My guest today is Marie, wife of John Hunter, who has been directing an amateur dramatic society’s production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Marie, who comes from The Unkindest Cut of All by Sue Barnard, has been kind enough to share an entry from her diary.
Monday 10th March
Well, that went pretty well for a first night, considering all the problems we’ve had. It didn’t help that Brian arrived five minutes late, which sent John into a blind panic before we’d even started. But then, that’s Brian for you. Always thinks that normal rules don’t apply to him. To be quite honest I’ve no idea how anyone ever puts up with him. The play’s the thing, I suppose.
After all this time, I find it hard to believe that we’ve actually got to this stage. John has been eating, breathing and sleeping that wretched play for the past two months. Well, longer than that, I suppose, if I include all the time he spent reading and studying it before they started rehearsing.
Heaven alone knows why he wanted to do Julius Caesar. I know he’s always loved Shakespeare, but it definitely wouldn’t have been my first choice of play. And in any case, why pick a tragedy, when there are so many good comedies to choose from? But then, as Sarah pointed out, at least John didn’t go for Titus Andronicus. We should be grateful for small mercies. Maybe it was the timing – Ides of March, and all that.
I did Julius Caesar at school. I didn’t remember a great deal about it, apart from one lesson when we were reading one of the scenes in class, and at the point where it says Enter the Ghost of Caesar, the classroom door opened and in walked the headmistress, who must have been pushing sixty and looked like something out of a horror film. It seemed absolutely hilarious to us at the time.
Nobody could accuse me of not remembering a great deal about it now! But it’s always the same. When John gets his teeth into a task, it takes over his entire life – and mine – for the duration. By the time we get to performance week, I reckon I could be the all-purpose emergency understudy for the whole cast.
Thank goodness for Sarah. She’s been an absolute trooper, taking over only a couple of weeks ago when Diane fell ill. Nobody’s quite sure what was the matter with Diane, but her mother rang me this afternoon to say that she’s been rushed into hospital. Poor girl. I know she felt really bad about having to drop out. I’m going to go and see her tomorrow. The cast all signed a card for her after the performance tonight. I hope that might cheer her up a bit.
One down, five to go. Maybe when the week is over I might actually get my husband back! But we’ve still got to get through the rest of the run first. Here’s hoping nothing else goes wrong between now and Saturday evening…
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The Unkindest Cut of All, by Sue Barnard, is available for download – and from today for the next seven days, it is on special offer at a princely 99p. For more details, click here.
Just for Fun is an eclectic anthology of short stories and essays written over a period of several years by Henry Tobias for his writing group. It was never his intention to publish, but as his stories were well received and with self-publishing, thanks to modern technology, being as stress free as it is today, he decided that the relative small outlay was worthwhile. This outlay came from securing rights for some of the pictures used to illustrate his stories like, the Andy Capp cartoon, and the reproductions of the painting by Van Gogh and Rembrandt van Rijn. Once the e-book had been published and distributed on Smashwords, the next obvious step was print. There are many small publishers who are willing to publish print-on-demand books today, but Henry chose the do-it-yourself route offered by Amazon’s CreateSpace, for two reasons. The first was the challenge of getting to grips with the technology, not easy for a baby-boomer. The second reason was being able to say ‘I did it myself’. Furthermore, I had been told about D-I-Y websites for cover design of e-books. I discovered Canva, a company apparently located in Australia. I find the site easy and fun to use and when I do have problems I get a prompt reply. I don’t get any financial benefit for mentioning Smashwords, Amazon’s CreateSpace or Canva.
Henry Tobias was born in London, England and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he trained as a pharmacist. As a young boy he was a member of Zionist Youth Movements – one of the factors which influenced his decision to live in Israel. The other influence was The Holocaust – the murder of some SIX MILLION Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices, which included citizens of many of the nations across Europe. He has a deep love of reading, especially history, particularly of World War II, The Holocaust including The Kindertransport and Jewish history throughout the ages. Some of his favourite authors are Richard Overy, Bernard Lewis and John Toland. Now retired, he writes and edits. He lives near Jerusalem with Jill, his wife of 44 years. He has three adult children and so far one beautiful granddaughter. He has published one anthology of eclectic short stories and essays, Just for Fun, and is currently working on his second book, an historical novel of World War II, provisionally titled Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother, which he hopes to publish before the end of 2016.
