The tricky issue of disposing of a murdered body.

#OCTOBERFRIGHTS DAY 4.

Whilst writing my novel 'Beautiful Freaks' I had to undertake a serious amount of research into effective, although somewhat weird, ways of both killing people and disposing of their body. If there really is a Big Brother watching us from Cyber Space, I am possibly now a flag on the UK Intelligence radar - and after this interactive post, you may be, too.

I mean, seriously, it's only writers and murderers who look this stuff up. For example, one of my google searches involved truly understanding the effects of lyme on an enamel bath - and who knew that it needed to be heated to be truly effective? Well now you all do. 

This led to some highly inventive methods of both murder and body disposal - and let me tell you, the disposal is the trickiest part of it all. It's one thing killing someone - you can sort of take your pick from the gazillion ways you'd like to do it - a sort of personal expression of your own creativity - but trust me when I say, that disposing of the body is not only difficult, but to do it properly, is almost impossible. 

Beautiful  Freaks is currently on £0.99 / $0.99
AMAZON WORLDWIDE SALE.
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You'd be amazed a how fragile a living body can be, and how very stubborn and resilient a dead one can be. It's been the unsticking of many a genius murderer in the past. 

In Beautiful Freaks there are a range of approaches to the subject of the murdered body. Some are intent on eradicating all evidence of their crimes and others seem to take an almost aesthetic and poetic approach to displaying the bodies as a kind of statement about human vice. 

Having been an inspector involved on the fringes of the Jack the Ripper case just over a decade beforehand, William Steptree believes that he has seen the very limits of murder - that is until he discovers the murder scenes that litter the London streets like some macabre art gallery. For all the blood and guts of the Ripper case, there is something about these 'beautiful' murders that disturbs him far more - something deeply unsettling about the way that the murders are crafted into something almost profound. 

But aside from these, there is another shadowy force exercising experimentations of the dead kind, and there is no attempt to display this particular art form, in fact, it's so on the cusp of all things inhumane that there is no other desire than to eradicate the bodies completely. To remove all trace of both their fate and the man behind it. 

I have always had a fascination with the detective genre and in particular the dark psychological detective stories written by the likes of Karen Slaughter and Patricia Cornwall. In a way, Beautiful Freaks is an extension of my love for that kind of literature, if not mashed up with my own love of paranormal fantasy. I have always found it captivating to consider what the mind of a killer must be like, and how hard or easy it is to step over that moral line. I think because it is so far removed from my own life philosophy that I find it a puzzle to wonder why anybody would want to commit such destruction - and of course, most sane people do not. 

The idea that the way in which murderers both murder and dispose of bodies acts as a signature and a narrative is not only something that clearly captivates me but thousands of writers and millions of writer's too. 

So, let's take this post to the comfort zone and beyond. If you were to set about murdering someone, how would you do it and what would you do with the body? Let's really discover who you all are.... Leave your ideas in the comment box - who knows, I might even steal them for a novel and credit you in the acknowledgements. 

If you've been intrigued by talk of Beautiful Freaks, you can download an eBOOK copy for just $0.99 / £0.99 here https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009XDNKZW 

Happy hopping.. 

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The Crow Man: Writing Feminist Horror

OCTOBER FRIGHTS #DAY 2


This blog post introduces you to my latest novel, 'The Crow Man' and there is a chance to win a signed paperback copy at the end of this post. 

This month has seen the release of my first adult horror novel, 'The Crow Man' and it marks the end of a labour of love that has seen me invest 5 years into this novel.

Horror has always been my favourite genre of literature right from my earliest reading habits; Dracula, Frankenstein, Point Horror, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Lovecraft, Poe - we're all the foundations of my love of the written word.

Despite having found a comfortable flow in the writing of paranormal and occult, I had yet to make that final leap into writing a 'pure' horror novel because the responsibilities that come with writing horror are immense.

To me, good horror is one of the most moral, political vehicles there is. In my very personal opinion, for horror to be elevated from gratuitous pornography it has to have some kind of exploration of the human condition, of moral structures, and of state constructs. It is an incredible vehicle for exploring the ills of society and the wrongs of mankind - of course done in a way that excites, entices, scares, and thrills the reader.

