This is a tale about a an ordinary man who buys a boat.
The boat is odd and holds secrets which make it the target for others, who want to take it from him.
It is set mainly on the West Coast of Scotland and the Irish Sea, centred on Ardrossan, Largs and Ayr.
Give it a try, why don’t you?
Click here to download the PDF.
This story was scribed while in Gran Canaria, while people-watching, in a local restaurant.
Beside us at the next table, a lovely American couple ordered a bottle of expensive wine. (You can read about this in the final few paragraphs.)
The chap looked to me as if he was an ‘academic’.
He and his lady companion, both in their fifties, were ‘too friendly and polite to each other’ to be married, was my take.
I was intrigued.
Read on....
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This story was written in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge on the topic of ‘dreaming’.
It was largely tapped out on my iPad while we were on holiday at Siverdyke Caravan Park at Cellardyke, one of a string of coastal villages which form the East Nuke of Fife and a short walk from the village of Kilrenny which features in the story.
Kilrenny (with nearby Anstruther and Cellardyke) is ‘twinned’ with Bapaume, a small industrial town in North-East France.
The story is about a spinster lady who lives in Kilrenny. She is down on her luck but still struggling to keep up appearances.
Read on.
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This is a story about two young people who become close friends at university.
Then, after a long separation, they meet again.
It is set in Glasgow and the Isle of Barra.
The tale was sparked by a Writers’ Circus topic: “Harvest”.
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This is a tale about two people who meet under unusual circumstances. Both of them are slightly odd, off beat.
The setting is a fictitious island in the Outer Hebrides.
It was started several years ago, sparked by a topic from the Writers’ Circus entitled “familiar”.
I like to think of it as a modern-day Peoples’ Friend story, the sort of story my Mum would have enjoyed.
Special thanks are due to my friend Kareth Paterson who spent many long hours editing this tale, contributing corrections and suggesting ideas which shaped the final outcome.
Click here to download the PDF.
This tale was written in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge, issued in April for May 2021 submission, just as we were being encouraged to ease ourselves out of our current LOCKDOWN.
It is a simple tale, whimsical, which seems to be one of my traits at present.
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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.
Click here to download the PDF.
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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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.
Click here to download the PDF.
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.
Click here to download the PDF.