Guest Post: Stevie Turner

~ beetleypete

I am very happy to present a story from Stevie.
She is a published writer, and a very engaged blogger. Her own sites can be found here.
https://www.stevie-turner-author.co.uk/
https://steviet3.wordpress.com/

This is Stevie’s own introduction.

‘Welcome to my website. I hope you enjoy discovering my contemporary women’s fiction, suspense stories and humorous novels, reading their reviews, and also finding out more information about me. Every now and then I’ll be interviewing interesting people, adding a newsletter, and also giving away a copy or two of my books on my Competitions/Giveaways page.
I am a part-time medical secretary who has been writing poems and stories for years as a hobby, but now in middle age I’ve decided to try and put in place what I’ve been wanting to do all for ages – to publish my books and make a living as an author. I know it will be a hard road to travel, and at the moment I’m at the start of the journey, but who knows what’s around the corner? However, there is something I do know; whatever is coming at me I shall look forward to…….

I am married with an ever-expanding immediate family, and I live in the beautiful countryside of East Anglia in the UK. I gain inspiration while walking along the country footpaths and byways around my village. I like to read autobiographies, biographies, fiction with a biting wit, realistic family dramas, and faction (fiction based on fact). I have tried desperately to expand my preferences to include other genres, but unfortunately it just doesn’t work for me. I am happy to read and review Indie books that incorporate my preferred genres, so contact me at stevie@stevie-turner-author.co.uk if you have a book you think I’d like which needs a review.
To date I have published 8 novels, 4 novellas, and 18 short stories. My short story collection, Life, is available free to anybody who signs up to my mailing list. I am pleased to have won a New Apple Book Award and a Readers’ Favorite Gold star for ‘A House Without Windows’, and to have come third in the 2016 Drunken Druid Book Awards with ‘Repent at Leisure’. My suspense screenplay ‘For the Sake of a Child’ is currently being read by an independent film production company in Los Angeles.
My (sometimes) humorous memoir ‘Waiting in the Wings’, is now available on Amazon.’

And here is her story.

‘A Single Red Rose’.

She always took a bunch of flowers to her father’s grave every year on the anniversary of his passing. Her brother Steven had never bothered, but it assuaged her guilt somewhat at not having been the daughter he’d wanted her to be. She had never felt close to him at all, but now he was safely in the afterlife she could tend his grave and ensure the marble stone bearing his name was kept relatively free of moss.

The cemetery was bathed in warm dappled light on that late summer’s afternoon. Suzy parked at the entrance and picked up her bag containing gardening and cleaning equipment, idly re-reading the now familiar poignant inscriptions as she strolled along the path between lines of graves towards where Desmond Warren rested for eternity.

The path ended by a yew tree under which lay her father in a pre-paid family plot big enough for two. Suzy gazed at the grave in surprise, remembering with an ironic smile her mother’s wishes to be buried as far away from Desmond as it was possible to achieve. The tombstone was sparkling in the sunshine, but not a weed or clump of moss could be seen. She was further intrigued to discover one flower lying on top of the gravel chippings; a single red rose.

The petals had not withered, and there were no signs of decay. Suzy checked all around her, but nobody else was in view. She picked up the rose and inhaled its heady scent, pushing back memories of dripping cut flowers and her mother’s precious crystal vase as it shattered against the conservatory wall.

She replaced the rose, noticing at the same time how the chippings underneath it had been disturbed. Suzy dug down a little deeper into the gravel and pulled at the corner of a white card which had been secured by the weight of stones above. The card depicted a printed photo of her father as a younger man standing smiling with his arm around her mother’s waist. She recognised the background as that of her parents’ favourite beach, Southwold, on the Suffolk coast.

The card begged to be opened. Blinking back tears, Suzy read the words that her mother had written in the shaking hand of illness and old age:

‘Des, much water has gone under the bridge since that terrible day when I could stand no more pain. The years without you have been the happiest I’ve known, but your life was cut short before I’d gained enough insight and wisdom to realise why you were the man you were. Forgive me. I was young with two children who needed a loving and secure home.

I cannot turn back the clock and undo the wrong I did, but now at the end of my life I ask for your forgiveness. Here with you is where I want to lie when the Lord feels fit to take me. Steven knows my wishes, and brought me here today. I remain as always, your wife, Alice’.

There were no kisses or declarations of love. Suzy sighed, shovelled some of the chippings to one side, and re-buried the card. Then she laid her bouquet next to her mother’s, stood up, and quickly walked away.

Stevie has an Amazon page too.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=stevie+turner&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Please check out her sites, and see what she has to offer.

45 thoughts on “Guest Post: Stevie Turner”

      1. I loved the way Stevie did not romanticized the letter. It showed how true the emotion was – Not love but pain. Thanks for the heads-up about my post… I am scared already! ☺️

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