Who doesn’t like a spooky read for Christmas or during these darkest days of winter? And I don’t mean what we normally regard as horror. For me, a ghost story is more subtle than that. It’s something that makes you shiver a little rather than jump out of your skin, it’s that feeling we all get of being haunted, of something ‘not quite right’ but we can’t put our finger on it. Gothic style ghost stories are a particular favourite of mine and writer friend, Alyson Faye, and last year we came up with the idea of each writing a ghost story in this vein and then finding two other female ghost story writers from the past, stories which are often overlooked. Needless to say, last year came and went and we weren’t able to put this idea into action.

Then Aly raised the idea again recently and trawling through my files, I found an old story which I had never done anything with which could be developed to fit the theme. Dead Man’s Fair came about as a result of reading a true story set in the small market town I moved to with family when I was 17. My parents still live there and so I regard it now very much as my ‘home town’. The book in question was ‘A Night in the Snow – The story of a struggle for life on the Long Mynd‘ by Rev E Donald Carr, first published 1865. This tells of the minister’s journey overnight on the Mynd during a particularly violent snowstorm. In its pages, there is mention of the folk who travel across the hills to the market in Church Stretton and how this became known as Dead Man’s Fair because some never made it. I took that environment and created a new story of that title, following a young drover, already suffering loss, as he makes his way to the town for that infamous market.

Can you imagine walking along the Long Mynd during a blizzard? I remember some particularly cold times in Stretton and I certainly wouldn’t want to go up there. If you want to find out a bit more about this area of South Shropshire, go here.

Then Aly provided, as always, a wonderful gothic story (this really is her genre), Chilled to the Bone. A delightful tale of greed going wrong. And I adored how Edgar Milner, of Milner Manor, dressed up as a female ghost in order to to get his hands on an inheritance. His prancing and preening made me smile, but yes – the story does turn dark. Ghosts don’t take kindly to this sort of thing.

Aly then read stories from a number of earlier female writers and sent me those she thought suitable to pair with our modern takes and to that end we included A Strange Christmas Game by Charlotte Riddell and The Triumph of Night by Edith Wharton, together with a biography of each.

Winter’s Ghosts has been put out as ebook only at present and is available here. https://mybook.to/WintersGhosts. Cheaper than a coffee why not grab a copy? (Sorry about the unintended rhyme!)

The year is almost drawing to a close and at the moment, I’m wondering where it’s gone. It’s also meant I’ve been wondering exactly what I’ve achieved, so here we go.

Current work in progress

Mother’s Night (Rise of the Hare Witch) now stands at 65,800 words and I’m determined to have a push to get this first draft finished before the end of the month. (Normally, I would have finished this some time ago but various things have held me up this year*. ) I had a read through last night, after just ploughing on regardless, of those early chapters and returning to those I found I was really enjoying the whole Yule fest/pagan vibe coming from the pages. It is exactly the sort of book I want to read – and that is why I’m writing it. As indicated in my Substack, I have been rewriting a few carols to fit my Folk! Here’s another, Solstice Pilgrims (a rewritten Good King Wenceslas to tell of the Mother and Grandmother (Hare Witch)). Much is made of song and dance in this book, but then it is the festive season and as Five Turns readers know, the Dance can mean so many things!

Solstice Pilgrims

Across the land, the Mother looked out
On midwinter’s solstice
When the snow lay round about
Hill and moor and forest

Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When the Hare Witch came in sight
Seeking she who ruled

Hither child, and stand by me,
If thou knowst it telling
Yonder creature who is she?
Where and what her dwelling?

Lady, she lives in the dark
In the cold of Helheim
In the mist of the abyss
Where began our own time

Bring me flesh and bring me wine,
Bring me our Folk hither
Thou and I will see her dine
When we bear them thither

The Mother made her way abroad
And her people followed
Through the drifts, their way they scored
To meet the one most hallowed

Lady, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
My blood runs cold, I know not how
I can go much longer

Mark my footsteps, good my child
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shall find the winter’s rage
Freeze they flesh less coldly.

In the Mother’s steps he walked,
To where the Hare Witch waited
For the pilgrims who’d been taught
Through her, their end was fated.
To her, their sacrifice was pure,
And ours is also pressing,
To feed the land, and Her adore
And receive Her sacred blessing.

Slasher Horror Novella in Verse – hovers close to the end but this is one of those written with no pressure on either author and life gets in the way. The end will come when it will come (but I will say this, it is good!)

What’s to Come?

Enough Rope – my gothic horror novella set in the Victorian East End and developing some aspects of the world of my novelette Asylum of Shadows will be out in 2025.

The Barricade – my post-apocalyptic novel with Lycan Valley Press is currently out on edit. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share publication dates and a bit more news in the near future.

