An excerpt from "Retro VR"

A priest, a rabbi and a minister walk into a bar on Christmas Eve. The mechanical prostitute slides up to the rabbi and says, “Struck out again, huh?”

The priest says, “I’ll have a Shirley Temple.”

The bartender says to the minister, “Hey, your ex-wife called! She wants her mechanical gigolo back that you borrowed! And make sure you clean him up this time!”

The Buddhist monk sitting at the bar says, “Stay single, mingle. Get married, get buried.”

The atheist sitting next to him says, “Masturbation for gratification. Artificial insemination for procreation.”

And the imam says, “This is offensive.”

Tomorrow is the deadline

Tomorrow, July 31, 2016 is the deadline for entering a story in Freeditorial's Long Short Story Contest. The winner will be announced on Thanksgiving Day. The number of times each story is downloaded determines the winner. They say they'll consider writing quality if it's close.

First prize is $15,000

Second prize is $5,000

Third prize is $2,000

If you don't have your own story to enter in the contest, please download mine.

My entry in the contest, Retro VR, is now in Fifth place. It recently surpassed 400 downloads. I plan to keep Tweeting and sharing it on Facebook and Google+ until November. I keep thinking of NASCAR races I have watched with my son, and the strategies the drivers use. I'm content with 5th place for now. I was in Fourth place for a little while. I have hope that I can move up to First place in the next few months.

When I'm not Tweeting or doing yard work or ruining my son's summer vacation, I've been working on a sequel to Retro VR. I would eventually like to turn the story into a full length novel or a hybrid virtual reality / live theatre play. That is, you would go to see a play, and the ushers would give you a cardboard VR headset on your way in.

You do not have to register to read the story.

If you follow the link, you'll see a synopsis of the story. Look to the right of the screen. You should see a DOWNLOADS OPTIONS menu. I prefer PDF, but READ ONLINE works just as well. You can download it to a Kindle or ereader.

If you like the story, feel free to share it.

Retro Virtual Reality

This link is to my entry in Freeditorial's Long Short Story Contest:

http://freeditorial.com/en/books/retro-vr

You do not have to register to read the story.

If you follow the link, you'll see a synopsis of the story. Look to the right of the screen. You should see a DOWNLOADS OPTIONS menu. I prefer PDF, but READ ONLINE works just as well. You can download it to a Kindle or ereader.

If you like the story, feel free to share it.

My Scifi story

This link is to my entry in Freeditorial's Long Short Story Contest:

 http://freeditorial.com/en/books/retro-vr

You do not have to register to read the story.

It's a near future science fiction story about a guy who gets recruited to beta test a system that uses virtual reality with lifelike sex robots for a fully immersive experience. A dream about his grade school sweetheart disrupts his plans.

If you follow the link, you'll see a synopsis of the story. Look to the right of the screen. You should see a DOWNLOADS OPTIONS menu. I prefer PDF, but READ ONLINE works just as well. You can download it to a Kindle or ereader.

If you like the story, feel free to share it.