tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58371922299269225862024-03-13T07:43:40.968-07:00Helen GrantHelenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.comBlogger290125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-78385566274897521482024-01-31T08:19:00.000-08:002024-01-31T08:19:32.627-08:005 novels about lost movies<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm an absolute sucker for lost movie stories, especially when they're old ones. Vintage technology has an eldritch quality all of its own, a topic touched on some years ago by Aaron Worth of Boston University in his talk about <i>M.R.James's Uncanny Cinematography</i>, at an M.R.James Conference in Leeds. Film technology is now long established, and grainy footage or crackling audio can be just as creepy to modern audiences as dusty books and ancient manuscripts were to Victorian ones.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyway, I couldn't resist adding my own contribution to the trope with my latest novel <i><a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/jump-cut">Jump Cut</a></i>. Obviously it’s not the first book on these theme, nor will it be the last, so I thought I'd put together a short list of lost movie novels. This is not an exhaustive list! Goodreads has one with 31 books on it, though it's lost films and cursed movies, which is a wider definition. But these are the ones which sprang to my mind. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Of these five books:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I have read two</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I have written one </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">-<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There are two I have not read (yet!) but which look intriguing </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here are the books in publication date order!</span></p><p><b style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.flametreepublishing.com/ancient-images-isbn-9781787587649.html"><i>Ancient Images</i> by Ramsey Campbell</a> (first published 1989, now available in a new edition from Flame Tree Press)</b></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i></i></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzWatMaUCidGhfu_WhEtSgN0HTivwNMBzojM2nJVql6JrXPlh26v3O7VHaIWIgy_VfbXbSVfIrRgrwcgYzbnEOucyi25X82xOZGK8sN3YIWeUpy5LQ4D1Ztm9W3j9EN3FOBh5gWL8YXCt6IhRT3bwoZ2bBYhwjpLhoqXrz3ny3a8jINVo3xu2qiSz_SzI/s600/ancient-images-isbn-9781787587649.0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="388" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzWatMaUCidGhfu_WhEtSgN0HTivwNMBzojM2nJVql6JrXPlh26v3O7VHaIWIgy_VfbXbSVfIrRgrwcgYzbnEOucyi25X82xOZGK8sN3YIWeUpy5LQ4D1Ztm9W3j9EN3FOBh5gWL8YXCt6IhRT3bwoZ2bBYhwjpLhoqXrz3ny3a8jINVo3xu2qiSz_SzI/s320/ancient-images-isbn-9781787587649.0.jpg" width="207" /></a></i></b></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I read </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Ancient Images</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> when it first came out, but over 3 decades later I mainly remembered scenes of the heroine driving through endless fields of wheat, accompanied by a lowering feeling of dread. So I ordered a new copy and read it again. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here's the blurb: "Tower of Fear is a lost horror film starring Karloff and Lugosi. A film historian who locates a copy dies while fleeing something that terrified him. His friend Sandy Allan vows to prove he found the film. She learns how haunted the production was and the survivors of it still are. It contains a secret about Redfield, a titled family that owns a favourite British food, Staff o’ Life. The Redfield land has uncanny guardians, and one follows Sandy home. To maintain its fertility Redfield demands a sacrifice, and a band of new age travellers is about to set up camp there…"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It's an interesting contribution to the lost movie trope because – at least to me – the lost film isn't the most frightening thing about this book. The unnerving element comes from Sandy's frequent sightings of vaguely ominous creatures seen out of the corner of the eye: a tramp, a dog, a workman on all fours, a scarecrow – or are they? These manifestations don't always pierce Sandy's upper consciousness, being half-noticed and then dismissed, but they recur so frequently that they amount to a subtle and horrible pursuit. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">When Sandy finally watches the lost movie, the viewing takes place in a semi-derelict cinema in the midst of renovation, and the projectionist goes off site for the second reel, leaving her alone with the film, the smell of brick dust, and the shifting shadows. Very creepy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://www.orionbooks.co.uk/titles/essie-fox/the-last-days-of-leda-grey/9781409146278/"><i>The Last Days of Leda Grey</i> by Essie Fox</a> (2016)</b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHln0D25WllqqketKfZqRYwvhzYTy4XXZfB3V3Jbyxza7TMviwLK55aV9_LUiCYl_pSon06Os3ow0wvuPPLsZc2UbfHFAWEp6KewhclccrszmAX-Tt0l2q62aHRF_PBZjjpOiW7r3g3zE_c3Tj24v_MzTDfe5PjLuSqbAy_BvTcn0H339XpF13FA0jLNM/s425/Leda%20Grey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="275" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHln0D25WllqqketKfZqRYwvhzYTy4XXZfB3V3Jbyxza7TMviwLK55aV9_LUiCYl_pSon06Os3ow0wvuPPLsZc2UbfHFAWEp6KewhclccrszmAX-Tt0l2q62aHRF_PBZjjpOiW7r3g3zE_c3Tj24v_MzTDfe5PjLuSqbAy_BvTcn0H339XpF13FA0jLNM/s320/Leda%20Grey.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>This novel is, I suspect, the most literary of my list of five, though I'm taking a bit of a flier since I haven't read two of them yet! It has a vivid, to me almost poetic style. It's a fever dream of a book. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here's the blurb: "During the oppressive heat wave of 1976 a young journalist, Ed Peters, finds an Edwardian photograph in a junk shop in the seaside town of Brightland. It shows an alluring, dark-haired girl, an actress whose name was Leda Grey.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Enchanted by the image, Ed learns Leda Grey is still living – now a recluse in a decaying cliff-top house she once shared with a man named Charles Beauvois, a director of early silent film. As Beauvois’s muse and lover, Leda often starred in scenes where stage magic and trick photography were used to astonishing effect.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But, while playing a cursed Egyptian queen, the fantasies captured on celluloid were echoed in reality, leaving Leda abandoned and alone for more than half a century – until the secrets of her past result in a shocking climax, more haunting than any to be in found in the silent films of Charles Beauvois."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I absolutely loved the fact that one of the long-unseen movies was based on H.Rider Haggard's <i>She</i>, which was a great favourite of mine when I was a youngster. The other memorable aspect of this book was the blurring of real and unreal, and whether we can believe the evidence of our eyes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silver-Nitrate-Silvia-Moreno-Garcia/dp/1529418046/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1706716774&sr=1-1"><i>Silver Nitrate </i>by Silvia Moreno-Garcia</a> (July 2023)</b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHFA_6At8srVhJpwMiz0sl_Y-q0hRDAXE_RRqaYLtImg5pdTkZ5QYmuuFbcktvZWCqxhVIUKPoh6ym4MTnMozOLOOi7F8PQ_EQtMeh2zlsNDROEurrFK9ddxjYgTOITfPNkO8WXIbz-RPhFJy9VdDp91gXDMyZEedCkp4ZGwRdJ2HayQocNAhhRL9yTFI/s445/silver%20nitrate%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="293" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHFA_6At8srVhJpwMiz0sl_Y-q0hRDAXE_RRqaYLtImg5pdTkZ5QYmuuFbcktvZWCqxhVIUKPoh6ym4MTnMozOLOOi7F8PQ_EQtMeh2zlsNDROEurrFK9ddxjYgTOITfPNkO8WXIbz-RPhFJy9VdDp91gXDMyZEedCkp4ZGwRdJ2HayQocNAhhRL9yTFI/s320/silver%20nitrate%20cover.jpg" width="211" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>Alas, this is one of the books I haven't read <i>yet</i>. Silvia Moreno-Garcia has written ten novels, although the award winning <i>Mexican Gothic,</i> which <i>is</i> on my bookshelf, is the one a lot of people have heard of. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here's the blurb: "Montserrat has always been overlooked. She's a talented sound editor, but she's left out of the boys' club running the film industry in '90s Mexico City. And she's all but invisible to her best friend Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, even though she's been in love with him since childhood.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Then Tristán discovers his new neighbour is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he has a way to change their lives - even if his tales of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán might just find out that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies…"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Ah, that volatile nitrate film. The <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/all-about-nitrate-film">BFI website</a> says: "Simply put, once alight, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to extinguish until it has burnt itself out and no film (fuel) remains. One burning poundweight of cellulose nitrate can reach temperatures of around 4,444°C, and is 15 times more combustible than a similar weight in wood. This heat, combined with the production of toxic gases from the combustion process, can present an immediate threat to life." This is a characteristic of vintage film which did not escape either myself or Essie Fox…</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/jump-cut"><i>Jump Cut</i> by me, Helen Grant</a> (September 2023)</b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguFUUM9UQWqd1SHMf5o6cZ1Qq6zmeIzx0wli2TngcirC_bdKxyVSv7470e0VXvtpBwXnfBAYeIAUE4sb6UTmUf0ktOrPFPwAZIv5VfleF9I5uZXMpF5bdo5fI4grCA2C6ZW_YnYLSf5mDwlHnAzPAqqsVjhun9fLoVRVEWNZWsqoI1qvuHn6YzdXO5W4E/s445/jump%20cut%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="287" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguFUUM9UQWqd1SHMf5o6cZ1Qq6zmeIzx0wli2TngcirC_bdKxyVSv7470e0VXvtpBwXnfBAYeIAUE4sb6UTmUf0ktOrPFPwAZIv5VfleF9I5uZXMpF5bdo5fI4grCA2C6ZW_YnYLSf5mDwlHnAzPAqqsVjhun9fLoVRVEWNZWsqoI1qvuHn6YzdXO5W4E/s320/jump%20cut%20cover.jpg" width="206" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Like my previous novels <i><a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/ghost">Ghost</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/too-near-the-dead">Too Near The Dead</a></i>, <a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/jump-cut"><i>Jump Cut</i> </a>is set in rural Scotland, and the isolation in which my heroine finds herself is the backdrop to a grim game of cat and mouse. Film researcher Theda wants to know all about lost movie The Simulacrum, but she can only obtain the information by paying for it with the details of her own tragic past. Pitted against her is 104-year-old former film star Mary Arden, one of the characters I have most enjoyed writing, ever. She's a joyously malicious, brazen old besom. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here's the blurb: "The Simulacrum is the most famous lost movie in film history – would you tell someone your darkest secrets, just to lay hands on a copy? 104-year-old Mary Arden is the last surviving cast member of a notorious lost film. Holed up in Garthside, an Art Deco mansion reputed to be haunted, she has always refused interviews. Now Mary has agreed to talk to film enthusiast Theda Garrick. In return she demands all the salacious details of Theda’s tragic past. Only the hint of a truly stupendous discovery stops Theda walking out. But Mary’s prying questions are not the only thing Theda has to fear. The spirit of The Simulacrum walks Garthside by night, and it will turn an old tragedy into a new nightmare..."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And finally… </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://titanbooks.com/71414-horror-movie/"><i>Horror Movie</i> by Paul Tremblay</a> (due out 2024)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Obviously I haven't read this one (yet), but it has all the gripping ingredients: a notorious film never properly released, real life tragedy, and a single surviving cast member. I await it eagerly! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Here's the blurb: "In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions—demons of the past be damned.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But at what cost?" </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So those are my five lost movie novels, and if you can think of others (I'm sure there are lots) do let me know in the comments. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm also interested in movies about lost movies (John Carpenter's <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0643109/">Cigarette Burns</a> </i>springs to mind, with its madness-inducing film <i>La Fin Absolue du Monde</i>) so would love to hear of any recommendations in that line. There is also, in a reversal of the books-about-lost-movies theme, room for a list of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142688/">movies-about-lost-books</a>, but that is one for another day. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><br /><p></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-47672922258719159382023-12-26T03:29:00.000-08:002023-12-26T03:29:36.652-08:00"The great terror of Abercrombie Smith" - Lot No. 249: some thoughts<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDh0zgpd0h9z0vA3xt68r7egYblTLOGtug6W8NgCmDPJ0Uc6P91p-_p0rFUNadIlSwkCUSk0_M99AZqH_B9rm75N67hKJXKmDtOImMsRAjfqx5FQewIvDO7L7gSCB-D6M4W6njzpGvpWNzaB7YEKOF8chFwcJHHL9ignxxMwDZQyO0gOaiRGSsxzQseRo/s304/36D58DAB-5096-49C8-B9DC-03A9230E87D7_4_5005_c.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="304" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDh0zgpd0h9z0vA3xt68r7egYblTLOGtug6W8NgCmDPJ0Uc6P91p-_p0rFUNadIlSwkCUSk0_M99AZqH_B9rm75N67hKJXKmDtOImMsRAjfqx5FQewIvDO7L7gSCB-D6M4W6njzpGvpWNzaB7YEKOF8chFwcJHHL9ignxxMwDZQyO0gOaiRGSsxzQseRo/s1600/36D58DAB-5096-49C8-B9DC-03A9230E87D7_4_5005_c.jpeg" width="304" /></a></div>(Spoiler alert! Best read after watching.) <br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;">"Out of the darkness he had a glimpse of a scraggy neck, and of two eyes that will ever haunt him in his dreams..."</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's <i>Lot No. 249</i> has long been a favourite of mine, so when I heard that Mark Gatiss was making an adaptation of it as this year's Ghost Story for Christmas I was absolutely <i>thrilled. </i>I very much enjoyed his previous adaptations of M.R.James, especially <i>Count Magnus</i>, which I thought was really wonderful, maintaining as it did some of the key parts of the story such as the innkeeper's tale, but also adding some new layers to it. My feeling is that Mark Gatiss is a safe pair of hands but not <i>too</i> safe; none of the adaptations feel stale or too slavish to the original texts (which are texts after all, devised to be read rather than watched). <i>Lot No. 249</i> is no exception.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If you know a story very, very well, you inevitably have a mental film of it, but I try to set that aside when watching an adaptation. In my mind's eye, for example, "Old College" is based on New College, Oxford, but Rothamstead Manor, where <i>Lot No. 249</i> was shot, does very well, especially the interiors; I liked the detail of the "true son of Old Nile, a great, hanging-jawed crocodile" hanging from the ceiling in Bellingham's sitting-room.