An engram might not be an actual thing but if it is, it’s a memory-trace – a permanent change in the brain which would account for the existence of memory.

I have lots of great memories and this photo represents many of them – they’re some of the flowers from our wedding. They were grown in our garden and delivered to the venue in our campervan to an event shared with friends and family.

Obviously there was cake involved and I even signed a copy of my first novel which was released earlier that year. Oh, and my dress was purple.

What do you think? Do the things we experience physically change our brains in some way?

Historically a host is a large number of people, or an army. In Christian religion it may be the consecrated bread used to represent the body of Jesus, or the heavenly host may refer to angels or perhaps other bible figures – although the heavenly host can also be used to mean the sun, moon and stars.

A host might be a person who has received a donated organ, or any living organism which carries a parasite or disease. The landlord of a pub, compere of an event, or person who invites others into their home could all be described as hosts.

If I’m ever your host, I’ll probably bake you a cake.

Well, either I’ve suddenly got taller, or I was standing considerably closer to the camera than Barbara!

Here’s what Mandy Shearing, Solent Writers’ Circle secretary and photographer, said on our Facebook page –

I love the illustration for my story in the current (June 24th) issue of My Weekly. As you might guess, sunflowers are important to the plot. I’ve never had much success growing them, myself, but I love seeing the big cheerful flowers in other people’s gardens – especially when they peer out over fences, or pop up in unexpected places.

The story is set in Little Mallow – the same fictional village as the cosy crime novel I’m currently editing. It features some of the same characters too. I wrote quite a few short stories set in Little Mallow before I began the novel. I suppose you could say I was getting the measure of the place and characters!

If, for any reason, you would prefer to listen to my stories and articles, you can. Hundreds of short stories in a variety of genres, as well as articles on gardening and writing, plus some recipes are available here.

These are all produced automatically, so not of the same quality as audio books, but perhaps better than nothing if you can’t read well from a screen, or want to access them whilst on the move. You can listen to (or read) three per month for free, or subscribe to all my work as well as that of thousands of other writers.

I do have three books, and a few short stories, properly produced by professional humans. You can find more details, plus download links, here.

I’m delighted that another reader has enjoyed one of my books so much that they’ve taken the time and trouble to leave a review. If you’d like to read this book for yourself, you can get it here.

There are currently four collections of slightly spooky stories. I’ve been working on a fifth for a while now. This review has motivated me to get on with it!

My latest short story collection Days To Remember is out now! It’s available as an ebook or paperback, and can be read for free through kindle unlimited.
Here’s the blurb –

There are many memorable days to be celebrated in the course of our lives. Some come round every year – whether we want them to or not. Others are one offs never to be repeated. Perhaps we’ll know from the moment we wake that all will go well. Maybe it will seem things are going wrong, when the opposite is true and we’ll find our way by getting lost. Having our moment of glory snatched might teach us about the real winners and losers in life.

Some days are hugely and obviously important to us, even if many others will experience something similar. The moment we make a new friend or meet our partner for life, learn a new addition to the family is expected or land that perfect job, will affect us forever.

Apparently ordinary days can be ones to remember too. We can make them that way by accepting every opportunity which comes our way, or finally allowing our light to shine. By seeing magic in the everyday, or taking the dog for a good long walk.

Birthdays, weddings and Christmas, work days and holidays all have a story to tell. This book contains 24 of them.

Get it here.

Seisin, which is sometimes written as seizin, is a legal term. It means the possession of land by freehold, the act of taking such possession and that which is held.

We’re fortunate enough to own our own home, which I assume means that the land on which it stands and our garden is seisin, or we’ve seisinned it, or we were seisinning when we took out the mortgage, or something.

What I’m sure of is that the garden grows some lovely flowers. Here are a few examples.

There’s a bit of a mystery concerning the mystery story of mine published in the July issue of Take A Break’s Fiction Feast, which is out today.

The odd thing isn’t that the July issue is out at the start of June (or even that the online version was available at the end of May.) That kind of thing is normal in the magazine world.

Nor is it surprising that my original title ‘Amelia Unearths The Truth’ has been shortened a bit. Again it’s quite normal for titles to be amended a bit, or even completely changed. The editors have plenty of good reasons for doing so.

If you’re thinking the name Amelia Watson is vaguely familiar, it could be because she’s the lead character in my romantic murder mystery, Acting Like A Killer, which is available to buy as an ebook or paperback, or from some libraries. I like the fun illustration of Amelia not looking through her glasses, but instead using a magnifying glass to look at her computer screen. There are times in the book when Amelia doesn’t go about things in the most straightforward and obvious way. She nearly always  gets the result though.

The mystery is the fact that the story has been credited to Eirin Thompson – an excellent writer who also has a story in that magazine. Of course it’s a mistake and in no way Eirin’s fault, but I can’t think how it could have happened. I’ve heard of author’s names accidentally being left off in some magazines, and in one case people’s real names were used instead of their pen names, but I’ve not come across the wrong name being entered. Hopefully there won’t be a similar issue with the payment!

Actually there’s another small mystery which is loosely connected. Amazon have reduced the price of the paperback version of Acting Like A Killer from £10 to £6.60. That’s lower than the price they allow me to charge. No doubt they have their reasons.