Berserk! Off to be published!

After 9 month's hard work, my 5th novel (and 6th book) has been submitted for publication :) For those interested, it should be available for purchase in both paperback and ebook formats by the end of the week :)

Christmas Ghost Stories Review (2019)

With the writing of my novella, Berserk!, completed a short while ago, I have finally been afforded the opportunity to catch up on on some reading. To get into the festive spirit, whilst also accomplishing some prep work for my major writing project for 2020, I have been reading a fair few ghost stories in the build up to Christmas, concentrating on the books published in the Seth's range, by Bibliosis.

These are nicely designed books, with some decent graphic art by the cartoonist Seth. Unfortunately, they were not all the most inspiring of tales. For this Christmas, I read:

The Signalman by Charles Dickens

The Empty House by Algernon Blackwood

Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk by Frank Cowper

One Who Saw by A.M. Burrage

The Red Lodge by H. Russell Wakefield

Afterward by Edith Wharton

The Green Room by Walter de la Mare

Out of those fair few titles, only two were of any real worth and only one really struck a decent chord with me.

The final book in this Christmas' ghostly reading list

Dicken's short story was a good read, but I found both the play and the classic BBC version of the work vastly superior and more atmospheric to the original tale.

Only Frank Cowper's Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk ticked all my boxes for a good ghost story and I thoroughly recommend that title to anyone looking for an interesting and out-of-the-ordinary read.

I had planned to buy more of the books in this series (more seem to be published to the list of titles each year), but given only one out of the seven of them raised any real frisson in me, I am unsure where I will actually stick to this plan.

I have a busy weekend now, as I need to typeset Berserk!, adjust its cover to fit the dimensions of the book and get the little beast published. Hopefully, the book will be available to purchase sometime during the coming week :) ...

Christmas Ghost Stories

Whiling away the days to Christmas with some festive reading:

The Green Room by Walter de la Mare

The Green Room ~ Walter de la Mare

Thunder and Lightning

Thunder, lightning, Very, very, frightening...

Well, not really as I love thunder and lightning. And tonight's storm was one of the finest I can remember for this neck of the UK :)

   

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas

Our Christmas tree went up today :) And feeling in the Christmas spirit,  I spent the wee small of this night watching old BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas, whilst outside a gale and icy showers did their best to add to the atmosphere :)

One Who Saw ~ A.M. Burrage

Continuing my Christmas ghost story reads with this little title:

Windy Lifts

'Twas a bit windy today.So much so that it howled all the way through the lift shaft at my office. Take a listen - spooky, eh?

 

Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk

I spent this afternoon reading Frank Cowper's 'Christmas Even on a Haunted Hulk'. This was definitely the best story out of my first batch of Christmas ghost stories to read, followed closely by M.R. James'classic 'The Signalman'. Out of the three books, only one disappointed, that being Algernon Blackwood's 'The Empty House'.

A Perfect Winter's Afternoon Read

Feet Up, Reading 'Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk'

I now just have four more books in the Seth's Christmas Ghost Stories range to read. I wonder which one will temp me into opening its pages first...

These are great little books,which can be read in about half an hour each. The are feature some pretty cool graphic art by the cartoonist Seth. I will definitely be purchasing more of the titles in that range to read for Christmas 2020!

Christmas Ghost Stories...

My main writing project for 2020 will be a Christmas Story titled 'Solstice'. To get in the mood for writing that, as well as the festive season itself, I am going to start December off  by reading these little fellas :) I think I know which book I'll read first...

The Creeper

'Tis the season of Winter - the time of ghosts and things that go bump in the night. I honestly could not think of anything better to arrive in the post to herald the darkest month of the year than this new figure - the latest addition to my horror Pop Funko collection - The Creeper from the scary Jeepers Creepers movie:

The Creeper from Jeepers Creepers

Typing Up Edits

Typing up the edits of Chapter 3 of Berserk! with this one:

The Saboteur

Thwarted

I had been planning to make a start on typing up the final draft of Berserk tonight. But this attention seeker put a stop to that:

Berserk! Final Draft Complete :)

The third and final draft of my next novel is now complete. 😊 I just have to type the whole thing up again now, typeset it and get the book cover formatted. The New Year deadline for getting this beast published is looking promising 👌