What a king does is rule.

If there was ever a lesson from the Bible for today’s world it is the warnings issued by Samuel to the Israelites when they demand a king. He warns that the king will destroy their family life, take their sons and daughters for servants and soldiers. The modern situation may be a mirror image but it has the same effect. Working for a multinational demands an employee will give up their family and friends and spend their waking hours working for the corporation’s benefit. Which takes us back to the first lesson of – six days working and then a day of rest; a day to readjust and remember the reasons for working.

Some say their corporation will look after them when they retire but it is well to remember the corporation’s first responsibility is to its shareholders, second to its creditors, and only then, to the employees.

The employees primary responsibility is to their dependents. The corporation can replace even its chairman but the employee can not replace the love and concern of a friend or one of their family; those who will, in the bad times, always be a support.

I read recently of a man whose aim was to make enough money to retire at 54 and spend time with his family. One has to ask what his priority is? Why not spend time with the family now and retire at 60 or 65. Many people die before 54. Many young people have cancer in their thirties and quality time is hard to come by.

That seventh day is to make sure you know what your priorities are.

Looking into the Ark

Looking into the Ark
After the Philistines returned the Ark of the Covenant, several people looked inside and died. My first thoughts were that this is what happens to an employee, a member of a political party, or a team member who questions the ethos and morals of the organisation; they are ostracised or fired. Then I noticed a comment in the newspaper that a head transplant would be possible within ten years and the Bible story took on a more important lesson. Let's assume we have a student who has applied for assisted suicide at a time when the head of a Stephen Hawkins; a twenty two year old soccer star, for whom his English team have paid a million pounds; a millionaire in America; or the director of a Polit Bureau in Russia, all need a body and make up your own mind about the outcome. It takes morality into the financial arena. If we accept head transplant, what will this be the harvest of this whirlwind? The murder of those sleeping in the street or the sale of children in a return of the days of the body snatchers? So the real lesson is that, when it comes to morality, there are no free lunches. Adultery sacrifices loyalty, murder sacrifices security (if it's all right for one person to do it, they justify for them to be murdered) etc. etc.

Losing the Ark

After Ruth, the Israelite story shifts to Eli, the prophet, and his son’s. The sons are abusing their father’s power and Eli is warned there will be consequences, not for his person but his family and his reputation. This is one of the incidents that make me think the Bible is not just for the church but for all of us and for our daily and  business lives; a precursor of Aesop and his moral fables. The lesson here is that the stigma of a misuse of power, even a dishonourable deed, not only affects the perpetrator but their parents and clings to a family for at least another generation. In the case of Eli’s sons, it affected the war with the Philistines; even bringing their most miraculous artefact, the Ark of the Covenant, didn’t save them, in fact, they lost the Ark. That brings a warning for business managers, executives and owners that dishonest trading kills a business for years. Individuals and even governments that promise things they cannot produce will suffer consequences, not only for the moment but in the future.  Not only that, their actions will enhance the reputation of those they cheat, their rivals, making them appear victims.

Enough is not enough

The story of Samuel begins with his mother Hannah and her rivalry with Peninnah the other wife of Elkanah. Hannah was childless and ridiculed by Peninnah. Peninnah was doing her job and bearing children. Elkanah saw Hannah's job as just loving him but she wanted more. She took a risk and, in return for children, dedicated Samuel to work for the community. (I am assuming working for the church is community service.) Peninnah is not mentioned again and the heroine of this episode is Hannah, why? Because she was prepared to do more than just her job, or the job Elkana alloted her. The tale is one of those repetitions of the maxim that, to succeed, you must do more than your job. We all know who Hanna's god was. The god of a business is sales profit and a business will fail if it only just satisfies the current needs of its customers; someone else will give better service, a cheaper price,or a slightly better product and any organisation must be constantly looking for a better way to do things. If your god is promotion, there are other people 'doing their job' and to satisfy your god you need to do more than that. If your god is job satisfaction, just staying in a boring but safe job won't work for you, you need to take a risk.
There is a spin-off in the tale - while Hannah was praying, Eli the priest thought she was drunk - don't judge the book by its cover is what fills the bill there. Don't assume, because the Bible is used by the church,that it has no messages about living, business and personal relationships for others. It is the original self help book.

Historical plots for short stories

Historical tales is in my genre and I was delighted to find Writing Magazine's next competition was for just that. Now I need a plot line that meets the editors requirements of:-

Something forewarned about. A menace that hangs over the protagonist. The bomb is set to explode in ten minutes but the disarmer doesn't know and is being deliberate. The tsunami is coming to the beach. He's trying to make a big sale but doesn't know he'll be made redundant if he fails. 

A ticking clock. A deadline to meet or a delivery to make before the closing time for the contract, or the organ being transported dies.

High stakes. I doubt if the type of high stake that Bertie Wooster experiences would qualify. I assume it is life or death type of thing. Maybe an important job interview, or getting Brexit done or stopped.

A moral dilemma. Should the sniper fire when he knows the armistice is due in ten minutes? Should he keep the money and let his pal take the blame? Should she marry for money or love?

Complications. Brexit has to get through parliament. The new job would mean moving away from his elderly parents. He's Moslem and her parents are staunch Christians. Is he marrying her just to get a passport? 

