Category Archives: Promotional

Posts relating to promotional materials

In which the Author publishes an ebook on poltergeists…

 

At long last What is a Poltergeist? Understanding Poltergeist Activity has materialised, if indeed an ebook can be said to have a material presence. To quote from the official blurb:

A new ebook introduction to poltergeists examining the theories and presenting the latest research evidence for poltergeist activity. This book explores possible answers to the question ‘what is a poltergeist’?

What is a poltergeist? Are they the restless souls of the dead? Demons? Witches’ familiars? Household spirits? Mysterious earth energies? Unknown powers of the mind? Or hoaxes? This ebook takes the well-known poltergeist phenomena – the movement of objects by invisible forces, the noises, the eruptions of fire, water and electrical disturbance – and maps them against changing ideas and beliefs. The author presents the latest theories and research evidence in his search for answers.

 

Here’s the chapter headings:

What is a Poltergeist

Introduction

Chapter 1                  Poltergeists are… Demons

Chapter 2                  Poltergeists are… Witchcraft

Chapter 3                  Poltergeists are… Ghosts

Chapter 4                  Poltergeists are… Fairies

Chapter 5                  Poltergeists are… Vampires

Chapter 6                  Poltergeists are… Powers  of the Human Mind

Chapter 7                  Poltergeists are… Thoughtforms

Chapter 8                  Poltergeists are… Hoaxes

Chapter 9                  Poltergeists are… Forces of Nature

Chapter 10                A Conclusion of Sorts

 

The cases are principally drawn from the USA, Canada, Scotland, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia and Japan, with others taken from Africa, Eastern Europe, Indonesia, South America and Iraq. Yes, the poltergeist is a citizen of the world.

The prolix author waxes enthusiastic on the topic of poltergeists on this very website here and also on something called YouTube.

What is a Poltergeist? Understanding Poltergeist Activity is published by David & Charles/FW Media International and is available on Amazon(UK) and Amazon(US) for Kindle, Kobo, Feedbooks, Lybrary.com, and other cyberspace vendors, and shouldn’t set you back more than five dollars.

 

 

 

In which the Author talks about poltergeists on YouTube…

 

To mark the fact that I’ve got two books on poltergeists coming out, a series of interviews with the humble if prolix author have been posted on that there YouTube.

The interviews concentrate on both the ebook What is a Poltergeist? – Understanding Poltergeist Activity and the conventional book Poltergeist Over Scotland. For the former, which will be available for download soon, I discuss the nine different theories/beliefs that have been put forward over the centuries to explain poltergeists:

  1. Demons
  2. Witchcraft
  3. Ghosts
  4. Fairies
  5. Vampires
  6. Psychokinesis (powers of the mind)
  7. Tulpas (thoughtforms)
  8. Hoaxes
  9. Natural forces (electromagnetism, geomagnetism, earth movements etc.)

These are illustrated with cases from throughout the world, including America, Europe and Asia.

When discussing Poltergeist over Scotland I talk about some of the 134 cases I’ve uncovered over the past 400 years. This is the first ever history of Scottish poltergeists.

The interview clips are being released in 16 parts over the next week or so, both on this website here and on YouTube. Collect the set!

In which the Author spills blood all over the Daily Mail…

 

 

‘Murder and Mayhem in the City where the Streets Ran with Blood’. Phew, you don’t get many headlines like that. That’s the introduction to a piece on my new book The Bloody History of Scotland: Edinburgh that appeared in the Daily Mail on Monday, October 22. You can read the full piece here, or by clicking on the image. The article is reproduced by kind permission of the Daily Mail and journalist Jim McBeth.

 

And a quick reminder that I’m giving an illustrated talk based on The Bloody History of Scotland: Edinburgh at Blackwell’s Bookshop, South Bridge, Edinburgh, on November 6. The event, which will have time for book signing, starts at 6.30 and tickets are free – details from the City of Literature website.

