Sean and Chloe 3: From Here to Eternity 2 (Short Story) - 7/8/2026 1:44:41 PM
Hey! I just finished your story and honestly loved it. Your writing is super visual I kept picturing scenes like a comic while reading. I’m a commissioned artist, and if you’re ever interested in exploring a comic version, I’d love to chat. No pressure at all! You can reach me on Discord (laurendoesitall) Instagram (elsaa.uwu).
Warm regards,
lauren
Sean and Chloe (Short Story) - 3/18/2024 12:14:02 PM
Except for Sean's father, the parents in this story were very open and accepting. Downs syndrome is a genetic disorder and I'm not sure about children from a couple as loving as these two seem to be. I gather that this book is for young adults to help them understand the nature of bullying. It is very well written and will have influence when you finish and get it out to young readers.
When I was in grade school, my twin brother and I often sided with misfits and protected them from bullies. We were strong as a team and resisted bullies very well. During our 4th grade we were all placed in a school that separated the disabled and mentally retarded. Apparently with the thought we would understand them better. The only time we saw them was that in recess and we didn't interact with them very much at all. But that was in the 1950s.
Ron
Sean and Chloe (Short Story) - 3/10/2024 4:21:24 AM
Chloe brings out Sean's leadership qualities and his integrity.
Protecting Our Neighbourhood (Short Story) - 3/26/2019 3:08:59 PM
I am sorry that this is the rule in the UK, I know of several areas in the US where such community watch groups are praised and help keep their neighborhoods safer.
budd
Protecting Our Neighbourhood (Short Story) - 3/26/2019 7:58:55 AM
A very good story with a very good lesson. Rather unique, but very informative. I spent the last 30 years of my career at a university in a poor black neighborhood. During the 1980s, there was a lot of crime in that neighborhood. A retired University employee started a neighborhood watch that was very successful.
I live in a very mixed neighborhood. It is considered to be higher in crime than other neighborhoods, but I don't find it bad, only being burglarized once in 36 years. Our homeowners association has hired constables in the past to patrol, but now under the jurisdiction of the Houston police. Any call to 911 for a burglary is usually answered within 15 minutes.
Lately, videos and photos taken by citizens are readily accepted by police in aiding capture. Local television stations also show these videos and pictures to aid the police. We also have a Crimestoppers number for many years. If you call that number, you can leave a tip, even anonymously, you can get a reward. Some of the rewards are very substantial… Thousands of dollars.
The biggest problem are that immigrants, both legal and illegal, tend not to report crime for fear of police retaliation or their names be known by immigration authorities or the criminals that targeted them. I counsel anyone I can and tell them to report immediately whenever they have been targets of an offense or see one happening.
Ron
Protecting Our Neighbourhood (Short Story) - 3/26/2019 3:27:34 AM
Since your story ended abruptly, I'm assuming "there's more".
Self Defense 2- You Provoked Him (Short Story) - 6/14/2018 7:27:25 AM
I liked the story. It harkens back to my grade school days in a bad neighborhood where half the kids went to reform school and bullying was just part of everybody's growing up. It was always rich kids or kids with fathers with political clout that made it difficult to get the truth out. I'm so glad that's changing.
What I didn't like was the hopelessness at the end. There were a number of things that could have been done, but weren't. Like appealing to a higher authority and doing investigation of the councilman who was the father of the young man acting out his warped sense of superiority. My hometown police force was corrupt, systematically stealing from businesses they were supposed to protect by filing reports of burglary by others that they were committing. An investigator on the force found out, and half of them went to jail, including the chief.
Also, while I'm okay with being politically correct, "special needs," is to nonspecific describe the victim's disability.
Ron
No Justice for Yanks: Part 1- Lawsuit Happy (Short Story) - 10/5/2017 6:16:22 AM
This reads like a true story. Again, based on your own experience? My nephew, on an exchange program to Manchester, got carried away with touring and student life and even missed a whole quarter of school he was supposed to go to. I believe he fell in love, but didn't marry and stay there.
If the story is true, it certainly is injustice. You made me recall the time when I saw my seven-year-old twin brother try to cross a busy street that separated our school from our house in the next block. A pickup truck chased him down the street and knocked him down, knocking him out and giving him a concussion, but no other injuries. I was the only witness, but I wasn't allowed to go to court and my father was there at the man's hearing. He claimed that my brother and I were trying to cross in the middle of the block and had "came out between parked cars." Roger was crossing at the crosswalk but ran down the street trying to avoid getting hit by the man who apparently couldn't stop his truck, was distracted by something else, or was deliberately trying to hit him!
