For this week’s Sneak Peek Sunday post, here are six paragraphs from my middle story in the Antique Magic series, Caitlin’s Book of Shadows. I know it’s just a small tidbit, but I hope you enjoy it.
Caitlin flipped the phone shut. Where did Trevor keep Arianrhod’s number? She frowned at the empty room and trekked to the bathroom. Sneaking in, she poked her head around the dark blue shower curtain to see Trevor with shampoo in his eyes. She sighed and left the room as quietly as she came. Dinner needed cooking and she mixed and tested, plopping the pork and potatoes into their plates with much more force than she’d meant to.
Trevor’s footsteps drew her attention to the kitchen door. “Something wrong?” he asked.
She scanned his open flannel shirt and the wet towel around his neck and smiled. “You know, Christmas is coming.” She waved a finger at him. “That’d make a perfect Christmas card.”
“No, it wouldn’t.”
“Yes it would.” She raised a brow mischievously. “Let me get the camera.”
He grabbed her hand as she approached, pulling her into his warm arms. “No you don’t!”
Hehe. Poor Trevor. Would you like a little more? Caitlin’s Book of Shadows is available at Amazon,Barnes and Noble and Smashwords. Enjoy!
Something terrifying stalks Caitlin and her beloved Trevor. Something the bits and pieces she left claimed she had to make sense of–or so legend says. When the curator of their collection finds Caitlin’s long forgotten diary, she wonders will it tell the whole tale? Will it tell why Caitlin seemed so determined to tell the difference between reality and nightmare even as she continued the fight to defend her family from evil? Will it explain why she thought her world twisted? If she really became a witch?
Perhaps the answer lies between the lines of her story, one of lessons, struggles, and the hopes she carried like a warrior’s shield.
**This is a side (or supplemental, if you will) story in the Antique Magic series, a companion to The Artist’s Inheritance (Antique Magic, Book One).
For Sneak Peek Sunday entry, week two, another snippet from my story Caitlin’s Book of Shadows (though not quite supernatural horror in bent, this bit, Caitlin fears it’s coming. You’ll see… For those of you who have not read the first book in the Antique Magic series, The Artist’s Inheritance, Michela is the family’s guardian spirit/goddess).
“He’s here again. Arianrhod promised he’s locked up,” Caitlin said, watching the guardian take a cup of coffee from her husband’s hand.
“I assure you that’s the case.”
Arms crossed, she gripped her loose sleeves tight, crumpling the flannel in her anxiety. “Why did I see him in Kameko’s?”
Michela shrugged. “You’ve been stressed. I suppose it’s normal for you to fixate that rage on him.”
“With good reason,” Caitlin grumbled. She raised her voice. “So, I can go back to work tomorrow without fear of him bombing the place or something?”
“If you put it that way, let’s be honest, anyone could perpetrate such a crime,” Michela mused. “To answer your question, I have no indication any evil’s about to befall you.”
Yeah, right.
****
Well….Caitlin knows Hofter and the mischief he perpetrates. Evil might be an understatement, right?
Something terrifying stalks Caitlin and her beloved Trevor. Something the bits and pieces she left claimed she had to make sense of–or so legend says. When the curator of their collection finds Caitlin’s long forgotten diary, she wonders will it tell the whole tale? Will it tell why Caitlin seemed so determined to tell the difference between reality and nightmare even as she continued the fight to defend her family from evil? Will it explain why she thought her world twisted? If she really became a witch?
Perhaps the answer lies between the lines of her story, one of lessons, struggles, and the hopes she carried like a warrior’s shield.
**This is a side (or supplemental, if you will) story in the Antique Magic series, a companion to The Artist’s Inheritance (Antique Magic, Book One).
Just FYI, I’ve put Caitlin’s Book of Shadows up on Smashwords. It’s available for a limited time for FREE so if you want it and would rather not get it from Amazon or Barnes and Noble for $.99 you can pick it up at SW.
Caitlin’s Book of Shadows (Antique Magic, Book 1.5)
Blurb:
Something terrifying stalks Caitlin and her beloved Trevor. Something the bits and pieces she left claimed she had to make sense of–or so legend says. When the curator of their collection finds Caitlin’s long forgotten diary, she wonders will it tell the whole tale? Will it tell why Caitlin seemed so determined to tell the difference between reality and nightmare even as she continued the fight to defend her family from evil? Will it explain why she thought her world twisted? If she really became a witch?
Perhaps the answer lies between the lines of her story, one of lessons, struggles, and the hopes she carried like a warrior’s shield.
This is a side (or supplemental, if you will) story in the Antique Magic series, a companion to The Artist’s Inheritance (Antique Magic, Book One).
For my first entry into Sneak Peek Sunday, this is from my short side story in the Antique Magic series, Caitlin’s Book of Shadows. It’s a small snippet of the first time Caitlin goes to the Otherworld–or rather, sets out on her way to the Otherworld.
Trevor took another deep breath and spoke a line in what Caitlin gathered was Gaelic.
She opened an eye. “What did you say?”
“You don’t want to know,” he said.
She dug a finger into his ribs and he chuckled. “Yes I do,” she said. “What was it? Open sesame?”
“I said, ‘By Land, Sea, and Sky, open now the gates of the slain that scare all. By Sky, Sea, and Land, open now at your Servant’s call.’”
Gates of the slain. He was correct. She hadn’t wanted to hear that. She shrugged, beating away her fear. “Not so bad.” He kissed her forehead and reiterated his speech. Caitlin leaned against him, and the scent of wood and saw oils faded away. A warm aroma of tea, of the sea and sand washed over her. Of dirt and horses. She opened her eyes and found they stood before a tall, wooden and iron-braced gate. Beyond, horses and riders raced in easy canters. One drew alongside the gate, watching them warily. Trevor dipped his head and spoke to the man. Caitlin nudged him. “English, please?”
