The Curse of Heatherwell House (Working Title) came from a slightly different place than many of the other stories in this collection. When I decided that I was going to put together a collection of short stories with the theme of Gothic Horror, I quizzed Clemency on what would scare her. She said “zombies”. Not the easiest thing to work with for Gothic Horror – give me a ghost any day. Here are some thoughts about how I went about creating The Curse of Heatherwell House … Once I had spoken to Clem about the things she finds scary – and discovered which of my back catalogue she found the creepiest – I started to get an idea for a story. It involved a vicar (obviously the younger son of a wealthy family, as all these Gothic vicars seem to be) who took over gravedigging responsibilities because the rest of his parish were too sick to do it. I was pleased with the premise – and perhaps it will turn into another story. Watch this space… But there was one major sticking problem: whils...
Picture 1: One Notebook of Many
I love notebooks, and have many. In fact, at some point I will need a whole room just for holding my notebooks! I have lovely ones that have been gifted to me, or ones that I have bought as souvenirs. I also have some plain exercise books, and these actually tend to have been used more.
This picture is of my Projects book - and you're looking at the first page in the Writing section. This is a list of all the stories I have on the go, with some labelled as "finished". The Backwater doesn't appear on here because that was already completed by the time I started the list.
Some of these will get finished, but I'm guessing more won't! Still, they are nice to pop back to whenever the mood takes me!
Picture 2: Did I Mention...? Exciting!
As you will have heard already if you watched my crazy interview, I was absolutely thrilled to bits to be announced as a Finalist in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards.
The Backwater was written originally as a radio play but, because I was really just winging it with regards to formatting etc (I've yet to master playwriting), I reinvented it as a novella. I was just pleased when I had finished it and thrilled when it was published by Crowvus. I had no idea that it would prove to be so popular!
Picture 3: Motivation Can Be Found in Many Places
I got these pens in my stocking from Father Christmas a couple of years ago. There were all sorts of different pieces of advice ("Show Not Tell") and motivation, like this one. As well as loving notebooks, I also adore stationery - I found some lovely gel pens in Tesco the other day for £0.38 and was just unrealistically excited (in fact, I was so excited that I think I might be repeating a story I shared already!).
Pens are motivational anyway - all that potential creative energy! - but pens with motivational comments on them? Perfect!
Picture 4: Imagination Brought to Life
This picture was commissioned by Clemency for me as a present. I love it - it's a scene from one of my stories (Honour's Rest), which isn't yet ready for the public domain. It was a story that was based on a dream I had, and I wrote in a very short space of time - I have never known the muse descend like that!
Clemency, Ginny and Mum (the only people who have read the book so far) all enjoyed it, and I was very touched when Clemency commissioned this picture of the kelpie and the castle of Honour's Rest.
Picture 5: A Love of Writing Nurtured Young
This is a swodgerump. As much as I would love to claim it as my own, it was actually created by my mum, Susan Crow. The Rosie Jane stories were written by Mum for all of her children (although I don't think all of us were born when they started).
As well as being genuinely wonderful in its own right, the fact that Mum wrote and shared stories with us taught us to engage our imaginations and have the confidence to start writing our own stories.
This swodgerump (which may have started the day as a boring old Granny Smith apple) symbolises the very early encouragement I (and my siblings) had to create new worlds, people and creatures to make the world a better and more exciting place.
Love this blog. So honest and open. A good read.
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