And, when my sister was about 10 and knocked into the ditch on her bicycle by a driver, when he was going to file an insurance claim against my parent's insurance because my sister was riding in the middle of the gravel street, my father told him that he was driving too fast and would lose the case. Fortunately, my sister, while scratched up, was not hurt.
Ron
Home Defence (Short Story) - 2/5/2016 7:25:56 AM
At first I thought this was an action story. I found out later that it's some kind of moral story that doesn't make much sense.
Your story is well-written except for numerous typos that could be easily corrected with some editing. But some of the premises are really far-fetched like the so-called rubber cables that turn into wires later and somehow "entangle" intruders like a rabbit snare… preposterous. And the use of flash bangs without any explanation of how Tony got them is also bogus.
While such kinds of situations happen to newcomers in bad neighborhoods, I spent 30 years working in a bad neighborhood without incident. In fact, most of the people were quite friendly. Crime in my city, especially burglary, occurs all over and is more likely to happen in richer areas where there is more to steal.
My parents had a similar situation in a rural town when their mobile home was burglarized by young men in a neighboring mobile home and dad found his lawnmower at a pawn shop 50 miles away. Those guys were all arrested and most of my parents' stuff was returned. In the United States it's illegal for pawnshops to buy or pawn stolen goods. If found, they must be returned to the owners at the pawnshop's expense. I don't know about jewelry stores. I don't think they deal in medals. In the US, protecting property is respected by the police, although sometimes they do not like to work in bad neighborhoods. When they do, police usually know who the bad guys are.
Finally, I would say this story doesn't make your point. My ancestors come from Hull, and I would not like to think that the city that I'm proud of would be the target of scorn, or disrespected a wounded veteran of wars, either.
Ron
Dodgy Tackle (Short Story) - 4/5/2015 7:55:47 AM
You are obviously a sports fan, football in particular. I am not. Your story is well written and reads like a true account that would written for a sports magazine rather than a short story. Because there are so many football fans out there, it might ring true to them, but for me it's hard for me to fathom all of the verbiage and play-by-play when the story could more focused on the players, Andy and Felipe.
I am very disturbed that the ancient Greek concept of the gymnasium as part of a well-rounded education has become hero worship. Sports heroes here in the United States and then getting away with rape for nearly forever. That is beginning to change, but at universities coaches are consistently the highest-paid employees while professors of philosophy are paid the lowest. Can anyone see anything wrong with this picture? Do we value the genetic good fortune of some people who have physical traits that allow them to excel in sports over those that have been endowed with intellectual traits that enable society to grow and learn?
Ron
Self Defense (Short Story) - 8/16/2014 9:53:16 AM
Very realistic, as though it were true story. Having faced three guys myself without any special training in my youth, I know the feeling when thugs think they have the upper hand.
While reading, I couldn't help thinking two things: first, in small towns like that, those boys could've been the sons of one of those police officers. Second, the way they behaved, I would think that they had a police record already and that everyone in town knew what kind of characters they were.
Ron
Authorised Bullies (Short Story) - 2/15/2014 9:17:12 AM
A good story, and a common one. The lack of paragraphs made reading difficult. Took me back to the third grade. Only we didn't have a safety patrol or crossing guards and my twin brother, while crossing a busy street with me, was chased by a pickup truck down the street and hit. Of course they didn't believe me when I tried to describe what happened and blamed my brother for darting out between parked cars which wasn't true.
The routes we took in those days determined whether we would be chased or not.
Ron
Authorised Bullies (Short Story) - 2/15/2014 5:03:13 AM
fear itself can do more harm
budd
What About My Beliefs? (Short Story) - 9/19/2012 7:17:51 AM
Oh wow! This is frighteningly powerful, Michael. Are there really Sharia Law zones in this country? (WE're sheltered, here in East Anglia.) If there are, outrageous! I'm with Ben all the way, except I would never go so far as to join the BNP!
What About My Beliefs? (Short Story) - 9/14/2012 6:34:52 PM
i enjoyed this story, especially as a sympathizer, (is that the right term?) i have so many muslim friends, but as in every circle of belief...there are always extremest....your story reminded me of what is going on in NY- no large soda drinks on the street-it is forbidden! the govt yelled-oh extremest are everywhere! good read thanks
Supply in Demand (Short Story) - 1/29/2012 1:24:27 AM
Phew! Didn't realise they had so much fun in primary schools down Bristol way... Good tale Michael, with a very surprising ending!
Supply in Demand (Short Story) - 1/21/2012 9:59:51 PM
well...i should have read the rating...but...good job as these "delicate" eyes read your story...sure didn't see that ending! fun read..enjoy your work-
I Have Proof (Short Story) - 11/2/2011 1:33:30 PM
I absolutley love it!
