On April 29th the North Bristol Writers will gather in the Central Library to share their tales. Come along to meet them for an evening of fun, stories and drinks.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1078696078814050/
NorthBristolWriting
Monday, 13 April 2015
Wednesday, 18 March 2015
North by Southwest is published
An anthology of 15 stories written by members of the North Bristol Writers Group. North by Southwest showcases a range of styles and genres by the talented authors in this thriving group.
http://www.tangentbooks.co.uk/products/North-By-Southwest-by-North-Bristol-Writers.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/North-Southwest-Anthology-Bristol-Writers/dp/1910089117
ebook from Amazon worldwide
& We will be launching it at Forbidden Planet
https://forbiddenplanet.com/events/2015/03/28/north-southwest-launching-forbidden-planet/
Thursday, 30 October 2014
North Bristol Writing Group are happy to announce that they have created an anthology and a crowdfunding campaign to get it published:
https://www.fundsurfer.com/project/north-by-southwest-anthology
Please also go to the Facebook Page & Like it & to the Fundsurfer page and pledge!
https://www.facebook.com/NBSWanthology
Monday, 11 November 2013
The last meeting, in the Inn on the Green (who double booked their function room! grrr) was hosted by ian Millstead who asked us to write 750ish words on the subject of "The House"
Peter Sutton's story:
Peter Sutton's story:
The House
When the council estate expanded
Northwards it butted up against pre-existent Victorian housing. That part of
the estate was seldom visited by us. It was because of the house right at the
edge, the one with the forest behind it. Us kids knew a witch lived there.
There were dolls in the window. We all knew they were voodoo dolls but we
couldn’t tell our parents that or the witch would get us.
There were six of us, on the day it
happened. I don’t remember who suggested we play dares but it was me who dared
Paul to go to the witch’s house, knock on the door and run away. Paul showed no
fear. He strolled, seemingly nonchalantly, up the path to The House and knocked
on the door. He turned around to run but the door opened straight away; it was
dark in the hallway and light outside and we couldn’t see who opened the door.
Perhaps it opened itself. Paul stopped, turned around, we could see him talking
and then he went inside. The door closed behind him.
He would never have gone inside
unless the witch cast a spell on him. Never. The rest of us wondered what we’d
say to his parents when he didn’t turn up for dinner. Steven’s lower lip
trembled and it looked like he might cry. I was shitting myself. I did this. It
was my fault. Barnesy said we’d have to go and rescue him. None of the rest of
us had thought that. None of us were that brave. Once he’d said it though we
couldn’t chicken out. We came up with a plan to sneak around the back.
When we snuck behind into the
forest we could see that the fence hadn’t been maintained. It was pretty easy
to move a few planks aside. We discussed what to do if the garden was full of
poisonous plants or dangerous animals. I can’t remember what our plan was, it
involved sticks and using our jumpers to wrap around our hands but in the end
we didn’t need it. It looked like a fairly usual garden. Must be keeping up
appearances we said to one another.
One by one we all went through the
fence on our bellies. I half expected there to be a dog. I had climbed into a big
house’s garden the summer before and been chased by an Alsation. I had badly
sprained an ankle jumping over the wall to escape. I wasn’t keen to repeat that
experience. There wasn’t a dog though.
We all grabbed sticks and ran at a
crouch across the garden to the back door which Steven opened. Probably the
bravest thing I’ve ever seen him do. We crept into the kitchen and we could see
the witch standing with her back to us. A low murmur came from her. She was
probably still casting her beguiling spell on Paul we thought. We hadn’t
planned this far ahead, we had no defence against her magic, we were only armed
with sticks.
“Get her” Barnsey cried and we
charged, all yelling our heads off. Steven ran to grab Paul who was also
shouting. The witch started shouting too. It was bedlam. I remember landing a
corker of a shot on her face and seeing a spurt of blood spray across the wall.
I felt pretty good right at that moment. Powerful. She fell to the floor and we
continued to pummel her. Paul tried to get us to stop but he was compromised,
under her spell. My arms ached when I eventually stopped, the palms of my hands
were sore. “Run” I shouted and we all did, Paul hesitated but Barnsey grabbed
him and pulled him after us.
