Tag Archives: Spectre of Springwell Forest

Title Announcement for my next novel (and other news)

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As well as promoting new releases Spectre of Springwell Forest and my short story Papercut (part of the First Love romantic fantasy anthology), I’ve made good use of the grim winter months writing another spooky mystery novel entitled (drumroll…) Phantom Audition.

St Johns Museum, Warwick

I struggled more than usual to find a title for this particular novel, even resorting to testing a few suggested titles on social media. But in the end, my closest friend suggested this title to me, and it stuck.

Phantom Audition revolves around Mia Yardley, a recently widowed bit-part actress grieving for her much more successful actor husband in his ancestral family mansion (like the one pictured above). Cryptic runes, a strange diary, a mysterious medium, and ghostly visions gradually lead to the unravelling of a sinister mystery. Is Mia being given a message from beyond the grave?

This novel sits more at the supernatural/psychological thriller end of my gothic thriller/horror spectrum, though there are still plenty of suspenseful, skin-crawling moments. I intend to beta test it very soon, and once that’s happened (and it’s been through various publisher hurdles), it should be available this October.

Before then I have another scary novel to unleash, called The Irresistible Summons. This is a haunted house story of a very different kind about which I will say no more at present, other than you can expect to have it in your hands in July.

In between those two releases, I might just release another short story. It all depends whether my somewhat offbeat submission to my publisher’s upcoming Coffins and Dragons anthology is accepted. Watch this space.

Spectre of Springwell Forest: Summary of Recent Articles

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SSF coverIf you haven’t yet picked up a copy of my ghost story mystery novel Spectre of Springwell Forest, why not give it a go? Here’s a one-stop shop with links to all the articles pertaining to this page-turning, spooky nail-biter.

Introduction to the novel

“Lily starts to make out a mysterious figure in the painting of the railway tunnel. As time passes, the eerie figure becomes more and more clearly defined, but Lily is disturbed to discover no-one can see it but her…”

Influences and Inspiration

“Two undoubted influences on the story are Susan Hill’s seminal The Woman in Black, and the shorts of ghost story par excellence author MR James…”

Trees, Tunnels and Toadstools

“I undertook research into hallucinogenic fungi for the novel (no, not that kind of “research”).”

Simple, Relatable Fears

“All great horror stories have, at their core, a simple and relatable fear which is then explored, exploited and exaggerated.”

Early reviews

A smattering of early review comments, including this one: “Spine-chilling, terrifying, absolutely gripping… a fantastic read, very well written.”

The Tangent Tree podcast interview

Samantha Stephen interviews me about Spectre of Springwell Forest and my writing in general. Listen on Spotify, iTunes, Podcast Addict or on the Tangent Tree website.

To order a paperback or e-book of Spectre of Springwell Forest click here (for the UK) and here (in the US).

Spectre of Springwell Forest – Initial Reviews

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Initial reviews for my ghost story mystery novel Spectre of Springwell Forest are starting to come in, and they are very positive so far.

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Here’s a sample from Amazon readers:

“A wonderful horror/thriller, which cannily interplays woo and rationality so that the reader can decide which explanation they favour. A creeping sense of unease starts almost immediately – even before you know what is to come you are shouting at Lily to leave well alone. Dillon writes excellently and believably as a 1st person female protagonist. The story is tightly written with little preamble which has a pleasingly sudden way of throwing you into this strange and disturbing village.”

“Carefully chosen words oozed from the text, creating a creepy feeling as the story went on. But the element of the novel that kept me turning the page was the suspenseful mystery and the attachment I felt to the mother protecting her child.”

“The story is slow-building and the spookiness develops in a subtle manner with an occasional BANG of fright. If you like subtle creepiness that builds as the story progresses, I’d recommend this. Good read for horror fans. Also good for those who enjoy sniffing out a mystery.”

“Spine-chilling, terrifying, absolutely gripping… a fantastic read, very well written.”

To order a paperback or e-book of Spectre of Springwell Forest click here (for the UK) and here (in the US).

Spectre of Springwell Forest: Simple Relatable Fears

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SSF coverAll great horror stories have, at their core, a simple and relatable fear which is then explored, exploited and exaggerated. In my opinion that is what makes for a really memorable scary tale, not blood and gore.

My new novel Spectre of Springwell Forest asks this simple question: how far would you be prepared to go, to protect your child? Would you run away from a possible supernatural threat? Or would you stand up it? What if you didn’t understand the evil force you were up against? Would you research it to try and find a way to defeat it, or would you think some questions don’t have good answers and run for it?

Lily Parker, the protagonist at the heart of the story, faces all the above questions. She is curious, but inwardly battles against a second instinct urging her to flee. In addition, her investigations take her to an increasingly lonely place. As she gradually asks questions, a breakdown in communication occurs within her marriage, alienating her from her sceptical husband.

The novel isn’t all mystery, suspense and scares. I make room for a few slightly satirical moments. For instance, the competitiveness of parents of primary school children and related playground politics, as well as some jokey nods to UK political history.

