I mentioned that it was our writing group yesterday, and I shared my story for the given topic, ‘Plague’. I confessed how difficult I’d found it to think of something original, and how relieved I was to actually think of something! We had a great meeting, with coffee and biscuits to accompany the stories. As ever I was amazed at the variety of takes on the topic, how varied, how original and how well-written.
Here’s a resumé of my friends’ pieces:
- the story of a group of friends who come together on Zoom during lockdown to form a band which melds the best of punk with the best of instrumental virtuosity and great lyrics. True punk hit the world before the internet, this fictional band has all the advantages of global reach! It was a brilliant story and had us laughing out loud. It was so perfectly and cleverly written, so well-paced, and held our attention right to the more than satisfactory ending.
- an account of falling ill and living alone, rather unsettling and frightening because it was so well written, subtle and very disturbing
- the story of how a clever chap gets his own back on that telephonic plague, scam callers. He turns the table by sending them a virus which will wipe out their computers completely!
- a tale of how someone finds redemption through being ill; from being a grumpy, miserable and rather unpleasant fellow, he recovers and recovers his humanity, becoming optimistic, generous and kind.
- a powerful parable of the world inflicted by plague and troubles until the cause of the disasters which afflict it, humanity, is wiped away, and the earth herself survives and continues
I maybe haven’t done my friends work justice in my short summaries, but at some future point they will appear in our group anthology, which I will promote when it’s published!
Lois Elsden 