Being Scots: Short Stories from McStorytellers

McStorytellers is a website (http://www.mcstorytellers.com) dedicated to showcasing the work of Scottish-connected short story writers. By August 2013, almost three years after our inception, we had published for free in excess of half a million words in close to 400 stories by some 60 contributing writers, or McStorytellers.As in 2012, we were delighted to host the daily Short Story slot at the 2013 Edinburgh eBook Festival. In 2012, we selected twelve of the best stories from our back catalogue to feature in the daily slot. At the end of the Festival, we brought the stories together in a wee anthology called THE McFESTIVAL DOZEN, which is still available from Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats.In 2013, we did things differently. We ran a McCompetition, from which we selected the best of the entries to feature at the Festival during August and then to be included in this, our third, anthology. For the McCompetition, in recognition that the debate over the Scottish Independence Referendum would be hotting up by then, we invited all our contributors to submit a short story on the subject of BEING SCOTS.So here are the twelve winning entries. While the approaches to BEING SCOTS vary wildly, a couple of themes do emerge from the stories. Many of the authors seek "to see oursels as ithers see us", the "ithers" being defined as those who live in England (of course), the rest of the world and even another planet! Many also are at pains to highlight Scotland's failings: our penchant for unhealthy foods, our lack of prowess on the international football stage, the religious bigotry that divides great swathes of our nation - to name but a few. But virtually all have imbued their piece with humour - that wry, dry Scots sense of humour that helps to define us, that makes us different from our neighbours near and far.To sum up, therefore. According to the following stories, the Scots are full of faults, which we're happy to acknowledge, even to laugh at. And we don't really care what others think. Like William Wallace and his army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, we bare our arses to our adversaries. Or was that only in the movie? Either way, that image, as you'll see, provided a cracking idea for the anthology's book cover!Please sit back, pour yourself a wee dram and enjoy a dozen highly entertaining takes on BEING SCOTS. Sl?inte!