In addition, Spectre of Springwell Forest touches on the folly of mob justice, and one or two other questions concerning the precise nature of the supernatural force at the heart of the tale. I have always enjoyed horror stories that include enough ambiguity for the reader to bring their own interpretations. Despite the apparently inexplicable nature of events in the story, there are a few hints here and there that might just offer a more rational explanation, for those that want such a thing. Yes, it all builds to a shocking and unexpected finale, but even then… Well, I shall say nothing more, for fear of spoilers.

Spectre of Springwell Forest is out now. Pick up your copy here (in the UK) and here (in the US).

Spectre of Springwell Forest: Trees, Tunnels and Toadstools

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SSF coverFor all their supernatural shenanigans, I try to keep an air of realism (if not reality) in my horror stories, and my most recent novel Spectre of Springwell Forest is a case in point. To that end, I have tried to base the story locations on real places with which I am familiar. I have also conducted whatever research is necessary to try and maintain this illusion of realism.

I have had it pointed out to me that Springwell Forest is a real place in Northern Ireland. However, my Springwell Forest is not based there but in the south-west of Britain, in Devon near Plymouth, on the southern outskirts of Dartmoor. The village of Springwell draws inspiration from sleepy hamlets and villages such as Hemerdon and Sparkwell, which are located near where I live. It is also partly based on Aston in Oxfordshire, one of the places I lived as a child.

Springwell Forest is inspired by the woods near my house where I often go walking (deer are regularly seen there), but the abandoned railway tunnel is inspired by an area in Plymbridge woods, slightly further from where I live. I have never discovered magic mushrooms in these woods, but I undertook research into hallucinogenic fungi for the novel (no, not that kind of “research”).

Another question I am often asked concerns the subject of witchcraft, and how much research I did for those elements of the story. The simple answer is very little (at least, for this novel). The witchcraft element of the narrative is mostly made-up (and as far as I know, there is no secret society called the Pridwen Order in real life). However, because I wanted the story to have that afore-mentioned air of realism, I researched a few related subjects, such as differences between Wicca and witchcraft, and a handful of other elements that I won’t bore you with here.

Spectre of Springwell Forest is out now. Pick up your copy here (in the UK) and here (in the US).

Spectre of Springwell Forest – Influences and Inspiration

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What writers inspired my latest novel Spectre of Springwell Forest?

Two undoubted influences on the story are Susan Hill’s seminal The Woman in Black, and the shorts of ghost story par excellence author MR James (such as The Ash Tree and Oh Whistle And I’ll Come To You My Lad). There’s also a smidgeon of Don’t Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier present, along with a dash of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. In fact, pretty much all my favourite ghost stories have informed this novel in some way, shape or form.

In the case of The Woman in Black, one of the major inspirations was the structure of the novel, including the framing device, and the famously upsetting, terse finale. I’ve always loved the way that book begins in a more settled present; at Christmas (like my story) but with a sense that the apparent serenity of the present masks long buried pain. Certainly as Arthur Kipps recounts his bone-chilling visit to Eel Marsh House, it becomes apparent that he is opening wounds that have never really healed.

With Spectre of Springwell Forest, I wanted to capture something of this tone in the framing device structure, and with the nasty sting in the tail right at the end. Thematically my novel shares other DNA with The Woman in Black – the apparent threat to children, for instance. Don’t Look Now also deals with the death of children and the supernatural.

On the other hand, I didn’t want Spectre of Springwell Forest to be one hundred percent clear cut in its explanations. The Turn of the Screw has an ambiguity that has always appealed to me, and in my novel, amid the spooky shenanigans I wanted to hint that there might – just might – be a natural explanation.

In the case of MR James’s stories, it was more the terrifying tone of those tales that proved an influence, rather than plot specifics. His superbly suspenseful prose remains unsurpassed. If my book contains a tenth of the churning dread conjured by his writing, I will have done very well. Of course, my novel doesn’t set out to copy his work or the other afore-mentioned classics, but seeks to be its own beast.

Spectre of Springwell Forest is out now. Pick up your copy here (in the UK) or here (in the US).

Spectre of Springwell Forest – An introduction

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Spectre of Springwell Forest, my first novel published via a traditional publisher (as opposed to self-published) is out now.

A nail-biting, bone-chilling supernatural mystery, Spectre of Springwell Forest is a ghost story in the classical tradition, but with a number of important differences. Here is a more in-depth introduction to the story than I have previously written about on this blog.

SSF coverThe 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 absolutely must not move to Springwell, under any circumstances. Andy wants to know why, and Lily then 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 then 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… where something I won’t tell you about happens.

After this incident, Lily starts to make out a mysterious figure in the painting of the railway tunnel. As time passes, the eerie figure becomes more and 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…

Then things get really scary, building to a horrifying and unexpected finale.

I hope this introduction whets your appetite for the story.

Spectre of Springwell Forest is out now. Pick up your copy here (in the UK) and here (in the US).

Happy New Year 2019!

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Happy New Year!

