halloween 2019 The House Party by Nigel Gordon

[Camy]

The House Party by Nigel Gordon

'The House Party' is wonderful. It's the sort of story you'd find in an old hardback anthology you'd lucked upon in a side street bookshop; a bookshop where the owner wears brogues and has leather patches on his rumpled tweed jacket. It reminds me of M. R. James, and Saki. It's a story I'll read again. Don't miss it!

[Trab]

Quite entertaining. I did find the thought of having statutes around a garden a bit troublesome, but that's politicians for you. 😂

[PeterSJC]

Great story. As usual, Nigel seems to have done an impeccable job of incorporating events and mores of the time in which it was set. I always find his stories educational.

[Nigel Gordon]

This story owes a lot to the work of Pedro. I had completed the first draft and was dealing with some comments on it, when I was hospitalised. I emailed Pedro and asked him to complete the edit and implement any changes that were necessary, there were quite a few. All of which he did, and he submitted it to Mike for me. Unfortunately, he did not do the one thing I specifically asked him to do, which was to add his name to the story.

[Pedro]

Nigel, I don’t consider I should share the billing for what is wholly your story. I was just happy to oblige with giving it a good fettling to get it ready for Mike. I clearly didn’t do that good a job since I missed ‘statutes’, so no gold star for me. 

 

[Cole Parker]

Yes, just finished it, and I concur.  Very good story.  Keeps you riveted to the end.  And it isn't often you get to read a word with no vowels used correctly.

C

 

[Trab]

On October 31, 2019 at 12:44 PM, Pedro said:

I don’t consider I should share the billing for what is wholly your story. I was just happy to oblige…

I clearly didn’t do that good a job since I missed ‘statutes’, so no gold star for me. 

 

Good on you Pedro. I do lots of proofing for writers and when asked about credit I point out that I feel like the janitor, cleaning the art gallery. It may be important, but the credit goes to the artist.

 

As for missing statutes, it's super easy to do that sort of thing. I am lucky enough to be on the autistic spectrum so that many of (most, if not all) the typos kind of wink at me like a lighthouse beacon. Sadly, it's also very distracting when trying to appreciate the storyline emotions and flow. Too many typos in a story will actually force me to a halt, which is sad, particularly if it's a great story, as so many at Awesomedude are. (I'm not immune to making the same typos in my own stuff, and finding it after I've posted it. Very distressing). 😖😖😖