Ether Writer of the Week!

Despite no hot water and a musty old day I am thrilled! I have finally remembered to check the Ether Books site where I am Writer of the Week! www.etherbooks.com Do check if you'd like. I have eight stories up which you can download, mostly set in Africa where I lived many hot and sweaty years.

A friend asked Which Story Is You? and I seriously don't know. I think there are bits scattered all over the shop, I am guilty of magpie traits - snatching details, hoarding them, forgetting them mostly. No I don't carry a notebook. It would just become so long and chunky and I would waste even more time trying to find something I half-remembered, written at a stop light on the way to piano. Nah.. better to trust the sediment. Here are my pieces:

Pelt - a pregnant Ghanaian woman tries to win back her German man when his estranged wife comes to town.

Cartography - Della swiftly marries Luce, a diplomat widower and follows him to West Africa where she becomes involved with a local painter.

The Severed Reef - Australian agronomist Paul Maddox imagines he wears the face of white unscrupulousnous for his Somali colleague as the country descends into war.

The Brittle Beach - a young au pair who observes her Milanese family on holiday on the island of Stromboli, until an accident happens and she is drawn to the volcano.

Nathalie - Mona's daughter Nathalie arrives from Paris on a visit but their reunion is soured when the young woman is attacked on the beach.

Janet and the Angry Trees - a West African sex worker who becomes a carer for her Italian lover's elderly parents.

The Coptic Bride - Jim has spent a lifetime being chastised by his brother for being gay but finds an unlikely ally in Adam's new Ethiopean fiancee.

Gorgeous Eyes - an international photographer visits West Africa and finds a subject in Margaret's sapphire eyes.

I can't even say which is my favourite. As they say in - what was it? modelling, advertising? novel-writing? - you are only as good as your last effort.