Tag: horror

Would you want to live in a haunted Victorian murder house?

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How about if the rent was dirt cheap?

That was the dilemma faced by Cassie, Pete, Lance, and Tad, when they first moved into Brackenby House. And it wasn’t too much of a dilemma at the time. The house was famous in the local area, and it had featured in a few dark history books, but the students were sceptical about the rumours that the home was still haunted. Their friend Kyle (housemate and son of the current homeowner) liked to tell them regularly that his distant relative, the psychic Lucius Holgrove, had managed to banish the ghosts within the walls of Brackenby House after the séance massacre of 1876. So they accepted Kyle’s offer of low rent and the 5 of them settled into both university life and Brackenby in no time. That is until Halloween night 2016, when the group decide it will be fun to hold a séance of their own. Nothing bad will happen – not in this day and age. Right?

Plus, the jury was still out on what really happened that fateful night back in 1876. Did Lucius’s séance really pull forth 5 cursed ghosts from hell in order to fulfil a spell found in an ancient book? Did the hapless group of wealthy merchants and professionals, guests of Brackenby’s then-owner, Professor Josiah Grant, really die gruesome deaths at the hands of each of the ghosts? Or was Lucius the only survivor for another reason. A reason no-less dark. After spending months in jail awaiting trial, and then being freed into a sanitorium, Lucius was finally freed. The judge and jury hesitantly agreed – surely one young man couldn’t have been responsible for the carnage discovered at the house. A house that would claim another victim, when Lucius leapt from a cliff to his death shortly after being released. Victorian newspaper records detailed the initial carnage, Lucius’s graphic and terrifying testimony, and the news of his untimely death all too thoroughly. The séance was dubbed The Suffering, a sensationalist name that had lasted, almost 150 years later.

Kyle loves to big-up his distant uncle and his astonishing abilities not only to resurrect the dead but to send them back to whence they came. But trying to emulate him for a Halloween party trick doesn’t go the way he’d hoped. Now, the 5 ghosts are released back in the house: Jarvis Rice, a 17th century executioner who framed men for murder so he could get the thrill of killing twice. Connor Rourke, who died falling from the rafters of the grain factory he stole from, his footsteps a constant echo along Brackenby’s landing. Anthony Pile, a member of the Hellfire Club who struck a deal with the devil so he could keep his ill-gotten riches in the afterlife. Lisa Vaughan, a fortune teller who cursed the sailors who visited her, forcing them to jump into the sea and join her deadly hoard halfway through their next sail. And, most terrifying of all, the ancient pre-Incan giant, Po. Rumour has it Po has nothing in his eye sockets, and 3 eyes on his forehead. And he’s now residing in Brackenby’s basement.

Each of the ghosts latches onto one of the students, the individual hauntings driving them all to the brink. But the students soon learn that they can’t leave Brackenbury. When they do, the people around them are at risk, and the ghosts only grow stronger. Only Kyle’s uncle Caleb can help. Unlike their distant ancestor, Lucius, Caleb isn’t dashing, charming, or remotely psychic. But, as gruff and rude as he is, Caleb has his uses. He’s been trying to get to the bottom of the house’s secrets for years. And he may just have found a solution that turns the reported history of the séance on its head. The housemates must each do battle with their own individual ghost. But not all of them can make it out alive…

The Suffering, published by Wicked House Publishing – coming soon!

Next up: Meet The Suffering Ghosts! Which one will haunt you?

Humour in Horror Writing

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Well, you guys, it’s been a while. And how things have changed since I last uploaded a blog post. I hope you are all keeping safe and managing through these bizarre times.

Lockdown has given me invaluable time in front of the computer screen working on my horror novel. It got me to thinking about the relationship between humour and horror, and about how the two tend to meet. It’s a fine balance – make horror too funny and it seems silly and loses its tension. Make horror too serious and, for me, it loses an edge that a well-crafted story with elements of both will undoubtedly demonstrate.

Some of my writing heroes excel at this technique. The League of Gentlemen (Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and Jeremy Dyson), inspired me when I was a school kid. Their eponymous television show was like nothing I had ever seen before. Their skill at writing comedy immersed in horror, full of sympathetic characters and humanistic struggles, has stayed with me ever since. Pemberton and Shearsmith’s Inside No.9 continues to surprise me, a television experience that my husband pointed out is no mean feat! When chatting about the show to a work colleague, he stated, “It’s the only TV show that ever surprises MJ. Because she’s a writer, she always guesses what’s going to happen or what the twist in a show will be. With Inside No.9, she’s always just as surprised as the rest of us, so she actually gets to enjoy it!” I hadn’t thought about it until he pointed it out, but it’s so true!

And that’s what you can do with horror. Truly take people by surprise and thrill them, more than any other genre. It’s something that I am trying to focus on as I push on through this novel, working on balancing truly fiendish characters and events with personable humour and empathy. I am trying to learn from the masters – after all, I have been following them for about 25 years now.

The horror/humour balance can never be more topical than at a time of crisis. It’s important to laugh, even when the world around us seems to be falling apart. And it’s okay to find humour in the madness. In fact, there is nothing more human.

Stay safe my friends, and seek out a little humour where you can.

Unexpected Writing Inspiration

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One of the main things that I love about writing is its unpredictability. You might have a set plan, and you may be productive in your routine for a while, but in the world of writing it doesn’t always work out that way.

