Author looks at experiences around funerals and life in new book

Leah Warner has written and published "Euphoric Dreams", an anthology of poems and short stories around four categories of Love and Loss, Fantasy and Horror, 21st Century Living and Animals and Nature.

The 39-year-old from West Bromwich said that most of the poems, apart from the fantasy and horror, were situations and times of her own life that she put into words to write a poem, while the fantasy and horror section were more short stories.

She said the idea of the book came from her years of working in Bereavement Services for Dudley Council and hearing the poems read out at funeral services, as well as her own experience of having to write a poem for a family member's funeral.

She said: "It all started a couple of years ago when my great aunt down in London passed away and I was asked by my mom to read a poem at the funeral.

"That evening, I had a look on Google for funeral poems but, unfortunately, nothing really I was reading felt like a true representation of my aunt as I wanted it to be quite personal for her, so I decided to write my own poem for her.

"I read it at the funeral and had lovely kind comments on how fitting and beautiful my words were for her, so after that, I started getting ideas on other poems I could write and within a couple of days, I had wrote quite a few."

She said that she had always been interested in writing and decided to commit the time to writing this book and, after six months, worked with a publishing company in Birmingham to get the book published and up for sale on Amazon.

She said that her experiences at Bereavement Services had really helped her to form the words for the poems and stories and said she was already working on a new book, while also saying that writing full time would be a dream for her.

She said: "I would like to think that people can relate to my work, maybe find them useful and helpful and I find that when I am writing, the words and feelings I put into them come to me quite easily, which makes it a pleasure for me to write.

"I understand what troubles and difficulties come with losing someone dear or the daily tasks we all go through and the people we come across and the situations and decisions we all have to make.

"If I was able to do this full time, then that would be brilliant, although I work full time and have to balance things, but I'll keep working and doing this as and when I can and, maybe, I'll achieve the true dream of being able to do this full time."

"Euphoric Dreams" is available to buy on Amazon and other book sites.