Moles Story-Telling Group: 2006

These are the stories, for what they are worth, that I wrote for the Moles Story-Telling Group during 2006. January is missing as I did not join the group until the January meeting itself, so my first story is for February of that year.

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Date	Theme	My Story
February 28th	A character from fiction reflects on his/her past life	Odysseus' Last Voyage In this story I turned to the ancient Classics and imagine Odysseus, now a grandfather, musing over his past as, overcome once again by wonderlust, he is about to set off on his last journey westward into the Atlantic Ocean to seek the Island of the Blest.
March 28th	What if?	Richard Henderson In this story, I explore the idea of parallel universes and, in particular, the idea that whenever there are choices, a universe bifurcates (or even multifurcates) with one universe following one outcome and another outcome.
April 25th	The Lodger	Mrs Medhurst's Lodger Although I doubt whether ghosts can appear as one does in this story, I wanted to attempt a ghost story. This is the result.
May 23rd	A View	A View This is another science fiction story. But is this contact from another planet in a different galaxy, or is this an elaborate bit of earth-bound illusion practiced by a strange cult?
June 27th	Among My Souvenirs	Among My Souvenirs The story is set in south-east Wales near where I lived from 1968 until 1990. I'm not sure how one categorizes this story; it takes place in two time zones but in the same location.
July 25th	Sleeping Rough/ Sleeping Ruff	Sleeping Ruff The theme set for the month was "Sleeping Rough" (or whatever spelling we wished for the second word) - but we were to avoid taking the phrase in its usual common meaning. I hope I succeeded at least in giving it an original meaning.
No meeting during August
September 26th	Dialogue on a Park Bench	Dialog on a Park Bench Is Jack just an eccentric old man with strange notions or is he an ancient ghost? He could, of course, be neither; it may have been, for example, that Dave had been entertaining an angel unaware (cf. Hebrews 13:2). By the way, I do not see the point of the redundant -ue at the end of 'dialog(ue)' - after all, the word is derived from Greek 'diálogos'.
October 24th	Discussion and workshop led by Edwina Vardey, well-known local writer and journalist, as part of 'Arts Alive 2006.'
November 28th	Utopia	Utopia When the theme "Utopia" was set, it occurred to me that maybe it was high time that I actually read Thomas More's actual book! I got hold of his original Latin, with a parallel English translation and read it. It became obvious to me that the book raises many questions. More surely did not intend his Utopia to be a "model commonwealth." Indeed, the modern use of the word seems to owe more to a confusion with 'Eutopia' than it does to More. In this short story, I raise some of these questions. I do not, of course, believe that Utopia was ever a real place or that Raphael Hythloday was a real person; I merely use use Geraldine Hitherday and her uncle as a characters to create a story which raises some of questions it seems to me are posed by More's work. There is one short autobiographical reference: my wife and I did get married in the Church of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More.
No meeting in December: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!