Can anything be gained from reading old work?
I believe riches lurk in the rubble of old stories but only if we’re strong enough to look back, to blow off the dust and crack a bruised heart open again. Strong enough to crouch in the dust, draw a fingertip tip through loss’ barren, gritty gleam. Strong enough to weave hope anew from heartbreak’s ragged weft.
Today I stagger towards a rich inner world I’m weak to ignore — my strength and my armour, my softness and my holy well.
1. Sour Cherries (Fireside Ghosts)
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'Sour Cherries’ was a story intended for Fireside Ghosts but I abandoned it last summer.
I was inspired by kelpie lore and also We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson. Her eerie prose and uncanny Merricat worked a spell on me. I started writing but quickly lost direction.
I needed a ghost to rise from that murky loch, up and out of Scotland’s ancient, dark id. Distinct as a battle scar, intrinsic as breath.
Time to reacquaint myself with Eva Deverell’s One Page Plot — a course I can’t recommend enough if (like me) you find plotting stories a headache1.
2. Unnamed story (Fireside Ghosts)
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Another abandoned, unnamed story for Fireside Ghosts (although I’ve given it the working title of ‘Cat Bride’).
One night at my Gaelic group we translated the chilling story of Loch Àirigh na h-Aon Oidhche (The Loch of the Shieling of the One Night). It’s a sinister dwelling on Lewis and as the name suggests no one spends more than a single night there thanks to the kelpie that haunts the nearby loch.
The tale set my imagination a-whirr! However, I picked a different beastie to haunt my characters: the fiercely secretive wildcat. My family belongs to a sept of Clan Chattan (clan of the cats) who take the wildcat as their symbol, so I had to write a story inspired by one sooner or later.
There are also a startling number of cat sìth (fairy cat) stories in Scottish folklore that provide haunting and hilarious material for a creepy tale.
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