Louise Wise is a British author of science fiction, time travel and romantic comedy. Her latest work moves into darker science fiction thrillers, with conspiracies, altered realities and a touch of romance.
Sometimes she invites guest authors here, mostly so you don’t get bored of her.
Beginning in the 1940s, women united by family and separated by time were bound by a profound connection and a shared desire to capture their experiences in writing. Their words come together to form a lasting tribute to love, legacy, and the timeless art of expression.
Pieces of Us is a collection of poems, songs, quotes, thoughts and haikus from one mother, and her six daughters.
The voices of seven women spanning over eight decades.
With the passage of time much of the writing has been lost or forgotten.
This book is a collection of some of what remains.
Seven women, all living in different time periods connected by a family bond, each choosing at some point to put pen to paper and share their feelings and experiences, to share pieces of their lives.
Enter the world of Put the Kettle on, Love, where you will find fifteen captivating short stories with twists that will enchant and intrigue you. Each story offers a glimpse into the complexities of human relationships and emotions, from tales of sibling rivalry to heartwarming reflections on love and forgiveness.
In ‘Sisterly Rivalry,’ you can follow the journey of revenge as sisters navigate the complexities of their bond. ‘The Alien’ invites you to see the world through a child's eyes as they encounter the extraordinary. Meanwhile, ‘For the Love of Duncan’ explores the intricacies of destiny and love's enduring power.
With stories ranging from heartwarming to thought-provoking, Put the Kettle on, Love is a delightful collection that promises to captivate and entertain readers. So, pour yourself a cuppa, settle into your favourite chair, and immerse yourself in these tales that will warm your heart and leave you longing for more.
Murphy Cassidy works as a cleaner and faces many challenges both in her life and in her job. One day, she's unexpectedly invited to sing on a TV talent show, a dream opportunity that also offers a chance of a lifetime to a struggling rock band.
However, there's one thing that could prevent her from taking the stage, and no, it's not her lack of singing ability...
Character
interview with Murphy Cassidy, the protagonist from The Rebel Murphy
What is
your full name? Do you have a nickname?
Dia duit, Louise (it means
"Hello” in Irish), and thanks for interviewing me. I hope you're doing
well. My name is Murphy Cassidy. No, I don't have a nickname. Not that I know
of, anyway.
Nice to meet you, Murphy.
Your name tells me you’ve Irish heritage?
Yes, I was born in Cork,
Ireland, but I’ve no idea of my age. My author didn't bother to give me a birth
date, although I assume we share the same age because of specific circumstances
described in the book that I'm not allowed to reveal. Don't worry, though, I'm
of legal age.
I take it you’re a human? You
seem human.
Yes, I'm definitely a human
being. My author has put a lot of effort into making me sound and act like a
human, although she barely likes to provide any physical descriptions (unless
they're relevant to the plot) because she prefers the readers to imagine the characters
with the features they want. I think I like that.
What are your likes/dislikes?
I love the Swords-born rock band Kodaline. My author made sure that they would have been relevant to the plot at a certain point. You can listen below and when you do, think of me.
What are your likes/dislikes?
I love the Swords-born rock
band Kodaline.
My author made sure that they would have been relevant to the plot at a certain
point.
Do you have
a job/hobby?
I’m a cleaner,
and I always wanted to be the best cleaner I could possibly be.
Are you in love?
I’m single, and I’m genuinely
fine with that. I don’t envy those who are engaged, married or whatever because
I prefer spending my time doing the stuff I enjoy the most.
Do you have any regrets in
life?
I don’t have any regrets, so
far, but anything can happen in life, and maybe there will be one thing I’ll
regret thinking or doing someday.
Where do you live? Are you
happy there?
I mostly drive throughout
Ireland for work, and so far, there’s no place I ever disliked.
Who are your parents? Are
they still alive?
My parents are Saoirse and Enda
Cassidy. They’re still alive, and I get along with them pretty decently, given
the circumstances (I live on my own, and I like it that way, despite knowing
that this lifestyle has its own disadvantages).
Do you own a gun (or any
other weapon)?
Nope, nope, nope! And so far,
I’ve never been put in a position to kill someone. The dead don’t hire you or
pay you any salary, after all.
What do you consider your
greatest achievement so far? Do other people think it’s great?
My greatest achievement so far
is living on my own with a job I like doing and without any harm done to
anyone, I guess. I think that most people are okay with me living like this, but
naturally, I wouldn’t like to know that someone thinks otherwise. I would like
to thank you for this interview. Slán (it means “goodbye” in Irish)!
