Turlough

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I have 110 stories published in 7 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 119392 times and 138 of my stories have been cherry picked.
506 of my 1,751 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 526 votes

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Terence Mullan

Down the years I have lived in many places and I have done many jobs. Now I live in Bulgaria and the only work I do is tending to my lovely garden when the sun is shining and scribbling away in my big book of writing stuff when it is not.

I may have left it too late in life to become a famous writer or celebrated gardener but I will persevere anyway. These are the things that occupy me in a seemingly effortless and satisfying way.

My stories

Cherry

When One Is One

When One Is One As our wee woman reaches one I wonder where the time has gone Those first twelve months so quickly passed As a list of skills you...
3 likes
Cherry

502 Kilometres

502 Kilometres Just up the road from my wife and me A fire’s burning constantly Folks just like us are in the street No food to eat Nowhere to sleep...
1 likes
Cherry

Her Troubles

Her Troubles Tuesday’s fish supper grease still lingers On grubby stubby stiff little fingers Cracked by cold and each one bleeds From overuse of...
2 likes

Elisabeth and the Bonbon Girls

Elisabeth and the Bonbon Girls Alone, I walked along the dusty path that led away from the termite-ravaged back gate of the small French colonial-...
3 likes
Cherry

Maglic Moments

A piece of writing I did a good while back for the travel company, Exodus Travels. Neither the trip nor I were very glossy but they were very happy to include it in their glossy promotional literature. The Green Visions Travel Agency in Sarajevo used it too. And no, there isn’t a typo in the title.
2 likes

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506 of my comments have received 526 Great Feedback votes

1 Vote

I feel sad for this poor

Posted on Wed, 15 Nov 2023

I feel sad for this poor family now.

We have a seven-strong feline death squad that deals with our rodent population. So we never see the little visitors, dead or alive.

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Posted in The after Party

1 Vote

Islands

Posted on Sun, 12 Nov 2023

I've often wondered but my guesswork suggests that you're living on a Scottish island. I've visited a few and they've all been gorgeous and overwhelmingly friendly. I expect yours is the same. Jura was probably my favourite.

But your son's...

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Posted in My Verbal Diary Here

1 Vote

Nice one Mono!

Posted on Sun, 12 Nov 2023

Nice one Mono!

I'm delighted that you got the golden cherries. I hope you'll be saying thank you to your little ratty friends. 

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Posted in The Party

1 Vote

Is this the real life?

Posted on Sun, 12 Nov 2023

It's amazing when I sit down and think about it, how real life events rhyme. If Russia had invaded Iraq in the 1980s instead of Afghanistan my poem would have been ruined.

Thank you very much Di for reading my writing and for your nice...

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Posted in My Verbal Diary Here

1 Vote

You express so many emotions

Posted on Sun, 12 Nov 2023

You express so many emotions in this Mono... sadness, bitterness, resent, humour... and I like your rhyming. Good on you for sharing your feelings in this way.

I was in Kerry myself a few weeks ago, near Glenbeigh. Under the right...

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Posted in Motherly love

1 Vote

An apocalypse will come. They

Posted on Sun, 12 Nov 2023

An apocalypse will come. They've been before. The planet survived, by the skin of its teeth, and regenerated. It would probably be much better off without its current dominant species.

In the meantime we all need to be regarded as...

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Posted in children of the coming apocalypse

1 Vote

Harry Potter AND cheeky

Posted on Sat, 11 Nov 2023

Harry Potter AND cheeky bedroom shenanigans in the same story! The nuns'll be after you.

Entertaining stuff. You've got me wondering what'll happen next. I'm just back from a holiday so I'm playing catch up.

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Posted in May 4th (chapter 3 part 1)

1 Vote

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh! 

Posted on Sun, 12 Nov 2023

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh! 

You have my sympathy.

One of our cats brought a squirrel into the house this morning for its breakfast. If he'd asked I'd have given him a Kinder Bueno. We would have avoided so much mess, so much pain and so...

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Posted in The Party

1 Vote

Nice one Niamh!

Posted on Sun, 12 Nov 2023

Nice one Niamh!

I've noticed that they like pipe insulation material almost as much as they enjoy a Kinder Bueno. 

That's a great story and very amusing, but I'm trying not to think that it really happened. 

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Posted in The Party

1 Vote

My memories work that way too

Posted on Sun, 12 Nov 2023

My memories work that way too Jacques. The things listed in the poem aren't in the written diaries (which for many of my years just don't exist) but they are in the mental diary that seems to expand by a ream or two every week.

I'm glad...

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Posted in My Verbal Diary Here

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