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One thing I was slightly sucking my teeth about before I actually saw the adaptation was the casting of Freddie Fox as Bellingham, since Fox is young and good-looking, and the Bellingham of the original story is "strange and most repellent" looking, as well as very wrinkled, which implies mature age. I'm generally not very fond of film versions prettying characters up for the sake of it (one of the reasons I love some older horror films like <i>The Fog</i> (1980) is that the people look like real, ordinary people). However, it is also the case that the original story equates unattractive looks (and fatness) with a villainous personality, and that is something I would like to think we are moving on from. Having now seen the adaptation, I feel it does a tremendous job of portraying Bellingham instead as a person of <i>moral</i> ugliness - someone prepared to murder on very slight grounds. His tempting good looks and charisma are simply a lure.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And now to the nitty-gritty: the mummy* itself. This worked superbly for me - as in the original story, the first glimpses of what is going on are oblique and indistinct: the mummy case which is empty one moment and filled with a grisly occupant the next; the mysterious tread on the staircase. I watched <i>Lot No. 249</i> with my adult children and we all agreed that the chase scene, which is the high point of the story for me, was really frightening. "He was a famous runner, but never had he run as he ran that night" wrote Conan Doyle, and believe me, you would, if that thing were after you. The moments when Smith sees a distant silhouette were also deeply sinister and yet ambiguous; his friend's explanation that "Some gaunt, half-famished tramp steals after you, and seeing you run, is emboldened to pursue you" might be right - except that we, like Smith, have seen every detail of the approaching horror. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This brings me to the friend in question - "Peterson" in the original, and in the adaptation, very clearly Conan Doyle's most famous literary creation. I have seen some online objections to this, on the grounds that Conan Doyle came to resent the way Holmes's popularity overshadowed his other work and would not therefore have appreciated his trespassing upon it. This is certainly true, however his appearance does presuppose a Doylian universe in which all his creations co-exist, which I rather like. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was also delighted to see that the confrontation between Abercrombie Smith and Edward Bellingham towards the end of the story was perfectly recreated. It is rather jaw-dropping to think that an undergraduate could, at that period, go to a gunsmith and buy a heavy revolver and ammunition, and that is not to mention the amputating knife he adds to his armoury! Would Smith actually have shot Bellingham if he refused to destroy the mummy and papyrus? In spite of his asking his friend to sign and date an account of recent events "in case I am arrested" (for murder), I can't help thinking that his main object was to convince himself that he would do it, so that he could threaten it with utter conviction; in fact he was banking on Bellingham complying. Either way, it is a marvellously tense scene, as Smith marks the passing minutes with his watch, until Bellingham finally cracks at the last moment. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This brings us to the final scene (and I re-iterate for the unwary, spoilers are incoming so look away now if you haven't watched). In the original story, a brief paragraph tells us that Bellingham leaves the university immediately after the events described, and is "last heard of in the Soudan", presumably looking in vain for a new copy of the burnt papyrus. This has always struck me as a perfectly adequate ending, especially since the existence of other copies of the papyrus would undermine its aura of sinister power. However, there may be other expectations from filmed horror - the final twist in which the evil forces suddenly retaliate is an established trope. I assume this is behind the new ending, with a new mummy and a new papyrus. I regret to say that we did rather chuckle over it - "Lot 250: this time it's personal" suggested my daughter. However, overall we thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation and look forward to watching it again. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, I am very sorry to read about the difficulties in obtaining funding for Ghost Stories for Christmas, and would like to add my voice to those pleading for them to continue. There are a great many BBC programmes throughout the year in which I have no interest, but the Ghost Story for Christmas is one single half hour for which I drop everything. Is that too much to ask?</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF2CaodP1FMzwJbSamE7abAENqQkLGB09BCW3BWM2Ex96qrdililHMYNvoz9_I4R-kFn3pCCEZnzElXRdCGJfB-kuWu3YTHyHn9r7BjRstCfL5wSFfTC53F4tyvJu6s9aAjI2QessA_XG4eheNG_okxnOgzBrYCCg-o8IfTze0lmOPZi-qu3My742V1lk/s2048/Conan%20Doyle%20Stories%20cover.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1739" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF2CaodP1FMzwJbSamE7abAENqQkLGB09BCW3BWM2Ex96qrdililHMYNvoz9_I4R-kFn3pCCEZnzElXRdCGJfB-kuWu3YTHyHn9r7BjRstCfL5wSFfTC53F4tyvJu6s9aAjI2QessA_XG4eheNG_okxnOgzBrYCCg-o8IfTze0lmOPZi-qu3My742V1lk/s320/Conan%20Doyle%20Stories%20cover.jpeg" width="272" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Above and below: my copy of The Conan Doyle Stories, this edition published in 1949. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidYnvodOjmCbiF3phA7vLW-QDPmP0OdoQY54Ur6zx17UbvHHEawnKMbxQDKZViKdhqS81RU3RjSfhjFbPFQQMlAQyt5MG3UyIJjzh2TOfSA0tq3QYh1QoKgVvm_ZGWbvrSFFsmeYL_15tyvKsIyCHjo4S6Q6_RmFd7WQOMn8CAvwlRQ6gp74TpgtzBZm4/s2048/Lot%20249%20title%20page.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1603" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidYnvodOjmCbiF3phA7vLW-QDPmP0OdoQY54Ur6zx17UbvHHEawnKMbxQDKZViKdhqS81RU3RjSfhjFbPFQQMlAQyt5MG3UyIJjzh2TOfSA0tq3QYh1QoKgVvm_ZGWbvrSFFsmeYL_15tyvKsIyCHjo4S6Q6_RmFd7WQOMn8CAvwlRQ6gp74TpgtzBZm4/s320/Lot%20249%20title%20page.jpeg" width="250" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">* Some museums are now moving away from the term "mummy", preferring terms like "mummified remains" to avoid depersonalising the dead person. An <a href="https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2023/01/debate-over-use-of-the-term-mummy-in-uk-museums/#" target="_blank">article on the Museums Association website</a> dated January 2023 and quoting a CNN report adds: "Institutions are also keen to distance their collections from popular culture depictions of mummies as supernatural monsters..." </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p></div>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-15292885115438449632023-12-19T07:37:00.000-08:002023-12-19T07:37:09.739-08:00Christmas trees for book characters<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJ-ZpkwvFxJegsBTaB484Ym5lLWvx6svgwpTkgI4jheiXZf4wsBL8fOJJPgApm3zNGFnAhv4l0Hy7ga6uqI7HWyRIyILIjaIIA_XMkaieheWyeKWBVNLZwS3irvytuiCrIPTY_7l-G9j-CSSnaryhpG3jHDt2Qn2brdLbsbpH-v1SOGaDKSb2UwJobUo/s4242/IMG_20191224_211350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4242" data-original-width="2971" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJ-ZpkwvFxJegsBTaB484Ym5lLWvx6svgwpTkgI4jheiXZf4wsBL8fOJJPgApm3zNGFnAhv4l0Hy7ga6uqI7HWyRIyILIjaIIA_XMkaieheWyeKWBVNLZwS3irvytuiCrIPTY_7l-G9j-CSSnaryhpG3jHDt2Qn2brdLbsbpH-v1SOGaDKSb2UwJobUo/s320/IMG_20191224_211350.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Christmas is nearly upon us and I am horribly disorganised - still driving around frantically picking up last minute presents and food and drink items. While I have been doing this, I have been pondering the back stories of some of my book characters. I am sure I am not the only author who does this. What, I ask myself, are they doing when they are not appearing in my book? My over active brain has sometimes concocted entire lives for my characters - lives which have never appeared in print nor ever will do. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyway, just this morning I was thinking about Angus out of my latest book <i>Jump Cut,</i> and how he would celebrate Christmas. Clearly he would spend the day with his father, the peppery old Mr. Fraser, and I am fairly convinced that the pair of them would have a long running fiction that Mr. Fraser was going to cook the Christmas dinner. In the event, he would always forget things, start on it too late or generally mess it up, so Angus would end up cooking and then the pair of them would pretend it was all Mr. Fraser's work. They would also go to church, not because either of them is particularly religious, but because the late Mrs. Fraser always went at Christmas, so now Mr. Fraser goes in honour of her, and makes Angus go along too. Angus would have a Christmas tree too, and it would either be an outdoor one which he decorates with lights every year, or a real one which he drags in at the very last minute, having been occupied with other things; sometimes it would get decorated and occasionally it wouldn't. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This led me to consider what the other characters in the book would have in the way of Christmas trees. (Have you nothing better to do, I hear you cry.) Well, here's what I came up with. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Max</b> would definitely have a huge, beautiful, "perfect" Christmas tree, probably a sparkling white artificial one, completely regular and decorated in a strict palette of colours and shapes. No tatty inherited baubles, purple tinsel or mismatched colours for him. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Mary Arden</b> would have an equally large tree, but probably a real one. It would be a Norway Spruce because she likes something traditional, but this would also mean a lot of needle drop. Mary wouldn't care two hoots about that, because it would be somebody else's problem. She'd probably also be incredibly fussy about how it was decorated (again, by someone else), and as soon as it was finished she'd lose interest. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfic_EwXojnoGmGq_prLUpDhdgvBg-WhueIGsDr5eiaOUQXgwNBvrcMgs71KJ8cals9Qduy8c08HBybi4w334l9QKxoHsue6dqzO2fMghPvw2oGSg4ZzRvsH9ewI6TRb8OeM5UFyaysGp2wBk9b6T2RonZXdbi-6FdJ9eI2hPJTJSP-FuSGKokpIcPMzk/s4608/IMG_20191209_095408.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="2592" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfic_EwXojnoGmGq_prLUpDhdgvBg-WhueIGsDr5eiaOUQXgwNBvrcMgs71KJ8cals9Qduy8c08HBybi4w334l9QKxoHsue6dqzO2fMghPvw2oGSg4ZzRvsH9ewI6TRb8OeM5UFyaysGp2wBk9b6T2RonZXdbi-6FdJ9eI2hPJTJSP-FuSGKokpIcPMzk/s320/IMG_20191209_095408.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Lillian</b> <b>Velderkaust </b>(the 1930s film director) would have something chic but not particularly Christmassy. I'm not sure whether arty Art Deco Christmas trees were ever a thing, but that's what she'd have. I imagine it as being something like the one in the pic (left) - colourful and minimalistic. I mean, she has other things to worry about; she can't be doing with sweeping up pine needles. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Hugh Mason</b> would definitely have something ultra traditional, so it would be a real tree - perhaps a Douglas fir, though my daughter suggested a Fraser fir with real candles on it: "a proper fire hazard", she said. That sounds about right. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Richard Foster</b> would have something low maintenance and modern for his city apartment - maybe one of those sets of pre-lit decorative cones with LED lights. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And <b>Mrs Harris</b>? I think she'd have a mini tree in her housekeeper's quarters at Garthside. On Christmas Eve she'd eye it with disfavour, while allowing herself a single festive gin. You can't get drunk if you're always on call, after all...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-71223043331114260902023-09-27T05:49:00.001-07:002023-09-27T05:49:17.536-07:00Dream antho launches in London<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Honestly, I don't get out much; I sometimes tell people I'm "a bit of hermit" and that's probably true. My old agent used to suggest that I could drop in at the agency when I was "next in London" - and I never was in London! It's not that I don't like London - I was born there, after all - but it's over 400 miles away so you can't really "nip" there from Perthshire. Anyway, this month I did actually make one of my rare visits to the capital, for a multi-author signing event at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue. The book in question was Dark Academia anthology <i>In These Hallowed Halls</i>, published on 12th September by Titan Books; my particular story was called "The Professor of Ontography". I was signing alongside Kate Weinberg, Tori Bovalino and editors Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane: illustrious company, so I dressed up a bit with my favourite Gothic blouse and an antique brooch which seemed to fit the mood. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSBvnRzl1dKeCQVXYKeDySct87sJmaa2qLX47s1KltvP4xoMpUwSVARzQcxXBL0XlFFZ2hyGvOFFHMRH7IInMlQJzkDttgAZGQf_zgbGADcILUATMeD433SFTOAKBHb_pgbAdBbWj8pk0t3d3CP2xZyIX-CadKfnyHq1KiJaSH7c0eaTGTwd7-rCp23wA/s3056/20230923_150128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="3056" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSBvnRzl1dKeCQVXYKeDySct87sJmaa2qLX47s1KltvP4xoMpUwSVARzQcxXBL0XlFFZ2hyGvOFFHMRH7IInMlQJzkDttgAZGQf_zgbGADcILUATMeD433SFTOAKBHb_pgbAdBbWj8pk0t3d3CP2xZyIX-CadKfnyHq1KiJaSH7c0eaTGTwd7-rCp23wA/w259-h259/20230923_150128.jpg" width="259" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVBt5tF4rOUJ3W1dk1dqhqqmH8VEhRrE2YUMPWBk3NCb05Vsq-6rwyEsSwkZFrQyWdygu44E9P3hULZfgOm6l8aI1nC7acHVYCpFIvdrQ6oF7JfBUypWV7GdKKG5PLh-wVtWhgQNk_rPRr_67v3oHzAKp4Pzt2pEMiHPLSzoKfgA8Fj5z0Bx4wE79FPA8/s2448/20230923_150358.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="2448" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVBt5tF4rOUJ3W1dk1dqhqqmH8VEhRrE2YUMPWBk3NCb05Vsq-6rwyEsSwkZFrQyWdygu44E9P3hULZfgOm6l8aI1nC7acHVYCpFIvdrQ6oF7JfBUypWV7GdKKG5PLh-wVtWhgQNk_rPRr_67v3oHzAKp4Pzt2pEMiHPLSzoKfgA8Fj5z0Bx4wE79FPA8/w262-h262/20230923_150358.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Fans of classic ghost story writer M.R.James will recognise the title "Professor of Ontography" from "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad". The story opens with, "'I suppose you will be getting away pretty soon, now Full term is over, Professor,' said a person not in the story to the Professor of Ontography, soon after they had sat down next to each other at a feast in the hospitable hall of St. James's College." Although the Professor is the protagonist of the story, his subject is not key to the tale nor is it ever explained. If you Google it, you will find varying definitions, and I am doubtful that it is sufficiently established for there to be a Professor of it!! Anyway, that was the starting point for my story - the existence of one such a person, and the unfortunate curiosity this obscure discipline arouses in a pair of students. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Aside from the Ontography angle, the story also references another classic tale: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Gothic horror "Lot 249", which is a great favourite of mine. Although Dark Academia in the modern sense of an internet subculture and attendant aesthetic was not around when Conan Doyle penned that story, "Lot 249" prefigures Dark Academia very strongly (as well as being very scary). Anyway, the institution featured in "Lot 249" is, like the college in my story, called "Old College". There is no Old College, Oxford, but I have always supposed that it was based on New College (which was founded in 1379 and is not therefore all that new anymore...). The one in my story is named after its founder, whose surname was Oldys, but it is popularly known as "Old's". </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I'm pleased to say that "The Professor of Ontography" has had some great Netgalley reviews:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"I want to give a shout out to The Professor of Ontography by Helen Grant which was one of the more page-turning-ly horrifying stories I have ever read… Legitimately scary in sort of a fun way" (Jessica L.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">"This story will live in my mind for years to come. It is one of the best short stories I have ever read in my life. It has such a strong atmosphere, so unique and eerie" (Ketelen L.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">"Easily the creepiest story out of the bunch! This started off as a love story and devolved steadily into horror" (Kayleigh W.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Reviewer Samantha T also commented "</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The ending of this story was actually nauseating" which amused me very much! "Nauseating" wouldn't be great feedback for a romance story but for horror it's sort of an accolade...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Other tales in the volume include Tori Bovalino's "Phobos", about a sinister secret society, and Kate Weinberg's "1000 Ships" in which a student takes revenge on a Lothario professor, as well as stories by Olivie Blake, M.L.Rio and a host of others. As well as some fabulous stories, this book also has the most gorgeous cover. I'd get one, if I were you... </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div><br /></div><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-76246390821709651332023-09-27T03:11:00.001-07:002023-09-27T03:11:28.958-07:00Book launch in Perth! <p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Tomorrow is book launch day! <i>Jump Cut</i> will be hitting the shelves at last. I'll be at Waterstone's in Perth (St.John's Shopping Centre, King Edward St, Perth PH1 5UX) at 7pm tomorrow evening (28th September 2023) if you are nearby and would like to hear all about the book film maker Jack Jewers described as "phenomenally creepy"! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmoH73E-UUnls7Ir55WEVLhxRDC8HA__dkWigGnva2k7dheIiYTRoXCzv7jB5sRFxbeuk0Mc-Mbmxln7_GWkHWmkXcWXheb-O3qMBxkHpt83Rm3_CdtmLYlYVv24PSTK3578fiAtTSOqxnnIuIXIXRgA95JGYHrNx1RnSGwc_6wjoSFycuU8LtkhBHMk/s4000/IMG20230926124925.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3008" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUmoH73E-UUnls7Ir55WEVLhxRDC8HA__dkWigGnva2k7dheIiYTRoXCzv7jB5sRFxbeuk0Mc-Mbmxln7_GWkHWmkXcWXheb-O3qMBxkHpt83Rm3_CdtmLYlYVv24PSTK3578fiAtTSOqxnnIuIXIXRgA95JGYHrNx1RnSGwc_6wjoSFycuU8LtkhBHMk/s320/IMG20230926124925.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">If you're wondering whether this is your cup of tea, here's the cover info:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br />"The Simulacrum is the most famous lost movie in film history – would you tell someone your darkest secrets, just to lay hands on a copy? 104-year-old Mary Arden is the last surviving cast member of a notorious lost film. Holed up in Garthside, an Art Deco mansion reputed to be haunted, she has always refused interviews. Now Mary has agreed to talk to film enthusiast Theda Garrick. In return she demands all the salacious details of Theda’s tragic past. Only the hint of a truly stupendous discovery stops Theda walking out. But Mary’s prying questions are not the only thing Theda has to fear. The spirit of The Simulacrum walks Garthside by night, and it will turn an old tragedy into a new nightmare..."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The first review has also come in, and this is what the reviewer, The Coy Caterpillar, has to say:<br /><br />"Jump Cut is Helen Grant’s next novel and lord is it a throat punch. I absolutely adored her last novel, Too Near the Dead and this one emitted similar feelings. The impending sense of dread, brilliant character development, a sense of place. I love the gothic nature of her tales; you really appreciate the blend of history and the present time coming together to create a hugely compulsive read.</span></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Even if you’ve never read a Helen Grant book before, I 100% know that you’re going to love Jump Cut."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">I hope she's right! Anyway, the launch event is open to all and entry is free, so if you're close by, please do come! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYxg6VB7Vle48AbC6FWzqc9GbQKFV4tnpyL6wi22fONk51VkSaGCkqxP-5ymCJZu-cVPkzxZwo01DHxWndPTLfFj8iCIXx51hY644gIUf-4cHO0B8uofKwdlerLIRPIA7PxiZSA9gXEMeClkXaGUyPx6bv4NbYy2FNtpRoObyLQvJcYXS4jA-mI3wpe-Y/s3357/IMG20230926124939.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3008" data-original-width="3357" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYxg6VB7Vle48AbC6FWzqc9GbQKFV4tnpyL6wi22fONk51VkSaGCkqxP-5ymCJZu-cVPkzxZwo01DHxWndPTLfFj8iCIXx51hY644gIUf-4cHO0B8uofKwdlerLIRPIA7PxiZSA9gXEMeClkXaGUyPx6bv4NbYy2FNtpRoObyLQvJcYXS4jA-mI3wpe-Y/s320/IMG20230926124939.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p><br /></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-68941949545517470612023-08-20T10:48:00.000-07:002023-08-20T10:48:12.864-07:00A Neighbour's Landmark - a brief note<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Following some melancholy family events which I won't go into here, I recently acquired a small selection of vintage books. These included a 1969 edition of <i>The Professor Challenger Stories</i>, a second copy of M.R.James's <i>Abbeys</i> and a volume of essays by A.A.Milne, entitled <i>Not That It Matters </i>(did you know he wrote anything other than Winnie the Pooh? I didn't). There was also a book which struck me as very similar to one I had read about in my very favourite M.R.James ghost story - "A Neighbour's Landmark." Here it is:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWoe_mz4EHO4Jmmn9XRuF0Sh-GlHbAnT6uY7u6f2u4nqEHvVWWHclxATXk4Qz2yvauQM81ykSRs_crLVduYjY7ey4luFqd1T-hIRERdEz7xDd5j71N4l3dUTUpW9uRlUCG9liJWl7w1PArIfMNSP-Go7qAIlzxqNE6G4sQh5Wty6MaaTMnaOGN6AxHfLI/s4000/IMG20230820171007.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3008" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWoe_mz4EHO4Jmmn9XRuF0Sh-GlHbAnT6uY7u6f2u4nqEHvVWWHclxATXk4Qz2yvauQM81ykSRs_crLVduYjY7ey4luFqd1T-hIRERdEz7xDd5j71N4l3dUTUpW9uRlUCG9liJWl7w1PArIfMNSP-Go7qAIlzxqNE6G4sQh5Wty6MaaTMnaOGN6AxHfLI/s320/IMG20230820171007.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The book in the story is described as follows:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"I think we must all know the landscapes—are they by Birket Foster, or somewhat earlier?—which, in the form of wood-cuts, decorate the volumes of poetry that lay on the drawing-room tables of our fathers and grandfathers—volumes in ‘Art Cloth, embossed bindings’; that strikes me as being the right phrase. I confess myself an admirer of them, and especially of those which show the peasant leaning over a gate in a hedge and surveying, at the bottom of a downward slope, the village church spire—embosomed amid venerable trees, and a fertile plain intersected by hedgerows, and bounded by distant hills, behind which the orb of day is sinking (or it may be rising) amid level clouds illumined by his dying (or nascent) ray. The expressions employed here are those which seem appropriate to the pictures I have in mind; and were there opportunity, I would try to work in the Vale, the Grove, the Cot, and the Flood. Anyhow, they are beautiful to me, these landscapes, and it was just such a one that I was now surveying. It might have come straight out of Gems of Sacred Song, selected by a Lady and given as a birthday present to Eleanor Philipson in 1852 by her attached friend Millicent Graves."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My "new old" book is not actually "Gems of Sacred Song" but something very similar: "The Sabbath: Sabbath Walks and Other Poems", and as you can see from the frontispiece, it is indeed illustrated by Birket Foster. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vIOG1G2PDiB8FkiaswhIqLJXX91BZZuEWitjUeASrdkDexwBZKH-3T3oZGA8On4gX9e98WejqtkkeFVGiV4lwVjhsyvXMPV-3ByZ0-DCFZMcvkghhzV5Ld1hC3nB6VFJ8RjFFvYQPlY1nGUr_7lFOvIhR0LYuHsAuQdJz-rm0-ypM2rl-Fcz8bCiK9A/s3934/IMG20230820171039.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3934" data-original-width="2958" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vIOG1G2PDiB8FkiaswhIqLJXX91BZZuEWitjUeASrdkDexwBZKH-3T3oZGA8On4gX9e98WejqtkkeFVGiV4lwVjhsyvXMPV-3ByZ0-DCFZMcvkghhzV5Ld1hC3nB6VFJ8RjFFvYQPlY1nGUr_7lFOvIhR0LYuHsAuQdJz-rm0-ypM2rl-Fcz8bCiK9A/s320/IMG20230820171039.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I was really rather charmed to find that my new acquisition was so very Jamesian. I had a leaf through it and discovered that there were even a couple of illustrations very reminiscent of the one in the story (particularly this first one):</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_VS73jR_AV7QvMxFUGraxxbMVwGBiUON-BG9PUoS_tjtcUsUXvZA6vPZPvaAN9RPQ1OvZsqgAsirlg4z9qOJFghHrI7ul06Pe8qEsSigHhVSFsE0ylQ_gUD9JEE8xT5CO0Cmhu5FvvGENTVgrZQGKtP39HqlqR2dGTlTpOtwPn8I1AHif-Q3kiP6CXq4/s4025/IMG20230820171108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3072" data-original-width="4025" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_VS73jR_AV7QvMxFUGraxxbMVwGBiUON-BG9PUoS_tjtcUsUXvZA6vPZPvaAN9RPQ1OvZsqgAsirlg4z9qOJFghHrI7ul06Pe8qEsSigHhVSFsE0ylQ_gUD9JEE8xT5CO0Cmhu5FvvGENTVgrZQGKtP39HqlqR2dGTlTpOtwPn8I1AHif-Q3kiP6CXq4/s320/IMG20230820171108.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAKFwAjOfkwbFgbI3-qWKc74b39ixwjMlJ-daXUk2LUmxPZm_myG6lhffUC7KkxjzZ0-pAzpl_r1vqXuJp5Ne7rJ2geqIeEHAV3znjpyt3R9rDo1YFEt3JOx25ltLIbPgXOB63uCln2O29S2IDNqcrY46xluOr6SWkP_4MFWrzSsWlKVJDDfGSco5unU8/s3886/IMG20230820171119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2485" data-original-width="3886" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAKFwAjOfkwbFgbI3-qWKc74b39ixwjMlJ-daXUk2LUmxPZm_myG6lhffUC7KkxjzZ0-pAzpl_r1vqXuJp5Ne7rJ2geqIeEHAV3znjpyt3R9rDo1YFEt3JOx25ltLIbPgXOB63uCln2O29S2IDNqcrY46xluOr6SWkP_4MFWrzSsWlKVJDDfGSco5unU8/s320/IMG20230820171119.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">The protagonist of the story, of course, is interrupted in his contemplation of a Birket-Foster-style view over the countryside by a horrific and piercing shriek in one ear, which is repeated a few minutes later. I've always found the story particularly chilling, especially the horrid thought that if you were to linger about the site of Betton Wood too long, you might hear the scream a third time. Brrrr. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyway, I thought I'd share! As for me, I love the book and am going to treasure it. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><br /></div><p></p><p><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p></div>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-82817199550189749212023-03-12T04:41:00.000-07:002023-03-12T04:41:09.345-07:00Do you dare visit Nightmare Abbey?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4EAZPtI-dixZtFSzxJkYHCAPJKfIxw_O4R4c6kC7eDQJ_ieQ7lNnjKwecNfFEqJ1p0BEwCB8bT6kjFtSjQblwXA1ujZ1-L73xbblIztS7siTs3OgK4HzYIedBsw8RGxhzn4ej7IkOr8dEtHC1jdELv_1Zh2lagXxv1Wtt__KNF8OBzvvN36OtPNCG/s2048/Nightmare%20Abbey%201%20cover.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1417" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4EAZPtI-dixZtFSzxJkYHCAPJKfIxw_O4R4c6kC7eDQJ_ieQ7lNnjKwecNfFEqJ1p0BEwCB8bT6kjFtSjQblwXA1ujZ1-L73xbblIztS7siTs3OgK4HzYIedBsw8RGxhzn4ej7IkOr8dEtHC1jdELv_1Zh2lagXxv1Wtt__KNF8OBzvvN36OtPNCG/s320/Nightmare%20Abbey%201%20cover.jpeg" width="221" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I'd like to give a shout out to amazing new publication <i>Nightmare Abbey</i>, whose third issue is currently being planned! The first one appeared on the horror scene last year and featured such names as <a href="https://knibbworld.com/campbell/">Ramsey Campbell</a> and Robert Bloch (so it's not messing about here...) as well as many others including <a href="http://sarobpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/">Steve Duffy</a> and <a href="https://lyndaerucker.com/">Lynda E. Rucker</a>, either of whose stories are always a spine-tingling treat. Oh, and a tale by me, about a mountaineer whose near-death experience in the snowy Scottish hills is just the first of his woes. <i>Nightmare Abbey</i> is richly illustrated, including brilliant pulp fiction style covers, as you can see (left). Altogether a welcome addition to the bookshelf.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Issue two came out in November 2022 and again featured one of my stories - "The Wynd", about a curious type of city alleyway, and what lies at the end of it. It was inspired by the many wynds and vennels I have seen whilst wandering around Scottish cities. I think a "wynd" sounds so much more sinister than a "lane", don't you? If you fancy experiencing this tale to see whether you think the type of thing appearing in <i>Nightmare Abbey </i>might be up your street (groan), there is now an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1NcciTWIA">audio version</a> of it on YouTube, superbly read by David Longhorn.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirf5iw4CXgnDlAIUUt7mUbYHr82EBnm6gnONo0NIWc2RxVJuPsEx2akhPZyOTMUiH5vN6BJvxuqNnXpjsTKlxUiKgxJtE5juen08DjAgTxOiXqTbaKhT2g1kOPsqVwGtR7PsnbBJCrPIF1m9XxCERF8aOavdTPLLWI3yiRaSWMBb3NXUIlmDOAZkj/s857/Nightmare%20Abbey%202%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" data-original-height="857" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgirf5iw4CXgnDlAIUUt7mUbYHr82EBnm6gnONo0NIWc2RxVJuPsEx2akhPZyOTMUiH5vN6BJvxuqNnXpjsTKlxUiKgxJtE5juen08DjAgTxOiXqTbaKhT2g1kOPsqVwGtR7PsnbBJCrPIF1m9XxCERF8aOavdTPLLWI3yiRaSWMBb3NXUIlmDOAZkj/s320/Nightmare%20Abbey%202%20cover.jpg" width="224" /></a><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">As mentioned, issue 3 is currently in the works but if you fancy reading either of the first two issues, they are available via Amazon as well as some other bookstores (eg. Barnes and Noble in the States). Rumour has it that there will be a new Steve Duffy story in issue 3 so I'm very much looking forward to that!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">You can also read an interview with Tom English, who created <i>Nightmare Abbey</i>, here:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.monstercomplex.com/blog/2gh8wajsmnfmniec7ld24gxbqyzwk6">https://www.monstercomplex.com/blog/2gh8wajsmnfmniec7ld24gxbqyzwk6</a><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Sweet dreams...</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-46104258089947571732023-03-05T02:37:00.000-08:002023-03-05T02:37:45.620-08:002023 Book News! <p> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPGbkQNedPHQf6PqmOLZQNYR_lMzhk1PiNc_SYsrA50CmuzTlIP2LGvBG-B0KLVgdRWlGyKqkpjmCJgWwutEB70U_Sb53bZFDFtbECyuezXmW7OkQcApFIkT4-QyN02U7O-bSYqCcWO9lYjyug363-I6jgfiZ-I-3m9a1Xvq0tPtjQApP3L0dqpX0S/s560/Mary%20Arden%20star.