Maybe I have a subversive streak, but I actually really like things that can’t be explained. Studying science at school and then physiotherapy, everything had to be proven, results had to be reliable and repeatable, all techniques had to be justified; the best and most efficient means to an end. And while this is absolutely desirable and necessary in many, many fields, it kind of knocks the wonder out of life a bit. I want the best of both worlds; I’m greedy I suppose. There are so many bizarre coincidences and odd happenings that we experience in life, and most of the time we measure them against our known parameters and come up with the most likely, logical explanation. But sometimes I think what if there is something else going on? Some other force at play? And as well as scaring myself silly, ‘what if’ is a very good place for a story to start.
Science or Mystery?
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What is it about fairy tales that draws us in, adults and kids alike? After all, as far as story telling goes, they’re pretty basic. No hooks, no questions, no mystery, no frills, little description or scene setting AND we know how they end before we’ve even started. Good overcomes evil, love conquers all, the underdog wins the day and the bad guys get their comeuppance. Karma sorted all round. And who doesn’t want that fairytale ending…? But it is a matter of perspective. The hero and heroine may live happily ever after – but that doesn’t take away the trauma and pain they’ve suffered. And the same can’t be said for the wicked stepmother/sisters/witch. Their fate is tolerable at best and downright grim(m) (pun fully intended!) at worst – some of the original tales are really quite horrific. 
I am so excited that When Joe Met Alice is coming out at the end of October; how appropriate, since Halloween is a part of it. I wrote it over several months after Alice wandered into my head one day and it became apparent that her story needed to be told. When it was finished, several people liked it and said ‘You should get that published.’ But how? Where? That was when Magic Oxygen came to my rescue. Simon is nothing short of a web wizard and Tracey has such a great eye for detail. They have helped me to put together all the things I hadn’t even thought about, bio, cover and all. I had a vague idea of a cover image, which has been translated into absolute perfection, as you can see; my gorgeous ‘Alice’ is the lovely Lucy West. Thank you Lucy!
We all love stories, don’t we? We love to hear them, read them, tell them. Real life or fiction (or somewhere in between), outlandish or mundane, happy or sad, we are all living stories all the time. And humans are inquisitive creatures, we like to know about things, events, experiences, the works. We make our connections with the world and each other partly through stories. As a child I loved to read all sorts of things, (I still do) from fairy tales to mysteries, school based tales to high adventure.