2019

Last year was a hugely significant year for my writing, not least because my first novel to be published by a traditional publisher, Spectre of Springwell Forest, has now been released. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, what are you waiting for? Click here (for the UK) and here (for the US) and dive into a nail-biting ghostly mystery that will brighten up your January with page-turning suspense.

So what are my writing plans for 2019?

For a start, I have submitted a short story entitled Paper Cut for inclusion in the upcoming Dragon Soul Press romantic fantasy anthology First Love. More to be announced on that front in due course.

Aside from that, I have started writing my first novel for 2019 – an as yet untitled ghostly tale which is lighter on the terror than Spectre of Springwell Forest and The Thistlewood Curse, yet still falls neatly within the psychological/supernatural thriller/horror spectrum in which I greatly enjoy writing. I will keep my lips sealed on details so far… suffice to say it involves a famous dead actor, his rather less famous actress widow, a large sinister house, a medium, and a big mystery.

Also this year, I intend to finally stop procrastinating and write the science fiction novellas I have put off since mid-2017 (when I opted to write Echo and the White Howl instead). Those I really will say nothing about for now.

On top of that, I hope to have at least one other novel released this year, possibly horror mystery The Irresistible Summons which I wrote back in 2015, depending on what my publisher makes of it. Watch this space for more updates on that and other writing related matters throughout the year. Here’s hoping it’s a good one.

2018 in review

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At the risk of sounding like a nauseating Oscar acceptance speech, 2018 has been an extraordinary year for me, and I am very happy to have made a number of significant breakthroughs with my writing.

Novels and Short Stories

Firstly and most emphatically, my first novel ever released by a traditional publisher is out now. Courtesy of Dragon Soul Press, Spectre of Springwell Forest, is a ghostly gothic nail-biter with a creepy central mystery guaranteed to keep you turning the pages… until the horrible truth is revealed. You can order your copy here (in the UK) and here (in the US).

Dragon Soul Press is a US based independent publisher specialising in fantasy, science fiction and horror. They also publish anthologies. One of these, a horror anthology called All Dark Places, featured my short story Once in a Lifetime. They’ve got another anthology coming soon, a romantic fantasy volume called First Love, for which I have sent another short story entitled Paper Cut. I am waiting (fingers crossed) to see if I made the, er, cut…

Works in progress

I have also been occupied with these two novels, outside of my “comfort zone” thriller/horror genres. I didn’t write these concurrently, because obviously my poor brain can only cope with one thing at a time (walking and talking can be a challenge). Anyway,  fantasy I find particularly tricky. I love to read it, but writing it requires a very different level of focus.

Said fantasy novel, Ravenseed, is a brooding, melancholy tale of knights, sorcerers and enchantment, set in the Dark Ages, simmering with love, lust, betrayal and revenge.

The other genre I’ve dabbled in this year, is dystopian future-shock. Peaceful Quiet Lives is set in a future America, satirising both sides of the so-called culture wars. I’m going to stay tight-lipped on further details, for now.

On the blog

This year I’ve enjoyed covering lots of different topics. It’s always great to write on subjects I am passionate about, and hopefully spark a bit of debate. If you fancy giving any of these a re-read or missed them the first time round, here are some of my favourites.

The Lord of the Rings: book versus film
My Five Favourite Gothic Mysteries
Book reviews: the good, the bad and the ugly
Horror and Weepies: Two sides of the same coin?
The Power of Resurrection Narratives

The Tangent Tree

 

If you hadn’t already heard, I co-host a film podcast called The Tangent Tree, with Samantha Stephen.

You can find the website here, and you can listen on iTunes, Spotify, Podcast Addict and so on (or on the website itself).

There have been many people who helped and supported me this year. Thank you. You know who you are. 🙂

It only remains for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Spectre of Springwell Forest – out now!

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It’s finally here! My new novel, Spectre of Springwell Forest, is now available as a Kindle download (here in the UK, here in the US), and as an old fashioned paperback (here in the UK, here in the US).

SSF cover

My first novel to be published by Dragon Soul Press, Spectre of Springwell Forest is classic ghost story mystery that builds with gripping, slow-burn dread to a shattering finale with a devastating sting in the tail.

Here is the blurb from the back of the novel:

Lily Henderson has a horrifying secret buried far in her past. She hoped it would never be revealed. Now she has no choice.

To save her family, Lily must keep them from returning to the village of Springwell, where she lived with her first husband and young daughter decades previously.

In the past, after moving to Springwell, Lily encounters secretive locals, government scientists, and rumours of a ghost haunting the forest.

Are they linked to the mysterious deaths of local children? Do paintings by a local artist predict when tragic events are getting closer? Will Lily’s daughter be next?

“Two were taken. More will follow.”

Don’t forget to join me and other Dragon Soul Press authors for the online Spectre of Springwell Forest book launch event, live on Facebook here, today from 3pm – 8pm UK time/10am – 3am Eastern time. With games, giveaways and more, you really won’t want to miss out. I will host between 7pm and 8pm UK time.