Hero/Villain dynamic. Normally the people would know each other. Two boxers in the ring or two political candidates. It doesn't need to be two people it can be someone trying to stop a runaway train.  

Now where do I find a historical tale that will fit all that? David and Goliath maybe. Harold at the battle of Stamford Bridge with William the Conqueror ready to invade. A pacifist Campbell at Glencoe. Someone on the Titanic or the Hindenburg. One of the Scots in the English army at Bannockburn.A submarine captain looking at a hospital ship he's been told carries tanks. That's the list started and beginning to move but I need to give it more thought. 

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Ruth's new job

Looking deeper into Ruth’s story, up till now, the stories have been about leaders and a growing or already large organisation but this story comes down to employee level. It’s a tale of someone joining a new company. Ruth makes the change successfully because she embraces the new culture without reservation. Not only that, she takes advice from an old member of the culture, her mother-in-law, Naomi. The lesson is that when someone changes jobs, they should buy into the new culture and not hanker after how it was elsewhere. It’s the same with relationships, none of which is perfect, and comparing the new relationship with an old romance only serves to highlight shortcomings in the new one, while romanticising the old. It’s better to enjoy a new partner’s scones than tell them they’re not as good as Mother made.

That is not to say it is wrong to suggest changes in a new situation but they must be made using the culture of the new one and not seem to challenge it. Of course, if the new culture doesn’t accept suggestions, keep quiet, that’s the culture!

What about Naomi? She didn’t try to hold Ruth tight and keep her to herself but urged her to explore the relationship with Boaz; a relationship which would elevate Ruth to at least her equal. In the end that relationship would produce David, then Solomon and his wisdom. How that worked out teaches us that we should not be afraid of helping those who are our juniors to climb the corporate ladder or become stars in the team, they may take the company, or the team, to greater heights.

Horsemeat in the trenches

I was about to start on the horse flesh idea I listed for a Writers' Magazine competition and thinking of where the story starts, which is not always at the beginning but where the dramatic question is postulated. For a short story of 1500 words it would need to be close to the time the soldiers were 'going over the top'. That would have the cook thinking he had at least given them a good meal and go into backstory to set up the sadness when only half came back. There were other possibilities but, as I turned them over, I realised there was a lot more in the story and to build the characters properly it would need more than 1500 words. I'd want the colonel to come and, like Forester's General, stir things up. The increased activity would get people killed and the men against him. He might even get one or two shot for cowardice. There is the cook's reaction to trench food and his decision to join the catering corps. The General would have to replace all the old lieutenants, reluctant to risk the lives of men they had been with for months, with new ones who were gung ho and wanting to make a name. There is the sergeants' reaction and so much more to explore that it would take maybe 40,000 words or more to do the thing justice. With that, the story has gone on the back burner with several other ideas. In actual fact, I'm not keen on writing about the trenches and much prefer the German South West Africa (now Namibia) and German East Africa (Tanzania) campaigns (starting in King or Kaiser and Shadows in the Veldt) with the movement that allowed characters to develop. I need to finish the 1820 story but then I am going back to put Koos, the coloured man mistaken for white by the recruiting office, back into Intelligence.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Writing to a style

I've talked about the short story competitions in Writing Magazine several times but have yet to give it a try. The trouble is, I've other things to write up and there's no point in submitting an entry that isn't in the style of what wins. By style I don't mean just the length of the paragraphs or sentences but the real ethos of the thing. I have a check list for analysing short stories but what it can't do is give the feeling of a typical story. Again, the stories may have different scenes and outcomes but they will have a feel about them that is quite distinctive when you get a handle on it. Like any magazine, to find that ethos, I find it is necessary to read a number of their stories and to read them one after another, and maybe even several times. To send them the best story I've ever written without doing that is just a waste of time. I suppose what I want to find is the magazine's voice. Anyway, the latest competitions are for Historical Fiction and another with an open subject so maybe I'll do my homework and give it a try.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Ruth

The story of Ruth comes between the desperate intercine warfare among the Israelites in Judges and the serious business of Kings but it's not just a bit of light relief. When reading the Bible stories, it is best not to rush but to let the story talk to you. First, is the old maxim that a kindness done without expectation of reward will come back in some way or other. BUt then there is Naomi's advice and Ruth's behavior to think over. The relationship grew, not because Ruth pushed it but because she let Boaz decide to pursue it. All Ruth did was to give him the opportunity. Any relationship, personal, working, or business will only succeed if both partners want it to. Pressurising another party into a relationship is a recipe for disaster. This is not the same as reaching consensus, which may involve sacrifice; the sacrifices must not create animosity, os course, or the relationship will implode. hard lessons from a love story!

