A Tale for Halloween

I've just uploaded my narration of my story - a Tale for Halloween - to Soundcloud. I had wanted to make it an ACX audiobook but the audio doesn't meet their exacting standards. It's fine to my ear, but the "ground noise" is a tad too much for ACX.  Whaddeva.

I put the Kindle version up a couple of weeks ago and it's done moderately. I had hoped it would do better. I actually think the story is good - it's got a nice shape. I wanted to contrast the realism of the dismal working class streets I'm familiar with with the Gothic half in the haunted castle. The beginning is very much Northern working class realism. I have worked with mediums from my days as a ghost tour team leader. The depiction of them is perhaps unkind. It owes as much to the BBC's Abigail's Party (except with Northern accents) as to the people I knew. The mediums I knew weren't frauds and they told me some astonishing things, but that's for another post.

The medium's street is based on Meadow Road, Whitehaven for those who want to know, or one of the backstreets off it. Where they have the coffee is Workington town centre in the rain and Barrow Hall - the site of the seance is Dalston Hall near Carlisle. That is a great place, if you ever get the opportunity to visit. And truly haunted too ;)  That's where I met the spirit of John Dalston, and the ghost of my wife from a former time, Rebbeka Goffrey/ I'm not married to her now.

Recently someone on Good Reads gave my Christmas story 2 stars!!!  I often think that people give low ratings for something that disappoints their preconceptions, if not yours.  The Christmas story isn't supposed to be scary. It's an old fashioned redemption story. It's more like It's a Wonderful Life or A Box of Delights than The Shining. I never meant it to scare. But hey. I'm much more relaxed about these bad reviews these days. You put your stuff up on the Internet and someone is going to shoot it down., Some day. Some how.

Anyway, back to the self promotion

Listen to the audiobook for free here  and, goodness me, you can read it for very very cheap here on Kindle USA or on Kindle UK here.  It's a minor price either way. Tiny really. And for such a gem!

A Tale for Halloween.  That's what I said.