2020 has been the year I got back to writing. Maybe it takes a lockdown / pandemic to find the time, the focus. This website has much of what I wrote this year but also pieces written over my lifetime, even going back to my teenage years.
These won't all be everyone's cup of tea, but I felt like it was time to put it out there. There is no objective to be published, it feels good just to have some of these read. For me to write I need to feel that it will be read. Some is true, some is very much fiction, some light, some heavy, some dark.
There are tabs dividing the writing :
- Travel Writing are accounts of vacation experiences and what catches my attention on those trips. Cuba in Feb2020 had so much and got me wanting to write more. When this pandemic lifts I hope to soon be sitting under a tree in Tuscany and write about how it feels.
- Non-fiction which are stories that are either true or should be. Usually the most fun. My pseudonym for many should be Fibber McGee.
- Short Stories which are my fictional tales, when I am the most free about what I am creating, what I am making up. I don't always agree with what I've written, but a teacher told me years ago not to edit the creative voice, so I try not to. There are characters that I am very fond of even though bad things sometimes happen to them.
- Poems, of which there are quite a few, some written long ago, some still spilling out. It's been a long time since I wrote that first one to Karen Richardson in grade 5. Many are personal and when I am hesitant over publishing this site it is because of these, but here they are anyway.
- Videos are my fun attempts at versions of certain poems. I am a bit embarrassed by a couple of them but I've included them anyway.
- Clicking on download this story/poem will take you to the right section of the download page, then you have to download the piece you want.
I've been asked which pieces are my favourites or what should someone coming to this site read first. The answer is it depends on what you're looking for (there are a few suggestions on the What's New page).
Each story feels quite different from the other. Claire, the Bear and Me is a love story that remains special to me. I'm proud of the twists in the murder mystery The Private Eye's Secretary. The Crowd In All Of Us may be the strongest, I wonder how readers will feel about the message of connection especially in light of the social isolating we have done in 2020. The Family Name is sweet. The COVID trilogy were the first stories I'd written in a long time and I like them.
Most of the poems are about love and relationships and impact people differently. I think In The Night is my best and I used to read it at open poetry reading nights. I Went To Beauty, True Love, No More Sleeping are among favourites. My Father and Yours has so much in it. Others I still don't understand. The Freezing of Camelot is about JFK. Bleeding and Start To Finish are among more recent poems that I can't shake, like a heavy coat that I can't take off.
Most of my writing would be considered PG I guess,
but some pieces have swearing, some have violence, and some have some minor sexuality.
The Snow Bear is my one and only children's story so it's G-rated for sure, though I think the rabbit would drop an f-bomb if someone really annoyed him. Maybe there will be a sequel.
If you have any feedback on the pieces,
or corrections to them, I'd be happy to listen.
email address: andymcafee@rogers.com
And thank you for taking the time to read.
Stories about Sports
Leo's Shift
A Duck's Tale
Croquet
Bocce Ball
Mini Stories of Lesser Known Hockey Personalities
My Children
Everything has a beginning. Some beginnings are creations. Sometimes I am the creator. I contribute something … a germ … and voilà.
Like my children, my stories are not as beautiful as I had hoped, but I can live with their faces. They aren’t as funny as I wished they were, but they still make me laugh even when I know what they’re going to say. And some, like Claire, the Bear and Me or the Family Name, make me cry on cue, knowing how to tug on my sorrow with words I’ve read many, many times before.
There is one reason why I love my stories more than my children. I can control them. I decide. They do as I ask. They walk the path which I dictate. Control is a wonderful thing.
Well of course the need for control is a character flaw. At my age I don’t give a shit. I should. But I don’t.