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This is my entry in Round Two of a summer-long fiction competition. You have to write a piece of fiction 2,500 words or less from one of three prompts. Killer prompts this week. The one that inspired this piece was large women's nylons. Two years ago, I wrote a 350 flash on this theme. I added about 1,100 words to that original piece and shipped it off. Thanks for the early editing suggestions. Note to readers--you might not want to read the reviews--plot spoilers contained within.

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I was listening to Neil Young's song and wondered about the the kind of man who would need a maid, "just someone to keep my house clean, cook my meals, and go away." So I came up with my version of this man's story. This is how I think it went down.

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Battles of the Brokenhearted: The Life and Times of Quest City is a 180,000-word fantasy-adventure about a king trapped in a war with his son on the planet Spirita. To nullify his disadvantage, the king clones eleven humans from different walks of life by sampling their souls. He then raises them as his own children to become the mightiest heroes Spirita has ever seen. Later, the king returns the soul shavings and asks the humans to bring their entire selves into the conflict. In response, this motley crew of broken hearts struggles with memories of war and a sense of family that flourished in a place they never physically experienced. Yet, they also contend with each other and the reality of being ordinary people with antiheroic tendencies. But what ultimately hampers their reply to the king’s appeal is Quest City: a new metropolis that veils a dark heritage where mobsters keep city hall on puppet strings and the meaning of family is as blurred as the bullets that dictate the town’s policies

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Sam Tabor is a bright child with a promising future, but when her alcoholic mother gets a new boyfriend, her world starts to fall apart piece by piece. Sam hits the streets and stumbles into The Mercury Diner, where she’s told by a kind waitress to seek out a man by the name of Bruno, who can be found in The Jungle. After years in The Jungle, Bruno’s business partner calls in a debt. Sam’s world crumbles again, but a man with multiple identities intercedes on her behalf, and believes the young girl will be safeguarded in a maximum security prison. Out of jail, Sam is offered a safe place to live, but is she really freed from her past, and danger?

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Born of their seeds, kingdom will rise against kingdom. One will hold great mysteries. One will turn the tide. One will not be bound. War is fought, not only on the field, but also within the mind. Nothing is what it seems, take nothing for granted. The gifted are fighting for you. Do you have the right to become an entity? Take the challenge and go with them, as they tap into the unfolding universal truths. Nothing is what it seems, take nothing for granted.

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This is a spoof of the career of a notorious fugitive and his mistress and of the attempts of the FBI to find them, and also of aspects of contemporary U.S. life such as our preoccupation with and ignorance of nutrition and exercise, and a banking industry that facilitates easy movement of proceeds from criminal activity. Although I hope it is funny, I changed the genre from humor to literary fiction because deeper meaning emerged in the first 18 chapters. I very much appreciated reviews on the first submission, hope this is improved, and welcome any and all suggestions.

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A strange phone call brings even stranger results. This is written in all dialog.

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An odd 'ting, ting, ting' coming through the woods draws a passerby to have a closer look at an abandoned homestead. A woman's brooch causes the reader to say, "Hmmmmm."

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This is a short story I wrote recently for a class. I would like to 'perfect' it, so any feedback would be appreciated.

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Oh no! Another romance novel from a lady that can't finish the first one she started. This is my NaNo project and I will admit right now that it's raw and has no editing. I'm going with the flow and writing it before editing, or I'm afraid I'll get too hard on myself and abandon it. All crit toward what I need to edit will be very much appreciated. Allison Crawford is a waitress living the simple life, always pushing her dreams to the side. When a tradgedy throws Lane Bishop into her life, nothing will ever be the same.

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An account of a woman's twelve-month ordeal that began with a child's birthday party. Life deals her some unexpected blows and upsets her will to live as demons dance in and out of her consciousness.

