Category: short stories

Christmas Reading and Christmas Cheer

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Gloucestershire. The People’s Friend Festive Bumper Issue has arrived, complete with twenty-three stories (two of them mine!). Lemons, limes, and yuzu are ripening in the greenhouse. The log burner is crackling with good, dry wood harvested last year. I’ll soon be decanting homemade cassis into gift bottles, ready to give as presents. Sadly, I didn’t make any sloe gin this year. Despite our many blackthorn bushes and trees, only one sloe made it to full size. Then one night it vanished, and before it was properly ripe. I suspect a mouse!

‘The People’s Friend’ – Short Stories for Christmas

The last couple of weeks I have been lucky enough to have several pieces of my work published under The People’s Friend banner. My pocket novel Robin’s Nest was published on 24th of October as Number 1029 in The People’s Friend Pocket Novel Library. Then this week, I’ve had more good news. The People’s Friend Festive Bumper Issue dated the 7th of December features TWO of my stories!

My Stories

In Gingerbread Traditions, Marian is feeling lonely as she settles in to her new home in a strange town. Then a neighbour invites her to take part in the local Victorian Christmas Fair. That’s when Marian finds her new house has played a starring role in a very special competition.

I think Finch the Grinch, the second story, is my favourite piece of all the short fiction I have written so far for The People’s Friend. It’s Christmas, but Gary Finch hasn’t got any reason to feel cheerful. After losing his job he tried to make it as an artist, but his new career hasn’t worked out. Molly, his wife, has been busy organising a Walking Nativity to bring some Christmas cheer to their town. Gary has been feeling too dispirited to take part. Can the season of goodwill work its magic on him?

The People’s Friend and Me

There was always a copy of The People’s Friend lying about the house when I was growing up. The weekly magazine’s combination of interesting articles and cheering stories lost its hold over me when I became a rebellious teenager, but I rediscovered its value after I became a mother. My son developed a series of medical conditions which required sometimes weekly trips to hospital. The magazine, together with its regular seasonal specials and bimonthly Pocket Novels, is always stocked by the hospital shop. It was then that I discovered the true purpose of The People’s Friend. It’s the perfect comfort and distraction during long waits for treatment, results, or items from the pharmacy.

The magazine covers serious topics as well as light-hearted ones, but whatever the subject, The People’s Friend deals in hope. That’s why the stories it contains are always upbeat, with a happy-ever-after ending (or at least, a happy-for-now-ending).

Optimism is vital when things look bleak. I like to think that my writing for The People’s Friend will make readers smile in the same way I’ve been cheered in the past by the work of its other writers.

I often include short stories in my monthly newsletter, along with news of my life and writing here in Gloucestershire, and offers of free books like these…

If you sign up for my newsletter here, I’ll send you a free copy of Royal Rivals, the prequel to my series of Royal Romance novels.

To Find Out More…

…about me, click here. To buy my latest book, Royal Hostage, click here

I had a lovely surprise this week. My short story The Real Maisey Day appears in The People’s Friend Easter Special (Edition No. 224).

I love writing for The People’s Friend as it’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It was delivered to our house every week when I was little, and most of the recipes and a lot of the knitting patterns were tried out.

More recently, the magazine has been a welcome distraction on trips to hospital with my son. He’s been visiting consultants for multiple health concerns since he was eight years old. As he’s now taller than me (!), you’ll realise it’s been a long road.

While my son would get a comic from the hospital shop, I’d pick up a Friend. The tone of the magazine is optimistic and the stories, whether contemporary or historical, are always thoroughly enjoyable.

I like to think that reading my stories gives people an escape from their worries for a few minutes. It was what I needed during all those hospital visits, so it’s great to be able to give something back.

The Real Maisey Day is a story about friendship, and the very different truth that can lurk behind a public image. I’ve always been a sucker for self-help manuals, and I’ve tried many improving techniques over the years. They’ve all helped me to some extent. My favourite self-help guru is Jack Canfield. He looks so serene, and has a motivating quip for every situation.

I thought it would be fun to invent a self-help genius who is anything but perfect—someone who can inspire others, but behind the scenes is as lacking in confidence as everyone she helps to succeed.

Several kind people have contacted me to say they enjoyed The Real Maisey Day, and would like to read more stories about what happened next to the central characters.

I’d love to know what you think might happen to Emma, Daisy, Maisey Day, and of course Pablo, next!