Content: depression

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Cancer patient Jim, and his wife Carol, settle in for their first day at the Bluelight Cancer Institute. Carol thought they’d stumbled into a little theater production. People were laughing. People were crying. A tiny woman, dressed in hospital wrinkled blue, was telling a joke. A young volunteer chuckled with a patient. Two men argue about who has the best tuck. This can’t be a cancer institute. CAROL AND JIM is the first of eight connected short stories about cancer chaos. Your frank comments are greatly appreciated.

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Correne Johnson, 18, is all the things most women never want to be: Overweight, illiterate and unloved. And she is being molested by her Aunts fiance. She uses her addiction to the Oprah Winfrey show and Oprah's TV wisdom's to challenge her Oppressor. These actions could either end her life or save her.

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REVIEWING NOTE: I'm thrilled to be in the finals of Strongest Start (main competition)! Congrats to the others. It's ok if you want to read a chapter out of sequence without reviewing those that precede. I just encourage you to browse them, and read the overall synopsis. I'm most interested in getting reviews for CH FOUR. Generally not seeking line edits at this early stage. Thanks. STORYLINE: There is a new store in town. It's the first store ever to sell hope over the counter. With record unemployment, home foreclosures, and cluster suicides -- the store couldn't open at a better time. Luke Nagano is the inventor of The Hope Store. Jada Upshaw is one of his first customers. Amidst a deluge of seekers and cynics, scientists and naysayers -- a cynical journalist sets out to infiltrate the store. He wants to discover if The Hope Store is a scientific breakthrough, or a brazen scam to profit off the hopeless. On top of this, the store's investors give Luke just six months to turn a profit. But Luke has some ideas of his own to ensure that his dream store flourishes. VERSION NOTE: The formatting is a little artsy and adventurous. But hopefully you will enjoy it. I'm playing with voices here. Chapters and reviews done before 5-2-10 might not align. Chapters have been revised based on your helpful input. So if you can review again, please do!

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This is a little Christmas ditty about The Man in the red suit. Any comments are welcome.

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Cole Sage a once brilliant journalist has just about reached rock bottom. Haunted by the longing for the woman he lost, Cole is jarred to a crossroads when an elderly woman shoots and kills a hostage negotiator in front of him. Stillreeling he is stunned to receive a one line cry for help from Ellie, his one great love. Alone and terminally ill in a low rent California convalescent hospital Ellie’s dying request brings Cole face to face with his past and an uncertain future as he tries to find Ellie’s estranged daughter and save her inheritance from her conniving step father while there is still time. The path to keeping his word to Ellie is blocked at every turn by the husband who has abandoned her, his shady real estate deals, violent con men, street thugs and the lure of a fortune in diamonds that bring them all together. Beaten, bloody but determined, Cole Sage conquers greed and hatred with a strength that only love and a will as hard as diamond can achieve. I need tough, to the point, honest evaluation. This is the first in a series, four of which are complete. Is it worth persuing an agent and a publisher? Come on let's hear it. Thanks for reading!

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The story of my life, which begins in privilege, an alcoholic father, depression, divorces and emotional aridity, and ends in emotional rebirth, freedom and love. I'm especially interested to hear whether readers find they're drawn into the material. Does the introduction create suspense and curiosity?

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Three poems from April-December 2008. Oh the joys of student life. I'm a geo major, in case it's not obvious.

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Story's the summary! Re the provided photo of an ostensibly down-on-his-luck man, circa the Depression years.

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This may offend you, but is it to simple? Suggestions welcome.

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I am not a poet at all, but one of my characters is. He has a large role in book 2 and book 3. At the time in his life where he writes this poem, he is an abolute mess. His family was murdered, and he was beaten nearly to death. Before the tragedym he was a quiet gentle hearted artist, who wrote and sang songs for children in his spare time. Now he's unstable and a ittle psychotic.------------------- Feel free to rewrite the poem if you'd like, as long as all his thoughts stay in it. I'm not talented enough to pull off poetry, and I want him to sound talented.

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This is a poem about a place I've been, not as often lately. But every once in a while...I find myself there. According to Merriam-Webster, doldrums are a spell of listlessness or despondency...or a part of the ocean near the equator abounding in calms. The latter part of the definition makes me think of a Jimmy Buffet song...

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I've written about my life growing up in poverty in the small town of Brighton, Illinois during the 1970's. We were reared in an abusive atmosphere where our mother suffered from depression and obesity, but she was a prophetess. God wanted us to go through garbage dumpsters for food and to eventually move to a remote location in Missouri where we lived in a cave for four years. My childhood started out normal with love and respect from two working parents, but it was short-lived because Mom and Dad separated when I was four. Dad didn't pay child support and Mom no longer worked. We lived in cluttered, filthy, hoarding conditions. By the time I was twenty years old, I was six feet three inches tall and weighed one hundred and thirty pounds; I was homeless, depressed, and suffered everyday from headaches to severe migraines and vomiting. I lived through a unique experience that has given me a personal glimpse into the lifestyle and mindset of our nation's poorest people. Billions of people in the world live below the poverty level and millions of people in the U.S. suffer from a depressive illness. It's been a long emotional journey for me to write forty-five chapters that begin with my first visits with a mental health counselor and then chronicles the first twenty years of my life. I was educated in the Illinois public school system through the ninth grade when I was pulled from school so we could live a better life for God without the influence of our sinful society. I love my parents, but they are the strangest people I have ever met. I didn't write my memoir out of hate or revenge. I began writing after a counselor suggested it to relieve stress.

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A short piece from a part of my life that no-one knew about, and still don't. I was always the perfectly happy child and friend. I would like to add that although when i wrote this i hadn't cut again for years, the urge is always there when i get down and after a severely depressing start to the year 2008 i unfortunately do have two scars that are visible in on my left upper wrist. It is something i only feel when depressed, which i am over now and it is part of the reason i would like to become a psychologist. To be able to help people that are going through things that make them feel this way. This is a rough piece i have barely edited. This was inspired by a book i read at the time, which was a story of a lady with bipolar disorder and cut herself often to the point of hospitalisation. I felt the need to write my first experience down.

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A break-up in under 100 words.

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