On December 24th (Christmas Eve), my short story ‘Christmas At Mistletoe Cottage’ will be available to buy from Amazon as an ebook for Kindle.
“A heartbreaking short-story of a woman, a mother, a friend, a daughter, a werewolf, Olivia Hunter, as she faces spending Christmas alone, in her home of Mistletoe Cottage, and as she reflects upon feelings of loss, sadness, loneliness, and regret that plague her, and so many others, over the festive period.”
And accompanying my short story, there will also be a Subscriber Exclusive audio version available on Spotify via my podcast “The Mark Hastings Podcast”; and there will also be a special Spotify playlist, called “Olivia Hunter’s Christmas Playlist”, that you can listen to which ties into the short story.
A heartbreaking short-story of a woman, a mother, a friend, a daughter, a werewolf, Olivia Hunter, as she faces spending Christmas alone, in her home of Mistletoe Cottage, and as she reflects upon feelings of loss, sadness, loneliness, and regret that plague her, and so many others, over the festive period.
This is a true story. This is the story of a relationship, and an account of things and events that happened, which should never have happened. This is the story of two people whose bond was doomed from the start. This is the story of two people who were meant to meet and to fall in love with one another, but whose affair with one another would leave a lasting scar for one of them more than the other.
The story of The Affair is a cautionary tale of love, seduction, secrecy, betrayal, heartbreak, and the pitfalls of a relationship between two people who allowed their obsession with one another to grow into becoming something uncontrollable and ultimately destructive.
You can get your copy of my new book The Affair on Amazon now: here!
My new book The Affair is now available to buy in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.
This is a true story. This is the story of a relationship, and an account of things and events that happened, which should never have happened. This is the story of two people whose bond was doomed from the start. This is the story of two people who were meant to meet and to fall in love with one another, but whose affair with one another would leave a lasting scar for one of them more than the other.
The story of The Affair is a cautionary tale of love, seduction, secrecy, betrayal, heartbreak, and the pitfalls of a relationship between two people who allowed their obsession with one another to grow into becoming something uncontrollable and ultimately destructive.
You can get your copy of The Affair on Amazon in hardback and as ebook: here!
Listen to me reading Chapter One – “The Spark” on Spotify:
Whenever you turn on your television, whenever you read a newspaper, whenever you see images posted online, whenever you open your eyes and you brace yourself to see what is going on around the world, especially in this day and age, you would not be mistaken for thinking that this world was once again at war with itself; however, in truth, this world hasn’t known a period of perpetual peace for a long time - but right now feels as if this world has never been more fragmented, and as if the most powerful countries on Earth have never been more polarised from one another… when I see that the President of the United States of America has signed an executive order declaring that the “Department of Defense” now be renamed the “Department of War”, I start to believe that there has been a change in direction enacted by the leader of one of the world’s most powerful superpowers - and that is when I start to wonder whether there will be a future for the children of this world in which they will know what it is like to live in peace, instead of living in fear and never knowing what it like to be hopeful and optimistic… I am deeply troubled at the thought of how many people have died recently around the world because they have been caught in the crossfire of a conflict that they never wanted to be involved in, I mourn for those innocent souls who have lost their lives through no fault of their own, and my heart goes out to all those people who have lost loved ones as well as their homes and their livelihoods because they were overwhelmed by the force of the storm of death and destruction that war always rains down upon everyone who find themselves in a war zone that was once a place where many considered their home… this world has been here before, this world has been on the brink of self-destruction because of humanity many times - because we have allowed the unstoppable war machine to continue to do what it does best: build better weapons and come up with more efficient ways to annihilate as many people as possible - which, in my opinion, is the antithesis of the best of humanity… every time I see what humanity is doing to itself, every time I see the destruction and the decimation that has been inflicted upon the homes of the victims, and whenever I see the faces of the survivors of the attacks and the atrocities that have been committed by the opposing factions of a war, I struggle to understand and to imagine how and when this world will ever come to its senses and end the suffering of the world once and for all; however, I cannot help myself from continuing to hope that one day the long shadow that the world now lives underneath will disappear and humanity will become less obsessed with building and using weapons of mass destruction and bring about a present when we will never again have to live in a state such as the one it feels as if we are living in right now: an era that undoubtedly feels like a time of war.
This is a true story. This is the story of a relationship, and an account of things and events that happened, which should never have happened.
This is the story of two people whose bond was doomed from the start.
This is the story of two people who were meant to meet and to fall in love with one another, but whose affair with one another would leave a lasting scar for one of them more than the other.
Life is a gift, an opportunity, an experience that can only be experienced by embracing whatever we are drawn to, and who walks into our lives and influences the flow of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and who we find ourselves dreaming about when we didn’t expect to… what we don’t realise is just how many people we actually meet over the course of our lives, because we sometimes see so many faces that everybody becomes a blur; however, sometimes the face of someone stays with you - sometimes even before you find out their name - and they change things about you that you always thought were untouchable and unchallenged about you… what we don’t realise is just how many people, over time, we lose contact with because our shared journey with them has naturally come to an end… we can come to feel and to believe that we cannot live without someone in our lives who made us feel things from the moment that we met them that no one else made us feel; however, sometimes other people have other ideas about what the definition of “love” and “forever” might be and over time the attention and the attitude of certain people can shift to others and it is as if the history that was once shared now means nothing and is no longer anything to focused on, nor to hold in such high regard - and that is when relationships come to an end and the left behind have to rebuild themselves and their trust for others after having to suffer through a barrage of lies… sometimes the best way to get over someone who hurt you in more ways than one is to tell them that you will be alright without them and you hope that those they burden in the future will not be hurt by them like you have been… personally, I used to worry too much about what went wrong, why things ended, and what I might have done - but now I just walk away from those who no longer want me in their life with my head held high, as I say to them with a smile and with a whisper: “If you want me, you know where to find me”.
“Return to where it all began”, Chapter Eleven of the audiobook version of The Return of The Wolf by Mark Hastings, which is now available to purchase from Amazon in hardback and as an ebook.
Some dogs are big, some dogs are small, and the best dogs are those who love unconditionally and always come running to the one they love whenever they hear them call.
Having a dog is a blessing, a gift, as well as a responsibility - because having a dog is like having a child, and when you look into the eyes of a dog and when they look back at you with a look of adoration the feeling is noticeably mutual and beautiful to behold.
Some people, some families, have many dogs and when they give their dogs a name their dogs learn quickly that they are a part of a family who loves them so much that they gave them a name, as well as a special place at the heart of whomever their human family is - and dogs love being a part of a family because it feels so natural to them to have a group of individuals around them who all want the best for each other, just like the packs of their wolf cousins.
Whenever you watch a dog grow from being a puppy into becoming an adult, sometimes you forget that for every human year that passes a dog ages seven years - and because you get used to having a dog around and you naturally provide them with food, water, and of course attention when they need it, when your dog gets ill, or when your dog sadly passes away, the gravity of the loss that you feel can be so unbearable that you feel at a loss to describe the pain of not having them around anymore.
It’s sometimes hard to put into words how much a dog can mean to us, and sometimes it is hard to tell someone how much a particular dog has been such a profound source of love and support to us through good times and through bad times, because a dog - especially a special dog who used to come to you before others, and a dog who used to lick you like they were kissing the love of their life, and a dog who used to sleep with you because they wanted to protect you from harm - can be what keeps you from succumbing to what so many people in life have to contend with, and of course only a dog can give the best of cuddles; and, with all that I have said and more in mind, I would like to dedicate this poem to a special little black and white dog who was one of the best dogs ever: this poem is for “Snuggles”.
Mark The Poet 