A writer's life is sometimes a happy one

Well, all I need to do now about the food stories is write them up but my, 'to do' list gets longer and longer and I need to just get down to writing the stories in alphabetical order. The initial ideas can be developed with the list technique but the detailed plotting of one of them can take just as long as finding a good subject. It's easier if the characters are familiar as they do a bit of the writing but making the plot three dimensional can be hard, especially at 300 words, as there has to be some doubt about the outcome. My immediate priority (I think that's a repetition of terms) is to get a monologue and a report of a museum visit written for my Writers' Group's annual anthology. I've already sent in the short story and the poem and a news report. I had the choice of a short play instead of the monologue but decided against it as the stage directions don't count and I tell half the story in them, anyway. The thing I'd like to get moving is Just Life notes about aggravations like people in bus queues and amusing things overheard on the bus. Like the woman who was asked to visit her daughter for a few days near the time of her seventieth birthday and got all excited but found she was the baby-sitter while her daughter and son-in-law went to a party.
I suppose with the early nights, I'll get a lot more done.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

An extra ration of food for thought

What I like about making a list of possible story lines is, if one persists, they start to yield good even exceptional ideas. This business of food in Writing Magazine, for example, has already produced several with potential, not always light heated but with legs. Now let me list another.
Suppose an animal lover who has been training as a chef goes into the army in WW1 but is so disgusted at the food, he joins the Catering Corps. His unit are getting ready to go to the line for an attack, in which half of them will not return. He wants to give them a hearty meal to set them on their way but there is only tinned sausage. The major has a horse, which the men regard as a kind of mascot. It's kept in a stable to one side. As the 'chef'' considers the enemy have seent a ranging shot that fell short. The next one will be long and possibly near the kitchen. The shot comes over and kills the major and the horse. Now what will the chef do? There's enough horse meat but it's only the French who eat horse.  There's enough in this to answer the editor's ideas of what a short story should contain, pre-warning of disaster, ticking clock, moral dilemma etc.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

The 'normal' trap

After Samson the last chapters of the book off Judges mentions that there was no king in Israel and everyone did as they pleased. That situation has been repeated often in the succeeding centuries. Many revolutions have degenerated into petty quarrels among the ‘victors’. The crux being that there is no longer any central authority, or even objective and squabbling becomes the 'normal' relationship. The Israelites had been absorbed with claiming the land they had been promised but when that was done, they lost direction. There are many lessons in the story, personal, relationship wise and for business.

In personal life, it highlights the need for a long term goal, many fail college and university because their goal has been achieved. The idea that they are at college or whatever to learn how to be a doctor, for example, is dampened by the realisation of their short term goal; those who succeed see it only as a stepping stone.

Relationships break down for similar reasons. Great sex, intellectual compatibility, even being a good doubles partner at tennis or golf become ‘normal’ and descend into boredom after a while and it is those who want to share their life experience that make real partners.

In the business sphere, without firm direction the sales manager argues with the production manager, who argues with IR, who argues with PR and energy that should be directed to success is dissipated in internal wrangling.

What is needed is a plan for what happens next; the understanding that the realisation of one goal will open the door to another challenge. Someone who wants to be a foreman for being a foreman rather than to learn how to be a manager, for example, will become bored and useless, unless their life objective lies elsewhere. There is no point in getting into a relationship where the sex is great but the partner is thick as a brick, that’s obvious, but so is a partner who doesn’t share long term goals. Before a business has maximised it's market it must have plans to change direction or be sold.

It is distressing to see how many ignore the lessons of Judges for no better reason than that they are in the Bible. They are not only for the religious but contain the wisdom handed down from antiquity.

Food for thought

I had three options for a story for Writers Magazine in which food played a major part. One was the last two men of the Arctic expedition wondering who would eat who to survive. It's a good psychological study. One man may even volunteer to be eaten. What will the other think? It could have one man talking religion to the other to avoid being eaten but intending to eat his companion, as an allegory for how evil can hide behind morality in the church and politics.
The third idea was the baking contest where the husband of A was having an affair with B and didn't know who to bribe the judge for. Fairly straight forward.
The second idea of the king's taster knowing the meal was poisoned lad me to think what point of view would be best, then to think it would make a good tale doing several points of view - the queen's feelings, where the taster's loyalties lie, the kings attitudes, if he knows about the poison and so on, to show the group dynamic in a court as an illustration of what it can be like in the top echelons of industry. That led to thought that it could be a novel with someone trying to work out who the poisoner is. One candidate for the 'detective' would be the taster, who has only the time from the meal is cooked until he tastes to find a solution. It could be the king is setting up some way to accuse the queen, or a senior courtier of disloyalty. Not so much a 'Who-dun-it' as a counter espionage story about 'who will do it and how can they be stopped'. I had a go at the genre with the sailing story 'Vital Spark' and enjoyed it and the one I'm working on now with the help of Lorraine Mace, is looking good but the idea will have to go on the back burner for now.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

One of the people our Sunday School teacher made a hero of, was Samson. Of course, it was war time and there were Nazies to hate but, since then, there have been a number of terrorists/freedom fighter organisations who have made me re-examine the Samson story and the lessons it teaches. When Samson arrived, the Israelites were dominated by the Philistines. Samson grew up, killed thousands with the jaw bone of an ass, married someone from their culture, was betrayed, blinded and took his revenge by pulling down their place of entertainment, thereby killing, not only himself, but more than he had when he was alive. After all that, the Israelites were still dominated by the Philistines. So, apart from the death of many Philistines, what had Samson achieved? It doesn't seem to have been a great deal, so what lessons does the story teach?
Firstly, as has been proved over and over since 1945, killing people solves very little. 
However, these notes are meant to deal with personal and relationship problems and it is necessary to look more closely at the incidents in the story. Samson was betrayed by his wife, a wife he had taken from outside his culture. That's not the same as race or social class, it's the philosophy we live by, how we see our social responsibilities. For a relationship, social, work, or business to work, partners' cultures have to overlap. For some reason, it is better if they have areas of difference that have to be worked on, but the overlap must be considerable or one partner will betray the other.

