Stories for Special Occasions

This section was started in December 2008. The stories here are by authors on this site or sometimes on other sites who have submitted their work here for the occasion. If a writer has a collection of tales here, their name links here. If elsewhere then elsewhere. Links within the site open in the same new window for each tale group. Links to other sites open a new window.

Christmas

Christmas Tales started as a special feature for Christmas 2008

2008

2010

2011

2012

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2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

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2021

2022

2023

St Valentine's Day

Stories for St Valentine's Day started as a special feature in 2018

Who Was St Valentine?

As with all saints it depends where you stand! Perhaps it's simplest just to think of him as a saint associated with love and lovers!

Of course, saints have very little meaning in reality. They are a superstition perpetrated upon the world by the Roman Catholic Church, and foisted on the faithful to make money.

It's nice to dream, though…

From Wikipedia:

Saint Valentine (Italian: San Valentino, Latin: Valentinus), officially Saint Valentine of Terni, is a widely recognized 3rd-century Roman saint commemorated on February 14 and since the High Middle Ages is associated with a tradition of courtly love.

A popularly ascribed hagiographical identity appears in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493). Alongside a woodcut portrait of Valentine, the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner. However, when Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor, he was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stones; when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.

There are many other legends behind Saint Valentine. One is that in the 3rd century AD it is said that Valentine, who was a priest, defied the order of the emperor Claudius and secretly married couples so that the husbands wouldn't have to go to war. The legend claims that soldiers were sparse at this time so this was a big inconvenience to the emperor. Another legend is that Valentine refused to sacrifice to pagan gods. Being imprisoned for this, Valentine gave his testimony in prison and through his prayers healed the jailer's daughter who was suffering from blindness. On the day of his execution he left her a note that was signed, "Your Valentine".

[Source: Saint Valentine. (2018, February 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:34, February 3, 2018, from Wikipedia]

You have to love words like hagiographical, don't you!

2018

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2024

Easter

2022

The Fourth of July!
Independence Day

2018

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2022

Halloween

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20th Anniversary of iomfats.org - 20 January 2017

We celebrate this milestone by drawing attention back to some old favourites, and also highlighting some specially written new material. The old favourites have been sourced, in part, from this forum thread. Not being entirely sure of the actual date, and the Site History being no huge help, we have settled on 20th January 1997 as the date of the site's first outing online, all those years ago on Geocities.

Old Favourites

The following tales have been selected and requested by our Forum readers. At first we thought of presenting them in ever changing random order, then we thought you might find that confusing. Then we remembered that links you are yet to visit are a different colour from links you have not yet visited. So the order will change randomly each time the page is refreshed.

Each tale opens in the same new tab or window, which will either make your life easier or confuse the bejasus out of you, probably in equal measure! These tales are just a sprinkle of what is here for you to read. Some are sexy as heck, others romantic and cute as a basket of kittens, one is a tough read, perhaps more than one.

Because new stories are devoured voraciously as soon as they come online the decision has been taken to highlight a few(!) tales from 2014 and beforehand. We are celebrating our back catalogue, and by no means all of it! There has been a conscious decision not to feature those tales from 2015 or 2016. We want you to see items selected by readers from our back catalogue.

There's a lot of reading in that list, and that's apart from the specially written new material. Bookmark this page and come back to it often! As you read and enjoy the tales compare them with tales of that era elsewhere. That's not entirely a fair comparison, because the selection criteria for being published here are tough to meet. Even so, the quality of authorship in even the oldest tale here is excellent.

The choice isn't just democratic. We haven't voted on it. It's not a beauty pageant, nor a popularity contest. There are tales that will be in your favourites list and the webmaster's favourites list that just are not here. And some of the tales listed will surprise you, in a 'why is this in the list?' way. The final choice does our best to 'represent' the site over the years. To those absent from the list it is not lack of merit. To those present, it is not that you have particular merit over the others. This is just a pride parade to represent the site. Thank you for being part of it.

New Material

We have two stories submitted specially for our 20th anniversary. Each is particularly appropriate. Geron Kees joined us in March 2016. He has penned a tale that he tells me embodies what he views as the spirit of the site. It is beguiling, and does. Rick Beck was the first internet author I ever wrote to and who replied to me, all those years ago. He has forgotten this, though remembers it when prodded, perhaps as a received memory. He has sent me a tale almost exactly 20 years old, gritty, and unvarnished, the start of a three book tale. We feature the first chapter on this page, and the tale continues through three books, all released as part of the 20th Anniversary Celebrations.

Both these new stories were posted on 20 January 2017, and each marks our 20th anniversary in a particular manner.