Halloween Week!!!

Hooray, hooray, it's (almost) Halloween!

Convinced as I am that one day just isn't enough for this glorious event, there will be a full week (and a few days) devoted to my favourite part of the year (f*** Christmas).

I added a new 'Halloween Week' page that lists all of my own Halloween-ish posts (and will remain available till somewhere in the first week of November).

Basically, every post of this week will have to accord to the Halloween theme.

Feel free to join me with 'Halloween Week' and leave links to your own scary stuff in the comment section or in this forum thread. I'd like to read me some scary stories too, so if you've got some, help me find them ;).

After all, life's too short to do without a good scare...

Blogger Wonderland

Exactly one year ago, little Stories - isn't it wonderful how you can always patronise a (slightly) younger self? – inadvertently hopped into Blogger. There a little orange rabbit popped up. ‘Do you want to create a new blog?” The button-rabbit asked tentatively.

“Hey, what’s that?” Little Stories asked *self and clicked it. With a dizzying fall, the noob writer plummeted through the rabbit hole where (s)he beheld a world of miracles, where people from all over the world could converse and laugh together as if there was no distance between them, where the wonderful people and skilful fellow-writers were suddenly only a link away.

Stories ‘ooh’ed’ and ‘ah’ed’ through the year, pulling some leaves aside and surprised to find a jolly little coffee shop where people who never met sat together nipping delicious chatter. 'Booh!' Stories cried. 'What are you doing?' And then the new comer soon joined the regulars for thee.

There at that table, (s)he met the most interesting creatures, a boy with a gigantic hammer longing to smash something, a witch-doctor with a wicked pen, The Red Queen of Ranting, a high school girl writing by the sea side, a boy who spoke only one hundred words at a time, a multi-talented lady buttering toast, an active pilgrim on a path to enlightenment and enlightening others on the way, and many many others aside. Stories stumbled into a decorated Hall where the walls were full of marvels and – perhaps a bit too little lately – stood awed leafing through the tales that seemed to just rain from the heavens and fluttered down in the Blogger breeze.

And this, my dear absent friends, is the story of how Stories ended up in Wonderland. And never since did (s)he want to go home again.

Yes, people, today is this blog’s ANNIVERSARY. Woot, woot!

Hard to believe a whole year has gone by, it feels like just 6 months ago. The month long lapses could have something to do with that.

Either way, virtual cake and drinks on me!

Help yourselves to a drink and as we say in Dutch: 'Proost!'

Confessions of a chocoholic: I really want this cake. Badly...

Cin Cin!

9/11 challenges

Hey everybody!



You thought this was a joke, but I really mean it... Confessions of a chocoholic.



Yes, this calls for lolcats... (Despite 9/11)


It’s 9/11 today and exactly ten years ago horrifying things have happened, but as some of you may know from the ‘about me’ page; it also happens to be my birthday. Yeah, I know, not a day for celebration, but I didn’t pick it.

Announcement: impending (temporary) emigration

Hey guys!

A quick heads up: I'm leaving for Italy tomorrow. I'll be gone for a few weeks and though I normally should have internet access while I'm there (probably not the first few days though, we make a long road trip out of getting there), past experiences incline me not to get my hopes up so I'll schedule a few posts just in case. If I don't respond, you know why...

Hopefully, I can do a few 'on location' posts while I'm there.

Anyways, take care people.

I really hope I can stay in touch abroad or I'll be really pissed and walk all the way back home... No, I won't, but I'll say I will out loud, which is basically the same thing. Cu later ;).

Announcement: list of recent posts that aren't on this blog

Here’s a list of all the new short stories I’ve posted since ‘Peter is a cheater’, for those of you who’d like some more ;). I hope there are some of you out there, otherwise I’ve done a pretty poor job. I’ve decided to post them on my HubPages account – you get bad scores if you post your stories elsewhere too and I get more views there, somehow – but I’ll add titles, teasers and links here, so you can easily keep track of them. You can see the two blogs as complementary. When I get around to it, I’ll update the ‘poetry’ page on a more regular basis. That one is supposed to be exclusive for blogger, since only blogger always me to use whatever font and layout I want. However, due to the recent rise in traffic to this account – which I had been neglecting for total (!) lack of traffic – it was time for some updating measures. I’m going to try to keep this listing up to date.