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="560" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPGbkQNedPHQf6PqmOLZQNYR_lMzhk1PiNc_SYsrA50CmuzTlIP2LGvBG-B0KLVgdRWlGyKqkpjmCJgWwutEB70U_Sb53bZFDFtbECyuezXmW7OkQcApFIkT4-QyN02U7O-bSYqCcWO9lYjyug363-I6jgfiZ-I-3m9a1Xvq0tPtjQApP3L0dqpX0S/s320/Mary%20Arden%20star.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year for me as I finally have a new book out this autumn! It's called <i>Jump Cut</i> and here's what it's about:</span></p><p><i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">104-year-old Mary Arden is the last surviving cast member of a notorious lost film, The Simulacrum. Holed up in Garthside, an Art Deco mansion reputed to be haunted, she has always refused interviews. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Now Mary has agreed to talk to film enthusiast Theda Garrick. In return she demands all the salacious details of Theda's tragic past. Only the hint of a truly stupendous discovery stops Theda walking out. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">But Mary's prying questions are not the only thing Theda has to fear. The spirit of The Simulacrum walks Garthside by night, and it will turn an old tragedy into a new nightmare…</span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I love cinema and I have long been fascinated by lost movies and the tantalising thought that there <i>might</i> be a copy out there, somewhere. So that's where the premise comes from. I also find the whole idea of haunted technology very interesting. Some years ago I was at an M.R.James conference in Leeds and there was a brilliant short talk about technology in his work (there's more than you'd think, considering he's all about ghosts and academia), which I think was by Ralph Harrington. There is, I think, something peculiarly ominous about grainy old films where things are seen indistinctly, or crackling audio recordings. I've long thought that the antique nature of Murnau's <i>Nosferatu</i> (1922) makes it particularly creepy. <i>Jump Cut</i> is my contribution to this tradition.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Like my previous novels <i><a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Ghost-by-Helen-Grant/9781912280094">Ghost</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/too-near-the-dead/helen-grant/9781912280407">Too Near The Dead</a></i>, the book will be published by the fabulous <a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/">Fledgling Press</a> in Edinburgh. The exact launch date and cover art will be revealed as soon as possible. I might do an online launch event as well as an in-person one again - one of the few positive things to come out of the pandemic was events like these, which everyone can attend, even if they're on the other side of the world. So if you're interested in that, let me know in the comments! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Meantime, I have new stories coming out in a couple of really exciting anthologies. The first, in April, is <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Twice-Cursed-Anthology-Neil-Gaiman/dp/1803361212">Twice Cursed</a>, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane. The theme of the book is dark fairytales with curses in them, and my contribution, "A Curse is a Curse", is rubbing shoulders with various illustrious names including Joe Hill and Sarah Pinborough. I write a lot of short stories but this was one I particularly enjoyed working on. It's a bit of a change of genre for me, but it made me think I'd like to do more along these lines. I'm not saying any more than that...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Later in the year, I also have a story in dark academia themed anthology <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/These-Hallowed-Halls-Academia-anthology/dp/1803363606/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3M3LADZQ70TJO&keywords=these+hallowed+halls&qid=1678011986&s=books&sprefix=these+hallowed+halls%2Cstripbooks%2C77&sr=1-1">In These Hallowed Halls</a>, again edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane. This tale is called "The Professor of Ontography", and anyone who is as nerdy about M.R.James as I am will recognise that as a Jamesian reference. The story itself does have some Jamesian aspects - how could it not, being set in academia? - but also some rather non-Jamesian nastiness. So that is one to look out for too.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I'll post more news as I have it! And I hope very much that this autumn you'll join my heroine Theda Garrick, as she travels north for her encounter with the ghosts of the <i>The Simulacrum.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Hollywood star by RedKid sign generator. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-10799270646478031722022-11-09T03:11:00.000-08:002022-11-09T03:11:39.025-08:00Too Near The Dead wins the Children of the Night Award!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglXb4oF6r5k4C1iQBZ1Ve9pXYmjOluUN4YNzS5ZoHKSPL4zGCDtGAN-wSNre9KdoL5TaiChCJUxFz8ARiHf2wBm6oG9gEJ4QmL5DB2OZfaXKrt36jz9OqhVAb6_xEs6x9JGRKv6oXx18iKoU2FBLhaQ9a4rCm-8uEkkNWqvOtnOMyE8LWORbBmcibY/s4306/5C9E9080-1AF3-413F-8112-96B1FF2A5B46_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4306" data-original-width="2940" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglXb4oF6r5k4C1iQBZ1Ve9pXYmjOluUN4YNzS5ZoHKSPL4zGCDtGAN-wSNre9KdoL5TaiChCJUxFz8ARiHf2wBm6oG9gEJ4QmL5DB2OZfaXKrt36jz9OqhVAb6_xEs6x9JGRKv6oXx18iKoU2FBLhaQ9a4rCm-8uEkkNWqvOtnOMyE8LWORbBmcibY/s320/5C9E9080-1AF3-413F-8112-96B1FF2A5B46_1_201_a.jpeg" width="218" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Wow, it's been a long time since I last blogged! Nearly a year, in fact. I've put quite a lot of news on Twitter, Instagram and FB but I haven't written anything longer for a while. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">One of the big pieces of news for this year is that I have acquired new representation from Lindsey Fraser of the wonderful <a href="https://fraserross.co.uk/">Fraser Ross Associates</a> in Edinburgh. It's exciting to be starting on this new working relationship, and especially nice to have an agent here in Scotland as I can actually see her without travelling hundreds of miles! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The other piece of news is that my last novel, <i><a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/too-near-the-dead">Too Near The Dead</a></i>, has won the <a href="https://www.thedraculasociety.org.uk/about-the-society.html">Dracula Society</a>'s <a href="https://www.thedraculasociety.org.uk/the-children-of-the-night-award.html">Children of the Night Award</a> 2021! I knew about this at the beginning of September but the award was actually presented at the Society's annual dinner, which was in London on 5th November. What with the distance, the ever-present risk of having to cancel things because of Covid, and the current train strikes, I've been on tenterhooks for several months, wondering whether I would make it to the event or not, but thankfully all went smoothly. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Society's annual dinner celebrates the birthday of the illustrious Bram Stoker himself, and takes place at the Civil Service Club in Great Scotland Yard. This year's dinner was well attended, with 50 guests (including a few faces familiar to me) and some gorgeous evening clothes - red and black velvet, glorious metallics, jewelled cravats and even - I am pretty sure - an actual bustle. The guest of honour for the evening was actress Marianne Morris, one of the stars of the cult 1974 film <i>Vampires</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXkQ1PcGnIULPlbgBhY9iQ1isVfNhoMFRlt3hi-5e9sm68axm-OKKjr9vYN3z6muwJMnyuo7oVigPm_wl326lXMiQFC2f3Ix0hxN5cgK_IvFgW7AkOqCagQ1YkQ7-2GjKQ23bJNI05m0LrqS5WOQqmdfiip8N060gN4nPIrIyaHPzMFXOsPaXu2nQ/s3381/IMG_20210812_113645%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3381" data-original-width="3004" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXkQ1PcGnIULPlbgBhY9iQ1isVfNhoMFRlt3hi-5e9sm68axm-OKKjr9vYN3z6muwJMnyuo7oVigPm_wl326lXMiQFC2f3Ix0hxN5cgK_IvFgW7AkOqCagQ1YkQ7-2GjKQ23bJNI05m0LrqS5WOQqmdfiip8N060gN4nPIrIyaHPzMFXOsPaXu2nQ/s320/IMG_20210812_113645%20(1).jpg" width="284" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br />After a beautiful meal to which I was unable to do justice thanks to butterflies in the stomach(!), the awards were presented. The Children of the Night Award is for the best original fiction published in the Gothic (including horror or supernatural) genre during the previous year. <i>Too Near The Dead</i> was nominated by fellow author Sue Gedge - thank you, Sue! I made a very short speech in which I thanked those who voted for the book, and also my father, William, from whom I got my love of all things grim and Gothic. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Next up was the <a href="https://www.thedraculasociety.org.uk/the-hamilton-deane-award.html">Hamilton Deane Award</a> (named after the man who first made Dracula famous on the stage). This is awarded for the best dramatic performance, or involvement with a presentation, in the Gothic horror/supernatural genres during the previous year. This went for the third time to actor, writer, producer, and director Mark Gatiss - he previously won in 2008 and 2013 and is now the first person to have won the award so many times! This year he mainly won for his <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012xmb">BBC TV 'Ghost Story at Christmas' adaptation of M.R. James' </a><i><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012xmb">The Mezzotint</a>,</i> but also for his adaptation of <i>The Amazing Mr. Blunden</i> and <i>A Christmas Carol</i>. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I have to say that I was pretty much overwhelmed at being at the same event as Mark and actually meeting him! That was super exciting and I am sure I burbled like an idiot - however, as others have said, he is very very nice and brilliant at putting people at their ease. I loved his<i> Mezzotint</i> and look forward to future adaptations!</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8dUB9Ao2ggDOn-j7hwoxBj0a3oY04WS6GPPHVsnF0UZuRJwEQOf790cupJQv9l4bI5xEBSMzLPsSLBThZZj3NQDMeQWlCoNyhuTfsLQyBHH_9zR-Fgqn1NT0jTP0qkS8BdpX4x5cvs87e-iUOBf8b5mQIwrkzi-ORPUivl0Y6d7fN6i0seyWhWDYl/s1256/44CD3753-66FC-45B6-909D-67C95967C28B_1_201_a.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="1256" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8dUB9Ao2ggDOn-j7hwoxBj0a3oY04WS6GPPHVsnF0UZuRJwEQOf790cupJQv9l4bI5xEBSMzLPsSLBThZZj3NQDMeQWlCoNyhuTfsLQyBHH_9zR-Fgqn1NT0jTP0qkS8BdpX4x5cvs87e-iUOBf8b5mQIwrkzi-ORPUivl0Y6d7fN6i0seyWhWDYl/w400-h350/44CD3753-66FC-45B6-909D-67C95967C28B_1_201_a.jpeg" width="400" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Both awards were individual pieces sculpted to reflect the award-winning works, by Arthur Payn, so big thanks to him, and also to everyone at the Dracula Society for being so welcoming and generally lovely. I'd especially like to mention Julia Kruk, Adrian Autton (who took the photos of me/Mark Gatiss and me, above) and Maria, who looked after me on the evening. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYFagse2hAjuUAg8aM05Xqbn_jP1--oAcAlqbtacktYmIYmrCAe88JHzkI02Jh6oOmZRR2rognWGwkBH6SxispyE1m_3Ba8fu07rkI8lacrttyLFOBAN97uwCVELlOByH0hCWFgmElDnI4A__4sa4k5l1W6hc9vktpEMEp40qgy6YZJybpx7JYEJ6/s3354/IMG_20221105_231126%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3354" data-original-width="2379" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizYFagse2hAjuUAg8aM05Xqbn_jP1--oAcAlqbtacktYmIYmrCAe88JHzkI02Jh6oOmZRR2rognWGwkBH6SxispyE1m_3Ba8fu07rkI8lacrttyLFOBAN97uwCVELlOByH0hCWFgmElDnI4A__4sa4k5l1W6hc9vktpEMEp40qgy6YZJybpx7JYEJ6/s320/IMG_20221105_231126%20(1).jpg" width="227" /></span></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Finally, here's a close up of my award! It represents the "lavender lady" who haunts Barr Dubh House and has a subtle patina which suggests that funereal shade. She travelled home to Perthshire with me wrapped in an ignominious shroud of bubble wrap, and is now haunting the bookcase in the living room. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">🦇</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-1663120939793567452021-12-21T00:13:00.002-08:002021-12-21T00:13:44.880-08:00The Dead of Winter: Christmas video anthology<p> </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I'm absolutely thrilled to announce a new video anthology of Christmas ghost stories: <i>The Dead of Winter</i>. It features four ghost story writers: myself, Sean Hogan, David Longhorn and Lynda E. Rucker, and you can find it on YouTube:</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MhmLTV32p8Q" width="320" youtube-src-id="MhmLTV32p8Q"></iframe></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The Dead of Winter</i> came about as a result of a Hallowe'en event at <a href="https://www.strathearnarts.org/">Strathearn Arts </a>in Crieff. I was involved in organising authors to read that evening: we had myself, Lisa Tuttle, David Longhorn (remotely) and Alex Nye, as well as music from folk duo Plaidsong. It was a fabulous evening, and there have even been some hints that we might do that again! </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Time did not permit for more than four readers, but there were other writers I would like to have asked. Additionally, as the event was in person it was naturally limited to whoever could get to Crieff. So I started to think about organising a Christmas event but doing it online. <i>The Dead of Winter</i> is the result. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It's actually been a bigger labour of love than I expected (ain't that always the way?!), partly because a video file of four different readings is so big that my poor daughter, who did the editing, had to acquire an external hard drive for the extra memory. It took an hour to render, and over three hours to load to YouTube! I should imagine that put a bit of strain on our rural broadband. At any rate, I forbade anyone to do online gaming etc while it was uploading...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Here's a bit about the four featured authors. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">David Longhorn is the editor of long-running scary mag <i><a href="http://suptales.blogspot.com/">Supernatural Tales</a></i>. He also writes horror for <a href="https://scarestreet.com/davidlonghorn/">Scare Street</a> publishing. David has acquired a considerable amount of experience in producing audio material for his day job, and I think you can tell this from his very accomplished reading of <i>Midnight Movie</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://lyndaerucker.wordpress.com/">Lynda E.Rucker</a> is the writer of many ghostly short stories, essays and even a play. She also edited one of <a href="http://www.swanriverpress.ie/title_uncertainties3.html">Swan River Press</a>'s <i>Uncertainties </i>anthologies. Her ghostly tale <i>This Hollow Thing</i> begins quietly and leads with gathering ominousness to a truly chilling ending. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Sean Hogan is a writer and director - amongst other things, the creator of the superb <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1714127/">The Devil's Business</a>,</i> one of my favourite horror films. I was absolutely thrilled to get him on board with this project. His story <i>My True Love Gave To Me</i> made me laugh out loud in places, as well as shudder. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Me, you know about, right?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The video editing and creation of the hideous ghostly face were by Iona Grant, who has been incredibly long suffering throughout the process! Without her, this would never have got off the ground. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The title <i>The Dead of Winter</i> was suggested by Steve Duffy, himself the writer of many spine-chilling short stories. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The music at the end is by Dar Golan, and was obtained from a royalty free site, for which we were very grateful. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I hope you will enjoy <i>The Dead of Winter</i>!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-85095270504167467192021-09-23T00:56:00.000-07:002021-09-23T00:56:08.227-07:00Bookwitchery<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--eGdS2Hy__o/YUwtl9ptKCI/AAAAAAAA1kY/U8K31-fLslA2Uo5MTFwoGxm7STYsvlaZQCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/me%2Band%2Bann.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--eGdS2Hy__o/YUwtl9ptKCI/AAAAAAAA1kY/U8K31-fLslA2Uo5MTFwoGxm7STYsvlaZQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/me%2Band%2Bann.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I returned from a trip to North Uist this Monday to discover a <a href="https://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/ttfn/">new blog post</a> from my friend the Bookwitch, announcing that she was taking a break, perhaps for good or perhaps just for now. I absolutely respect her decision to do this, because so many of us have changing priorities as a result of the recent pandemic - which has also changed the publishing landscape somewhat, with fewer or different book events. Still, I'm very sorry to see her stopping, and I shall miss the daily reflections landing in my in box. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, in 2021, it feels as though I have known her forever, but when I look back, the very first time we met was in 2009. My debut novel <i>The Vanishing of Katharina Linden</i> had just come out, and the Bookwitch <a href="https://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/the-vanishing-of-katharina-linden/">blogged about it</a>. I <i>think </i>I can also remember our first meeting, at which we were both a bit nervous, with me thinking "OMG! A real live book blogger!" and her thinking - well, I don't know what she thought. "Is this woman a secret murderer?" perhaps, since my husband, who doesn't like scary books, often wonders about the person he lies down next to at night. Since then, she has been good enough to review most of my work, including my latest, <i><a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/too-near-the-dead">Too Near The Dead</a></i>, which must have been a bit of a labour of love for her - she was afraid to read it at night! She was very kind about it, all the same. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Although the Bookwitch is a blogger, she hasn't just blogged. Over the years she has also organised events at her house, at which authors and publishing people have happily mingled, and she has introduced people she thought might like each other. I hope she won't stop doing that! She has also become a personal friend to me - one of the best, actually - and has supplied a lot of tea, cake and other yummies. I have met Mr. Bookwitch and the two younger Witchlets on many occasions, and even attended the PhD defence of one of them, in Geneva. They are a wonderful family, and I hope the suspension of blogging activities will lead to new and equally interesting avenues for them. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Bookwitch has surfaced in my work in small ways. A few years ago, I wrote a folk horror story called <i>The Valley of Achor</i>, and was casting around for a name for my heroine. The Bookwitch nobly volunteered hers, and so "she" came to a very sticky end in a Perthshire glen. And one of my recent novels, <i><a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/ghost">Ghost</a>, </i>is dedicated to her - rightfully, because she has done so much for books, writing, authors, and for me personally. Thank you, Bookwitch! </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-20761892391352971232021-07-18T05:21:00.001-07:002021-07-18T05:21:57.404-07:00Folk songs and sinister history<p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XDWYNTZmoLw/YPQQfDb3j3I/AAAAAAAAyXQ/kQWsDZ7JeGUyK32LP2fJjIjQ5aEG3jq7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s960/Kinkell%2B1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XDWYNTZmoLw/YPQQfDb3j3I/AAAAAAAAyXQ/kQWsDZ7JeGUyK32LP2fJjIjQ5aEG3jq7gCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h240/Kinkell%2B1.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Some time ago, I blogged about a "<a href="https://helengrantbooks.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-jamesian-adventure.html">Jamesian adventure</a>" I had had, researching the history of a rather sinister-sound local folksong centred on the ruined church shown to the left. I'm an absolute sucker for anything like that - I love spooky snippets of local culture!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">When I was writing my most recent novel, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Too-Near-Dead-Grant/dp/191228040X">Too Near The Dead</a></i>, I couldn't resist putting a local folk song in. My hero and heroine, James and Fen, go to the local pub for an evening of live music. Everything is very jolly until the folk band, who aren't from the town, start playing a song called <i>Lavender Lady. </i>This is what happens:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">"People are clapping and singing along, James included. So it’s a surprise when the next song strikes up and there’s a noticeable drop in the sound levels. At first I think they’re all just trying to listen, because this one is a ballad – it’s slower and softer, almost melancholy. I pick out fragments of the words: <i>dark, dark the night... she will come back to you... </i>and something that sounds like <i>she’ll put ye on like a suit of clothes</i>, though perhaps I have misheard that because it doesn’t make any sense. I look from face to face and see that the grins have been wiped right off them. Some look neutral, some downright stony. Nobody likes this song, for some reason. A few heads shake. And Seonaid gives me a sidelong glance. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">It’s a wary glance, the sort of glance you give someone if you know someone else has said something potentially offensive in front of them. In spite of all the empty glasses crowded onto the table top, she’s not so drunk that she doesn’t notice me react. She looks down, quickly, and then away." </span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Uh-oh. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I've been asked a few times by readers whether <i>Lavender Lady</i> is a real song. It isn't - I made it up to suit the story, although I tried to make it sound in keeping with other folk songs. If there is ever a film adaptation of the book (wouldn't that be nice?!), someone might make one up. But as it stands, no, the lavender lady is entirely inside my head. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzuUEvpbwCOK1cbWFtlc1OPKc0l4ejylSKgfzFrqRL2N-4TqQtl33bLjpgI2OVrT1qziXalt_S5KpvsLBrWsA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />Anyway, yesterday evening life imitated art, as my husband and I went to see a real life folk music performance - carefully socially distanced in our local park. (Hat tip <a href="https://www.strathearnarts.org/">Strathearn Arts</a>, who managed to bag us some last minute tickets.) The duo we went to see are called <a href="https://www.plaidsong.co.uk/">Plaidsong</a> and I know Nicky, the singer, from Culture Perth and Kinross events. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vD6UZPTHIh8/YPQaGp0ZH5I/AAAAAAAAyXk/QX_L0ztVU3UdDyln3P-EILyH-9S7usXAACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_20210717_191955.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1533" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vD6UZPTHIh8/YPQaGp0ZH5I/AAAAAAAAyXk/QX_L0ztVU3UdDyln3P-EILyH-9S7usXAACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_20210717_191955.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EDc9r9zqZqY/YPQaGQ2Q8WI/AAAAAAAAyXg/7iqBnEwX-kMVMGsYqaouVe_ol30eA5JLACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_20210717_193938__01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1980" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EDc9r9zqZqY/YPQaGQ2Q8WI/AAAAAAAAyXg/7iqBnEwX-kMVMGsYqaouVe_ol30eA5JLACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_20210717_193938__01.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br />The second song they performed was actually the song about the "Terrible Parish" of Kinkell, and before they did it, Nicky was kind enough to mention me, as I had told her about its origins (some people think it is about Dunkeld, but it isn't). So that was very nice! And it was absolutely <i>amazing</i> to hear the song performed live. Genuine goosebumps for me! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">NB If you haven't read my previous post about it, the parish of Kinkell actually suffered the disasters mentioned in the song - the minister, Richard Duncan, was hanged in 1682 for infanticide, the precentor drowned in the river, the steeple fell down and the bell was lost. These awful events were memorialised in the song, much as the horrors of the Lavender Lady are remembered in my fictional song. </span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-1529675078646185932021-07-02T03:33:00.001-07:002021-07-02T03:33:17.227-07:00Launching Too Near The Dead!<p>Last night saw the online launch event for<i> Too Near The Dead</i>, which appeared on Facebook Live. I was interviewed by the inimitable Lalla Merlin, and also read from chapter one. I've been quite surprised at the reactions to the reading - eg. my oldest friend messaged me afterwards with "omg how horrible!" 😁 I guess because I have <i>written</i> the story, I forget how other people will experience it! </p><p>Anyway, for anyone who wasn't able to attend or who couldn't access the launch for technical reasons, you can watch a recording of it on YouTube, here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnbQNBHY4m0&t=826s">book launch on YouTube</a></p><p>The very first review of the book was by the Bookwitch and you can read it on her blog here: <a href="https://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2021/06/30/too-near-the-dead/">https://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2021/06/30/too-near-the-dead/</a></p><p>This morning Scot Lit Daily also posted a review on Instagram:</p><p>"It’s absolutely no secret that I’m a massive fan of ghost stories (handle gives it away if nothing else) but take a ghost story and make it Scottish and that’s *chef’s kiss* - especially when it’s as gorgeously written and evocative as Too Near The Dead by Helen Grant.</p><p>BLURB || For Fen Munro and her fiance James, it is a dream come true: an escape from London to a beautiful house in the stunning Perthshire countryside.</p><p>Barr Dubh house is modern, a building with no past at all. But someone walks the grounds, always dressed in lavender. Under a lichenous stone in an abandoned graveyard, a hideous secret lies buried. And at night, Fen is tormented by horrifying dreams. Someone wants Fen's happiness, and nothing is going to stop them - not even death...</p><p>REVIEW || Now, I don’t know what the inspiration was behind the book but it immediately brought to mind one of my favourite Scottish hauntings: Ballechin House. Because it has that same haunting on the site of a former already haunted house kind of vibe, which is very much My Thing. I was on board immediately.</p><p>What kept me on board was characters that felt so real. I grew to really care what happened to them. I loved the sense of isolation and at times this book truly creeped me out. It’s very Scottish and very gothic and that’s a gorgeous combination for a ghost story if ever there was one.</p><p>It had all the tropes I love - small town with a secret, secrets between the main characters, and best of all - THE LIBRARY SCENE - where the main character finds out the story behind their haunt. But it all felt fresh with little expert touches here and there to make it feel brand new.</p><p>I loved it. This is a fast paced, easy to sink into book that will be perfect for a rainy Saturday or October evening. I tend to reread my favourite ghost stories over and over again - this one will definitely be getting added to the rota."</p><p>It's lovely to get reviews like these. I'm not going to post every single one that comes in, but I wanted to share a little bit of book love today. 💖</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxRiJcX5MMvifB4YMvaIrdbrFVz3bgnBSMvEloM5brmtL8iSeDriczknvA9iqhKlNzCQu8gnGpVBbRHrW0Hbg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-9261970491560948342021-06-29T03:01:00.002-07:002021-06-29T03:01:54.160-07:00Who walks the grounds of Barr Dubh House?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I'm looking forward to the launch of <i>Too Near The Dead</i> on Thursday. I'll also be unveiling the full book trailer, created for me by Lalla Merlin of Lumiere and Sculpting Light. Here's a tiny preview of part of it!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw6ZwbM0j3-Hsq3nRduKhntmIy56OqZFBnETlTYCkI4mieuCaFFkmy7U6D3yeZLjf1uvQvd532buW7jWEodcg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-57040683797872447602021-06-28T03:07:00.000-07:002021-06-28T03:07:33.098-07:00Haunting you very soon - Too Near The Dead! <p><span style="font-size: medium;">It's been a long, long time since I last blogged, so I'm glad to return to my blog with something exciting to say. On Thursday (1st July) I have a new book out! It's called <i>Too Near The Dead</i> and it's a Gothic novel very much inspired by the part of Scotland in which I live (I'm all about the creepy places). Here's what the blurb has to say about it:</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sdoWnmELH_0/YNmXJ7mSKZI/AAAAAAAAx4s/XEPJGzUY8XQe5G_MPUVYWo0zj2b1rMJVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1541/9781912280407.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1541" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sdoWnmELH_0/YNmXJ7mSKZI/AAAAAAAAx4s/XEPJGzUY8XQe5G_MPUVYWo0zj2b1rMJVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/9781912280407.jpg" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Sometimes it’s terrifying, loving someone this much... </b></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>For Fen Munro and her fiancé James, it is a dream come true: an escape from London to a beautiful house in the stunning Perthshire countryside. Barr Dubh house is modern, a building with no past at all. But someone walks the grounds, always dressed in lavender. Under a lichenous stone in an abandoned graveyard, a hideous secret lies buried. And at night, Fen is tormented by horrifying dreams. Someone wants Fen’s happiness, and nothing is going to stop them - not even death...</b><br /></span><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If you're still not sure whether you fancy reading that, you can always come along to my online launch event on Thursday, because I'll be reading an excerpt from the book and hopefully showing the book trailer too. The event will be on Facebook Live at 19:00 UK time - you can either use this link <a href="https://fb.me/e/1DXCC7SHM">https://fb.me/e/1DXCC7SHM</a> or find the event on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Helen-Grant-books-page-189182864425143">Helen Grant Books Page</a> on Facebook. If you can't attend that evening or you're averse to Facebook, I'm planning to put the event on YouTube afterwards (fingers crossed all the tech works properly!). </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The launch event won't just be me waffling on! I'm going to be in conversation with the bewitching Lalla Merlin, film maker, journalist and one of the most imaginative swearers I have ever met (though she has promised to behave during the launch event!). If there's anything you particularly want to ask, feel free to post comments below, or in the FB event discussion bit, or tweet me at <a href="https://twitter.com/helengrantsays">https://twitter.com/helengrantsays</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If you would like to buy the book, you can obviously buy it from the usual suspects, but if you <b>pre-order</b> it from the publisher, Fledgling Books, you can bag yourself a signed copy! Order from them here: <a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/too-near-the-dead">https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/product-page/too-near-the-dead</a> Postage and packing is £1.99.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I don't want to add too much here, because I'm going to talk all about the book on Thursday. But I'm really thrilled it's going to be out there very soon! I absolutely <i>loved</i> writing about Fen and James, and I hope you will enjoy reading about them too. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-naNtAnitK28/YNmfEa5PmCI/AAAAAAAAx40/BB_ovNucDPc6__i3K2k3GN_G6PHzCZ6WACPcBGAsYHg/s3788/IMG_20210627_080054__01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2913" data-original-width="3788" height="493" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-naNtAnitK28/YNmfEa5PmCI/AAAAAAAAx40/BB_ovNucDPc6__i3K2k3GN_G6PHzCZ6WACPcBGAsYHg/w640-h493/IMG_20210627_080054__01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p></div>Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-69058998188315893312019-08-29T01:46:00.001-07:002019-08-29T01:46:22.321-07:00Reading Round comes to Perth!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm very excited to say that from 18th September 2019 I shall be running a <a href="https://www.rlf.org.uk/education/reading-round/">Royal Literary Fund Reading Round</a> group at Perth!<br />
