I’m really pleased, today, to welcome the lovely Helen Phifer to the blog. Helen is, like me, a member of The Write Romantics, and, in spite of the fact that she writes quite chilling books about murderers, and spooks, and goodness knows what else, she’s a really lovely person. I can testify to this, having had the good fortune to not only be on the end of dozens of Helen’s virtual hugs, but having recently received a real one from her on our Write Romantics’ group get-together in Derby in November. A nicer person you couldn’t wish to meet, so I’m really happy she agreed to share with us today the five photos that mean a lot to her. Over to you, Helen.

Gosh, where do I start? I’m one of those people who hates to have her photograph taken. At the same time, I’m hell bent on preserving memories of the magical moments in life to look back on one day. It’s been tough trying to choose five out of the hundreds I have, but these are some of the most important ones.

I’ll start at the beginning, this is a picture of my amazing mum, dad and grandparents at their wedding. I have this framed photograph hanging in my hallway. I lost my dad last year, so I treasure every photograph I have of him and blow him a kiss every time I walk past.

My next photograph is a rare photo of all my kids on a family holiday to Scarborough. We stayed in a caravan at Haven holidays, it was cramped, but fun. My family mean the world to me and family time is very precious.

This photo is a precious photo of me and my son Jaimea, he’s disabled and hates having his photograph taken so this is very special to me.

This is a throwback to my 18^th Birthday party, my brother Chris died suddenly in 1995 so this is another precious memory. He was such a huge part of my life growing up and I miss him every day.

My last photo is from my very first trip to New York. I’ve dreamt about visiting NYC since I was a teenager and always had a bit of an obsession. I gave up on my dream of visiting once I had my children, especially because of Jaimea’s disabilities. Out of the blue two years ago I got an invitation to a Black and White Ball at the Waldorf Astoria from my then publishers Harlequin. It was too good an opportunity to miss, everything fell into place and in the space of two weeks I had a brand new passport and a three night city break to NY booked. We stayed at the Waldorf and I can honestly say I had the most amazing, magical time of my life. New York was everything I’d dreamt of and I cried when I first set eyes on the Statue of Liberty.

Of course, I didn’t actually sit next to Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller, but that’s a photograph of them in the Starlight Ballroom at the Waldorf where the ball was. It totally blew my mind knowing that I was dancing the night away in the same room as one of my idols.

Thank you so much for sharing these precious memories with us, Helen. If you’d like to know more about Helen, you can find her website here. You can also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Amazon.

Helen’s latest book, Dying Breath, is published by Bookouture, and is available to buy here.