This platform provides an exclusive chance for you to garner free promotion for both you and your book. Please reach out via email to info@louisewise.uk
Ellie’s dreams of opening a bakery in Sunnybrook are finally coming true and best friends Fen and Jaz are happily rallying round, helping her to plan a fabulous grand opening day.
Everything in their garden seems to be rosy – until the arrival of a newcomer brings chaos to the village and tests relationships to the limit.
Can the bakery succeed in the face of such upheaval? And more importantly, can firm friendships survive?
About author Rosie Green
Rosie Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.
Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centred on life in a village café. The first two stories in the series are: Spring at The Little Duck Pond Cafe and Summer at The Little Duck Pond Café.
The Great Fruitcake Bake-off is a part of the Whispers of Winter holiday anthology.
Winter may be rolling in, but that doesn’t mean your days and nights must be cold.
The Great Fruitcake Bake-off: When five-time champion Samantha Greene teams up with her new neighbor, Dixon Roberts, for The Great Fruitcake Bake-off, they discover baking a prize-winning entry is complicated, bad guys are plotting to take the crown, and first prize isn't just about a ribbon.
Read a free sample or buy Whispers of Winter by Nicole Morgan, Stephanie Morris, Vicki Batman, Jan Springer, Rebecca Fairfax and Suzanne Jenkins. You can read this book with Apple Books on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac.
Gruesome deaths haunt the industrial city of Fall River, Massachusetts.
Dr. Seabury Bowen—physician to the infamous Lizzie Borden—swears he’s being stalked by spirits, though his beloved wife thinks it’s merely his imagination.
But the retired doctor insists that neither greed nor anger provoked the recent sensational axe murders in Fall River. Rather, he believes the city is poisoned by bad blood and a thirst for revenge dating back to the Indian and Colonial wars. Now, two years after the Borden murders, Dr. Bowen is determined to uncover the mysteries stirring up the city’s ancient, bloodthirsty specters.
Can he discover who, or what, is shattering the peace before Fall River runs red? Or will he be the next victim?
Excerpt
The Haunting of Dr. Bowen, A Mystery in Lizzie Borden’s Fall River
“Never did I say
to anyone that she had died of fright.
My first thought,
when I was standing in the door, was that she had fainted.”
—Testimony
of Dr. Seabury W. Bowen, Trial of Lizzie Borden, June 8, 1893
“Why won’t anyone
believe me? Why, Phoebe, why?”
Dr. Seabury Bowen
shoved back the shock of white hair hanging over his forehead and wiped a
wrinkled hand across his stubbled chin.
His appearance, like
his surroundings, could stand a bit of major housekeeping, not that he cared a
whit.
“Here, it’s here
somewhere,” he mumbled.
The old man
rummaged among the giant pile of documents, books, and what-not littering the
large walnut desk in his study. Several minutes later, and after the search
through dozens of loose papers, he saw the faded red book lying beneath a
tottering pile. He pulled at it, sending the rest of the stack falling like so
much unwanted garbage.
The good doctor,
but a shadow of his once-robust self, flipped the pages. He stared at the offending
journal entry before setting the book aside with a heartrending sob.
Chapter One
“I saw the form of Mr. Borden lying on the lounge at the left
of the sitting-room door. His face was very badly cut, apparently with a sharp
instrument; his face was covered with blood.”
—Testimony
of Dr. Seabury W. Bowen, Trial of Lizzie Borden, June 8, 1893
The man reached toward
him with long, lean fingers. Dr. Seabury Bowen blinked and tried to make out
the features of the unknown figure standing in the corner. The unexpected
visitor had a broad, dark face and what looked like a band across his forehead.
Bowen stretched out his arm in turn and jumped when their fingers touched, the
jolt surging through him like the electricity he knew would soon replace all
the gas lights.
“Seabury, dear,
are you all right?” His wife, Phoebe, sounded concerned. “What’s wrong?”
Bowen breathed
hard. He bolted upright and held a hand on his chest, trying to catch his breath.
Still stunned, he gazed about the room, disturbed at the odd shapes until he
recognized familiar things… the bureau, the armoire, the paintings on his
bedroom walls. He swallowed and nodded.
“Ye-yes. I-I’m fine. A bad dream, that’s all
it was. Just a dream.”
“A bad dream?
Dear, you’re breathing so hard, your heart must be pounding like a drum in Mr.
Sousa’s band! Are you sure you’re fine?”
The doctor took
his wife’s hand and kissed it, relieved to feel his heartbeat return to normal.
He had to admit his reaction worried him for a minute, too. “I’m fine now, Phoebe.
Really, it’s all right. Go back to sleep. I’m too wrought up to rest. I think
I’ll go downstairs and read awhile.”
He gave her a
loving smile before he rose, and slipped on his robe, his thoughts in a whirl.
