Graham Sherry introduced us to decagrams and, as a variation, pentagrams. They’re a very popular exercise among the group. The decagram challenge is to write a piece which includes all ten set words. They can be very random.
For October 2020 the ten words were:
beginning, stud, swimming, romance, personal, curtain, lengths, barking, pointing, whales
Duncan Gray went down the Historical Fiction route.
Dearest Mater and Pater.
Salutations from your son and the glorious Roman legion in which I serve.
When I last wrote I was excited to be at the beginning of my military career. There has been a long gap between letters as we have been marching north for many weeks and have only recently reached our final posting. Father, I have to say that the romance of service which you described to me has quickly faded. You had the warmth of North Africa, I find myself at a cold northern outpost of the empire.
As you know, the emperor Antoninus Pius’s personal project was to build a great, glorious, beautiful new wall to defend our civilisation from the Caledonian hordes. That is where I am, and I have to report that it is not an impressive structure. It is little compared to that wall which we passed just a few days march to the south.
Worst of all is the climate here. Imagine that for every day the sun shines at home we have wind and rain. Every time it rains at home is all the time we see blue sky and the sun. We spend our days on patrol, marching the lengths from fort to fort, keeping back the natives. They appear from the hills in the north, pointing sticks at us, but they soon flee when I strike them with the stud of my shield. The worst feature of the weather here is the cold. There are few hours of daylight and I’m frozen to the bone all of the time I’m out. My friend Julius and I even stole some curtain last week to make extra body coverings.
Our one relief is the bathhouse. There it is warm. We can have fun, playing games and swimming, and there are some local girls to cavort with. Sometimes we get too rowdy and are shouted at by our fat Principales. Mostly though they just lie in the warm water like beached whales while we enjoy our hours of leisure.
As I write this there are still some hours before daylight will appear. However I hear shouts and dogs barking, so it is time to ready myself for the day’s duties.
I trust you are faring well. How I wish I could join you and enjoy that warm Mediterranean breeze.
Your loving son,
Marcus
Campsie Writers Group 