Waiting for Santa -Val’s Tales

It doesn't look as if the final audio story for Val's Tales will be available on our YouTube channel before Christmas, which is a shame as the 15th December was our first anniversary. Never mind. I'll let you have a sneaky read, and you can check out our podcasts for all the others. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsmbM57q4SzHbOcx3CPbr1Q Apple …

Christmas Val’s Tales and The Stars Will Shine Again

Christmas is a time for giving, whether it be donating to the annual collection for your favourite charity or a small gift for a friend. It’s also a time for sharing, whether it’s the washing up after a traditional meal, the children playing together or the joy of a new addition to the family. As …

Waiting for Santa

It’s been a very busy week this week. As well as preparing for a forthcoming book fair, we’ve been rehearsing more intros for the audio productions of our podcast ‘Val’s Tales.’ The latest one is in two parts and is called ‘September Swan Song.’ You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PjEjbO243I I was delighted when …

Books and Twitter and a little bit of everything

I know I said I might do a character interview but there’s been so much happening on the book and podcast front, I thought it better to delay it for a week. By coincidence, two items this week relate to books and lockdown, and two to foxes. In the Summer, Nikki Vallance did a series …

You should write a book

How many times have you heard that? After all, it’s easy, right? You put some words down on paper or laptop, find a publisher, or self-publish and sit back waiting for the royalties to roll in and make you rich. Easy, peasy. Er no, not quite. Anyone who has seriously tried to publish a book …

Blogs and Books and winter draws on.

As a very small child the phrase ‘Winter draw(er)s on’ always gave us the giggles imagining our grandmother in her best bloomers. It seems to have gone from summer to winter in the blink of an eye. For the first time this year I’ve succumbed and put the heating on, more to combat the damp …

Val’s Tales – The Body Trap

I’m delighted to announce the first story in the second ‘Val’s Tales’ audio series is now available and free to listen to on YouTube and several other platforms. This story is slightly unusual or as my narrator Wendi says ‘seriously weird, even for you Voinks.’ 😀 It’s been a while since we were in the …

When is a book not a book?

Although books in some form have been around for centuries, it was only in 1935 that paperbacks as we know them were first published. The Penguin series provided a source of good quality literature using a cover of pulped paper rather than the traditional hardback, and opened up books to the mass market at a …

Writers, authors and changes.

I never really appreciated the difference between saying ‘I’m a writer’ and saying ‘I’m an author.’ I assumed an author had a published book to their name and a writer was striving towards that goal. Thinking back, that was rather a narrow-minded view and even Google offers different interpretations, including the transition to being called …

George and Mary

Is it sad when a comedian laughs at his/her own jokes or is it a sign they are actually funny? As you might know by now, as well as my published books, I also write short stories in a variety of genres. Although they are fictional, many of them have a basis in fact as …