paranormal fiction

Meet the Characters of Magnolia Bluff: The Ghost

The sadness in his voice brings tears to my eyes. I procrastinate a minute wondering, Why me?

Once again we are back in Magnolia Bluff talking to the people who make this little town their home.

Today we are meeting a ghost. Yep. Even in Magnolia Bluff we find a friendly Casper.

Bliss is a free-spirited young lady who has ridden into a quaint little Texas town.

It’s not where she wanted to be.

But, alas, Magnolia Bluff is where her motorcycle broke down.

She feels like a stranger in a strange town.

She meets some fascinating characters.

One of them is Merrick Doyle.

Bliss discovers him in The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy, Book 3 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles.

He’s not like anyone else.

He’s depending on Bliss to help him.

No one else can.

No one else will.

Doyle is desperate.

He has a secret.

He’s not with us anymore.

I lean on my elbows, ready to lie back down. “Look, it’s been a long day and I have a splitting headache. Can you either tell me who you are straight-out, or wait until morning and I’ll be happy to play the guessing game with you?” As I lie down, a vivid picture jets into my head and I sit back up. “You’re Merrick Doyle. Ethan and Ciara’s father.”

Correctimundo!

“I’ve seen a bunch of movies, Mr. Doyle. I can guess why you’re here.”

Merrick pops into view near the windows. I use the word pops literally because the sounds are like microwave popcorn, but with a staccato shave-and-a-haircut beat.

The ghost is translucent. I think that’s the right word. Moonlight and details from the alley show through the light colored shirt. He’s got a roundish head and wide nose with deep-set eyes beneath a somewhat overhanging brow. In spite of the sharpness of his features, there’s something handsome about him. He tweaks his beard with his left hand, his head tilted as he waits for my reaction.

“Call me Merrick. Full name Merrick Arthur Doyle.”

“They told me you died last month.”

The eyes shut for three seconds, as though he’s keeping himself in check. When he speaks next, his words are calm but saturated with emotion. I was killed. Murdered.

I get up and move toward him. “How? By whom?”

I don’t know the answer to either question. Be nice, wouldn’t it? I just tell you who did it and you go out and get ’em.

In my almost-concussion-throbbing brain, things grow all-too-clear. “You expect me to figure out who did it?”

Correctimundo again! You’re a very bright girl…ah, woman.

“How do you think I—”

Merrick’s wide shoulders shrug. I see the motion not as body movement but as a ripple of the lighting through the window. Follow the clues.

“You’ve picked the wrong person to ask for help. I’ve never followed so much as a recipe.”

My ghost gives a deep-throated chuckle. You can do this. We’ll do it together.

Together? “What does that mean exactly? Are you going to drive me around town and—”

We use your body and my brain.

“Sounds kinky.”

I love your sense of humor! We’ll use my knowledge of people.

That’s when it dawns on me: he can read my mind.

Exactimundo! He throws back his head and laughs. I wonder if the sound can be heard through the walls.

I doubt it. I’ve spent a month trying to reach someone—anyone. I’ve shouted till I turned hoarse—but you’re the only one who’s been able to hear me. Not even my own children, or any of my friends…

The sadness in his voice brings tears to my eyes. I procrastinate a minute wondering, Why me?

No idea, Sambethe Ursula Watkins. No idea why you.

When he says my name, I’m instantly annoyed. “Do not. I repeat, do not ever say that name. I am Bliss. Period.” Then, reality hits. “Wait. How do you know who I am?”

Did you forget already? I can read your mind.

“I never think about my name. Ever ever ever. So therefore you couldn’t have read my mind.”

Look, I don’t know how I know things about you, but I do. Isn’t that enough? I love the sound of your name, by the way. What a great reference to the Persian Sybil. You know what Sybils were, right?

“Yes. Priestesses, prophets, looked up to by many.”

So, what’s bad about that? It seems like a form of royalty to me.

“I am not a prophet. Nor do I want to be looked up to. As a matter of fact, I don’t even want to be noticed, okay? I just want to follow my free will and do what I want when I want.”

He grows serious. We’ll table that discussion for now. Let’s talk about me.

Please click HERE to find The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy on Amazon.

And you can read the original post on Caleb and Linda Pirtle’s blog.

