Tag Archives: serial killers

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.

In which the Author has a bodysnatching review on the Spooky Isles site…

That fine institution the Spooky Isles website has just upped a nice review of my book

Scottish Bodysnatchers: A Gazetteer, scribed by Fortean writer Mandy Jane Steel Collins. You can indulge your

eyeballs at the Spooky Isles site here, while the book can be reached here, and I’ve a video trailer here.

Scottish Bodysnatchers came out a couple of years ago so perhaps it’s worth a brief recap. It aims to provide a

comprehensive guide to every physical remnant of the bodysnatching era in Scotland, from mortsafes and

morthouses to watch towers and other protection devices. It tells you where to find these relics (whether in

graveyards, churches or museums), and what to look for. Many of the sites are obscure, hidden, long-forgotten or have not previously been written about. Yes, the fieldwork research was fun…

In addition, there are anecdotes and news stories from the bodysnatching era, some of which may be early

versions of urban legends. Burke and Hare of course make an appearance, but bear in mind that they were serial killers, not bodysnatchers, their murders being driven by greed for the cash being offered for fresh corpses.

Scottish Bodysnatchers - A Gazetteer

The book covers not only the well-trodden bodysnatching paths of Edinburgh and Glasgow, but sites across the

country, from Aberdeenshire and the Highlands to the Scottish Borders, Ayrshire, Perthshire, Fife, Dundee and

Stirling. Given that there really isn’t any similar book out there, a number of readers have written to me describing how useful the book is for those interested in hunting out bodysnatching sites in their area – “well-thumbed” is a

typical comment. “An invaluable reference work” was another.

Happy to be of service, fellow bodysnatching fans. And remember to wash the dirt from your hands before

handling food…

In which the author heads to the far south – Manchester…

 

What has Manchester ever given us? Well, let’s see, there’s Joy Division, and New Order, and the Happy Mondays, and the Chameleons, and the Durutti Column, and John Cooper Clarke, and Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, and Magazine, and Doves, and the Smiths, and Frank Sidebottom, and the Passage, and the mighty Fall, and the mightier Van der Graaf Generator…

 

But apart from some of the greatest musical artists of our epoch, what else has Manchester given us?

 

Well, how about the Manchester Monster Convention? Two days of talks, films and discussions, featuring, inter alia, Doctor Who, zombies, cryptozoology, horror fiction, graphic novelists, an H. P. Lovecraft movie, serial killers – and yours truly.

 

The MancMonCon is the brainchild of an organisation called Hic Dragones, which is Latin for that most famous of descriptions on ancient maps, ‘Here Be Dragons’. Good name, good name.

 

The Convention is at the Sachas Hotel, near the Arndale Centre in central Manchester, on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April. Tickets are a measly £10, and on the Saturday I’ll be ranting on about ‘Tales from the Crypt – Two “Real-Life” Vampire Cases’, with a book signing for Paranormal Cumbria to follow. I’m still trying to work out a way of smuggling a Fall/Mark E. Smith joke into the talk….#

 

Full event information can be found on the event information page!