A Modern day fairy story.

Advantages: Two fairy tales for the price of one
Disadvantages: One fairy tale for the length of two

...without warning and he'd lost a set of unsaved spreadsheets that had taken him days to compile. With so little spare time after he had finished all the stupid chores his mother dreamed up for him around the farm, that hurt. It hurt doubly because with modern machinery the chores could have been handled in seconds rather than hours, but would she let him borrow the money to buy the machinery? No way. She had some crazy down on debt, being too fossilised ...
...of the drips accelerated to a splashing flow. Nervously, he twitched the save button while he studied the numbers afresh. Even factoring in an unlikely rise in EU subsidies, it was a no-brainer. The dairy game was played out, finito, kaput. He knew his mother would be loath to part with the last of the herd, but it was the only way forward. The future lay in arable, and since their holding was now too small for cereals, in vegetables. Specifically, ... Read review

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Disadvantages: .

...all she had. She was a prisoner in her own home, forgotten by the outside world, alone and lonely. Turning from the window she moved her wheelchair back into the deeper gloom of her world, those four rooms that made up her entire existence. Pushing her way past the battered sofa she reached out for the light switch. It was only midafternoon but it was getting too dark to see properly. It took her a few seconds to haul herself up to reach the switch. ...
...came on momentarily then with a plink went out again as the bulb blew. Grace sat and stared for a moment before the tears came. That was the final straw, she had no chance of getting to the light to change the bulb so she would be sitting in the dark, a darkness that was closing in on her slowly whichever way she turned. A sound made her look up, a knock on the door. Wheeling her chair around she headed for the door. In her haste she caught her ... Read review

Advantages: It was fun
Disadvantages: It's very long and It might be a bit rubbish

...and yellow as she took a breath and placed the blow hose between heat chapped lips. Exhaling slowly and evenly, she twirled the pole, watching intently as the tip glowed orange and began to expand into a perfect bubble. Patiently, with great delicacy and skill, she began to shape the bubble of glass, caressing it with tools wielded in clever hands encased in thick heatproof gloves, until it became a beautifully serpentine shape, reminiscent of the ...
...the piece, which would become a vase, and set it aside to be completed and hardened later Straightening painfully, Cindy realised that she was utterly exhausted. She grabbed a cold beer from the workshop fridge and held its deliciously frosty exterior against her now throbbing forehead. The headaches were becoming more frequent, caused mainly by stress and tiredness. Taking a long swig of beer directly from the bottle, she revelled in the cool, ... Read review

Advantages: :o)
Disadvantages: :o(

Once upon a time, Rose rose early … habitually, every single weekday morning. Indeed it wasn't uncommon for her to be seen leaving the house before dawn ... particularly if Dawn had been out partying the night before, and had returned home the worse for drink. Rose struggled into her burgundy cagoule and fastened the toggles of the hood tightly under her chin. Not for nothing had she earned the knick-name 'Little Red Riding Hoodie'. The tiny emaciated ...
...hosed her client down, administered a carminative, and scraped a thick layer of mashed potato from the kitchen walls, Rose straightened her tabard and quietly closed the front door of Mona's sheltered accommodation. Sue had threatened to sue Social Services many times, before they eventually sent her a form for the Direct Payments Scheme so that she could arrange for her own choice of carer. Sue had chosen rose for her bedroom décor, so it seemed ... Read review

Advantages: A chance for writers to adapt thier skills.
Disadvantages: Only limited by imagination.

A few weeks back I asked Ciao to introduce this category for several reasons. My first idea was to take a fairy tale and adapt it to modern-day stories thinking this would be a challenging experience for many of the excellent writers on Ciao. My second reason was to allow people from different cultures to share their own folk stories with us. My third and maybe more important reason was to see if a writer could come up with a story to suit the times ...
...people learned a love of reading and writing through the old fairy tales some grim and dark, others full of wonder and delight. It was through fairy tales that I personally gained a reading age of an adult by the time I was ten years of age something I passed down to my daughter who went on to excel in English and read English at University gained a 1st class honours degree, something of which I am justly proud knowing that the stories I read to ... Read review

Advantages: Another avenue for my stories.
Disadvantages: It may seem the wrong choice for my story.

...I've been waiting for ages for ciao to add another story category in vain. My proposed product was "A Modern-day Fairy Story" but it seems that it will never see the light of day so once again I had to find a category near to my choice. Knowing my luck Ciao will add it at a later date and I'll have to write another. C'est la vie. I suppose you could call this a "wierd" story but it was aimed for children about the age of ten. ***************************************** Rosie slipped between the crowds virtually unnoticed by the people around her. She was glad she had chosen the Wednesday market for her important errand for few people would notice a seven-year-old girl in the happy atmosphere of the bustling market. Her little town was full of people hunting for bargains with mothers' clutching tightly to their toddlers... Read review

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