Then there is the question of revenge. Samson’s efforts may have altered the demographics but each tit following a tat only escalated the confrontation and solved nothing of the general problem of Philistine domination or equality between them and the Israelites. The same applies in relationships. Paying back some slight only encourages another. It’s not good to allow oneself to be trampled on but, ideally, one should leave the other party an honourable way out of a dispute.

Food stories continued

I made a list of some story lines that might suit the Writers' Magazine competition on my website but they needed fleshing a bit. The one that seemed to have instant drama was the one where the two survivors are eating one of their dead companions and wondering which of them will be next.
That led to me thinking the possibility of rescue or survival would influence what happened. If they have no hope, they may just decide to die but if they are expecting rescue, or are close to safety then another dynamic is introduced. Suppose one is big and the other small and skinny. Then the bigger chap would be stronger and better able to survive but he would represent more meat and the skinny guy would live linger. Who is the point of view character? The big guy may not be too worried, he can always choke the smaller one but the small chap needs some devious way of killing.
That's a bit gruesome but was triggered by seeing something about the North West Passage to the Far East.
The funeral idea where the eaters wonder who will inherit as each dish is the favourite of a different person seemed all right but how does it finish? I'm not sure it would be believable.
Let me introduce an additional line of thought. Let's assume it is in the days when there was a royal taster and the taster knows the food may be poisoned. Will he eat it? If he refuses, will he be forced to eat it or will he be forced to tell how he knows, then have to eat it? In other words, is he going to die anyway? That would depend on the ruler. Can he find a way out? The ruler loves his dogs, so that is out.
Then we have the WI scone confrontation. A's husband is a butcher like Gillespie in 'Best in Show' and can influence the judge with fillet steaks and legs of lamb, but he is having an affair with B. What will he do? If B wins what will he tell his wife? I think this is one for the sequel to Best in Show.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Looking forward

When Jephthah led Israel several of the neighbouring rulers claimed back land that the Israelites had captured three hundred years earlier and went to war to reclaim it. After some negotiation, the two went to war and the Israelites won. This sounds like a good historical tale but if we look at it in the way Ancient stories, like Aesop's fables are told there is a good deal more to be learned from the story. The lessons are usually from the losing side, so what does that tell us? The bordering kings had held a grudge for three hundred years and when they wanted it redressed, it reacted badly on them. They would have been better to accept the status quo and get on with life. That lesson applies to most human interaction, individuals, groups and even businesses. Remembering must be for the right reasons. We do not remember Auschwitz for what it did to the Jews, we remember it because all who were involved in it were human beings and it reminds us of the kind of things human beings can do to each other. Using up energy and resources to get back at a rival reduces the energy we have to improve ourselves. If we start from how things were a year ago, we will never progress tomorrow.  There is merit in analysing to prevent future mistakes but analysing the past to apportion blame only keeps opening the wound. There is merit in recalling success to motivate further improvement or mitigate gloom at some reverse, we can be that nation again as the Scots sing, but the starting point of tomorrow is today.

Add-ons of criticism

I went off for a wee break visiting the flower show in my old village and a bit of a think about getting into my character’s heads. It proved worthwhile and I got back to my old method of putting myself in the physical situation and looking round at what I see and what I am doing. In one instance my hero, Fergus Findlay from ‘Drover’, was in a Glasgow ballroom in 1820 with the elite of the city and I realised they would be merchants and people with factories. As the setting was the insurrection of that year it did more than give me the scene, it let me understand what the character would think of the gathering and that added a layer to the situation, which I hadn’t imagined. I was going to write ‘a layer I hadn’t thought of.’ but that would be ending a sentence with a preposition and ungrammatical and would have to have been ‘a situation of which I had not thought.’
The other incident is where one character takes a letter from a spy without knowing it. I had just assumed that when someone asked you to take a letter for them, you didn’t enquire into its contents or its reason, you just helped out but my mentor, Lorraine Mace, pointed out that in times of trouble you would certainly be suspicious and reluctant. I don’t entirely agree but it led to a nice way of exposing the spy and a little twist to the plot and a lifting of the tension.
What’s really annoying me is that I had thought the whole thing was fairly tight but Lorraine has seen gaps in the thinking and opened opportunities I didn’t see. Her comments have also turned a quasi history book into a human story that is beginning to fascinate me in a way the original didn’t. I think that is because what I now call the draft was falling between the stools (sorry about the cliche and I can’t get the little sign above the ‘e’) of historical accuracy and a good yarn.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Reminders

One of the things that interrupts the smooth flow of the Israelites taking over everything is their inability to conquer all the tribes in the area and the idea that this was for their own good as it trained those who had never experienced war in its dangers and tactics. For our present generation there are things like the obsession with germs and the belief that children should not be exposed to them, which leads to lower resistance to disease. I think it was in the war of the worlds that the aliens were killed by a common cold virus. Are we in danger of getting to that stage? In the corporate world it is easy for the staff to become complacent in the belief that the company will continue in its current state for ever, ignoring the virile competition of new arrivals in the industry. In these circumstances, as with sports teams, a good helping of competition works wonders.

