Lytefoot by Phillip D Curwood; a review by Diana Milne

The author, Phillip D Curwood, is not just giving away one copy of  a book, he has made his first book Arabella: A picture of Beauty free from today, 25th October, until midnight on the 27th.
Thank you, Phillip, for this wonderful gesture.

Please contact Phillip to discover how to get your copy!

By genre, this novella is classed as a ghost story or paranormal but it easily could fit into chiller, thriller, horror and for sheer tension for the reader, would sit proudly amongst peers in the psychological thriller genre...

Whilst it works well as a stand alone story, it is the follow on to Phillip D Curwood's previous story, Arabella: A Picture of Beauty, which introduces Nathan Rothwell, a famous crime fiction writer back in the '80s, whose hedonistic lifestyle spiralled him into a near breakdown after the death of his parents and his subsequent obsession for a beauty painted by John Constable, which turns his life upside down and sees him fall in love with her 200-year-old ghost until their lives are once more torn apart by vengeance, and murder.

In Lytefoot we meet the same team of ghosthunters that we met in Arabella  and once more Rothwell enters the story. To absolve himself of his guilt, Rothwell had recorded an admission on a smartphone before his death of what really took place the night his sister and Lytefoot Hall’s estate manager were murdered and his obsessive love for the ghost of the beautiful heiress, Lady Arabella Lytefoot, plus his struggle coming to terms with a dark entity, so twisted by rage that he could reach out and harm those in the material world...

The characters are all finely drawn and vivid, with realistic strengths and weaknesses and a believable and fast flowing dialogue holds the story together. The story is fast paced, one shock following on from another (and I am never sure whether it was me who was more shocked or the four ghost hunting protagonists!) and suddenly the host hunting quartet of Steve, Sarah, Rob (Robo) and Nigel find themselves in the middle of a scenario that they almost find is too big and too terrifying for them to handle and making them all confront parts of their past they thought they had left behind.

The author skillfully blends the past with modern technology to create an acute sense of chilling normality in the absurd and and chilling paranormal, mixing fact and fiction and sheer terror to thrill and chill and stop you from sleeping at night as you ponder 'what if...?' dragging us, the reader further and further into the maelstrom that is Lytefoot.

The author's own experience of the paranormal, couple with what must have been a serious amount of research into the subject, lead us, occasionally white knuckled and trembling, to the final well described and intense conclusion.

About Phillip D Curwood:

Born in the East Midlands, in 1962, the author, Phillip.D.Curwood had a working class upbringing. All his life he had wanted to be a writer, but as is usual, life got in the way of those dreams. It wasn't until 2013 that he started laying down ideas, that would eventually become the supernatural romance - Arabella: A Picture of Beauty. He says, "Being a writer has taught me a lot about myself, and the people around me. It's got to be the best job in the world!" The 54-year-old author lives in Derbyshire with wife, daughter, and cat in tow.

As a keen amateur historian, rambler, and lover of classic ghost stories, Phillip.D.Curwood gained his inspiration for Arabella from a portrait he stumbled across at the Newstead Abbey museum a few years ago; one of a beautiful 17th century heiress that still hangs there in the Great Hall. The fictional Lytefoot hall she resides in the story, is in reality the ruinous Annesley hall in North Nottinghamshire. Coupled with his love for East Anglia, the author set about creating his romantic debut novel, set in a fictional geographical region, on the wilds of the Suffolk coast... hoping that by end of the very last page, he shall have the reader reaching for their hanky...

Read more about Phillip Curwood here at Diana Talks to Phillip D Curwood. It is worth it!!

© Diana Milne October 2017

Diana talks to the inimitable Poppet

Hi Poppet. I am thrilled that you agreed to talk to me....

I am sure that you are tired of being asked the usual questions that would be interviewers ask authors, so hopefully this interview is an interview with a difference and I have come up with some unusual questions!
First things first I am sure there is a question that you have always longed to be asked. Now is the chance. Ask your own question and answer it!
The answer is cake (lol)
What is the genre you are best known for?
Dark / horror romance

If your latest book Sinnergog Part 1 was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role? 

