coming home - Stories

In the rain-lashed borderlands of the Vexin, Darien Haskal has carved a fragile peace with blood and steel. But when King Radoslav's royal progress arrives, it brings not celebration but a nest of vipers: a scheming duke, a fanatical nun wielding forbidden magic, and the golden knight whose smile hides a blade. As ancient curses awaken and political machinations tighten like a noose, the Vanguard's found family must protect their own—a feral heir, a dying prince, and a love that defies the Church itself. In a fortress perched between kingdoms, war is coming. But the Vanguard has survived the end of the world. They'll survive a dinner party.

Avery is a consultant and master of traveling light. A breakup sends him home to lick his wounds—a temporary situation, but aren't they all? The variable he didn't plan on is Dino, the high school jock turned divorced mechanic. Does their weekend fling have a future? Or will it end in another exit strategy?

Welcome to Philpott Towers! Ten years apart in age, living very different lives, the Phillpott brothers are not close, but their father’s death sees the two returning to share their grandiose family home. Gray Philpott is a successful poet but rather less successful human being, now living with Vince, his solicitor elder brother in their father’s shadow—what could go wrong?

Close proximity forces both brothers to reassess their lives, and the Summer wreaks remarkable changes as the two settle into a new relationship, with both their lives and their emotional lives going in new directions.

Owain returns to live in his home town, 20 years after leaving when he was disowned his parents for being gay. He needs to rebuild his life following illness and come to terms with his messy family history. There is much to learn and discover, along the way he meets Colin, a builder who has his own family issues. The two explore how to make a life the way that they want, irrespective of the weight of their family experiences.

The story takes place in Cheshire, UK. The main setting, Netherwich, is my invention based on elements of Crewe and Nantwich. The language uses some regional idiom.