Latest Stories
Most recently published stories on Vocal.
Bills…More Bills
Benjamin Franklin once said, “In this world, nothing can be certain except Death and Taxes.” He was almost right, but wise old Ben left out one more item—Bills. Unless I am speaking with a primary school kid, every conversation I’ve either had or listened to eventually comes around to bills. Groceries, gas, rent or mortgage, utilities, and, for those of us living in the United States, doctor bills.
By Mark Gagnonabout 8 hours ago in Lifehack
A plot based on a dream or current events.
Dean Winchester and Scooby-Doo The group that concludes of Mystra; {Dark-Queen, my twin-sister} Lord Cyrus-Emery, known as “Wolf-Gang,” Phoebe Shadow-claw known as “Shining-One,” Luna; know as a Mage, people call her, “Spirit-Walker,” Aurora known as “Leviathan,” Sophia-Goddess of all, known as “Moonbeam,” and myself, Raven-Wolf, known as “Ice-Spirit⛄.”
By Pseudonym “Kathy,” though my legal name is Chantel.about 8 hours ago in Writers
The Identity Shift: Why WhatsApp’s New ‘You’ Tab is More Than Just a Facelift
1. Introduction: The Subtle Evolution of Our Digital Home We live in an era governed by invisible interfaces. For the modern smartphone user, the applications we frequent most—the ones that hold our intimate conversations, our family memories, and our professional livelihoods—become a form of digital muscle memory. We do not "think" about navigating to our settings or checking our messages; our thumbs move with a subconscious precision developed over thousands of hours of repetitive interaction. Because of this deep-seated familiarity, even the most microscopic change to the visual architecture of an app can feel like someone has quietly rearranged the furniture in your childhood home while you were sleeping. You open the app, and for a split second, you feel a sense of friction—a momentary pause where the expected path has shifted, and the "ghost" of the old interface still haunts your fingertips.
By Tech Horizonsabout 8 hours ago in Futurism
Response to 'The Count of Monte Cristo' (Dumas)
There is one main question Alexandre Dumas asks the reader in the book: Are you rich, or is your life rich? Dumas even uses Edmond Dantes to illustrate this. At the beginning of the book, Edmond is poor, but he has his father, Mercedes, and a promotion in a company in which he works for someone who's like a second father to him. When he's rich, he doesn't feel himself enriched.
By Alexandra Fabout 8 hours ago in Geeks
The Fourth Wall
I blame modernism and postmodernism for the plague of literary rooms that are essentially open plazas or terraces. For me, there’s a problem with assuming that the room can survive without the fourth wall. Writers like Shakespeare, Bronte, Vonnegut, and Salinger successfully break the fourth wall, which means it exists. You can’t break a wall that isn’t there.
By Harper Lewisabout 9 hours ago in Writers
