Forum / "Search text of all stories" function OR finding stories

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    Andrew Stancek
    Mar 05, 03:37pm

    I am new, just finding my way around and apologize if this is not the right place to ask. (There is not a FAQ somewhere, is there? Or a primer to Fictionaut?)
    Three days ago when I joined, I read a story I loved. I did not note title or author. I have since retraced my steps in all ways, through People, Stories recommended, Stories new, everything I can think of, and cannot find the story. The function "search text of all stories" tells me that I crash the function no matter what word or words I put in. Is there a way of finding a story through key words in it?

    (And the particular story I am attempting to return to is a husband and wife dialogue, beginning with a dog being squeezed in a storm, the wife had an affair, tells the husband she is leaving, and for him to keep the dog, and it ends with him pulling out his Taser and thinking "You don't think I will let you get off that easily." Awful plot summary, terrific story. Ring a bell with anyone?

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    Ann Bogle
    Mar 05, 04:49pm

    Andrew, I'm not familiar with that story. But you might try searching a word set at google. "Type the search words in quotation marks" + Fictionaut. That may lead to it.

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Mar 05, 06:05pm

    Hi Andrew, there's an FAQ, but I don't think it'll answer your question: http://www.fictionaut.com/faq

    The search function could stand some improvement; in the meantime, Ann is right: googling with +fictionaut is usually a good way to find things. Good luck & let us know if you find the story!

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    Andrew Stancek
    Mar 05, 06:19pm

    I am going crazy. Thanks, Jurgen, for bothering with this. I tried googling but of course I am not sure of exact phrases and what I tried did not come up, either on F-Naut or even without. Maybe I imagined the story :-) I will have to write it. And then get the crap sued out of me.

    The search function has never once told me anything other that "you crashed the function", no matter what I put in, one word or many, common or uncommon. Just me???

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    David Ackley
    Mar 05, 06:42pm

    Now that you described it, I want to read this story too. Somebody find this story!

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    W.F. Lantry
    Mar 05, 07:10pm

    Here's the search string for google:

    taser site:fictionaut.com

    it returns: http://www.google.com/search?q=taser+site%3Afictionaut.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

    which leads to two stories:

    http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/sean-brown/the-companys-sprinkler-heads

    and

    http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/paul-madden/meet-cute

    Note that private stories, or stories posted only to groups, won't be returned, nor will some very recent stories.

    Hope this helps,

    Thanks,

    Bill

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    Andrew Stancek
    Mar 05, 07:37pm

    I think we need Sherlock Holmes. I appreciate the effort, Bill, and I hope you enjoyed it. Those two stories are not it.

    And of course it illustrates the basic principle they teach in library school: the difficulty of getting the patron to give you relevant info. The patron comes in and says I want a book the title and author of which I do not remember but it was set in Japan in World War Two, the hero's name is Alvin and the book is green. After enough questions, the librarian discovers that he is looking for the red copy of All Quiet on the Western Front, which meets none of the criteria he had given her.

    In our case, perhaps the hero did not bring out a Taser but a cattle prod??? I was fairly sure that the wife says to him early on, "It was an affair; I did not love him" but I tried that and variations in google and got too many irrelevant hits. And of course it could be that it is not on F-naut I read it. I think I did but... Yes, it was definitely online, and I thought here. The author no doubt will speak up soon. And then I will give it 50 Favs.

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    Ann Bogle
    Mar 05, 07:45pm

    A story I love -- that is reminding me of the mystery story is Bobbi Lurie's "Coming Back to Earth as a Dog":

    http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/bobbi-lurie/coming-back-to-earth-as-a-dog

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    Andrew Stancek
    Mar 06, 02:11am

    YES!

    DING! DING! DING!

    We have a winner!

    I was going through names and finally thought, "Len Kuntz". Looked through his writing (not on F-naut) and found the story.

    The link is here http://www.thiszine.org/fiction/acts-of-love-by-len-kuntz

    Great story. Thanks, Len!

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Mar 06, 05:34pm

    I love a happy ending.

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