I'm not the Crowvus writer who publishes horror. I've appreciated the brilliant books by Judith Crow, but I know it's not something I can write. The supernatural is different. People will - quite rightly - tell you that horror can encompass the supernatural, but the supernatural is not only confined to that genre. The supernatural, by definition, have their roots in the natural. In the case of ghosts, they were once alive, now having transcended from the natural (i.e. worldly) existence, into the supernatural on an unknown plain. The best ghost stories (my opinion only!) are the ones which unite the natural and the supernatural, looking at the shadows and imprints left on the natural world by those now occupying the supernatural one. In essence, when I read through the submissions for the Crowvus Christmas Ghost Story Competition , I'm looking for the human aspect of the story. I love the idea of ghosts trapped in time, I love the idea of ghosts trying to commune with ...
Well, this is the last #HistFicThursday blog before I launch Beneath A Darkening Sky at an event in Thurso on Monday 13th. Shame it couldn't be a Friday 13th, but we can't have everything!
One thing is for certain: October is the spookiest month. And not just because we have Halloween. Halloween could be a day later and October would still be the spookiest month...
Look at how the light retreats at this time of the year: up here, the seasons' turning drains away the daylight at a rate of 2.5hours over the course of this month! Up here, anyway. Our ancestors knew, a long time before they tracked time using clocks, that this month we now call October was a time to look back at what has been and ahead to how we will survive the winter.
Is it any wonder then that, with generations of people looking back, October became a month for souls and spectres? People we have loved and lost come back to visit our hearts, imaginations - and, perhaps, our homes - as we recall autumns of the past. The smell of the coal smoke rippling through our living room chimney and into the ever-more-sparse garden will always transport me directly back to my childhood.
I remember walking home from school, dodging the wet leaves in the marketplace and being drawn towards the smell of the fire at home. 500 miles and million years ago now: the ghosts of friends and neighbours, long-lost through death or distance, swirl around me as I stand in the time and place I am privileged to find myself in now.
And, of course, it is a small step from these ghosts to the ones conjured in my imagination. The darker ones. The ones who will find lurking within the pages of Beneath A Darkening Sky. These ghosts and goblins have been conjured with the mischievous intent of summoning a shiver to stretch down your spine. But, as with all gothic literature, they also play their role in exploring the very real - and very dark - things of which human beings are capable.
The ghosts of the gothic world cannot exist without the cruelty and suffering of the living. My S3 class, who spent weeks studying The Tell-Tale Heart with me - would be able to tell you that "psychological depth" is just as important to gothic literature as "supernatural elements".
Beneath A Darkening Sky does not just contain stories of the supernatural, it contains stories which analyse and critique the human condition.
So, embrace the spooky season by popping along to Spellbound Caithness on Monday to buy and copy of the book, or by ordering online here. Just be warned: there are ghosts and goblins waiting to make themselves known to you.
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