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Vivika's Musings

Loud, proud and drawing a crowd!

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So this all began when I got a call from ma wee mam. Settle in because this is a long one …

“Are you around?” She says on the voice mail. “Can you phone me back?”

So I do … and this is what had transpired:

My mam had been visiting a friend and my young nephew was enjoying the responsibility of being home alone and (dare I say it) peace and quiet.

Anyway, like most young teens he blocked the world out with headphones, YouTube and the silly bam fell fast asleep.

Mum returns home a short time later and can’t get in the door. Yes the dizzy little B locked the door and left the key in.

Now, anyone who knows my mam knows she ain’t quiet. Her fog horn scream through the letter box can’t stir him, neighbours banging on ceilings and floors can’t stir him.

“I have a ladder!” A helpful neighbour suggests. Perhaps going in through the balcony? They return with a two tier step ladder. What in the Hell are they supposed to do with that? Pile on shoulders like circus performers?

So the police are informed. There comes Glasgow’s finest tearing round the corner but of course there’s nothing they can do. Now a fire engine dingalinging, making even more of a scene than my mother already was because did I mention she had hair dye in that needed rinsing?

The fire men manage to get in through the balcony and open up. The police follow in to make sure everything is in fact okay.

“Thank you officers. Thank you ever so much,” mum says in her most queenly voice.

The door of the nephew’s bedroom is kicked open like the terminator. Aaron sits up in bed, sleep dazed and wondering what the Hell is going on.

Queenly voice lost immediately. East end Glasgow takes over.

“You ya stupid looking (enter string of expletives)! Did ye no hear me shouting!”

All I can think to myself is the little man needs to tell me what kind of headphones he’s using. I could use that kind of noise cancelling power. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Enjoy this? Check out some of Vivika Widow’s thrilling novels.

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Click HERE to read MAESTRO and book your music lesson with Mr Baines.

Click HERE to read MUSE and join David as he tries to salvage his reputation in the art community.

Vivika's Musings

Taking PRIDE in What I Do.

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Since it’s pride month and in light of the celebrations I thought I would give a shout out to my LGBT friends. Hey guys! How are you all?

There’s been a lot of talk of the STRAIGHT PRIDE movement. (Yeah, I know. Have you seen the flag? What a mess right?) and whilst I’m happy to see anyone celebrate who they are they seem to have lost the point of why there is a PRIDE MONTH in the first place. For those in the back you may want to listen up. No one has ever been chastised for being straight, not in the way LGBT people are. Straight people don’t generally feel fear, experience persecution or have been told they can’t marry the person that they love. All this has been brought to the forefront lately and there’s probably nothing I can add here that hasn’t already been said so I will just leave it with this – in a world where love is already so limited I will never understand why we would want to make it even more difficult. In my personal opinion if it’s between two (or more – you never know) consenting adults then who the Hell are we to be telling people what they should and shouldn’t be doing.

Someone said to me lately, “I don’t mind gay people. I just don’t like it being flaunted in my face.” What exactly is being flaunted in your face? Love? Affection? Poor baby. That must be awful. Besides that to me is like saying, “I don’t mind black people as long as they sit at the back of the bus.” It’s an outdated mentality that has absolutely no right to belong in our modern age. Grow up.

I’ve been asked more than once in the past if I myself and am gay because I include LGBT characters in my books. Well no. I include those characters because as an author I feel it is my job to capture as much of the human experience as possible. As a cis straight woman it shouldn’t be beyond me to identify other beliefs and sexual orientations right?

So on that note. Happy Pride Month to my amazing LGBT friends, relatives and readers. Thank you for making the world that bit more vibrant.

Enjoy some of Vivika Widow’s thrilling novels that feature LGBT characters.

 

Click HERE to read MAESTRO and book your music lesson with Mr Baines.

Click HERE to read MUSE and join David as he tries to salvage his reputation in the art community.

 

Vivika's Musings

Transport from Hell!

