Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, but Hallowe’en is coming up and I wanted you to be prepared. For some it’s a time to party in creative costumes, or go out trick or treating. Others (me included) prefer to stay indoors where it’s cosy – and have a supply of pumpkin soup or hot chocolate handy, as well as a book to read.

If you like short spooky, but not too scary stories then you might enjoy one of my collections. There are four so far, each with two dozen stories. Slightly Spooky Stories II is currently on special offer at 99p / 99c.

To explain a muckle, I first need to tell you about mickle. Mickle means large, or great amount. Eg, to  keep Patsy happy, provide a mickle of cakes. They can be small cakes as long as there are a lot of them, as many a little makes a mickle.

Got that? OK, now you may have heard that many a mickle makes a muckle. Well it’s not entirely true as mickles and muckles are the same thing. So you just need one mickle to make a muckle, as long as it’s a big un – which it will be as muckles are large.

Compared with a ping pong ball, The Sphere is a muckle beast. Or perhaps mickle suits him better?

Triboluminescence is the emission of light from something when it’s scratched, rubbed, crushed etc. Obviously the thing or substance in question has to be Triboluminescent for this to work.

I’ve carelessly misplaced my magic lamp and therefore can’t demonstrate, but here’s a picture of a light house. That emits light when someone presses the on switch.

Seven Days is a new women’s magazine which launched this week and has one of my stories in the very first issue.

I’m very pleased with the illustration – and the mention of my novel, Escape to the Country.

Succulent is a brilliantly descriptive word, I think. Doesn’t it sound just like biting into a ripe, juicy strawberry freshly picked and still warm from the afternoon sun?
It can also refer to moisture filled plants – the ones that look like shaved cacti.

My latest book, a collection of 24 short stories all with a crime theme is out today. It costs £6.99 ($8.99) for the paperback, which can be ordered through bookshops and libraries as well as Amazon.  It will usually be £1.99 ($2.99) for the ebook, but for the next few days it’s 77p (99c).

Here’s the blurb –

There are a huge variety of crimes, committed for many different reasons. Those which seem justified or are at least understandable. Others for which there can be no possible excuse. Some crimes are calculated and deliberate, others unplanned or even accidental. More still are planned but don’t happen.

There are also multiple ways for the criminal to be caught out or made to pay for what they’ve done. The police, an amateur detective or even their victim might bring them to justice. And sometimes what at first appears to be a crime is revealed to be nothing of the sort.

Criminals, victims and those wrongly suspected all have a story to tell. This book contains 24 of them.

Once, while walking one evening, I noticed some strange lights. Later they appeared in one of my stories – as things I’ve noticed often do. The story is currently available to read on the My Weekly website.

So how’s that for the word of the week? It’s one of those words that makes my head hurt if I try to explain it, so I’m not going to bother. I think it may contain a double negative.

I’m rather proud of the fact that I once managed to work antidisestablishmentarianism into a story. (There was also a fox. And a jam sandwich.) As I’ve done that already your challenge is to casually drop it into a conversation. Please report back when you have, I’d love to know how it went.

An interview with me about how I started writing recently appeared in my local paper.