''I love that cover, it embodies: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil''
PS: Most folks 'miss that' subtlety

That's a great question. It's a sad and brutal tale which follows from childhood to adulthood. I can't even imagine making a child act any of those scenes, but I suppose the adult Christopher could be played by someone trendy and popular. Honestly I have no clue because that's not my area of expertise. I'll leave the casting to the professionals who know what they're doing.

What made you choose this genre?
Another good question. No one has ever asked me that before. If I answer honestly I'll offend a lot of people.
I chose this genre not deliberately, but I wrote the first book to make a point. I wrote this series in its entirety to highlight how mankind has twisted scripture to suit his own agenda (this is especially prevalent in politics these days too) – and also because when I read the Old Testament (and even some of the new, Saul-Paul's work especially), I am horrified by what 'God' sanctions and condones. He tells his people to murder, to kidnap virgins for themselves (Judges 21:21 /Lamentations 5:11 / Numbers 31:9, he makes the people of Israel buy back their newborn children from the Levite priests (Numbers 18:15), he sanctions stoning to death sinners, he has a moment where he makes them sacrifice their newborns 'to prove that he is God'*, he tells them to wage war and commit murder (despite that breaking one of the 10 commandments) – and when I read that I know it's no God I could possibly respect. Most folks gloss over the nasty stuff, they don't want to look at it that hard, they simply follow this ritual and religion because they were raised believing that to do otherwise would utterly condemn them. I wrote this series to show the reader what I would see if we met God in the flesh, if we knew this guy face to face and listened to his orders, and put under the microscope his cruelty and capriciousness. The series has moments of redemption, but alas like most brainwashed generations the damage done to young and innocent children shatters the psyche early on, leaving us alone in a world with broken and dangerous people. (On this matter I've written a non-fiction novel highlighting the issues I have with this religious text as a guideline for humanity to follow – and we wonder why we don't have peace on Earth. That novel is titled The Nephilim Cartel.)
***Then I gave them laws that are not good and commands that do not bring life. I let them defile themselves with their own offerings and I let them sacrifice their first born sons. This was to punish them and show them that I am the Lord. Ezekiel 20:25.
The Douay Reims bible says; in that they caused to pass through the fire all the firstborn, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know, understand, and realise that I am the Lord.
The share of the community was the same as that for the soldiers: 337,500 sheep and goats, 36,000 cattle, 30,500 donkeys, and 16,000 virgins. From this share Moses took one out of every fifty prisoners and animals, and as the Lord had commanded, gave them to the Levites who were in charge of the Lord's Tent. Numbers 31:41
And watch; if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and catch every man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin. (Judges 21:21)
How do you get ideas for plots and characters?
With the Darkroom Saga (series) my experience with religious zealots was all the inspiration required, my other works are mostly inspired by dreams.

Favourite picture or work of art?
The Sistine Chapel

If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!) you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?
Yes, and yes. I am planning to write a dystopian and futuristic novel, with huge metaphysical and sci-fi overtones. However, this novel will be written under a mystery pseudonym so my readers won't even know I wrote it. My publisher already knows about it though

Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?) How old were you when you first started to write seriously.
I like that you choose to use the words 'writing seriously'. I started writing seriously in my early 20s, and was published in magazines by the time I was 25. I spent 6 years doing that before turning to fiction full time (but by that time I had written a series of over 1000000 words.) I wanted to be an author from the age of 12, and wrote my first novel when I was 14. So definitely a conscious decision. But, the publishing world has changed a lot since I was 12, it's now excessively competitive and very easily influenced by bloggers and public opinion.

Marmite? Love it or hate it?
LOVE it!

Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??
I make a playlist for each novel and listen to it on repeat (with headphones on) for the entirety of it being written.

I promise I won’t tell them the answer to this, but when you are writing, who is more important, your family or your characters?
The muse whips me hard I am her servant.

Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?
Acting, or archeology.

Coffee or tea? Red or white?
Coffee, red.

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way?
It depends on the book. Some novels I know completely from start to finish before writing the first word.
If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?
I'm really not fussy about fonts. I just follow the rules (cue eye roll).

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?
The Key of Solomon – (there's a version online which is clearly falsely translated) – or the grimoire belonging to Honorius of Thebes (or even the original Book of Jubilees, or that "new" bible discovered written in gold, which is completely different to the one considered 'god's word' today.) I also wouldn't mind getting to read in one cohesive document everything ever written by Leonardo Da Vinci.

(As an aside, Diana learned Classical Greek and Latin in order to read the earliest known version of the Septuagint for herself, rather than relying on translation...)

A late aside from Poppet: In fact to add to that one question, I'd love to read everything ever written by Nikola Tesla too..

Have any of your characters ever shocked you and gone off on their own adventure leaving you scratching your head??? If so how did you cope with that!?
This does happen sometimes. Usually it's female characters behaving like feeble nitwits. I'm an alpha female who doesn't condone victim mentality. I just write it as fast as I can so the plot can get back to business.

How much research do you do and do you ever go on research trips?
I do a ton of research. My life feels dedicated to research (I write a lot of nonfiction), but alas my budget means all research is done via books especially ordered in for me because they're never in stock, or via the internet. If I place a character or plot in a place I've never been, I even drive around the neighbourhood using Google maps plotting routes and noting shops along the way to give credence to the setting.

Fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?
No, I let it unfold as it should. If one character suddenly becomes domineering, I go with it.

Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?
The story has to be credible, life does not. So often life happens, and I say to hubby, if I wrote this no one would ever believe it and I'd get 1 stars for cruddy writing. I keep it credible using logic or physics to explain that which seems supernatural. Supernatural however is a matter of opinion. If we can transmit photons across space now, imagine what is 'possible in real life' in the future. I think everything is possible, it's simply our limited understanding (currently) that makes the possible seem 'far fetched'. Perception is everything.

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?
Lol, I find this question ambiguous. I don't believe that fact and fiction can become blurred. I know the facts, and I interject them into fiction as part of the plot.
Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?
I love them all. Some characters I do not like, yet even in their madness I have empathy for them.

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?
Nonfiction mostly.
What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?
Ummm. Holy water? (lol)
Last but not least... favourite author?
I have a lot of favourites, this isn't a cut and dried question for me. I love to cook, and Nigella Lawson is my favourite foodie author. My favourite health food author is Dr Andrew Weil. I love Charles de Lint, for being the first urban fantasy author I read. I love Tolkien and Rowling for the alternative realities they presented. I love George Orwell, Charles Dickens, and William Golding, for showing the basest sides of humanity and highlighting what we needed to acknowledge. But then I also love authors like Helen Fielding for giving me a good laugh. Mostly now I support indie authors. They need champions in their corner, and indie publishers, because these folks are changing the future, making dreams possible for everyone. However I also love a good metaphysical read and I absolutely love James Redfield, and Deepak Chopra. I also love the action classic authors, like Eric Van Lustbader, Desmond Bagley, Ian Fleming, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King.
Thank you Diana, this was definitely different. I apologise for not being more mainstream and making this a quick and easy Q and A  Poppet, I am delighted to have such an exciting and informative talk about such a range of subjects. Thank you.

About Sinnergog: Part 1 (Darkroom Saga Book 6)

Part I
Sacrifice wears many masks. In the claustrophobic walls of the Sinnergog untold horrors splatter the walls. It was created as a sanctuary for those possessed by Satan, the last refuge for exorcism and redemption. Named after a temple to worship god, the only thing worshiped here is trauma.

Christopher Ward: It occurred to me that the manifestation of God among mankind was unique in itself. Did He know he was god? Was he always different? Is that why I was persecuted, because Satan never rests and temptation is a rope bridge across the character chasm?

