OPENING PAGE The House on Blackstone Moor! Vampirism, devil worhip, decadence, madness and obsession! All the themes of my novel!

Jane Eyre with vampires what?!
Here's an excerpt from the first page:


"They say my father was mad, so corrupted by evil and tainted with sin that he did what he did. I came home to find them all dead.

My sisters only five and eight were gone as well as my brother who was twelve. My mother too lay butchered in her marriage bed. The bed her children were born in. Their throats had been cut—so deep their heads were nearly taken off. I discovered him first—lying in the sitting room underneath the gilded mirror—his 17th anniversary present to my mother, the bloody razor clutched in his gore-encrusted hand.

How pitiful I must have looked, bent down trying to wake him. Calling to him over and over: “Papa please, please wake up!”



He could not of course waken. No more was he to open his eyes in this world, had I not been struck mad I would have realized.


Yet madness is sometimes a mercy when shadows come to take the horror away..."

(end of excerpt)


It's set in 19th Century Yorkshire. I have described it as Jane Eyre with vampires and to some extent I think that might be true. But I also hope that it has its own unique gifts to thrill the reader.


When I think about all the great novels I have loved--such as: Rebecca, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights as well as eerie ghost stories like, Turn of the Screw, I realize that although these sorts of stories were superb on their own, they can be used to inspire other sorts of stories--stories that go far beyond the boundaries of what was acceptable when that sort of fiction was written: the world has changed a great deal after all, it has undergone two world wars and countless smaller wars, holocausts, genocides all manner of horrible outrage.
And what of crime? We have known of the real monsters in our midst for many years now, all we have to do is read true crime or watch the evening news.
Yes, it's a scary world alright and because it is, fiction, especially horror fiction I believe, must reflect those changes.
When I began writing the book, I thought I will include problems that would hardly have been mentioned in the past: issues like sexual deviance for example.
This actually fuels a situation wherein my heroine finds her life nearly destroyed (and that's in the very first chapter)!
This sets in motion more horror--real, heart-stopping horror.
The house she goes to, her two charges, their parents and even the staff, are they what they seem?
Is the new governess imagining demons or is she surrounded by them?
And what of her personal history?
She was, after all, consigned to a madhouse, briefly though it was.
I live in Yorkshire so setting the scene of the tale was an act of love.
And as I traipse the moorland and farmland every day with my dogs, I often play out scenes in my head.
It has all become very real to me and I hope it will be real to you.
Not far from where I live is Top Withins which was supposed to have inspired Emily Bronte for her Wuthering Heights. Here it is in all its moody, eeriness:

I found it inspired me as I came to picture the house I was creating--a house with dark and disturbing secrets, a house with enough evil in it to haunt the moors forever!

How pitiful I must have looked, bent down trying to wake him. Calling to him over and over: “Papa please, please wake up!”


He could not of course waken. No more was he to open his eyes in this world, had I not been struck mad I would have realized.


Yet madness is sometimes a mercy when shadows come to take the horror away.


Do not pull away in terror, please. I have much to confess. Just be patient, for I promise I will tell you everything. The only thing I ask in return is for you not to judge me until you hear my entire story.


FREE NOW AT AMAZON AND AMAZON UK!:

http://www.amazon.com/The-House-Blackstone-Moor-ebook/dp/B00804XJBA/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

http://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Blackstone-Moor-Vampires-ebook/dp/B00804XJBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354718892&sr=8-1