Motivation to Publication – and beyond

Tag: ghost stories

Virtual Book Club Interview: Shadows of the Lost Child

This is just a quick post to say thanks to author Jane Davis for hosting me on the Virtual Book Club pages of her blog.

Here I get the chance to talk a bit about my writing but particularly about my second novel, Shadows of the Lost Child.

The book is a partly historical mystery set in a town loosely based on historic York, with a time travel angle.

The historical aspect explores the dark parts of Edwardian England, with poverty, prostitution and the pawn shop featuring; not to mention The Keepsake Arms, the local pub, where Miranda works.

We also meet Tom, a local boy, and one of the key characters, who comes from a tough part of town but is plucky, resourceful and loyal to his friends.

Then he meets Alice, and is wary but entranced.

Alice comes from the present day, but Tom doesn’t know that…

To find out more about Shadows and my writing, see the post on Jane’s blog.

And while you’re there, you might also want to check out Jane’s books – they look very intriguing…

Finally, find out more about Shadows of the Lost Child on Pinterest

Or on Amazon.

http://amzn.to/1as6vpk (UK)

http://amzn.to/1Tfu6bo (United States)

29 April 2016
Ghost Stories and Shadows Online
Firstly, thank you, all of you (1036 people – amazing!) who entered the recent Goodreads Giveaway for Shadows of the Lost Child, my most recent novel. Congratulations to the lucky winners, your book will be winging its way towards you soon; and commiserations to those who didn’t.

But the good news is… the ebook version is now on SALE, and for a limited time, is available at a reduced price: check it out here:

http://tinyurl.com/qdolfd6 (UK) & http://tinyurl.com/ks3ksng (U. States)

OR, via http://authl.it/B00NGSSVM2 (all countries).

I hope you enjoy it. There’s a missing boot, and a mystery to solve and a girl called Alice who crosses time to meet a boy called Tom – and will there be a happy ending? You’ll just have to read it!

In the meantime, here are two ghost stories – not unfortunately, with happy endings, but of interest, especially if you’ve been to Warwickshire. Don’t go alone!

The White Swan Hotel, Henley-in-Arden

Henley-in-Arden, not that far from Stratford-upon-Avon, is a small town, with one main High Street. On this street is the White Swan Hotel; the present building dates from around 1600, but there’s thought to have been an inn on this site since the 14th century. At one time the site was apparently a stopping point on the stage coach route between Birmingham and London.

The ghost was a woman called Virginia Black, who fell down the stairs, having quarrelled with a man in 1845. She may have been a ‘lady of the night’ and he may have been a client of hers. It’s said she roams the hotel’s corridor, lingering outside room 17…

In case you should visit the inn yourself, she hasn’t been seen for some time!

The inn was once the site of the local court, in the mid-late 19th century. The courtyard was used for public hangings, and a ghost was said to have lingered there for some years, after she was hung, for murder.

Charlecote Park

Also not far from Stratford-upon-Avon, is Charlecote Park, now a National Trust property and open to visitors. The house itself is said to be haunted, but so is the lake, by the ghost of a woman, possibly a servant, who may have drowned herself there in the past.

According to the story, her shadowy figure drifts from the house to the site of the lake, throws herself in, then disappears. Oddly enough, there’s never a splash, or ripples on the water.

Get your own ghosts and shadows to take home with an ebook version of Shadows of the Lost Child; now on SALE until Saturday 28 February. Available from Amazon at:

http://tinyurl.com/qdolfd6 (UK) & http://tinyurl.com/ks3ksng (U. States)

Article written by Ellie Stevenson, author.

This article is copyrighted material. Brief extracts including a link to this site can be quoted but the article must not be reproduced in full anywhere without the author’s written permission.

Sources
- Skinner, J. (compiler) Haunted Warwickshire: ghost stories, Bradwell Books, 2013 (The Francis Frith Collection).
- White Swan Hotel, Henley-in-Arden: website
Images
- White Swan Hotel, Henley-in-Arden, 2010 by Alexander P. Kapp
- Charlecote Park, 2013 by Karen.stepanyan
24 February 2015
Aleph’s House

On 18 February, I’ll be talking about my latest novel, Shadows of the Lost Child, at Acomb Library, York (UK). As you’ll know, if you’ve visited this blog before today, the novel is set in a fictional city, Curdizan, which was inspired by historic York.

