Tag: Chris Armstrong

Half way! The fifteenth story in my collection of thirty, When I Am Not Writing Poetry is another story following one of the characters – three children – briefly introduced in The Dark Trilogy: ‘Simon’ – the young man who also featured in #12 ‘The Bookbinder’s Daughter’ – here we find out a little more about him. He is a publisher, there is an overseas trip to Frankfurt and Hamburg, there are new colleagues to get to know, and there is time by himself in a foreign city.

He had been with the company over sixteen years when they made him a part of the team going to the Frankfurt Book Fair and asked him, as the new editor with responsibility for German sales, to spend a week at their Hamburg offices on the way home. Having a responsibility for overseas sales on top of his commissioning work was a nuisance, but it had been a promotion and meant more money so he had accepted it; in any case, German sales had never been a problem for them and it really only meant liaising with the Hamburg office once a month. And now, they were giving him a week in Germany. Things could be worse!

‘Simon’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.

The fourteenth story in my collection, When I Am Not Writing Poetry is another very brief story drawn from life: ‘The Tenements Bus Stop’ is a snapshot of innocence. Of knowledge so nearly gained. Once again the brevity of the story means an all too brief taster and once again the reader of When I Am Not Writing Poetry is offered a glimpse into another life.

She told me she loved me. She whispered it. She breathed in my ear…

‘The Tenements Bus Stop’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.

The next story, the thirteenth, in my collection, When I Am Not Writing Poetry is ‘The School Friend’ – the second very brief story drawn from life: a snapshot of two boys, perhaps in the school summer holidays. Once again the brevity of the story means an all too brief taster and once again the reader is offered a glimpse into another life.

There were four of them in the fifth form; four who shared an interest in building and flying model planes. But it was Pete that came over most often to his house to play table tennis, with whom he went fishing and swimming, and with whom he sometimes played tennis. The public tennis courts were on the sea front not far from Pete’s house so it was natural to collect Pete from his Mum’s house after the bus dropped him off in the square.

‘The School Friend’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.

The next story, the twelfth, in my collection, When I Am Not Writing Poetry is ‘The Book Binder’s Daughter’ – the second story in the collection to revisit three friends who received brief mentions in The Dark Trilogy. This time the focus is on the second of the two boys and the girl, and once again on the connection – supposed connection, perhaps – between them.

Simon could not quite believe it. He spent the first few minutes after recovering from the shock of that sudden and immediate recognition calculating. How many years had it been since they had last met? It shocked and surprised him to discover that the answer was sixty! But in all those years, she had not changed at all, he thought; older, certainly, but still lovely—instantly recognisable. He wondered if she had seen him, recognised him? But perhaps he had not made the same impression on her all those years ago that her petite features with the slightly upturned nose, the blond hair, the lively eyes and ready smile had made on him. And on one or two of his friends, he thought! His eyes sought her out again across the room and there she was near the windows overlooking the bay talking to, and laughing with, someone in a gown. Simon felt a sudden pang of jealousy.

Sixty years? Could it really be that long… sixty years since he had first fallen in love!

‘The Book Binder’s Daughter’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.

Moving on through my collection, When I Am Not Writing Poetry and we come to the eleventh story, ‘The Call’. One of several very brief stories drawn from life: a snapshot of an evening. A snapshot of a generation gap… and because the story is so brief – less than a page – it is difficult to describe it without telling the story! There is a dance and a telephone call…

It was two minutes past one in the morning when the telephone rang.

Of course none of them had heard it above the Rolling Stones LP which was playing and the general noise of dance and conversations shouted over the music. As his friend’s mother appeared in the doorway in her dressing gown…

‘The Call’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.

Working further down to the next story in my collection, When I Am Not Writing Poetry, we come to the ninth, ‘The Friends’. Several of the stories in the collection revisit three friends who received brief mentions in The Dark Trilogy. The two boys and the girl were in fact friends from my primary-school childhood (although they are renamed in my writing) and in these stories I have created fictional back stories for them. ‘The Friends’ introduces two of them.

