Cheryl Burman's Blog: Blog posts for readers and writers, page 18

He woke to the sound of carol singing

He woke to the sound of carol singing outside his window. His eyes were sticky, his throat dry, his head fuzzy. But even so, a little voice niggled that carol singing wasn’t what he would expect. Not in June.

Away in a Manger ended, and there was the briefest of pauses before Good King Wenceslas struck up. An elderly choir by the sound of it, the male voices deep, slow. Harmonious nevertheless.

The fuzziness in his head softened a little, and he pulled himself upright, rubbing his eyes to clear th...

Woman in green coat picture prompt

Holly loved this time of year. Now, anyway. As a child growing up in the war, Christmas held little joy and certainly no peace. With the family home in London’s East End destroyed, Holly, her two brothers and her mother, considered themselves fortunate to have not been destroyed themselves. Unlike her father, killed in France in the last days of the conflict. Holly missed his bear hugs, his teasing, his scent of coal tar soap tarnished by an overlay of lingering cigarette smoke.
Christmas these d...

Blue house picture prompt

Marie woke too early Christmas morning. A faint noise, like the shuffle of soft boots, floated up the dark stairs.
Could it be? Marie knew she should snuggle back under the quilt and at least pretend to sleep. Instead, she slipped from the warm bed and crept to the landing.
The faint noise came again, as if something heavy was being dragged across the rug. Marie felt her way down a ste, then another and another, her bare feet silent as mice on the runner.
In the shadowy hall, lit only by the glow f...

Christmas with Keepers

A short scene from Keepers

Grandma took charge of Christmas.
In her airless dining room they squeezed elbow to elbow around the oval table laid with a white linen cloth – and Grandma’s silver and the china which had come with Grandma’s own grandmother from the old country a hundred years earlier – and sweated their way through chicken, duck, roast potatoes and all the trimmings.

Stuffed as they were, they still found room for slices of the Christmas pudding which had been hanging for mont...

Will begins the ritual, it was scripted at the back of the book

Jenny has never been to a murder mystery weekend, so has no idea what to expect. She and Will have only been dating a few weeks, and the invite came from friends of his whom Jenny has not yet met.
‘You’ll love Daemon and Bella D – we always call her that, no idea what the D stands for – they’re a lot of fun and wait ’til you see their house.’

The house is indeed worth the long, snowy drive to the north.
They drive through massive iron gates set in high mossy stone walls, Gryphons, wings outst...

The perfect stocking filler …

The perfect stocking filler for fans of historical fiction, with a little bit of magic thrown in on rare occasions.

Who can believe in witches? and other stories

New release, this collection of (mostly) prize-winning historically based short stories is out now in kindle and paperback, just in time for Christmas …

Click on the image for purchase links.

A collection of stories bound by their roots in history.

The past comes knocking with accusations of witchcraft. A child miner...

Christmas cake style tray bake

Quick, easy and impressive! Dress it up with royal icing, even marzipan, or keep the decoration simple. You could also of course make it in a deep 20 cm cake tin, round or square.

Ingredients200g butter, softened plus extra for greasing
200g dark muscovado sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp black treacle
200g self-raising flour
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking powder
2 eating apples, grated (approx 100g each)
300g mixed fruitMethod

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the bottom of a...

Her voice echoed around the stacks with no reply

Judy hadn’t deliberately become locked in the library. She’d told her colleague, Moira, goodbye, and had left an hour earlier. But when she reached her car she realised she’d meant to dig out an old diary she thought might be helpful research for her planned novel. So back she’d gone, past the empty reception desk and into the archives at the back of the building. She didn’t have the reference number, just a vague recollection of where the diary should be, so she’d rummaged around for a time bef...

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash.…

The woods were quiet that morning, the way I like them, A dull day with a fine drizzle of rain which couldn’t gather the energy to fall any faster or heavier. Fine by me, it matched my own mood, content to amble along thinking random thoughts – upcoming activities I needed to prepare for, things about the house which needed doing, the book I was reading, what the kids were up to this weekend – in no hurry to go faster either.

Head down, avoiding the worst of the mud, I startled when out of t...

Christmas paperback sale!

We all know books make great gifts. I know many of you have enjoyed various of my books over time, so to help you share them with reading friends and family, I’ve reduced the price on these paperbacks through December.

And if you’re new to the books, here’s the chance to treat yourself.

Here they are, with their links to your market place (they might open at the kindle version, but I trust you to work out to click on the paperback :D)

Happy Christmas, happy holiday reading!

‘Be prep...