Tag: paranormal

Saving Books

· 1 Comment ·

You read a book, you enjoy it, you may recommend it to your friends, you may go on social media and say, ‘Hey, this is a good book!”, who knows, you might even reach out directly to the author and let them know. I’ve always shied away from doing the latter, believing they don’t want to hear from some random person. I think I may have been mistaken.

I remembered how much effort and time goes into creating a story, a collection, or a novel; how much of themselves a writer weaves into each sentence to bring the tale to life. And this is true for any type of artist, any creative endeavour.

Then they put it out there for public consumption. A natural progression, but also a brave act. I don’t think it matters if it’s a writer published by one of the top five, a self-published author, or the person who just sold their first story to a fresh new magazine, they all doubt themselves. I know of authors who can’t read any of their published material because they can see flaws in the work.

Feedback, along with good reviews and star-ratings on platforms like Amazon or other sellers, on Goodreads and The StoryGraph are vital to sales. And the cynical may say sales is what it’s all about.

But getting praise on a job well-done?

Letting the writer know, directly or indirectly, that they’ve moved a reader in some way?

It’s that which keeps a writer going, which of course means…

Positive feedback saves lives. The lives of tales yet to be told, and books still unwritten.

Thank you

· 1 Comment ·

Thank you so much!

to anyone who has bought my short story collection, Corpse Road Blues: an exploration of contemporary hauntings.

to anyone waiting for the paperback realease in April.

to anyone who has bought any of the books that feature my short stories.

and if you’ve reached out to let me know how much you liked Corpse Road Blues or if you left a review, please know that you’ve helped me continue to write.

The Haunted Playlist

· Leave a comment ·

here it is…

the play list that you’ve always wanted…

that you’ve never realised you needed…

that you have without even asking…

because the dead haunt the airwaves, bringing you…

The Corpse Road Blues playlist

(just click on the book cover at the end to unearth the Spotify playlist or

enjoy the videos by clicking on the their songs below)

1. When the Sun Shines: Johnny Cash – Ain’t No Grave

2. Adrressing the Heart: Mother Mother – Ghosting

3. Her Saving Grace: Satyricon – Now, Diabolical

4. King of the Hill: Heilung – Norupo

5. What the Dead Fear: Metallica – Enter Sandman

6. The Memory of Hannah Babinski: Sam Brown – Kissing Gate

7. Wounds Are Lips Waiting to be Kissed: Audioslave – Show Me How to Live

8. We Are Gathered: Schoolyard Heroes – Cemetery Girls

9. Love Notes from the Damned: Black Sabbath – Paranoid

10. The Memory of Hannah Babinski Revisited: Ecca Vandal – Cruising to Self Soothe

11. On Midwinter Hill: The Askew Sisters – The Unquiet Graves

12. The Body in Deer Leap Woods: Accept – Fast as a Shark

13. A Safe Place: Opal in Sky – Empathy, the Gift

14. Within This House: The Beatles – Revolution

15. Aglaope’s Song is Silence Now: The Hillbilly Moon Explosion – My Love For Evermore

and if you’ve read the book and have any suggestions to build the playlist, please share them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Click the image below for the Spotify playlist

Origin Stories continued: 15/15, Aglaope’s Song is Silence Now

· Leave a comment ·

Aglaope’s Song is Silence Now is the last story in my collection, Corpse Road Blues: an exploration of contemporary hauntings (pub. Demain Publishing). The ebook is out now, and thank you very much to those who have already bought the book; I do hope you’ve enjoyed it. If you’re holding on for the paperback, we’re looking at April. A publication date will be shared when we know one, so keep an eye on the blog, or on mine and Demain Publishing’s socials, for news. Hopefully, I’ll be putting together a few extras in time for that date as well.

So, Aglaope’s Song is Silence Now. What a ghastly tale!

Aglaope is one of the Sirens in Greek mythology. Originally, the sirens represented the dangers of the sea, but have since become symbolic of the supposed dangers of lust and temptation – and the ‘female temptress’.

When the #MeToo movement went viral, it highlighted the shocking extent of sexual harassment in society. I knew I wanted to incorporate this into a story, possibly using the Siren myth somehow, but wasn’t sure where to start.

It took another unrelated event – overhearing a work colleague recalling an incident he’d experienced – for Aglaope’s Song… to make it onto the page. After driving home from work late one evening, my work colleague turned off the engine and remained in their car, taking a moment to gather their thoughts and process the events of the day before going into the house to greet their partner and children. About five minutes in, they noticed a man walking along the residential street toward him, checking each car door as he passed. After some moments had passed, enough to be confident of the stranger’s intentions, my colleague made to confront the man, but as soon as they exited the car the man spotted them and ran off. Somewhat surprisingly, the main protagonist in Aglaope’s Song is Silence Now is based on that opportunist thief skulking in the shadows. What does the night and a Siren offer this man?

Find out in Corpse Road Blues.

As always, thanks for reading.

Nash

© Ines Adriaens

Origin Stories continued: 14/15, Within This House

· Leave a comment ·

The penultimate story in Corpse Road Blues from Demain Publishing is a story of contrasts. Within This House uses a combination of diary form and present tense narration to create a more traditional ghost story which I used with a dystopian setting. I also tried to combine real-life horror – both alluded to and on the page – with supernatural horrors.

On her website, horror writer Sarah Budd (author of Enter the Darkness, pub. Brigids Gate Press), wrote that “to really scare your readers, you need to write about your own fears”. Like many, one of mine is the continually de-stabilising world (both politically and environmentally) that our children will inherit. A fear Within This House explores. The story is a response to the present political landscape in my country, in particular, the hostile environment that exists, and sadly, shows no signs of abating. Writing fiction can be a cathartic experience. If I can take you, the reader, along for the ride, so much the better.

