Albert Brownlow is a collector of ghost stories, although he has never
found one that has rung true. Until now.
In the village of Amblesford lies a house, known for miles around as a place of
ill omen, where the stench of death hangs in the air and the shadow of the
hanging tree can be seen by the light of the full moon. Into this fell place
comes the ghost writer, an antiquarian and writer of tall tales, whose
curiosity leads him to darker places than even his imagination can
conjure…
This is a story of hubris, loneliness, and friendship. It is a story of dark
deeds and darker souls that can haunt a place beyond all reason.
It is a story of death.
Earlier this year, I wrote a ghost story.
This wasn’t for any particular reason, other than the
fact that I wanted to write something a bit scary, and short-form, for my own
enjoyment rather than on-commission, as so many short stories are. There was an
element of an academic exercise to it, too, because I really wanted to write
something in the style of my horror hero, M. R. James. For that reason, the
story is set in days gone by (I plumped for the 1920s), and features an
antiquarian getting himself into a spot of supernatural bother.
As I wrote, the story took on a life of its own. It went
through seven iterations, eventually becoming rather long—too long, in fact, to
be considered a short story any more. And so my novelette was born. I call it
The Ghost Writer.
The Ghost Writer is an English ghost story in the classic
style, albeit with a hard edge that might be more impactful to the modern
reader. I’ve gone for atmosphere rather than blood and guts, suggestion rather
than reveal, and a dash of ambiguity that I hope will have people discussing
the truth of the protagonist’s tale long after Halloween is passed.
Indeed, as Halloween is now upon us, and the season for
reading ghost stories is nigh, I’ve formatted and uploaded
The Ghost Writer to
various online booksellers (links to follow). It’s at this time of the year
that I always dig out my copy of
Ghost
Stories of an Antiquary or Walter de la Mare’s
Short Stories, and I’d encourage all of my readers to do the same,
because those gents really are the masters of an art form that has many
imitators but no true rivals. If
The Ghost Writer were to appear on your winter
reading list alongside one of those greats, I would be honoured indeed!
You can buy
The Ghost Writer from Amazon
here, or Smashwords
here,
in various digital formats.
