The latest contribution to the 2023 Fiction Showcase is the third in the WINDFALL series from Ronald Mackay.

You can read WINDFALL:3 Ráhel, Trudy, Ivan  here.

Ronald Mackay was born in Scotland in 1942 and trained as a winter warfare operative while serving with a British Army infantry battalion. From 1967 to 1969 he worked in Romania and, briefly, in Bulgaria. He has recorded his memories in “The Kilt Behind the Curtain”. In the early ‘70s, he made several missions to Czechoslovakia and Poland. He is also the author of “Fortunate Isle, a Memoir of Tenerife” and, in Spanish, “A Tenerife con Cariño”.

In August 2023, Ronald and his Peruvian wife, Viviana, moved from Ontario, Canada to the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. Now, he is learning Dutch. They spend part of their time at home in Voorburg and part travelling and writing.

​Ronald and Viviana shortly before they migrated from Canada

It is my pleasure today to feature an evocative piece of writing from a regular contributor of ours, Susan Mellsopp.

Susan's contribution could have been featured in either of the categories. As she explained to me, "While it sounds like fiction it is drawn from my memories so not sure where you would think it is better placed. I feel it sends a message of loneliness, the attachment farmer’s wives can have to ‘things’, and the healing that can be brought about by them." After some deliberation, I decided to include it in the Fiction Showcase.

I hope you enjoy  A Cloak of Shimmering Gold as much as I have.  You can read it here.

Susan Mellsopp 

Susan lives in Hamilton, New Zealand, with her cream Labrador guide dog Maya. She has always been an avid reader who has two talking and a kindle book on the go at once, as well as a digital magazine. She has often said she must have been born in a library.
 
Susan runs a writing group, and has recently started writing longer memoir essays. She enjoys going to classical music concerts, gardening-mostly roses, knitting and meeting friends at cafes. She has recently purchased a keyboard and is reviving her playing skills. She loves learning about new technology. Travel is a huge passion but this has been halted by covid. She hopes to travel again soon.  
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This year, regular contributor Ronald Mackay has treated us to the first two parts of his fiction series 'WINDFALL' (with a third in the pipeline).

Today it is an honour to feature his first contribution to the 2023 Memoir Showcase.

You can read Ronald's latest story “Sailing By” Part 1 by clicking here.

Ronald Mackay has had to good fortune to have worked in many capacities from the time he was a schoolboy until he retired in 2012. His formative years were spent in Scotland, the country of his birth. Scotland is a farming and fishing nation and Ronald has enjoyed the periods he has spent working in these areas. He and his wife, Viviana, have lived in many countries, especially in Latin America, and recently left their home Canada to settle in the Netherlands.

Ronald contributes short pieces to Fred’s Blog and has also written the books “Fortunate Isle, a Memoir of Tenerife”, “A Tenerife con Cariño” and “The Kilt behind the Curtain”. 

I am sure you will join me in giving a warm welcome to Judy Middleton, a newcomer to our writing features on Fred's Blog.

Judy's contribution to the Memoir Showcase is called To the Tune of a Fire Alarm and you can read it here.

Judy Middleton has had many diverse and fascinating positions over the years including that as a general laborer and a slurry pumper at a cement factory during the 1970s when women were just stepping in to mostly male jobs. She is a former pediatric nurse who has taken care of children with cancer and blood diseases and has worked as a visiting nurse in a rural county of the bucolic and verdant Pacific Northwest. Perhaps the most unique position she has had was that of a chaplain to crews on cruise ships. This is kind of a reverse traveling situation where the staff stay in their own country and crews from all over the world and all walks of life come to a place where they are fed hot home-cooked meals, are able to use computers for touching base with loved ones, can visit a small store and library onsite and are offered many other opportunities. To hear their stories left an indelible mark.

She is currently working on her memoir about the adventurous time of rebuilding their home after Florida’s historic 2004 hurricanes and is also writing a cookbook. She is an avid memoir reader, active in the We Love Memoirs Facebook group, loves to cook, and finds great satisfaction in hiking, beach walks and bird watching. 
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We are fortunate today to be able to feature the third part of a moving series of memoir stories from Tina Mattern.

You can read Tina's contribution The Nightmare - Part 3 (A Tornado Touches Down) here.

A warm welcome back to Robyn Boswell with her second contribution this year in the Memoir Showcase.

​You can read Robyn's story A Visit to the ‘Murder House’ here.

Robyn Boswell

I was very lucky to spend my childhood years in the 1950s in Parua Bay, a bay on the Whangarei Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. It was there that I developed my lifelong passion for the sea and my love of the outdoors. When we weren’t at school, we had free range over the countryside and made the most of rambling over farms, through the pine forest across the road and all along the bay. My Dad was Head Teacher at the tiny school – which grew from 12 to 60 pupils in the 12 years he was there. It was a great life, except for one thorn in our sides. A couple of times a year, we had to go by bus into town to spend a day at the ‘Murder House’ – the school based dental nurses - at a big school in the city. 

It is always an honour to feature stories from our latest contributor, Susan Mellsopp.

Her first story in this year's Memoir Showcase is called Baking and Other Delights and you can read it here.

Susan Mellsopp 

​Susan lives in Hamilton, New Zealand, with her cream Labrador guide dog Maya. She has always been an avid reader who has two talking and a kindle book on the go at once, as well as a digital magazine. She has often said she must have been born in a library.
 
Susan runs a writing group, and has recently started writing longer memoir essays. She enjoys going to classical music concerts, gardening-mostly roses, knitting and meeting friends at cafes. She has recently purchased a keyboard and is reviving her playing skills. She loves learning about new technology. Travel is a huge passion but this has been halted by covid. She hopes to travel again soon.