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Reading Round is a bit different from other reading/book groups. I've taken part in a book group myself, and I'm sorry to say that I didn't manage to keep up with the reading at all, especially the books I didn't particularly fancy! There's no "homework" with Reading Round - the group members simply turn up each week and listen as the group leader (Lector) reads a short story and later, a poem. The group discuss each of these works in turn. There is absolutely no need to be an expert on fiction or poetry to take part - just come along and enjoy the experience of hearing stories and poems read aloud, and then join in the friendly discussion.<br />
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I chose to run my Reading Round group in the wonderful <a href="https://rsgs.org/exploring-geography/fair-maids-house/">Fair Maid's House</a> in Perth. I fell in love with this place last year, when one of my teenage kids did a few days' work experience there. The Explorers' Room, where we'll be meeting (see photo) is an amazing venue and the perfect place to "explore" literature!<br />
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Participation in Reading Round is FREE. We'll be meeting on Wednesdays from 10.30am until 12 noon. This timing allows residents of outlying towns such as Crieff and Pitlochry to use the morning bus services if required. Places are limited, so if you'd like to take part, or ask anything about Reading Round, get in touch soon at: HGReadingRound@outlook.com<br />
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PS If you're hesitating, don't be shy - everyone is welcome and no special expertise or knowledge is needed!<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-54203112740061550432019-06-11T02:17:00.001-07:002019-06-11T02:17:17.951-07:00Ghosts at Cymera<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last weekend (7-9th June) saw the first ever<a href="https://www.cymerafestival.co.uk/about"> CYMERA</a>, Scotland's Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing. The brainchild of Festival Director, Ann Landmann, Cymera had a very impressive line-up of 80 authors across 50 events throughout three days. It also offered book discussion groups, a writing competition, a Creators' Hall and a ceilidh. Featured authors included V.E. Schwab and Ben Aaronovitch plus - naturally - Scottish/Scotland based writers including Moira McPartlin, Philip Caveney and Lari Don...and me. <br />
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I went to the festival on the Saturday to see Zoe Marriott and Natasha Ngan discussing Eastern-inspired Fantasy with Chair Amy McCulloch. I went back on Sunday to run the M.R.James book discussion and appear in a panel about Ghosts, alongside <a href="http://www.clairemcfall.co.uk/">Claire McFall</a> and <a href="https://hotkeybooks.com/authors/rachel-burge/">Rachel Burge</a>, and chaired by Sarah Broadley (above; photo by Claire Cain of <a href="https://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/">Fledgling Press</a>). The discussion was wide ranging, covering nightmares, real-life paranormal experiences, urban exploration, tarot cards and Norse legends. Claire and Rachel are both immensely likeable and after reading their books (I like to do my homework!) and enjoying them, it was great to meet the authors in person. Sarah was a brilliant Chair, and kept things moving very smoothly. We all read short excerpts from our books, so I read the prologue from<i> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Helen-Grant/dp/1912280094/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">Ghost</a>.</i> I never get tired of reading out the first line, "Langlands House is haunted, but not by the ghost you think." One of the audience questions was whether Langlands is a real place, to which the answer is (as it is so often): sort of. The house was inspired by my visits to derelict Gothic mansions like Dunmore Park House; the location is round about Fowlis Wester in Perthshire, although there is no such mansion there; the name - Langlands - comes from a farmhouse my father stayed in as a child during World War Two.<br />
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I'd never visited Cymera's venue (The Pleasance in Edinburgh) before Saturday. It felt like an absolute rabbit warren, but none the worse for that! There was a big team of incredibly friendly and helpful volunteers on hand to direct audience members (or indeed, lost authors!) to the correct room. There was also a comfy Green Room for the authors, offering tea, coffee, squash and wine (sadly I couldn't have any of the latter because I had to drive later, but the thought was appreciated). They also had shortbread (well, it was a Scottish festival, after all), crisps, and - oh joy! - mint Viscount biscuits. My first ever novel, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0141325739/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5">The Vanishing of Katharina Linden</a></i>, was pretty much fuelled by the consumption of Viscounts, so I fell on those with great delight. <br />
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My overall impression of the Festival was that it was enthusiastic, friendly, welcoming and inclusive. Ann and her team can feel justly proud of what they achieved this weekend.<br />
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Hopefully this was the first of many Cymera Festivals - there is talk of Cymera 2020 on Twitter! NB You can follow Cymera on Twitter here: <a href="https://twitter.com/CymeraF">https://twitter.com/CymeraF</a> - keep an eye out for news!<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-20295017270402571252018-07-03T04:04:00.000-07:002018-07-03T04:04:20.911-07:00Haunted Event: The Dublin Ghost Story Festival 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last weekend saw the second ever Dublin Ghost Story Festival, organised by the indefatigable Brian J. Showers of <a href="http://swanriverpress.ie/dublin2018.html">Swan River Press</a>. I was unfortunately unable to attend the first one, so I was absolutely thrilled to be invited to take part in this one, alongside some very illustrious guests including <a href="https://celestialtimepiece.com/">Joyce Carol Oates</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Oliver">Reggie Oliver</a>. Other guests included <a href="http://www.foyles.co.uk/Andrew-Michael-Hurley">Andrew Michael Hurley</a>, author of <i>The Loney,</i> winner of the 2015 Costa First Novel Award and the British Book Awards Book of the Year 2016, plus <a href="https://vhleslie.wordpress.com/">V.H.Leslie</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Tuttle">Lisa Tuttle</a>, <a href="http://tartaruspress.com//rosalie/index.html">Rosalie Parker</a>, <a href="http://www.nicholasroyle.com/">Nicholas Royle</a> and <a href="http://www.tartaruspress.com/">Ray Russell</a>. So it was a varied and impressive event for lovers of supernatural fiction! On Saturday I moderated a panel comprising Joyce Carol Oates, Reggie Oliver and Andrew Michael Hurley, which was a bit nerve racking, especially as I had never taken part in a festival panel before, let alone moderated one - and with the guest of honour on it...! However, the audience was a friendly one and it seemed to go alright. (At any rate, I didn't call Joyce "Reggie" by accident or vice versa, as I was afraid nerves might lead me to do!)<br />
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Above: me with Nicholas Royle (left) and Reggie Oliver (right). Photo by Gerry Hayes. </div>
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Above: Joyce Carol Oates reading from her work. </div>
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The Festival began with a pre-festival reception on Thursday evening and then ran from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon, with a range of panels, readings and signings, as well as an interview with Joyce Carol Oates. The panel discussions included such interesting topics as "overlooked favourites" and "how do ghost stories work and when do they simply fail?" There were also a number of publishers and booksellers offering a simply mouthwatering range of volumes. I regret that I am not in the market for early editions of the ghost stories of M.R.James (sob!), but I did pick up several ancient paperback anthologies of spooky tales. There was genuinely something to suit the pocket of every ghost story lover, and plenty of treasures to yearn hopelessly after, in a suitably Gothic manner! I was pleased to see that amongst those attending was <a href="http://www.zagava.de/">Zagava</a>, who recently republished the first issue of the early German fantasy mag <i>The Orchid Garden</i> with a translation into English by yours truly.<br />
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Above: <i>The Orchid Garden </i>- German/English, from Zagava press</div>
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I thoroughly enjoyed the Festival. People are sometimes sniffy about "genre" fiction so it was wonderful to be with those who really appreciate a well-written eerie tale - and who understand that a ghost story may be far deeper than a cheap thrill. It was also brilliant to exchange reading recommendations with people who are really immersed in ghostly literature - I came away with a small stack of books, including a copy of <i>The Loney</i>, which has queue-jumped to the head of my TBR pile. I was delighted to meet Sean Hogan, director of <i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/16/the-devils-business-review">The Devil's Business</a>, </i>a film I have watched three times and thoroughly recommend. I am thrilled to say that I also met <a href="https://www.johnconnollybooks.com/">John Connolly</a>, who was not officially at the Festival this time, but who dropped by anyway - his two <i>Nocturnes </i>volumes are great favourites of mine and I was finally able to shake his hand and tell him how much I loved reading both of them.<br />
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Brian J. Showers should be congratulated for organising such a successful event. On Twitter (below), he said that he had had "an incredible weekend". So did we all!<br />
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Credit: the Dublin Ghost Story Festival artwork at the top of this post is by illustrator <a href="http://www.woodi.co.uk/">Alisdair Wood</a>.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-9481811896155744732018-04-13T07:28:00.000-07:002018-04-13T07:29:58.796-07:00Ghost haunts Edinburgh!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If the heroine of my latest book, <i><a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Ghost-by-Helen-Grant-author/9781912280094">Ghost</a></i>, were a real person, yesterday would have been her 19th birthday. So it was rather fitting that 12th April was chosen (entirely coincidentally) for the rescheduled Edinburgh book launch, at Blackwell's.<br />
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The interview format is one I really like, as it's a bit more dynamic than me just standing there talking for half an hour! So fellow author <a href="https://chegolden.wordpress.com/">Che Golden</a> came along to ask the questions. I'm not sure whether to describe Che as "a great friend" or "my old nemesis"; our trading of increasingly inventive insults on Facebook has occasionally led other friends to message us, asking why we tolerate each other..! In real life, we do manage to get along without any name calling. I have even gone so far as to take Che over to Innerpeffray Library to check out the leper squint (you can read about this interesting excursion <a href="http://helengrantbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/">here</a>). Anyway, Che asked me some excellent and interesting questions, and we managed to be (relatively) civil for a whole hour and a half! A big thank you to Che, to Fledgling Press for arranging the event, and to Blackwell's, and especially the wonderful Ann Landmann, for hosting it!<br />
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The photo of me and Che is from a review of the launch by <a href="https://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/ghost-launch-2-take-2/">the Bookwitch</a>, who was in attendance along with Mr. Witch and Witch Junior. Other attendees included fellow writers Joan Lennon, Roy Gill, Philip Caveney and Alex Nye. Bloggers in attendance included <a href="https://portobellobookblog.com/">https://portobellobookblog.com/</a> and <a href="https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/">https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/</a>.<br />
There was also another visitor, a rather haunting one:<br />
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Those familiar with the Scottish book scene may be able to hazard a guess about who is underneath that sheet - yes, it's the irrepressible Kirkland Ciccone! It's certainly a first for me to have anyone attend one of my events in a book-themed costume. Perhaps it's just as well the book is called <i>Ghost</i> and not <i>Bikini Babes from Mars</i>...<br />
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Wine was consumed, books were signed, and bookmarks were bandied about. After that, we went for pizza to fortify ourselves for the trip back to Perthshire, which proved to be a bit more of an epic journey than I had planned. Somehow, being preoccupied with the book event itself, I had managed to overlook the fact that there is currently engineering work on the Stirling line after 7.30pm in the evening! Eventually we managed to get a late train to Polmont and from there we took the replacement bus. At midnight, we were looking at this view:<br />
