Christmas Morning 2019
God only knows what was kicking off outside my house on Christmas morning. The sound of screaming gulls, crows and barking dogs was enough to wake the dead and it certainly stirred me from my bed. Looking out from our bedroom window into the early morning darkness, I could not see any disturbance. Still, the kerfuffle went on long enough for me to capture a brief recording of it all:
Berserk! Mission Accomplished!
Buy now! A heavy metal band travels north to explore a seemingly uninhabited island, hoping for some atmospheric locations for their next album's photo-shoot. Made infamous after the Vikings marooned their most vicious Berserker warrior there, the band soon discover the truth behind the island's dark reputation as being a place to shun and fear...
Cracking On At Christmas
With Berserk now off at the publishers, it's time to crack on with my 2020 writing project - a Christmas ghost story...
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 |
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 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)