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Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:31:50 -0700

All this month of June, LongShortStories, the wonderfully unique short story Web site, will be hosting a gala of events, including great prize drawings and Guest Posts.

Go to http://www.LongShortStories.com and then click on the Wayne's Blog icon to find our party! See you there!

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/29443760/

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:58:42 -0800

Today, January 20, 2009, is a day like no other day in history! Please join me in celebrating the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. Change has finally come!

AUDACITY

Flash Fiction in 100 words

Copyright � 2009 Wayne C. Long
All rights reserved.

Taking one last drag before stubbing my cigarette into the mountainous ash dump in my ceramic alien from that roadside souvenir stand near Area 51, I sink exhausted in my busted-down task chair. My lonely January 20th shift at the Hat Creek SETI radio telescope is at an end.

I can't help noticing anomalous gyrations in the ganged spectrum analyzers' feed from the Array outside. Our decades-long Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence found the Wow! signal, but sadly, nothing else.

And now this!

Spinning from my bank of DSP receivers and flickering monitors, I read output from the chattering printer:

Obama=Hope.

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/29290430/

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:24:05 -0800

Happy New Year from Dxerguy!

My best hopes and wishes for a better year are being sent out to everyone! January 20th will usher in the beginning of the hoped-for Change that millions of citizens of the global community have been praying for. Together, we can fulfill the "Imagine" prophesy of John Lennon. Together, we can reinvigorate the global economy. Together, we can all finally experience ... Peace!

As a professional adult short story writer/editor/Internet publisher, I will be doing my part to foster the best in written creativity at my Web site http://www.LongShortStories.com .

New for 2009, you are invited to enter TWO adult short story contests, with cash prizes for First, Second, and Third-place winners. Go for it Now!

I look forward to reading your entries!

Regards,

Dxerguy A/K/A Wayne C. Long

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/25026817/

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:25:44 -0700

Hello Stumblers! Dxerguy here.
In light of what's happening on Wall Street, and for that matter, Main Street, please accept my personal invitation to read today's blog posting "Harvest Time" that can be found at http://www.LongShortStories.com on "Wayne's Blog." Enjoy!

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/24778119/

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:56:24 -0700

BIG HANDS
Copyright (C) 2007 by Wayne C. Long

Every Good Boy Does Fine ... Every Good Boy Does Fine ... EVERY GOOD BOY DOES FINE! staccatoed the bursts of heavy brass-jacketed rounds from my turret-mounted .50-caliber machine gun atop our Marine Humvee. Deadly ammo burning through the sultry night in al-Anbar province at nearly three times the speed of sound, seeking soft targets within a clump of bulrushes.

"Fuck `em up good, Hands!" screamed Frankie Alzaretti into my earpiece, our driver, encased below me in door armor pillaged from the rapidly growing scrap pile outside the base. "Play that funky music, white boy!"

Funny, how I perceived this war as a Danse Macabre, or a wigged-out piano concerto from my youth. Funny. Ha-ha. THUMP! THUMP THUMP spoke the angel of death as I sent another meat-eating burst downrange at some fleeing shadows, unlucky enough to be in the way as we continued our patrol. Then silence like a church I hadn't attended in years, a fitting coda to another fine day in the neighborhood.

To see how Arnold "Hands" Brzeszczak's story ends, go to http://www.LongShortStories.com.
Click on Pay-Per-View, then story LSS0001. "BIG HANDS" is only $0.99 via secure PayPal. Enjoy!

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/23968526/

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:05:06 -0700

FOUL

Copyright � 2008 by Wayne C. Long

"You cheap bastard!" I screamed.

"Fuck you, Jen! I'm doing this for your own good!" retorted my husband of thirteen months.

Mister First Base, his adoring fans called him. I knew the real him as stingy and mean-spirited. A spouse who keeps score. The honeymoon, it seems, was over.

"It's just some Saturday courses down in Chicago at the Art Institute! Not some shopping spree to one of my favorite boutiques in Scottsdale. Not a membership at Spa Bella Femina, like the other players' wives!"

"You're just like your mother, Jennifer! Blowing the old man's hard-earned money on ... what ... crap like Beanie Babies?"

"I hate you Tom!" was the last thing I said before I left the house for a long drive in the Lexus, my mind made up to just do it. To hell with him!

