Scotfree2 Tales From Scotland Read online

SCOTFREE2

  GORDON M BURNS

  ?April 2016

  Pictish Tower, Abernethy, Scotland

  SCOTFREE2

  GORDON M BURNS

  Dear reader, thank you for downloading Scotfree2. Perhaps you were one of the many who downloaded Scotfree and which case, welcome back. Like Scotfree, this wee book of short stories is inspired by Scotland and the lives of its folk which means, universal themes albeit imbued by half a year of half darkness, half of all-day light, nine months of winter and three months that, once in a decade, might be termed a summer. It is what comes of living at the same latitude as the Hudson Bay and Moscow at the tip of a small island. When writing this forward it was March the thirty-first, Spring, and from a clear blue sky, rain fell. The next day it rained, no fooling, and incase it went unnoticed, decided to resemble sleet with a driving wind flinging it into your face.

  Scotfree and Scotfree2 are intended as free introduction to my writing - a brief guide later - and all part of a low-cost, worldwide campaign to promote my novels by using short story freebees. Perhaps not too wise a decision because short stories once had more standing than they do now. The novel, along with the multi-series, reigns today because nothing is worth reading if it is not as thick as a brick, for how's that going to exercise your arm let alone your mind or leave you wondering why you bothered at the end? Yes, the place of the short story is a bit cloudy today, the reason to write one somewhat foggier. Writers' groups, as I have found, still value them so long as the stipulation in regards to number of words constituting a short story is adhered to, along with New Times Roman, no indented first paragraph or the editor will stop right there and read no further. Remember to keep the story linear with no more than three characters and absolutely no temporal shifting about with the reader conception of how a story should tick. Also, a jokey narrative in a straightforward structure with a feel good factor kicked into the last line is much appreciated and so, with that in mind, read on and find out how much of that went right over my head.

  Like a daily sketchpad, I use the short story format as a way of sketching out characters, themes and plots for possible use in my novels. From Scotfree, the story Childhood Petrichor, initially written for a local competition in which it gained second place (but I suspect there were only two entries) gave rise to the novel Waitress - more on that book later. The short story with a long title, Reading Couplets of Iambic Pentameter, has provided an outline of the characters and themes for my present working project, a novel entitled All in a Minute Seen - a bit of a nasty going-ons in St Andrews. Some stories evolve from a desire to match the monthly theme of a Perthshire's Writers Club evening where, limited to seven hundred and fifty words, truncated tales trundle out as an exercise. An example is One Amongst Us. A reader having read Scotfree will find the story has a striking resemblance to Nick-Nacks on the Washing line. The latter tale, written for a club night, fitted into the required word count but required development beyond the word limit. This I did it for the club's annual show event, A Pocketful of Perthshire, only to have it knocked back as being too long and lacking in feel-good factor for a family event and so, that red-facer gave rise to the story included in this book, Fran Delanzo's Model. Some stories I write for fun, as was The Striker.

  All that, dear reader, is as maybe but you are meant to enjoy the tales I write and through them reflect upon the nature of humanity; themes developed in my novels. Covering various genres, these novels reflect modern dilemmas in relation to mores set by societal pressures, religion and sexuality no matter what the time and setting. If Historical settings interest you, dip into the series The Torc. Set in the Pictish Dark Ages, the story follows the life of Arianwyn and her struggles through a misogynistic world to prove her worth. For a novel set in modern times The Calgarian Reel is a love story set in Orkney and Calgary. In the tale, the male character had the odd notion of writing a novel to impress the woman he loves who never rated him in their youthful Orcadian days. Unfortunately, this backfires on him for the novel (Stoneset Odds), written in a flush of passion, does not on seem to bear resemblance to the way things were back in Orkney and much about the writing is suspect as English was never his forte. If you like Crime and Passion set in Edwardian times, read Ossian then visit Pitlochry and follow in their footsteps. Written for the young adult reader and adults alike, Pilgrimers, is a Sci-Fi tale set at the end of the universe in which the main protagonists, reincarnated time travellers from The Torc, take on malevolence intent to destroy humanity's hope. All good adventure, enjoyable to write and, if I say it myself, to read, an an opinion not likely to alter unless you tell me why - gordonmburns.com - will show how you can. My personal favourite novel is Waitress. Set in the Highlands in a Victorian Spa Town, Lucy is a single mother, struggling to cope in Scotland today. Falling through her own form of looking glass, the oddball characters and surrealistic settings she encounters present more challenges beyond the hopelessness of life on a sink estate somewhere near Inverness. Keep in mind that the novel has some experimental gimmickry stuff involving emoticons to help with time-place shifts that, on post-publication reflection might not be required, and you should enjoy the fantasy nature of the tale. Alternatively, you might suggest becoming my editor and wouldn't that be nice?

  Enough, just you enjoy Scotfree2.