At Acomb Library on 18th, apart from reading from the novel, I’ll be talking about York’s part in the story, including the legends and history of York, particularly focusing on Bedern and Hungate.

If you’re in the area and want to attend, contact Acomb Library on 01904 552651, email acomb@exploreyork.org.uk The event is on from 7-8 pm.

See you there!

—

‘No, Mr Jones, they weren’t tourists, or even the kids who live around here. The children you heard were the School Lane ghosts.’

Aleph Jones is one of the main characters in the novel. When writing about his (haunted?) home, I based it on this very real house in the picture below.

Sadly, this house is no longer there, but was once in Bedern, through the arch and not very far from Goodramgate.

Note that there is no suggestion that the original house was haunted!

Image courtesy of YAYAS (Evelyn Collection)

1 February 2015
Was Borley Haunted? It wasn’t just the house

You’ll know I’ve talked about Borley before, probably the most famous haunting of all. I thought I’d covered most of the story.

But it seems there’s always a little bit more and I wanted to share this snippet with you. For those who don’t know much about Borley Rectory, you can read the earlier posts here:

Borley Rectory: the house and its ghosts – part one

Borley Rectory: the house and its ghosts – part two

Now for the postscript.

A London journalist, Montague Eleman, who’d heard of the case while a serving soldier, hoped to sell his story to the dailies, and once demobbed, set off for Borley to see it for himself. He was a little bit late. By the time he got there it was 1946, and the house by then had been demolished. After walking around the rubble for a while and chatting to any people he could find, he left for London, carrying a piece of wood with him – the wood was charred (because of the fire) and possibly from the roof or the floor. The next nine years were something of a nightmare.

Arriving back in London that evening, he left the wood on the mantelpiece, in the room he used at his sister’s house and then went down to supper, alone. He heard a noise and when he looked up his sister was there, claiming she’d seen a nun in his bedroom. It didn’t stop there.

In the nights that followed, Eleman and his family heard quite a few noises, ranging from screams to a clock chiming, all quite close to where the wood was. But eventually, the noise settled down.

When several weeks later, Eleman moved and took up lodgings in a seaside town, there were several more incidents, the doorbell rang when no-one was there, and a dark-clad person crossed the landing. Needless to say, he’d brought the wood with him.

Eleman finally sussed that whenever he moved to a new location and took the wood, the disturbance increased, but then eased off, as if whatever it was that had been disturbed had now settled down. In 1955, after nine long years he gave the piece of timber away. Nobody knows where that wood is now.

Or maybe they do…

Borley’s story is quite exceptional, it transcends time, people and the place, as we’ve just seen. But this wasn’t the first time the haunting had extended beyond the house.

In 1928, (Guy) Eric Smith and his wife Mabel moved into Borley after being abroad. They didn’t know that other vicars had refused the living, because of the house’s reputation. Like other residents before and since, the Smiths experienced some strange incidents. A mirror on Mrs Smith’s dressing table began tapping whenever she came near it, and this continued after they left Borley.

Some years later, in 1937, the Smiths were living in a village in Kent, when they were visited by Sidney Glanville. Glanville was one of Price’s researchers. He held the mirror in his hands. A week after he’d visited the Smiths and held the mirror he received a letter asking if he’d brought a ghost with him because ‘the mirror has started tapping again.’ He never went back to the house to find out.

Ghosts aren’t always tied to a house.

My latest novel, a partly historical mystery, with a time travel element, also centres around a house: there are ghosts in the story, but are the ghosts connected to the house? You’ll have to read the book to find out…

Article written by Ellie Stevenson, author.

This article is copyrighted material. Brief extracts including a link to this site can be quoted but the article must not be reproduced in full anywhere without the author’s written permission.

Sources

Adams, P. & Brazil, E. Extreme Hauntings: Britain’s most terrifying ghosts, History Press, 2013

Glanville, S. The Strange Happenings at Borley Rectory (originally in American Fate magazine, 1951)

Images (Wikimedia Commons)

Borley Rectory before the fire

Borley Rectory as a ruin

17 January 2015
Books and More: at the Indie Author Fair at the Chorleywood LitFest

The last few weeks have been so busy, this blog has taken a bit of a back seat. But at last, I can talk a bit about my book. And Chorleywood Lit Fest.

