My story ‘Family Reunion’ is in the current (February 2023) issue of Take A Break’s Fiction Feast. (My original title was kept for this.)

As you can probably guess from the illustrations, the family concerned is a canine one. They’re a rescue litter who are thankfully all found good homes and then helped their respective owners to make friends with each other. My thinking was that people who’d take on the responsibility for caring for a rescue dog would all have good qualities and things in common.

This story is set in Little Mallow – a fictional village I’ve created on the Hampshire coast, very near where I live. Quite a few of my stories have been set there and I’m now working on a series of cosy crime novels.

I’m not sure how many of the characters from this story will appear in the novels, but the rescue shelter already does.

Now I’ve seen these illustrations, that dog in the circular inset will be included too. How could anyone say no to those eyes?