Nancy's Magic

From the witch’s daughter who has always known about herbs and potions.

A stone which stands tall and proud, waiting but waiting for who?

Driving ahead at full speed, searching and looking for the right road, the one which will take her far away to freedom.

To survive – an instinct bred deep inside of every man woman and child. To have the courage to go on and never give in.

Dreams which can be more real and terrifying than real life but can also be a warning of events waiting to happen.

Then there always is true love, a love which can last for many years and can never die.

Let the time fly by as you enter an emotional roller-coaster, from love and survival, witches and wizards, laughter and tears.

But things are not always what they seem, twists, and turns at every corner and at the end – who knows?

Enjoy the ride and always remember to dance in the rain.

Mystery, History and Imagination

This book is intended to amuse and interest you. You’ll meet many people from history and see how they might have behaved in situations you’re sure to know about. There are also murderers and victims – some real and some fictitious, barbaric punishment handed out by figures of authority, and kings and queens from the past who didn’t always behave as they should have. There are 20 different stories for you to choose from and each is as fascinating as the other. Was Bloody Mary really as blood-thirsty as remembered in history? Did Lizzie Borden really murder her parents by giving them forty whacks with a hatchet? Was Rabbie Burns as enamoured of the lassies as reputed to be? (I think you’ll find he was.)

These are just a few examples to keep hold of your interest, but there’s much, much more between these book covers to keep you glued until the end of each story. As for the answers to the above questions, perhaps you’ll know those after you’ve read this book.

McCreed

Ashton struggles with university. He doesn’t have many friends but fills his time with coaching and training, looking to become a professional fighter.

One day, his twin sister reminds him of an expensive event that their parents are hosting. Loads of rich and significant guests will be joining the family for food and business conversation. Gorgeous women and suited men littering their mansion.

The security business is booming.

A person can change forever in a single moment, their whole world in a series of them.

At this high-profile and heavily-guarded event, Ashton and his family’s lives are turned upside down.

Lila's Tree and Other Stories

What if you knew what was to happen in your life and so you got a chance at amending by doing things differently?

It would save a lot of guilt and tears. And if these changes were easy things, new habits could transform your future and that of those you love into a brighter one.

What if your experience and knowledge of things in life could ensure you a better tomorrow, something you would be proud of? Something to claim as being a legacy of kindness, love and respect for humanity and the planet.

It happened to older generations, it is happening to us, it will keep on happening until we learn to replace the What Ifs and Should Haves by concrete actions and a better way of living so as to ensure our beautiful world keeps being so and the human race deserving to be the one in charge.

Let’s imagine the wrong side of tomorrow and steer away from that image, starting today.

Life According to Brian

Life According to Brian chronicles 44 stories of mishap and misadventure of a scale unparalleled in modern man. Disguised in comedy to protect the seriously guilty, the story follows Brian’s escapades traversing the world and captures not only the lunacy of life but the luck involved in avoiding one’s own death.

The guidebook for the mentally impaired includes: poaching, drugs, imprisonment, kidnapping, poisonings, alien hunters, crocodile suicide and much, much more…

The sorry episodes are being played out via a game of chess. God and Charles Darwin, seeking to save mankind, are plotting Brian’s untimely demise. The winner of each play gets to choose the method of death. Constantly interrupted by visiting deities, kings, queens and E.T., the two main players are frustrated in their attempts to have some peace and play the game, with a nice cup of tea and some Mr Kipling cake.

Send the kids away, euthanise the cat, find a comfy chair, pour a pint of the finest whisky…have a reliable psychiatrist on speed dial.

Come inside and enjoy the ride…

Leaving Behind

All his life, Malcolm Tutt wanted to be found. Now on the eve of turning fifty, he realised that sometimes life may never find you and if you wanted it bad enough, sometimes you would have to go and look for it yourself. The only problem was that he would have to die, if he wanted to live.

A young woman finds out that her husband is having an affair with her best friend. She decides to confront him, but before she does, she hatches a plan to catch them in the act of betrayal. As she gets closer and closer to discovering the truth about her husband, her anger towards them grows. Like a cheap paperback novel, her life begins to unravel until one night she commits a terrible act, and in the process, finds out what a scorned woman is truly capable of.

Leaving Behind is a collection of short stories that explores the lengths that people will go to when they are desperate, each with an unexpected twist.

Late Life Musings

These stories capture a diverse variety of characteristics and personalities in different situations, and convey pleasure, pain and accurate observation.