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Normally I am one for travelling via train but some malevolent spirit must have looked down on me this morning and thought ‘I really need to shake things up’ because that can be the only explanation for my decision to travel by bus.
Of course, I have to get two buses to visit family in Uddingston because having one that ran straight through would be far too easy. However, I know what I am getting myself into… An all day ticket it is… I will be travelling back again after all.
So bus no.1 takes me to Glasgow City Centre … so far so good. With business concluded there I prepare myself for bus no.2 which will take me on to Uddingston. I wasn’t waiting for long when a red monstrosity shudders along. The driver zooms past just staring at me with that vacant expression that tells me I would get a better response from an amoeba. ‘Argggh!’ I yell. The old lady behind me agrees. ‘Ba***rd’ she mutters. I wait another 20 minutes and another comes along. Does he stop? no, of course he doesn’t. It is only then that I realize what the problem is. A Tree Removal Service truck complete with his trailer is parked in the stop and obviously parking in behind him would be too difficult for our conscientious bus drivers. Seriously? Of all the spots in the Glasgow City Centre to need tree removal! So I plod along to another stop and a bus no.2 finally stops and I’m on my way.
Is that the end of my nightmare? Of course it isn’t… I still have to get back home again.
After my visit I bid farewell to the family and hop onto bus no.3. The driver of which decides to tell me that my ticket is invalid because I crossed the boundary. None of the previous drivers thought to mention this little fact? It lucky that I am able to pay another fare because I hadn’t been to the ATM and had just left the shop where my niece was eyeing up a huge dinosaur toy. Luckily she had settled for sweets.
Back in the City Centre I need to change to bus no.4. I see the bus hurtling round the corner. I’m never one for speed but I could have given Usain Bolt a run for his money. I caught that bad boy. I relaxed in my chair. On my way home now? Nope! I’m heading along Pollockshaws road and it occurs to me… ‘I don’t live here’ . I finally reach Queen’s Park and I think again ‘I had better ask the driver’ ….”Are you going into the West End?” of course he wasn’t … he had already been to the west end before I got on and was now on his way to East Kilbride! I had been so busy running to catch it I hadn’t seen where he was going.
So off again and on bus no.5. I was reaching the end of my tether when two lovely young men sit beside me to keep me company. Then they asked me that question that even the most spiritual of us dreads to hear when we are trying to get home. “Have you found Jesus?”
I tried to explain that I was Catholic and happy with my path but they were having none of it. Got to admire their enthusiasm. Short of removing the biggest set of Rosary Beads from my bag they would not give up. Even the man in front swigging his cider was putting his opinion in. I’m not one to debate Theology. Maybe they knew better, maybe they didn’t…. All I knew was… next time… I was getting the bloody train!

Vivika Widow is the author of various thriller and horror books.

The Knock, Knock series is free to read HERE at Vivika Widow Online. Click HERE to check out other titles.

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Vivika's Musings

Hatred is a Cancer

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We all have our hang ups. We all have our days when we don’t feel much like interacting with other human beings. I get it, I really do. I have those days myself. I might argue more than most. However, this morning I opened up my emails to a note from a group calling themselves THE TRUTH BRINGERS asking if I would read their literature and spread the word. I’m an open minded person so I thought, I’ll read what it is they have to say.

What was sent to me was the biggest lot of hatred spouting, uneducated, misogynistic nonsense I have ever had the misfortune to read. And someone thought that I would pass this message on!?

Let’s just get one thing straight. I treat everyone in this world with an equal acceptance. When I meet people for the first time I will always approach them with politeness and kindness. I base my judgements of people on how they respond to me and to others around them. How they treat other’s as an individual is a far more accurate measure of a person than gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs or sexual orientation ever will be.

In an age where there is so much information available to people we have a responsibility to ourselves and our fellow human beings to embrace that information and appreciate the differences around us whilst still recognising that we are all human after all.

I will not link the pieces I was sent in this article because I will not participate in sharing such filth and nonsense. It is suffice to say I was not impressed with the world views that unless you were a white Christian you were less than human. This was a ridiculously narrow view on what a Christian should be, I might add.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and views. That is the beauty of the world in which we live. There are so many exciting cultures and worldly teachings out there. It is a great age to be alive. Treat others with respect. What more can one ask?

When you embrace a hateful ideology (no matter how well intentioned), the only thing it will achieve is making the world a little darker and more isolated because then another responds with hatred because they disagree. Then another and another and so on until before we know it we have a cancerous spread of bile across the world and people fighting over something that makes absolutely no difference in the first place.

I will no doubt have more hateful responses to this by people trying to convince me that I’m wrong but do you know what? I have acceptance in my life and I am happier for it.

Check out the latest thriller titles from Vivika Widow HERE 

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