 
 
 
 

In which the Author is interviewed in the Edinburgh Evening News…

 

 

 

There was a feature on Bloody History of Scotland: Edinburgh in the Edinburgh Evening News on Saturday 13 October. Entitled “‘Edinburgh is a blood-soaked place’: An alternative history of the Capital,” the piece covered topics such as public executions, heads on spikes and the cannibal Earl of Dunlanrig, and also included an interview with the humble author in which I actually manage to sound semi-coherent.

 

You can see Jen Lavery’s article at:

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/latest-news/edinburgh-is-a-blood-soaked-place-an-alternative-history-of-the-capital-1-2573703.

 

 

In which the Author has another book published…

 

The latter part of October sees the publication of my latest attempt at world literary domination, The Bloody History of Scotland: Edinburgh. The book is a speedy and sanguinary sprint through the city’s dark past, taking in everything from massacres and murders to witchcraft, torture and executions.

 

Events commence in the Dark Ages with the annihilation of the Goddodin warrior tribe, and continue through medieval wars and sieges onto dastardly deeds surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots, and a veritable rogues’ gallery of assassins, rioters, pirates, hangmen and cannibals. Bodysnatchers, serial killers, poisoners and Zeppelins bring up the rear, and, for light relief, there is also a diversion into Edinburgh’s nineteenth-century brothels and houses of pleasure, with their associated crimes, court cases and general depravity.

 

  1. “And There Was Slaughter”
  2. A Barricade of Dead Horses!
  3. Tortured to Death over Three Days – For Killing the King!
  4. Murdered at the Sign of the Black Bull!
  5. Slaughter on the Streets!
  6. “Burn Edinburgh to the Ground!”
  7. A Tapestry of Naked Corpses!
  8. Stabbed To Death – In Front of the Queen!
  9. Death of a King: Blown Up and Strangled
  10. Siege!
  11. Death and the Maiden
  12. A Sea Battle – Inside the Harbour
  13. Drowned Alive in the Loch!
  14. Burn the Witch!
  15. Plague
  16. A Concentration Camp – in the middle of Edinburgh
  17. The Dismembered Marquis!
  18. The Wizard of West Bow
  19. The Hangman was a Murderer
  20. He Roasted the Servant on a Spit – and then ate him!
  21. He Fired into the Crowd – and was Lynched by the Mob!
  22. Jacobite Conflicts and the War of the Chamber Pots
  23. Riot!
  24. Piracy and Murder of the High Seas!
  25. Duel!
  26. Fire!
  27. Burke and Hare – Serial Killers!
  28. Poison!
  29. Hanged By The Neck Until Ye Be Dead
  30. The Night of the Zeppelins
  31. Sex and Death

 

You can find more about the book through Facebook and from the website of the publishers, The History Press. Upcoming media coverage includes features in The Edinburgh Evening News and The Scottish Daily Mail. There’s also a free illustrated talk on the book taking place at the splendid Blackwells Bookshop on South Bridge in Edinburgh on Tuesday 6 November. The humble author will be waving his arms about and bellowing on about grisly deeds and ghastly anecdotes from 6.30pm, and signing books after the talk as well.

 

There shall be blood!

 

 

In which the Author writes about sea serpents for the Marine Quarterly…

 

Now, I may not know much about messing about in boats, but sea monsters are definitely within my bailiwick. So it is that the Summer 2012 issue of the esteemed mariners’ journal Marine Quarterly contains a piece written by yours truly, entitled “Skye Sea-Serpents and Other Strange Scottish Aquatic Beasties”. The article revisits a group of well-reported sightings of some kind of unknown large animal in the waters off Skye and Lochalsh in the 1870s. Several well-heeled witnesses described the creature as nothing less than a huge, fast-moving sea serpent.

 

The article also rounds up Hebridean accounts of what may be encounters with relatively exotic animals such as narwhals, walruses, Beluga whales and Loggerhead or Leathery turtles, as well as the possibly-mythical maned monster of Loch na Bèiste (‘Loch of the Monster’). It also tells you where to find the skeleton of a real, honest-to-goodness, totally authentic water-horse, the human-eating aquatic demon of Scottish folklore. The article draws on the research I did for The Guide to Mysterious Skye and Lochlash.

 

Info on Marine Quarterly subscriptions and back issues can be found here.