I am really pleased today to be able to feature another contribution in the 2023 Memoir Showcase from a long time supporter of ours, Syd Blackwell.

You can read Syd's fascinating story TO BE AN INNKEEPER here.

It is a pleasure to welcome back Mary Mae Lewis, a regular contributor to our blog and anthologies.

You can read Mary Mae's contribution to the 2023 Memoir Showcase - Mince Meat and Pigs’ Liver - by clicking here.

Mary Mae Lewis

Mary Mae is author of the novel Where There’s a Will, There’s a Woman and the memoir Don’t Stop the Fiesta and has had success with short stories; she came runner-up in North Staffordshire’s  TOO WRITE  adult fiction competition in 2017 and was highly commended in THE POTTERIES PRIZE  for flash fiction in 2018. She contributed to Robert Fear’s Travel Stories and Highlights 2019’ Memorable Stories Anthology 2020, 40 True Life Stories Anthology 2021 and 50 Intriguing Personal Insights Anthology 2022.
 
She’s also been published in the Telegraph and is a published poet.
A retired teacher, Mary came late to becoming a writer and her work is based on true life experiences.
She has been married for over 50 years has 3 sons and 4 grandchildren.
She has travelled extensively, including living in Grand Cayman for four years and Malawi for five.
She now spends half the year in Spain, where she does most of her writing, and half in Stoke on Trent , Staffordshire UK.
She blogs on her Face Book page Where There’s a Will, There’s a Woman.
Besides reading and writing Mary Mae enjoys buying and selling antiques, local history, gardening and swimming.

www.author-marymaelewis.co.uk
  

As we enter the second half of the 2023 Creative Writing Showcase, it is an honour to be able to feature two fabulous contributions in the Fiction category from Valerie Fletcher Adolph.

You can read her first story ​Miss Emilia's Marriage here

And the second one Gold that Glitters here.

Valerie Fletcher Adolph is an author, teacher, reviewer who was born in England but who has spent most of her life in western Canada. Twenty years of her life were spent in a senior administrative capacity in institutions for people with mental illnesses or disabilities. Yes, one could say she was institutionalized. However, during the Covid epidemic she published a trilogy of cosy mysteries set in post WW2 Yorkshire and her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies.

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.