When the police came to the door my
Mum was pretty upset. I denied everything but it did no good. We’d been spotted
of course and Paul had blabbed. He said she’d only been a little old lady who
wanted a chat and had offered him cake. We all knew you don’t accept sweets
from a stranger. Paul said that the old lady knew his mum, that she’d actually
been to his house. We knew though that this was part of her disguise, a cunning
spell she’d cast on him.
He hasn’t come to visit me once. I
don’t know about the others. They split us up. It’s pretty lonely in the big
house. The other boys are mean. I’ve been beaten up a couple of times.
Apparently it’s not what gentlemen do. Beat up old ladies that is. She’s still
alive though. I saw her in court. The journalists said we hung our heads in
shame. I don’t know about the others but I just wanted to avoid her eyes. I
didn’t want her to cast a spell at me.
Monday, 28 October 2013
Margaret Carruther's Shady Character story:
Norman
Norman is not what you would call the
brains of Britain but you don’t need brains in his kind of work, breaking into
cars, stealing radios and DVD players, some people are so dense they ask to be
robbed the articles he finds in some cars. He has a partner Albie, a kid he shares his
loot with. They tried to burgle a house
once but they found it hard, they couldn’t get in, they busted the door lock,
then the dog attacked them; no it’s better to stick to what you know and doing cars
is what he knows. It’s quick to jemmy
the door, have a quick look inside ripping out the radio and sat navs; he can
get at least a fiver for them if they’re in good nick. 50 year old Norman isn’t all that good looking well he
isn’t ugly but he isn’t George Clooney either.
He’s balding, a little chubby and he’s always wrapped up in that dirty
old grey mac. What you would call the
man next door type, ordinary, dirty long brown hair, brown eyes, long nose with
a bump on it wear he broke it a few years back.
He’s in his usual get-up dark grey trousers, dirty t-shirt of an
undetermined colour, boots that he gets from the army surplus stores; as a
matter of fact he gets all his clothes from charity shops, Salvation Army or
army surplus stores. His flat is as bad
as he is no one ever gets too close to Norman
except Lucy his sister and Albie. Albie
always does the sales work down the local then they share the profits
fifty-fifty Albie isn’t old enough to go into a pub but as long as the bobbies
aren’t there there’s no problem but then his parents don’t care where the
fourteen year old is, as long as he brings home the cash and there’s a lot of
cash out there just for the taking.
Norman looks at his watch a present from Lucy she bought it for him for
his last birthday; he told her that she didn’t need to, as anything he wants he
can usually steal. He stole a watch just
the other day from a jag that was sitting pretty on the side of the kerb just wanting
someone to break into it, there was a laptop, a handbag, sat nav and a radio,
top of the market too not the usual rubbish. 3pm must move as Albie will be waiting for him
round the corner. They are doing Craymore Road next,
there’s regularly a good haul from there and it’s swanky as a rule. Jags, Mercs and 4x4’s. Hurrying up the road he spies Albie by the
corner and waves. Albie is your usual
teenager always in a rush to get things done he’s slender build with fair-hair,
always wears t-shirts, jeans and trainers.
His parents live on the council estate in a two bed flat. He and his baby brother share a bedroom.
As he arrives Albie asks. “Where have you been Norman it’s 3:10 you said you would be here
at 3 sharp?”
“Don’t worry the cars aren’t going
anywhere are they and the owner’s won’t be here to collect them for another 3
hours.” Norman gave Albie a toothy grin he was vary
proud of his false teeth cost him all of £300 he thought money well spent. As they approach the first car a red Lexus he
fits his tool into the side of the door and waits, hearing a familiar click he
opens the door. “Right get the bag and
let’s have a look.” Inside they find a
pair of glasses in the glove box and £15 in change in the well of the car. Then opening the boot Albie takes the bag
round and is out of site for maybe 5 minutes but when he reappears he has a
grin on his face. Norman closes the boot, quietly shuts the
door then strolling round to the back of the car, he asks. “What have we got?”
