Cheese tortellini and a salad. It was yum.

From Daniel Woodrell's Tomato Red: "You're no angel, you know how this stuff comes to happen: Friday is payday and it’s been a gray day sogged by a slow ugly rain and you seek company in your gloom, and since you’re fresh to West Table, Mo., and a new hand at the dog-food factory, your choices for company are narrow but you find some finally in a trailer court on East Main, and the coed circle of bums gathered there spot you a beer, then a jug of tequila starts to rotate and the rain keeps comin’ down with a miserable bluesy beat and there’s two girls millin’ about that probably can be had but they seem to like certain things and crank is one of those certain things, and a fistful of party straws tumble from a woven handbag somebody brung, the crank gets cut into lines, and the next time you notice the time it’s three or four Sunday mornin’ and you ain’t slept since Thursday night and one of the girl voices, the one you want most and ain’t had yet though her teeth are the size of shoe-peg corn and look like maybe they’d taste sort of sour, suggests something to do, ’cause with crank you want something, anything, to do, and this cajoling voice suggests we all rob this certain house on this certain street in that rich area where folks can afford to wallow in their vices and likely have a bunch of recreational dope stashed around the mansion and goin’ to waste since an article in The Scroll said the rich people whisked off to France or some such on a noteworthy vacation.

That’s how it happens.

Can’t none of this be new to you."

Good morning everyone. No one has made coffee yet, so I will bring some in a vacuum flask, since I don’t know how to w the coffee maker. At least Sara’s cookies are here. 

I am submitting the opening of a novel (actually a modified version of the 2 Chew stories on this lovely site) to my critique group tonight. Nervous. They are nice but TOUGH (and usually correct) and I am a little worried. I have to learn to play with the big kids. So, today I am editing all day. 

Mets lost AGAIN. I think their season is officially over. At least Sara’s Braves woke up.

Found a great podcast about old school country music: Cocaine and Rhinestones.

Enjoy your day everyone. Coffee and a pencil shaped cookie please!

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The opening paragraph of H. G. Well's The War of the Worlds. Sets the stage for what is to come beautifully. Richard Burton did a wonderful reading of it to open the concept album based on the novel by British producer Jeff Wayne.

"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment."

The magnificent opening of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House:

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

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For verbal (and his Dad)

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But these are on comp entries from, in some cases, years ago. I thought on the old site the edit restrictions lifted once the comp was over. After all, if you're not a podium finisher, it becomes just another story. I think I know a way to check.

Yep, checked the other site that uses this software and old (and even current) comp entries are editable. I think we just relied on the mods to catch people trying to edit submitted comp entries. I rarely edit old stories here so not an issue for me, but I do think only current comp entries should have editing disabled. No one is going to care if you edit a story that came ninth in a comp from five years ago. Still, hardly an urgent problem.

Anyway, I have yet to use the new editor, so I will reserve judgement.     

Quote by Verity

All I want to know is, will I ever get my comments back. They really do mean so much to me. Thank you

I like the changes for the most part, though I'm not really looking around that much. I think most of the changes impact a smaller site like SS in a good way. I agree with the One True Ping that larger sites, such as the vermillion-adjacent one, are gonna freak the f out. Eventually the dust will clear, but I'm thinking many will have to be brought kicking and screaming to the new format. Life is change. Change is life.

My favorite country songwriter (other than Merle and Willie) died today. Tom T Hall. wrote story songs, and was an astonishingly good storyteller. My Dad loved him too and passed that love to me. I learned yesterday not to post videos with text, since the text disappears, but PLEASE give The Year Clayton Delaney Died a listen today if you find the chance. If I ever write anything half as good as that song I'll die a happy man. 

Hey - a thought! With the new site, can we get a liquor licence for the place? At least one that allows for beer and wine? Or even (gasp!) a cannabis consumption licence (a real thing, they have them here, legal and everything)?

For now, a coffee. And a cookie!     

So, no text with videos?

Ooh, ooh, I just got my first email (thanks Ping)! I really like the display of the email and previous emails.

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Quote by verbal

Verity, you wrote a play!?  Too cool. That's truly pushing the creative envelope both here and at the other sites. Hundreds of thousands of stories, and has anyone written a play before now? Super impressive. My apologies if I'm missing someone's writing.  

I have thought about writing a play before but I am really not familiar enough with the stage to do it. Haven't read much modern drama either. I think the most recent play I have read was Miller's Death of a Salesman. I was thinking at one point I might hunt up an amateur theatre company to join both to try my hand at acting and so I could get a feel for it, but that's another thing that the pandemic has sidelined.

EDIT: Hey, Larry wrote one!

Dang. I hate 2 Factor Auth, though I understand the need. I hope that if we are NOT mods/admins, we don't have to use it. 

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the first full day of the new SS! It looks pretty cool, and the shakedown is slowly showing us the capabilities and limitations of the new site. I can get to new stories and new posts, which is all I ever did before. Set up a sig line. I haven't started playing around with comments and votes, but I will soon.

Verity, you wrote a play!?  Too cool. That's truly pushing the creative envelope both here and at the other sites. Hundreds of thousands of stories, and has anyone written a play before now? Super impressive. My apologies if I'm missing someone's writing.  

No Talia Friday. I haven't seen the cats yet today. I think they are hiding from me. Rehearsals for our feline+human production of Damn Yankees did not go well. Frikkin divas. In the middle of You Gotta Have Heart, Wallace hocked up a hairball.

Coffee and a dolphin shaped cookie please.

So far, the most useful things I've found to quickly get around are the two buttons in the upper right. Stories for latest stories, and forum>new posts to see what's recently been posted (I really like that feature!). Still looking around. I like it!  

