Category Archives: Vampires

THE CROGLIN VAMPIRE chapbook sells out in two days

“The Croglin Vampire: England’s Earliest Vampire Legend?” is published by Withnail Books. It contains my detailed research into the deep background of the supposed vampire.
The story is that in the 19th century a vampire was active in the small village of Croglin, in Cumbria. Over the years the narrative developed and grew, depending on who was telling the story, until now the vampire is an established part of British supernatural folklore.
I investigated the legend’s various twists and turns for my non-fiction book “Paranormal Cumbria” in 2012 (spoiler alert: there never was a vampire). Withnail Books reprinted that chapter with permission in the chapbook, adding a number of fantastic illustrations, both historical and contemporary.
Sadly you can no longer order the 40-page chapbook, as it sold out in just two days. But you can read about it on their website, https://lnkd.in/eqV4HXib
And if you are ever in Penrith, it’s a great bookshop. Uncle Monty says so!

VRYKOLAX folk-horror script wins Special Prize at Tallinn

My folk-horror screenplay VRYKOLAX was selected for development by the European Genre Forum. After workshops in Zagreb, Amsterdam and Tallinn, it was pitched at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, where it won the Special Mention Prize. It’s now being pitched further afield.

VRYKOLAX tells the story of a troubled British artist who tries to find the truth about his family on a remote Mediterranean island, where the locals are in fear of a Vrykolax, a revenant from Greek folklore which returns from the dead to wreak havoc on its relatives. The Vrykolax or Vrykolakis is in some ways similar to the more familiar vampire, although reports predate the Slavic vampire by several centuries.

The script is co-written with the film’s director, Achilleas Gatsopoulos. The producers are Minos Nikolakakis and Vassilis Economou.

If you are a potential investor and would like to know more, a pitchdeck is available. Please get in touch here.

In which the Author writes his 36th book, guests on Stage 32, and aims for movies & graphic novels…

The site was down for a while recently, but now the internet elves have been fed and all is well. Apologies for the

communication breakdown.

In the interim, there have been a few developments here at Holder Towers.

Firstly I had a guest blog on the splendid film & TV website Stage 32, discussing writing scripts for corporate videos. My thanks to RB, Shannon and Andre at Stage 32 for facilitating this, and to all those who responded to the blog

and their kind comments.

Then I delivered the manuscript for my 36th non-fiction book, another on weird history. Further news on the

publication of this series later in the year.

I’m also delighted to announce that I’m collaborating with a talented illustrator on a vampire-themed bande dessinée (graphic novel). Once the 5-page sample is honed to perfection we’ll be pitching it to French BD publishers.

While all this is happening I’m continuing with the ProSeries screenwriting course at ScreenwritingU, which is superb. I’m slightly in awe of some of my fellow students and their abilities. Me, I’m working on a supernatural western

feature script for the course. I’m also taking a class on writing horror films with a Hollywood producer, which is the

bees’ knees. And I’m writing an entry for the Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest.

So, movies, graphic novels, weird history – exciting times ahead, girls and boys.

In which the Author writes a vampire novel…

After writing dozens of non-fiction books on mysteries, witchcraft, zombies, ghosts, poltergeists, murders,

bodysnatching and other gleeful subjects, I’ve finally finished my first novel.

It’s a vampire novel, which will perhaps surprise no one given my genre tastes, but in addition to featuring serial

killers, explosions, bodily naughtiness, and jokes about Jimi Hendrix, it is also an alternative history.

Basically, I’m attempting to do nothing less than replace the current standard vampire mythology with an entirely

new one based around evolutionary biology and cutting-edge archaeological thinking.

I know, modesty has always been one of my greater faults.

Now that the novel is finished, the real hard work begins: trying to find a publisher or agent. Despite having written 31 non-fiction books, when it comes to getting a first novel published I’m back on the starting block.

I’ll let you know how I get on.