The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy is a funny and suspenseful cozy mystery, written by an accomplished writer of mysteries. Do yourself a favor: pickup a copy to exercise both your brain and your funny bone.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

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The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy

On a hot and sunny day in June, Bliss finds herself with a broken down motorcycle on the outskirts of Magnolia Bluff, Texas.

Lucky for her, Ciara Doyle and her repair shop are right there, mere feet away from where the cycle gasped its last breath. And Ciara is more than willing to fix the motorbike. Only it won’t be today.

Which means Bliss is stuck in Magnolia Bluff. Is that so bad? Small Texas town. Persimmon Festival in progress. Pizza for life, just for being a good Samaritan. Friendly people. Of course not. It should be a very pleasant few days and then Bliss can be on her way to wherever.

Well, it isn’t so bad until Bliss involves herself in a hunt for a murderer — at the request of a ghost.

From that point on, Magnolia Bluff ain’t such a quaint town. Not when someone resents Bliss’s poking around.

Will Bliss survive the attempts on her life and trap a killer?

Find out next week. The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy by Cindy Davis (Book 3 in the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles) is on pre-order. For only 99¢ you can reserve your copy on Amazon. And the book goes on general sale, June 20th.

Let me tell you, it is one heck of a super read.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

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Weird Fiction and the Occult Detective

The occult detective can be found in all the various categories of horror. Although, I think he is most prominent in ghost stories, creature features, and weird fiction.

We know what ghost stories are, and creature features are pretty much self-explanatory. The story features a monster that must be disposed of.

But what exactly is weird fiction? Recently, I received a story bundle email in which Robert Jeschonek provided an excellent description of weird fiction. He wrote:

Something doesn’t feel quite right. The world around you seems a little…off. Things turn strange and fluid, as if you’re trapped inside a dream…but you aren’t. Something about you might have changed in a fundamental way that you sense but can’t understand.

This is what weird fiction at its best feels like. It’s more about unsettling dread than outright terror. It’s more about the mysterious influence than the in-your-face threat. It’s more about questioning the nature of reality than wondering what’s about to jump out of the shadows at you.

Two occult detectives come to mind who primarily investigate the weird: Flaxman Low and Aylmer Vance.

Flaxman Low was the pseudonym for one of the leading psychologists of the Victorian era, so the story goes, and became the chief occult psychologist of his day. Writing as H. Heron and E. Heron, Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard and his mother, Kate O’Brien Ryall Prichard, chronicled a dozen of Flaxman Low’s occult investigations.

The stories are filled with unsettling dread. Things are a little off. Nothing is as it should be. There’s no out and out terror. There’s no gruesome gore splattering your face. You just feel uncomfortable as you follow Low. And when he uncovers the cause of our discomfort, we feel immense relief.

I very much enjoy the Flaxman Low stories. And even though they date from 1898 and 1899, they read well and will definitely make you feel uncomfortable.

The first 6 stories you can get for free from Project Gutenberg Australia. If you want all 12, you can pick them up from Amazon for $1.39, as of this writing. IMO, they are definitely worth reading. And the price is right.

Aylmer Vance was the creation of Alice and Claude Askew. He appeared in 8 spooky occult investigations back in 1914. The tales ooze that feeling of uneasiness, and subtle dread that give a story the spooky creepiness we readers of weird fiction so desire.

I very much like the Aylmer Vance stories, and regret that the Askews only wrote 8 of them. They ended up dying in the war to end all wars, as did so many writers.

The stories are not thrillers. No monsters jump out at you. Their pacing is gentle: the epitome of slowburn storytelling. They are, however, told so well you may find yourself binge reading them.

You can get all the stories in the Black Heath edition on Amazon for only 99¢. Truly a deal.

Weird fiction and the occult detective. A very spooky and unsettling combination indeed.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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The Joy Wagner Mysteries

The paranormal is hot. Even a cursory search will show that the paranormal can be found in just about every book category.

One of my favorite paranormal genres is the occult detective: a blending of the paranormal and detective fiction. And one can find plenty of detectives, new and old, who unravel mysteries that aren’t “normal”, or use methods that aren’t in your standard detective took kit.