Something terrifying stalks Caitlin and her beloved Trevor. Something the bits and pieces she left claimed she had to make sense of–or so legend says. When the curator of their collection finds Caitlin’s long forgotten diary, she wonders will it tell the whole tale? Will it tell why Caitlin seemed so determined to tell the difference between reality and nightmare even as she continued the fight to defend her family from evil? Will it explain why she thought her world twisted? If she really became a witch?
Perhaps the answer lies between the lines of her story, one of lessons, struggles, and the hopes she carried like a warrior’s shield.
**This is a side (or supplemental, if you will) story in the Antique Magic series, a companion to The Artist’s Inheritance (Antique Magic, Book One).
I know a few of my readers are writers, so…I thought you might need to know this if you didn’t. Poking around for something to do with some short story today, I found out Duotrope, that bastion of information for writers? Is now subscription only…
(Yes, I know. I haven’t looked at it in a while.) Ralan.com still survives though.
Also, Steampod? Closed. Steampunk Tales? Um….it’s been a long time since I checked into that one. It looks like it’s just run by one fella now and no submissions?
On Spec is closed to subs right now. Their page is a bit confusing but the bold type says “closed”.
Steampunk Magazine is currently taking non-fiction submissions, but no fiction subs.
The movie opens on three little girls playing with their dolls. They hear a voice, and suddenly drop their dolls and walk to the windows, open them, and jump to their deaths.
Then we cut to a young man, our hero Arthur Kipps (played by Daniel Radcliffe), grieving over his dead wife. He hugs his son and goes off to work for a lawyer that tells him ‘buck up or you’re out on your ear. (because, he only lost his wife, for god sake nothing to cry over (freaking 19th Century alpha men, what are you going to do?).
Anyway, Arthur’s employer informs him he’s to oversee the probate of a deceased woman in Crythin Gifford (a village in England) and the selling of her home Eel Marsh House. Arthur leaves his four year old son behind and heads off a train for the town.During the trip he meets a nice, but somewhat ominous figure, Daily (played by Ciarán Hinds). However, Daily seems personable enough and invites the lawyer to dinner. Arthur arrives the home of the family solicitor to find him not at all forthcoming. On the contrary, he wants Arthur out of his hair, and out of town as soon as possible. In fact, everyone warns him not to get involved with the Eel Marsh house–including the innkeeper who doesn’t want to give him a room, until the wife offers him the attic. Yep. That attic, the one they little girls jumped from.
Stranger still, all this going on around him and no one will tell Arthur much; they just all want him gone.
Daily finally tells him the whole sad story: A family got stuck in the bog that stands between the town and the house, and a little boy died. The mother never got over the child’s loss, blamed the family, hung herself in the Eel Marsh house and cursed the whole town–supposedly.
Arthur shrugs off the spook story and heads to the police station to find out more. Two children rush in; the boy says “my sister drank poison.” And the little girl dies in Arthur’s arms. The grief-stricken family, and the gossips around town, blame “the woman in black.”
Arthur finds out at the promised dinner with his new friend Daily that even he has had a son that perished. And Daily’s wife (played by Janet McTeer), well, she still hasn’t quite gotten over it. Might be because she’s a wee bit psychic and seems to be in communication with the boy and several of the other dead children.
Still, Arthur’s not so sure the town is cursed. That’s silly, isn’t it?
He goes back to work in the house. Late that night, odd things start happening. He sees the shadow of a hand, on the window, hears whispering, a rocking chair starts creaking on its own. A dog barks frantically, and he hears someone crying but can find no evidence for anything causing all this. Bewildered, he takes the story of his night back to his friend. Then there’s a fire, and a little girl trapped inside the burning building. Arthur rushes into save her, just in time to see her light another lantern over her own head.
You can imagine what happens to her. And that’s when he sees a woman dressed all in black, yet he can’t get to her, and she won’t come to him. Again, he goes to his friend, his wife goes into some sort of trance and warns him “Whenever she’s been seen, something horrible happens.”
So what does happens? You’ll have to see the movie to find out.
I found this version* of The Woman in Black quite entertaining. Maybe the fact that it’s a Hammer film had something to do with that, but that alone had me hooked from the beginning. Nice to see Hammer still out there. And for the movie itself, as I said, I enjoyed it. Radcliffe did a great job as the curious and brooding Arthur. While the movie does have its creepy moments, it’s not horror per se as we know it today (Freddie Krueger and Jason Voorhees this is not even though they share themes), nor does it have the gross factor that seems so bloody popular these days. There are some creepy “flash for startling effect” type scenes, but it’s more for those who enjoy Gothic horror like the stories of Poe or other such stories. As a fan of those types of stories, I found the story intriguing and enjoyed the film very much. I look forward to reading Susan Hill’s book someday.
*I say this version because a quick check of Amazon and the web shows that there are several versions of the story out there, that are a bit more play within a play type stories.
Caitlin flipped the phone shut. Where did Trevor keep Arianrhod’s number? She frowned at the empty room and trekked to the bathroom. Sneaking in, she poked her head around the dark blue shower curtain to see Trevor with shampoo in his eyes. She sighed and left the room as quietly as she came. Dinner needed cooking and she mixed and tested, plopping the pork and potatoes into their plates with much more force than she’d meant to.
Would you like a little more? Caitlin’s Book of Shadows is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords. Enjoy!
The Woman In Black (2012)
