this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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Short Stories

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Hey storytellers! 📖 Welcome to our cozy corner for short stories – whether you're spinning your own yarns or diving into favorites. Grab a virtual seat, share your quick tales, and soak up the creativity. From original gems to cherished classics, let's have a blast with bite-sized narratives. It's all about the love of short stories and the joy of sharing. Join the fun!

Join us in crafting worlds, evoking emotions, and embracing the power of concise narratives. Explore and post short stories whether original or not. (Try and avoid Piracy) Let your imagination unfold in this haven for short story enthusiasts!

Meta conversation is also welcome.

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This is one of my favorite short stories. I'm sure most of you have read it. It's pretty popular. Glad I found this instance. I'll be posting a few things that I haven't seen here. Let me know if I overdo it lol.

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[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago (5 children)
[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's funny. I just commented to somebody here on the thread that there's an audio version out there. That's pretty good. And you sent that almost the exact same time I sent the comment talking about it lol. Thanks!

[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Yeah!! I saw this years ago, it’s a great re-watch. I always assumed it was a skit first- cool to see the short story!

[–] Lacanoodle 2 points 10 months ago

Twin peaks vibes there with the eerieness and the 80s american town feeling. I imagined this story with more of a Seinfeld style when I read it. Thanks for the link!

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's your name related to the dungeon crawler series? I just finished it and it amazing. Can't wait for more.

[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes!! You’re the first to catch that. Great series!!!

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It was sooo good. I'm reading Kaiju Battle Surgeon right now by Matt, but it doesn't hit the same. Can't wait for more Carl and Donut! Have you checked out the full cast audio "season" they did of the first book? Not the regular audio book, which is great, but it has the same dude playing Carl but has tons of others. The funny part is Patrick Warburton plays Carl's dad which is hilarious because in the audio books Jeff Hayes voice for Carls Dad sounded exactly like Patrick Warburton lol.

[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes! I’m a big fan of sound booth theater- they really kick the audio book game up a notch. Maybe some disagree, but I don’t feel like adding some sound effects, music, or a large cast detract from a narrators performance if done well, and they do a great job. I discovered the series because I stumbled on https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36469357-morningwood and had a lot of fun listening to it- the audio book is narrated by the same guy as Carl. Fun series if you like raunchy D&D inspired stories- in this one, the hero is the monster- a mimic.

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Oh shit that sounds great. Thanks for that, getting it now.

And yeah soundsbooth is great, I'm with you, I know some don't like it, but I think it doesn't detract from it at all. If anything in the Carl series it helps.

I'll try to remember to come back and tell you what I thought of Morningwood. Perfect name too if it fits into the Carl type category.

[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah hope you love it as much as I did!

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I work in pest control so most of my day is spent outside or driving around in my truck and all I do is listen to audiobooks all day long at work. So I probably go through a book every one and a half to two days so I'm excited for something that sounds so much like the Carl style. I don't even play games but back when I did. I did mess around with RPGs but I'm actually surprised I'm so into litRPG as I am. I already bought it, gonna listen tomorrow.

[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Bitchin! I only really get to listen to/from work and before bed- I’m a software engineer and I cant listen to audio books and code at the same time, it just doesn’t work- but I did recently cross the 400 audible book mark last year, so at least I’m making the effort!

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's impressive for limited time. I think I managed to clear 280 books this last year, but that counts both audible and reading because I read the same books I'm listening to while I'm in bed. Most of them are available for free with Kindle. I love the pest control life. It's a very calm job with lots and lots of personal freedom. Hell I don't even have to pick up the truck. It stays with me at all times. I wake up in the morning, Open my app, do my jobs and come home when I'm done lol. And it's a pretty good career. In fact, they're moving my whole family from Oklahoma to Sacramento, California in a couple of months for me to open new offices. But like I said all I do is listen to audiobooks all day long lol. It's a pretty good life.

[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It took me since 2011 :) good luck with the move! I’m east coast, whole different animal.

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah I haven't always been so heavy on the books until I started this job. It passes the time. Thanks, I live in the Midwest so the coast will be a better lifestyle for my family and me for sure. Much thanks.

[–] Langehund@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Wait that’s the guy from cash cab.

[–] Lacanoodle 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I had heard of this story but never read it. This was AMAZING.

'A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream.' I love this sentence so much.

I love this style of outsider perspective that deals with human absurdity and the infinite possibilities of the universe. Especially when dealt with sharp comedy instead of self importance. This remimded me of a Hictchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It also reminded me of hitchhiker's guide the first time I read it. There's a pretty good audio version on YouTube somewhere that some actors did, but I prefer to read it. If you like that you might also like the other one I posted right after that one called 17776. It's more of an interactive thing, I wouldn't say interactive but more like animated, but it's pretty long and may not fit here. And if you need me to remove it I will gladly do so. But it's right up there with some of my favorite books of all time.

[–] johnjamesautobahn@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Jon Bois’ longform works really stretch what narrative can be on the internet. It’s wild.

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

It's definitely one of the more unique things I've found on the internet. And I'm not even a fan of football even a little bit. But it has relatively little to do with the story and the scheme of things.

[–] Lacanoodle 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I feel like I remember 17776 but I'll have to check. Thanks for posting here tho! It's nice to see quality content coming in.

Just checked out the video and I prefered the read too

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I've already posted three for today. I have literally hundreds of short stories saved so I'll post a few here and there but I'm not going to overdo it and blow my wad in one day. This is going to be a great community. I live to read and I love short stories when I have a few minutes. Short stories are particularly interesting, such as short films, because you're forced to get to the point relatively quickly. And I have always found that when you have a limited amount of time to get your story across, you tend to do it far more creatively than if you went full-scale.

[–] Lacanoodle 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's good posting etiquette.

I agree I've recently become a short stories + short movies fan myself. How much can you strip from a narrative while still portraying your ideas faithfully and clearly.

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Agreed.

And yeah, I agree with the posting etiquette thing, since this is a new community, I figured I'd just start with a few of the more popular stories from my list to help get more clicks coming into this community. That way we'll get more postings. I'm really excited for this. I love Lemmy but I haven't found some of the communities I'm used to like this one. So kudos for making this happen.

[–] auf@lemmy.ml 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Funny and interesting at the same time. It may actually have happened already.

spoiler"Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone."

If they know it and are intentionally ignoring us, that's kinda sad lol

[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Maybe that should be part of the Fermi paradox lol.

[–] DuffmanOfTheCosmos@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago

This is one of my favorites and I will read the entire thing every time I see it posted.

[–] Kolli@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This is good. I like The Egg better, since I think about it more frequently.

I'll comment the link under.

[–] Kolli@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah I posted that one yesterday it's great. The YouTube video is awesome.

[–] survivalmachine@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago