New Novel Writer
Short stories to read at a sitting - Three Easy Pieces
One romantic comedy - One romantic drama - One haunting Dartmoor Tale
Love’s Too Short
When your strongest of emotions have at last been realized, only for life’s uncertain challenges to get in the way of your happiness, you treasure the moments you do have together.
Set in St Ives in the early '70s, we join Jake and Toni as they are guided by circumstance and fate to this idyllic Cornish fishing village, working the season in a local hotel.
Natural attraction brings them together but a secret they both harbor threatens their relationship.
As short as their time together may be, they discover so much in each other to savor, even though the bitter-sweet conclusion may not have been how they saw their destinies.
​
The final twist is there not to trick you, but leaves you to ponder how even the most profound events can, with time, offer opportunity to find happiness once more.
​
You Only Love Once
Impulse is the strangest thing - often devoid of reason yet, sometimes, by some amazing twist of fate or fortune it comes up with the right solution.
Sometimes...
Alan, a local village lad encounters two sisters new to the area, both with their own agenda. Add to this his arch-rival on the soccer field and in the romance stakes and you have a toxic mix.
How does it end? Let's simply say that justice and fairness prevails - for the righteous at least.
​
But in a way that you may least expect.
* Literary yet powerful and entertaining short stories with a twist
* Immerse yourself in past eras, other lifestyles, haunting and mysterious legend
* Tales from Cornwall to Dartmoor to glorious Middle England to read at a sitting
​
Available in eBook, paperback and hardback formats on Amazon
The Black Hound of Dartmoor
Set mainly in south Dartmoor, this bewitching tale has its roots in truth and legend leaving you to decide how much may be real and what may simply be make-believe.
There are some spooky goings on. Take a solitary walk out on a dark night across unfamiliar - or even familiar - landscape such as a stroll across the moors, and the truth element of this short story will find you but still leave you wondering.
As Peter Hannaford once said, there are more ghosts on the moor than there are people.
Certainly each one - whether ghost or living - has a tale to tell. Here, several moorland myths, legends and realities are woven into a complex story involving those who set out to lead simple lives, but who often discover they are in the midst of something they neither wished for, nor can they control.
​
Inspired by several years living in a remote Dartmoor hamlet, enjoy - if you can - a taste of a life, much of which has still not changed for decades, and even - in some aspects - for centuries.
​
Moor reading (!), from various sources on truth, myth and legend, may stimulate your imagination even further if you seek out 'Kitty Jay's Grave', 'The Hairy Hands'. and 'The Beast of Dartmoor'.
​
But this entertaining account includes a welcome touch of romance to add flavor and the usual feel-good conclusion you can expect from the pen of this author.
​
Author's note: If you're looking for more easy-to-digest tales, but reaching wider horizons, try READ MY SHORTS, featuring verse as well as narratives.