ShakesQuill's Weekly Story No. 2

Welcome to ShakesQuill's Weekly Story, No. 2. We couldn't be more pleased with the efforts of ShakesQuillers on the first Weekly Story, which matured into a story titled " Aetherion."

The rules are simple - I will write a couple of paragraphs, and ShakesQuillers will go from there, adding a paragraph or three or four (whatever) to the story until we publish it in all its glory. Submit as much as you like, and we'll see if we can keep this ball rolling.

Below the "Turn Page" button below are the opening few paragraphs. We're excited to see where our second reader-driven story takes us.



"It's a psychological recession, Bob," said Dale Hartman. "While it's understandable that Americans are concerned about their finances, the fact is that things are going pretty well for the U.S. Things are a lot worse elsewhere."

Dale sat back as the red light went off. Today was "Business Time Weekly" on some cable channel. He couldn't remember which channel it was, just that he was supposed to be here and say positive things. He had done about twenty of these types of interviews over the past several months, and his bosses couldn't be happier. They saw Dale as a true soldier in their battle. He would get their message across.

Dale himself didn't much care. It was a paycheck and a good one. And he viewed the whole thing as acting, anyway. He barely gave a thought to his lines, and focused mostly on the presentation. That was what was important. A good-looking, 40-something man in a suit comes on screen and tells everyone that everything is just fine. It mattered little whether the message was true, just that it was delivered well.

As Dale unhooked his microphone and said his good byes to those in the studio, his mind quickly returned back to his own life and he immediately missed being an actor. Lying to millions of people at a time mattered not a whit to him, but his real life, and the lies that had gotten him to this point were starting to wear him down. And if one newspaper reporter had her way, those lies were about to be unraveled, and he'd have a new starring role. A role he had worked so diligently to keep hidden.

...