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.)
Click here to download the PDF.
This tale, entirely fictional, is based on a chance meeting with a very chatty lady as we travelled on the link bus from Edinburgh Airport to the city centre. I had been in London the previous day and was heading for our Edinburgh office.
She was from Northern Ireland, born and bred. During the years her daughter had studied at Edinburgh University, my link bus companion had grown fond of the city. When her husband sold their business he took up golf as his new passion, making her a golfing widow.
It was a siutuation she decided to use to her advantage and, to fill her free time, she started taking the short and inexpensive flight from Belfast to Edinburgh, often just for the day, sometimes for several if he was away on a longer golf trip.
These were her secret ‘Blue Moon Days’, she said, visits her husband and family knew nothing about.
Note: I have added a Contents list which enable readers to navigate directly to each chapter by CLICK ing on the heading in this list.
Click here to download the PDF.
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.
Click here to download the PDF.
I should offer a warning.
This is about teenage sex in the modern era.
Rather graphic and totally immoral.
It was an ‘extra’ story for our Writers’ Circus group sparked by the topic “a bare tree”.
I had to work out where to get that reference into the story.
Self-edited using Read Aloud in Word.
Click here to download the PDF.
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.
Click here to download the PDF.
This is another tale concocted while tapping on my iPad on the veranda during our recent sun seeker holiday in Puerto Pollensa, Mallorca.
In the past we have called this island Majorca but Mallorca seems to be preferred nowadays.
It is a tale which begins in Largo in the East Nuke of Fife, moves to Mallorca then to Tenerife and finally to Gran Canaria.
It is a mystery/thriller/romance.
You may at first think it ‘unlikely’ but perhaps it could be true.
Self-edited using Read Aloud in Word so please forgive typos and use you best judgement.
Click here to download the PDF.
This story crept into my mind while I was thinking about two friends who have had recent spells in hospital.
Apart from a two day spell in the Victoria Infirmary as a three-year-old to have my tonsils removed, I have been fortunate never to need hospitalisation. Long may this situation continue!
This short piece is purely from imagination.
Make a coffee and have a delve.
(This was previously called Pastures New.)
Click here to download the PDF.
This story was written in response to a Writers’ Circus challenge to create a story inspired by a song or piece of music.
The story started with me listening again to Paslm 23, The Lord’s my Shepherd, sung to the tune Crimond by the long defunct Glasgo Orpheus Choir under the direction of Sir Hugh Roberton. This choir’s SABT rendering is in a distictive Kelvinside accent and has long been a favourite of ours.
It stirs me, often to the edge of tears.
Here is the hyperlink:
https://youtu.be/7BciFYFtmbY?si=oLWu9LnpwSEUgqgA
We have just returned from a short stay at Siverdyke Caravan park, Anstruther where the the first version of this tale was tapped out on my iPad, becoming one of a small batch of stories created by a similar process.
Without further ado, I invite you to read on.
Click here to download the PDF.
This tale arose from a Writers’ Circus challenge ---- “Autumn Leaves”.
In the years before the wide-spread use of contraceptives and vascetomies, infidelity leading to children born out of wedlock and ‘accepted’ by the marriage partner were much more common occurences than in modern times.
Or are they?
Click here to download the PDF.
This story has its origins from a ‘sighting’ on a train journey to Oxford, long before Covid.
Our train was diverted to Banbury and a lady joined us at a four-seater table.
She was wearing and unusual brooch.
At Banbury, we changed to a bus which took us on to Oxford. They lady went her way and we went ours.
The story began in my head and then I started to tap it out on my iPad and, as happens from time to time, it was ‘lost’ among other snippets to be completed.
Well, here it is at last, perhaps eight years later?
It opens in Harrogate then tracks the life of a girl from Glasgow to Leeds.
To discover more, you must read on. . ..
00000
This story has been self-edited using ‘Read Aloud’ in Word.
Since there are around 40,000 words there must be errors and if you find one, please make your best judgement and read on.
Thanks.
Note: I have added a Contents listing which enables readers to move directly to a Chapter heading with a single CLICK.
Click here to download the PDF.