Unloved stories

Posting this in response to the wonderful Paul Stewart's fabulous Be Your Own Advocate challenge. I thought it would be easier to explain my choices in a separate story space, rather than to cram my blathering into a comment on Paul's story. Anyways, here is a link to the challenge:

Paul challenges us, his fellow creators, to nominate three of our own stories that he has yet to read or commented on, and he promises to put this right. You are a braver man than me, Paul. I am a really slow reader and find it hard to get to grips with even the stories I like. You have set yourself a task and a half, my friend, and bless you for doing so. As Paul says, the stories in question could be things that "you are most proud of, underappreciated pieces, whatever. It's up to you - advocate for yourself and your writing! Also, if you want to include anything about why you chose the pieces you did, that would also be great, though is not necessary."

So, yes, I would like to explain some of the reasoning for my self-advocacy. I grew up in a time (1960s/70s) when it was frowned upon to 'blow your own trumpet' so promoting one's own work is not always easy. Yet I have put time and effort, and I like to think a little love, into the following three stories, so I am a little sad that none of them has had more than one read or like. In some cases that was probably me :'(

So here we are then. First up is my story Witches of the Waterfront which was originally written and submitted to the Vocal 'Under a Spell' challenge, which asked us to write a story about a coven. The first line must be a spell. So I wrote a story about a coven of witches who lived in (perhaps) 18th century Jamaica and earned a living by selling produce at a street market in the busy Port Royal.

I was pleased with my efforts which were illustrated with, and part inspired by, a painting I discovered through an image search. My work tells the fictional story of a coven, a sisterhood, of witches who live an ordinary life selling their wares at market. One of the group longs to meet a man of her dreams and this is the spell that starts the story. In the story, I try to set the scene of a bustling market town with its wave of people passing through, reflecting the history of Jamaica itself.

Will she conjure up her Mr Right? Read on:

My second unloved story also has something of the myth and magic about it. Submitted to the Mythmaker challenge: "Write a myth to explain the fabled origin story of why something exists." I wrote a creation story, trying to mimic the creation stories that are well known, and some that are less so. I will allow Paul, or any other readers who care to venture into the ancient, pre-human world I have imagined, to be the judge of whether I was successful.

You will notice that both of these stories feature art works of some renown, but not the kinds of work that are well known and popular among the general public. In recent years I have grown a strong interest in art and meaning and spend some time in art museums, trying to fathom the works on display. I also volunteer at the Tate galleries in London. I have used the works in the featured images of each of these stories partly as illustration and partly as inspiraction. I hope this is reflected in my story telling.

You, the reader, may not be suprised, then, to know that my next article is about art itself. I am not an art expert, an art historian, an academic, or anyone else with a qualification or experience in interpreting art. I do, however, like to discuss what I see in paintings and other art, what I think what I see may mean and, most importantly, what I feel when I look up at Art. I therefore started to write what might become a book titled: Looking up at Art. The first chapters of the book appear as stories on Vocal, partly as a testing ground for the concept. The concept is an ordinary bloke (me) going to art museums and looking up at works of art. It is, frustrating therefore, that the chapters I started have received little or no interest on Vocal. Here is Chapter One. Please let me know what you think.

So, there you have it. Three of my (many) unloved stories on Vocal. If you find anything in them that you like, please let me (and/or Paul Stewart) know.

A thousand thank yous to Paul Stewart for inspiring me and other creators to put our favourite but unloved works forward for all to see.

https://vocal.media/authors/paul-stewart-st7fb60zmp