I mainly write horror shorts when I sit down at my desk. However, this year I branched out a little and began to write a young adult fantasy novel. I was inspired by the writing community on social media, and had a few ideas about my own little bunch of budding heroes, traversing adolescence whilst dealing with their new powers. It was fun. It was exciting and, being someone who struggled through my own childhood with the X-Men permanently reminding me that it was okay to be different, it was relevant. So, 60,000 words in with only a few lingering chapter inserts, fillers, and a final edit remaining, it should be ready to roll on to the next stage. Only, it’s not happened that way. I’ve completely shelved it. I think about it often. I occasionally make an insert or an edit here and there, but I have lost that spark of inspired joy that I usually need to complete a project. This has left me with two options. One; slog on and finish it anyway. Or, two; leave it and move on to a new book. For me, these are both equally impossible without the right kind of inspiration. I didn’t know what I was going to do.

Then, this morning as I was walking to the supermarket in the sunshine, a song came on my iPod that I hadn’t heard in ages. It was Coheed and Cambria’s The Suffering, and I loved it. I stuck it on repeat, and pretty much listened to it constantly as I walked the length of St George’s Quay to town. A thought popped into my head: “The Suffering. That would be a cool title for a horror short.” As I walked the rest of the way, the story ideas began to flow. Once I had the title (thanks Coheed and Cambria!), the plot followed, and I knew that the story will be perfect to submit to the upcoming Horroraddicts.net ‘Dark Divinations’ Victorian horror submission call. And that wasn’t all, my friends! I realised that the short story would make a cool origins tale for a full-length horror story set in modern times. So, that’s what I’m going to do next. Get the Victorian short story locked down, then use it as the origins tale for a modern full length horror.

That’s not to say I’ll never return to my fantasy wip. I’ve put many hours into it after all, and I love the characters. But right now I guess it’s important to work on what feels right. Two beautiful things about writing, then. It’s ever-changing. Never set in stone. The possibilities are endless. And you can find sudden inspiration anywhere – even when you’re walking to the shops.

Inspired by Nature

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I had a little giggle to myself this morning. I’ve got a list of upcoming submission calls that I’d like to try my hand at, one of which being the Forty-Two Books Putrescent Poems anthology. I woke up keen to get started, but struggling for ideas. I knew it had to be horror – that was the easy part. Horror is the one sure theme that always inspires me to give a submission call a crack! But what kind of horror? Demons? Ghosts? Mass-murderers or psycho hitch-hikers? There are sometimes too many possibilities, when it comes to giving something a shot!

I decided to get out into nature and see if the clean air and greenery would set my creative juices flowing. I grabbed the dog and off we went to the local orchard. It’s a beautiful pathway, surrounded by rolling fields and dotted with apple and damson trees. It just so happened that there were groups of school children receiving lessons on the different types of flora and fauna in the area. This meant that the pup had to stay on his lead, much to his dismay, but I had fun eavesdropping on the lesson as we passed:

Teacher: “So, tonight, when you’re having your tea, try taking off your shoes and socks, sticking your feet in your plate, and eating your tea with your feet!”

Children: (Giggles and squeals) One kid in particular: “Even tuna fish sandwiches?!!!”

Teacher: “Even tuna.”

Aside from the fact that a tuna sandwich might be the easiest thing in the world to eat with your feet (ah, to be a kid again), an idea popped into my head while I was looking up at the trees and waiting for the dog to finish his business. Kids + Trees = A tree that eats children. So that’s what I’m writing my poem about.

I don’t know if that’s quite what people have in mind when they say you should get inspired by nature. But it worked for me!

Oddballs and writers

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This year will be the year. I just know it. Never mind the fact that I’ve said this every year for as long as I can remember. This year, 2019, big things are going to happen. And, even if they don’t, it’s going to be fun sharing it all with you.

Writing can be an isolating occupation. We spend most of our time with our fictional characters, dreaming up worlds that don’t exist and having conversations with people we have imagined. We are odd. We have to be, let’s face it. So I’m reaching out to all the other oddball writers out there who also see big things happening this year. Let’s be odd together. I want to share every step of my progress this year with people who understand just how strange the writing life can be. Let’s motivate each other, commiserate when things don’t go to plan, and talk about what writing really means to us. It’s difficult to explain it to someone who doesn’t write. But I know you get it.

A little bit about me, just so you know who you’re reading! I live in Lancaster, UK, a small city that has a castle, a quayside, and a very bleak history that gives me endless sources of horror-related inspiration. I have always loved writing, ever since I was a toddler. I don’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. I have had a few short stories published, and last year one of my horror works featured in the compilation Secret Stairs, which was number one in the Amazon horror chart for six weeks. My dream goal is, of course, to publish a novel. At the moment, I have a very rough draft of a young adult fantasy WIP on the go, which I am hoping to polish up and edit to within an inch of its life over the coming weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.

There are so many wonderful blogs out there, I am not expecting to compete. But please stop by and let me know how you’re getting on with your own goals for 2019. We can do this together. Hopefully we can motivate and inspire each other, and make each other feel a little less alone on those frustrating days when editing is going terribly or the rejection slips are coming in thick and fast.

2019 is ours, oddballs and writers. We’ve got this.