This tale was written in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge: Where were you then?

It is set in the 1960s when Susan first meets Ralph.

This is a further revised version of the original Trumped story.

(The original was crafted long before we have been plagued by the man who has dominated the headlines over the last decade.)

It is a romance, set in Glasgow of the late 1950s.

Louisa at our Writers’ Circus set us the challenge of “Betrayal”.

The idea of setting this story against a background of Greyhound Racing came at once. My Dad was an occasional weekend gambler, not addicted, but he did enjoy Friday nights at Shawfield Stadium, which still exists as a Greyhound Racing venue.

The ambiance I am trying for is post-war Glasgow, seeking to contrast the gulf between the lives of the rich (living in the grand mansions of Pollokshields) and the poor (living in the Oatlands district, where my Dad was born).

I have re-formatted it and re-edited the original using Read Aloud in Word. If you a typo or logic error, please forgive, make your best judgement and read on.

Thank you Kareth for editing the original version all those years ago.

This story was written for Writers’ Circus in response to the topic ‘St Valentine’s Day’.

The main protagonist is a single woman called Jean, a career-minded Chartered Accountant who set her sights on becoming a Partner in Ernst & Young.

Although not miserly, Jean is careful with money, risk-averse.

As she approaches retirement, Jean has a nice house, adequate savings and a good occupational pension to draw on.

But then her health fails.

This not a rags to riches story but their are elements of this notion in this tale.

Jean’s birthday is 14th Fenruary and she has adopted # 142 as her lucky number for raffles.

Jean has a clever nephew, her godson Trevor whom she adopts when her sister dies.

You have around 4,500 words to entertain you.

I invite you to download the PDF and ‘Read On’.

(The final version was self-edited using Read Aloud in Word so please forgive any typos and missing words etc and make your best guess to allow the story to flow.)

In the autumn of 2012 we visited Soglio to meet up with our Swiss friends Stef and Pia Hagmann.

We stayed at a wonderful family run hotel. Those of you who have been to Switzerland may agree ‘everything there is perfect: scenery, people, food, trains, buses, shops, restaurants - just everything’.

One day during our stay, the peace of the Soglio valley was disturbed by a rescue helicopter. It circled for hours on end. We were advised people had been trapped on the high tops by a landslip.

In a nearby village, we visited a Museum which contained a prison. There was a reference to a Witch Trial.

These two elements provided the core for the story. It is set in the early 1800s. It involves a girl called Hannah Sugli who lives on an isolated farm above the village of Soglio and a man called Edward MacLennan, a Geologist from Glasgow University who makes a series of summer visits reseaching landsides. There is an odd boy called Ivan who is unable to speak. Ivan is clever and has a key role to play as the drama unfolds.

This is a work of fiction. In its first incarnation it was almost completed in 2014 then became in enmeshed in an editing backlog.

Over the last months of 2024 I revisited the 2014 version and that is what you read here.

I would classify this piece as historical, romantic fiction. It is a novella comprising 64,000 words.

This version has been self-edited using the “Read Aloud” feature in Microsoft Word.

Please be forgiving: if you find errors, misspellings, missing words etc, please make your own best judgement about what the story intends and read on.

(Tragically, in August 2017 there was a major landslide near Bondo, a few miles from Soglio, resulting in many deaths. The landslide travelled over 6.5 km.) Here is a YouTube link.

https://youtu.be/ACTfEspuZYc?si=631V0CdreRQg3Qba

Note: The format of the PDF now includes a Table of Contents which allows readers to navigate directly to Chapters.

My grateful thanks to Micael Mackenzie who created my website. He did this for me and hopefully, if I can master the how to do this and be able to amend other longer stories to include this feature.

This is a ‘future fiction’ story which I started around four years ago when my eldest grandson was about eleven.

There was a stage when Matthew used to make excellent sketches of spaceships, rockets, robots and ailiens, all full of fine detail.

I had hoped we might develop Trevvid’s story together and in doing so Matthew might illustrate it.

Like his father, Matthew has a talent for artwork. Maybe one day he will?

This tale is about three young people who use their friendship and special powers to resist the evil forces of Juuster, the demonic leader of the Kembelatti.

You will encounter lots of strange words and odd spellings. To help, there is a Glossary but I think you will soon get the gist of what is meant by these words.

do give it a go, please.

There are lots of little twists and turns which I hope make this tale readable and enjoyable.

And yes, this one has a happy ending!

Note: I have addded a Contents list which allows readers to navigate to each chapter.