Plans for Next Year

*I’ve thought long and hard about this but next year, I’ve decided to take a step back from mentoring and jumping in to help others apart from a few friends who I’ll always support at the drop of a hat. Having said that, I know perfectly well that if I see someone with a problem and in need some sort of help, I’ll still probably offer but I will be careful about how much time that takes. Does that make me selfish? A little, maybe, but I was brought up in an environment which taught me to put others first and that still holds true, however, I think I deserve a little ‘me’ time for once. And I’ll still be over at Horror Tree as well.

What do I intend to do with this ‘me’ time?

Twiggy Voo – is an alternative history novel set just prior to WWI, a war which may or may not happen depending on events. Either way, it is a descendent of Napoleon who sits on the throne after Wellington lost at Waterloo. The British royal family is ‘controlled’ and certain members of society have been pushed aside. Winston Churchill in particular is now a rising industrial magnate whose sausages have given him the income to re-infiltrate society’s upper echelons. Cue a murder mystery at the dowager empress’s home with many historical figures appearing in a slightly different guise. This is a comedic effort with cosy crime overtones and I wrote the first few chapters a few years back. Rereading the other night it made me chuckle, so yes, I plan on completing this one.

Women of the Witch Eye – this dark historical novel is currently out on submission and I intend to write the second in this series, taking my characters, John Milton and Jennet Device, back to London at the time of the Putney Debates. I’ve a lot of books to read and research for this one!

In addition to the above, I’m also hoping to carve out time to write several short stories as I like to see a handful of these published each year. Plus I have two other completed novels which I am continuing to shop around. Part of me is thinking I might self-publish those.

Poetry? – oh, yes there are plans. A couple of co-authored things in the pipeline but I intend to work on a new found poetry collection, this one being a dive into the circumstances of poverty during the Victorian era. My family history research led me to primary sources including Workhouse notebooks and material from other investigators of the time. It’s a bit of an homage to those of my family from that time who endured life under the most brutal of circumstances.

Anything else? Well, if by some miracle I manage to to complete the above, then I have a novella idea lurking …

2023 Achievements

This leads me to my most recent reflections, reminding myself of what exactly I managed to come up with this year. Not bad, though I say it myself. Thank you to anyone who’s bought these books and read my work and also those who chose my stories and published them.

I was invited by Ben Shepherd to give my 3 favourite reads of 2023 (running from October 1st 2022 to September 30th this year). This was really hard to do, especially as a real favourite – Beast by Lindz McLeod wasn’t published until October this year. I read it when I proofed it and again when I formatted and will be buying the print copy myself as it is one of those you do re-read!

One thing about this list, it’s about favourite reads and that includes books which were not necessarily published recently!

However, I had to stick to 3 and so I came up with these – but please note, the order is truly interchangeable. I loved all equally. Go here to read more: https://shepherd.com/bboy/2023/f/stephanie-ellis

And if you want to see an overview of the whole of this period, which books made the favourites, check this out https://shepherd.com/bboy/2023

I actually started listening to Demon Copperhead on an audio book at night but kept falling asleep and losing chapters. I need to go back to it. I also read Yellowface which was great and there are a few others on the list which I’ve picked up. Dip in and see if any of your favourites appeared!

The recent Terrify Your Tablet event run by Lyndsey Smith/Horrorsmith Publishing was a huge success and allowed many readers to download whole swathes of free books. Sadly, amazon did not change the prices of my two books (The Five Turns of the Wheel and The Woodcutter) to free although some lovely people did buy them. As a thank you to those and to hopefully make up for any disappointment, I’ve made my folk horror short story collection, As the Wheel Turns, free for five days on amazon starting tomorrow.

I wrote this collection after I’d finished Five Turns as I really wanted to explore the landscape and meet other folk dwelling in the Weald. Yes, you meet Tommy, Betty and Fiddler again, but you also meet others, such as the Boggins men, Vetch, Belladonna, Rampton Thatcher, Johnny Hedgerow, and more. The stories invite you to witness their own take on many a British craft or tradition and I even included a love story – of the Five Turns kind.

To get the book, head over to amazon tomorrow!

I did a reading a few months back of Chapter 3 from my bio-horror novella, Paused. Although this is set around a pandemic (viral or other cause you’ll have to read to find out), it was written before Covid. In this particular chapter, the daughters of the doctor faced with this mystifying ailment, face their school bully. At the end of the reading, I do make a somewhat cynical comment about how I think people will behave when faced with events referenced in the book.