On a relationship level, complacency, taking a partner or friend for granted, is a death sentence and we need to be remember what it was like before the relationship was established and keep it fresh; recalling why we started the relationship and our joy at that time needs to be relived from time to time. Instead we tend to view the relationship in its current state, forgetting it got that way through our forgetting.  

When we remember on a personal level, it is so easy to forget our successes and see only where we failed.  It’s easy to concentrate on the failures and regrets and forget what we achieved. Many of the regrets people worry about are small and insignificant but they will dismiss successes and times of elation of a similar level as of no account.  The cake that tuned out a success is just as important as the flop but what do we remember? The bus we missed is an event but how often did we catch it? The name we can’t remember is a tragedy but what about the smell of the roses.

It’s in ways like this that the Bible can teach us how to live.

Stories from history

I'm writing this to clear my thoughts as I try to get into the head of a character in The Cauldron Bubbles. The story is set in the 1820 uprising in Scotland following the Peterloo affair. It concerns a deaf lad who has escaped threats by running away over the moors of South Lanarkshire. I know the moors and they are a place of sanctuary from life's problems. The deaf lad is from the north, Dornoch and doesn't know the area and it has been pointed out he will be terrified and desperate. I can understand he might be in spasms but the moors are empty and while that might worry some people, I have always found them friendly, places where the curlews cry and the skylarks sang. A place where the wind that sighed through the brown grass was scented by the heather. Maybe what I can do is make the lad be alternately terrified and calm. Be a bit lyrical about the scenery compared to the threat from enemies. The contrast might even created more tension than trying straight terror.
One of the reasons I find this difficult is that I normally write light humour about village life but this story came to me from the last armed uprising in mainland Britain, which played out along a strip between Falkirk and Strathaven, pronounced Straven, in South Lanarkshire. I was brought up in the area and taught about Marie Antoinette and Jane Seymour at school but only learned about it this local confrontation after I retired. That is also true concerning the first Scottish parliament, which was held in Lanark at the time of the battle of Stamford Bridge 1066 and all that. I went to school in Lanark but nobody thought to mention the parliament when talking about the Norman Invasion, nor did they mention Roy of the Ordinance Survey, who had attended the school about the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Writing novels is fun at every stage but it's like building yachts, the biggest job is to get the hull laid up but it represents only about a quarter of the cost. The real money is made by the add-ons, the galley, the electronics and the rigging. With novels it's the publicity and advertising and all the personal appearances and talks that are wearing. It's easy to self publish but the rest is a minefield for the unaware. With help from a professional consultant, Lorraine Mace, I have begun rewriting what I self published. While I may give out a few of those to friends and try a market here and there, I am determined to get an agent. If, after the first hundred, no one is interested, then the books won't sell enough to cover their cost of production anyway and I'm not going to rush madly about trying to be a salesman. The annoying thing is that I've been going for several years and have a core readership who are continually asking when the sequel to Welcome to Oakhaven is coming out, or when O'Reilly's Daughter will become a novel. I'm looking forward to the writing but not the energy sapping add-ons. In the meantime I'm trying to earn enough from short stories to pay for advice.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Holiday romance flash fiction

The latest brief for a 500 word short story for Writer's Forum is one side of a conversation at the end of a holiday romance. No tears, no deaths, uplifting. I set about gathering ideas -
1. Two teenagers and the one comparing the holiday friend with someone back home.
2. Two middle aged from humdrum backgrounds finding a real interest in living.
3. Two old people who were sweethearts in their youth and have met again by accident in the hotel.
and variations of that.
4. A lesbian who has found out her orientation and must reveal it to her husband/family. Something like that would be more dramatic than the usual romance.

I'll expand on those ideas but as usual, the brief led me into other byways.

Someone who has been sailing and fallen in love with a particular boat is recalling the fun they had.
Someone, maybe a child, who has met and formed a relationship with and animal, a dog or a donkey. They can't take it home and want to say goodbye.
Someone from a city who has discovered the beauty of a landscape and is describing it to remember how it affected them.
Someone from a sleepy village who has discovered theatre, music, art, and their ambition is revived.
Someone in whom ambition had died and has had it revived by a storm and the persistence of a rescue. Bruce and the spider.
Outside the brief there are so many interesting possibilities for short story lines.

