E K Stokes

The battered Fiat rattled along the coastal road, the setting sun painting the sky in hues of orange and purple. Alex, his gaze fixed on the passing landscape, felt a chill crawl down his spine despite the warm air. He knew he was running out of time, and out of safe havens. The tiny transmitter, which he'd held in his hand the whole journey, finally came alive. He glanced at the screen. It was a coded message from London. He quickly deciphered it. "There is a mole in the garden." The phras

Interesting comments, we will have to see how things pan out through the twists and turns, the road is never easy!

The sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon, casting long shadows across the narrow streets of the small Greek port. Alex, his heart pounding with a mix of anticipation and fear, emerged from the fishing boat, a lone figure in the early morning stillness. He'd made it. The first leg of his mission had gone off without a hitch. He found a small café, tucked away in a side street, and ordered a strong, black coffee. He needed to clear his head, to shake off the lingering tension of th

Rain lashed against the window of the dockside porta-cabin, a relentless rhythm on the metallic structure mirroring the tempest in Alex's soul. He reviewed the intel again, the grainy photographs of the men, their names, their aliases, their connections. Anwar El Rashid, the charismatic leader of the shadowy Islamist faction, "The Sons of the Levant," was his target. Rashid, a master manipulator, was orchestrating a dangerous game, one that could ignite a devastating conflict in the Middle East.

From a less than happy childhood Alex Mason escaped to the army in search of something, but what? With a facility for languages, a ruthless disregard for himself and a definite disposition towards solitude, he was recruited into the Special Forces and subsequently MI6. His life was, with very few exceptions, empty. Until he met Ben, but Ben was another fleeting encounter, even if the connection between them was instant. Alex had a mission and it was dangerous, duty called, with no time for sentiment.

That film was at the birth of conspiracy theories which lead us to today's fake news and tomorrow we will have great difficulty to tell reality from fiction, which will leave us not knowing what to believe. The truth may be out there, but it won't count for much!

So if I got this right, you wrote the lyrics, your bf translated the verses to Korean (Fire in the Rain ver.1) and the AI composed and performs the music and vocals? It was excellent, wow!

I found this event really good, I don't know how so many wildly different prompts produced such excellent stories from lots of different authors, but it did. I've almost finished the stories only a couple to go and they have all been great, in different ways, all well written. I just wanted to say that as a reader, it was top!

No doubting the excellent writing and the characterisation is reflected in the author's pseudo, a person with the paranormal ability to perceive the mental or emotional state of another individual. It is engaging immediately and easy to read, but easy to read the narrative does not make the story easy on the emotions. A whole lot of stuff has been written about readers liking happy endings and I've never paid that too much attention, because I swing towards reality and happy or sad, if it's realistic and believable, that's what counts. Only here we start out at the end and we look back forty years and the end appears sad, even more so on checking Land of Lincoln. Sad because John Renkin couldn't live his own life, but felt compelled to live someone else's, his parents, society, the pressure to be normal and not be a homosexual communist. It's sad at the end, it's sad at the start, maybe there's some joy along the way, I hope, but in the end he made a bad choice I think and that goes to show how much pressure parents, family, and society can exert. But therein lies the battle, the war, the struggle, and you've got to be strong, you have to live your life, not someone else's and that's the sadness when you don't, because it's a lot of time blown in the wind!

@Thirdly you have been very nice to me and I sincerely thank you for all your detailed comments. Perhaps another author might have taken offence at how their story was dissected, but honestly not me. I found it really, really, helpful and am deeply grateful because I've got some great feedback on what I need to do. I have the plots for stories, I just need to get the detail and order right. Thank you, thank you, I feel very enthusiastic about my writing now!

@Thirdly you've given me more than enough information to make this story into a real novel, probably double the size and that same point was made by others, but you've actually given me the threads to pursue and elaborate. Maybe I should do a rewrite taking in all this extra writing, I don't know, do authors revisit their stories, rewrite the whole thing?

Yes, yes, there you got it exactly and I missed putting a lot of that into the story. Thinking about it, I probably need to focus more on motivations, why someone does what they do.

@Thirdly these are good ideas that I could have used to expand the story, unfortunately I never thought about it and didn't have any kind of feedback before publishing. Not an excuse for what's lacking in the story, just an explanation. I will try to use everything you have pointed out in the future.

@Thirdly from you comment, which is similar to feedback I received from another source, essentially says there should have been much more detail. I agree, I hope my second story had some improvement around this. It's a learning process.

Good point, I'm amazed your comment went into so much detail, but thank you for this constructive criticism, it's noted. On a similar note, this story was submitted to another site where they actually got down to editing it and at the same time rejected it asking me to rewrite it. So I know it's a long way from perfect.

I think you constructed a good story out of a difficult prompt, April Fools Day would never have inspired a story from me, I kind of think you drew the short straw!

The story was easy to read and full of surprises. An enjoyable story.

I was left with one simple question on my mind: why was Gavin/Calvin marrying Lilah? I know he had this three some thing in his head, but you don't get married for that.

And you are right to wonder. I wanted a who done it that finishes with a perfectly plausible explanation and yet leaves some doubt in the reader's mind - did I really get it right, is that how it happened, or... I hope it's not too sneaky on my part not to dot all the I-s and cross all the T-s, I think there's a space for doubt, there usually is in a lot of crimes!

Yes is the answer. Arnold certainly could have been covering for his wife. I left that possibility open!

A very good question, which is difficult to answer. Carlos tried to escape the scene, he knew with his past criminal record he might carry the can for a murder he didn't commit. It's an intricate web of deceit and who is telling the truth is not absolutely clear.

Yes, sort of, only I wouldn't place Arnold as the deliverer of divine retribution, he was more very protective of his wife and even if he confessed there was no real proof that he murdered Roland, and if he did, was it intentional, was it premeditated. I think a jury would need to decide and we'd hope they drew the right conclusion!

A very engaging story that was a history lesson as well. I was lost in eighteenth century America as you described the confrontations and eventual explosive outcome. There was no age such as teenage in those times, boys were adult at 11 or 12, at least expected to act like they were and certainly accept the responsibilities. As Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography: At the age of 12, he was apprenticed to his brother, James, a Philadelphia printer. Franklin recalled that his brother was “passionate” and often beat him. “Thinking my apprenticeship very tedious,” Franklin stated, he “was continually wishing for some opportunity of shortening it.” At the age of 17, Franklin ran away from his brother’s household. How different life was for teenagers in those years.

Herrera found himself drawn into an increasingly complex web of intrigue. The more he looked at the case, the more questions arose. One such question was the potential involvement of Giovanni Salvatore, the powerful figure from Ardmani. While it seemed far-fetched, the scenario was not entirely impossible. If Giovanni had somehow obtained the remaining pills from Roland, he could have used them to incapacitate him. But this would require a level of planning and execution that seemed out of

Not sure I had Columbo in mind, but definitely the eccentricity. A small energetic Jewish guy who can be a little odd and yet still manages to fit in everywhere because he's sympathetic to everyone. The balance is hard, I'm working on it and hope to improve as I go along. I like all your suggestions for expanding the story and I've taken note. I love taking stories which perhaps aren't exactly new and peppering them with LGBT characters, because the world is diverse!