Guitar Lullaby

The seed idea of this fourth short story, Guitar Lullaby, in Part Two of Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories came from my own memory of falling to sleep listening to my father playing the classical guitar as I fell asleep. My father taught himself to play the banjo and later the classical guitar--he even composed at least one piece for the guitar. The rest of the story is complete fiction and takes place in Muskoka and Toronto, Canada, as well as in Africa. This is a bitter-sweet love story between two young people that ends in sadness. It begins and ends with a child falling to sleep to the music of the classical guitar, "like a child in love's arms."

Chance of Parole

The third short story in Part 2 of Welsh Cakes is titled Chance of Parole and has a male protagonist called Benjamin Holly. His marriage and his job are less than satisfactory and, though he tries to better himself on the job front, he makes no attempt to improve his marriage situation. His new life as a sewing machine repair man gives him more challenges in his work, which he enjoys, as well as a lot more freedom to meet women who are sometimes very lonely. His philandering lifestyle leads him into a bad situation for which he gets blamed. Whether he was directly responsible for a woman's death or not, sooner or later it is certain that something bad would happen and he would get blamed.

Kodak Image

Kodak Image is my second short story in Part 2 of Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories. As the title indicates, there is a photo at the heart of this story. It is in the genre of romance, with our protagonist living on the west coast of Canada where she meets the man of her dreams. When he leaves the area, our main character follows him, first to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, and then venturing to the rugged mining north of Ontario where she loses the love of her life. She returns to Ottawa where she leaves the world for convent life--she leaves the world but takes the photograph of Pierre with her. She cannot forget him and eventually leaves the convent, returning to the world and to the Province of British Columbia where her romance first began. She marries the doctor in whose office she worked as a nurse all those years ago. She marries the doctor, works for him, but still holds on to the Kodak Image of the one she cannot let go from her heart.

Blueberry Wine

Blueberry Wine is the first of the short stories in Part 2 of Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories. Part 2 consists of eight short stories with differing genres and protagonists of varying ages and dispositions.

Blueberry Wine is about a husband and wife of senior years who are less than tolerant of one another. The husband's hobby is making home-made wine while his wife, who is wheel-chair bound, enjoys drinking it.

Harry, the husband, longs to be free of the restraints of his unhappy marriage and devises a plan to do just that through his wine making hobby.

Writers store up many incidents in their memories over the years, incidents that can be pulled out from the grab bag and inserted in the story for a little colour. In this story the protagonist's name of Harry begged me to have a canary as Mona's pet bird. This from a friend's work-place tale of a co-worker named Harry whose wife phoned him in great distress crying, "Harry, Harry! I just sucked up the canary in the vacuum cleaner!"