Albie opens the bag saying. “Two laptops, a sat nav, a leather wallet, a Rolex
watch, an expensive looking parker pen and the cash hurrah for Christmas. A good haul and just from this car. What do these people have for brains?”
“Right,
onto the next, which one should we do?”
They look down the road, there is a merc
and a 4x4 on this side, Norman doesn’t know why they leave their cars on this
road and not in the local car parks, maybe because they are worried that they
will be robbed; at this thought he starts to laugh. “We could take on the merc next,” Norman suggests. They start to walk along the road to the
black car.
Friday, 25 October 2013
Pete Sutton's Shady Characters story
Shady Characters
Whenever one of them is
murdered I'm sent to investigate by the man upstairs, and I don't mean God. My
name's Roman. Not man from Rome, I'm no Flavious or Biggus or whatever, my
actual name is pronounced Row Man.
The library was in a historically
significant building and all Edwardian or Georgian or some such king. It looked
OK I guess but I wasn’t here for the view. There were 2 men, a woman and the
corpse when I arrived at the storeroom.
“Names?”
“Candara, Head Librarian”
“Garamond,
Researcher”
“Arial,
Librarian”
“And the corpse?”
“That will be Mr Lucida our custodian” said
Candara, a young chap, mid 30’s, not my view of what a head librarian would
look like.
“Can
any of you think of a reason why anyone would want to murder him?”
They all looked
clueless which I hoped I wouldn’t be after I examined the body. I ushered them
out telling them to stay in the library. The CSI geeks were yet to arrive. I
took a quick look around the room seeing nothing particularly out of place. Apart
from the late Mr Lucida; he looked out of place of course. No blood, I creaked
into a crouch to take a closer look, thinking once again that I should exercise
more.
CSI will give me a time
and cause of death but it looked as if the poor sap had been strangled, didn’t
look like the body was moved. As I sucked my pencil I had a sudden urge for a
cigarette. Not had one in years, still have occasional urges though, mostly
when I’m tired, drunk, or stressed. I glanced back to the notebook. Garamond
had said nothing at all apart from who he was, was that significant? Time to
talk to the witnesses and suspects.
There had already been
3 deaths, Lucida would make it 4. I wonder how much of the heritage had gone
with this one. I would assume not much because of his lowly position but you
never know with the men upstairs, what they choose or have chosen for them.
I went for a walk round
the stacks wondering what would happen to the Book Heritage if one of the old
families were rubbed out. Can’t have been very many books written in Lucida I
thought. At least when the Comic Sans had been killed there wasn’t much book fallout.
He was the first, also strangled. Since him there had been Gentium, Miller and
now Lucida.
Before the population
explosion in the computer age deaths were rare and had a bigger impact on the Heritage,
now who knew? There have been lots of new families since. The guy upstairs
though, he wanted me to sort this out.
The lab boys confirmed
that Lucida was strangled, had been dead for approximately 4 hours before the
library opened and that everything else would have to wait for a full autopsy.
As I finished taking
the statements of the people who worked at the library I spotted a vaguely
familiar looking man watching me. When he spotted that I’d seen him he looked
panicked and fled through a door. Only guilty people run from the police. On
the stairs leading up I remembered who this was, but it was impossible, the
Comic Sans! but without his trademark beard and silly hat. The stairs ended at
a door to the roof.
The rooftop had no
other exits and a drop would be fatal. As I approached the corner of roof
entrance a shot rang out. He was on the opposite side of the roof behind some
air conditioning units.
“Why did you do it” I
shouted
“No
one took me seriously”
“Give yourself up, we
have the building surrounded”
I risked a glimpse, I
couldn’t see him then there he was he was running across the roof. Was he going
to try to jump to the next building? It was a 6 foot gap at least. That would
be madness.
“Stop!” I shouted but
he never even slowed down. Afterwards I wondered if he knew he wasn’t going to
make it. Turned out Garamond and he were old friends and Garamond had been
hiding him at the library but Lucida had rumbled him. Garamond had also helped
him to fake his own death. Tonight a comedian died and I thought to myself that
the old saying was wrong. Sticks and stones may break my bones and words can
sometimes kill.
