Reblogged from Tallis Steelyard:
It is all too easy for an honest man to get into trouble, in spite of his best endeavours. Indeed I have noticed that merely trying to make your way through life quietly and without fuss seems guaranteed to drive Fate into a frenzy, causing it to do everything it can to make your life difficult. Hence it may be that a wise man shuns diffidence and ensures that the pages of history bear the marks of his booted feet, stamped heavily across them.
But if you don’t believe me about the dangers of living a quiet life, I bring to your attention Yorrund Meal. Yorrund was ‘blessed’ in that he was married to the lady who had condescended to becoming Madam Meal. In spite of having few advantages of birth or fortune, she determined that they were going to be persons of solid prosperity.
To be fair to her, she had definite gifts. She discovered that she numbered amongst her acquaintances any number of ladies who would provide rooms for students at the University. Indeed when they met they often laughed together over items of student gossip. It was then she had a moment of revelation and decided to provide a scurrilous news sheet for students.
Now she doubtless isn’t the first to do this, but she must surely be one of the few who has done so without ever having been a student.
The news sheet was an immediate financial success, selling large numbers at minimal cost. The printer was happy to handle distribution and refused to divulge to interested parties the name of the person who wrote it. Many attempted to track down the writer, often with the fiercely expressed intention of ‘beating some decency into them.’ They even kept a watch on the print shop, hoping to spot the villain arriving with an incriminating document. Yet being students it never occurred to them that a plump middle-aged lady with her hair protected by a headscarf and carrying a broom and a bag of cleaning implements was the person that they were looking for. Indeed as she left having swept the print-shop (as part payment of printing costs) they would often ask her whether she had seen anybody sneaking in with a news sheet to print. More than one tipped her silver to keep her eyes open for this much sought individual.
Continue reading: Merely selling flowers – Tallis Steelyard
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
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Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
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Thanks, Jaye x
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I think this is one of his best stories.
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I rather liked it too 🙂
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It’s always difficult to tell to be honest. Some times I think it’s good and people rave over it, and other times people just seem to think it’s OK but nothing special. I think different stories touch different people differently
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I’d agree with your last point, but I have yet to read one of Tallis’ tales that I haven’t enjoyed.
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Awww thanks for that Sue. I think that it’s like Madelyn says, there’s plenty of “gloom, doom, and calls to action” and I want to help create an oasis, an island where people can escape to, however briefly.
I’ve always felt that a good novel should almost be a holiday. You close it and you feel you’ve been away, hopefully to somewhere fascinating with people you rather liked.
Well I try anyway 🙂
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I think you manage it rather well, Jim. I feel I could walk the streets of Port Naain and not find them unfamiliar. 🙂
I do think it depends on how you read though. Reading is a bit like diving for pearls…a good reader never needs to come up for breath ( and probably resents anything that makes them!)
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I’d like to think that people would feel that the Streets of Port Naain aren’t too far from their home town. Some of them safe, some of them less so, but none you couldn’t walk safely in the company of a good friend 🙂
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That sounds about right. Though I’d quite like Mutt on call…just in case 😉
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I suspect that travelling with Mutt you would soon learn the art of fading seamlessly into the background to avoid attention 🙂
He can probably disappear from sight when somebody is glaring at him.
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Not a bad skill… nor a bad place from which to observe 😉
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As a small boy I could do it 🙂
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That doesn’t surprise me 🙂
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I should hope it doesn’t 🙂
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I had sons…
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then obviously you’ll know the tricks 🙂
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I taught them most of them 😉
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did you mention that you were brought up with brothers? 🙂
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I did not! I brought up my brothers 😉
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Ah, so their virtues are a result of your good example 😉
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*coughs* Something like that 😉
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the results are doubtless obvious and much commented upon by fond relatives 😉
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Comments have been known… 😉
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I have no doubt 😉
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😀
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