Well, now you can. My latest novel - A Call to Heaven - has finally come out. I'm really hoping this story touches readers and makes a difference. For an exclusive sneak preview, here's an excerpt from the book:
Everyone’s looking at me. I’ve got the yellow telephone in my hands
and I’m not sure what to do with it. I take a seat at the end of the table and
lay the phone down in front of me. Beth is to my left, Ben is to my right.
Daniel is opposite me. I look from one to the other and feel color flood my
cheeks. My gaze finishes on Daniel and stays there for a beat. He nods, his
eyes encouraging me. I return the nod, take a deep breath and count down from
three to one in my head.
“I’ve got to tell you all something.” My voice comes out as a thin
squeak, but actually I’m surprised I manage to articulate at all. I’m hot, so
hot. I lift the hair off the back of my neck, flapping it around to try to cool
my sticky, clammy skin. I can’t breathe, I need air. I unlock the patio doors,
flinging them wide open. The inside of my mouth feels rough as sandpaper. I’m
desperate for a tall glass of water packed with ice-cubes but, when I turn to
see six eyes staring at me, I dare not leave to fetch one. I feel like an
exhibit in a museum and in some ways I wish I were. I could hide behind a
Perspex box next to the yellow telephone with panel blurb doing the explaining
for me. I could be part of a new exhibition entitled ‘Incredible Discoveries’.
I would share the same hall as the dinosaurs and anything else which took aeons
for people to believe existed. I draw a deep breath and continue.
“You’re probably going to think I’m mad, but I’m going to tell you
anyway.”
A breeze blows through the open patio doors.
“What I wanted to tell you is this.” My voice is soft as a whisper.
I sense all their bodies leaning closer towards mine, straining to hear. “I’ve
recently started talking to my mother.”
There, I’ve said it.
I feel a great sense of relief, both that I’ve said it and that I no
longer have to keep this to myself. Beth relaxes in her chair with a sigh,
leans across and takes my hand, patting it. She’s got wavy brown hair and a
kind, open face. She tilts her head sympathetically.
“Oh honey, you must have tried out that clairvoyant you mentioned.
Please tell us all about it.”
I should have seen that one coming.
“No, you don’t get it.” I
lift up the yellow phone, as if to demonstrate how to use such a contraption.
In one hand I take the receiver, in the other the plug. “I don’t speak to her
through a medium. I speak to her on this telephone. I plug it into a socket in
my bathroom and I’m allowed to call heaven.”
There, I’ve said it now.
Nobody moves.
Not a muscle.
Their mouths all open, Daniel’s is the widest. I don’t think any of
them even realize they’re doing it. As feared, they are looking at me like I’m
certifiably insane.
“I can see you all think I’m mad.” I actually manage to pull a small
smile. Now that I’ve started, I feel much calmer. “And, if I were in your
position, I would think I’m crazy too. But one night my mother came to me in a
dream and told me I could use this phone to call her in heaven and, bizarre
though it must sound, it turns out she was right. That’s why I stopped coming
to Grief Support Group every week. I wasn’t grieving so much because my mother
had come back into my life.”
The three pairs of eyes grow wider and wider, as if I’m slowly
sprouting four serpent heads. I replace the receiver back into its cradle and
drop the plug, holding out my hands in submission.
“You can believe me or not. It doesn’t matter. But the reason I’ve
gathered you all here is because I’ve been asked to choose three other people
to call to heaven.”
I sound like a fairy godmother or the good witch in the Wizard of Oz. I do not sound normal. I
pause. The effect is dramatic although it’s not intended to be.
“And I’ve picked you guys.”
I look at them one by one.
“Beth, I know how much it might mean to you to be able to speak to
your daughter and know that she is safe.”
Beth nods. Her gaze turns glassy.
“Ben, I’d do anything to be able to give you a chance to speak to
your brother again.”
Ben nods, his mouth still formed in a perfect ‘O’.
Daniel is the hardest one for me to look at. He’s not nodding
anymore and his eyes are no longer urging me to continue. Instead he’s shaking
his head, a slow, subtle movement, but I catch it all the same. His full lips
have now formed a thin line. He’s the only one who looks like he still thinks
I’m certifiably insane. Hell, he’s a doctor; perhaps that shouldn’t come as a
surprise. Part of me wonders whether I should abort this whole escapade and
pretend it was all a joke. I’d do anything to not have Daniel stare at me in
this way. He looks ready to call the local sanatorium and send them round with
a straitjacket. But I can’t abort and I must continue. What happens next is up
to him.
“And Daniel, I thought that maybe you might like to speak to Katie.”
He opens his mouth as if he’s about to say something, but clamps it
shut again without speaking. Nobody else says anything either. They all shift
in their seats, pretending to take sips of coffee and look around the room.
Perhaps they’re checking out the photos on the mantelpiece above the fireplace,
trying to work out if I look like a madwoman in any of them. I pick up the
knife. Now I probably do look mad or,
at the very least, dangerous.
“Right, who’s for some more pie?”
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