It took me years to understand I am the chosen one, and it is my legacy, my only purpose, to rid this world of evil. I’ve come for the lost, for the sinners. A reaper is not death, it is mercy, it is love, it is compassion. So I taught my firstborn son to show mercy, I taught him to give sinners a chance to repent, I taught him that Eve can’t help herself. If it’s forbidden the female will crave it, and she’ll drag good men down with her into her cesspit of cunning evil. Me and my kind stand between her and good men. We are the intervention, we are divinity and nothing can stop this. Satan has no power here, I am all powerful.

Part II
Victor Ward: knows his father, the Alpha who becomes god, who is so narcissistic and deranged he cannot tell fiction from fantasy - must be stopped. Victor spent his life in service to his father’s cult, but now the veil has lifted from his sight and he knows good from evil, he knows his father is the biggest crime lord of our time, and yet Christopher cannot recognize that he is the personification of the very thing he claims to thwart.

There is only one man who can stop god. His son. Will he die for our sins? Will they follow the script? Or will Victor become the Lucifer of our time? Victor is ostracised from his Eden, and it’s time for payback. The hunt is on. Their egos have grown, they know how to make bodies disappear, they know how to enslave the powerful with drugs and blackmail, and this time the massacre will not end until the father and the son become one, or one destroys the other.

Once, Christ threw men out of the temple, because they desecrated it. Now Victor must exorcise Christ from the temple, because now Christ-opher is the one who destroys all that is holy.

This is the final installment in the Darkroom Saga. Now we learn the origins of pain, and how it perpetrates the legacy for seven generations.

About Poppet:

International bestselling author, Poppet writes romantic horror, romantic comedy, non-fiction, paranormal romance, and is currently published with Wild Wolf Publishing, Tirgearr Publishing, and Eibonvale Press.

Poppet was first published in Mobius Poetry Magazine, and then spent years writing natural health articles for The SA Journal of Natural Medicine and Renaissance Magazine, before turning her attention to writing fiction, seeing her reach the number 1 spot on Authonomy - run by Harper Collins. Interviewed by journalist David Kentner, Poppet gained exposure across North America with the release of her debut novel Darkroom. Previously published by Night Publishing, Endaxi Press, and Thorstruck Press, Poppet now has more than 50 titles to her credit.

Poppet turned to writing full time after becoming paralysed by Guillian Barré Syndrome. She still takes one day at a time, living a life where joy and peace are her main focus, leaving drama for her novels only.

You can follow Poppet here ...

© Diana Milne January 2017 © (Poppet, August 2017)

Diana talks to... Phillip.D.Curwood

Hello Phillip. It is really lovely to meet you. Thank you for agreeing to chat like this. I hope I have come up with some unusual questions for you!

First things first I am sure there is a question that you have always longed to be asked. Now is the chance. Ask your own question and answer it!

Q. Where do you see yourself in ten years time?

A. On the bestseller list, and maybe one of my novels adapted for film or TV.

What is the genre you are best known for?

The genre I’ve been writing has classic leanings toward Bronte-style Paranormal Romance/ Horror, although my latest work will venture more into Sci fi fantasy.

If your latest book Lytefoot was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?

The characters I created for this particular book were people that I actually knew, so really, and have no idea who’d play one of the five protagonists, Steven Runcombe. However, the actress Brenda Blethyn would be fitting as the guardian, Suzanne Bentley.

What made you choose this genre?

For years I’ve had a profound interest in the paranormal. My curiosity grew after living in a haunted house for 13-years of my life and witnessing things that would indeed frighten the faint-hearted.

How do you get ideas for plots and characters?

The character, Arabella, in my debut novel – Arabella: A Picture of Beauty - came to me quite by accident when I stumbled across a beautiful 17^th-century portrait of a Lady Jane Smijth, attributed to a Sir Godfrey Kneller. Other characters are taken from my life, or off the TV.

Plots are inspired by music I listen to.

Favourite picture or work of art?

