In the brave new world of tomorrow everyone is normal. But Timothy Roberts has a terrible secret. Despite being a product of the same genetic engineering and mind control implants as everyone else, and despite the government's insistance that mental aberrations like homosexuality and gender conflict are a thing of the past, he has known since adolescence that he's gay. He lives a life of deeply closeted desperation, haunted by the fear that he might be the last homosexual on Earth...

And Lo, the traveller came at last to the sky's edge. He put down his staff + poked his head thru the fabric of space, beholding the mighty clockwork of the cosmos, the great turning gears, the merry go round and the ferris wheel. He smelled the heavenly corndogs and heard the calliope music. And he said, "Hey wait for me you guys!"

 Healing a Princess

(On the Lake)

By Tim Knight

Well, I start to tell my story.  Cars rush up to us, lights flashing.  Men get out, bullhorn in one’s hand and guns in the hands of others.

Ten - Game Day

A fantasy adventure set in a strange indoor universe, inhabited by puppets, which is told in the form of a child's book report that keeps wandering off the topic...

Silver Blood-Epilogue
As we lifted away from the now burning city, I heard a voice emit from a solitary figure in the back, "Well done, but there are questions to be answered."

I am new to this website, so please excuse my challenged "ability" to navigate a new website. But how in the heck do I submit a story for the contest? I have the story in microsoft word ready to download. Thanks in advance for the information

Vern

Chapter 10 coming soon. It's considerably longer than the previous chapters were and is taking more time to edit. Please be patient.

Wow, the way things happen.  So Raphael knows some people.  He’s been around.  He’s a surprising surprise.  Quite the cosmopolitan.  He has been helpful.
We are looking over the digs when men come up and talk with Jacques.  Jacques comes over with them.  They have uniforms on.

“Mon Dieu!” Raphael exclaimed.
“What is it?”
“La Mer Morte.”
”The Dead Sea?”  Chloe asked.
“Quite so,” Raphael said emphatically.  “Look at those!!  It’s a total row of doors!”
“Yes,” I said.
Raphael moved closer to inspect.

“We were nothing too.”
“Nothing, too.”
“Nothing too.”
“But you’re not nothing.”
“Nothing exists in the Nothing.”
“Okay,” I said, “let me show you.”  And I pulled the door out of my pocket.

We sit down at Raphael’s restaurant, at a sidewalk table.
“Won’t somebody notice “Pierre” there?”  Asks Chloe.

Nine – Preparations

The Children of Lilith

“Raff!” shouts the sales clerk, “Comment allez vous?”
“Tres bien,” Raphael replies, “Est-ce que tu connais mes amis?”
“Un peu. Porquois ils et tu entre sans habiillement?”
“Long story,” Raphael replies.
Then he turns to me.

                   SKIDS AND DIGGER

TWO TALES OF AMERICAN BOYHOOD... 

Eight – Second thoughts

The disappearance of a local high school girl has been on the news for several days now. A compact disk arrives at the police station relating a grotesque and utterly unbelievable tale. Is it the product of a deranged imagination or a factual account of an all-too-real horror lying just outside of our known reality?

FLESH

Seven – The Shock

...Even more strange, she’d just spent at least half an hour in the presence of other people without shouting at anyone, without cursing, without really thinking at all about not being able to see. Just what was she really feeling?

----

Excerpts from a longer work:

The Canyon Sketches
(An Irreverent History)

Let's shift gears a little and look at events from Amanda's point of view. Let me know if you like the shift in focus. 

Six – Life Sucks

                          Tiny Johnson

Nobody’s watching as I look around to see if anybody’s watching.  There’s the door.  Here I am.  There’s everybody else. 

Hoodwink

by Joyce Melton