My late grandmother was a very superstitious woman. Her mother was a spiritualist medium, most of her large family and her inlaws were in either the Merchant or Royal Navy, so there were all the superstitions of sailors, and she grew up in Birkenhead surrounded by Scots, Welsh and Irish. She got genuinely upset when I put my left shoe on first, and would only use one type of soap ever because she had had a message at a Spiritualist meeting. She wasn't the most intellectual of the family, but she had a heart of gold. She also had a habit of non-stop conversation. I remember listening to the stories about inappropriate whistling (women and on ship), how to stir cake mix so it wouldn't curdle (not towards the left!) and the day her father's arm was struck dead (long, involved, and concerning a missing sixpence).
One thing she never did was talk to me about the superstitions of people who are left handed. There are so many of them, but she never said anything at all. Today, as my mind wandered around the ideas of superstition and lefthandedness, I put two and two together and realised why. My late father was left handed. The divorce between him and my mother was vicious, bitter and protracted and caused immense upheaval in both families, but despite everything, she never said a bad word about him to me, and certainly never mentioned anything about handedness. He also had quite reddish hair when he was younger, which is almost as bad when it comes to superstitions. She never said a word about that either. I think I need to aim to be more like her.
Writing stuff - I said there would be some coming up, and the Trickster's Treats Anthology No3 is out now in paperback, ebook to follow. There are 49 quite short stories, seven for each of the seven deadly sins, all around 700 words long. It includes one from me, called Avarice, which is under 'Greed' and stars our very own Rev Darren King. Important This anthology is supporting charity:water, an incredibly good cause. All donated money goes to bringing clean water to people in need. If some spooky stories around the theme of the seven deadly sins is your thing, and you agree with the charity, then check it out.
Hugs to all.
I would fall at the first hurdle - I have red hair! Funnily enough I am not the least bit superstitious. My Russian sister in law is superstitious beyond words - she broke a mirror one day and had to do a dance, throw some salt, (over the left shoulder), wrap the mirror, twirl around, throw some more salt, then take the whole parcel outside and dunk it in a big tub of water - rain water of course.!!
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