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Yes: a red light, on a pretty much deserted country road. It seemed to stay red for ages and ages too. Nothing came the other way...not even a ghost.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-20082412520946498672018-03-08T04:39:00.000-08:002018-03-08T04:41:13.926-08:00Dedication<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Yesterday I had lunch at Corrieri's in Bridge of Allan with my friend Ann. I'm not posting a photograph of us having lunch, because Ann is a modest person and does not very much enjoy being photographed (especially not when she is in the middle of eating a dish of pasta). So here is a picture of a Corrieri's cup of tea instead. </div>
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My new novel <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Helen-Grant/dp/1912280094/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">Ghost</a></i> is dedicated to Ann, who was a huge support when I was working on it. <i>Ghost</i> took me longer to write than any of my other books, and the process was far more difficult. </div>
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I think many authors probably have a tricky bit in the middle of writing a book; you start out feeling fresh and optimistic, and hopefully you eventually type "The End" with a sense of achievement, but somewhere in the middle your spirits sink like a poorly-made soufflé. The plot seems ludicrous, the characters seem wooden, and the whole thing seems to be taking <i>far too long. </i></div>
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If you are an author who is reading this, and you <i>never </i>have that soufflé moment, I salute you. But I <i>always</i> have one. And that is only during the first draft. Several rounds of structural edits later, I often start to wonder whether I can "write" at all, and other careers suddenly seem amazingly attractive: gargoyle carver, perhaps, or hermit-in-residence on a large country estate (NB that second one really does exist; they are called "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_hermit">garden hermits</a>", apparently). </div>
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Writing <i>Ghost</i> was a particularly grisly experience and there were points where it would have been easy to give up the entire project and tackle something else altogether. But when I was feeling at my lowest ebb, there were two people whose support kept me going: my daughter Iona, and Ann. Both of them are mentioned in the acknowledgements; a previous novel, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glass-Demon-Helen-Grant/dp/0141325763/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520512833&sr=1-1&keywords=the+glass+demon">The Glass Demon</a></i>, is dedicated to Iona, and so <i>Ghost</i> belongs to Ann. I would like to thank them both for "believing in" <i>Ghost. </i></div>
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Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-62698127653248045482018-02-17T02:09:00.001-08:002018-03-07T09:37:38.755-08:00Hauntings - a.k.a. upcoming book events!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="text-align: left;">I am very pleased to say that the Edinburgh launch of <i>Ghost</i> at Blackwell's bookshop which was postponed because of the snow, will now take place on Thursday 12th April!</b></div>
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<i>Langlands House is haunted, but not by the ghost you think...</i></div>
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On Monday 19th February, my new novel <i>Ghost</i> was published by <a href="http://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/store-3/products/ghost-by-helen-grant/">Fledgling Press</a>. <i> </i>This is what it's about:</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Augusta McAndrew lives on a remote Scottish estate with her grand-mother, Rose. For her own safety, she hides from outsiders, as she has done her entire life. Visitors are few and far between – everyone knows that Langlands House is haunted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">One day Rose goes out and never returns, leaving Augusta utterly alone.Then Tom McAllister arrives – good-looking and fascinating, but dangerous. What he has to tell her could tear her whole world apart. As Tom and Augusta become ever closer, they must face the question: is love enough to overcome the ghosts of the past?</span></div>
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In honour of the book's Perthshire setting, there was a launch event at the Perth branch of Waterstone's, where I was interviewed by the fabulous Helen Lewis-McPhee, who asked me all sorts of interesting questions, such as "Do you believe in ghosts?"</div>
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If you were unable to attend the Perth event, I'm delighted to say that the Edinburgh launch at the wonderful Blackwell's bookshop has now been rescheduled and you can get your free tickets here: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launch-ghost-by-helen-grant-tickets-42197817809">https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/launch-ghost-by-helen-grant-tickets-42197817809</a></div>
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If you're within reach of Edinburgh, don't be shy - come along and say hello! Hopefully there will be time for questions too, if you have any...</div>
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I'm delighted to say that I shall also be appearing as an "esteemed guest"(!) at the Dublin Ghost Story Festival 2018, which runs from 29th June to 1st July. </div>
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Details of the Festival are here: <a href="http://www.swanriverpress.ie/dublin2018.html">http://www.swanriverpress.ie/dublin2018.html</a></div>
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The guest of honour at this Festival is Joyce Carol Oates, and Reggie Oliver the actor, playwright, director and author will also be appearing, and delivering one of his superb ghost stories. So all in all, it looks to be a very exciting weekend! </div>
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Other future events will also be announced via this blog and via my Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/helengrantsays">@helengrantsays</a></div>
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-30600865333826161552017-10-02T09:31:00.000-07:002017-10-02T09:31:13.734-07:00Book news!!! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span lang="DE" style="mso-ansi-language: DE;">I'm absolutely
thrilled to say that Prosecco corks will be popping this evening as I have some
book news! I've nearly burst with keeping this to myself until now, but today my
copy of the signed contract dropped onto the doormat. I'm therefore very
pleased to announce that my new book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost</i>
will be published in 2018 by the fabulous <a href="http://www.fledglingpress.co.uk/">Fledgling Press</a>! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="DE" style="mso-ansi-language: DE;">As anyone who's
read any of my earlier books will know, I'm very much inspired by atmospheric
real-life locations. My novels to date have all been set in Germany and
Flanders. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost</i> is the first set in
Scotland, and specifically Perthshire, where I have lived since 2011. It is a particular source of pleasure to me that the book has been placed with a Scottish publisher. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="DE" style="mso-ansi-language: DE;">Since moving to
Scotland, one of my greatest passions has been researching and visiting
abandoned castles and country houses. Many of them were built in the nineteenth
century and then deliberately unroofed or partly dismantled in the mid
twentieth century when they became too expensive to maintain. I'm fascinated by
these places, and I've often wondered whether somewhere there is an intact
house, decaying slowly in the middle of nowhere with all its contents inside
it. Who would consider living there, and why? That is where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ghost</i> came from. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="DE" style="mso-ansi-language: DE;">And
now...Prosecco! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-18321761127156437912017-03-16T06:32:00.001-07:002017-03-16T06:32:17.477-07:00Before The Internet Existed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ri870xWc8o0/WMp7Otz-SLI/AAAAAAAADlI/5upgVBvuP5QS2GlmGaHye7wt0v4FI8PGgCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-03-16%2Bat%2B11.45.23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ri870xWc8o0/WMp7Otz-SLI/AAAAAAAADlI/5upgVBvuP5QS2GlmGaHye7wt0v4FI8PGgCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-03-16%2Bat%2B11.45.23.jpg" /></a></div>
Over on Twitter, #BeforeTheInternetExisted is currently trending. (Well, it's trending as I write this; by tomorrow something else will no doubt have overtaken it - #whatmycatjustdid or some such vital thing). I'm not sure I can confine myself to 140 characters on the topic of "What did we do before the internet?" so here's a blog post instead.<br />
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I'm not going to list <i>all</i> the things we did before the internet existed, and I'm definitely not going to go the full curmudgeon ("when <i>I</i> was a child we played outdoors on the main road/cleaned cars for a shilling/wrote 6 page letters to our grandmothers using a quill pen and parchment" etc etc). Personally I love the interwebz and cannot stay off it.*<br />
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One thing that I do remember with a certain fondness, though, is communicating with my loved ones when I was away travelling, in the days before smartphones, wifi, and - gasp! - even before internet cafes. Yes, dear friends, I have lived so long that I can remember such primitive times.<br />
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These days, when friends or relatives travel in far-flung places, they very properly post photographs to Facebook and Instagram the very same day. Sometimes they post them while they are actually <i>doing</i> whatever it is they are doing in those places. Back in 1992, when I travelled overland from London to Kathmandu on a Bedford truck, this was not so. Not only were there no internet cafes, the camera I took with me was one that had to be loaded with rolls of film, which were developed when you got home at the end of your trip. There was no Facebook yet, so the only way you could share your pictures with your friends was to show them the prints. You can imagine how time consuming <i>that</i> was. Nowadays, if I go anywhere interesting, I can show my snaps to 438 people with a few mouse clicks. Let us hope they are grateful. *cough*<br />
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In 1992 I did not have a mobile phone either. So the only way I could keep in touch with home was by using landlines (where I could get at one) or by post. Using a landline mostly meant waiting until we got to a city and then going to the telephone exchange, where I would pay extortionate amounts (in local terms) for a crackly two minutes talking to my boyfriend (now husband) in England. This was rather unsatisfactory, so mostly I used the post instead.<br />
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In the four months that I was away that time, I wrote to my other half pretty much every day, posting the letters whenever we got to somewhere with a posting box. I also wrote to my family. They wrote to me too, via a series of poste restante addresses that I gave them before I left. It was always rather a tense moment when we rolled into a town large enough to have a poste restante address, and went to see whether there were any letters! If there weren't any, it might be a wait of weeks before we got to the next poste restante, with no word in between.<br />
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I still have most of the letters exchanged on that trip. My husband kept all his, and I kept all the ones I received too. Nearly every single letter I sent on that trip and during my various other travels arrived safely. One from my mother addressed to me in Islamabad failed to turn up, and some postcards I sent from Uzbekistan took <i>four months</i> to arrive, but nothing else went astray.<br />
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Once in a blue moon I get all the letters out of the drawer where I keep them, and read some of them again. When I photographed them for this blog post (above), I picked out one at random and read, "I do not know when I will get to post this! We are rough camping on a hillside near Ephesus. It is dark and <u>incredibly</u> humid! This is our second attempt at a camp - we got moved off the last one by an irate farmer wielding a loaded shotgun (we know it was loaded because he fired a few warning shots)..." Ah, fun times.<br />
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Anyway, that's what we did before the internet existed.<br />
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Above: photo from the Karakoram Highway, taken with an old Pentax ME Super</div>
