Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Critique.
Current Writing
Introduction I often write about where I am with my writing and why I am at this place, so this is just another one of those. I write these to hopefully give people ideas and let them know that whatever they are doing is the right thing for them.
By Mike Singleton đź’ś Mikeydred 6 months ago in Critique
Trailer Trash McMansions
Feeling poor? Sometimes it’s a matter of just not being able to land a job with a good pay cheque. Or sometimes it’s a matter of refusing to tolerate corporate bullshit even for a good pay cheque. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being poor.
By Narghiza Ergashova6 months ago in Critique
New Avenues
I was looking at the opening page when signing out of Vocal, and that is when I decided to re-read some of the articles on working here on Vocal.com. I went to the old article about enhancing how to earn more here. I was happy just writing, reading, commenting, and even getting a few tips I wanted to find a way to 'enhance' more. So, I read about that we were allowed to suggest future challenges and found in the article where to make those suggestions and name two. I hope they read and accept them. To me: good ideas.
By Mark Graham6 months ago in Critique
Whisper Hollow
Directed by: Liane Arber Main Cast: Thuso Mbedu, Finn Elliot, Hiroki Tanaka, Eve Best When my mother passed, someone left a cassette in our mailbox. No label, just a sticky note that read, “For the memory.” On it was a single track—an old lullaby in a language none of us recognized. My sister swore she remembered it from childhood. I didn’t. But I couldn’t stop listening to it. That same eerie, buried-in-your-bones feeling runs through every moment of Whisper Hollow, a horror film that doesn’t try to scare you—it tries to haunt you.
By Muhammad Rahim 6 months ago in Critique
System and Economy Failing
Have you heard yet? Not "The Struggle is Real" slogan but the new gregorian chants "The System is Failing" or "We (the citizens) are facing Economic Uncertainty" or "Panic is in the Air". I have. I see it on the news, I watch it on TikTok or Youtube or other channels. I hear it in the wind, the storms, and the voices that speak to the schizos. It's causing me so much anxiety I have no fingernails left to bite. I know I'm not the only one who is scared, but I think I get more upset than most people because I am so exhausted from having to move and migrate. I moved so many times in my childhood you may as well have called me a military brat. Then in my young adult life, it was as if my childhood was haunting me as history repeated time after time. I counted the addresses. Of over 20 residences where I stayed and called "home" for some period, I could only recall about 5 of the actual addresses. That's because those were the only 5 where I lived longer than 2 years. People asked me rudely and often "Why can't you stay with a job for longer than a year?" I would try to explain the disabilities that come with bipolar symptoms and schizophrenia. But it's more than that. I couldn't hold on to a job for a long time because none of the jobs that I had could afford the rent or the mortgage as they were defined. So what was the point? And I'm not alone in this sad epiphany. I didn't want to believe or tell others what they are discovering for themselves now: The System and The Economy are set up for you to Fail. That's shocking enough, but what's even worse? It's boomeranging back in a karmic cosmic explosion, and now the System is failing itself as the Economy is the worse I've seen it in 50 years.
By Shanon Angermeyer Norman6 months ago in Critique