John Constable to me is the demigod of art. The landscapes he paints elicits feelings of euphoria in me and really is beyond the realm of the living.

If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!)  you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?

The novel I’m writing at this moment in time is one that I’ve always wanted to put down on paper... if there is such a thing these days. The genre is a Sci fi fantasy romance set in the years 2017 and 1973 and will be a heartfelt story, heavily laden with nostalgia from that period.

Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?) How old were you when you first started to write seriously.

Basically, I’ve always wanted to be a writer since a very young age, but love and life got in the way, until recently.

Marmite? Love it or hate it?

Love it, love it, love it!

Do you have any rituals and routines when writing? Your favourite cup for example or ‘that’ piece of music...??

Before I even think about writing, I have to eat an apple... then make a huge mug of Americano – black, no sugar. If I don’t, my writing goes asunder.

I promise I won’t tell them the answer to this, but when you are writing, who is more important, your family or your characters?

My family comes first. And as a carer for my severely disabled daughter, she is more important to me than the books I write. (Total respect. DMM.)

Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?

Ooh! Archaeologist. Besides myself, I love old things.

Coffee or tea?Red or white?

Black Americano coffee. Earl Grey tea. I don’t drink alcohol and haven’t done so in 30-years.

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way?

Stories are mostly inspired by the music I listen to. From there, whatever transpires does so as if I’m watching a film in my head.

If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?

I love the smooth flow of a Freestyle Script any day.

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?

The only original source I know comes from a bottle.

Have any of your characters ever shocked you and gone off on their own adventure leaving you scratching your head??? If so how did you cope with that!?

Like most writers, I don’t have full control over my story, or the characters within it. More often than not, it will head in a direction of its own device, which leads to many frustrating moments.

How much research do you do and do you ever go on research trips?

For my latest novel, soon to be released, I did indeed go on a research trip to Helmsley in North Yorkshire. However, being a keen rambler, my feet have trodden the York Moors on many occasions this past 30 years.There is much to inspire up north!

Fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?

I love all my characters, so bottom line – No.

Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?

That would be a dangerous thing for a writer to do unless he is well researched and confident enough.

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?

No.

Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?

This has been a secret of mine for a while now, but I have indeed fallen for one of my female characters, although I’m not saying which one... and before you say it; no, it’s not Arabella.

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?

Classic literature - Jane Austen. H.G Wells. The Brontes. Charles Dickens... and last but not least, the great modern writer, Dan Brown.

What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?

Coffee or Earl Grey tea.

Last but not least... favourite author?

Dan Brown... I have all his works to date. He’s such an inspiring, thought provoking scribe.

About Lytefoot:

To absolve himself of his guilt, the famous crime author, Nathan Rothwell, recorded an admission on a smartphone before his death, of what really took place the night his sister and Lytefoot hall’s estate manager were murdered; his obsessive love for the ghost of the beautiful heiress, Lady Arabella Lytefoot, and his struggle coming to terms with a dark entity, so twisted by rage and jealousy because of his love for her, that he could reach out and harm those in the material world.

A year later, the phone, which was never wiped after forensics, falls into the hands of a 21-year-old trainee police officer, Steven Runcombe, after the 8-month long investigation concluded Nathan Rothwell, even in death, was still guilty of the crimes of murder.

Heeding Nathan’s story though, gave Steve a curious thirst for the supernatural, especially after also discovering his close friend, Rob Slatterley, had witnessed the smiling spectre of his girlfriend, not long after her funeral.

Armed with borrowed ghost hunting equipment and the dead author's smartphone, Steve, Rob, along with two other reluctant friends, head over to Lytefoot Park to seek the truth about the afterlife, while trying to uncover more of Nathan Rothwell’s story.

However, what they didn’t envisage, was the danger they’d put themselves in, the minute they entered the quaint Suffolk village of Thydon le Marsh, which led over to Lytefoot's encompassing 400-acre estate.

But the more they discovered, the more the park and village seemed a foreboding place to the four youngsters. A place where the shades of the past reveal themselves in unusual ways, and where reality ceased to exist long ago.
Buy Phillip's books here... they are worth it!!