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"When Two Trails Become One" has a western flair that takes place in 1972, with flashbacks to 1940, and mainly centers on Jessie and Clayton as they essentially find each other again after about three decades. A "loveless marriage" and a less than fulfilling "relationship" start Jessie looking back on her past, which begins to virtually overlap with the present. In numerous twists and turns, the story explores the complexities of human nature, highlighting qualities relating to identity, beliefs, and love in various forms. The story opens with Jessie feeling "annoyed that her seclusion is in danger of being interrupted by 'some city slicker' on horseback who wouldn't have the foggiest notion of how to find his way back down the mountain after dark." Her feelings about Jace Edwards, her live-in lover, take something of a turn, and saying "I'll be back in two weeks," she heads out for a ride up on Cry Baby Mountain to the cabin she and Clayton had discovered all those years ago. Over the last thirty-one years thoughts of Clayton had surfaced at random and usually at the most inconvenient times. Her father viewed Clayton as a 'worthless drifter' and had told Jessie she was never to lay eyes on him again, and Clayton felt Jessie didn't stand up for him. As the narrative moves back and forth in time marking certain experiences that may lead to a reunion of sorts, Jessie and Clayton strive to reconcile their individual motivations and responses. When she seemingly goes missing, a rescue team takes action and the sheriff commences an investigation into 'who attacked Jessie up on Cry Baby Mountain.' In the concluding pages of the story, the sheriff focuses a degree of attention toward Dakota Jay, a longtime friend of both Jessie and Clayton. A journal entry from Clayton furnishes some potentially unexpected information, and Jessie ponders whether or not, in her overzealous quest to find Clayton, maybe she had overlooked some important details. With elements of suspense and emotion, this offering is designed to capture the imagination as well as to provoke thought. The possibility of a sequel is left open with Jessie heading down "a dirt road with Clayton's blue hand-painted truck just ahead" and thinking to herself, "sometimes love isn't so much about what you give as it is what you don't give."

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In this chapter, the Captains Thurston start a new kind of boat charter, and take on new clients.

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Corey Travis is a Force Recon Marine, a Captain, currently assigned to the NATO forces in Afghanistan. He’s the guy they send secretly into the tribal areas of Pakistan to find out what the Taliban are serving for dinner and how many places are set. Corey takes leave in Wales with a friend, Gareth Jones, a Major in British Military Intelligence. Gareth is killed in a traffic accident, but Corey is skeptical of the official version of events and starts his own investigation. With the help of Gareth’s contrary sister, he begins to unravel a mystery that could rock the terrorist infrastructure in the entire UK, or more likely kill them all.

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On a snowy day in January 1985, Sanaz’ husband finally agrees to meet her to sign the divorce papers. Before any pen meets paper, he pulls out a gun, shoots her and then himself. When she survives and he does not, Sanaz faces both an end and a beginning. The novel proceeds with alternate passages: Sanaz’s teens up to this trauma, and the time of the shooting forward.

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Walking on my way to lunch one sunny day, I look down at my feet and suffer an experience that leaves me filled with glorious joy and wrenching pain and realize I have an amazingly ability I'd suppressed all these years, because of Ma...

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An ICU nurse and her journey to change.

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When Dr. Miklos Husak unexpectedly falls in love with a beautiful cellist, he incurs the wrath of a jealous Soviet KGB officer, and soon finds himself defending the woman’s honor. But before their love can grow, his ‘Americanized’ past catches up with him, and he must make a dangerous sacrifice . . . and risk losing each other forever.

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Re-worked and heavily edited for another round of submissions. Any help/advice/criticism welcomed...

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Three-year-old Emma Jenkins is awakened early one morning by a fire in her home.

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"The Black Forest" is a short story about two young teenagers that are best friends. Their spirit for adventure while on their summer break is what takes them to a forbidden place know to the entire town as the Black Forest.

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Thought I'd take a shot at a drabble. I was stuck on 98 words for the longest time.

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I thought this might be a good story to tell. I hope you like it. Some parts are true and some parts are fiction. my husband gave me the idea about this one. He was the one who actually lived in the little green house. I re-posted this because I have added a little here and there, and felt a title change would be a bit more fitting. Honest feedback welcome.

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I thought I might try something a little more serious. I hope you like it. This is a new style for me. I added a few things and edited it a bit too I hope this is written better now. As always all feed back is welcome.

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I hope this will be a fun holloween read. All feedback welcome. I haven't written in a while so please be kind but honest. I have took some advice and edited a bit. Hope I cleaned it up a little.

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Henry has a special friend- the best kind of friend. Henry's friend is loyal, strong, and absolutely invisible. This is flash fiction according to a standard set at 1000 words. Any feedback is welcome. This is actually an older piece that I just recently came across. I had forgotten how much I like this story.

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Eva Camilla seeks immortality through an oblivious Hotrodder/a short from a series of shorts all interlinked by her, The Queen of the Damned.

