Short Fiction

Literally Reruns – Saint Frances Everlasting by Leila Allison.

literallystories2014

Our lovely editor Leila has worked incredibly hard at Reruns ever since we introduced the feature. In all that time she has chosen dozens of stories, written the blurb for them and produced interesting and amusing questions. I reckon it is Leila’s turn. Her cannon on the site is huge, and it’s impossible to pick one out as ‘better’ than the rest because they are all excellent. There is a vast range of genre and every one has something unique so this was not an easy task. The stories also come in little groups, each one a comment on a relationship, a gang or group of characters, fictionally fictional or just fictional 😊 (with a nod to Daisy Cloverleaf). As I was trying to choose one, I opened dozens, so I think my best advice would be for anyone reading this to just go to Leila’s pages and stroll through the treasures.

For now though, because there can be only one I give you:

Saint Frances Everlasting by Leila Allison.

Traditionally, I now get to ask a couple of questions, so –

Q1  Your work comes in what I can only describe as ‘batches’ We had the sister to sister with The Dreampurple Light and the tragic ending to all of that. We had the mother and daughter stories, the wonderful old ladies who ‘brought’ a match, the assorted ghosts and spirits and, of course, the vast cast of characters that are The Union of Pennames, Imaginary Friends and Fictional Characters. Do you move from one to the other and leave the former behind or do you leap frog among the genres and worlds.

Q2. Have you written stories since you were at school or have you come to fiction writing more lately, and if so were you carrying these wonderful tales around in your head all this time?

***

A-1: The real people in my stories are based on persons and situations I’ve known. The fantasy element stems from my being an extremely introverted child who retreated to her dream world and is probably fortunate not to have been shipped out to the places that used to house such persons. The way I see it, no life is really a novel, but is a series of vignettes in which characters either grow and change or just follow the same old same old no matter what changes they meet.

Still, even the “realm” stuff was never planned to expand, but it just did in a natural sort of way. If I like the people and places I stick with them and will go back even after years have passed. But it can never be planned.

A-2: My writing as a child involved incessant drawing pictures and writing songs. No surface that could take a pen was safe–paper bags, the covers of tablets, even my report cards were not safe. I would have probably gotten into writing stories earlier than I did (in my twenties) if I hadn’t gone crazy for music and spent ages thirteen to twenty-something heavily involved in trying to make a go of it. 

I’d always thought that writing stuff came easy to everyone, but I discovered that isn’t so. And I also believed that everyone had a wild imaginary world and was stunned to learn that too many otherwise intelligent people have imaginations similar to that displayed by doorknobs. 

Some of the stuff I’ve written has always been with me, like a loose version of my “realm” and contrary little persons like Daisy–who all share a feline attitude that I most vigorously adore and do my best to put a light on.

Thank you again for the rerun–the place in the story once existed, but now only in memory.

Leila

Saint Frances Everlasting

Unknown's avatar

Published by literallystories2014

15 thoughts on “Literally Reruns – Saint Frances Everlasting by Leila Allison.”

  4. Hi Diane,
    Excellent questions! And the story choice was easy – As you hit on, all of them shine!!
    Leila, I have ran out of words regarding that writing brain of yours.
    It’s an interesting thought on what is easy and that we expect others to be the same. I’ll need to think on that! It’s a bit difficult as nothing has ever came easy to me, except the eternal thirst!
    Talking about that, I did like the idea of a ‘Drunk Bump’. The pub in Ayr called ‘The Anchor’ has the same but different. It isn’t a step or an uneven floor, it is a very low door to the mens toilet. If you were anything over 5′ 11” you had to duck. You could tell how pished guys were when they came out and didn’t notice the blood dripping from their forehead!!
    It’s great to see you here today. I can only echo what Diane has said about your body of work within this feature. I like to think that you intimidated the non-participators!!
    Hugh

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hello Hugh

      Indeed, taverns that were built to fit the space have interesting little hitches you had best remember. There’s another one I know that has a very slight incline between the main barroom and the poolroom. Though only a few degrees, it has a way of reaching up and yanking you down if you forget to adjust to it. Yet another had an outhouse–fully functional–yet you had to go out the back door to a separate building where the toilets were. Ah, I miss my dives that had fake knotty pine walls and orange shag carpets!
      Thank you!
      Leila

      Like

      Reply

  5. These Literally Re-runs are great for readers like me who came late to LS. Great scene-setting (I know a similar beer garden) and characters. Also really like the answers – Life as a series of vignettes, rather than a novel.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Mick
      It was (sadly past tense) a great dive. A lack of windows gave a sense of being underwater. And there was an ancient beach umbrella stuck through one of the spool “tables” in the garden whose mould changed colors with the seasons.
      Leila

      Like

      Reply

      1. Hi Leila,
        Years back, there was a pub in Blackburn, (Around twenty miles from Edinburgh) where they were notorious for cracked glasses. If you mentioned this, the barman would say, ‘Fuck off until a bit falls into your glass and then tell me cause I’ll charge you for breaking the fucking glass.’
        Customer service isn’t what it was!!
        Hugh

        Like

      2. Ha!
        I recall a bar in which the day side bartender washed glasses and ashtrays in the same small double bar sink, never changing the water in either side. One dunk wash, the other dunk “sanitizer.” You could still see finger prints when the sun hit the “clean” glasses. I loved the place, but I ordered bottles only.
        Leila

        Like

  6. Many, many thanks to Leila for all she does for LS. Her contributions are evident from this side of the curtain and, I’m sure, an order of magnitude greater behind the scenes. Interesting Q &A. And one last thing : Brilliant story!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. True,
      But Roaches were a much bigger problem there. At least they were more abundant. Then again they didn’t infiltrate until the smoking ban in ’05. I guess even a Cockroach can have standards

      Leila

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment