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• Vignette Five: Potatoes

  14 March 2016 ( #Vignettes, #Potatoes, #Travel, #Strange Encounters, #Idaho )

  The greyhound bus stops at an abandoned gas station and I get out. I feel quite excited; this is my first visit to the Potato State, Idaho, to this small town, chosen randomly on a map. Today will be a day of adventure, discovery. A very different sort...

• Vignette Six: On Another Planet Altogether

  26 March 2016 ( #Travel, #Canada, #Thunder Bay, #Modern Life, #Vignettes )

  I leave the bus in Thunder Bay, determined to see what’s left of the past in this city once called Prince Arthur's Landing — its name was changed because some felt the word “Landing” was down-market, implied a temporary arrival place for poor immigrants....

• Vignette Eight: In Hungary

  05 May 2016 ( #Anecdotes, #Travel, #Hungary, #Russians, #Strange Encounters, #Small Town )

  “When the Russian Air Force had bases here in Hungary, those were good times,” said Tarzan, a hugely fat man with long, drooping moustaches and the over-developed biceps that gained him his nickname. “You could get anything by trading in those days, schnapps...

• Vignette Three: The Night Train from Budapest to Köln

  26 February 2016 ( #Vignettes, #Hungary, #Train, #Thieves, #Strange Encounters )

  In the bar of the night train, two men at the table next to mine, a brash extrovert and his walrus-moustached straight man, are speaking a language that is, for me, indefinable. Perhaps they notice me observing them? “Come. Join us!” shouts the extrovert...

• Excerpt from my mystery, Sad Summer in Biarritz

  28 February 2018 ( #Biarritz, #Strange Encounters, #Vignettes )

  Sunday, July 24th I DECIDED TO MAKE an effort, conform to the public idea of fun, join those who lie on the beach, who paddle about in the greyish sea. Perhaps it would be a gratifying experience. Doesn’t everyone claim such activities are pleasurable?...

• Short Story: On Never Going Back

  23 March 2018

  First Published on Mookychick, February, 2018 First Published on Mooky Chick 24, February 2018 https://www.mookychick.co.uk/opinion/your-fiction/never-going-back-short-story-jill-culiner.php First Published on Mooky Chick 24, February 2018 https://www.mookychick.co.uk/opinion/your-fiction/never-going-back-short-story-jill-culiner.php...

• Vignette Two: In the Bus Station

  24 February 2016 ( #Vignettes, #Canada, #Bus Travel, #Strange Encounters, #Fellow Travellers, #Desperation, #Very Short Stories )

  It was that time of the night when dreams of the unattainable — a warm room, a bed, crisp, clean sheets, a heavy quilt — become obsessional. We, dejected travellers, sat on uncomfortable plastic chairs surrounding plastic tables covered with plastic tablecloths...

• Vignette Four: The L-Shaped House

  01 March 2016 ( #Vignettes, #Turkey, #Small Town, #Marriage, #Strange Encounters, #Anecdotes, #Very short stories )

  It was a dreary, dusty Turkish town a few miles from the sea, surrounded by exquisite fjords that make Norway look a trifle dull. I took up residence in the only hotel willing to accept a woman — there were two of them, grubby places where sheets were...

• Vignette One: The Nature Lover

  23 February 2016 ( #Vignettes, #Germany, #Trees, #Anecdotes, #Very Short Stories, #Strange Encounters )

  Roland — he sold bad paintings, crucifixes and clocks at the Dasing flea market — invited me to the greasy spoon just across the parking lot to have a coffee. He also encouraged me to have a piece of cake. “Why not live it up.” “I don’t really like sweet...

• Vignette Seven: Romance on the Bus Going North From Charlotte

  17 April 2016 ( #Travel, #Anecdotes, #Vignettes )

  Across the aisle and one seat ahead, a woman, dressed in a ridiculously frilly yet provocatively sexy outfit, is reading a romance. She hasn’t hidden it between the pages of The New Yorker or some sophisticated tome. No, she’s quite open about her tastes....

• Published from Overblog

  17 December 2016