The idea for the book came to me after reading about Locked In syndrome and the horror of that situation remained with me. It must surely rank amongst one of the most terrifying situations to be in. In addition to this, I came across an article which showed advances being made in allowing sufferers to communicate, the basis for the ‘thinking cap’ referenced in the story. You can read that article here. Science and technological advance is a great source of inspiration for writing!

Paused Blurb:

A terrifying pandemic sweeps the world, rendering its victims completely immobile but leaving them conscious with their minds intact. The victims are helpless against the environment, completely at the mercy of wild animals, weather, out of control fires, and other dangers. There’s no hope for those safe in their homes either, as they slowly starve to death, unable to feed themselves or drink.

Dr. Alex Griffiths leads a team racing against time to find a cure before it’s too late. Will he succeed?

Get Paused here.

And as a total aside, that little teddy bear behind me I remember getting when I was about five years old. I can still remember standing in front of the shop window trying to decide between this one and one with brown paws. It makes him 54!

… to talk of many things, of X/Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and the stress that this all brings! (With apologies to Lewis Carroll).

Like many writers, I am on social media. It is a necessity in a horrible way, forcing the introvert out into the world to become known, direct readers to their books. With X/Twitter becoming abysmal – I don’t see people I used to, apart from a few, and with the rampant hypocrisy, judgementalism and inflamed egos that has become more apparent in recent months, I’ve decided to leave and will be closing down my account in 2 weeks time. Why wait you may ask? Well, I’ve set up at blue sky (https://bsky.app/profile/stephellis.bsky.social) and have been searching people to follow and I know there are a number on X/Twitter I want to trawl for and see if they have a presence on this platform. The people I follow will be authors and poets – and not all of the dark stuff! – historians and folklorists and things that interest me. I am also attempting to follow back those who follow me. If I haven’t yet, let me know! I will not be one of those who builds up a huge following and then promptly cuts down the no. they follow to make themselves look ‘big’. (Can’t people grow up?). My following at the moment is a few hundred and I think I’m in the right frame of mind to start again. I only ever had a small following on X/Twitter so I don’t think it’s a drastic step.

Instagram and TikTok accounts will remain but I won’t be active there. If I go to TikTok at all, it’s to check out my son’s music. I will continue with FaceBook, dipping into a few writer groups there but that platform is one where my family are, hence remaining. I’ve just remembered LinkedIn, but my presence there is random, so that may go too

I will continue to create HorrorTree.com’s weekly Indie Bookshelf Releases post, it has been the main way that I have been able to support indie writers in recent times.

So, moving forwards – my focus will be a more up-to-date blog and Substack (famous last words, but I’ll try!) and blue sky.

I am hoping that shedding these apps will allow me to write more by cutting down the time spent on them all, and to engage in a more meaningful way.

I’ve done a few interviews recently about The Woodcutter and have been asked what inspired it. One strand that I have referenced is that of wanting to incorporate a reality TV show type setup and using that to play with the reader’s understanding of what is going on.

The Woodcutter is set in the small village of Little Hatchet, edged by the overwhelming presence of GodBeGone Woods. These woods are the source of the legend of the Woodcutter and Grandma. Part of the legend was the need for the Woodcutter to claim an apprentice from the village and this process, the offering up of sons to the Woodcutter so that he could chose one of them, forms the re-enactment which is turned into a reality TV show. In addition to the film crew, the villagers also take part, videoing it for social media and YouTube. BUT is this just a re-enactment or is it real? Certainly as you read it, your perceptions will change and change again, much as the characters’ own understanding of what is going on is continually tested.

The idea of this level of manipulation came to me as I remembered a show, Apocalypse, created by Derren Brown which I caught on TV some years ago. It’s always stayed with me because it set up a person to believe that a zombie apocalypse had happened and he was the sole survivor. There has been much debate about whether this central character was an actor or not, but from what I remember, I believed then that he believed what was happening to him. And this was what I wanted to bring into The Woodcutter.

You can see Derren Brown’s show and decide for yourself.

Shepherd is a new site, one which asks authors for their favourite reads and to explain why they like them. They do not ask for an in-depth review for the books, but more a ‘response’, a human reaction to the book. And this is something which strongly appeals to me as a reader. I do not like to read reviews which analyse to nth detail, I like something which speaks to me in a more immediate manner. The ‘wow’ or ‘ugh’ which might be the only word in a review resonates more strongly, it is emotional and real. Such short responses draw me in to read the blurb and it is the latter which then determines my decision to read, or not.

My comments on my five favourites are not that short, but they are ‘me’, they are why I love the books in question. I hope you pick one or two of them, too, and enjoy them as much as I did.

https://shepherd.com/best-books/to-introduce-the-dark-delights-of-folk-horror

And if you want to see what else might be on my shelf at home, here’s a peek at part of my bookcase: