If you like dark short stories

If you are the type of person who enjoyed watching Tales of the Unexpected and finds they enjoy a tale with a sinister twist, then you might enjoy my short stories. Here is what a few Amazon reviews had to say –

“Thoroughly enjoyed these short stories reminiscent of Roald Dahl’s ‘Tales of the unexpected’. Particular praise for ‘Clocking Off’”

“All the stories here have their own flavour. Another review mentioned Tales of the Unexpected and I’d say that’s on the money. Imaginative, well-written, I’m looking forward to more from this author.”

“Six creepy stories that are guaranteed to lodge themselves firmly under the skin. Each story invites the reader into a world where you are certain that from the very first word, things are not going to end with a cheery musical number. They are ‘dark’ stories for a reason. A quick read for those looking for a chilling end to the evening, each tale comes with its own twist. Personal favourites include ‘Doctors Visit’ and ‘Clocking Off’.”

And if you would like to read the story mentioned a couple of times there, you can find it here – Clocking Off

(c) K Wicks

Not Worth What It Was

Prices, of goods and services and what they call ‘the value of money’. Across the board, finances and currencies are being screwed around with and used as a weapon of control, and seems they always were, just as with Words and Meaning, money plays a very pivotal role in shaping society and our mindset towards it, and to be able to function within that.

There have been various articles about money and cash which you can find in my Cash Compilation, and I have tried to explain further in Apples and Pears, and On The Glad and Sorry, of how money has captured and captivated us, but is not as simple as just being money anymore. Because a pound isn’t worth a pound, and when they say ‘it won’t buy you what it used to’ we all just nod and in a nostalgic way just agree and think back to a time when our pounds really did buy more. Because more was available it seems, there were more people competing for business, customers, profits and market share. But as the decades have worn on, that market share has been well and truly sewn up, by conglomerates, corporations and consuming business empires that don’t seem to want any wealth in the hands of what they deem ‘ordinary people’. And if they are allowed some kind of wealth for a time, it’s because they have a plan to strip it back off you at a later date, a temporary freedom for some, keeping you in the game and playing for them.

We are the mercy of people who are throwing around money like it is sand and they a child in the sandpit. If we were to change the rules and make them personally liable for any deals they make, or any loses they incur, we would see a rather quick change in attitudes and actions, I’m sure. But we don’t have that, or any kind of accountability for anyone who plays their part in the disaster being created around us. We just have a crushingly soulless and numb rhetoric being repeated, but it isn’t enough anymore, people can see and feel the real effects of what they are doing. Like the saying goes, trust what they do and not what they say – and in this case, there is an awful lot to see, and when you understand it is not in their best interest to admit anything or fix anything, you can see why they just keep going through with insane ideas, and lying through their teeth about everything. Because if they did own up, confess and actually do what was right, it would end the whole gravy train for all of them, and when it comes to politicians, Self-Preservation really does seem to be something they are good at focusing on. For themselves and the system that protects them, but not so much for the bigger picture and the ‘job’ they are meant to do, you know, the one they actively signed up for, looking after the country, the people and leading it to prosperity. Or at least that’s the line we’ve been fed, while they steadily reap the resources and wealth from a country and people’s, saying the right thing at the right time, trying to be ‘seen to do it’ rather than actually do it. It’s embarrassing, maddening and now we can see, is having a very real detrimental effect on society and life as we know it.

The worth of many things is being redefined and reevaluated, people included, covered in my articles What Are We Worth?, The Bottom Line and A Commodity – where how much you can make for them, and how much they can take from you is reaching new heights. Borrowing, lending, benefits, inflation, interest, debt and more, to commandeer the present and future with numbers, stats, and unattainable targets. To keep people beholden to that system of Ownership we find ourselves embroiled in and that mentality they need us to have, so we keep playing their game of Monopoly and they can keep being the banker. But it really is starting to feel like that game has long run its course and has gone on for so long, they don’t know how to play any other game, we shall see. Because it would be nice to think there is something else, and another way of doing things, but we just haven’t got there yet…

(c) K Wicks