Always Raining: Stories

Coincidences and the actions of the malevolent Roasburie family conspired to plague Graham Proctor's love life, beginning with virginal Penelope Roasburie and his attempt to woo her, in which he was successful - well almost... Eventually he began to wonder if he would ever be free of them, and in one way he never was. The tale is VERY long (novel size), and slow moving. Though told in the first person, it is fictional and bears no relation to anyone living or dead.

What happens when a wife and mother of some years meets her first, teenage lover, who sets out to seduce her afresh? Will her first crush, the one who deflowered her, succeed, and if he does, what can her loving husband do? 8 Chapters in all. Not all that much sex.

This is a little bit of foolishness about the need for communication and the dangers of obstinacy. Susan makes a simple error and thanks to an event in her early life blows up in anger out of all proportion to the offence, while her husband Kevin obstinately refuses to put her right. The result could be the end of their marriage. Some suspension of disbelief required!

A story about a search, forgiveness and justice, and how ideas and priorities change with the passage of time and events. Sometimes, after you've found a loved one you had lost, you need to find them afresh. Thirteen chapters, all finished and to be submitted every other day or so. Though told in the first person, it is completely fiction.

David experiences love and the heartache of loss in his life, and on his journey of recovery finds it difficult to accept help at all, but especially from an unexpected source. He has to learn that some things shouldn't ever 'go without saying', and finds that not all his friends know when to speak and when to shut up. That needs wisdom, which really does go without saying.

Landlord Victor Freeman (Major, retired) saves a tenant, Susan Clemson, from being evicted along with her two young children. She doesn't know he's her landlord or that he's getting her a job which will give her independence and restore her self-confidence: he wants a friendship of equals. Their relationship develops slowly, but is severely complicated by the intervention of her vindictive ex-partner. Then her first lover reappears on the scene.

When Gary Trowbridge invited Roderick Mason to have sex with Gary's wife Rachel to put more variety into their marriage, Rod could not believe it. Rachel was a fox, devastatingly beautiful. However, Rod had principles about married women, and knew Gary was making a huge mistake. Sure enough he was, and it led to more and more (mistakes that is)!

Michael Stewart does a good turn for a homeless family on Christmas Eve. As he supports the family he is drawn to the abused, pretty mother, and into the family's problems. Life would not be the same after this, he thought. Little did he know how different it would be.

John Colshaw's wife suddenly divorces him, telling him he knows what he's done, but he doesn't, and his attempts to find out meet with rejection and even violence. Getting a job transfer proves advantageous, but this interferes with his quest for justice. Will discovering the truth make his life OK again? Not sure whether this story contains little sex, or some sex. Somewhere between?

A middle-aged widower, his old flame, her jealous husband and their families. Ordinary people attempt to deal with jealousy and its aftermath while trying to be true to their own moral code. Perhaps they make mistakes, being human. The title translates as 'Love conquers all things,' [Virgil Eclogues 10]. Does love conquer all here? This story is slow even by my standards.