Oil and Water – VisDare

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Photo source

Little Mo is well-known in these parts.

We’ve all seen her, even Lighterman Roberts with his tricorn hat and air of disdain. He won’t admit it, won’t confess to a sighting of the supernatural, but I’ve heard him as he walks down the streets, lighting the lamps at dusk-fall. He claims to be talking to his dog, a grizzled lurcher by the name of Mutt. In public, and especially when he’s in his cups, he treats that poor animal like dirt. There’s no way he’d bill and coo at Mutt as if he was wooing a lady. No, he’s seen Little Mo alright, and I fancy she tippy-toes alongside him in the cobbled streets every night.

She came to a dark end, did Little Mo. She was Captain de Riviera’s youngest daughter. He spoiled her so, and she got to thinking she could charm the birds off the trees. Instead, all she charmed was a feckless youth from our mean streets, teasing him with her fancy ways. It was enough to drive a poor young man wild.

That’s what Lighterman Roberts tells her, anyway.

I reckon he knows all about Little Mo. and I reckon she deserved it.

——

Here’s my latest entry to the lovely Angela’s VisDare.

I hope you enjoy this week’s tale – I’ve tied it in with my Five Sentence Fiction entry this week, where you just might get to hear Little Mo’s side of the story!

Please do visit VisDare for amazing poetry and prose!

 

I am published!

I am both honoured and excited to be included as a contributing author in September’s issue of The Woven Tale Press.

The September issue is out today – Vol II #9 – and I’m featured on pages 19 and 20, nestled between some stunning examples of fibre art.

If you’ve not heard of The Woven Tale Press before, here is an extract from their ‘About Us’ page:

“The Woven Tale Press is a monthly e-magazine, a culling of the best of the creative Web.

The Web is teeming with talent. The Press mission is to highlight the blog post otherwise buried in a blogger’s archives; the painting or photograph from an artist’s site worthy of greater focus than its singular web page; the innovative, the funny, the offbeat.

….

Our staff is an eclectic mix of artists, writers and editors with keen eyes for the striking, for those gems deserving to be unearthed and spotlit in The Woven Tale Press.”

There is some amazing artistic talent included this month (and every month) – please do take a look and enjoy the creative journey.

It’s my birthday soon – and this feels like the best birthday present ever! Thank you so much to the Woven Tale Press team for including me this month.

 

Fishy Tale – Magpie Tales

wyeth n c Dark Harbor Fisherman

Dark Harbor, 1943, N. C. Wyeth

“We have too much food here, Jacob. What are we supposed to do with it all? It wasn’t our plan to empty the sea of all its fish.”

“Nonsense, Simeon, nonsense! There is no such thing as too much fish! How ungrateful you are! Me and my men have risked life and limb on the mountainous waves to bring this fine haul home to harbour. Not a life lost, not a bruise nor a scrape did we sustain. Does it not cross your mind to utter one word of thanks?”

“But where is your common sense? All of our salt has been used for the preserving of meat and our barrels are taken with wine. We cannot consume the fish fast enough. It will be left to waste and rot by the quay.”

“You see problems where there are none, Simeon. I propose a feast – let us build a bonfire, barbecue the meat over the flames and wash it all down with copious gallons of wine. We will have empty barrels, spare salt and extremely happy villagers. A solution, do you not agree?”

“I suppose I do, Jacob. You are an ingenious man, so it seems…”

——

Here’s my latest entry to Magpie Tales – Jacob is a quick-thinking chap, no?

I hope you enjoy this week’s entry- and please do visit Magpie Tales for amazing poetry and prose!

 

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