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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This is a story written in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge: “She’s not like that.”
It is a rather dark story about a famous person who ends her days in a nursing home.
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