Comment from Marilyn Hamilton

Excellent

OH!!!!! Now this is my kind of story! And all I can think is...What the hell was in that stew?! LOL Now drop the word count by 45 and join me on the dark side. lol Nice writing.

 Comment Written 02-Apr-2024

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reply by the author on 02-Apr-2024

I don't know how you manage to search out my worst stuff. I don't enter contests anymore, but this piece was written in ten minutes to beat a deadline. LOL. Thanks for taking time away from your writing for an old post. Much appreciated!

Comment from Karen Cherry Threadgill

Exceptional

I guess the chef returned home and is hungry. I would climb out the window if I was you! Lickety Split! You can write the creepy crawlies incredibly well. My little horror stories are pretty passive. I enjoy reading you. Even for no Points. :-)

 Comment Written 11-Jan-2024

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reply by the author on 11-Jan-2024

Thank you so much, Karen, for your extra special six-star review and kind words. I don't know where all my twisted thoughts come from. LOL. It's kind of like things I read from you. I appreciate YOU and your kind reviews!

reply by Karen Cherry Threadgill on 11-Jan-2024

If anyone (besides me) deserves 6 stars it is you! You are sweeter than KARO syrup!
:-) I am posting my 100 word story.you can win #1 I will take #2:-) Karen

Comment from lyenochka

Excellent

I didn't know you wrote horror! I'm sure Dean would have loved this. This was written about the same time that I joined Fanstory.
Great details like the splattered blood. Sounds like it was the food that caused some scary hallucinations, I hope!

 Comment Written 06-May-2023

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reply by the author on 09-May-2023

Thank you so much, Helen, for taking time out of your busy day to read another of my old posts. Dean convinced me to write and enter my first horror story in his sponsored contest. It's called "Piece by Piece." And as you can see, I've dabbled with it a little since. I appreciate your kind words and generous review! :-)

Comment from AJ McCall

Excellent

This is superrrrrrrr creepy. Cool story. But for one, I wouldn't go into a cabin where blood covered the stove top or anything. I'd get outa there. lol.

 Comment Written 01-Jul-2020

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reply by the author on 01-Jul-2020

I'm like you. I wouldn't have stayed in that place for a minute. They say stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. I tried to blur this one all together and it still have the three parts it needs to be a story. I hope I succeeded. Thank you so much for taking time to go back and read these older stories that offer you nothing. Which makes these reviews more important to me than any. I truly appreciate you!

reply by AJ McCall on 02-Jul-2020

;)

Comment from CEO2020

Excellent

Hmm, some might say this is not a story because it doesn't have an end. Lots of technicality I've discovered since I been on this sight. I entered a 50 word contest and received a couple of messages that said my work wasn't a story because it didn't have an ending. But like yours it does - they just didn't use their imagination to see it.

Don't change your style to suit others. You will lose your creativity that way. You have excellent writing skills. Continue to be you!

 Comment Written 03-Oct-2016

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reply by the author on 03-Oct-2016

I had a few who said this wasn't a story, but they are wrong. Sometimes, people take technicalities way to seriously. I mean, this story has all the elements. Beginning, middle, and end. But like you said, the reader has to have enough imagination to figure out just what they want that ending to be. Many of the old-time movies, even most, would always leave the ending up to the watcher, as did many of the books of yesteryear. Of course, nowadays, everyone is a writing teacher who wants everyone to write exactly alike. They want everyone to be short, concise, and to the point, much like Hemingway. When truthfully, in the beginning, Hemingway was a terrible writer who couldn't spell, and his early drafts never improved much over the years. Truth. He just put in the time to revise over and over, and was fortunate enough to have others who had taken him under their wings, read his work, and make corrections over and over until they were polished. Hemingway was his best promoter, spent whatever time it took to get things right, and picked brains the of the greatest literary writing minds of his time. Then when he had honed his skills, he talked negatively about everyone who had ever helped him. In reality, he became a great writer, but was always an ungrateful creep. I'm lucky, as I write for me, and have no real ambition to become a street-beating, head-banging, novelist, although I have four books to date in the can. And please, remember this, most of the best technical writers become teachers, but only because they are so stiff and unwavering, making their writing boring and unbearable to read through. LOL! I didn't mean to write you a book, but I like your style of writing and don't want to see anyone cause you to alter your ways of going about your stories. Thanks for reading my story. Your kind words and generous review are greatly appreciated. :-)

reply by CEO2020 on 03-Oct-2016

Amen. You hit the nail on the head in everything you said! Also, thanks for the history lesson on Hemingway.

Comment from Muffins

Exceptional

Wow! the story gives it all.

The who: a fool who should have minded his business and hit the road when he saw:"blood speckles on the stove."

The what: a rickety cabin with no one in it. Great showing of your character's cluelessness.

The where:" Heavily wooded". Has anything good ever happened in a heavily wooded area?