© Diana Milne January 2017 © (Phillip.D.Curwood)

PAULA'S PEOPLE: HORROR WRITER D.MICHELLE GENT TALKS ABOUT WHY A GOOD SCARE ROCKS HER BOAT!

Welcome to our 4th day of our Great Creepfest! Today on Paula's People, I want you to meet again a lovely, but scary lady: Michelle Gent! I met Michelle a year or so ago when I was scouring the net for a new editor and she was recommended to me by a fellow author friend. Michelle, I soon found out. likes to have a finger in many pies and today she talks about the Horror Pie! When I knew we were having a Halloween Creepfest, I knew exactly who to invite on my spot. Being an author of horror/urban-thrillers, I asked Michelle to tell us all what got her into it and why scary things rock her boat! Over to you Michelle!

Why do I like horror? There’s a question to get creative juices flowing (well, mine, anyway).
Why do I like horror? I don’t know why, I just do.
I like the thrill of terror as something scares the living daylights out of me. I like the way my pulse races and adrenalin floods my system but I also like the satisfying and very real safety net of knowing it’s all fiction, made up for entertainment, and as soon as it becomes too much, I can put my hands over my eyes and stop watching or close the book and stop reading. I also like the idea that my stories can inspire the same feelings in other people, my readers. Yes, I like that very much.

As a kid we used to make up stories that scared us. When the nights drew in around this time of year, not too late and not too cold or wet but dark, it had to be dark. We’d sit on doorsteps and make up stories. There was a large field next to my friend’s house and that gave us a creepy setting for the storytelling. My main problem was that my house was the furthest away but because I was the tomboy, the bravest, most daring of us all and the most reckless, it didn’t seem to matter that as one by one the group went back to the safety of their homes and I was left to walk the last few yards on my own. Of course I had to maintain that fearless facade in front of everyone because that was all I had. I wasn’t one of the cool kids who everyone wanted to hang out with, I didn’t have the best toys or the most fashionable clothes – all I had was my ‘image’ and my bravado. So, I had to tell the scariest story and I had to be the bravest when getting the rest of the kids back to their houses, even if I was frightened to go in by the back door because there was a bigger, darker field at the back of our house.

I grew up in the 70s and I remember one horrible event from back then. The Black Panther was loose. He had kidnapped Lesley Whittle and her body was discovered in a drainage shaft. The summer that he was on the run, we were mostly playing in drainage systems that ran under the M1 motorway near to us. We’d scare each other silly with stories of discovering the Black Panther in our ‘playground’. I had a macabre imagination – I still do. The Black Panther was caught that December, a few miles from where we lived. Not that he’d have been interested in a handful of kids from a council estate. Our parents wouldn’t have been able to raise £50 let alone £50,000!

My mind is a fabulous place, a terrifying playground filled with dark and dreadful things that have yet to make their way into my books – but I’m sure they will at some point. I was ‘advised’ to calm my scary stories down when the younger kids were about because I scared them too much. Yeah, that was me, the weirdo with the over-active imagination, the dark side that could find the cruel and vicious nature in most things. Cats are cruel when they play with their prey but it’s their nature, it’s not deliberate. A cat hones its skill on the half-maimed mouse, bird or vole. It will bring a young mouse to its kittens – or its human – to help teach them how to hunt. That’s not cruelty, that’s nature, teaching the next generation how to survive.
One of my childhood pets came home limping. He allowed me to look at his leg. Someone had wrapped an elastic band around it and it was biting into his leg. It would have cut off the blood supply and he’d have lost the leg if I hadn’t spotted it. Another cat didn’t do that to him; that was the vile and deliberate act of a human. Cats aren’t cruel, humans are cruel.

