Bluecollar Stories

Kester Skreets is the kind of girl people think they understand. She works full time at a small town hardware store. Drinks too much coffee. Shows up covered in bruises. Calls out of work far more than she should. Most people assume she's irresponsible. Some assume she's on drugs. Denni Carter assumes something is wrong. A former Navy serviceman with a habit of sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, Denni starts noticing patterns. The injuries. The lies. The way she disappears and always comes back looking worse. Then one night, he follows her. What he finds hidden in the dark changes everything. Two years ago, Kester survived an attack that should have killed her. Now she's trapped between two worlds, A normal life she can barely hold together and a secret world of trackers, monsters, and ancient things that hide in the shadows. And some secrets were never meant to be found.

This is the story that started Wake and Cody, off a prompt for a Goodreads m/m event. I was given a picture of a buff and kind of muddy guy, and a paragraph about two best friends and a hunting trip. This is what I ended up with.

A Living Dissection ATTENTION "I don't like hurting people's feelings. To me, it's the equivalent of breaking glass. It's bad luck. It lingers." LISTEN Most people wait for an autopsy to see what's inside. I'm doing mine while I'm still breathing. In a world that is dark at the edges, clarity is a lie we tell ourselves to sleep at night. We judge a man by a single moment, a single mistake, or a single weakness-without ever seeing the skeletal structure of his soul. I am tired of the lies. I am tired of the "confections" we sugarcoat our lives with. WELCOME : The Linguistic Anatomy This is not a memoir. It is a Linguistic Anatomy. I am taking a scalpel to my own existence to map out the three systems that keep a man upright: The Ethos (The Skeleton): The rigid core of human potential and the evidence of labor. The Lexis (The Flesh): The raw, unfiltered words we use to build ourselves-or to tear others down. The Resonance (The Nervous System): The emotional frequency we leave behind long after we've left the room. [The Stakes] Between kindness and coldness, between a hero and a villain, there is a line so thin it could cut you open. I've lived my life on that line. I've seen the "Greek God" in the mirror of hard work, and I've felt the weight of the glass shattering when a single sentence turns two people into enemies. This is a journey through Afro-Noir reality-a gritty, cinematic exploration of what it means to be a provider, a protector, and a person "stuck in between." I am dissecting myself. And trust me... there will be no drawing of blood. Only the truth.

Rose O'Connor is a simple farmhand in the southwest hills of Ireland. She travels into town one day and hears of a very strange person referred to as Yankee. Little does she know that this person might just change her life in more ways than just one.

A blue collar man receives an unexpected Surprise, how will he handle it and where will it take him.

The love of a cat. A letter of deception. And a trip to London. That was all it took to twist Zoran's life forever. But maybe after closing his heart to the world, this is exactly what he needed most to truly find redemption.

Business

How we look at the roles we play in the going-ons around us can make all the difference to what we see. A man with an ordinary job in an extraordinary place might just be the happiest person alive.

Getting warped into a world of the supernatural, even if she believes in it, is what really takes it far for Mehwish "Mavis" Ansari. A holiday trip to Romania turns this foul-mouthed, God-fearing girl's world upside down when she is betrayed into captivity of the 15th century Transylvanian prince, the infamous Vlad the Impaler, dracul of Walachia, a very powerful vampire- and very much still alive. She's mad, she's furious, and she's exactly what's needed. We all know the story of the Lord Impaler, and his enmity with the Ottoman Empire. Taking an indebted elite's unwanted offspring away may not have been different from most of his heinous deeds, but little does he know that he picked on the wrong girl. 'Old meets New' on a whole other level in this high-power adventure epic. Inspired by Beauty and the Beast. READ, YE WHO DARE: Hardcore cussing, detailed gore and violence. Please, don't expect historical accuracy from this book, it's for entertainment purposes only. Sorry in advance if I get any Romanian or Turkish dialogue wrong, I'm not really familiar with those languages. Finally, this is not an Islamic or spiritual book, so while the protagonist is a practicing female Muslim she doesn't represent anything or any views.

Tom can't remember what he did last night

This a story looking in at a simple office scene with the death of a coworker looming over them.

Ava Bennett wasn't looking for anything serious. Then she met Jared Wyatt, and distance stopped feeling like a dealbreaker. What they built across miles felt real. Until timing tore it apart. Now they're back in each other's orbit before either of them has figured out how to let go. Some love stories don't end. They just take the long way around.

The need for blue-collar jobs is expected to rise greatly all over Europe. Here are few points: Integrating technology: The demand for skilled blue-collar workers in manufacturing, construction, logistics, and other industries will rise because automation and digital tools increase efficiency. An aging workforce: European retirements will create labor shortages, giving younger professionals a chance to fill bigger gaps. Sustainability thinking: Green industries such as renewable energy and sustainable housing are creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs. Skill Development: As training levels increase, professionals will be better able to handle complex tasks, thus requiring skilled workers. By 2030, professionalism will not only play a central role in the European economy but will also determine its future. Recruitment strategies need to be adapted to meet this growing demand by HR professionals. Read this article for more information.

Richmond, Virgina- 1984 Sara Brooks is a 24 year old graduate student. She's almost a year and half away from finishing her PhD in English Literature. Standing near adulthood, she toes the line between leading a life she chooses versus the one that's been planned for her. She's always been the responsible one, the one who plans, who drives, and this weekend the maid of honor for her best friend Janie. The night before the wedding brings them to a bar, Lester's, an establishment their friend group used to haunt in their college days. That's where she meets him. Rough around the edges, quiet, looks straight out of a Springsteen song. I Can Take You Higher is a romance about the smaller details and choosing someone. The story navigates class, female friendships, found family, and a slight age gap, all set to the scene of the mid 1980's in the south. Loosely inspired by the song and music video for I'm On Fire, the story contains a lot of iconic 80's music some explicitly mentioned, others in the title of the chapter, feel free to listen as you read.

At twenty-four, Elara Vance is a "dinosaur" in the Elite Mechanical Engineering fast-track program. After six years of pulling double shifts at a diner to pay off her father's medical debts, she's finally trading her apron for a torque wrench. But the program is cutthroat, the "prodigies" are nineteen and cruel, and her TA-a brilliant, cynical twenty-two-year-old named Julian-thinks she's just a hobbyist. Elara has one semester to prove that a late start doesn't mean a finished race.

Dakota Adkins spent ten years convincing herself she made the right choice when she left town. And most days, she believed it. The job was good. The apartment was nice. The life she'd built for herself looked exactly like the one she'd always wanted when she was eighteen and desperate to get out of the mountains. Then her grandmother died. Now she's back in the house she grew up in, sleeping beneath a roof full of memories she isn't sure she wants and counting down the days until she can leave again. That was the plan anyway. Then she walked into Old Red's and saw Jack Bennett. The same Jack Bennett she spent an entire summer trying not to fall in love with. The same Jack Bennett she left behind. Only somewhere along the way, the town troublemaker became a man. One with roots planted deep, a crooked grin that still makes her nervous, and a life she can't stop looking at. The longer Dakota stays, the more things stop making sense. Because Jack Bennett was never supposed to be happy here. And she was never supposed to miss this place. Most of all, she was never supposed to wonder what would've happened if she'd stayed.