Words may be Cheap Now but not in the Future

Can you imagine living in a time in the future where every word you utter is priceless? That’s the premise for a story called WordLotto.

In our present world, many people buy lottery tickets hoping to make it big so they never have to worry about money again. Money is our most valued item and when we have lots of it, God help the person who steals it from us!

So how did WordLotto begin? Well, it all began rather innocently, or so most people thought. They worked, made money and paid the obligatory taxes to the government, always hoping to win the Lotto. But few ever won the Lotto and over the years, even the government ran out of money.

Since words were cheap, the government in its wisdom decided to capitalize on them by establishing the Word Commission, which offered a new program whereby people who agreed to be fitted with a Word Meter could use more of them. Eventually, (like taxes) it became mandatory for everyone to wear a Word Meter. However, many problems arose from this new and unusual program.

Some people who talked incessantly claimed their meters were faulty. Still others claimed that friends or co-workers were stealing their words. This situation even caused problems between couples. While men wanted to save their words for important things, women used theirs primarily to woo a man into wedlock and then nag the hell out of him afterward. And to top it off, if a person swears, he or she will get a 10,000 word fine. What a conundrum!

To deal with the thousands of complaints, a panel of commissioners heard cases and decided if they were legitimate. The problem, however, is that Word Meters were considered infallible and only a select few were ever granted more words.

The main character in WordLotto is Tom Brennan, a hardworking but rather jaded young man who works for the Word Commission. He is the first person people come to with their complaints. As he puts it, it’s a rather thankless job, as he knows most cases will never win. Basically, he calls it “a sorry excuse for a job” but he’s thankful that at least he has one.

Tom has heard just about every excuse for using up words that one can imagine. From a man named Florez, a drunk who rants on incessantly and claims his dwindling word count is not his fault to Harold, whose wife claims he lost nearly all his words talking with relatives while arranging their daughter’s wedding.

So what are the consequences of running out of words? As Tom puts it, one might as well be a “dead man walking and ready to go up in flames at any time.” Yikes!

WordLotto is a most amusing tale that will leave you laughing over the hilarious situations Tom and the other characters find themselves in because of the Word Meter. Whoever thought this storyline up is, in my estimation, brilliant!

To read WordLotto go to New Fiction at: http://www.newfiction.com.

New Fiction is an on-line resource of the latest fiction. On the site, you will find such other iSoaps (stories) as Venus de Milo, Fat Cowboy, I Betcha, Senate Parking and Jake & The Jamokies, with Sable Tooth Tigers and El Mexican Lottery coming soon. When you join the site, you can read a new installment of your iSoap every 16 hours either on the site or downloaded to your computer, ipod or cell phone – truly the way of the future for books.

Those who love fiction should also know about the New Fiction blog called iSoup Dish where you can discuss your favorite fiction or critique an iSoap on New Fiction and meet other fiction lovers. You can even submit your own ideas for new iSoaps, completed fiction and artwork. If you’ve got a voice for storytelling, you can even submit a voice sample. Go to: http://blog.newfiction.com