Top Writers Block Presents Once Upon A Time

By Top Writers Block

Once upon a time there was a group of talented writers from across the globe. These writers took the "once upon a time" theme and present a tome filled with fantastic short stories. Here are mystical lands, and lands of modern times. Princesses, fairies, witches, children's toys, billy goats, friends, enemies, and even Peter Pan. A collection sure to please both children and adults, Top Writers Block is pleased to present to you "Once Upon A Time."

Your purchase of this ebook not only supports the creative outlets of independent authors, but also supports charity. Top Writers Block is an international group of writers who continue to donate ALL of their proceeds to Sea Shepherd in France, an organization that devotes itself to preserving our seas and oceans and the life within. All proceeds from the sale of this ebook goes to charity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Top Writers Block
• Release date: Aug 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310853661

Top Writers Block

Top Writers Block is a diverse and eclectic group of talented writers who decided to write stories together - just for the fun of it! We are happy to announce that authors proceeds have always gone, and will continue to go, to Sea Shepherd.fr every time Smashwords has made a payment! Thank you to those who have supported the group, independent authors, and Sea Shepherd. Our collections are usually written with one theme or genre in mind. Each author contributes when they have the time, so some of the collections have as many as twelve authors participating. Every collection has something new, with stories and poems ranging from romance, drama, and adventure to mystery, fantasy, and horror. All the Top Writers Block's proceeds will go to Sea Shepherd, so by buying you are helping to keep our oceans alive! Thank You all so much!

Book preview

A Collection of Short Stories

by

TOP WRITERS BLOCK

Written on the theme:

Once Upon A Time

Copyright ©2015 - copyright held by individual authors

Published on Smashwords

cover photo ©2013 by Nicholas P. Szydlek, Jr.

ISBN: 9781310853661

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Smashwords License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Just Another Tall Tale by Barnaby Wilde

The Witch by Melissa A. Szydlek

Cocoons by Suzy Stewart Dubot

Best Friends Through the Years by Tracey Howard

The Billy Goats Gruff Brothers by John R. Muir

More Than A Fairy Tale by Elizabeth Rowan Keith

In The Shadow of Peter by Melissa A. Szydlek

Sharing by Suzy Stewart Dubot

JUST ANOTHER TALL TALE

by

Barnaby Wilde

Copyright ©January 2015 Barnaby Wilde

An English writer of quirky verse, short stories, detective fiction and novels with a sense of the ridiculous, now retired from a career in manufacturing and living in the South West of England.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, over the mountains and beyond the sea, there lived a king with one unmarried daughter. Princess Talksalot was very beautiful, but she had one characteristic that put most suitors off. To date, indeed, it had deterred every single hopeful who had ever travelled to court her.

Yes, there was no way to hide it, she was very tall!

Truth to be told, she was unusually tall. Almost seven feet tall, in fact (six feet ten inches to be precise). She towered over everyone she met.

How the king and queen had come to have such a tall daughter had never been satisfactorily explained, for the queen was only five foot five inches tall herself and the king only five foot one and a half. (The half was important).

Nevertheless, between them, somehow, they had contrived to create a daughter who would have been welcomed into any basketball team, had such a sport ever been played in that distant kingdom, but since the national sport was horse racing, it was clear that she wasn't cut out to be a jockey.

It should be said at this instant, that the princess was not only beautiful, but she had a fine figure, to boot, well proportioned, with a handsome bust, and legs that seemed to go on forever. If the queen had only allowed it, Princess Talksalot could truly have made a fortune as a supermodel. The queen, however, thought it undignified for a 'royal' to have a proper job.

It should also be mentioned that the king would have been only too happy for his daughter to bring in a few shekels, since his coffers were low to the point of being virtually empty. He was desperate for her to be married off, in order to cut down on the weekly grocery bill. (He also had half an idea that he might be able to rent out her bedroom, though he had yet to put this suggestion to the queen).

Despite putting several postcards into the newsagent's window and generally putting the word out to kings in neighboring territories, it was clear that the number of potential suitors was drying up. In fact there had been no new princes at the gate for several months. Not that Princess Talksalot was concerned. She had looked down on all the short arsed princes to whom she had so far been introduced, with what could only be described as disdain. She was generally happy to spend her days strolling around the palace gardens talking to the birds inhabiting the lower branches of the trees, though, from time to time, a certain wistfulness would overcome her as she dreamed about meeting a tall, dark, handsome stranger. A stranger who would have to be as tall her, ideally, if not taller. It seemed unlikely.

One day, while discussing the condition of the state coffers with his grand vizier – a man who walked with a perpetual stoop, so as not to appear taller than the king – the vizier made a suggestion.

Have you considered the interweb, my lord? he asked.

The interweb? Who, or what, precisely, might that be? replied the king. For he was not well versed in the ways of the modern world, having only recently discovered, for instance, that the palace had been equipped with flushing toilets for some decades and that his regular trips to the outdoor privy were due to ignorance rather than eccentricity as was generally believed.

The interweb, my lord, is a way of speaking through the ether, explained the vizier. "One can search, using some sort of an oracle called goggle, I believe. Or maybe the name is gargoyle? I forget precisely which. Whatever, we can Google to find the correct appellation using an iPad, or a Smartphone.

The king was intrigued by the notion of speaking through the ether. But how would we direct this speech towards a particular person? he asked.

That, my lord, is the beauty of the system. We don't have to send a message to a specific person. Simply by posting a message in the appropriate location, it becomes visible to any person who looks.

Like a postcard in the newsagent's window, observed the king, who hadn't yet grasped the magnitude of the interweb.

Like a postcard in the window of every newsagent, butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, my lord, across the whole planet.

The king shook his head wearily. Alas, he said. I fear the coffers won't stand it. The newsagent in the village charges six pence a week for every postcard he displays. If we were to extend that to include the butcher, baker and candlestick maker, the money would run out in about three weeks.

Sire, said the vizier, bowing even lower. I think, perhaps, you haven't quite comprehended the concept yet. I must have described it badly. These are virtual postcards of which I speak.

Virtual? You mean that they don't actually exist? The king looked confused.

Hah, said the vizier, his nose now almost down to the ground. I must apologise again for my inadequate explanation. The postcard analogy is perhaps a poor one. Perhaps it would be easier to think of the message posted on the interweb as being more like …, more like … the vizier struggled to find an alternative analogy. … a classified advertisement in the local newspaper, maybe.

A classified advertisement? said the king. Aren't they charged by the word?

The vizier could bow no lower. His back was, in any case, protesting loudly at having to maintain this uncomfortable position.

My lord, he asked. Might I straighten up a trifle and explain a little more about the world wide web?

Eh? Oh, I was wondering what you were doing down there, said the king. Straighten up by all means and tell me about this web thing.

The vizier returned to his more normal, stooped stance.