It has been a strange week for me this week folks. I met a guy I went through secondary school with. I reckon I hadn’t seen him for around thirty years. I was very surprised when he asked about my writing. He had seen an article regarding the anthology over a year ago and had remembered. It was nice to be asked. Not many people ask, but to be truthful, not many people know or realise what this all means to me.
I mentioned last week about me writing poetry and I’ll admit, I am the most un-poetic person ever! I’m even surprised that I do it! I have always kept all my writing a bit hidden. I am not as guarded now as I once was and if anyone asks what I do in my spare time, I champion this site and all our stories.
I am pretty crap at self promotion and will never push a ‘Did you read it?’ but I will now say that it is there and I have an involvement. I must admit, I honestly don’t know any family or friends who have read much of my work. (That is not including Gwen as she is my go to just to make sure I haven’t pushed some things too far. If I can shock her then I know that I may have to consider my work as she has built up a tolerance of my subject matter over all these years – She has bombed out my ‘Jesus – The Masturbatory Years’, ‘John Holmes Pulped Friction’, ‘Jimmy The Orphan That No-One Wanted And Laughed About’ and my childrens illustrated, ‘Mangled – The Regurgitated Penguin.’ It was a pop-throw-up book)
This makes me think about all of us. I have mentioned many times that there are some of our authors, who, in my opinion should be out there, published, successful and known. I just wonder how many have the same lack of self promotion. But when I think on it, self promotion isn’t all to do with a skill, it is to do with the type of person you are. Talent with no ‘get it out there’ unfortunately seems to be up against no talent with excessive ‘get it out there’. And when you look at some of the books, especially biographies that have been published this becomes more apparent.
Crappy link warning!!! But now onto some stories that truly deserve to be out there, (I warned you!) this weeks stories.
We had one new author and the rest are returning and talented friends. Topics include, cultural diversity, memories, a last wish, desperation and a loss. As always our initial comments follow.
It is a pleasure to have another of Matthew Richardson‘s stories on site. He was first up on Monday with ‘Watan‘
‘This was a multi-layered piece indeed.’
‘I was hooked.’
‘The voice throughout was brilliant.’
On Tuesday we had our new writer of the week and we welcome Mitchell Waldman to our growing group. ‘Another Summer Day‘ was his first (…and hopefully not last) story for us.
‘A strong passionate story.’
‘I was taken in with this and followed along his thoughts and despair.’
‘Very well done.’
The continued brilliance of Tom Sheehan was published on Wednesday with his short, ‘The Hermit Of Breakheart Woods.’
‘This was a lovely, clever and poignant story.’
‘The ending was brilliant.’
‘Tom is excellent at hinting, moving you along, then bringing you back to consider the initial hint.’
Now what is there to say about Thursday’s author? We are so happy to see him back, it has been far too long. Mr Tobias Haglund, we know has been busy over the last few months and we accept that. But when we do read a new story from him, we sort of wish that he hadn’t been so busy!!
The man from Sweden had his short, ‘All Saints Day‘ next up.
‘A subtle and moving piece that is a worthy addition to the site.’
‘Angst ridden, romantic and tragic.’
‘I loved the emotion in this story.’
That brought us to Friday and a story from another excellent writer. James Hanna finished off our week with ‘Breaking Vials.’
‘The tragedy of the addicts was superbly understated.’
‘This was incredibly sad, I had tears in my eyes.’
‘Strong, meaningful and unfortunately, very realistic.’
So that’s this week’s summary of stories done and dusted.
It is getting to that time of the year when Santa is coming soon, Mrs Claus is suitably disappointed and all in the world emphasises opposite circumstance.
Christmas and New Year can be wonderful for some but not so much for others. We just need to think on those who are less fortunate as we gorge ourselves and open up many presents. I was going to write this post on irony but may need some ‘Bah-Humbug’ for next week!
Talking about that, we will have our Christmas message type posting and I am sure the other authors will have a wee bit of input.
Just before I round-up the round-up, please remember that our last story of the year will be published on Friday 23rd December. Post 105 will be on Christmas Eve and our first story of the New Year will be up on the 9th January 2017.
But don’t let up, keep sending in your stories as we will still be deciding and setting up for the following weeks!
Hugh
literally stories 
I made a great technological discovery this week: the hard drive in a computer can become loose if you beat on the goddam thing often enough. Not so coincidentally, I am back in cyberspace, where I like to go when the maddening crush of the world causes me to retreat from humanity. And what better place to go for a bit of solitude than an LS comment box during Christmas.
I just want to thank you for doing the heavy lifting every week. As my grandfather used to say about the result of work: “sometimes you get chicken, other times you get feathers.”
Merry Xmas to all from the employees here at Scrooge and Marley,
L.A.
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Hi Leila,
I have been catching up on my commenting over the past few days between work and being jealous of those who are off.
As always it is a pleasure to read your musings. Regarding beating up technology, I can truly relate to that. I have always wanted to be in an income bracket that would allow me to do an Elvis and shoot TVs and computers when they annoyed me.
Take care, thanks and have a cracking New Year.
Hugh
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