Once again, if you’d like to read Within this House, and the other stories, Corpse Road Blues is available here.

through an iron archway and up some steps is a big white house

Origin Stories continued: 13/15, A Safe Place

· Leave a comment ·

Back in 2007, twenty-year-old Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend were brutally beaten on the streets of Britain. Sophie later died of her injuries. They were attacked for being different, for being part of a subculture. After this tragedy, her mother started the Sophie Lancaster Foundation to “combat prejudice and intolerance” and has been fighting tirelessly against hate crime. They do a lot of excellent work in schools and the community. I think about Sophie and the Foundation a lot, especially as I still consider myself part of that subculture, and as a teenager experienced some of that hatred.

Police Recorded Hate Crime figures have increased by over 100,000 in the decade between 2013 and 2023 (source link). Whether it’s for being a member of a subculture, like Sophie, being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, or being a different race or religion, victims of hate crime are everywhere. We have a problem. Be kind. Educate yourself.

A Safe Place is a reaction.

To know more visit Stop Hate UK, the LGBT Foundation, The Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

Origin Stories continued: 12/15, The Body in Deer Leap Woods

· Leave a comment ·

Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but my collection Corpse Road Blues is out now from Demain Publishing. The fifteen stories in the book look at what it means to be haunted; what drives an apparition to cling to this earth, and those still living; and the ways to be rid of a tortured soul if that’s what we truly desire. Thanks for sticking with me.

If we had another shot at life, would we grab it? Is it possible for our consciousness to live on after death? If we have souls, would they mourn their expired bodies? We’re nearly at the last three stories, but first we have The Body in Deer Leap Woods. A truly scary tale – I hope – waiting to be unearthed.

Whilst researching another project online, I spotted pictures of a curious and evocative statue entitled The Shout, that’s housed in Margam Country Park. The artist is Glynn Williams, and the statue depicts a mother holding her child.

The statue had such an impact on me that it inspired The Body in Deer Leap Woods. The story concentrates on the emotion that the statue captures, rather than the scenario. In Deer Leap Woods, a soul (or a consciousness) has replaced the mother figure; its empty body the child that the mother holds.

At the same time as the story was brewing in my head, I’d been taking regular walks near my home in a patch of ancient woodland known as Vallis Vale. On one of those trips, I spied a clearing through the mossy branches, and in my mind, clear as day, the statue sat there among the fungi and ferns. The soul had chosen the setting—who was I to argue?

If you’d like to read the story, and the others that I’ve talked about, it’s here.

Origin Stories continued: 11/15, On Midwinter Hill

· Leave a comment ·

Let’s climb to the top of Midwinter Hill.

In the book, The Hidden Life of Trees (pub. Greystone Books, 2015), Peter Wohlleben talks about how trees are connected to one another: that beeches for instance “are capable of friendship and go so far as to feed each other”; trees become friends that “communicate by means of olfactory, visual, and electrical signals”, and “warn each other using chemical signals sent through the fungal networks around their root tips.” Despite being an enthralling read, this didn’t really surprise me – after all, the entirety of the natural world is interconnected – but with every page I turned, something stirred in the rich soil of my imagination.

By writing these short introductions, it struck me how there’s usually at least two unrelated things that unite to create my stories. For instance, while reading Wohlleben’s book, I overheard a work colleague discuss his plans for the coming Christmas. His mother had passed away that year, and, as she had loved the holiday so much, the family were keen that she still took part in that year’s celebrations. They agreed that they would decorate her grave with a Christmas tree.

Before I knew it, On Midwinter Hill was drafted. Since then, the story has had multiple title changes, been a tale told in reverse, then finally the version found in the book.

If you’d like to read it, and the other stories, you can buy Corpse Road Blues here.

Origin Stories continued: 10/15, The Memory of Hannah Babinski: Revisited

· Leave a comment ·

We’re two-thirds of the way through, but has Corpse Road Blues from Demain Publishing manifested into your shopping cart yet, or is it still a gruesome and terrible absence haunting your periphery? Whatever you’re going to do, thank you so much for staying with me, I hope you’ve enjoyed the posts so far.

I can’t really say much about this story, not because there isn’t anything to write, but for fear of giving too much away. Suffice to say, Revisited was written after my partner read The Memory of Hannah Babinski. She put the manuscript down and, after some hesitation, said, “What would be great is if…”. She was right. But you knew that. Adding that extra something changed the story completely for both of us. At the time, I didn’t realise the epilogue would become a story in its own right. The decision to separate it from the original tale in the collection and give it a name was taken to emphasize time passing, and increase the story’s impact.

If you’d like to read The Memory of Hannah Babinski: Revisited, you can buy Corpse Road Blues here.

Origin Stories continued: 9/15, Love Notes from the Damned

· Leave a comment ·

Have you bought Corpse Road Blues yet? If you have and enjoyed it then consider leaving a review somewhere, they really do help authors.

If you’ve stayed with me thus far, thank you so much! It means a lot. We’re now past the halfway mark, and are peering over the edge toward the inevitable end, just like Joel in Love Notes from the Damned, the ninth story in the collection.

Have you ever been home alone at night and felt like someone was watching you? The feeling so vivid, so visceral, it gives you gooseflesh? Maybe something odd happens, you spot an item in an unusual place, and for the life of you, you’re unable to remember moving it there. Or you hear a noise, maybe heavy footsteps in the loft space above your head—there it is again! Things that, at the time, you might dismiss with logic, and a wave of your hand. But these explanations you tell yourself aren’t neat. I mean, you’re not an expert so you don’t know for sure. Doubt niggles at the back of your head. Love Notes from the Damned is about frightening yourself silly.

Are you still brave enough to buy Corpse Road Blues?