picture by Pam Pepper

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Loyalty and commitment

In his last days, Joshua called the people together and like a CEO after a merger, warned them about the dangers of clinging to old and contrary cultures - they will become snares and traps for you, he warned. He also insists they choose where their loyalty lay.  These warnings don't just apply to big corporations, however, they apply to sports teams, small groups and even individuals. This is not to say that the door should be closed on new ideas but that we all have a culture, company and personal, that makes us who we are. Trying to imitate someone else only damages our own identity. No business can succeed if it is continually changing its focus, it needs to concentrate on its core business and, most importantly, core values. No team can win if its members are not all focused on the team game plan with half operating to one strategy and the others employing tactics used by a different team. No individual can succeed by trying to be an imitation of someone else instead of making use of their own strengths. What about loyalty? Most problems in business and work come from divided loyalties. The business only exists as long as it makes a profit, if that is not possible within the company culture of customer policy, wage rates, employee conditions, then the company must close. Changing the culture to produce an inferior article makes it a new company and each individual will, and must, decide if they can transfer their loyalty. A star performer in a poor team moving to a better one, must decide if they can accept not being the hero. The person who can't stand the boss has to decide if their loyalty is to their dependants, the job, or the boss before giving up. Loyalty is not a given, of course, and managers and big companies are apt to forget that loyalty must be earned, in the same way, as Joshua points out, that God earned that of the Israelites. 

Inspiration in the coffee shop

I gave up several social activities to concentrate on writing but found I was running short on ideas, decided to get out a bit more, and went along to the local coffee shop. Two well dressed ladies came and sat at the table next to me and began to talk. 'Did Maisie's cousin come to fix your tap?' one asked. 'Yes he did. I was in my underwear when he came but it was from Marks and Spencers, so it was quite respectable.' the other answered. There's more unsaid than said but it's the kind of thing that stirs the imagination and I concluded that I'm one of those who need to have people around to keep my creative wires humming.
One of my favourite inspirational sites is the bus when the WI are on a trip or at the bowls club. That's when you hear about all kinds of human foibles and I get several episodes for another Welcome to Oakhaven or Best in Show's Cairndhu. The big thing about those episodes is that people can identify with them, they've usually happened elsewhere and, in addition, they are important enough in normal life for them to be commented on.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Why review?

By the time Joshua was old and full of years, the Israelites had become a large organisation and their struggles reflect the problems faced by that kind of association and we get a list of what has been allocated to whom. Translating that into present day terms it tells us a large organisation, business, sporting, or just community, needs to review and remind itself of what it has accomplished and what its values are.  It applies to teams and even couples and individuals. We need to remind ourselves of the successes we’ve had and the problems we’ve faced and overcome together. We need to remind ourselves why we are doing things and what our ultimate aims are. It applies to careers, university studies and even school, where it is easy to give up over the boring aspects of what we are busy with, when they are necessary steps to a goal. It’s also necessary to remind ourselves of mistakes so that we don’t repeat them. But for future planning, we need to review the present as well as the past. We need to take stock and look at things as they are so that our future plans are based on reality and not illusions.

Setting limits

When Joshua became old and full of years he was relieved of leading the fight against the Sidonites. That teaches us that we should not ask others, or even ourselves to do things beyond our capabilities. That’s not to say we mustn’t try but no matter how hard you flap your arms, you won't fly. What it does say is that, as a boss, when things become too difficult for our people, we need to take over responsibility. No one can do everything. Some lack experience, some lack skill and some just have too much on their plate. For the small business, reaching beyond the business’s means is one of the main reasons for failure. To get a large company example, it is only necessary to recall what happened to the banks in the recent collapse.

On the negative side, how often has a good production official been promoted into an advisory, administrative, or even sales job and proved incompetent. The same applies to admin. people fordced out of their competence. That kind of promotion is unfair to the employee and it is the boss’s responsibility to make sure each promotion is in the employee’s interest as well as the company’s.

These notes are written in the belief that the Bible is not just a history book but something that teaches us how we should live and work.    

The Israelites cheated lesson

Taking another look at the story of the small tribe the Gibeonites making their peace with the Israelites I noticed that when the Israelites sampled the Gibeonites food to see if they had come from a long way away, they did not refer the thing to God and were cheated. How often do we get into trouble by agreeing to something or making an arrangement in business, a dinner date, buying another ‘thing’, or agreeing a price or delivery without conferring with, or even referring to our partner or our boss. The lessons the Bible teaches are not always ‘in our face’ and that’s why it is worth reading it with care and reflecting on its teaching. I once agreed an exchange rate, just for the purposes of calculation, with a supplier and found myself in trouble when the supplier insisted I had agreed it as part of the contract. I was lucky, by the time payment was due, the exchange rate was on our side. 

https://sullatoberdalton.blogspot.com/2019/06/merggers-and-marriages.html

Mergers and marriages

The next part of the Israelite story as they claim Canaan finds a small tribe coming to make peace with them, claiming to be from far off. They are included in the Israelite community as slaves, but are included and not slaughtered like other groups. It’s like the takeover business and a lesson as to how a small organisation might live within a major company by offering to be overtaken rather than wait for a hostile acquisition. In a well-managed takeover, the employees of the smaller company will still have jobs and careers, whereas in a hostile acquisition the anger generated by the resistance of the company taken over means a clear out of staff. How does the lesson apply to relationships? It’s unacceptable that one party in a relationship will become a slave to the other. In fact there should be no stronger and weaker partner and perhaps that is the lesson. If one partner feels inadequate, or is made to feel inadequate, then they will become a slave, losing personality and will, a sorrowful thing to watch. The story deals with two extreme alternatives and ignores the idea of just running away, which, in personal relationships is the best escape from something that is not based on mutual respect.