One of the newest paranormal amateur detectives, who uses unusual means to solve murders, is Cindy Davis’s Joy Wagner.

Joy is a plucky young woman who left her wealthy home to find herself. In doing so she found a side of herself she didn’t know existed, and she also happens to find murder. Or maybe it finds her. In any case, Joy’s new found psychic abilities help her to solve murders.

As of this writing, there are two Joy Wagner mysteries, with the promise of a third. The Eighth Deadly Sin is Pizza is the first book, and the second is You’re Not the Boss of My Brain.

The books are filled with snarky humor, ghosts, auras, prophetic song lyrics, people who know things it’s not possible for them to know, and a toucan who thinks he’s a person. Oh, there are also the fabulous folk of Uncertain, Florida, which is on the shore of Lake Ambiguous.

One of the things that sets these books apart from most paranormal mysteries is that the paranormal elements aren’t bad or evil. Instead, they’re presented as normal. The paranormal is just part of our world. Anybody can tune in — if they are open to doing so.

In fact, one is more likely to encounter “monsters” in the “real” world, than in the paranormal one. Which gives these mysteries a refreshing twist.

Told from Joy’s perspective, in the first person, the storytelling puts you right there in the story with Joy. And that’s something I very much like. I love the immediacy that first person narration gives a story.

If you enjoy mysteries, if you’re a fan of good storytelling, if you are into the paranormal, then give these fabulous books a try. I think you’ll like them.

Get The Eighth Deadly Sin is Pizza on Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, and Amazon Australia.

Get You’re Not the Boss of My Brain on Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, and Amazon Australia.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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The Ghostbusting Duo

There’s nothing better than reading a mystery that has a ghost or a monster in it. And that’s essentially what the occult detective genre is. A fusion of the traditional detective whodunit and the horror story.

Now, I will admit my description is a bit of an oversimplification. But for now, let’s run with it.

The prince, if not the king, of the ghostbusters is undoubtedly Jules de Grandin. Only Thomas Carnacki is perhaps more well-known.

Carnacki was the creation William Hope Hodgson. And Carnacki pastiches are almost as numerous as those of Sherlock Holmes. I’ll talk about Carnacki in another post.

Jules de Grandin and his “Watson”, Dr Trowbridge, were the creation of Seabury Quinn. They appeared in 92 stories and 1 novel, in the pages of Weird Tales magazine. From 1925 to 1951, the exploits of this dynamic duo thrilled readers of the Unique Magazine like no other.

GW Thomas, on his now defunct website, archived here, summarized de Grandin in this way:

Jules de Grandin is the master of the outrageous detective genre. Everything about him is over-the-top from his Hercule Poirot moustache to his outbursts of stilted French. De Grandin and his Watson-like companion, Dr. Trowbridge, live in Harrisonville, NJ, a town haunted by monsters, mad scientists and all manner of weird phenomena. As with Carnacki, not all of de Grandin’s adversaries were supernatural. The de Grandin stories appeared only in Weird Tales, where they were the most popular of all characters, beating even Conan the Cimmerian and Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

From what I’ve read, Mr Thomas was spot on. Of all the writers who contributed to Weird Tales, Seabury Quinn was the most popular and, as a result, was paid at a higher rate.

Of all the characters to appear in WT, de Grandin was the most popular. And it was the promise of a serialized Jules de Grandin novel that held off the debt holders from shutting the magazine down in 1931.

Seabury Quinn and Jules de Grandin dominated Weird Tales. Quinn’s only real challenger was Allison V Harding in the 1940s.

Yet, Quinn was unfairly maligned and minimized by the Lovecraft Circle (because HPL didn’t like Quinn’s style and perhaps the fact that he wrote for money) and it has only been within the last dozen or so years that Quinn has come under reassessment. And I’m glad he has, because he was a good writer and should not be forgotten.

What I find interesting is that for all of de Grandin’s popularity, he was the product of having to meet a deadline. Quinn, himself, wrote:

One evening in 1925 I was at that state that every writer knows and dreads; a story was due my publisher, and there didn’t seem to be a plot in the world. Accordingly, with nothing particular in mind, I picked up my pen and — literally making it up as I went along — wrote the first story which appears in this book.

I don’t know what collection of stories GW Thomas got that quote from, but I find it simply delightful. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention.

I own the 5 volume Nightshade Books edition of The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin. You can, of course, find them on Amazon.

I’ve read over a dozen of the stories and I like them. The fun quotient is high and each story will give you an enchanting hour’s worth of entertainment. What more can you ask from a story?

Should you begin reading the de Grandin tales, and I encourage you to do so, keep in mind they were written for a monthly or bimonthly magazine. The storylines are somewhat formulaic. Certainly written to an established pattern. But then, so were the tales of Sherlock Holmes’ exploits.

I would recommend not reading more than a couple stories at one sitting in order to keep their charm and appeal fresh. Plus, doing so, will give you many, many days and weeks of reading pleasure. And who doesn’t want that?

Seabury Quinn was a superb storyteller. He had over 500 publishing credits during his lifetime, and was himself a magazine editor.

Approaching Quinn as a reader, I can say that he delivers the goods. He succeeds in transporting me to another time and place, and provides the entertainment value I’m looking for.

Approaching Quinn as a writer, I sit at the feet of a master and learn the craft of how to tell a story so that it will move the reader.

Last Christmas, I read Quinn’s Roads (his classic Christmas tale) to my sister and nephew. So captivating was Quinn’s prose that my nephew, at one point, uttered an interjection of awe. If only all of us writers could have that happen!

The occult detective genre is rich with exciting and spooky and chilling stories. The exploits of Jules de Grandin and Dr Trowbridge deliver on all counts.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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The Occult Detective

Fear is one of our oldest emotions — if not the oldest. And fear of the unknown is one of our greatest fears.

I don’t know what I don’t know, and that lack of knowing scares us. It is primal, that fear of the unknown.

Fear, and playing on our fears, is the stock in trade of the writer of the macabre. Those spinners of stories that parade our fears before us and scare us to death — and we love it.

For all of our façade of sophistication, biologically speaking we are no different than our ancestors from 300,000 years ago. We may no longer be afraid of thunder and lightning, and we may have outgrown our fear of what’s under our beds — we are, however, still controlled by our fears.

Just look at the nightly news. Listen to David Muir’s tone of voice. He’s playing into our fears. And how often do we say, “I’m afraid…” — no matter the context?

Is it any wonder that the tale of terror, the horror story, has never lost its appeal with readers?

Of late, I’ve been reading in the Weird West and Occult Detective genres.

I grew up watching Westerns on TV, although I didn’t read any until recently. I suggest any writers reading this to pick up a few old Westerns and read them. You will quickly see how most genre fiction today is really a Western in disguise.

The Weird West, as the name suggests, infuses the old West with something weird. It could be ghosts, demons, mad scientists, monsters of one sort or another, just as long as it falls into the category of weird fiction.

The Weird West is a somewhat recent category. The earliest examples I’ve found date from the 1950s.

The Occult Detective, on the other hand, had its beginnings in mid-1800s, and picked up steam in the wake of the success of Sherlock Holmes.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been impressed with the Weird West stories I’ve been reading. They are either too weird, or they come off too campy.

On the other hand, the Occult Detective stories I’ve read have been quite good, on the whole.

For contemporary stories featuring occult detectives, I turn to the pages of Occult Detective Magazine. You can find their website here. They are the only publication totally devoted to the Occult Detective genre. It’s one super magazine, and I heartily recommend it.

Then there are the classics. Those occult detectives that began appearing in the 1890s and perhaps reached their peak in the 1940s and 1950s.

Flaxman Low probably started the subgenre, at least in the form that we know it today. He was the creation of E and H Heron. The stories are pretty good, although some readers might find them somewhat slow going. Ghosts: Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low is the only current edition I’ve found (both free and for purchase) that contains all of the stories. It is priced at present for less than $2, and that is a steal.

Thomas Carnacki, the creation of William Hope Hodgson, is perhaps the most famous of all occult detectives, and Carnacki pastiches abound. You can find the original stories at Carnacki the Ghost-Finder for free. Marcus L Rowland also provides a publishing history.

If you want the stories in book form, you can find them all in The House On Borderland And Other Mysterious Places, which is volume 2 of The Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson.

Thus far, my favorite among our Fighters of Fear is Seabury Quinn’s Jules de Grandin.

