A spark creates a flame and a flame makes a fire. We just need the spark.

I am Kevan Eveleigh, a book author based in Wales, United Kingdom.

My books and stories are base on life's journey and experience.

It is incredible how little things we see or hear in our daily lives influence our thoughts and challenge our ideas.

• Questions - often I may be watching television or in a public place and I ask myself "How do they cope with that? or What's it like for them? and the seeds of a story are sown. The characters simply appear as the story is created.
• Writing is a Joy - Writing is an absolute joy but incredibly hard work. The creation of something original and unique is a hugely rewarding experience but the endless editing, artwork and publishing process is a time consuming downside.
• Works of Fiction - my stories are pure fiction but a spark comes when I see something that makes me think and from there I create a hero or heroine designed to challenge the way we think.
• Audience - if you enjoy a good story then I guess my book SHORT STORIES With A Twist is for you. The feedback I receive tells me that readers immerse themselves in each tale and vow that the ending reveals the "right" outcome.
• Where - SHORT STORIES With A Twist is avaiable on Amazon from 1st March 2024. Each one of the ten stories may be purchased individually on Kindle at that time.
• Bonus - if you would like to read the first story in full for FREE then please click the link below.

My Inspiration

In my head, I began writing this book of short stories almost twenty-five years ago but life intervened and prevented me from fully putting pen to paper.

Writing is difficult, and as a lifelong writer and consumer of literature I know this from experience, but scripting a book is incredibly hard work. It is certainly not for the faint-hearted and I truly meant no pun there as you will see in one of the stories.

Not only does it take time to write a book, but it also takes original thought and it’s easy to copy or criticize other people's efforts.

I did not write this book to impress anyone. I’m too old for the vanity of being published. I only care that people have the chance to read and hopefully enjoy it. That will be rewarding enough for me.

The writing process is a road full of obstacles, the biggest of which is self-doubt. The author’s mind plays tricks and tries to tempt him into writing perfect page after perfect page, but one day the penny drops and he realizes it is an impossible task, for there is no such thing as the perfect book.

The most important thing is always the reader, and it is often too sadly overlooked. Grammar is secondary, and months of productive work may be lost in its minutiae.

Above all people, it is you as the reader,  who is the least interested in being sidetracked with a full stop in the wrong place. You are the true King or Queen in the book writing equation and I never forget it. It is for you I write.

Please note that I have used artistic license in this book so that some of the facts will vary from reality, but as the late, great actor David Niven once said, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!”

Twenty years or so ago there was a news story in the South Wales Echo accompanied by a large joyous photograph of a member of staff who was retiring after over forty years in the same school.

I wrote this book of short stories to fulfill a personal silent promise to myself and to one of my early junior school teachers, the lady in that article, a fabulous influence by the name of Miss Colson, who sadly is no longer with us.

Without a second thought, that same week I went to Cwrt-yr-Ala junior school and with the agreement of the Headmaster, I walked across the small hallway, descending a flight of six or seven stairs before knocking and entering the classroom on the right.

Decades had passed since I was a seven-year-old in her charge and back in the sixties she would have been quite a young woman but her support, nurturing and encouragement have stuck with me always.

She did not recognize me of course but with one or two quick clues she knew exactly who I was and tears came to her eyes on her penultimate day of teaching.

After some initial chit-chat, she put her hand to her mouth and a worried look came over her face, followed by an abject apology.

She pointed to the staff cupboard and explained that for nearly forty years she had kept my multiple schoolboy stories and that of a girl classmate safely stored, for she had always thought they were too good to simply throw away. It was overwhelming when she said that of all the thousands of pupils she had taught it was only our work that had been retained.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and she confirmed that at the beginning of that final week, those “great works” of junior school literature had finally met their end in the school dustbin as she reluctantly cleaned out her Aladdin’s cave.

The other girl pupil wrote amazing stories, quite different to my own, and I always listened attentively for her imagination was unrivalled both then and possibly in any literature that I have ever read. She captivated her childhood audience in a way that Enid Blyton would be proud of, in a descriptive language that kept the listener hooked.

That girl’s name I keep private, for I was to learn years later, she died young, the victim of a motorbike accident. She was less than twenty years old and a born storyteller was lost that day.

On leaving that junior classroom for the last time I promised that one day I would complete my book, so please go kindly out of respect for June Colson, a marvelous, self-sacrificing person, who gave her life to that noblest of professions, teaching.

I truly hope that you enjoy my efforts. All I ask is that you keep an open mind, put any prejudices behind you, and enjoy it if you can, but please remember ”if you can’t say anything good, be a real grown-up and say nothing at all”.