Acknowledgments.
I wish to dedicate this e-book to my editor and good friend Pat, without whose belief in me and constant encouragement this book would never have been published.
Thank you, Pat.
Annette de Jonge
Introduction.
Many of the stories contained in this book began as exercises created in writing classes I attended. Each completed story was submitted, accepted and broadcast over two community radio stations. One radio station was in Brisbane and the other in Rockhampton at their interestingly named N.A.G. Radio Station. My understanding is that N.A.G is the first initial of each of the owners of the radio station.
Our small writing group met once a week and we all took turns in hosting at our respective homes. There were only ever eight of us because that is all the chairs that would fit around the dining tables.
At each gathering, a casual word for our exercise was selected from a dictionary and a random sentence taken from a book. A time limit, usually of fifteen minutes was chosen to complete our project. Our story had to have the necessary requirements of a story and at times ending we read out loud what we had created.
It was amazing to learn how the creative minds there had all started with the one word and sentence yet wrote something completely different for their story.
Contents
Acknowledgements................................. ................................................................... ..........................................1
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Contents................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Amma Alcheringa……………………………………….........................................……………………….…....4
Craters……………………………………………………........................................……………………..…......8
The One Horse Town …………………………………………........................................………………..…....11
Once Is More Than Enough …………………………........................................……………………………... 15
The Pear Tree ……………………………………….......................................………………………..…….....19
The Sacrifice …………………………………………………….......................................……………..….... .24
Date With the Devil ………………………………………….......................................………………...….. .. 27
The Wedding Dress ………………………………………….......................................………………..… ......30
The Séance ………………………………………………….......................................……………......……. ...35
The Lesson …………………………………………………….......................................…..……….…… …...39
The Gargoyles of Hagalaz Castle ……………………………………........................................……................43
The Fog ……………………………………………………………….......................................…..…..............47
The Bad Seed ……………………………………………………..........................................….….…......… ...51
Other Books........................................................................................................................................................ 54
