Goodreads asked Colin R. Parsons:

What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?

Colin R. Parsons This is a really great question. Thinking about it now, I remember something happened quite a few years ago... I'm talking thirty-years ago, when I was first married. It was a time long before mobile phones. We only had one phone in the house, and, at the time, I couldn't afford to put another phone upstairs. So, when we went to be - I would stretch the telephone as far as I could on the cable. The phone would only reach, halfway up the stairs.

So, one night, maybe about one-thirty in the morning... the phone rang! My wife and I were in a deep sleep. Anybody who rings at that time of morning, then, its not normally a good phone call. I eventually came around and realised the phone was ringing (in those days phones would ring until someone answered). I... shot up from bed and dived out onto the landing. I didn't know where I was, and almost fell down the stairs, in my dazed state. I stooped down and clambered for the receiver.
"Hello - Hello," I hissed in a dry voice. Down the line came a rasping tone - a woman's voice.
"Beware the ring... "
"Sorry," I said, "I think you've got the wrong number."
"The ring, beware the ring... " the voice continued. At that quiet time of morning, and on my own on the stairs - I was a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y terrified. My hands were shaking, and my legs turned to mush. Then I put the phone down, and staggered back to bed, lying there... twitching and turning, and sweating. This is true, and it really happened. I think it would make a great plot for a book

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