Bluecollar Stories

ONC '26 Entry This is the prompt I'm using: After waking up at 3am to a freezing room and a door you're certain you closed, you find wet footprints and melting snow leading from your bedroom into the hall. Realizing someone or something is inside your home, you follow the trail to uncover the truth.

Maverick is just trying to get by in his life. Parker is trying to finally start living hers. © Copyright 2023 Alyssa VandenAkker (@Fromjaded)

In the quiet, salt-crusted streets of Halifax, the world has gone still. Patricia, an accountant who finds safety in the rigid logic of balanced ledgers, is unraveling. When a forty-two-cent error in her books becomes an obsession she can't solve, she turns to a nightly Zoom room called "The Coffee Corner" to drown out the silence of her North End flat. Enter Brandon-a carpenter with a weathered beard and a poet's perspective on the grain of old wood. While the rest of the world is panicking, he's carving shorebirds and tracing the history of the city's echoes. What starts as competitive trivia and witty private messages soon turns into a digital lifeline that neither of them expected. Through the blue light of their screens, Patricia and Brandon discover that while the city is on pause, their hearts are finally finding a rhythm. It's a story of finding balance when the math fails, and realizing that the most solid connections are often built in the spaces between the pixels.

"Tomorrow, he'd pay a visit to the Bronx. The people there have already torn through his lies anyway, no point in pretending."

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.

My novella is a fictionalized portrait of a small town and its inhabitants, part comedy, part drama. Although based on a real town and real people, the story is fiction. The time period is not really important. Numerous characters are introduced over the course of the story. Scene One begins with the character of the town itself.

This is a complete work of Fiction. Oliva I'm running for my life, thankfully that led me to meet Danny. He has shown more me kindness in days than I've gotten in years. When my past comes knocking he has my back through it all. Danny I'm the type of man that protects the ones I love to the end. As soon as I seen Oliva I fell in love, and when her past comes around I'll defend and protect her.

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 role play book to distract yourself in! ^^ (( not all art belongs to me!! ))

John's been the evening custodian at St Eden's Elementary for a couple of years. Each night in solitude is the same, expect for tonight. The night before he heads off for Christmas break/his 30th birthday. He starts hearing nosies that send him onto a journey where he must face his worst nightmare-confinement. Whispers of Confinement is part fictional and part reality. I'm excited to share my first short story that is inspired by my job as a custodian and bringing you into part of my imagination.

Can anything go right when a relationship begins with a case of mistaken identity? When Nate Whitmore picks up an abandoned car to be towed, he doesn’t expect to find a woman passed out in the back seat. Joanne Johnson tried to forget about her cheating ex-fiancé at her best friend’s bachelorette party and ends up mistaking the sexy tow truck driver for a male stripper. For Nate, giving the embarrassed woman a ride home seems easy enough, until one mishap after another throws them in each other’s paths time and again. As if maid-of-honor duties and jealous ex-lovers aren’t enough to deal with, Joanne must decide if Nate can be more than just a rebound.

Tom can't remember what he did last night

Business

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.

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. (updates Thursday & Sunday)

From a small-town Saskatchewan, Canada comes Kayde. A female Bull Rider destined to give her all to either make it or die trying. Her life consists of rodeos all over Canada and the USA, complete with cowboys, and belt buckles, straight-forward and consistent. Till she doce-doed her way across the path of a boy, wild to the core, but blessed with charm. This Cowboy has got her more turned round and rattled up than the bulls she deals with daily. *currently undergoing a majorrr face lift*

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.