In the morning, Mr. First Base skipped breakfast. No note, no apology, no tender touch on my cheek as I lay silently in our marriage bed. He couldn't wait to get to Miller Park to work out with his beloved Brewers brothers.

The die was cast, as they say.

One of my girlfriends from college down in Chicago had mentioned it in passing when we had met months earlier for lunch. At first, I thought she was nuts. And yet, it somehow made perfect sense. I don't know. I just fell into it.

Seems that she had heard some of the other girls talking. Maybe they were a little too drunk at the time. But it all made sense somehow. Perfect sense.

Players. How ironic!

Players was a very discreet high-end Internet call girl service. The pay, if you were young, beautiful, and willing to please rich and famous clients, was outstanding.

My own money! Just the thought of it made me smile. How sweet, this revenge!

I met for an interview on a Saturday in September. I had taken the train down to Chicago from our home in the toney north shore Milwaukee suburbs.

"So," said my female interviewer as we sat on a bench in Lincoln Park, "why do you want to be a Players girl?"

I lied. "I'm putting myself through art school. The money sounds good."

She had me fill out an application and promised to put in a good word for me with her boss, a person called M.

Less than a week later, I received a cell phone call while I was returning from grocery shopping.

"Hello, is this Jennifer?" inquired a lady with a syrupy-sweet British accent.

"Yes, who's calling?"

"Jennifer, this is M with Players down in Chicago. How are you?"

"Fine, thank you."

"We have a mid-level slot for you in our little family. How does that sound?"

I almost dropped my groceries as I twisted the front door key to our home in the gated community where Tom had always wanted to live.

"Uh ... fine! Great! Yes, that's great news! When do I start?"

M laid it all out. How she would FedEx me a special cell phone to be used only for work. How I was to be on standby on weekends, ready to go to work in as short as six hours notice from the call. How my service area would be within the Chicago Loop hotel district. How I should always register under a rotating pseudo name. The split? 50-50.

"We want you to have a unique identity in our Players entertainment catalog. Something sexy. Any ideas?"

I paused, trying hard to wrap my brain around what I was about to do. Just then a butterfly touched down in the flowerbox outside my kitchen window.

"Sorry ... it's just that this is all so new to me. How about Papillon? Yes, that's it, and I want to wear a butterfly costume mask when I meet and entertain my clients. Like in high-society party circles in old France. How does that sound?"

"Sounds delightful, Jen ... er ... Papillon! Can you send me a body shot, complete with the butterfly mask on, by, say, Thursday, so we can get it up on our Web site by Friday?"

See how Jen's story ends at http://www.LongShortStories.com. Click on "FOUL" on the
"Free Samples" page. You, too, could be receiving terrific short stories like this every 12 days!

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/22732840/

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:55:02 -0700

To all you fans and friends of LongShortStories, I have posted an important Update on my Web site blog at http://www.longshortstories.com . This is in regard to the ongoing LongShortStories "Pay It Forward" Challenge short story contest. Please check it out!

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/22072939/

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:58:08 -0700

The LongShortStories "PAY IT FORWARD" Challenge

Hello, this is Wayne C. Long, award-winning Writer/Publisher of LongShortStories.

Today, I have great news! June 1, 2008, marks the first anniversary of the Internet launch of http://www.LongShortStories.com, my short story e-mail subscription service and Pay-Per-View Web site.

I am so pleased and honored to announce that LongShortStories is teaming up with the
Pay It Forward Movement. This grassroots Movement is the direct result of one woman writer's real-life encounter with the kindness of strangers. Best-selling writer Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of more than 50 award-winning short stories and 11 published and forthcoming books, including the groundbreaking "Pay It Forward" which went on to become a major motion picture loved the world over. Ms. Hyde is the founder and president of the Pay It Forward Foundation. The Foundation's URL is:
http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org. Thank you, Ms. Hyde, for your genius!

So now, with great fanfare and drumroll ...

I hereby am announcing today a challenge in the spirit of that marvelous message contained within the golden pages of "Pay It Forward."

I need everyone's help! All you bloggers. You friends of unknown, underappreciated short story writers. You English teachers! Help me find the short story writers of tomorrow!

LongShortStories is hereby encouraging worthy writers to make themselves and their so-far unpublished short stories known to yours truly via e-mail as soon as possible (but not later than July 31, 2008), at my professional e-mail address: wayne@longshortstories.com.

