The Tarot Cards: A Scottish tale of the weird

tarot

Originally posted 2021-02-22 17:00:03.

The Tarot Cards

Rachel Sutherland was thirty-eight years old, and had already brought three children into the world. She pondered this as she looked at her naked body, reflected in the mirror on the wardrobe in her bedroom. Not bad, she thought, not bad at all. She piled up the extravagant mane of thick dark blonde hair that she always wore long, and turned her body from side to side, examining every contour with practised eye.

She was not what anyone would have called skinny; she was rather short, and her body was full and curvaceous, but still firm and shapely. She smiled. She knew plenty of other mothers of her age who had lost their figures completely. She purred like a cat and looked into the deep brown eyes reflected in the mirror. She leaned closer to the glass. Perhaps a few more lines there, perhaps the freckles that dusted her nose were more prominent, but still…

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Wedding in Molinot July 2016

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Originally posted 2017-08-11 21:57:07.

Weddings are a rarity in the village now, but this was nice. It was the last wedding in Molinot we saw here.

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Fifty-Two of the Best! A bumper bundle!

fifty-two-of-the-best

Originally posted 2021-01-08 11:55:56.

Fifty-Two of the Best: Highlights from Rod Fleming’s World

 

Fifty-Two articles from the popular site Rod Fleming’s World, covering Travel, Sex, Politics, Religion and Humour. A bumper bundle of fun and comment. The articles have been carefully chosen to remain fresh and the book is illustrated with original photographs and artwork. The ideal holiday read!

296 pages.

Print ISBN: 978-09572612-6-6

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A Little Shop of Horrors: Scottish Macabre

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Originally posted 2021-01-08 11:12:04.

A Little Shop of Horrors: Scottish Macabre is a chilling collection of Gothic horror stories by Rod Fleming. This book will definitely keep you awake at night!

Most of the stories are set in genuine Scottish locations, mostly in and around Edinburgh, so they are replete with local colour and history.  The tales bring to life the Gothic charm and mystery of the ‘Florence of the North’ and will be loved by both aficionados of the horror genre and of Scotland and its unique ambience.

Print book ISBN: 978-0-9565007-8-6

Ebooks available through Amazon

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Croutons and Cheese! French Onion Soup 2

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Originally posted 2021-01-08 10:47:24.

Croutons and Cheese: French Onion Soup 2 is the second in Rod Fleming’s hilarious series of memoirs about his life in France. Filled with anecdotes about aviating cats, the Bull in the Back Passage, what to do about ex-pats, transporting the cheese to Scotland, it’s a laugh a minute.

With the lovable and roguish characters you first met in French Onion Soup!, this book will keep you entertained all right, so much you’ll come back for a second read!

Available now in paperback: ISBN: 978-0-9572612-4-2

 

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Immersive journalism

hunter-s-thompson-immersive-journalism

Originally posted 2022-06-19 15:14:43.

Immersive journalism is a development of the late Hunter S. Thompson’s ‘gonzo’ style, which revolutionised mainstream reporting and continues to do so.

In Immersive journalism, the writer makes no attempt to distance himself from the action; instead he attempts to get as close to the events going on around him and to the people he is writing about as he can. He is inside the aquarium swimming with the angel fish, not outside it looking in. But this remains journalism; he is always a reporter. It’s just that he himself is at the centre.

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The Horror of the Blocked-Up Window

Originally posted 2013-03-07 02:02:33.

I don’t know why it is that I have accumulated such a collection of ─ well, I suppose you might say ghost stories, though I tend to think of them in less definite terms myself. The fact is that I have never seen a ghost with my two eyes, and in fact I long ago gave up any hope of doing so. I must not be one of those gifted with the sight, as it were. However that may be, though, I seem to be a magnet for stories of the weird and the macabre, as if they seek me out─ and in the strangest of places.

 

The most recent addition to my collection was found in just such a casual way as all the others. I had been on holiday in France, when I was suddenly called back because of an illness─a very severe one─in the family. It happened that the nearest airport from which I could get a flight home was Lyon, so I made my reservation and got myself there as soon as I possibly could. Continue reading “The Horror of the Blocked-Up Window”

The Monster Geewaha-nalior

Originally posted 2013-02-12 12:45:26.

I wrote this piece about a sea-monster in 2008 and always liked it. It was aimed at children and those with young minds. I hope you enjoy it. It’s about the right length for a bedtime story too.

The monster Geewaha-nalior cruises the endless blue sea once again.

Long, long years he had slept, resting on a coral beach. His head lay on the sand and his body and tail stretched for miles out into the sea; and as men began to navigate the world, again and again ships crashed into the scales of his back, wrecking themselves.

Read more fiction like this in the epic trilogy The Children of Aldebaran

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Irrational Unknown: Fear of Madness

Originally posted 2016-10-25 13:17:01.

When I was a child, madness was the most terrifying affliction I could imagine. The idea that I might not be able to control my own life was bad enough. But to think that I might be controlling it, yet in ways that my conscious mind would never allow, was enough to give me nightmares. The irrational unknown inside me was terrifying.

The notion that I might be someone other than the sane person I thought I saw, when I looked into the mirror, was simply horrific. The idea of losing rationality and, with it, my central core of me, that hub around which my life revolves, has always been more frightening than anything else I can think of.

This sense of horror is not unique to me.

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The Man Who Would Be Queen

Originally posted 2016-05-17 12:53:54.

J Michael Bailey’s seminal book, The Man Who Would Be Queen (TMWWBQ) sparked huge controversy when it was published in 2003. The furore it caused, while small in focus, was spectacular in its incandescent rage at the author. This was categorically different from the conservative reaction to works of other controversial authors like D H Lawrence, or even Vladimir Nabokov’s deeply unsettling study of male attraction to pubescent girls. In those,  the hostility was principally against the work; not so here. It was J Michael Bailey in person who was vilified.

And to cap that, TMWWBQ is not a work of fiction, but of popular science. It is well written, in non-scientific language, is easy to read and deeply sympathetic to its subject. So what on Earth happened, to provoke such a furious backlash? It included entirely spurious attempts to end Bailey’s career, personal slurs and threats of violence against him. His attackers even accused him of sexually molesting his children.

The campaign against Bailey, coordinated by a small group of internet bullies, amounted to nothing more or less than a blatant attempt at censorship associated with a virulent personal attack on the author. It’s time, now, to revisit this book and see why it caused such a storm in a latte cup. Continue reading “The Man Who Would Be Queen”