Humans seek out ways to hurt other humans, by their deeds and their words. Kids in the playground: One kid wears glasses so she’s a ‘specky-four-eyes’. Another kid has a speech impediment so he’ll be labelled ‘st-st-st-stuttering-Stanley’ (remember, Sixth Sense?) Another kid has ginger hair and if she doesn’t have a means of answering back and making her tormentors look silly, she’s going to have a hellish time at school.
Then what happens if kids are left to their own devices? Lord of the Flies paints a pretty grim picture and that book fascinated me at school.
Spooky places fascinate me. Haunted houses, derelict buildings, castles, ancient manor houses, caves and forests; I’m drawn to those places but my imagination is such that I couldn’t stay in any of them alone. My mind betrays me, it ‘sees’ things, hears things and it makes up all kinds of terrible possibilities.
So I channel those horrors and terrors. I put them in situations where there’s danger and strife but I make the story someone else’s predicament.
I try to make the people and situations in my stories as real as I can. Obviously that’s not always possible but if there’s a little something real in there then it adds weight and credibility.
I put my friends in my stories (yes, they know) and I also put people I’ve met, worked with and had other ‘encounters’ with in my stories. Of course any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.
I like to play with situations and ‘what if’ moments. Deadlier started out with such a ‘what if’ moment.
“What if there was someone leaping from rooftop to rooftop, silhouetted by that gorgeous full moon?” I asked Loretta, receptionist at The Late Lounge, the nightclub we were working at in Mansfield, North Notthinghamshire back in 1999.
“Oooh, you mean a vampire?” she said.
I looked back at her over my shoulder and grinned. “No, vampires have been done to death, I think werewolf.”
I went home early the next morning with my head filled with werewolves leaping across buildings in a small mining town in the midlands, England and I started writing the very next day.

So, why do I like horror? Because natural justice can be served in a way that satisfies the bloodthirsty, morbid and twisted mind by methods that convention, society and the law of the land frowns upon. I can wreak havoc upon the nasty, the sly and the cruel people I’ve met – yes, there are a number of those. The bullies, freaks and throwbacks get their come-uppance without me getting arrested. But I think most of all it satisfies something in me that nothing else I’ve tried comes close to. The voices in my head are quietened, they are calmed and they are sated by the way I portray them. My imagination has found a way out of the confines of my head and it seems at peace when my stories are read. It’s almost like they can go to other heads and other imaginations to play and that makes them happy.

So, if any of my stories play on your mind for longer than usual, I apologise. The dark thing that nags at me to write them all out and release them into the world is happy and I can’t do anything about that, at least they’re allowing me some peace for the moment but they’ll be back, they don’t leave me alone for long...




It Wasn’t...

The fleeting shadow that passed you on the darkened streets that you thought was a stray dog?
The person behind you that you thought was coincidentally going the same way that you were?
The feeling you got that there was something behind you that you thought was your imagination?
It wasn’t.

The glint you thought was the lights on a car passing the house?
The caller that hung up as soon as you answered the phone you thought was a wrong number?
The movement you saw from the corner of your eye you thought was your imagination?
It wasn’t...

The flicker of a shadow you thought was the wind blowing the branches of the tree?
That noise you thought was the central heating switching on?
The sound you thought was the cat bumping against something?
It wasn’t!

The shadow was someone checking you out.
The person was seeing where you live.
The feeling was instinct, you should have taken notice.

The glint was light reflecting off a knife.
The caller was making certain you were alone.
The movement was the knife being raised to cut the phone line.

The flicker was someone in the garden.
The noise was someone forcing the window.
The sound was someone on your stairs.

Are you scared yet?

Wow! Thanks Michelle! I don't know if that was my imagination or not but there is a noise on my stairs!!!
Michelle is giving away a set of 6 short stories of her YA book, Dusty the Demon Hunter, so if you'd like to win these for your kindle or e-book, please leave a comment on the blog and tell us why YOU like ghosties, ghoulies and things that go bump in the night!

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Michelle Gent

www.dmichellegent.co.uk Author http://www.gingernutbooks.co.uk/dmichellegent.html Blog http://deadlier-than-the-male.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/welcome.html