting to work through a possible first story that will introduce some of the basics of the setting as well as setting up some characters. I'm thinking of his as a "universe" that could have different stories about different characters in it. It is the 21st century near future but with mysterious aliens. I posted more in the world building thread.

https://www.storiesspace.com/forum/tips-troubles-technique/the-world-building-thread?page=2&post=204171

Quote by DenimAngel

Scamps latest adventure in honor of halloween

Today got away from me so spooky cookies tomorrow

A spooky good time tale

#stsp https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/childrens/scamps-adventures-12-a-halloween-tale

Ape happy. New Scamp story is quite good. Very fun Halloween.

The latest one was a long one. Hope your support team are getting things sorted. They have my sympathies. Nothing like a balky server to make an IT guy's day go downhill. Speaking from experience there and glad I now have staff to deal with that kind of stuff.

Quote by verbal

Based on the book. We made sure it wasn't a musical first.

A song titled "I Am Going to Break Your Ankles Now" would make a pretty interesting first act climax, wouldn't it?

Quote by Molly

I'm sure everyone is aware that the site was down for a little bit. They were doing an update and there was likely a server issue but it should all be sorted now. Thank you for your patience.

I had noticed. Thanks for the update, Molly. Bad server.😁

Quote by verbal
We are seeing the play Misery this weekend.

Based on the King novel or the movie? There are differences. Or something else entirely and I am leaping to a wrong conclusion based on you being psyched for it?

Started notes for a new s-f universe. Still not sure what the stories in it will be like. Might end up being something I build that I can plug various stories into, even for that other site.

Basic premise is that aliens are more or less besieging Earth. They have banned space travel (they destroy anything that goes higher than 100,000m above sea level) and more or less enforce global peace by destroying military bases, military formations in the field, and such with brutal, powerful attacks from orbit when a war breaks out. If we give up things like nuclear weapons, then they will lift the "Alien Laws" as these restrictions are called.

This has a number of impacts, including things like losing the use of geostationary orbit and other high Earth orbits for things like GPS and communications satellites. Transoceanic cables come back into vogue for carrying communications between continents, high altitude atmospheric vehicles like balloons and planes are used for spying and collecting weather data, and so on. Still thinking through ramifications.

Rumours and conspiracy theories abound, of course, including the belief that the aliens actually have secretly landed on Earth and have somehow infiltrated governments, corporations, etc.

There's a couple core mysteries involved:

Who are they? Other than a few one-way communications in which they handed down the "Alien Laws", we have had no contact with them and have only seen their spacecraft.

What is their real agenda? Are they actually trying to force us to live more peaceably? Or some more sinister operation happening?

To be honest, even I haven't worked out those details yet.

Hurt - Hart

And that's actually the second duet with Halford on the album. The other is, not surprisingly, one of his old hits from Judas Priest, "Living After Midnight"

Oo, a new metal cover of Total Eclipse of the Heart and it may be even better. The singers each has over 40 years experience. Doro Pesch fronted the band Warlock in the eighties and her own self-titled group DORO since. Rob Halford has been lead vocalist of Judas Priest for most of the band's history. The track is from Doro's new album Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud, which also came out today.

Hard top, assuming we are talking cars. I've never seen the point of a convertible in a country where you can only put the top down for maybe four months out of a good year, and even that depends on how much rainfall there is.

Tea or coffee?

Quote by verbal
Can I just say I have the best wife in the entire world? I’ve been a bit of a mess, but I’m doing better, and she is just unflagging loving and strong. I’m lucky to have found her.

I've interacted with her on forums a few times (albeit mostly before you were married, IIRC) and have always found her quite a nice lady. Yes, you are lucky. Always remember that. I sure got reminded of how lucky I am to have mine yesterday (see below). And congratulations on finding her. 😊

And hello StoriesSpace. I am popping in to whip up a pot of PC West Coast Dark, some Earl Grey and Yorkshire Gold teas, and fill the cold rink pitcher.

Had a hernia repaired yesterday so sore but managing. It's day surgery and was booked for 4:30pm so the worst part was fasting. Nothing but clear fluids (mercifully, they consider tea a clear fluid) after midnight.

Lovely day here but the weekend looks like it may suck. Oh well, with the surgery looming, we tried to get most of our yardwork out of the way last weekend. I'm banned from heavy lifting or strenuous work for four weeks or so (depending on speed of my recovery).

Fortunately writing doesn't count as strenuous, at least not in the 21st century. Maybe if I was a monk in a scriptorium eight hundred years ago or something.

And from their first album, featuring now ex-member Amanda Somerville on lead vocals.

The late Jim Steinman wasn't really a heavy metal writer, but his songs often work well as metal nonetheless. This one, of course, made a star of Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler.

Exit Eden is an all-female metal vocal supergroup that happens to include French soprano Clementine Delauney, a favourite of mine. They used to be a quartet but founding member Amanda Somerville has left leaving them a trio. This is the first original song from the group who started as a cover band. And the icing on the cake is that ex-Nightwish bassist and singer Marko Hietala is along for the ride on this one and I swear it is one of his best vocal performances in a while, certainly since leaving Nightwish at the end of 2020.