This is a tale from a recent encounter with our grandsons, Ethan (nearly 6) and Drew,
(newly 4).
I hope most parents and grandparents will recognise the atmosphere small children
create as they learn the ways of adults.
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This weird tale was spawned by a Writers’ Circus challenge.
One of us, who shall remain nameless, once told us she liked spooky, psychological
intrigues, even though they scare her.
Buckle in, this one is as strange as they come, at least from me.
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This is a piece for the Writers’ Circus on the theme, “Dinner”.
It is largely dialogue driven and I fear Jeanie Devine’s contributions may be hard for some to decipher.
Sorry.
Otherwise, be assured, it has a nice happy ending.
(Revised to tidy it up, January 2026)
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This is a lighthearted tale about an group of friends who are members of the Brillo Investment Club.
The piece was written in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge, “it’s only a suggestion”.
The Birllo Club is in the doldrums and Mrs Slyvi Newlands decides its time for a shake-up.
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This is a spoof piece which was written in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge on the theme ‘That’s not going to work,’ she said bossily.
It came in a rush, more or less writing itself.
No, I have no direct experience of Am Dram but I do enjoy watching.
Go on, dive into the world of the amateur actor.
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At our Writers’ Circus group we were given the topic for January 2019 of “a new beginning”.
As often happens, after a period of cogitation, with time pressing, I began to type with no clear idea of where I was heading.
This story came almost completely as a block of words, as if it had been lurking in my mind for years. And no, it is not autobiographical.
In its first version as submitted to the group, it was clunky and one-sided, written dispassionately, as if the narrator and observer were two different people. Then Kareth my inspirational, long-suffering editor and friend, encouraged me to ‘go for it!’, supplying insights and corrections from a female perspective.
I hope you will not find it too explicit.
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This is a story is a flight of fancy set around thirty years from now.
I thought I had posted it to www.thebuzzinbee.co.uk last December but when I checked, it was absent. Regular readers will recall the website suffered a major glitch when our web hosting service ‘disappeared’ overnight, lost without trace.
So, you may have read Festimas 2057 before but if you have, dive in, refresh your brain cell and enjoy the music references all over again.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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In the early part of 2018 the UK suffered an extended spell of sub-zero weather.
Glasgow and the West of Scotland had snowfalls of 4 feet. The blast from Siberia lasted for days on end.
Transport was disrupted offering our local train company Scotrail
Abelio a perfect additional excuse for late running, station skipping and
obfuscation.
This gives the backdrop for this candy floss piece.
Read on and believe!
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This is a tale based on fact from a long ago story.
It is set in Aberdeen at the height of the North Sea oil exploration boom in 1998.
Its memory was disinterred from my long-suffering memory cell when I was asked to set the
theme for our August story at Writers’ Circus.
I always have thousands of ideas for stories but caught unawares, I chose “Quandary”.
As frequently happens, I made several false starts on wildly different stories when this
one lit up and wrote itself, more or less.
My friends received it with modest enthusiasm and I edited to their comments.
I hope you enjoy it.
Mercifully short at around 4,500 words/ about 15 or so minutes to read.
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This is another tale about my father, usually called Jack or sometimes Jock.
It came from my Dad and recounts an incident which happened in retirement when Mum and Dad lived at Dewshill Cottages beside the busy M8 motorway in the shadow of the Kirk o Shotts TV and Radio transmitter.
I have enjoyed telling this story down through the years because it captures the essence of Dad.
After a recent re-telling I was urged by my son Craig to write it down.
If you enjoy this one, try Early One Morning, a story from his time working at Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Kids.
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