Ai

When the Israelites had taken Jericho, they went trying to Ai and were repulsed. According to the story, all the precious metal was reserved for God yet one of the men had taken and hidden some for himself. In other words, the organisation was rotten from within. It’s like a takeover of a business but one of the parent company’s people has set an asset aside for himself. The same is true of a relationship where one partner has kept alive part of an old relationship. The new relationship is doomed. Or a business selling flowers that tries to keep something from the old butchery, selling sausages, maybe, going as well.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Hero or Heroine

One reason I stopped to think about a hero is that I have written a novel set in Scotland during the 1820 uprising and the 'hero', I should really call him the protagonist, is an ordinary man caught up in the disturbance. Even Broon in Best in Show is an ordinary man finding himself having to deal with things beyond his experience. For some reason my 'heroes' are 'heroines', like Miss Kirkwood who encourages and inspires Broon; a bit like Bertie Wooster's Jeeves. Even when I wrote the WW1 South African tales, the protagonist was an ordinary man of mixed race who had been mistaken for white and made an officer and was forced to cope with missions beyond his capability - when he learned to fly, he crashed but survived and his superior sent him off in another flying machine with the comment, 'Even if you crash, you'll get there quicker than by train.'
By contrast, the women are sturdy in their opinions and push the poor devils to take on things that terrify them. Even when I wanted to do a story on King Arthur, it was Guinevere who demanded a round table.
I'm over eighty and maybe I've always felt the men built things, drove things, made things, but it was the women who had the courage to deal with life's real problems, like children and the family, and had the final say in where to live.
Anyway, I've been reading Sharpe and watching bomb aimers let bombs go and those little flashes which are the bombs exploding are someone's house with their furniture, pots and pans and curtains they've just washed going up in flames. The man goes to work next day but what does the woman do? Pick up the pieces and get on with life.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Where's the Hero?

I’m busy with two short stories, one about people coping with something missing in their life for Writers Magazine and the other a bit about fake jewelry for Writers Journal but as I watched Sharpe on TV yesterday and it set me thinking that, while I have written ten novels, I don’t really have a ‘Hero’ like Sharpe or Hornblower. The closest I’ve come is Miss Kirkwood in A Land Fit for Heroes, Broon in Best in Show, and Fergus Findlay in Drover. There’s also Mrs Boniface in Oakhaven and Jinks with Broon in Cairndhu but, while I love them both, they are best in frantic cameo appearances. There is no John Wayne. I think I’d be happier with James Stewart, someone that is only violent when there is no option. In what setting? A Jacobite would be romantic and I love the Highlands, the Lord of the Isles has real potential from the Romans to Bruce and Bonny Prince Charlie, Irish history is full of myth and magic, but there is more immediacy in Kimberley and the early days of the diamond fields, lots of rogues and clowns and the excitement of finds as well as the deaths and disappointments. I like it but it’s set in the days of empire and white supremacy, would it sell? Probably not. Never mind, seek and ye shall receive, I have always believed, or maybe it’s, don’t seek and you’ll find nothing.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Samson's hair

I want to look at the Samson story in the Bible and what lessons it has for the reader as far as ordinary life is concerned. I don’t for a minute believe his strength depended on the length of his hair, so there must be some other reason for telling the tale. Samson married someone from a group that was opposed to his own but this isn’t about racial purity but about sensibly having a partner who shares your philosophy in life. That shared ideal applies in all walks of life, marriage, business and social. Then Samson tells Delilah where his strength lies and is betrayed. That’s a warning not to expose your weakest areas to anyone you can’t trust, in fact anyone with an interest in hurting you. Then we have the denouement and Samson takes revenge on his tormentors but kills himself in the process. Taking revenge often has that effect, in personal relationships, in general life and in business. It is always better to look at what is best for you, your relationship, or your business, than how you can damage the opposition.

A List-less plot

Once again I have been guilty of not looking carefully at a competition brief. I rushed off making plans for the 'List' flash fiction story in Writers Journal and found I was only allowed ten items. No matter, all these aborted attempts produce story lines for future use. The 'Hidden' one for Writer's Magazine was a lost cause until I listened to that I'm just a Country Boy, Don Williams song and I wondered what the girl he loved might be missing, especially if the situation was set in Victorian times when the girl was fenced in with social rules. The draft in short story form looks good but, after reading a Katie Fford and an Anne Tyler, A Spool of Blue Thread, which was a finalist in Booker Prize competition, I wonder if it is really a novel. My normal reading being Bernard Cornwell, C.S. Forester, or P.G. Wodehouse, which all have ACTION and PLOT. Like Mark Twain, I feel Ann Tyler writes wine, I try to write water, everybody drinks water.

   www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Listing a story

 I like to try the flash fiction competition in Writers Journal because it is always intriguing. This month it is to tell a story in a list. The editor suggested it could be a shopping list but I have a problem with that, a shopping list even a bucket list, only tells you what you intend to buy or do, but not how it turned out. That would mean the story would hang in the air.
I turned to think of what we write lists for, Christmas presents, wedding guests, telephone numbers. The telephone numbers reminded me of a thing I saw at university, it showed the names and telephone numbers of the girls the student had taken out in years 1, 2, 3, and 4.
The first page had only one name on it, Jean maybe. The second was full, including Mary Brown/Grey 361 ???. The third year there were less but included Mary WHITE 361 702. The fourth year only had MARY on it. That told a story after the event and I want to get something like that.
I suppose a wedding list could show
Invite Jean Grey
Invite Mary Brown
and show that Jean and Mary don't get on. Maybe that could be expanded or
A Christmas list with dates like the students note book with each present being scored off as it is bought
Sept.
John - a card
Larry - nice pullover

