Bruce's spider

This being hogmanay, I thought a bit of verse wouldn't go wrong.

Bruce and yon spider

Robert the Bruce sat in his cave,

All he could see was the ocean wave.

He’d already been crowned with a crown on a throne

But then he’d been sitting on destiny’s stone.

Since then he’d fought battles six,

Hadn’t won only one and was in a fix.

He’d nothing to read, or games to play,

Only that minstrel who sang all day.

With nothing to do and no paper to write,

A spider came crawling into his sight.

He watched the fool,

As it tried to spool

A web from this side to that

Of the cave wherein he sat.

It tried and tried and he started to add,

The swings it took, the attempts it had.

That’s six he muttered into his beard,

Enough is enough is what I’d feared,

But the spider had more courage than him,

And set off again on another swing.

Just at that the wind gave a puff,

And the spider was carried far enough,

To catch a hold where it wanted to be,

And Robert the Bruce said, I see, I see.

Six is the number of the Bible’s beast,

So seven tries I must make at least.

Bruce went on to win renown,

To sit on the throne and wear his crown.

So whether in word or deed,

You wish to win, succeed,

If time and again you fail the test,

Take a tip from the spider who showed the best,

Don’t sit in a cave and wonder why,

Get out there and try and try.

Happy New Year

www.sullatoberdalton.com

Christmas cards and first novels

Well, the deadline for the twist story came and went and I didn't have it finished in time. Christmas interfered in the shape of Christmas cards and shopping. The cards took more than expected because I thought I would be clever and do a design for a cover, then add a Christmas story inside. I came close to giving up but managed to get it together. What the recipients felt about it, I have yet to discover. The story is in the web page under the title of The Innkeeper's Christmas Carol if anyone feels inclined to look at it. I enjoyed writing it as I have always been fascinated by the ordinary people who appear in the stories in the Bible. The cup bearer who knew Joseph, for example - how did he tell Pharoah about Joseph?
I'm not writing much just now but I have been given a book to review for a friend. My first reaction is that the author should have been given the same advice as me, - finish your first novel, put it in a drawer, lock the drawer and throw away the key. There is so much to learn, not just about how to plot and plan and have highs and lows but how to submit to an agent or a publisher and how much work there is in promoting it that rushing only results in frustration. I've written several, but the promotion and selling they need to make them a commercial success needs more energy than I can muster. The writing still fascinates me and I am working on a historical novel, but, like the one I'm reviewing, it's a bit of a thirty thousand word story shouting to get out of seventy thousand words and I am not rushing until I feel happy with it all.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

A Bruce's Welcome for a maid

What I am about to write was not fully revealed to me by my history teachers, nor by Nigel Tranter. I was like many others told that when Alexander 111 died, jis successor was to be a young lassie, the Maid of Norway, the daughter of a Scottish princess who had married into the royal family of what was really the Auld Ally. The lassie was to marry Edward, king of England's daughter and unite the kingdoms. What slipped under the radar was that, at the time the nobles were all waiting for the lassie to arrive, the Bishop of St Andrews, the head of the church in Scotland, a position made much of by Tranter, wrote in desperation to Edward - 'The kingdom is disturbed...Sir Robert Bruce is come with a great following...and on that account, there is fear of a general war and a great slaughter of men unless Your Majesty apply some speedy remedy.'
Of course, all the arrangements fell apart when the lassie died on the way to Scotland and that left the throne of Scotland vacant.
The Scots asked Edward of England to judge between the claims of Robert Bruce and John Balliol both swearing fealty to Edward to influence their claim, thereby giving away Scotland's independence. We were taught that Edward chose Balliol because he thought he would be easier to manipulate than Bruce, not that Balliol's claim was senior, being descended from the elder of two princesses.
We never heard that Balliol had renegued on his fealty vow and gone to war with Edward long before a Bruce took on that role, yet Ballio is portrayed as some kind of fool Scotland was glad to be rid of. He's made such a shadowy figure it's hard to get a decent picture of the man. If Bruce had backed him the way yon Jimmy, sorry, Good Sir James, The Black Douglas, backed Bruce, would Balliol have triumphed?
Following the story in this way makes one realise the killing of the Comyn in the church wasn't fuelled by patriotism but was part of a family feud. A kind of Wild West story instead of a grand noble quest.
Don't get me wrong, I love heroes. I just don't expect them to be John Wayne and squeaky clean and I don't like needless war being glorified under the name of Patriotism.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

A sting in the tale

I'm still twisting and turning about this tale with a twist or a sting in the tail for Writers' Magazine. I had three quarters of it written as a flight from the outback but the twist was weak and I gave it up. I'll get back to it another time. Anyway, I found another draft in my files but, while the twist was in the last line, it was more one of those throw away lines than loaded in the story plot. The story is too good to misuse so I dropped that for a better opportunity, went back to my draft files and found a tale about someone on a bowls club committee. If you're one of those people who don't like to let the team down and find yourself stuck as the secretary, treasurer, or competition organiser for a bowls, golf, football, sailing, WI, or any other kind of voluntary club, you'll relate easily to the story. A friend of mine who had been secretary of the Probus Club for thirteen years got so desperate he told everyone he was moving two hundred miles away the month before the AGM. The new secretary followed his example after three years. They both still live in the village and the new secretary is starting to look desperate. I've alreaady given too much away but I've managed to give the story a better twist.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books/bees-in-my-bonnet

David and the aged warrior

How the Bruce connection at the time of Matilda and Stephen slipped through the net, I do not know but before we get to deeply into the lead up to Bannockburn, let me do a bit of time travel. You'll remember that the Empress of Maud or Matilda was the niece of David 1, King of Scots, and her right to the Throne of england was disputed by Stephen. David gathered a host to invade England in support of his niece. The host, a motley collection, especially the wild men of Galloway, gathered to plunder the north of England. They set off but when they got to Northallerton, according to Sir Walter Scott, an aged warrior by the name of Bruce, who had known David in the past and had estates in both countries, went into the Scottish camp and advised David not to fight. The Galloway men accused Bruce of being a traitor and, when David had second thoughts about fighting, accused him of cowardice and rabble roused the army to charge. Prince Henry of Scotland led the Scottish cavalry, broke through the English lines and started to hack their rear while the Galloway men hacked them at the front. Things were going well when a perfidious Englishman chopped off someone's head, raised it on a pole and shouted it had belonged to the King of Scots. Whether it was Bruce or not, no one seems to have noticed, but the Scots lost heart and, encouraged by the English longbowmen, ran off home. It was this aged warrior who begat the Bruce line.
To show how unpredictable politics can be, when the peace treaty was signed, except for Newcastle and Bamborough, the whole of Northumberland and Durham became Scottish. Which confirms that, sometimes, you get more from losing than winning.
Of course, you could say that, with typical Scots stupidity, David didn't move his capital south, in accordance with English tradition, but kept it at Edinburgh in what was the middle of his realm, and an opportunity to consolidate was lost.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober