Tag Archives: vampires

**CANCELLED** – ‘Paranormal Glasgow’ Talk and Signing

Wednesday 19th October 2011

 

7.00pm, The Ladywell, 
268-270 High Street,
 Merchant City,
 Glasgow
 G4 0QT. Tickets £7 – limited numbers available, so please call 0141 552 7810 in advance to reserve your ticket.

In this intimate setting (see www.theladywell.com) I will be giving an extensive talk on the topics covered in Paranormal Glasgow:

 

 

 

    • Witchcraft in Glasgow, including the Witches of Pollok, and the Possessed Children of Bargarran and Govan
    • Miraculous Fasts, Emissaries from Hell and Murderous Doppelgangers
    • Spontaneous cases of Precognition, Crisis Visitations and Clairvoyance
    • Big Cats and Anomalous Racoons
    • Hunting The Vampire With Iron Teeth

 

Following the talk there will be time for questions. Copies of all of my books will be available for sale and signing.

In which the author is nominated for two awards…

Well I’m pleased to learn that two of my books have been nominated for prestigious awards. Scottish Bodysnatchers: A Gazetteer is up for the Katherine Briggs Folklore Award, awarded by the Folklore Society. And The Jacobites and the Supernatural has been nominated for both the Katherine Briggs Folklore Award and the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award.

 
 
 
 

The winners of both awards are announced in November.

In which the author gives two talks in Perthshire in the same week…

On Tuesday 13th September I’m giving a talk to the Perth Burns Club at the Salutation Hotel, South Street, Perth. The last time I gave a talk to this organisation it was 2007 and I’d had just one book published, The Guide to Mysterious Perthshire. A further 21 books later and I’m back, this time to talk about big cats, witchcraft and encounters with supernatural entities, all taken from Paranormal Perthshire, which came out earlier this year. The event kicks off at 7.30pm and the Burns Club are happy to welcome new members at the door.

 
 
 
 

The second talk of the week is on Friday 16th September, this time for the Auchterarder Local History Society in The Institute/Aytoun Hall on Auchterarder High Street.  Start time is 7.30pm and non-members can attend for £2 on the door. For this talk I’ll be concentrating on witches. There’s the Maggie Wall Witchcraft Monument in Dunning – I’ll be revealing when it was built and by whom, thus dispelling a mystery that has perplexed people for generations – and the legend of Kate McNiven , the Witch of Monzie, which will include unveiling the whereabouts of the lost ‘Witch’s Stone’, a jewel she was said to have spat out during her alleged execution. So if you fancy some world-class wibbling on witchcraft, come along!

 

As usual, I’ll have books for sale at both talks. My thanks to both organisations for inviting me. __

In which the author guests on the Leith FM radio show The S-Files…

On Wednesday 31st August I’ll be the guest on The S-Files, a community radio show broadcasting out of Leith, Edinburgh, with a remit that runs “from the paranormal to psychics, myth to magic, ghosts and much much more.” Presented by Ewan Irvine, the show runs from 10pm to midnight. If you’re in the Edinburgh area you can listen live on 98.8 FM. Elsewhere, pick the show up live online at http://www.leithfm.co.uk/listen. Expect me to discuss bodysnatching, hauntings, and other Scottish mysteries.

In which the author appears on the ‘History & Mystery Show’ on RedShift Radio…

On Tuesday 30th August I’ll be the feature guest on the ‘History & Mystery Show’, a weekly broadcast from the online community radio station RedShift Radio, based in Crewe. My interrogator will be the estimable ghost tour guide Mr. Tim Prevett. The show goes out from 10-11pm on Red Shift Radio and can be heard for the following six weeks on the station’s Listen Again facility – only without the music. Yes, I get to choose some of the tracks played during the show, so expect classic clattery-ah post-punk-ah from Manchester-ah, beautiful driving Krautrock, and bonkers Italian film soundtrack horror-prog. Yay!

 

As for the topics, Tim will be quizzing me on the Vampire with Iron Teeth and other stories covered in Paranormal Glasgow. Be prepared for urban legends, crypto-Communists, monster-hunts, Spring-Heeled Jack and city hobgoblins.

In which the author actually writes a book…

There have been no posts recently because I’ve been sequestered away writing Paranormal Cumbria (deadlines are a wonderful thing). The text of the book is now complete so normal service (such as it is) should be resumed as soon as possible. As a sneak preview, I can promise witchcraft, monsters of sea and lake (oh yes, Bownessie gets a look in), twentieth-century fairy sightings, ‘scareship’ UFOS, the Cursing Stone of Carlisle, the Cumberland Spaceman and the Croglin Vampire. Crikey.

 

Just a reminder that the event at Ladywell in Glasgow, originally booked for Wednesday 24th August, has been rescheduled for 19 October. Same venue, same time, same vampire with iron teeth – just a different date.