Hey, the new site is too cool! I feel so fancy!

Still finding my way around. Wait! Here is the coffee, and here are Sara’s cookie jars. Yum. I need nothing else.

Mets finally won a game, though it took them several extra innings. And now we have to play the frikkin Dodgers. Sigh.

Busy day today, so I will get to it.

A coffee and a cookie would be swell.

Quote by Ping
Hey Every-Body,

Anyone see the Field of Dreams special the other night?

I only saw the entrance from the cornfields and all the players take the field. Still emotional. Damn music and father/son thingie.

Gotta go. Later…

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Trying to get all my outdoor tasks done as early as possible this week. It has been in the high nineties with lovely accompanying humidity, so it's too hot and dangerous to be outside working for long.

I hate to wish time or summer away, but I am tired of sweating because I walked outside.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll be in the corner catching up on some reading and eating some cookies.

Now I'm eagerly awaiting the change over to the new platform.

Have a good day, and stay cool, everyone.

Cheers!

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Lovin’ the injection of energy on the site.

As per Nicola, the new look SS has an ETA of a few days. After several years of dormancy, we’ve had a few competitions, and with the latest competition, and now the Challenge, SS is on the right track. Funny thing, a disco song about survival just popped into my head. New members. Old members revived. All good stuff. I can see the voluntary offering of ten dollars per annum to cover the cost of competition prizes. The more entries, the more in the kitty to help offset operating costs. But patience. The good ship SS needs to get launched and be reintroduced to the sea first.

What do y’all think about a competition-challenge repeating pattern?

I like it. Have a gap of a week or two between each. One involves judging and some formality, and the other is a friendly outreach for common-themed stories. I haven’t done the math, but this formula could see four to six of each format each calendar year. Now that it appears SS survived a near fatality, it needs to better look after its health. Consider competitions and challenges like regular exercise. They help to keep the interest up and creative juices flowing. Okay, that sounded way dirtier than intended.

Anyway, busy day today. Thanks to those that read my latest. I’ll respond in kind shortly.

Rump, I’ll take a travel mug of that pine tar you call coffee. Darn. I just thought about something. The only batting cage our area has was removed the make way for progress and ‘the public good’. Tragic. It’s something I’d love to take my kids too and swat away our daily frustrations. I guess it’s the driving range we go… until a new batting cage materializes. Sadly, my kids are not allowed to partake in the local offering of ax throwing. I’ve seen them play darts. No ax throwing is probably a good thing.

Good day to you all!

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Quote by Violet_the_Verbose
I both love and hate that there's no deadline. As I always say, I'll get to it... eventually.

You have until the end of next week! Better?

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Hi my friends.

I have been off my rocker for a few days but started feeling better last night. I am falling so far behind on my reading. Please accept my apology.

I love my father, but he believed in so many of the right-wing conspiracies like Covid-19 was a hoax. So he did not get the vaccine. Last week he got sick. He would not go to the doctor because he did not think it was serious. My sister and her husband, who live with my father, made him go to the hospital on Sunday night with labored breathing and a fever. When they arrived My sister and her husband had their temperatures taken to get in the hospital and found out they both had fevers too. All three were tested and were positive for Covid-19. Last night my father died of Covid-19. My sister and her husband both had their vaccines. My sister still has a slight fever and a sore throat and her husband no longer has any symptoms. Next week I will be going to Charlotte, NC with my family for his funeral.

I am heartbroken and upset. I can not help but think my father threw his life away because of the lies he listened to and believed.

Until I return from the funeral, I will not be writing much, but I will try to read some. I am sure that reading your stories will help keep me sane for the next two weeks.

Death is a part of life, just like birth, happiness, love, and tragedy.

Till later. Be safe, happy, and continue being the great people you are.

Laughter is healing, so remember; chameleons who can not change color are suffering from reptile dysfunction.

Quote by LucaByDay
I've been meaning to pop over and have a mooch for months. Finally summoned the resolve and conjured a profile (which I have yet to completer.)

I'm hoping a change of colour will inspire me to write a bit more than I have of late. The well has run dry.

Great to be here. See you guys about.

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Quote by elizabethblack
Has anyone have any ideas for a comp story about Tam's baby with Verbal and/or Ping? Monsters, horror, sci-fi?

It’s true love, baby. Like real men, Verbs and I didn’t have to do a thing. Tams did all the work. Well, I did say it was immaculate conception. So, really, no one did anything. It just happened.

Oh God, I just know it’s mine!

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My dad finally retiring ..😃🙌🎊 finally!!

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Thanks for the coffee set up, Larry.

Despite my botching of the english language (and yes, I agree there are far too many confusing words), Mrs Rambles has kicked off the first-line story challenge with a wonderful piece. Which can be found here: https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/micro-fiction/-the-invisible-girl-.aspx

I'm fighting some sort of cold. I'm fully vaxed but went to the walk-in clinic over the weekend, just to be safe. Tests came back negative for covid and the delta variant, so I guess there are still other viruses out there all vying for our attention. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have minded giving it to them. But now I can't help but wonder if every time I get sick, I will feel the need to get tested. Ugh...

Hope you all are having a wonderful start to the week!

Could only be one other thing… you’re pregnant.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

If it’s a boy, please name him, Verbs. If it’s a girl, please name her, Ping.

If you have one of each, or more, any variation of PinglyVerbs or VerballyPing will do nicely.

Immaculate conception. What a concept!


Just spent three hours in the dentist chair. A very old (probably older than our mother-to-be) crown broke. Lots of prep. But we’re good to go again until the permanent crown is made.

Toffee, gum, and anything sticky and chewy, please. I want to test my dentist’s proficiency.

Smile. It’s Monday. No more Olympics.