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
At the last meeting we asked for people to bring along a 750 word story titled "Shady Characters"
They'll be posted here as they are provided to us
The first is Clare Dornan's story:
They'll be posted here as they are provided to us
The first is Clare Dornan's story:
A shady character
She anxiously chewed her nails, chipping away the Lilac
Dream varnish that had been flawless only hours before.
Her eyes flicked once more to the suitcase sitting ominously
in the hall.
She slid the screwdriver through the tiny lock and twisted
it round until the metal contorted and finally gave up the fight.
She unzipped the case and raised the lid.
Lucy was proud of her transition to a language school
teacher. She was not just a Teacher of English, but provided the foreign
visitor with the full experience: a place to stay, excursions through the city
and home cooking of a standard that she knew was some what above the usual
fare. Now five years into her new calling and the bookings were steadily
increasing.
She rarely stewed over her days at the BBC any longer. The
15 years of service, arranging filming shoots for increasingly younger,
increasingly impatient producers. No matter what tight schedule they would harp
on about, no document ever left her desk until she was sure grammar and
punctuation was perfect.
When the rounds of redundancies were announced, she sensed
the shift in her boss from a frosty reception to a patronising smile. And when
she was told that she would be leaving, she realised there was no one left who
cared to hear her complaints. Even John in the Canteen, was in no mood to
listen that day, having just discovered he was soon to be replaced by a Nestle
vending machine.
But now she was her own boss, teacher and educator. She even
had a website with links to her Menu for the Week, Testimonials and photos of
students smiling while tackling the pluperfect.
Juan had come on the recommendation of his sister Maria -
one of her earlier students He’d surprised her by turning up on her doorstep
just as she was about to leave to collect him at the airport. He’d arrived
early and hitched a lift – he didn’t want to put her out he said.
There was a glint in those dark eyes that instantly made her
a little sheepish and she was aware of her own flushed chitter chatter, as she showed
him round her compact Victorian terrace.
It had been the start of an unusual week’s teaching as
unlike his linguistically challenged sister Maria, Juan’s English was
surprisingly impressive. Her lesson plans had been torn up and replaced with
in-depth discussions about her business, life and interests. She had been
flattered when he said how Maria had praised her cooking – particularly her
tiramusu – and she’d broken her menu plan and made it twice in one week. He’d
been so complimentary about the many handmade crafts in her home…. Even
admiring the embarrassingly overstuffed embroidered cushion – the outcome from
her brief foray into re-upholstery night classes.
The small twinges of uncertainty about her student had never
risen above the quickened heartbeat and extra layer of lipstick in the morning.
They had only started to rise, like bubbles oozing up through a thick and
reluctant syrup when he hadn’t returned this afternoon.
She was sure he knew when they should leave for the airport
and her panic had briefly subsided when she found the suitcase already packed
in his room. He was just running late, she consoled herself – perhaps a last
minute shopping trip to get a gift for Maria.
Maria.
What was it about Maria that caused a small mental bubble of
doubt to form?
Then she realised. She couldn’t remember Maria ever
mentioning a brother. And Maria’s testimonial on her website made her even more
unsettled… “Everyone should come and study with Lucy! I recommend to all my
friends. And her cooking! – the best Tiramisu ever.”
It was when she tried to phone that she noticed the flashing
message light. The call must have come in that morning when she’d been frying
up his English breakfast. It was impossible to hear the phone from the kitchen,
yet from the dining room it was impossible to miss. Juan must have heard the
message being recorded – yet he had not said anything about the Bank wanting
her to call them urgently.
She laughed at her paranoia. He would be back for his case
soon. He wouldn’t just leave all his things and disappear!
So she had sat there, twitching. It was only after the
intended flight had long since taken to the air when she had placed the
screwdriver into the lock.
She lifted the lid and her heart froze as she stared into
the case. It was totally empty except for one sickeningly familiar, overstuffed
embroidered cushion.
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