We find them at a post-graduation reception at a university which could almost be that of my home town. The girl is with her father and as they are joined by one of the boys, her father invited him to accompany them to a celebration dinner. Meanwhile, his daughter is having strange presentiments.

After the graduation ceremony following her Art History doctorate, she stood with her father looking out of the long windows of the reception area, across the campus, across the bay to the distant lighthouse lit by the slowly setting summer sun and wondered what she would do now. Well, not now. Now, with her life. She had been hoping that the university… but nobody has offered her anything yet. Maybe she should ask. Then there is her Dad. She thinks his business—the book binding—is failing; she hadn’t seen much new work come in and she knows that the university has started recommending another bindery to its PhD students. She has no idea why. But she thinks that her father is depressed. Not tonight! Tonight he is the proud father, delighted in her success…

‘The Friends’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.

Working further down the contents page of my collection, When I Am Not Writing Poetry, we come to the eighth story in the collection, ‘The Sailing Board’. One of the ships that I sailed on was the New Zealand Shipping Company cargo vessel, the Haparangi and chance sent me a photo of the wooden sailing board that was positioned at the top of the gangway with information about sailing time and destination. The story that came to mind is pure fiction but the characters were certainly based on men that I sailed with!

Leaving the love of your life behind to travel the world for three or four months is difficult at the best of times, even for experienced mariners, but for a young deck hand on his first or second trip to sea and a new girl friend…

The young deck hand was in a terrible mood. Firstly, his leave had been cut short as the damn ship was sailing two days earlier than expected and for some reason best known to the damn company that meant he had to be on board three days before she left the Royal Albert Docks. Despite the fact that he lived just down the road! His last weekend with Jennie had been ruined. She was something special, better than other, earlier girlfriends; she had said that she loved him, and she was pretty with her curly blond hair, and that figure! To die for! She admired him too, thought it was so romantic sailing the seas, and she was much more loving than Patsy had been. The thought stopped there. The black mood took over again.

‘The Sailing Board’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.

Working on down the contents page of my collection, When I Am Not Writing Poetry, we come to the seventh story in the collection, ‘The Beginning’. A story about a young and rather naïve boy about to leave home for the first time.

Decisions – big decisions – were not something he had needed to worry about until recently and this one had been very big: very big indeed, for it was about his future. His life. Now he was wondering how this decision had ever been reached!

The boy sat at the table in the dining room and wondered how it had all come about. He looked at his mother whose downcast eyes seemed to express a similar but, he thought, unacknowledged concern; at his father who, at the head of the table, seemed unconcerned, unaware even of any issue. He was reading the paper and seemed to be waiting. The boy sat at the table and did not know what to say.

Less than a year ago the boy’s only worries had been about homework and wondering whether he would be able to go fishing at the weekend; he had been working in the local plant nurseries every Saturday, and he had had no other concerns; no worries… and, he realised looking back on that time, he had scarcely ever made a decision in his life. For him, decisions were things made by his parents…

‘The Beginning’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.

Working on down the contents page of my collection, When I Am Not Writing Poetry, we come to the sixth story in the collection, a collection of images or anecdotes,  ‘Totality’. This is a necessarily short introduction to a short exercise in writing. There are still 24 more stories to introduce, but we are moving along quite nicely in this month of short stories!

I saw this little collection within a collection as a series of ‘postcards’ – brief, almost pictorial, images of everyday happening. Not very exciting; not alarming; not perhaps even very interesting, but snapshots of life. Here is the first!

One day when I was young I was walking with my grandfather along a wide pavement on the hill leading to his house. We passed a young man who happened to have a blond beard.

If you ever grow one of those, I’ll disinherit you, my grandfather said to me.

I didn’t pay much attention at the time—for several reasons, mostly to do with age, it didn’t seem very important.

Twenty years later I had a beard. Ten years after that my grandfather died. And I remembered his words.

‘Totality’ can be found in When I Am Not Writing Poetry – available here or on Amazon.