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***WINNER OF THE 2007 TNBW OCEAN FLASH COMPETITION***Linda returns to the small sea front hut the family owned and enjoyed when they were children and that she has now inherited. Her plan is to sell the property to help buy herself a new future. But sometimes the future can be found in the past.

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Someone is murdering the good people of Greenfield, and there’s talk of a serial killer on the loose. Finding him should be an easy task for a guy with super-powers: too bad he falls out of the sky. If Marshall Jamrozik has any hope of ending the killing spree, he’ll need a little help from a morbidly obese shop keeper who just happens to be a witch, and a hard drinking senior citizen with a penchant for lifting heavy objects... like automobiles. Corrupt cops, Ogres, thirty six-year-old Siamese cats, and of course, the Netherworld. All in a day’s work when you’re trying to save a city from a baneful and simmering evil that’s about to be unleashed.

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Sitting on a log, pulling up daisies, is an eight year old boy named Andy Landy who has red hair and flashing blue eyes. He looks like any other kid from Countville, Tennessee. He’s in third grade and like most kids, he hates school. What makes Andy different? Andy knows the most incredible secret in the whole world!

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Who know what evil, er, what monsters lurk in the forest? Ha'akins found out. This was among the first short stories I wrote in the 1970's and early 1980's.

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I am taking the LEAP today. I have been a reviewer for about a week now, so I've got a real good feel of the neighborhood. I've read tons of great writing, wrote 58 reviews, got 53 replies, more than sixty two points, a smashing rating, and I've got a pretty good ranking for a newbie. Plus I'm among damn good company, I have paid my fees and dues, so, I am ready to graduate to writing class. Hi mates! I am Kulanga.

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Our world is changing faster than most of us notice. In one small town in the heart of the U.S.A., one young woman comes face to face with a horrible reality she is not prepared to deal with.

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There's a doorway into the not-too-distant future. It's right there... you can see it at the end of the hall. Behind it, the matrix of thinking computers and lustful futurists bent on creating the perfect human being. Lean down and take a look through the KEYHOLE. --- AS A RESPECTFUL REQUEST, PLEASE START ANY REVIEWING WITH CHAPTER ONE. JUMPING INTO THE MIDDLE OF A NOVEL IS RUDE AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE TO BOTH WRITER AND READER. IGNORING THIS REQUEST WILL RESULT IN MY IGNORING YOUR REVIEW, AND AN AUTOMATIC 1 RATING FOR LACK OF RESPECT.

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Ariadne's a girl who wants a bit of excitement and Forbes looks a likely lad. The only problem is that he is mortal and she is a fairy.

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Warning: this novel has at least four levels, is full of sex and violence, and is very fast paced. The Well of Women is at risk, as is the Tourney which Rhiannon wishes to use for pride and peace. But there are riots against offworlders, who the people blame for the rash of mother hate that is spreading through the land. And there is the mysterious Maelan--supposed guardian of the Well, whose malfunction may explain the evil that is afoot.

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This is an article written as part of a series on rural happenings. I plan to submit it to a magazine of some sort. British, Americans and others - no, this town is not in your country. Fellow Australians, I will tell you where it is on payment of a hefty - nay, massive - bribe !

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Luke Livingston is a pirate by default rather than design. Stealing the cargo ship 'Elysium' would bring him quick wealth and possibly the hangman's noose, but marrying the young woman who's dowry paid for it would make it legally his. He sees an oportunity to begin doing business on the right side of the law, but will the pious young Englishwoman see past his notorious career to what is in his heart?

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This is one of my few attempts at flash fiction. It looks at an emotion without naming the emotion.

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Seattle Stories Anthology is looking for submissions of short stories and personal essays. I thought I might submit this based on the feedback I get on this site. Does the frame work? Have I tied the end to the beginning? I also need to add about 150 words. Feel free to tell me where the piece is underdeveloped. I'll thank you in advance for telling me quickly since I have to submit by July 1 and leave for vacation tomorrow. Thanks Mike, whatta, murf! Okay, Roisin, loved your suggestion, too, and had to give it a whirl. Re-edited 10 p.m. June 25.

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Rhiannon, prodigal daughter of the king of New Fairy, has suffered a terrible curse. Having humiliated a witch, she must suffer a unique shame--she must go naked, regardless of the weather or social situation. These are the stories of how she reclaims her dignity and fights the evil of men, and her own inner conflicts.

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