When a song by the mad composer, Carlo Gesualdo, is discovered in Exeter Museum, trouble descends on the group asked to sing it. Lisa is full of enthusiasm at first, but she soon becomes convinced the song is cursed. Can Lisa find out what mystery lies behind the discordant harmonies? Will she solve the song’s secret before her relationship with Jon breaks for good and harm befalls them all?

In Renaissance Naples, young Silvia Albana is seamstress and close confidant of Don Gesualdo’s wife. When Donna Maria begins an affair, Silvia knows that death is the only outcome. But who exactly will die? And where is Silvia’s own lover? Why is he not there to help her?

This new handbook takes students through the entire creative writing process. You will find plenty of practical advice, helpful exercises, lots of tips and links to useful websites in this indispensable manual for new and seasoned writers alike. Cathie Hartigan and Margaret James are highly motivated authors and creative writing tutors. Between them, they have over thirty years of successful teaching experience for Writers News Home Study Division, The London School of Journalism and Exeter College. They are readers and judges for many international writing competitions and, with Sophie Duffy, are the founders and administrators of both The Exeter Novel Prize and The Exeter Story Prize – see www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk for more information about literary competitions and services to writers. 'A very helpful guide.' Dr Paul Vlitos - Programme Director of BA English Literature with Creative Writing. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

This authoritative guide will steer you through every stage of your writing journey. We discuss competition, commercial-magazine, one-thousand-worder, flash and micro fiction, explaining how every kind of story works, what you need to consider, and how to achieve competition and publication success.

In October 1943, when prisoners of war Alfie and Frank escape from a train taking them to Germany, their lives depend on the family of shepherds who shelter them. In constant jeopardy, the young men wait out the winter in the Italian mountains.

In 2000, Ros Goudy inherits her music teacher’s home in Exeter and there she finds letters that reveal the soldiers’ fate. Only one made it back, but it wasn’t to a warm welcome and happy ever after. What had happened that turned heads and hearts against him? The trail she follows begins with a charming comic song composed before the war.

What she discovers is that everyone, including herself, has something to hide.