This is an account of our trip to Tenerife in January 2016.
It is an almost factual first person tale, sprinkled with Muse dust.
Come away with us to the sun. . .
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This is a tale which has its origins in my childhood.
There is a little vernacular language, used only in context.
It arose from a challenge which I set for the Writers’ Circus.
I am pleased to advise that most people of a certain age (mine!) seem to enjoy it.
Nostalgia lives on in our hearts and minds.
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This tale is 98% true.
We boarded a bus heading for Glasgow. . .
This piece contains ‘vernacular’ language, as was used by some of our fellow travelers.
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This short tale arose from our Christmas challenge at Writers’ Circus:
Use no more than 500 words, use only 5 adjectives and only 2 adverbs.
For a writer of verbose prose, this was a challenge indeed.
When read by Margaret, my First Reader, my initial versions were scattered with adjectives to which I was completely word blind.
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This is a tale written for a Writers’ Circus challenge - “Who was she?”
My first attempt was full of holes, and my ‘she’ would have certainly been nabbed.
With this version, perhaps she still has a chance of evasion?
I did experiment with an expanded version but I like ‘the bits left out’ in this one.
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This is a short story written for an assignment for Creative Writing.
The brief was Sibling Rivalry, with a word limit of 1500.
This version is amended, based on comments from our tutor, David Pettigrew.
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This piece was written for a Writers’ Circus challenge, “Write about the ‘senses’.”
There was a second imperative.
Some of us in the Writers’ Circus are keen on short story competitions. I am not, but I was persuaded to stick to a discipline of 1,000 words and send this tale with my £5 entry fee.
Sadly it did not even make the long list. It is a bit off beat, I do admit.
This is more of a story for a winter’s morning. Given our summer in Scotland this year, it may suit over morning coffee.
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This is a longer short story which arose from a Writers’ Circus challenge.
The topic/title/theme was “High Water Mark”. On this occasion the topic was set by me.
This work has been edited by my friend Kareth Patterson from Writers’ Circus. She is a multi-talented person, very special. (She would immediately edit out the word “very”!!!)
On reading it she said it reminded her of the novelist Alistair MacLean- high praise indeed.
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This is a little tale generated to answer the question set at our Writers’ Circus group, “Why does this/it always happen to me?”
I hope it will feel almost real to denizens of Glasgow.
For others from further afield you may have to interpolate/guess to understand the dialogue.
“Clatty Pats” (Cleopatra’s) is a nightclub which features in Glasgow’s very busy night-life. A few years ago I read that on an average weekend there can be over 300,000 revelers in Glasgow city centre.
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This is a boy meets girl tale set in 1962/63 at the start of the Swinging Sixties.
The main action takes place in Benidorm, the new Costa Clyde of its day.
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