Source: Christmas Spirits
Month: November 2015
Christmas Spirits
I’m delighted to welcome the first guest on my new blog: fellow Crooked Cat author Shani Struthers, whose latest novel, Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story, is published today! Tell us all about it, Shani …..
Thank you for hosting me on your blog today! My new book, Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story launches on the 24th November on Amazon and is the prequel to the popular Psychic Surveys series. Featuring two of the Psychic Surveys team – Theo Lawson and Vanessa Patterson – it’s set between 1899 and 1999 and is loosely inspired by a true event.
In my fictional re-telling, Theo and Ness are asked to investigate a town weighed down by the sorrow of what happened 100 years before…
Blurb: What do you do when a whole town is haunted?
In 1899, in the North Yorkshire market town of Thorpe Morton, a tragedy occurred; 59 people died at the market hall whilst celebrating Christmas Eve, many of them children. One hundred years on and the spirits of the deceased are restless still, ‘haunting’ the community, refusing to let them forget.
In 1999, psychic investigators Theo Lawson and Ness Patterson are called in to help, sensing immediately on arrival how weighed down the town is. Quickly they discover there’s no safe haven. The past taints everything.
Hurtling towards the anniversary as well as a new millennium, their aim is to move the spirits on, to cleanse the atmosphere so everyone – the living and the dead – can start again. But the spirits prove resistant and soon Theo and Ness are caught up in battle, fighting against something that knows their deepest fears and can twist them in the most dangerous of ways.
They’ll need all their courage to succeed and the help of a little girl too – a spirit who didn’t die at the hall, who shouldn’t even be there…
Excerpt
As Theo turned round to face the double doors, she had a feeling that someone – something – was rushing at her, as fleetingly as whatever had been in Adelaide’s house. Refusing to let fear get a stranglehold, she turned back, her aim to confront it. A black wisp of a shape, like wood smoke, sideswiped her, before fading into nothing. Staring after it, wondering what it was, something else caught her attention. At the far end of the second room was something more substantial: a little girl, staring at her.
Theo’s eyes widened. “Oh darling, darling,” she whispered. She took a step forwards, tried to remember the names of the children on the list from earlier: Alice, Helen, Bessie, Adelaide’s ancestor, Ellen Corsby perhaps. Which one was she?
She inched closer still. “Darling, your name, tell me what it is.”
The little girl’s arms moved upwards, she stretched them out, her manner beseeching although she remained mute. Theo tried again, told the child her own name.
“It’s short for Theodora. I bet you’re called something pretty.”
The girl had a dress on; long, brownish, a course material – linen perhaps? Nothing special but if it was her party dress then maybe it was special to her. Her boots were brown too – lace ups, sturdy looking. She was around eight or nine but it was hard to tell. She could have been older just small for her age. Her hair was brown and tangled; she had a mane of it. Everything about her seemed to be brown or sepia, maybe sepia was the right word, as though she’d stepped out of an old photograph.
“I’m here now, sweetheart, I’ve come to help. You’ve been here for such a long time. Too long. You need to go to the light, go home, rest awhile.”
Up closer, Theo could read her eyes. The longing in them stirred her pity.
“Let me help you,” Theo persisted, her voice catching in her throat. As glorious as the other side might be, she still felt it unfair to be felled at such a young age. Often this was a good existence too and it deserved to be experienced fully.
She was close now, so close and still her arms were outstretched.
Harriet – the name presented itself whole in her mind.
“Your name’s Harriet. Is that correct? It’s lovely, it suits you.”
Was that a smile on the child’s lips, the beginnings of trust? Soon she’d be able to reach out and touch her. What would she feel like? Cold? Ethereal?
“Darling, I’m here,” she repeated, no more than a foot between them. “I’m here.”
Joy surged – one spirit had come forward – it was an encouraging start.
Just before their hands touched everything changed. Hope and joy were replaced with confusion as something sour – fetid almost – rose up, making her feel nauseous.
“Don’t be afraid,” Theo implored. Yet there was nothing but fear in her eyes now. No, not fear, that was too tame a word – terror.
“I’m not here to harm you,” she continued. “I’m here to help.”
As the words left her mouth, other hands appeared behind the child, a whole sea of them – disembodied hands that clawed at her, forcing her backwards.
“No!” Theo shouted. “Stop it. Leave her alone!”
But it was no use. Her words faded as the girl did. She’d been torn away, recaptured; the one who’d dared to step forward. Theo could feel sweat break out on her forehead, her hands were clammy. She clutched at her chest, her breathing difficult suddenly, laboured. Her heart had been problematic of late, a result of the pounds she’d piled on. She must go to the doctor to get some medication. Struggling to gain control, it took a few moments, perhaps a full minute, before her heart stopped hammering. And when it did, she remembered something else. The girl’s eyes – her sweet, brown, trusting eyes – when the expression changed in them they hadn’t been looking at her, they’d been looking beyond her. Was it at the thing that sideswiped her? Theo couldn’t be certain. She wasn’t certain either if that ‘thing’ was a spirit or much less than that – something with no soul, but with an appetite, an extreme appetite: a craving. Something, she feared, was insatiable.
Eve
Author Bio
Brighton-based author of paranormal fiction, including UK Amazon Bestseller, Psychic Surveys Book One: The Haunting of Highdown Hall. Psychic Surveys Book Two: Rise to Me, is also available and due out in November 2015 is Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story – the prequel to the Psychic Surveys series. She is also the author of Jessamine, an atmospheric psychological romance set in the Highlands of Scotland and described as a ‘Wuthering Heights for the 21st century.’
Psychic Surveys Book Three: 44 Gilmore Street is in progress.
All events in her books are inspired by true life and events.
Catch up with Shani via her website http://www.shanistruthers.com or on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.
Facebook Author Page: http://tinyurl.com/p9yggq9
Twitter: https://twitter.com/shani_struthers
Blog: http://shanisite.wordpress.com/
Goodreads http://tinyurl.com/mq25mav
Welcome to my new blog!
To any readers who don’t know me yet, welcome! My name is Tim Taylor. I write historical and contemporary novels as T. E. Taylor), and also poetry and the occasional short story. This blog will mostly be about writing – my own and other people’s – though I may sometimes stray into other areas that interest me, such as music. You can find out more about me, my books and my other interests on my website (tim.e.taylor.co.uk).
Those who do know me will probably also know that I am not new to blogging. When I set up my website a couple of years ago, I thought I’d set up a blog at the same time. So I created a blog on there, and I’ve been posting every couple of weeks or so ever since. That was all very well, but I’ve come to realise that an ordinary website page is not an ideal platform for a blog. It doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles you get on a dedicated blogging site and it can be a bit clunky to edit.
So after much procrastination I have finally got round to setting up a brand new, stand-alone blog. Here you will find my latest news; snippets of my writing – poems, short stories, extracts from novels; opinions on matters related to writing; factual posts on the historical and other issues relevant to my writing; and guest posts from other authors (watch this space for a post from fellow Crooked Cat author Shani Struthers on 24 November about her new novel Eve: A Christmas Ghost Story). Old blog posts will continue to be available on my website for some time to come.
Tim's Blog 