To tell the truth, these dreams or hallucinations or whatever they were,
appeared to be getting stronger and more frequent.
Two Hundred Very Short Stories is a collection of stories each so short that the reader can start … and finish … a whole one in one night – some even in a minute!
Recognising that many people don’t have enough time for regular reading – and thus can easily lose the thread of a novel – Helen Keeling-Marston set about writing a collection of short stories.
Two Hundred Very Short Stories – Helen’s first book – features an eclectic mix of short stories and flash fiction: flash fiction being works of extreme brevity. Similar to a musical mix tape, the collection of stories aims to elicit a range of different emotions from the reader: joy, sadness, amusement, befuddlement, intrigue and fear.
Be warned, however, that you’ll need to have your wits about you when reading this book, as Two Hundred Very Short Stories isn’t always a passive experience!
~
A story from Two Hundred Very Short Stories to whet the appetite.
Cynicism kills magic
and so, whilst the children all knew that I existed, their parents didn’t. And
so the parents would pretend to be me. But they never did it very well.
Nine-year-old Flora
carefully placed the molar underneath her pillow and then quickly fell asleep.
A couple of hours later, her father crept into her room, lifted her pillow and
exchanged the tooth for a pound coin. As he left her room and closed her door,
I flew in, took the pound coin and swapped it for a piece of enchanted plastic
that would glow for a good few hours.
When Flora woke up the
next morning, she peeled back her pillow and gasped when she saw the glowing
disc. She took it to her money box and posted it through the slit.
“Did the tooth fairy
leave you anything?” asked Flora’s mum, as they all sat down to breakfast that
morning.
“She did,” said Flora,
her eyes glowing like the disc. “She left me a coin that sparkled with fairy
dust.”
As Flora’s parents
exchanged bemused, cynical glances, I counted how much money I’d made that
evening.
I never said that magic
had to be used for good.
~
About the author:
By day, Helen Keeling-Marston plays with numbers and, by night, she likes to like to flex her creative muscle and write stories and make music. When not having fun with numbers, words and musical notes, she is the voluntary founder and director of a sports charity; sport being the other big passion in her life.
Maybe she imagined no one could see her behind that flimsy curtain, but when the sun was sinking behind the house, her naked form was perfectly visible. Like those silhouettes of dancing women at the beginning of a Bond film. They always repeated them at Christmas, didn't they? He watched that stuff with his dad.
Christmas at home doing naff things with your parents was one of the essentials, wasn't it?
It meant you got to moan about it to your mates whilst secretly enjoying it and posting random pictures of your mate's sister's starter bra on Facebook.
The Cardiff train was early so he loitered on the station steps, hoping to catch an eyeful from the house of ill repute across the road, and wondering whether to text his dad. Then a few minutes later, something happened that he wished he could erase from his memory.
The door opened, and his dad came out. He seemed preoccupied for a few seconds, then marched back inside and left the door swinging.
Had he just imagined that? What the hell was his dad doing in there?
An
emotive trio of stories with festive themes from the Welsh Mountains of
Snowdonia.
Rudolph
the Brown-Nosed Reindeer
Rick isn’t looking forward to his
lonely corporate Christmas, but it’s the season of goodwill and
magic is in the air.
An
off-beat love story. It’s time Rick wore his heart on his
sleeve, or is it too late? Lessons in love from an unlikely source.
Jim’s Christmas Carol
Santa
and Satan pay a visit. One brings presents, the other an unwelcome presence.
Paranormal
reality. Jim’s played with fire it’s time he got his comeuppance, but from who?
Home
for Christmas
Deck
the halls with boughs of holly. Fa la-la la-la, la-la la-la. Tis the Season to
be jolly…
Romantic-comedy.
Pip might accidentally find her true vocation, but the folly of her fibs are
about to catch up with her. ~~~
Jan Ruth lives in
Snowdonia, North Wales, UK.
This ancient,
romantic landscape is a perfect setting for Jan's fiction, or simply
day-dreaming in the heather. Jan writes contemporary stories about people, with
a good smattering of humour, drama, dogs and horses.
As well as
self-publishing several short works, she is also published by ACCENT PRESS.
Red's mother had packed a picnic for all of them to share.
"Are you sure about what they have here?" asked Charlie. "I had never heard of rhinopotamusses before."
"Well I may have got that a little wrong," replied Red, 'but I think that's what mother said!"
Ian
Davis is the author of children's fiction short stories.
His 2014 additions
include: No Fluffy Animals, a collection of short stories, a mix of sci-fi,
ghost stories and supernatural tales for the 12 plus age group.
Also Charlie
Rabbit-The Visitor which is a follow on story to the Charlie Rabbit's
Adventures series of stories