Last weekend, I visited Chorleywood, not that I saw that much of the place, I was at the Indie Author Fair at the Chorleywood LitFest. Forty or so indie authors gathered together in a very small room, to share our work, with displays and readings, talking to readers, and also to each other. The room had a definite buzz, a life. At the end of the day we’d made new friends, and got to meet fellow ALLi* members, people we’d spoken to on Facebook or Twitter but never actually met in person. And a few we already knew.

It was great fun, and here I’ve shared a few photos of the day. Of people and books. Because that’s what ALLi’s all about – helping each other, sharing professional expertise, and building a platform to showcase our work. The range of titles there was amazing, as was the enthusiasm – thanks ALLi, for being such a great professional network.

And now to the book. My latest, partly historical novel, with a supernatural edge, is now out in print as well as in ebook. It’s set in a fictional city called Curdizan, in the present day, and also in the past, and centres on the story of a house. Which was once a school. In the present day, Aleph Jones, a troubled man with a dark secret he’s desperate to hide, is introduced to a girl called Alice, who won’t speak. Alice has a very special gift, she can cross time, and when she steps into the nineteenth century she meets a boy from the slums called Tom, and mystery, mayhem and death follow. There might even be a ghost or two in the story…

But let Tom tell you his story himself.

I should have been helping Miranda in the pub, but instead I went up to Curdizan High, to look for Louise. The High’s the part where the abbey is, as well as my school, although nothing about the place is high. I walked past the school and finally came to Pearson’s Tenements, that’s where she lives, but Louise wasn’t there, surprise, surprise. I wasn’t surprised, the place was a dump, but all the same, I had to look. The tenement building was tall and grim, tiny spaces joined by a stairway and open landings, the black of the open night in between. I thought they were more like rooms than landings, people’s possessions scattered about, rooms on the outside. I thought of escape.

I once saw a woman jump from a landing, far too high from the ground to be safe, but almost worse, too low to be dead, and gone in a flash. They patched her up, as best as they could, and she even went back to her room for a bit, but she never walked the same after that and not long after, finally died. I didn’t know it at the time, but her name was May, and she was also Louise’s ma. I never did learn which room she came from.

I shivered, scared in the black of the stairway, I knew I ought to go back, and soon. Miranda would be wondering where I was. But I’d promised old Pike I’d find Louise.

‘He’s Mister Pike,’ my ma would say, but she didn’t know Pike the way I knew him, he didn’t deserve to be called Mister. He was cold, indifferent and sometimes cruel; he’d said if I didn’t find Louise, he’d throw her out of the school for good, and she’d end up lost, like Miranda’s ma. I didn’t know what he meant by that, but I didn’t much like the way he’d said it, and I liked Louise, she wasn’t rough like most of the kids, and she lived in a flea pit, storeys high. If I had to live in Pearson’s Tenements, in amongst all the privy smells, I’m sure I’d forget to go to school. School would be just a dream or something.

I reached a landing, the fourth or fifth, I didn’t know which, so I tossed a huge stone over the edge, and counted until I heard it land. Although I’d looked, I hadn’t found her. I’d even tried a few of the doors, but nobody seemed to know her name. A shadow slunk by and I held my breath, you’re never alone in a place like this. I turned around, got ready to run, but a hand shot out and grabbed my collar, pulling me back, very sharply. Somebody’s hand against my mouth. The somebody spoke.

Shadows of the Lost Child, available on Amazon – a great present, or a treat for yourself, available in ebook, or in print.

http://tinyurl.com/ks3ksng (US) and http://tinyurl.com/nbofbnv (UK)

If you’ve read the book, or after you have, I’d love to hear your comments here. And as you may know from a previous post, the book was inspired by historic York, so if you’ve ever lived in York, or know the city, you might particularly enjoy the story.

Article written by Ellie Stevenson, author.

This article is copyrighted material. Brief extracts including a link to this site can be quoted but the article must not be reproduced in full anywhere without the author’s written permission.

Want to share this post on Twitter? Here’s a suggested tweet for your timeline:

‘A hand shot out & grabbed my collar, pulling me back, very sharply. Then somebody spoke.’ #ShadowsoftheLostChild http://authl.it/B00NGSSVM2

19 November 2014
In the Shadows, is a House…

I’m stunned to see how long it’s been since I last wrote a post. However, I do have an excuse… my new novel is finally finished and is available NOW, to pre-order. The book comes out on the 18th!