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* even though last time I used the word "interwebz", people actually wrote to me pointing out that "it is <i>either</i> the internet <i>or</i> the world wide web". Thanks.Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-37003096754750356772017-03-16T03:00:00.002-07:002021-06-08T00:21:02.503-07:00Perthshire, "interspersed with anecdotes"!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Winter is nearly over: it's no longer dark at four o'clock in the afternoon, and last week I spotted the first daffodils. Even better, the wonderful <a href="http://www.innerpeffraylibrary.co.uk/#&panel1-1">Library of Innerpeffray</a> (left) has opened again after its annual hibernation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The other day I went over there with no more specific plan than to see if I could find some interesting tidbit to post on this blog. In the past I have posted extracts from <i>A Treatise of Specter</i> and from that perennial favourite, Reginald Scott's <i>The Discoverie of Witchcraft</i><i>. </i>I still recall with affection Scott's warning to his readers: "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A request to such readers as are loath to hear or read filthy and bawdy matters, which of necessity are here to be inserted, to pass over eight Chapters." </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I wonder if anybody ever did pass them over?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(NB: for the full story on those filthy and bawdy matters, take a peep here: <a href="http://helengrantbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/in-filthy-bawdery-it-passeth-all-tales.html">http://helengrantbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/in-filthy-bawdery-it-passeth-all-tales.html</a>)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anyway, on this occasion, rather on impulse, I asked if there were any books about local country houses. I am very fond of visiting the historic sites of Perthshire, whether Historic Environment Scotland properties such as <a href="https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/huntingtower-castle/">Huntingtower Castle</a>, or those other lonely and seemingly unowned ruins that are dotted about the countryside, quietly crumbling into rubble. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The library volunteer very kindly fished out three small volumes for me, one of which proved especially interesting. It was called "A Picture of Strathearn in Perthshire; or, a topographical description of its scenery, antiquities, & c. chiefly from Crieff to Lochearnhead. Interspersed with ancedotes." The book was written by "John Brown, Teacher of English, Writing, and Accounts, St.Fillan's, Comrie"</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and published in 1823. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think John Brown must have been an interesting person, and I wonder if I shall ever find out anything more about him, but that will have to wait for another day. I always feel very grateful to those nineteenth and early twentieth century local history fiends, who preserved so much interesting information. It was thanks to a German local historian, Father Krause, that the legends of Bad Münstereifel that inspired my novel <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vanishing-Katharina-Linden-Helen-Grant/dp/0141325739">The Vanishing of Katharina Linden</a></i> were preserved for posterity. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Anyway, one particular passage in this book was of especial interest to me, and that was the part about the Dunira estate in Comrie, not far from where we live. One of my recent walks through the Perthshire countryside took me past the remains of old <a href="https://canmore.org.uk/site/164118/dunira-house">Dunira House</a>, built in 1851-2 for Sir David Dundas, a.k.a. Viscount Melville. The property had stunning formal gardens laid out in the 1920s by Thomas Mawson. The house itself was mostly destroyed by fire in 1948, and eventually demolished within the last two decades. All that remains of it is the border of the terrace on which it stood, and overgrown staircases like the one pictured below. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kDAJdLOiQ7E/WMawJfVtE3I/AAAAAAAADko/1xEOmt1vyZAgQqYPrQ1uugbjT79Yt86lwCLcB/s1600/IMG_2409.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kDAJdLOiQ7E/WMawJfVtE3I/AAAAAAAADko/1xEOmt1vyZAgQqYPrQ1uugbjT79Yt86lwCLcB/s320/IMG_2409.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of the gardens, somewhat more remains. Some years ago, they were briefly restored as part of a TV series - you can see the episode in question here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb3KtWYpLtc">Lost Gardens - episode 5</a>. It is still possible to pick out features such as fountain and pond. (NB since I wrote this blog post, the YouTube channel on which this programme was available has been terminated, so it is no longer available. 20/4/17)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You can see a photograph of the house itself on the <a href="https://canmore.org.uk/site/164118/dunira-house?display=image">Canmore database </a>alongside the architectural plans and some modern pictures of the site. The photograph is from about 1900. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The house of 1851 was actually a replacement for a previous house at a different (but nearby) location, which had been prone to flooding. You can read more about that in Edward Rushworth's interesting <a href="http://www.rushworth.com/dunira/">History of Dunira</a>. Given that </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"A Picture of Strathearn in Perthshire" was published in 1823, it would be that previous house to which the book refers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is what it says:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Pursuing his tour for nearly a mile, with tall, flourishing plantations, and rich, level pasture-grounds on his left and right, the stranger at length arrives at the only open spot of the road from which a full view of the princely seat, velvet lawns, and variegated domains of</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">DUNIRA</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">is enjoyed. He will readily admit, that it would be difficult to find a spot in Scotland so singularly well adapted, in all respects, as the honourable retreat of a man who had figured so long and so conspicuously in the councils of the nation, and cabinet of his sovereign, as did its once noble proprietor, the late eminent statesman, profound politician, and patriotic Scotsman, Lord Viscount Melville. During a period the most critical and eventful in the history, and as regarded the destiny, of Europe, Lord Melville assisted in directing the helm of public affairs – and when he had at length resolved, at an advanced age, to retire from the fatigue and bustle of a public, to enjoy the peace and tranquility of a private country life, he made choice of the charming recess of Dunira as a fit place for spending the remainder of his days, and viewing with composure, the mighty events on the continent of Europe, resulting from the measures of himself and colleagues, when one of the heads of administration. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dunira House is a large square building, only about thirty years old, and designed somewhat in the ancient palace style, - the four fronts corresponding in height, and nearly so in breadth. They are studded with eighty-four windows, which, when darted upon by the sun's rays, as he declines to the western horizon, - assisted by the cheerful, whitened walls of the stately edifice, - the beautiful level green stretching for half a mile in front, encircled with a profusion of the thickest foliage, and of every hue, - the whole closely surrounded with mountains of stupendous height, covered with wood almost to the very summits, - form altogether a scene so enchanting, lively, and magnificent, as to defy the ablest pen or pencil to convey but a very inadequate idea of.*</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Such as may feel inclined, and are at leisure to survey these premises more particularly, will be amply accommodated with private walks for that purpose. It is ascertained, that within the compass of less than two miles from the house, there are of these, measuring one with another, more than thirty miles in extent! They are in some places cut out of the solid rock, when leading to ravines, waterfalls (of which last there is a very curious one a little above the house,) fog-houses, or arbours, open rocky promontories, & c. The occasional views commanded from these situations, are romantic in the extreme; and indeed it require a whole summer day to do justice to the interesting environs of Dunira."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">* A rather enticing footnote is inserted here, reading as follows:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">"</span><span lang="DE" style="text-indent: -18pt;">In one of the apartments of Dunira House,
is an article of furniture singularly curious and valuable, being no other than
the identical JEWEL CASKET which once belonged to the celebrated Indian prince
HYDER ALLY, and which General Sir David Baird obtained among other precious
spoil, when the cruel despot's stronghold at Seringapatam was at length totally
demolished, after he himself had fallen in its defence, and amidst part of its
ruins. Sir David made a gift of this splendid relic to his noble friend and
countryman, the late Lord Melville. It is difficult to convey, by writing, an
idea either of its construction or value. Its hinges, supporters, massy
handles, and several large plates, are all of the purest gold! – And the
various other materials of which it is built, are made to blend together by
knobs and branches so exquisitely minute, and yet with the exactest order and
design, as to render it an object of admiration, and one of the greatest
curiosities ever brought to this country. Leave to see it may be obtained by
application at the house."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="DE" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="DE" style="text-indent: -18pt;">I wonder what became of that jewel casket! Certainly it did not meet its end in the fire of 1948 because the estate had long since changed hands by then. Incidentally, there is a <a href="https://art.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5685">very large painting in the Scottish National Gallery</a> in Edinburgh, depicting Sir David Baird at Seringapatam, lording it over the body of Tipu Sultan, the son of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore. Presumably this was shortly before he pocketed all the loot, including the golden casket. </span></span><br />
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<span lang="DE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: -18pt;">I have probably thought about Sir David Baird more often than anyone sensibly should, because there is a monument to him close to Crieff, and the path to it is one of our favourite summer walks (there are raspberries to be picked on the way back). It takes the form of a large obelisk situated at the top of the small hill called Tom A' Chaisteil (left). The area is very overgrown, especially in the summertime. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="DE" style="text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="DE" style="text-indent: -18pt;">A few miles along the road in Comrie there is another hilltop obelisk, this one dedicated to that same Lord Melville to whom Sir David Baird presented the jewel casket. We have often idly speculated that the pair of them were trying to outdo each other ("my obelisk is bigger than yours"). </span></span><br />
<span lang="DE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="DE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Where, you may ask, is all this going? And I should have to answer: nowhere in particular. I simply love poking about in historic sites, and identifying the traces of history that proliferate everywhere. I love that "Ozymandias moment" of melancholy that comes from contemplating something that was once grand and important and is now largely forgotten. I love visiting abandoned places, and listening to the silent tales they tell. </span><br />
<span lang="DE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="DE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-indent: -18pt;">If I ever find out anything more about John Brown, I shall be sure to let you know. </span><br />
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-->Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5837192229926922586.post-16582740900356674792017-01-20T03:39:00.001-08:002017-01-20T03:39:21.033-08:00The Antiquary and the Crocodile: M.R.James resources<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dbLVuz-BjZ4/WIHmObabYYI/AAAAAAAADiw/ht_p4umHbP0dzjEtGfyHBOZ-Zaf3B5igwCLcB/s1600/antiquarycrocodile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dbLVuz-BjZ4/WIHmObabYYI/AAAAAAAADiw/ht_p4umHbP0dzjEtGfyHBOZ-Zaf3B5igwCLcB/s320/antiquarycrocodile.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
As anyone who has read my blog before probably knows by now, I have been a big fan of the ghost story writer M.R.James since I was a child. I love the subtle and disturbing nature of his stories, expressed so restrainedly but often very gruesome when you look behind that elegant phrasing - face sucked off by tentacled creature, anyone?<br />
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One of MRJ's stories, <i><a href="http://www.thin-ghost.org/items/show/159">The Treasure of Abbot Thomas</a></i>, was part of the inspiration for my novel <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glass-Demon-Helen-Grant-x/dp/0141325763/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1484909195&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=the+glass+demon+helen+grant">The Glass Demon</a>, </i>which is about a set of haunted stained glass windows created by the same master craftsman who made the ones in MRJ's story. (MRJ's windows were real ones, however, from Steinfeld Abbey; mine are fictitious.)<br />
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I've also occasionally dabbled in Jamesian stories - <i>Alberic de Mauleon</i>, a prequel to <i>Canon Alberic's Scrap-book, </i>appeared in <i>The Ghosts and Scholars Book of Shadows 1</i>, and <i>The Third Time</i>, a sequel to <i>A Neighbour's Landmark</i>, appeared in <i>The Ghosts and Scholars Book of Shadows 2.</i> I have also written a completion to MRJ's unfinished tale <i>The Game of Bear</i> - it appeared in the <i>M.R.James Ghosts and Scholars Newsletter</i> and was later republished in my collection <i><a href="http://www.swanriverpress.ie/seachange.html">The Sea Change and Other Stories</a>. </i>So my love of MRJ's stories has been quite creatively stimulating for me.<br />
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What I never really envisaged was that I would also end up writing quite a lot of non-fiction articles about M.R.James! It came about because of an accident of geography. We moved to Germany in 2001 and found ourselves living very close to Steinfeld Abbey, so I visited it, and wrote an article about the ways in which the real-life abbey differs from the imagined version of it in <i>The Treasure of Abbot Thomas</i>. This led me to visit some of MRJ's other foreign story locations, and write about those too. One thing led to another, and by 2008 I had eight published articles about MRJ and his work, all of which appeared in the <i>M.R.James Ghosts and Scholars Newsletter</i>.<br />
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A large proportion - but not all - of my articles are still available on the <i>Ghosts and Scholars </i>website, and some of them are available on my blog. However, I have long had it in mind that it would be a great idea to collect them all into one inexpensive eBook, so that anyone who shares my unreasonable passion for the ghost stories of M.R.James can read them easily and conveniently. I finally found time recently to do this, and the result is a kindle book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N5R6HHD/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1484855933&sr=1-1">The Antiquary and the Crocodile</a>. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Although <i>The Antiquary and the Crocodile</i> is a collection of non-fiction articles, I took the decision to include as a "fiction extra" my completion of MRJ's <i>The Game of Bear.</i> The story first appeared in the <i>M.R.James Ghosts and Scholars Newsletter, </i>and was later reprinted in <i>The Sea Change and Other Stories. </i>It was also republished in <i>Weird Tales</i> in 2014. Periodically I receive enquiries from people who have a particular interest in MRJ and would like to read my completion of it out of curiosity, so it seemed a good idea to include it in the eBook. I also feel that in some ways the story belongs with my other writings about M.R.James, because writing it was the one occasion when I consciously tried to meld my literary style with MRJ's (a task which, frankly, seems a bit terrifyingly ambitious in retrospect!).<br />
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Anyway, I very much hope that <i>The Antiquary and the Crocodile</i> will prove interesting and useful to both scholars and fans of M.R.James's ghost stories. The crocodile on the front cover, by the way, is the actual stuffed crocodile hanging on the cathedral wall at St. Bertrand de Comminges, as described in <i>Canon Alberic's Scrap-book. </i>My father William Bond took the photograph when we visited Comminges.<br />
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<br />Helenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06694255848074064936noreply@blogger.com3