As it's National Poetry Day, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on Byron. The celebrity cult of Lord Byron began while he was still alive, boomed when he died, and still continues today. He remains an object of fascination, scandal, and appeal. I've been interested in him since I first read about him in a "Famous People" encyclopaedia. It was a children's book, so it did not explore the more infamous aspects of his life. But it was enough to inspire me to delve further into research on the man and the myth - including the puzzle of the mirror . Ultimately, Byron went on to become a major inspiration for my first published book Day's Dying Glory , right down to its title. His early poems (generally my favourite ones) feature heavily in the book, and I enjoyed weaving in lines and references which Byron-fans would spot where others might not even notice them. Poets and poetry have inspired hundreds of writers. It is fascinating that language can be so power...
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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