The idea for this short story collection came to me as I was writing Not Reported Missing, Willows Dip Book Five. One of the characters in that book, Celia Wainwright, is an author and I briefly mentioned two of her stories, Before the Poppies and another one of which she got the opening sentence idea whilst walking on a beach in Guernsey, Channel Islands with her love interest Charles Lewis. The sentence, 'The waves of the incoming tide caressed the sand and lapped gently round the motionless body,' stemmed from their feet paddling in the shallow waves. I thought it would be a good story to explore myself and also enlarge on the works of my fictional character, thus Sinister Kisses was born. I couldn't see either story becoming a full blown novel but short stories seemed to suit them more. There are lots of other stories that I've written over the years included in this collection, some old, some new, most written for this collection. Before the Poppies is slightly autobiographical as I had an ancestor who was badly gassed during World War One and returned from the war a changed man. I thought he deserved a small tribute to his bravery.
