Welcome to My Story Workshop
It was Isaac Asimov who claimed that writing for him was like thinking with his fingers and that figure of speech has over the years become true for me. When as a writer the words are flowing freely, when – to borrow a phrase from sports psychology – I am in the zone, my creative animus seems to become transferred to the part of my body which is performing the physical task of transcription.
On this website you will find my short stories, book reviews, and reflections on the art of that activity most commonly known as creative writing. You will also be able to participate in an online book club. Subscription is free and in return you will automatically receive an updated version of this site every four weeks. You will also have the opportunity to offer feedback, ask questions and commission me to write something specially for you.
I suggest you begin with a story. There are three virtually brand new ones here and others will be added soon. Thank you for visiting my workshop. Happy browsing!
About Guido
Why I Tell Stories
I am not sure when I began to make up stories. I assume it must have been soon after I had acquired basic competence in the use of language. But I may be wrong about that. After all, stories take shape in the mind and imagination and my first stories, therefore, may have been entirely composed of images. In fact they may well have been dreams or waking fantasies, just wishes and fears incoherently expressed. I have only one memory of a story like that. And it happened so long ago that the best I can truthfully say is that it may be only the memory of a memory
I had been installed by my parents in a baby chair. The old fashioned kind of contraption that worked like the stocks holding you prisoner by virtue of a collapsible table sticking into your midriff and your legs hanging out beneath it.
Chapters
Chapters We've Covered
Stories
Here is the heart of the site – my stories – and just three to begin with. A new story will be added every few weeks. They range from quiet, contemplative tales to more energetic flights of imagination, all exploring the Big Bang Questions that have fascinated me since childhood: Where am I? What am I? Why am I?
The Dark Side
A short story about queer first love, memory, and the words we use for things we don't understand.
Lunch With The Lads
Five old school friends, one annual reunion by the Thames, and a story of shame Norman finally confesses
A TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT
A mind eviscerating UK heatwave, a melting road, a radio caller who's seen something no one believes and a fanatical teenager who appears to be bent on self-destruction.
STRANGE MEETING
Mark Chapman, the American psycho who shot John Lennon dead, comes face to face with his victim after forty plus years suppurating in jail.
A BRUSH WITH THE BONEYARD
Admitted to hospital for a routine operation Gus finds himself unexpectedly privy to some of the deepest secrets of the universe.
A JAILBIRD’S GUIDE TO THE MYSTERY OF LOVE
When Kit brutally murders his rival in love the long term prison sentence received unexpectedly serves him as an opportunity for the writing of a book every bit as revelatory as The Kamasutra.
CHAPTERS PREVIEW
Read Some Chapter Free.
Praise for Guido Casale Work
What Readers Are Saying About Her Transformative Guide
NOTICE BOARD
This month I have added two new stories – DO NOT GO GENTLE and AN INTRODUCTION TO A DOCTOR’S DILEMMA. I have also added in the Book Club section a review of POLITICS ON THE EDGE by Rory Stewart.
In addition I want to get a couple of things off my chest. Firstly, I have become something of a slave to online shopping. Not a complete slave, mind you, but certainly a semi-slave. It saves time, energy and, in the case of books, quite often money. WORLD OF BOOKS, for instance, is an online outlet that specialises in cheap good quality second hand publications, has a terrifically varied stock and does not charge for delivery. I have tried Kindle and audio books occasionally but find neither format satisfies me. The habit of holding a compact bundle of pages, of physically turning them, of being able to annotate the margins and return again and again to those purple passages that thrilled me the first time I read them – is not one I find it easy to relinquish.
Secondly, I have pretty much stopped frequenting book shops. This is despite the fact that the nearest town to where I live is privileged to have three such retail outlets within less than a hundred yards of each other. One is a Waterstones and the others are independents. I feel more than a bit guilty about my indolence. Surely someone who reads as much as I aspire to do should patronise these places, especially the small independents whose owners must be increasingly under pressure in the digital age to keep their businesses going? If you conducted a survey of all the high streets in the UK I reckon the vast majority have no book shop at all. In 2019 The i Paper calculated that within the last five years 70% of all British book shops had been forced to close.
Anyway, my niece Francesca and her partner Will kindly gave me a book token for a recent birthday present so off I set to my local Waterstones to trade it in. Taking the lift up to the top floor of three I found myself all alone with only a single female assistant for company. “Can you recommend a book for me?” I asked her. “Something really special you’ve come across. Something that will amaze or shock me with the sheer quality and originality of its insights.” She did not bat an eyelid. “I probably can,” she considered. “Leave it with me for a few minutes.” Off she toddled and I began to browse around the shelves, breathing in the heady perfume of printed paper. Within a few minutes I found myself delving into the pages of a paperback entitled, Conversations With God. I found it instantly gripping. “Why do you allow so much suffering in the world?” the author was asking God when the assistant arrived back lugging a pile of books. “Actually that’s not true,” God was replying. “You see…..” I hated to leave off at that vital juncture but the dear woman had clearly taken my challenge at face value. So we sat down and she talked me through her recommendations.
Her name is Kiara and her youthful enthusiasm was infectious. Instead of buying just one book I purchased five. Do you know the word upselling? It implies victimhood on the part of the gullible shopper but this wasn’t the case here. I really yearned to dive into Kiara’s vast lake of literary delight and swim deep with the creatures I found there. The texts are as follows:
STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER by Fern Brady. It’s the memoir of a Scottish standup comedian who was diagnosed as autistic in her late 20’s. (I’m about 90 pages in.)
QUESTION 7 by Richard Flanagan. Another memoir, this one by the highly praised author of novels such as The Narrow Road To The Deep North.
PRISONERS OF GEOGRAPHY by Tim Marshall. A lucid exploration of the geopolitical chaos that exists in today’s world and why the turmoil of war seems to be humanity’s inevitable lot.
THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt. An erudite contestation that the brains of young people are becoming dangerously rewired by their over-exposure to smart phones and the whole apparatus of post internet technology.
THE WAGER by David Grann. Set in 1742 and proposed by The Spectator magazine to be the greatest sea story ever told. (Moby Dick, eat your heart out!)
NOTICEBOARD OCTOBER 2026
This month I am posting a new story called A Jailbird’s Guide To The Mystery Of Love and a book review of Henry Marsh’s memoir, Do No Harm. Marsh was a distinguished brain surgeon and his autobiography set me thinking about how comparatively little we understand about this crucial organ. Certain physical facts have been established. For instance we know there are 86 billion neurons and up to a quadrillion synaptic connections in the human brain. We know that these are always in use and that the idea that we use only 10% capacity of our brain is a complete myth. Apparently we also know the brain uses up 20% of our energy even though it represents only 2% of our body weight. As for the bigger picture – How do individual brain cells talk to each other? How do nerve signals turn into personal feelings and self-awareness? – scientists as yet have absolutely no idea. Henry Marsh therefore strikes me as a new world frontiersman incidentally exploring the utter mystery of consciousness as he endeavours to keep his patients alive. I suppose what connects my story A Jailbird’s Guide to Do No Harm is that they both portray men struggling desperately to come to terms with the limitations of their knowledge but having to finally settle to exist in a state of perplexed uncertainty. I hope you enjoy them.