The Middle Distance

Ever since those (numerous) incidents, I'm paranoid about somebody commenting on one of my stories with an annoyed, "You were aware that sentences 3, 21 and 47, in the exact wording, were mine, weren't you?"

Me too. Oh, me too. It could definitely happen so easily - which is why I'm big on amnesty for the accidental/unconscious liftings and why they really don't deserve the hostility that deliberate, malicious stealing does. If people going on a feeding frenzy about it don't think it could ever happen to them, they're wrong.

Ahahah, that's a great story. I think the vicious human-killing aliens story is part of the human racial psychological makeup, actually. It's pretty universal in all its forms. Hee, when I was that age I wrote SF epics that were, of course, thinly-veiled Mary Sue-ridden Star Wars ripoffs, and when this similarity was gently pointed out to me, I would adamantly deny it. Thank all the gods that this was pre-Internet days.

Acutally, I think your flying-horses story at least wins some points for unusualness.