https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07PHLWFDW

I, and several of my friends at Pennine Ink Writers, read our work at the Burnley Literary Festival held in the Burnley Market Hall on 5th October 2019.

We also sold several copies of the Pennine Ink magazine

My books will be on sale at a discounted price on Saturday 5th October when I will be available to sign any of my books that are purchased.

My first crime fiction novel  ‘Eye for an Eye’ is available to download to kindle for FREE for the next few days.

Published Feb 2019. Available on Amazon as a paperback or to download to an ereader.

Naomi, a solicitor lives with her ten-year-old daughter Kim in the north west of England. The year is 1991 and Naomi has been asked by one if her clients, Kate Deakin, to a meeting at Whiteacres Manor as Kate wishes to make changes to her will.

But, when Naomi arrives at the house Matt, Kate’s husband. Is just dashing out of the front door. An accident has been reported near the house and he need to see if he can offer his medical expertise.

They discover Kate’s mangled body in a ditch. Detective Inspector McCluskey is called in to investigate her death and arrests Matt, accusing him of Kate’s death.

Naomi manges to prove Matt’s innocence by following up leads discarded by the police as being irrelevant. Can Naomi survive when the killer’s attention turns to her?

Published in December 2017 and is available as a paper back or ebook from Amazon.

Naomi, a solicitor lives with her ten-year-old daughter Kim in the north west of England. The year is 1991 and Naomi has been asked by one if her clients, Kate Deakin, to a meeting at Whiteacres Manor as Kate wishes to make changes to her will.

But, when Naomi arrives at the house Matt, Kate’s husband. Is just dashing out of the front door. An accident has been reported near the house and he need to see if he can offer his medical expertise.

They discover Kate’s mangled body in a ditch. Detective Inspector McCluskey is called in to investigate her death and arrests Matt, accusing him of Kate’s death.

Naomi manges to prove Matt’s innocence by following up leads discarded by the police as being irrelevant. Can Naomi survive when the killer’s attention turns to her?

 

BURNLEY EXPRESS ARTICLE

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Barbara McHallam

Check out the article in the Burnley Express – ‘Cancer survivor author releases latest novel’. http://www.burnleyexpress.net

MATCHES’

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Barbara McHallam

My latest novel ‘Matches’ is now available to purchase on Amazon.co.uk.  This is a story of Jess, a twenty-something teacher who is evacuated from her flat by Police Officer Ryan Jackson when there is a fire in a nearby garage.  Ryan falls for Jess and they begin a relationship.  A relationship that, for Jess, causes emotional turmoil.  Will she survive Ryan’s assault to her mind and body.

ALZHEIMER’S AWARENESS MONTH – SEPTEMBER

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Barbara McHallam

September is Alzheimer’s Awareness month.

Check out Northern Life magazine for my article ‘My saddest day’.  It was sent to give people a glimpse of how I and my sister felt as carers seeing our mum disintegrate before our eyes from Alzheimer’s Disease.  The disease left just a husk of the person we had known – a shell that looked something like our mum.  Her body was there but her soul had fled.

I know many carers have to deal with this dreaded disease every day, caring for their loved ones.  I can empathise with them. Mum died in November 2010 but I and my sister still miss her every day,

IT BEGAN IN BARBADOS

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Barbara McHallam

Available on Amazon.  Please check it out and if you like it, I would be REALLY grateful if you would review it and leave lots of stars.  Design of the book cover and flyer by Peter (www.luxnimago@wordpress.com)

LEFT AND RIGHT

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Barbara McHallam

This is one on my short stories about my problems trying to follow directions.

I DO know my left from my right hand, honestly I do; it’s just that sometimes they change places.  Why do hands do that? It does make life complicated especially when people are asking for directions.

It’s easy when we are face to face, but if a person asks for directions when we are talking on the phone, they can’t see which hand I am waving about and therefore struggle to understand what I am saying.  In that case we revert to the age-old tradition of giving directions by pub names.  It’s much easier to say, ‘when you get to the Mucky Duck, turn down the road after it.’  In that way there is no confusion, no lefts or rights involved.

I don’t know how my husband does it.  He can walk round a town he has never been to before and seems to know exactly where he is going.  I get bewildered if I go round more than one corner; I could do with a piece of string tied around my wrist then I could follow it back to the start.

I think this all started when I was a child.  When our family went to the beach, like many other children the first thing I wanted to do was rush off to the sea.  It was finding my family again when I came out that was the problem.  Therefore, before going anywhere near the sea, mum would make sure I could see some significant feature near to where we were sitting.  That was fine until one day she pointed out a very colourful beach umbrella I was to use as a guide back to the family.

Unfortunately for me, the family who owned the lovely colourful umbrella decided that the wind was too strong and had taken it down before I came out of the sea.  I spent, what seemed like, hours searching and searching for my family only to find that the tide had pushed me further down the beach than I had realised, and I was actually looking in completely the wrong place.  I remember that some kind soul realised I was lost and wandered along the beach with me until my frantic mother saw us walking towards her.  Oh, the relief.  I was so frightened.  I thought that they had packed up and gone home without me.

Much later in life I really thought my sense of direction had improved.  My daughter was going to university for the first time and so we packed all her important belongings into my little car.  They were of course absolute essentials to her; things like houseplants, hi-fi, records and a TV.  We got a map from the university and with great spirits set off across the Pennines to the city of Leeds.   As you will probably have realised when I mentioned a map, this was in the Dark Ages; that is, before Google Earth, satnavs and mobile phones.

The journey as far as the outskirts of Leeds went without a hitch.  I don’t remember missing one turning, mind you; I did have not 1 but 2 navigators, my daughter and husband.  However, Leeds was a different story.  I am convinced that Leeds is ALL a one-way system.  You can get into Leeds, but then it is impossible to get out again. I felt that I had been swallowed up in some alien road system that would not let me out.  Why did all the street signs say ‘No Left Turn’ when I knew that that was where I had to go?  Sometimes the road I needed said ‘One Way’ but it was always the wrong way for me.

How did I get out of that predicament?  Well after shedding many tears of fear and frustration, I drove the car onto a back street and got out.  I threw the car keys to my husband and told him if he was so good then he could drive.  And what do you know? He turned the car round, went through the next set of traffic lights, and there was the building that we had spent the last two hours searching for.  I had driven past it at least three times and not seen it.

Another journey I made before mobiles and satnavs was even more terrifying because I was on my own.  I had to go to a conference and a work colleague had given me very straightforward directions.  Go south, straight down the motorway, come off at a particular junction and it is signposted from there.  How could I go wrong?

I realised that something was amiss when I started seeing signs for London and I needed to be in Wales!  I pulled off at the next service station and rang my husband.  I don’t really know what I expected him to do when he was at home in Lancashire and I was somewhere south of Birmingham.  He did, however, have one useful idea to find the police station and ask there.

I had never been into a police station before but I plucked up courage and went to ask.

“I’m lost,” I said and promptly burst into tears.  Well, I was scared and I did not know where I was.  But I did know, I definitely did not want to go to London and I was going to be late for the conference.

The police officer came round from the back of his desk and took me over to look at the huge map on the wall.  Even when I pulled myself up to my full 5ft he still towered at least 2ft over me – so I started to cry again.

He gave me very simple directions, so simple in fact that even I could follow them.  He strongly suggested that I have a cup of tea to calm down before I got back in my car.  I did eventually arrive at the place in Wales where I was expected and I was not too late.

It just goes to show that if people give me the correct information in the first place and road signs don’t move, I CAN follow directions.

END