Note: In the interest of time management, and due to the fact that I still have to deliver a fresh new short story every twelve days to my subscribers, I am herewith going to consider only the first 100 submissions I receive.

Translated: SEND YOUR SUBMISSION IN EARLY!

Submitted story manuscripts (with title and word count shown) should be cut-and-pasted into the body of your e-mail entry in Word format and be no longer than 2500 words. Please provide your full name and mailing address. In the event that any budding short story writer does not have access to a computer, they may have a friend contact me in their behalf by e-mail and I will arrange to receive that submittal via the U.S. Postal Service.

One story per entrant, please. No simultaneous submissions. No attachments, thank you.

I will personally read each entry and acknowledge each writer. Then, I will choose the twelve best submissions for first-time publishing on LongShortStories' World Wide Web blog pages. One new original short story each month for twelve months!

These twelve winning writers will forever be known thereafter as published short story writers and will retain all rights to their work after it first appears in LongShortStories. No one can take that away from them! And who knows where this initial global exposure will lead!

A special note to any and all potential corporate and private donors wishing to support the LongShortStories "Pay It Forward" Challenge:

As of today's Challenge kick-off, no prize money is available for the twelve selected short story winners. My "Pay It Forward" gift to them is exposure. My message to you corporate folks is this: Do the right thing! Just as others around the world have done in support of worthy, selfless causes like this. Invest in the transforming magic of a well-crafted short story. Make your philanthropic story a "Pay It Forward" success story! Donate! You'll be glad you did!

It is my great joy to foster previously unknown, unpublished writers of brilliant short stories who are not yet blessed with a publishing platform to showcase their work. And certainly, it is my great honor to do all I can to help save the short story form. But most important of all, it is my profound wish and great privilege to "Pay It Forward!"

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/21696880/

Fri, 23 May 2008 15:21:10 -0700

Tile :Freda Payne - "Bring The Boys [Girls] Home"

These are lyrics from http://www.lyrics007.com

A MEMORIAL DAY ANTHEM ...

Fathers are pleading, lovers are all alone
Mothers are praying--send our sons back home
You marched them away--yes, you did--on ships and planes
To the senseless war, facing death in vain

Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Turn the ships around, lay your weapons down

Can't you see 'em march across the sky, all the soldiers that have died
Tryin' to get home--can't you see them tryin' to get home?
Tryin' to get home--they're tryin' to get home
Seesaw fire on the battlefield
Enough men have already been wounded or killed

Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Turn the ships around, lay your weapons down
(Mothers, fathers and lovers, can't you see them)

Oooh, oooh...
Tryin' to get home--can't you see them tryin' to get home?
Oooh, oooh...
Tryin' to get home--they're tryin' to get home

Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
Bring the boys home (bring 'em back alive)
What they doing over there, now (bring 'em back alive)
When we need them over here, now (bring 'em back alive)
What they doing over there, now (bring 'em back alive)
When we need them over here, now (bring 'em back alive

(Some songs are timeless. This is one of them)!

http://dxerguy.stumbleupon.com/review/21495363/

Mon, 19 May 2008 15:41:18 -0700

Today, I feel in an especially grateful mood, fellow Stumblers.

Thank you ... for YOU!

Gratitude is a most amazing concept!

An amazing word.
Amazing "grace."

From the Latin root word gratia, meaning:

"pleasing quality, favor, thanks,"

comes its expanded meaning:

"a feeling of thankful appreciation for favors or benefits received; thankfulness."

But it is even more than that.

More?
How much more?

Gratitude is an unseen, all-powerful force
that can literally alter an individual human life.
Its power can alter one's mental and physical well-being.

And, bigger still, gratitude can, and does,
collectively alter the turn of human events.

Gratitude can therefore literally save the world!

For the good.
For the right.
For love.
For happiness.
For health.
For prosperity.
For life itself.

When was the last time you expressed gratitude
for even the simplest thing?

When was the last time you expressed gratitude
in a random act of kindness?

When?

How long ago?

Whoa, my brother; my sister!

Your gratitude expression is overdue!

Better balance those scales, pronto!

As one ripple in a pool,
spreads wider,
wider still ...
just imagine the power of that ripple,
magnified to its extremes,
if one person,
then another,
then another
and so on
silently sent up his and her
message of thankfulness to that
Creator of us all.

That would be a golden moment, wouldn't it.

And, oh, that "thank-you " gift we would,
in turn,
receive ....