Quinn wrote some 500 stories for the pulp fiction magazines. He was Weird Tales’ most popular writer and was paid at a higher rate than any other writer published by the magazine.

Today, Quinn is little known. Which is a shame. He was an engaging, entertaining, and talented writer.

However, a large selection of his work is available for free on the Internet. And publishers are finally starting to reprint his stories. All I can say is that it’s about time.

All of the Jules de Grandin stories have been collected in 5 volumes by Night Shade Books. You can find the books on Amazon.

Flaxman Low, Thomas Carnacki, Jules de Grandin, and Occult Detective Magazine. That should be enough to get you started enjoying the spooky and sometimes terrifying weird world of the occult detective.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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Indie April Suggestions – Part 7

For today’s Indie April showcase, I want to throw the spotlight onto 3 authors who write some of the spookiest stuff out there. So, without further ado, let’s meet these gentlemen.

John F Leonard

John F Leonard is one of many highly talented writers I’ve found on Twitter. He writes cosmic horror (one of my favorite genres), as well as wonderfully spooky stories.

The Bledbrooke Works and Congeal are suspense filled tales of terror. Bledbrooke is something of a prequel to Congeal, so you might want to read it first.

Congeal is a post-apocalyptic tale that is downright chilling. It’s the kind of slowburn horror that stays with you, that continues to haunt you long after you’ve finished the book.

Next on my reading list is his The Dead Boxes Archive, and I’ll be reading it during the daylight hours.

Here are John’s Amazon pages:

Canada

Australia

Germany

Check him out. He’s really top drawer, and fast becoming one of my favorite authors.

Andy Graham

Andy Graham writes masterful tales of chilling terror. I hate reading his stories at night, because, quite honestly, they give me bad dreams.

He has the dystopian Misrule series, The Risen World Supernatural thrillers, and I Died Yesterday, a collection of dark fiction tales.

Graham is an accomplished wordsmith. Begin one of his books and you’ll be biting your nails and saying, “What was that noise?”

I’m currently reading A Demon Risen. But only while the sun is up.

Here is where you can find Andy Graham on Amazon:

Canada

Australia

Germany

Ray Zacek

Ray Zacek can scare your socks off, or make you laugh with his macabre dark humor. And when he turns to satire, it’s funny, biting, and somewhat chilling all at the same time.

Want a scary story? Try Cosecha and Daguerreotype. Satire? Try Fresh Catch: Fiction Sushi. Dark humor? Give The Sisters a read. I love his books and you will too.

Take a look at Ray’s Amazon pages:

Canada

Australia

Germany

He’s a superb storyteller who you will fall in love with. I guarantee it.

John F Leonard, Andy Graham, and Ray Zacek are masters of the art of telling us a good story. They are producing some of the best fiction being written today. Give them a try. You won’t be sorry.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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Indie April Suggestions – Part 4

RH Hale

Today, I’m showcasing my fourth author for Indie April: the incomparable and supremely talented RH Hale.

Twitter has been a good source for finding talented writers of truly amazing books. My reading life has been enhanced many-fold by these wonderfully creative people.

RH Hale is one of the most talented of the literary finds I’ve come across. And I’m so thankful I did.

Her two books

Church Mouse: Memoir of a vampire’s servant
and
Church Mouse (Book 2): The Change

elevate the vampire novel to a new height. Yet these books are more than just vampire novels. For Rona Dean, the human servant, the watch dog for these supremely deadly creatures, tells us her story. And by doing so, we are given an insight into what it’s like to live on the knife-edge of terror day in and day out; and, through this daily exposure to terror and incredible horror, we see Rona, the church mouse, change, grow, and eventually earn the respect of the monsters she serves.

Gothic novel? Or are these books a coming of age story? A tale of macabre terror? Or a philosophical treatise on what it truly means to be human?

Perhaps Church Mouse is all of these, and more.

Ms Hale’s storytelling is superb throughout. We are given atmospheric descriptions of places, and mood evoking pictures of settings. Her characters are alive, real. You can touch them, feel with them, feel for them.

Her command of the novel form is equal to that of the most mature of writers. Her words mesmerize us, evoke deep feelings in us, touch all of our senses — they let us see and experience Rona’s world.

