Week 72 – Transition

This week I mentioned to my twenty-two year old gaffer something about Irvine Welsh’s book ‘Trainspotting’. She hadn’t a Scooby. I thought about it and realised that I wasn’t mentioning something ‘Hip and Happening’. There was no ‘Respect’ or ‘Bringing It On’. The only thing that was there, was me, an old git mentioning a book that I thought was ‘Street’ and bang up to date, when the actual fact was that it’s twenty-three years old! This got me thinking on the books that I have read, when I read them and the difference between them and short stories.

I have always read books. I started off as a kid, reading kids books as you do but I don’t think in those days there was the transition (…or abomination) from kids books to adult with the buffer of Young Adult. Maybe that was where ‘Buffy’ got her name from. ‘Buffy’, the beginning of the end and the start of endless angst ridden teenagers becoming Vampires / Werewolves or their usual Zombie self. I have to admit, I don’t even know if the young Vampire slayer started out life as a book and frankly I don’t give a damn, just like big Clark Gable’s ‘Rhett Butler’. Now that was a book I have never read and I hope it was better than the film! I have only ever managed to get through five minutes of ‘Gone With The Wind’ before I wanted to kill myself. Anyway, Young Adult is the word equivalent of alcopops. It is the horrific sugary transition that allows you to go from Enid Blyton to Shaun Hutson! I hated being a kid and was really happy to take on the bitterness of adulthood. A trait that has stayed with me.

My first ‘real’ book was chosen by my sister when I was thirteen. She was working, selling men’s Y-Fronts and I asked her if she would buy me a book on the way home. She did and I have no idea why she chose it but she bought me James Herbert’s ‘The Fog’. I loved it. Especially, I think, page sixty four. But that is the topic for another post or maybe confession. This wonderful novel spoiled subsequent books for me. The story started very quickly, and I expected all books to be like this. To this day, I am still a fan of his work and was gutted when he died. So to my thoughts this week. I just wonder if all our preferred genres while writing or reading has to do with what we were reading when we lost our literary cherry to a real book? All I am asking for you to think on is, was your first books genre, now your chosen reading material?

That brings us to shorts and I think that they are different. No matter what the topic, they are easy to read and it gives you a taste of subjects that you normally wouldn’t consider. I will admit, the thought of reading a Romance Novel would have me gouging out my eyes but I can read a Romantic Short with no self mutilation, only a few mutterings of profanity. I am so grateful for working on this site as I would have stuck with my novel preference of horror and thriller and would never have experienced the other genres. Short stories can be a transition too!

To this weeks batch of delights. Surely you all could find something to enjoy? We had everything from hope being bombed out by reality. A friendship that brought about creativity. A story about a bad day, the questionable partners of friends and end of life choices!

As always, there is a selection of our initial comments.

On Monday we were honoured. The very talented, hard working and lovely Diane Dickson sent us in her first story for a while, the poignant ‘He Believed He Would Win‘. There isn’t much point in me telling Diane what we said, she knows. But what I would like to pass onto all our readers, this was a piece of off the cuff writing. Diane demonstrated how to carry an idea throughout a story, build it up and then hit us with reality.

 

Tom Sheehan has continued to send us in top notch work. On Tuesday we were treated to ‘The Tale Of Trot And Dim Johnny‘.

‘Enjoyable, touching and magical.’

‘I was totally enthralled.’

‘Tom is a quality writer and I am happy he found us.’

 

Wednesday was still in the middle of the week and another stalwart, Adam Kluger gave us his bitter tale ‘Good Morning Mr Schmertz‘

‘This is like any bottle of booze I have ever drunk, I wanted more’

‘I loved Mr Schmertz’

‘Absolutely spot on in terms of his embittered MC’

 

A new writer to the site was up on Thursday. We welcome Nathan Driscoll with his wonderfully titled, ‘Don’t Pass The Onions‘.

‘It’s got some style to it.’

‘Fun, clever and witty.’

‘Very real and human.’

 

And as always we have Friday at the end of the week. An old friend and a very active supporter of the site, Mr James McEwan sent us in ‘Falling Stars‘

‘I just love the spacecraft’

‘There are moments in this where it flows beautifully’

‘The ending being a beginning is a comforting thought’

 

Thanks to all this weeks authors.

 

So folks until we transit into next week, tomorrow is just another day! (!*%!!** film!)

Hugh

 

Header image: By TJBlackwell at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9907644