Monthly Archives: March 2021

New Cover: Spectre of Springwell Forest

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For complicated legal reasons I won’t bore you with, three of my gothic mystery novels, Spectre of Springwell Forest, The Irresistible Summons, and Phantom Audition, have been unavailable for the last three months. However, the good news is they are due for re-release this April, with new covers.

Here is one of the new covers, for Spectre of Springwell Forest.

All three of the new covers were designed by the excellent Yasmine Nuoraho. In this case, she prepared a splendidly unnerving image of the abandoned railway tunnel described in the novel. If you can make out something emerging from the tunnel, then… Well, read on and you’ll understand why you might want to be a little concerned.

The novel opens in Exeter, 2010. Lily Parker learns that her daughter Olivia is to move to the village of Springwell, near Plymouth. To the surprise of her husband Andy, this sends Lily into terrified despair. She tells him that Olivia must not move to Springwell, under any circumstances. Andy wants to know why, and Lily tells him what happened to her many decades previously, in 1979, warning him that she has a horrifying secret that she had previously hoped to take with her to the grave.

In 1979, Lily and her then six-year-old daughter Olivia, along with her first husband Tom Henderson, move to the sleepy village of Springwell. Here they meet a tight- lipped community of secretive villagers who seem to have something to hide. Lily discovers a painting of an abandoned railway tunnel in her attic, by a local artist, Alison Merrifield. Lily is strangely drawn to the painting, particularly the dark maw of the tunnel, and ends up hanging the picture in her hallway.

After meeting her neighbour and other mothers dropping their children at the local primary school, Lily is surprised to learn they all have similar paintings in their homes, all of them painted by Alison Merrifield, all of them showing the same abandoned railway tunnel. The other mothers dismiss this as something of a village in-joke, and when Lily visits Alison in her local craft shop, Alison herself insists she cannot understand why the paintings of the abandoned tunnel are so popular. But Lily senses she is being lied to.

Shortly afterwards, when Lily and Olivia go for a walk in the local forest, they come across a fenced off area in the heart of the woods where the barbed wire has been mysteriously torn apart. Investigating further inside the fenced off section, they discover the very same abandoned railway tunnel of the painting and enter the tunnel. A disturbing incident follows (which I won’t spoil).

After this incident, back home, Lily starts to make out a mysterious figure emerging from the railway tunnel in the painting. As time passes, the eerie figure becomes more clearly defined, but Lily is disturbed to discover no-one can see it but her. Worse still, as the sinister figure is revealed, Olivia starts to behave in an increasingly alarming manner.

Intrigued? You’ll be able to pick up the new edition of Spectre of Springwell Forest from Amazon and Smashwords very soon. Watch this space.

Writing Update

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With 2021 well underway, here’s an update on my various writing endeavours.

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Firstly, and most importantly, I’m now ten chapters (about 40,000 words) into writing my latest novel; a sequel to a still unreleased contemporary children’s horror/dark fairy tale I wrote in 2014, entitled The Faerie Gate. The new novel is yet to be titled, but it wasn’t originally conceived as a sequel. During the planning stages, I realised the narrative dovetailed perfectly in the universe of The Faerie Gate. It is set several decades later (in our future), and is a much bigger, more epic story. In fact, it could even end up being two or even three volumes, which means The Faerie Gate will be to the new story to what The Hobbit is to The Lord of the Rings. It’s a hugely ambitious undertaking, which I’ll keep chipping away at throughout this year, and probably beyond.

My most recent novel Peaceful Quiet Lives continues to bring in good reviews, and this post contains links to various articles exploring the novel from lots of perspectives.

This April, my currently unavailable gothic mystery horror/thrillers Spectre of Springwell Forest, The Irresistible Summons, and Phantom Audition are due for re-release with all new covers. More information on that next week.

I’ve also written a new short story, entitled Trial Period. It’s an unusual piece that takes a satirical look at being made redundant, and the peculiarities of the modern job market. It evolves into a tale of odd-couple mentorship and friendship between the protagonist – a white, middle-aged former publishing professional – and his co-worker, a young black woman with untapped literary talent. Whilst working for the marketing department of a herbal remedy company, they eventually discover a sinister conspiracy.

Trial Period might be published on Medium at some point in the future. Speaking of which, I’m now very active on that platform, contributing to publications including Frame Rated, Cinemania, The Writing Cooperative, Writer’s Blokke, and Illumination. I’ve also had an article published in the Guardian earlier this year, so all things considered, not a bad start to 2021.

Peaceful Quiet Lives: Summary of Recent Articles

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Here’s a one-stop-shop with links to all you need to know about my latest novel, dystopian romantic satire Peaceful Quiet Lives.

What’s it about? Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

Two Nations Under God. Can their love survive in either nation?

Life, love, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are a distant dream for Sam and Eve. Their forbidden love falls foul of laws in both nations born from the ashes of the Second American Civil War.

A satire of political and religious fears, Peaceful Quiet Lives is a thought-provoking and powerful dystopian future shock.

Intrigued? Want to know more? Check out these articles:

The First 400 Words

“The morality inspectors are late.”

Read the opening paragraphs to whet your appetite.

Themes

“The central idea – regarding opposite extreme authoritarian states being two sides of the same militant coin – I thought would make an intriguing backdrop for a doomed romance. But I also wanted the novel to be a satire of the worst fears of both sides in the US culture wars.”

I outline my intentions for the novel, whilst making clear it isn’t a political statement.

Influences and Inspirations

“Orwell’s masterpiece casts a long shadow over all modern dystopian fiction, and to not acknowledge it would be disingenuous.”

The literature that informed Peaceful Quiet Lives.

The Cover

“Given that the subject matter is outside my usual gothic horror or children’s adventure oeuvre, it really needed to stand out.”

Designing the cover, through various alternative images, before settling on the final version.

A Second Excerpt

“You will be expected here, at the Department of Tolerance, to begin your Enlightenment Conditioning classes tomorrow morning at nine o’clock sharp.”

An extract from the second half of the novel.

Setting, Research, and Revisions

“At first, I feared the ideas for my novel would be too ridiculous even for a satire, but real life was always three steps ahead of me.”

An insight into the development of the novel, including deleted chapters, and research into extreme political movements.

Love and Other Punishments

A short story companion piece to Peaceful Quiet Lives, published in Illumination (a publication on Medium).

How Will You React?

“I’ve had people tell me it’s gripping, romantic, satirical, darkly funny, deadly serious, disturbing, offensive, timely, too-soon, desperately sad, and an important warning.”

An overview of reviews and reactions so far.

Peaceful Quiet Lives is available as a download or paperback from Amazon. Order your copy here (in the UK), or here (in the US). You can also order from Smashwords here.