Anyway, here are the posts, hot from the press:

On the corner (short story): minors are strongly advised not to read this one. I think you can guess the setting pretty much from the title: it’s set on the street corner, about a character doing what women do on street corners if they’re out to make a buck in a semi-legal way. I suppose that made you click the link, didn’t it? Don’t even have to give a real summary.

Humility (short story): this is a bit of a weird one and I don’t know what to tell you about it. It’s very short, so it will be no trouble to read it and make it out for yourself. I had originally believed it was just my own twisted little sense of humour that would not appeal to anyone shining through in it, but from the (be it few) responses I got, it’s apparently quite funny. Which is even stranger because I wasn’t trying to funny. When I did, I was the only one laughing about it. And here I was thinking my life on the internet would be different from my real life. Guess not...

The Witch of Dreiden (short story): I’m sure you never would’ve guessed, but it’s about a witch. In Dreiden. Just kidding, I don’t want to insult your intelligence. I really like this one myself, I think it’s my favourite up to now. Got good reviews too, so I’m not the only one. For those who’ve read more of my stories, this one is quite different all round, I believe. I was slightly inspired to  write it (though not exclusively) by the Queens of the Stone Age song Burn the witch. Hope you like it and let me know what you think.

A Halloween horror special, short stories Beware I and Beware II

Some of you may already have read the short story Beware on this blog. I mentioned in a comment to it that I was thinking of writing a prequel. Well, I did and this link is where you’ll find the complete two-parter. I hope it’s frightening. I love things that are frightening. Don’t you? If you do, click it. It’s funny too. I hope (see note above about intentional/non-intentional humour never working out for me).

100 WORDS:

Inspired by Scott’s blog, www.adayisworth100words.blospot.com (see blog list below), where he posts a story comprising of exactly 100 words each day, I tried the concept myself too. I find it fun to use and a great way to quickly improve your writing, since I’m not always successful in sticking to the point (don’t worry, I’ll learn. Someday). So far, I’ve posted the following two sets of four and three stories respectably to a certain theme. The first of the ‘restaurant set’ is actually featured on Scott’s blog as guest submission. Scott’s very good at what he does by the way, so I’d really recommend taking a look at his blog.

short story set: 100 words (theme: restaurant, recurring element: wine)

Fairytale Parodies: 100 words poetic short stories

I suppose the titles pretty much speak for themselves.

Doggy bath time: a tale of dogs and why we love them (short story):  Last but not least, the most recent story. I dedicated this one to me dearly departed German Sheppard who sadly passed away last year. I still miss him every day, but it took this long to bring myself to write about (or rather based on) my wonderful time with him. He was such a wonderful creature. But he did have his ways. He was sweet and loving and caring, but also too smart and too strong-willed for all our sakes sometimes. I’m sure many dog owners will recognise a few things in this tale. And to all the rest of you, it will be plain entertaining. At least that was what I was going for. I’m ready to be judged.

So, that’s it for now. Let me know what you guys think.

All best wishes,

Stories Inc.

(By the way, I’ll be very glad if you tell me if – and you will undoubtedly – you find any spelling or grammar mistakes, so I can correct them and not look a total illiterate blabbering fool. Thanks already.)

House Rules

Chaotic as I am, I started posting stories first and will post the introductory last. In the meantime, here are the house rules, since I already ad those finished. So there you have it, house rules for this blog:

1)      Use whatever you like, but notify me of what you use, where and how you use it. If you publish something or enact my stories in some way, send me a link or reference. And most of all, mention where you got your material. A simple “taken from”, followed by the title of the blog and/or link to it will do perfectly.

2)      This rule is mostly a follow up of the previous rule: DON’T STEAL! Just because these stories are exercises, doesn’t mean they aren’t important to me, cause they are. I put a lot of effort and an enormous amount of energy into them, so please treat them (and me) respectfully.

3)      Limit comments to constructive ones. It’s okay if you don’t like what I write, everyone’s entitled to have their own opinion, but do help me get better and tell me why you don’t like it, what I should change or pay more attention to. Comments like: “man, this sucks!” don’t really benefit anybody.

I really hope you’ll enjoy the blog(s) and look forward to hearing from you! Enjoy reading!

(Note: texts are not suitable for -16 unless explicitly labelled so)