I have some really exciting, and very outdated, news to share.

For a while now I have been creating short stories in the horror genre and submitting them all over the internet, hoping someone will take an interest. I have received numerous rejections, such is the way of being a writer. However, back in late December 2023, my story ‘The Strange Tale of Elouise Norridge’ was finally accepted by the amazing Creepy Podcast.

For so long I struggled to find a home for this story. It’s one of my favourite pieces of writing I have ever created, I knew I couldn’t give up on it. I am terribly thankful to Creepy for giving my story an audience. It is always exciting seeing your work published, however there is an extra level of excitement when being able to hear your work read allowed by a narrator. To listen to ‘The Strange Tale of Elouise Norridge’ please visit https://www.creepypod.com/ and sign up to their Patreon.

For those of you who don’t wish to join Creepy’s Patreon, I thought I would include a short excerpt here, just to give you a little taste. ‘Cos I’m generous like that.

…

The nurse eases me up from the toilet, back up on my feet. She is gentle, but the slight pressure of her touch on my skeletal arms is exquisite agony. I wince and she looks apologetic. 

“Come on now, Ellie. Let’s get you back to bed.”

Before returning to my room I risk a fleeting glance in the mirror. I instantly recoil in horror. My once youthful, full face now hangs sallow and gaunt. My hair droops lank and lifeless across my hollow cheeks. My paper thin, oily skin stretches taut against my jutting collarbones. The nurse guides me forwards, dragging the apparatus holding the various fluids and bleeping gadgets that I am hooked up to, barely keeping me alive. I shuffle slowly on unsteady feet, as a reanimated corpse would do. The walking dead.

It wasn’t always this way. When I graduated from my teaching degree I was 25 and full of hopes and ambition. I had excellent references and within months I had secured a full time position at Weatherfield Secondary. It was perfect. The children adored me, and my colleagues would compliment me on my natural ability to command a classroom, despite my relative lack of experience. Parents’ evening was a dream, with mums and dads commenting on how smitten their children were of me and how much I’d inspired them.

That seems like a different lifetime ago now. In the past five years, I have worked at eight different schools. For the last year I was unemployed before finally being hospitalised. With my track record, any of the remaining schools simply wouldn’t hire me. I am sure, as well, that word had started to spread about the nature of my numerous dismissals. Not that I have any hopes of returning to work some day. Nowadays I can’t even make it to the loo on my own. Each day I grow weaker and weaker. It’s not fair. I was a good teacher. I was a good person. I don’t deserve any of this. Things were good once and I was happy. That all changed, the day She came along.

…

I hope you feel suitably tickled and tantalised. And to those of you wondering why it took almost 10 months to share this news, I’ve been busy, okay?