These two novels are simply brilliant. They are gothic masterpieces. They are among the finest horror literature being written today. They rightly belong next to the classics: “Dracula”, “Carmilla”, and “The Vampyre”.

Simply put, Ms Hale is one of the finest indie authors writing today. She is nonpareil.

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon US

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon US

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon UK

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon UK

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon Canada

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon Canada

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon Australia

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon Australia

Church Mouse, Book 1, Amazon Germany

Church Mouse, Book 2, Amazon Germany

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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The Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations

Four years ago, back in 2017, I started writing the Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations series. The first book, Nightmare in Agate Bay, was published in January 2018.

I’d been watching the first season of The X-Files, and thought how cool it would be to mash-up the Cthulhu Mythos with The X-Files. And just like that, Pierce Mostyn and the Office of Unidentified Phenomena was born.

The Pierce Mostyn series was an immediate hit, and it’s been my annual top seller since its introduction.

What is it about Pierce Mostyn and his cohorts that readers like?

I’m not big on surveys, questionnaires, and the like. To tell the truth, I’m just not big into data. But to answer the question, I took a look at what readers put in the reviews.

Here are some of the things that stuck out:

“entertaining and action packed”

“a charming, easy to read, creep-fest”

“contemporary and action-packed”

“keeps the reader on the edge”

“fun and exciting”

“non-stop action”

“tautly paced and elegantly plotted”

“The character development is detailed”

“fast-paced and the tension is great”

“all kinds of scary fun”

From those snippets, what stands out is the action, the suspense, and the fun factor. Those are what make Pierce Mostyn a top seller.

The fun factor kind of surprised me, but then I asked, Why?

The books are doggone fun to write. Apparently, my having all that fun writing comes right through the page and grabs the reader. Which is what we writers and readers want, isn’t it?

Well, the eighth Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation is live — and only 99¢ through the end of March. Now it’s your turn to get in on the fun, if you haven’t already.

In the Shadow of the Mountains of Madness
Only 99¢ on Amazon!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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The Paranormal

Van Dyne’s Zuvembies is live! The seventh book in the Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigations series. And it is off to a good start.

Each Pierce Mostyn investigation is a stand alone story. So you can read Van Dyne’s Zuvembies today — and read the rest of the series later.

Interest in the paranormal is high, and paranormal fiction is hot.

But what is paranormal fiction? When I was kid, back in the 50s and 60s, there was no paranormal fiction: it was called occult or supernatural fiction. Sometime between then and now, those terms fell out of use in favor of paranormal.

To understand these 3 terms, let’s see what the Merriam-Webster dictionary says.

Occult (noun) — matters regarded as involving the action or influence of supernatural or supernormal powers or some secret knowledge of them; used with the

Supernatural

1) of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe

2a) departing from what is usual for normal, especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature

2b) attributed to an invisible agent (such as a ghost or spirit)

Paranormal — not scientifically explainable: supernatural

So we can see all of these terms basically mean something that is not within normal or natural experience.

Therefore it doesn’t really matter what we call the genre, because paranormal, supernatural, and occult fiction cover the same subjects: myth, fairy tales, legends, cryptids, ghosts, monsters, the fae, and the like.

Popular subgenres include: cosmic horror, the ghost story, the Gothic novel, werewolf and other shapeshifter fiction, vampire and zombie fiction, and the like.

The paranormal story has been with us for a very long time and down through the ages has been called many different things. But in the end, they all refer to the same class of story.

At base, the Pierce Mostyn books are cosmic horror set in HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos universe. However, I’m not averse to stepping outside the cosmic horror subgenre to give readers a taste of a different class of monster.

Horror stories generally operate either viscerally or intellectually.

Visceral horror is horror that focuses on an emotive reaction, often resorting to the gross out. This is the in-your-face blood and guts horror.

Intellectual horror appeals to the mind. It is usually subtle, and often challenges our understanding of how things ought to be by showing us how things actually are.

Intellectual horror flips aside the curtain; it is taking the red pill.

While there’s plenty of action in the Pierce Mostyn stories, I definitely strive for an intellectual horror approach. Because at the end of the day I think that type of story is truly terrifying.

Comments are always welcome! Until next time, happy reading!

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