Halloween and Weird and Peculiar

Have you ever wondered why orange and black are traditional Halloween colours? Apparently, orange represents the warmth and colours of autumn and black is for the cold, dark winter ahead. Does anyone actually eat pumpkins? I’ve heard of them being mashed into a soup but apart from that their only purpose seems to be for …

Spirit of Technology background

The original idea of this page was to provide information and background relating to my published books, and there is quite an interesting story behind this one. During an amicable conversation with my first publisher, I confirmed I hadn’t received an email which she was sure her assistant had sent me, and her comment ‘It …

Are you there Paula?

The virus has caused many traditional office workers to have to learn new methods for online communications. Some weeks ago a friend was explaining the difficulties encountered during a work meeting and suggested it would make a good prompt for a short story. This is it. 😁 Sitting in stuffy offices at work, listening to …

Ectoplasmic Rage

The latest storycast in the 'Val's Tales' You Tube series has now been released and you can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2wC2ftAvuc I love this one. 😀 Various things contributed to me writing the story, including finding objects not where you left them, mobiles switching off mid-conversation, and the way everything these days relies on …

‘Best Man’ part 1.

Two updates and the first part of a spooky short story this week. First, the launch party for the Charity anthology 'When Stars Will Shine' is this Monday 9th December, and all royalties will go to 'Help for Heroes.'  It's already racing up the Amazon charts and tipped to be a future No. 1. Check …

‘Take me with you.’

In my part of the world, summer is drifting into autumn so this story seemed particularly appropriate. Escaping from the usual routine with a holiday in the sun can have beneficial results - sometimes! It was a typical gloomy, depressing day in London; hard to believe that only 24 hours previously I had been basking …

Ectoplasmic Road rage

A short story followed by the answer to last week's question, and a new teaser about another of my characters.  Everyone these days has a multitude of gadgets, but have you ever considered the problems they cause from an alternative point of view? It used to be easy being a ghost. We’d drift around in …

‘Weird and Peculiar Tales,’ Remembering, and Laundry fairies.

It’s that time of year when ghosts walk, ghouls wander the earth and laundry fairies get up to mischief. Wait, that doesn’t sound quite right. All will be revealed, but first a very short story. Remembering. Even though I hadn’t visited the house for over fifty years, I found my way easily along the pitch-black path …

Childhood Memories

A prompt on a writer's group about childhood memories brought to mind funfairs on the town common when I was a teenager. I didn't expect it to take this turn but as usual the characters took over with an ending I wasn’t expecting.  I was lost. As it had been over forty years since my …

Rose and Lily

Inspiration for short stories can come from a variety of places, and I enjoy the challenge of being given random words to incorporate into a story. A member of a writers' group suggested the words Séance, Rapid, Perverse, and Epiphany. This was my idea.  Even as a child Rose was perverse. ‘Come on darling, your …