There are conventions in horror that are long established and which work, but traditionally, mainstream horror in both literature and film have tended to be dominated by male influence and the male gaze. I knew when I finally plucked up enough courage to write a horror novel, I wanted to both work within a long tradition and to challenge some of the constructs that had been established. I wanted to write a horror from a very female point of view.

Hence the premise of The Crow Man - as most women will testify, one of the most horrific things that can happen to you as a woman is to be labelled mad or insane - to have every word and action questioned; to stand accused of crimes you have not committed and for the whole social structure to come bearing down on you.

One of the very worst nightmares I have ever had was that I had hit an intruder and that 'boy' had died. I was arrested and was facing a long time in prison. I wouldn't last two minutes in prison - or only in the way that Tyrion Lancaster might by a thread come out bruised and abused but still living. The very worst of that dream was no one believing my version of the story. Of everybody, the courts and eventually even my own husband swaying to the social constructs that surround female voice and behaviour. I woke shouting, tears streaming down my face. Never had I felt so afraid - and so the beginnings of The Crow Man were birthed.

To call it feminist horror does not mean that it is horror written for women and women alone - I would hope that  the readership of this novel is a 50 / 50 split. Just because it is a story about women doesn't mean that all horror readers can't access and enjoy it, just as I have read hundreds upon hundreds of horror books with very male focused protagonist and stories.

It was important to me with both of my female characters, Grace Waters and Camille to try and defy some of the tropes and stereotypes that female characters often fall into in horror novels - but it wasn't easy. I rewrote the ending several times as I discovered that I had fallen into established models that didn't sit right with me - but which were a form of horror convention. I wanted to move beyond those sometime two dimensional offerings of female motivation and experience that is so often portrayed in horror and offer, what I hope is a more 'real' more true conclusion to these events.

The writing  go The Crow Man took me to some pretty dark places when I was writing it. For me, there are elements that are extreme and cross my comfort zone, or at least they did when I was in the depths of writing certain scenes. Looking back, I know that by modern standards of gore horror and psychosexual horror, these scenes are perfectly within the mainstream - but in the way that a creaking door or a shadow is more terrifying than a body being carved up by a circular saw, the scenes in The Crow Man got under my skin and were a manifestation of my own worst fears.

I decided to set The Crow Man in the 50's purely because some of the issues that the women face were amplified, and because, as a form of historical piece exploring the progress of psychiatric care and practice, the 1950s were a radical time of change and advancement.

In the author notes at the beginning of The Crow Man, I have acknowledged that other great horror piece written about the pioneering advancements of the medical profession and where that placed humans and doctors in terms of gods and monsters - Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus'. Perhaps, if I were being arrogant, I could have named my novel, 'The Crow Man: The postmodern Prometheus' LOL. The Crow Man is very much in the tradition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and I hope that my humble little offering does that text and that heritage some justice.

eBOOKS
The eBook of the Crow Man is already available here on  Amazon Worldwide exclusive https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0758JMKZ1  and can be read for FREE if you are a Kindle Unlimited User or for just $2.49 / £2.99 if you are a Kindle reader.

PAPERBACKS
The paperbacks do not officially come out until January 1st 2018 but I have signed pre-release copies available for folks in the UK (And in the US if people are prepared to cover shipping costs.) To order your signed paperback for £7.99 (+ £2.00 p&p delivery before 25th October) please complete this google doc form. https://goo.gl/forms/ekj8xflMbfYTleyf1 

GIVEAWAY: UK Only I'm afraid. To be in with a chance of winning a signed copy of The Crow Man, please leave a comment telling us what your worse fear is. One lucky winner will be selected and notified as a reply to their post. The winner will be announced a week today.


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A Brief History Witchcraft

This blogpost offers a very brief and glancing look at the history of Witchcraft and the various forms it has manifested.

So Halloween is a time when all things darkling are celebrated; a relic from the old times when our ancestors celebrated the death of summer, the plentiful harvest and the winter to come.