Oct
John - Handkerchiefs or socks
Larry - Scarf and gloves

Nov
John - Book
Larry - Handkerchiefs

Dec
John - Bottle of Single Malt Whisky
Larry 

It's an intriguing challenge.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Prize winning short story

I've added O'Reilly's Daughter to the short stories. It won a prize in Writers Journal and I am rather pleased with it. I love characters who don't conform and Elizabeth is one of those. In a way I find strong female characters have more depth than male ones. The male ones seem to come out hard men or bullies and single minded. It probably has something to do with heroes from boyhood, they never had any doubts and we knew they would win. John Wayne at Iwo Jima, Zorro and Buffalo Bill. The funny men were just funny, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, or the Three Stogies. We never had a funny hero, or a tough funny man. But the ladies could do stupid things and remain ladies, fall in love and realise their mistake.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Bus to ??? story

I had a story written for a flash fiction competition in Writers Journal and was about to press send when I checked and found I had not read the brief properly and the taale was out of spec. I'd enjoyed writing it so much I couldn't let it just lie about, so here it is. I'll stick it on the web-pagewww.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober/short-stories
The pic is one of Pam Pepper's

BUS TO ???

I was standing at the bus stop, when a man about my own fifty odd years joined me. Instead of the usual dumb brick, why can’t Avril arrange a man like that as a dinner partner for me, I thought.

When we got on, there were only two seats, side by side.

‘I’m sorry, this is the only seat, do you mind?’ he asked.

I smiled, moved and he sat down.

‘You look so different when you smile,’ he said. ‘At the stop, you looked so fierce.’

‘Oh, it’s nothing to do with you,’ I said. ‘I have to go to one of these frightful dinner parties.’

He grinned and we made small talk until he asked what I did.

‘I’m a painter,’ I told him.

‘Why do you paint?’

‘I want to share what I see. I love to paint people. I did a grandmother with a little girl jumping in the waves. I’ve painted the little girl talking to her granny with her little brother standing there, wanting to say something but too shy to speak. Or maybe he just couldn’t get a word in edgeways,’ I added.

As the bus rumbled on, we became confidents. Well, I confided and he listened. In the end, I realised I was gabbing on.

‘What do you do?’ I asked.

‘I’m a journalist and I like talking to people. I find them as fascinating as your grannies.’

‘So that’s why you’re such a good listener,’ I said. ‘You looked as if you were really enjoying what I was saying.’

‘You were animated and make it so interesting just to listen.’

 When he said animated, I realised I’d been waving my hands as I talked, you know how I do, and been bumping against him, even putting my hand on his knee, and felt my face colouring. I looked out of the window and was relieved to see I was nearly at my stop. ‘It’s been lovely talking to you but I’m afraid the next stop is mine.’

‘You’re not going to the Mathews’ dinner party, are you?’

I laughed. ‘You’re not John, are you?’

‘And you must be Laura.’

‘This could be fun,’ I said, putting my hand on his leg again, as you do with someone you like. ‘Let me go in first and give them a talking to about getting me partners who have nothing to say and just grunt replies.’

He smiled. ‘Which is close enough to the truth to make them worry.’

‘Then you come in and tell them off for arranging partners who never stop talking.’

He grinned at me like a fellow conspirator. ‘You know, young lady, I don’t want to share you with a busload of people on the way back. Let me order a taxi for us.’

I raised my hand to my mouth in mock horror. ‘Then you’ll know where I live.’

‘If I’m going to send you a valentine card, I’ll need to know your address,’ he grinned.

Traveled out

I've written the flight from the Northern Cape area to Cape Town. It was easy ass I've flow with an organisation nicknamed Fright Services but the other idea of computer versus mind travel has run out of steam. I tried different points of view and an extra character, and even a different start, which can make me sit up and take notice. The story of Brexit doesn't become dramatic at the referendum, it starts when parliament turns down the deal and you ask, What now? Anyway, I couldn't get it to conclude  properly, even well enough to convince myself it it was literary. It has so much going for it I'll put it on the back burner and dabble with it now and then. I've done that with quite a few ideas and it's amazing what they can become. 

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

How to manage a project

When Joshua was faced with attacking Jericho and wasn’t sure what to do, an angel appeared and he talked it over with the angel. He then made his plans, made sure everyone knew what to do and started his campaign. The incident lays down the natural order of dealing with a problem facing a group of even two. First talk, then make sure the plan is understood and agreed on, then get into action.

Compare that with what has happened with Brexit. We were suddenly faced with a plan no one understood and expected to get on with things. We have a plan but it’s not agreed and, when we should be in the action stage, the discussions start. The Bible is not just for Sunday School, it’s self help for everyday and for business and even politics.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober