Home-Koming Night by Allan Watson
The trout who dreamed of being a salmon by Jack MacRoary
Born and Bred by Alasdair McPherson
Greek As A Foreign Language by Andrew McCallum Crawford
Scots Away by Angus Shoor Caan
The Voracious Reader by Pat Black
Snippits in Scots by Andrew Velzian
Bring Your Befuddled Zxeardks by Garry Stanton
Don Masson's Big Toe by Fiona Johnson
The Unofficial Burryman by Brendan Gisby
Mr Black by John McGroarty
Jings, crivens, help ma Boab, it's independence! by Cally Phillips
We invited all our McStorytellers to submit entries on the subject of Being Scots. While the approaches to this subject varied wildly, inevitably a couple of themes emerged from the submissions.
Many entrants sought “to see oursels as ithers see us”, the “ithers” being defined as those who live in England (of course), the rest of the world and even another planet!
Many also were at pains to highlight Scotland’s failings: our penchant for unhealthy foods, our lack of prowess on the international football stage, the religious bigotry that divides great swathes of our nation – to name but a few.
But virtually all imbued their piece with humour – that wry, dry Scots sense of humour that helps to define us, that sets us apart from our neighbours near and far.
To sum up, therefore. According to the submissions, the Scots are full of faults, which we’re happy to acknowledge, even to laugh at. And we don’t really care what others think. Like William Wallace and his army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, we bare our arses to our adversaries. Or was that only in the movie? Either way, that image has provided a cracking idea for our next anthology’s book cover, which we’ve previewed above.
Remember these dates. The Edinburgh eBook Festival will run from 12th August through to 25th August. Every morning from 11:00 am, McStorytellers will host the Festival’s Short Story slot, when we’ll be saying a bit more about the McCompetition, showcasing the selected stories and announcing the availability of the Being Scots anthology.
Remember also that there will be much, much more going on every day at the Festival. So please don’t just tune in for the Short Story slot.
Watch this space for further Festival announcements.