And although there are many who feel this ancient pagan tradition of nature worship and season reverence, Halloween has become something else, too - a celebration of all things supernatural and once perceived devilish; from plastic ghouls, to blow up witches, to zombies on yard-sticks - halloween has become a playful nod to the occult and esoteric; a way in which we can all exorcise our own secret fears, and laugh in the face of them.

Of all the halloween icons, the one that continues to reign supreme is that of the witch - so why? In the twenty first century, why are we still fascinated by this idea of the witch and where did these cultural ideas manifest?

The history of  witches runs within the history of women, for the much of the notion of witches came from a deep fear and superstition of women by a patriarchy that felt threatened by the extraordinary powers women demonstrated over the powers of life and death. Women were a walking embodiment of Nature's fertility - of her abundance - of her power; and as such, it was a thing that threatened to bring down the very order of the patricarchal universe.

In order to control this awesome power over nature, men constructed a society which repressed sexuality, constrained fertility into tight social organisations such as marriage and nunneries. Women who transgressed these social structures, who rebelled against this male attempt to constrain women's autonomy and power had to be defined as 'wrong' as 'immoral' as 'ungodly' - as Satan's whore - as 'witch'

Such was the fear that over the course of hundreds of years, thousands upon thousands of women were tortured and murdered because of their lack of conformity, and because of ideas put forward by the Catholic church in regards to how evil had infiltrated the human race. Catholic propagandists perpetrated the belief that women were essentially the weak link; after all, it had been Eve who had eaten of the apple and uncovered the true nature of a universe both full of good and evil.

Luther, an incredibly influential religious voice of the late 1400's and early 1500's was a firm believer in witchcraft, a fear that had come down from his own mother's fear of witches after she recalled to her son how she had met a witch that tried to murder her. Luther believed that all witches - regardless whether they were to be considered harmless or not, should be burned for making a deal with Satan - and even though there was discussion about the ineffectiveness of torture as a means of eliciting confession, brutal and barbaric torture was still inflicted on tens of thousands of women - it is said that his policies led to the deaths of over 20,000 persons, most of them women.

Witch mania literally swept through Europe - and humiliation of the body was one of the principle methods of an almost sexually focused torture - but it would be wrong to suggest this was just a terror inflicted on women; men and children were subject to such accusations and barbarisms, too.

As the middle ages turned to the ages of enlightenment things began to change, and by the Georgian and Victorian periods the idea of Witchcraft and witches had almost become romanticised; the figure of the witch becoming something linked to an almost pastoral idyl, and a rising wave of feminism began to explore the history of witchcraft through a new historical perspective ---- however that didn't stop those ancient fears transferring to a different set of peoples - those of the colonies.

With the rampant colonialism of the African states and South Americas, fears found a new home in the exoticism of 'strange and ungodly' practices in tribal communities, leading to a resurgence in interest and fascination in the 'dark arts' - and an outpouring of literature that saw explorers facing new supernatural frontiers and the embedding of voodoo in our European cultural rhetoric.

The turbulent events of the early twentieth century and the subsequent post-modern malaise led to a rapid emergence of alternative religions, cults and pseudo Messiah followings. The establishment of several powerful and influential 'religions' and organisations were founded, one of the most famous leaders being that of Aleister Crowley.

By the 1960's and 1970's, (Possibly correlating with the rise of more mainstream drug usage) and the 'Hippy movement' there were several churches of Satan established - adopting much of the paraphernalia of the traditional church, these soon became rich pickings for the many horror films that came out during that period.


I have always been fascinated by the history and representation of witches in both literature, folklore and social history. My series, 'The Meadowsweet Chronicles' explores many of the very different legends and folklore that have grown up around the idea of witches - and being a planned seven book series, plays with these legends on a global scale, as well as challenges many of the stereotypes that have grown up around these legends.

You can begin your journey alongside the Meadowsweet Sisters with Book 1 of the series, 'Witchcraft' which is currently free on all eBook platforms.

AMAZON US amazon.com/dp/B00NG5CLTE
AMAZON UK amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NG5CLTE
iBOOKS  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id950645919

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