Last Keeper's Lighthouse Stories

The very nature of lighthouses captures the imagination. Being marooned on different lighthouses throughout my career has produced many memorable incidents and humorous stories. Diverse locations like Lundy, Alderney, Wolf, Sark, all have something unique to offer. Rock tower lighthouses, land lights or island lighthouses, each one is different. Cooped up on a tower and being pounded by heavy seas is not only exhilarating, but frightening as well. Fog signals can play a huge part in a good duty period and the relief for going ashore is always welcomed. The characters are what makes this book such a good read. It gets your chuckle chops in overdrive, especially at some of the antics on the lights. A month’s duty is filled with incidents and the constant change in weather conditions has an effect on everything that you do. These stories will show how hardship goes hand in glove with humour whilst aboard.

Ladybirds - Tales on the Wing

As a youngster I loved getting, and subsequently owning, a brand new ‘Ladybird’ book. I especially liked the smell of the pristine pages as I turned them for the very first time. There was an aroma to their ‘inks’ that was distinctly ‘Ladybird’. What a joy! What a childhood memory!

These new tales came into being from the front covers of specific ‘Ladybird’ books, so to them I am clearly indebted. I just let my imagination do the rest once the seed was sown. They are both weird and wonderful, and abound with fact and fiction, truth and lies, deceit and lust. Very unlike the little books themselves, and if you take the trouble you will surely see what I mean. 

Lady with Edelweiss

Human ashes in a tea caddy, a baby delivered in a snowstorm, worm pie, a priest with a passion for airbrushing. How much do we know about our friends, our families, or even ourselves? This debut collection exposes the strangeness of everyday lives, embracing the light and the dark sides of human nature.

Uncomfortably honest and direct, these stories reveal the fears and passions of the mind through their characters, places and situations, an exploration of the boundaries between fantasy and reality. These are people we all know. 

A rich potpourri of character and plot in this intriguing (and sometimes dark) collection of tales from a talented storyteller.

Angela Locke. Author of Dreams of the Blue Poppy (Robert Hale) etc

Steph Newham has empathy with all her characters so presents her stories as rounded pieces for her readers’ enjoyment. Where she takes on characters from history her research is careful and enriches her stories, which range across many subjects.

Vivien Jones. Poet, author. Co-editor Southlight Magazine

Short but not sweet, Steph Newham writes vignettes that blaze out, illuminated briefly by the photo-flash of her pen. And when the light blinks out, you are left wondering as the scene presents itself again like the complexity of good wine, each time leaving a different taste.

Tony Walker. Author of A Christmas Ghost, etc and The Classic Ghost Story podcast.

These stories are atmospheric, the characters well-drawn. In ‘Unwise Words’, I felt the young mother’s regret and shivered in fear as the bonfire was lit. The sights and smell in the four Spanish stories took me to that country and I laughed out loud at the manuring of the roses in The Sand Walk. Something here for everyone.

Gwen Kirkwood. Author of sixteen Scottish novels and novellas (Joffee Books)

Journey's Bend

A poignant collection of short stories with a vivid mix of relatable characters confronting a bend in the road. The lucid prose, rich in imagery, illuminates people’s unyielding courage in challenging times.

Dealing with bereavement, displacement and renewal, the creative tales twist and turn through the vagaries of life. In the opening story, Gran absconding from a care home makes her escape in a red Reliant Robin, an epochal vehicle from her courtship days. Courageously, in ‘Wind Horse’, Maggie harnesses her wild emotions and canters on to fresh green meadows.

Using varied settings and compelling voices of all ages, Journey’s Bend celebrates the resilience of the human spirit. Tinged with humour, the touching stories will resonate with a wide range of readers scrambling through change.

Ghostly Visions

A journey through the strange visions and visitations of characters: historical, contemporary and futuristic. The brief tales are written for easy reading and reach from ancient times to the imagined worlds of the future. Rather than horror stories, these experiences are unfolded as the strange and intriguing encounters of people who are visited by an unexpected presence, or who travel through unfamiliar landscapes both physical and mental. Many tales are set within historical worlds that may be remote but have some familiar features and some significance for our own times. The imagination of those engaged in these experiences are often stretched as they discover truths about themselves and their surroundings. Young people come of age as they witness unfamiliar occurrences and world-weary personalities find fresh meanings in the scenarios that they move through. Many of the stories explore the relevance of ancient myths to the truths that the characters find on their voyages of self-discovery.