This one was a challenge. It could have been a descriptive piece, thoughts of how to bring an outsider into a place of colour and texture. Or, it could have been about process, design and build so to speak.

In the end it took itself off into a chance romance story that gave me all sorts of trouble. This is a story I picked up and put down many times.

I own a precious, treasured pair of old, heavy cutting scissors. They were handed down to me from a great aunt who was quite an extraordinary dressmaker. This tale only started to come together when ‘scissors’ appeared from nowhere in this story, and brought great aunt back to me.

Haven’t we all found ourselves stuck with someone who just will not stop talking. We look away, we look to others, we find excuses to disengage - we get rude and impatient with them.

But is it them, or is it us?

Is their incessant verbal attack simply because we have written them off?

Have you ever been rewarded for taking the time to listen when the temptation was not to?

Even though it is so hard not to start every sentence with ‘I’ when writing in first person POV it seemed natural for this story because of these very questions.

Link to story - GAB

Like all good fables there is a mixture of truth and fantasy in this short story.

The beach house is real and it has always been my bolt hole. The book, or books, are also real and truly lifetime favourites - well before the films came out!

It is also true that my children knew and loved the story, well before any of their mates got excited by the cinema version. These books were their introduction to reading full length novels.

The dog is also real and the Strider of this story is not a neighbour, but he exists all the same.

When did you work out what the books were? Early on I hope because that means you love them too!

Link to Story - FABLE