Got Nothing

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So since I came back from the USA at the end of October 2014, I have published a story or poem on this blog every single work day (Monday to Friday including Bank Holidays). But today, I’m breaking that run. Today I have nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. Today I have a confession and an apology. You see I know I've claimed to be the author of nearly eight hundred stories over the last three and a half years, but actually, I may have been misleading you a little, or quite a lot.
It all started back in September 2013, I was in IKEA and I rubbed a table lamp. Out popped a genie who granted me one wish.

“Not three wishes?” I said,

“It’s IKEA mate,” He replied. I understood, cheap furniture cheap genies.

I said I would like to be able to write a story a day and the genie waved his magic wand and produced a Biblio 3000 called Steve. What Cliff Richard would call a walking, talking, living Droid. It's only a little thing, it looks a bit like that orange Star Wars droid, and it’s a little bit cheeky as well. But its special power is the ability to tell stories. All it needed everyday was a few simple prompts and within minutes a story would appear. It could anything, detective stories, gangster stories, love stories, a bit of sex (when he'd give me a red warning), and a bit of humour. Every now and again it would go off on a bit of a rant, getting upset about minor things like too much choice in cafes.It could even do post-modern crap.

I was in a dilemma. I wondered if I should pass the stories off as my own. It felt a bit wrong.  But then again I wasn't hurting anyone and I never dreamt that I would build up a readership as big as mine, so I thought, what the hell? The only thing My droid couldn't do was punctuate or spell, but then again, nor can I. So it made it all the more believable that the stories were mine.
Anyway today Steve was looking a bit poorly, a little run down. His voice was slurred, like a record on the wrong speed. I fed in the prompts but nothing came out. Nothing, zilch nic, nada. I was storyless. Poemless. I tried to write something. Look
“Once upon a time there was a small girl who lived in a big castle who had a cat.”

It just didn't work.
So I decided to come clean, after all recently, as the readership got into double figures and then peaked at 12, I was beginning to feel guilty about misleading the minority.
So I apologies to all of those who have thought these stories were mine and you'll all be pleased to know, Steve just needed a new battery. He'll be fully charged tomorrow and normal service will be resumed.