Serendipity

Serendipity ©

By

Michael Casey

Serendipity is a tricky word to spell, especially if you are tired and your back aches, but serendipity IS part of my life. How I got my first job in computers when they were a new thing, that was serendipity, my brother said “try computers” and I applied for one job and then hey presto I had 22 good years earning good money.

My mother’s death was unexpected and how our dad survived his major heart attack 8 weeks later was miraculous in the words of the priest. Though dad did stay 12 weeks in hospital and was given just a week to live and they would not revive him if he had another heart attack. However I do know how to pray, I wrote all about it in Padre Pio and Me.

The serendipity bit was meeting my wife in the old people’s home, and dad did live long enough to see us wed and to hold our daughter in his arms. So I do love serendipity. It is part of my life.

Discovering writing and the fact that I could write was serendipity again, however finding publishers/producers is the hard bit, writing IS easy, selling your stuff, now that is next to impossible. Though today I’ve gone through the 13,000 views mark for a post on funny or die. So 22^nd Dec 2013 is a red letter day.

I’ve been writing short pieces of writing for a few years now, which means I have 500 plus shorts, which are funny in themselves, and those which are not comic pieces are interesting and intelligent. So I’ve made collections of them on Amazon Kindle,  I have six books in total. I could finish Tears for a Butcher my 7^th book, that would take the whole of 2014 to do, in fact the 1^st chapter is on funny or die and it’s that which has earned 13,000 views.

So what I need next is some serendipity to help sell my books of shorts. I have recorded 127 short stories, 6 hours 50 mins,  and put them on www.michaelgcasey.typepad.com  As I was an Esol teacher I know students of English would enjoy some light reading, so a book with a cd and a translation would work. So students Listen, Read and Learn English with Michael Casey, you could have a translation on the facing page in Spanish/Chinese/Arabic/Urdu/Korean/Japanese or whatever.

So this is my new angle to sell my stories, I have a comic tale about Santa on my site, perfect for Xmas 2013. I have made a lot of new connections on Linkedin and my hope is that some of them give British humour a try.

I have in fact stumbled on the perfect partner and I hoped they agree and get back to me after the holidays. What attracted you to your wife? Was it her looks and curves? If it was, then you are stupid, because looks fad, laughter lasts. Me, my wife made me laugh, yes she does look like a model, far prettier than a model, but that’s not why I married her. She made me laugh, when we first met, she was in disguise if you like, her pretty was hidden as she said to me. See photos at the end of this piece.

Chance and Luck do play a part in our lives, if I was a lazy unloving son, I would not have met my wife. I visited my dad every single day for 3 years, only then did I meet the future Mrs Casey.

Mark at work once said I was  good stumbler and I suppose I am, but being able to improvise is a good gift too. Wait till you have your kids then you’ll soon learn to be quick thinking, you need eyes in the back of your head to watch for potential danger. Then you need a cot and a playpen and all the other baby stuff.  Luckily for me, my brother had kept all the baby stuff so I kind of inherited it.

As a writer I’ve written about all the stuff we all do with our kids, but hopefully in a really amusing way, so I know everybody who reads my stuff can connect to what I’m writing about. A modern Shanghai/Birmingham Adams family if you like. Some themes are international and eternal, so that when you read and listen to the stories they make you smile and you enjoy learning English, it’s not a chore.

Now all I need is a bit more Serendipity and Bob’s your Uncle, though that phrase may confuse some English students.