Why: The ending tells us why and now Mr. nosey is about to be dinner.

Powerful flash fiction. I enjoyed every word.

 Comment Written 21-Sep-2016

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reply by the author on 21-Sep-2016

Thank you so much, Muffins, for taking time to read my story. Writing a story with bite and only using 100 words isn't easy, so I just built my bite right into the ending, and you know it's coming. LOL! Your kind words and the wonderfully generous six-star review are greatly appreciated. You have made my week for sure, dear. :-)

reply by Muffins on 21-Sep-2016

Your welcome.

Comment from michaelcahill

Exceptional

I only read this a week ago. HAHAHA!!! I voted for this, I thought my votes were worth double. JEESH.
Loved this. I've written a lot of them and they ain't easy. This is just got info between the lines, under them, over them and everywhere else. A super complete tale leaving a lot to the reader's imagination which makes it a perfect engaging story. I thought sure this would win. Well, a ribbon looks good at least and shows SOME of us know the score. I'm miles behind as always, but I'll get caught up eventually. Great work. mikey

 Comment Written 17-Sep-2016

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reply by the author on 18-Sep-2016

Mikey, you have made my week with this one. This story didn't go over real well with many, and never do the ones that I try leaving things up to the readers. The details are there if they just open their eyes, and they get to decide how they play out, which to me makes them fun. There were only a hand full of you who truly got it from start to finish. Thanks so much for taking time to read my story. Your kind words and extra-special six-star review truly have turned my frown from upside down, to a cheesing happy smile. I appreciated you! :-)

Comment from Susanjohn

Excellent

Why did you eat the stew!!!!! you cant walk into a house and eat stew!!! that's never going to be a good thing!! LOL severed legs!!! GROSS... nice creepy story you have here!!! enjoyed reading!

 Comment Written 15-Sep-2016

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reply by the author on 15-Sep-2016

Susan John, thank you so much dear for taking time to read my story. Yes, this is a strange one, and if I ever decide to extend it readers will learn that it isn't exactly what they think. LOL! Your kind words and generous review are greatly appreciated. :-)

Comment from Julia.

Excellent

Ooh, very creepy!. Makes me think werewolf, and then I wondered if the cabin belonged to the werewolf--who might be making human stew--or the wolf's last unfortunate victim.

One minor suggestion: you might reconsider the word "chalet". Chalet connotes something a bit nicer than a cabin or a house, so it seemed a bit odd.

But other than that, really good job! Good luck in the contest.

 Comment Written 15-Sep-2016

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reply by the author on 15-Sep-2016

Why is it that most people think because something is called a chalet that it is nicer than a little rickety shack? The name chalet originally came from "A wooden house or cottage with overhanging eaves, typically found in the Swiss Alps or an A-frame chalet in the Adirondacks. Synonyms for chalet are: lodge, cabin, or cottage. I used cabin early on, so maybe cottage might have been better, but my personal experience has found cottages to be quaint, country styles that are immaculately kept. I visit the Smoky Mountains once or twice a year and rent a chalet in the mountains, and most are shabbily taken care, of for the most part. Now you are probably wondering why I keep rambling. LOL! Actually, I'm just happy that you cared enough to even make a suggestion. I just thank you so much for taking time to read my story. Your kind words, suggestion, and generous review are greatly appreciated. :-)

Comment from robyn corum

Good

Ric,

I enjoyed the first part of the story. It reminded me a lot of Goldilocks and the Three Bears! *smile* The ending was decidedly different though.

I have to admit, I was thrown, though. The end was too big a switch for me.

1.) The whole house shook from the slam against the door.
--> do you mean the slam 'of' the door?

2.) I sprang to open it, finding severed legs, vicious growls, and red eyes glowing in the pitch black.
--> so the beast - whatever it was - that created the blood droplets and the stew INSIDE is now OUTSIDE. I get that the growls and eyes belong to him/it - but who do the legs belong to? Where are the rest of the body parts? Confused.

Thanks!

 Comment Written 15-Sep-2016

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reply by the author on 15-Sep-2016

Thanks for taking time to read my story. No, the door didn't slam, nor did the door cause the house to shake. The severed legs slammed against the door so hard that the house shook. Big objects, big bang. I once had a kid throw a big rock against my house that shook the whole house. Nope, nowhere did I say the blood inside had anything to do with the blood outside. The blood on the stove was just foreshadowing to make the reader start wondering where the blood might have come from. I didn't say who the legs belong to. Sometimes I like to let the reader do some thinking for themselves and decide in their own mind what happened, what they want to happen, or could have happened. This whole story was written to create questions, not answers. I can't imagine what's so hard to understand. It's the most simple and direct story I've ever written. It's just like real life. Every day we take a voyage, and never are all the answers sitting right there for you to see. Also, at some point, I will take this story farther, and probably show the readers that their conclusions weren't even close to what happened. Thanks