Heather ParkerHeather Parker lives in the Lake District with a collection of cats, dogs and a husband. Until recently she worked for the University of Cumbria but now writes freelance.

Her novel ‘Middlewitch’ could be described as Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Jeeves and Wooster and was inspired by her life in a small English village, although naturally there are no witches or ghosts there—as far as she knows. She should perhaps add that none of the characters bear any resemblance to her friends and neighbours—particularly those in the Women’s Institute.

She has won prizes in several major literary competitions and many of her stories and articles have been published in popular magazines including The People’s Friend, The Weekly News and The New Writer. Other publications include Space and Time, Bards and Sages, Abandoned Towers, Big Pulp, Glassfire, Expanded Horizons, Sniplits, Woman’s Weekly, Outercast, Hackwriters, The Ranfurly Review and others. Her stories also appear in the Out of Line Human Rights Anthology 2009, Little Sisters Mystery Anthology and the upcoming Sonar 4 and Absent Willow Review anthologies.

She enjoys writing all kinds of stories but her favourite genre is humour—particularly satire. Politicians, celebrities and line dancers make wonderful targets. She really admires Terry Pratchett and enjoys all his Discworld novels. He combines humour and fantasy with astute social and political comment. She would love to have written some of his books…

Middlewitch was partly inspired by life in a small and remote English village, although naturally it doesn’t have witches or vampires. As far as she knows. She also adopted two feral ginger and white cats, abandoned in the village as kittens, and these became the Domino and Tango of the story. She should perhaps add that none of the other characters bear any resemblance to her friends and neighbours – particularly those in the Women’s Institute.

She enjoys writing all kinds of stories but her favourite genre is humour—particularly satire. Politicians, celebrities and line dancers make wonderful targets. She really admires Terry Pratchett and enjoys all his Discworld novels for his combination of humour and fantasy with astute social and political comment.

If you’d like to learn more about Heather Parker, visit her website.

Middlewitch

Being a witch isn’t always easy. Alicia Meldrew has managed to learn love potions with only one real mistake, and that was hardly her fault. She can whip up a mean maths retention spell, but it’s not all cake and roses. Take dating, for instance. As Alicia herself puts it, how does one even bring it up? “Hobbies? Yes, I usually practise the black arts on Mondays, Thursdays and every other weekend. You?”

Alicia is a young witch with a mission: to protect the citizens of Middlewitch, a sleepy little hamlet consisting mostly of a church, a senior citizen’s home, a pub, and two constables. You’d think such a small town wouldn’t have problems with dark forces, but you’d be wrong. With the help of her cats, Domino and Tango, the Women’s Institute, and even the Vicar, Alicia faces down demons, vampires, satanists, an American…and even the City.

She finally has a boyfriend, but is she really able to learn to share her life with James? And if she can, is she strong enough to learn to get on with his mother?

Reviews +/-