Shadows of the Lost Child, like Ship of Haunts, is partly historical. In it, I explore the challenges of poverty in nineteenth century England, the challenges of loss in twenty-first century England and what happens when the ghosts of the past meet the people of the present. Yes, there are ghosts!

There’s also death, murder, mayhem and mystery with a touch of humour to keep us smiling. And, my favourite, an old and possibly haunted house. This is how we first meet Aleph, when he goes to view his future home.

And what a home it turns out to be!

I’ve always been interested in old houses, and have recently returned from a visit to Sark, a small but very beautiful island, with its own share of assorted houses.

Sark, in case you haven’t heard of it, is one of the smallest Channel Islands, and has no cars, just bikes and tractors. Life in Sark can be quite primitive (despite the excellent internet connection!) – what you eat can depend on whether the boat can call and deliver the food – a boat is how you get to the island, and not a very big boat at that. And the sea can be choppy! Being in Sark is like going back to a world now lost, life in the country, a long time ago.

But there’s also quite a lot of wealth on Sark, and the houses on the island reflect that contrast, and Sark’s history, with impressive manors and tiny cottages and strangely, lots of abandoned dwellings.

The one to the right was damaged by fire, and the house lives on, an empty shell, slowly being taken over by nature. That’s rather sad.

While the one below, and yes, there’s nothing there, was once the location of the Beauregard Hotel, itself a replacement for an earlier house, gutted by fire in 1892 and later rebuilt as a hotel. This is all that’s left of it now. Follow this link to see how it was.

All that’s left is Le Beauregard Cottage, (to the right), rebuilt using its own bricks.

Hotels on Sark have a mixed history: on the land below, stood the Hotel Bel Air, an impressive example of a country hotel, which was occupied by the Germans in the Second World War. Sadly, it didn’t survive the war, the roof caught fire and now we have to remember its beauty.

Follow this link to see how it was.

Also previously damaged by fire, in 1957, but still with us, is Stocks Hotel, perhaps the most tragic story of them all. A wing burnt down, and the manager, anxious to recover her dog, went back in the building and didn’t survive. Neither did the dog, but several others did.

The wing was rebuilt the following year and Stocks Hotel continues to thrive.

Whenever I go to Sark for a visit, I can’t help admiring the different buildings and want to learn more about their history. One of the two prisons on Sark was meant to be haunted by a white lady (well, what a surprise!) and this proposition was bravely tested by one visitor, who spent the night in the prison in question, and apparently, wasn’t disturbed at all. I suspect the island is too grounded in reality, the practical aspects of daily living, to have many ghosts.

My new novel, Shadows of the Lost Child, has many stories at its heart, one of which is the story of a house, and while the house and the city it stands in, are fictional places, York (UK) is the city which inspired it, and the look of the house is based on a house which once existed. From that house, and from that city, I created a story which crosses time.

One day, soon, I’ll show you the house.

In the meantime, Aleph is rootless, trying to come to terms with the past, Miranda is harassed, wanting to save her mother from trouble, then along comes Alice and changes everything. And the past and present start to collide.

Shadows of the Lost Child (ebook, out 18 September) is available for pre-order now, from Amazon.

http://tinyurl.com/ks3ksng (US)
http://tinyurl.com/nbofbnv (UK)

About Shadows of the Lost Child

This is a ghost story.
It’s also the story of a tragedy that happened over one hundred years ago.
And it’s a mystery. Can you solve it?

When Aleph rents a run-down house, his whole life changes, along with the lives of the people he meets. This is their story.

The Present

Aleph Jones is running away but the house he ends up in turns out to be haunted. Or is it just him? For Aleph has a dark secret that’s changed his life.

Cressida Sewell needs Aleph’s help. Her daughter, Alice refuses to speak and a team of specialists don’t know why. But Cressida has a hidden agenda and Alice knows more than she’s letting on. About Aleph.

Guinevere James is not what she seems. Disguised as Aleph’s business client, she really wants to solve a murder that happened over a century ago. And what about the children who vanished? Aleph and Alice can hear them scream.

The Past

Miranda and Thomas live in poverty. Miranda wants to protect her mother but when she seeks help from friends Ben and Tom, they set on a path to even more trouble.

Then Tom meets Alice and the past and the present begin to collide with dangerous consequences.

15 September 2014