I Have Proof (Short Story) - 9/26/2011 12:18:28 AM
I'm up in arms on Tim's behalf! This sounds scarily plausible, Michael, yet another occasion when the law is an ass, and reinforces people's inclinations to keep out of it when they witness somehting heinous going on. Great story.
I Have Proof (Short Story) - 9/11/2011 3:58:56 PM
well...we do seem to step on the back of the victim to read the perpertrator his rights now don't we? the letter of the law and the spirit of the law are two sometimes entirely different laws!
good write,
jch
Centenary of a Needless Bloodbath (Article) - 1/6/2015 5:36:39 AM
The Great War should be called the Great Game. It is still going on, now with NATO supported Nazi-led Ukranians pitted against a Putin who imagines himself the latest Tsar ... the USA entered the fray because our bankers had lent so much money to the Allied cause and would lose it all if Germany won the war, is the most likely answer to why our president 'flip-flopped' on 'keeping us out of the war' ... war is always the answer when the questions become too convoluted. "War is a racket." USMC MGen Smedley Butler famously said in 1936. "Only a few understand what it is really about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the very many." I'm glad to see your interest in the beginnings of this 'hundred years war' (not the first of that name) and that you've linked it so adroitly to the present. Likely, none of us now alive will see the end of it.
Veteran's Day Message, Take Heed Once the Wars Are Over (Article) - 11/12/2014 7:41:44 AM
Everything you wrote is true. Some countries have mandatory military service. This enables these countries to have a standing army of people from all walks of life. United States has always had trouble getting young people to serve. That's why the draft was enacted, I believe, for both World Wars I & II. What we currently have is a hired or mercenary army, required by the military-industrial complex to test their weapons under the guise of defense.
Hiring standards are low compared to the private sector based on what recruiters promise and accept to enter basic training. Monetary promises like free college education are offered… I don't know if this is followed through because there is so much student debt today. To be a warrior is an entirely different lifestyle than to be a civilian. But even civilians must "fit in" to be liked and to get along. I know some civilians who haven't either. Some military people like Colin Powell have risen to very high status, superb at "fitting in." In time of war, more people are willing to join, but I don't think those that see combat and become psychologically affected because of it, fare better than peacetime soldiers who don't. PTSD isn't nice.
You wrote that you wanted to "relax" after service, and people didn't understand. I have found that If you want to get ahead in this world you can't relax. Soon after you have to talk the talk, walk the walk, dress the dress, and have the skills, or you are an outcast whether or not you went to service. It is not whether you were in service or not that makes people like you fit in, it is whether you are willing to be more like them so they feel comfortable with you and not embarrassed or offended in your presence.
Ron
Centenary of a Needless Bloodbath (Article) - 7/7/2014 10:01:36 AM
Back in the 1950s, my grandmother forbade my father from playing Taps on his bugle and seemed to hate war or any discussion of it, even though we had recently gained a great victory overseas and two of her sons, my uncles, had participated.
Gradually, over the years, learning the history from sources like your article, I began to understand, why. We can learn a lot from history, as you have shown.
Ron
A Victory For the Bullies (Article) - 4/19/2014 7:52:30 PM
4-19-2014
Its Big Brotherism Modern Day GESTAPHO Exists--
As For Any (Your)Child Take Him/Her To **Karate School
** Teaches You Discipline!
As Myself I You Punch (Put His Nose In His Face)
**Class Bully Out Absolutely
Nobody F--ks With (Me) You--Protect Yourself At
All Costs Worry About Consequences Later!!
** His Daddy(Cop) Never Made Chief Of Police!
TRASK...
Third Party Voting- Not a Wasted Vote (Article) - 12/1/2012 1:14:39 PM
Taking the time and energy to vote is a privledge and never a wasted effort. just as speaking freely is never a waste...at least to the one speaking! keep fighting for your rights and following your mind!
Great Britain, The USA, Heavy Metal and the 1980s (Article) - 10/6/2012 11:18:11 AM
my own memories of the 80's are so different...no metalhead here, but you are sure right about one thing...as for my american self...i do like to focus on the "fun and good" bits of my past!
Take a Trip Through Heavy Metal History (Article) - 2/1/2012 5:12:42 PM
although a youth of the 80's ok, ok, the 70's...certainly not heavy metal...unless you were referring to a type of flask or something-LOL
Do the Bullies Win? (Article) - 11/19/2011 10:10:31 PM
Bullies never win. I repeat never win. Just as if i was to beleive that the rain ruined my day...the rain makes the plants stronger and perhaps even appreciative of the sunny days. Silently I pray for the bully, he/she is so unhappy, so scared, so remarkably unfulfilled. thanks for your article-