D.r. Brauner is a writer, editor and photographer. He was born in England, raised in America and holds an MLitt in English Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. He wrote and photographed for The Jerusalem Post for fifteen years. During the last twenty-five years, he has edited academic papers and books and was the language editor of Yad Vashem Studies Holocaust journal from 2007 to 2014. From the early 1990s to this day, he has mentored a Creative Writing Circle in Jerusalem that has produced hundreds of memoirs, essays, short stories and novels, not a few of which have been published. Wherever David is, he is living in another world of images and books, kites and bikes, hopes and dreams. In this world life is all the better for having met his wife Ruth and finding their sweet dog Daisy.
I hope you, Emily and Robyn are doing well. I’m so sad to be missing Christmas with you all but the ranch is amazing. I can’t believe I’ll be working here next summer, and being able to spend these two weeks here right now is… well, let me tell you everything.
the ride we saw a man running behind a burro. I thought he was trying to catch his loose animal but Eli said that was his friend Howard, and that he does something called burro racing where he runs behind the burro in full-length marathons. I’m definitely going to find out more about that next summer – can you imagine running behind an equine instead of ON one??
Teresa Cutler-Broyles is an author, traveler, and adventure guide, and has been writing since she was eight years old; her first published piece was an article about her one-eyed horse in Western Horseman Magazine. Currently she lives in New Mexico with two goofy dogs and her husband, and divides her time between there and Italy where she teaches in the summer. When she’s not teaching or writing, she’s probably researching something historical and architectural, or off on another adventure. Story ideas happen to her when she travels; what better reason to get off the couch!
Renate Edler loves to visit her grandmother in the house on Schellberg Street. She often meets up with her friend Hani Gödde who lives nearby. This year, though, it is not to be. Renate finds out a terrible secret about her family. She has to leave behind her home and her friends and become somebody she never thought she could be. The house on Schellberg Street needs to stay strong.
Gill James writes for children and young adults. She is also a prolific writer of short fiction and flash fiction. As well as being published by several companies, she is a publisher / editor working with Bridge House, Chapeltown and The Red Telephone. She works at the University of Salford as lecturer in English and Creative Writing.
Seven for a Secret is a romantic tale told through two time periods, the year 2000 and the 1920s. Set in Chicago, each era follows its own love story, with the past and present interrelating through mystical means. Lon is the hero of the Jazz Age story, in which he meets a young socialite, Eva, who is betrothed to someone else. The two become fast friends and confidantes, however, sharing a connection they’ve never enjoyed before in their stifling upper-class milieu.
Rumer Haven is probably the most social recluse you could ever meet. When she’s not babbling her fool head off among friends and family, she’s pacified with a good story that she’s reading, writing, or revising – or binge-watching something on Netflix. A former teacher hailing from Chicago, she presently lives in London with her husband and probably a ghost or two. Rumer has always had a penchant for the past and paranormal, which inspires her writing to explore dimensions of time, love, and the soul. She debuted in 2014 with Seven for a Secret, and her next novel, What the Clocks Know, is due for release by Crooked Cat Publishing in early 2016.
Discovery is Only the Beginning
Yvonne Marjot was born in England, grew up in New Zealand, and now lives on the Isle of Mull in western Scotland. She has a Masters in Botany from Victoria University of Wellington, and a keen interest in the interface between the natural and human worlds. She has always made up stories and poems, and once won a case of port in a poetry competition (New Zealand Listener, May 1996). In 2012 she won the Britwriters Award for poetry, and her first volume of poetry, The Knitted Curiosity Cabinet, was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing.
You died long before I was born and I really wish I had had the chance to meet you.
What an extraordinary woman you were! From a sheltered upbringing in a quiet backwater, you left Corsica in 1917 to nurse at the Western Front, something that would have been unthinkable for a Corsican woman a generation earlier. But you were always deeply attached to the island and now I understand why. I feel something of that bond myself.
Set in early 20th-century Corsica and at the Western Front in World War I, The House at Zaronza is loosely inspired by a true story. Maria Orsini, the daughter of a bourgeois family in a Corsican village, and the local schoolmaster carry on a secret romance. Maria’s parents have other plans for her future and she sees her dreams crumble. Her life is played out against the backdrop of Corsica, the ‘island of beauty’, and the turmoil of World War I. This is a story about love, betrayal, loss and reconciliation in a strict patriarchal society, whose values are challenged as the world changes.
Vanessa lives in France and is passionate about French and Corsican history and culture, the inspiration for her writing. The House at Zaronza is based on an intriguing true story that she came across when holidaying on the beguiling Mediterranean island of Corsica.
Miriam Drori, Author 