Grace Notes

by Gordon Lawrie

Over the last decade or so, Edinburgh writer Gordon Lawrie has written a handful of novels and copious flash fiction – to many writers around the world, he’s best known as the editor of the online publication Friday Flash Fiction.

Now and again, though, he writes classic-length short stories, and this collection of twenty showcases the varied themes he’s prepared to explore: racism, infidelity, hypocrisy, life and death... and, above all, music. More than a few come with their own piece of music, most of which are original – a pop song, a folk tune, even an advertising jingle.

Several of these stories feature characters from elsewhere – in particular from his 2012 novel Four Old Geezers and a Valkyrie – but all are free-standing.

408 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2023

About the author

Born in 1952, Gordon Lawrie taught Modern Studies - that's politics in Scotland - for 36 years in an Edinburgh secondary school, writing occasionally for educational magazines or in political science journals. Then he saw the light... and tried his hand at writing a novel or two, coming up with Four Old Geezers And A Valkyrie at the turn of 2012. Since then, he's written three further novels, the latest of which is The Midnight Visitor(2022).

Today he lives in Edinburgh city centre. Although the stories are not autobiographical, he's in danger of turning into the rather sad central character in Four Old Geezers...

2023 sees the arrival of Grace Notes, a collection of twenty short stories.

Reviews

[Lisa Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nicely paced collection of stand alone short stories. A number of the stories have the actual piece of music featured in the story at the end.