The nice people at bookreel.tv have just published an interview with the humble author, which can be found in all its rambling glory at
During the interview I manage to mention Dracula, dogs, dinosaurs, zombies, plague, J.G. Ballard, poltergeists, graphic novels, bodysnatching, music and H.P. Lovecraft. So all the usual suspects are present and correct, then.
A few days ago I wrote that an essay I had written was selected for the shortlist of the prestigious THRESHOLDS International Feature Writing Competition, run by the University of Chichester, ‘home of the international short story forum’.
Today (Wednesday 25 April 2012) the winner was announced.
Me.
Crikey.
The winning essay, ‘We Recommend: H.P. Lovecraft’ can be found on the THRESHOLDS site, http://blogs.chi.ac.uk/shortstoryforum/?p=9723.
Comments from the judging panel: ‘an instantly engaging essay’; ‘sharp, rigorous but highly readable’; ‘exquisitely polished’; ‘rich in its use of language’; ‘wonderfully wry and stylish’; ‘expert, nuanced, energetic’; ‘I’ve never been particularly interested in Lovecraft but I certainly am now’.
The estimable Tom Ruffles of the Society for Psychical Research has just given Paranormal Cumbria a very positive review. The full review can be found here but I’ve extracted a few highlights:
“The contents, conveyed in his usual humorously perceptive style, are arranged thematically … He supplies references for all his stories, the result of which is a three-page bibliography of books, journals and newspapers that allows readers to double-check for themselves. This rigorous analytical approach is rare in the field, and all the more welcome for it.”
“The Croglin Grange vampire… Holder delves into the various accounts as they evolved from the first reference in print by Augustus Hare, showing what a complex narrative it actually is.”
[Comparing the book with another, similar publication] “To sum up, the resident of Cumbria may well want both (plus Holder’s The Guide to the Mysterious Lake District book) in order to ensure that they have maximum coverage of the county. But the visitor who does not want to purchase both will be better off with Holder’s book. And it’s three quid cheaper. I therefore declare Paranormal Cumbria the winner.”
The review can be found on Tom Ruffles’ blog, http://tomruffles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/supernatural-cumbria-by-h-c-ivison-and.html
The extensive website www.paranormaldatabase.com has just given very positive reviews to both Haunted Dundee and Paranormal Cumbria.
I was particularly pleased that the reviewer singled out the quality of the bibliographies:
“One of my old college lecturers once joked that if he had his way, the grade of any publication would be based on the size of the bibliography. Using this method alone would guarantee Haunted Dundee came top of the class, and fortunately Geoff Holder’s writing style ensures he deserves to be there.”
As I tend to bang on about the deficiencies of many paranormal books when it comes to their ‘critical apparatus’ – bibliographies, references, indexes and so on – it’s pleasing to find that someone else shares my opinion that proper books deserve proper documentation within their pages. In many cases, the phrase “no bibliography or index” sends a chill down my spine, as all-too-often it carries the unstated implication: “the book under review is a pile of poo…”
As for Paranormal Cumbria, www.paranormaldatabase.com states:
“Each paranormal field is written about in an honest, no nonsense style that applies an Occam’s razor approach – many paranormal writers could learn from this.”
I use Occam’s razor every morning. It makes for a nice, clean shave. (Hey, I can do endorsements if I so wish.)
You can see the reviews at and they are also here and here. My thanks to Darren Mann for permission to reproduce the reviews.
Carlisle, I see you. On Saturday 21st April I’m doing a book signing for Paranormal Cumbria at the Waterstones bookshop, 66-68 Scotch Street, Carlisle. I’ll be there from 11am to 3pm, so come along for a chat – but if you can’t make it on the day, call 0843 290 8217 to reserve a copy of the book and I’ll sign it for you to pick up later.
Paranormal Cumbria covers subjects such as the Cursing Stone of Carlisle – which brought beliefs from the Middle Ages into the Millennium – plus witchcraft and folk magic, twentieth-century sightings of fairies, examples of psychic powers, the phantom airships of World War One (which seem to be cultural precursors of the phantom UFOs of later decades), and the enduring mystery of the ‘Cumberland Spaceman’. The book has been covered recently on both BBC Radio Cumbria and Lakeland Radio.
And talking of matters Cumbrian and strange, the next edition of the Fortean Freak Out podcast is up and running, and its subject is taken from Paranormal Cumbria – the infamous Vampire of Croglin Grange. Which was probably not a vampire. Listen to my conclusions here.
This weekend past I was speaking at the Manchester Monster Convention, which was a blast. My talk dealt with two so-called ‘real life’ vampire cases, while other speakers and authors covered the waterfront in terms of werewolves, psychopaths, dragons, cryptids, zombies, and, uh, Japanese zombie whales. We watched clips from the forthcoming Yorkshire-based zombie horror film Before Dawn, and stayed deep into the night to take in a brilliant triple bill of Island of Lost Souls (1932, with Charles Laughton as Dr Moreau, and Bela Lugosi as the half-man Sayer of the Law – wooo!), The Whisperer in the Darkness (a top-notch adaptation of a Lovecraft story by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society) and Reel Zombies (in which a bunch of Z-grade filmmakers craft a rubbish zombie movie during an actual zombie apocalypse). Many thanks to Hannah, Linda, Linda and Rob for the invite and the hospitality.
There was however a bizarre episode at the venue. Delegates and speakers alike would venture into one of the lifts – and not be seen for many minutes afterwards, making talks start late and overrun. The reason? The main convention venue was on the second floor, but if you pressed the button for that level, the lift would take you to the third floor (while sneakily telling you were on the second floor). Subsequent attempts to return to floor 2 resulted in the lift ascending to the sixth floor (indicated as the fifth floor) before jostling between floors, including the basement. As a consequence people found themselves wandering around random corridors in the Hotel of Lost Souls…
The lift only had a problem if the first button to be pressed was for floor 2, so the malign intelligence that controlled it was clearly duophobic…