Taormina and Mount Etna Sicily

As I love to travel I thought I'd begin a series of travel blogs for my adventures abroad and what has inspired me to include in my The Beyond Series Of Books.

I love Italy and I think Italians are amazing friendly people so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to visit Sicily. Taormina is a quaint city in the mountains close to mount Etna. Lost of windy roads to the top of the town. It reminds me of Venice, but without the canals and water ways. Oldie worldy and very quaint.

There is a beautiful Roman Amphitheatre that is still used today for shows. 

A town square where locals gather for coffee and ice cream and leisurely sit around gossiping in the sun and listening to the street musicians. I went to the café that Liz Taylor and …… Famously met regularly for illicit liaisons, so I’ve heard. It was very expensive, but I felt a film star for a couple of hours.
A live band was playing one evening as we sat out enjoying the atmosphere of the square. I could have sworn the lead singer was chatting us up over the Microphone, I couldn't tell what he was saying as it was in Italian, but he did sing Lady in Red whilst winking at me... (I was in a red dress).

I had my portrait drawn whilst there and although my neck was stiff as a board after fifty minutes stuck in one position the results were very impressive. It is something I’ve always wanted and now it hangs pride of place on my living room wall.

One excursion I will never forget though was a trip up Mount Etna… WOW! As a Health and Safety freak you can only imagine my fear of the damn thing erupting whilst I’m taking pictures of an unfortunate hostelry that didn’t survive the last eruption. I can’t believe people are mad enough to go on skiing trips there. Yes, there is a ski village there a few hundred feet from the top where the ground still steams!!! Crazy!! The bus ride was cool, like moon buggies and the tires are so huge to cut through the ash to the top. Barron, but beautiful.

 This was the view from our Apartment Balcony. Stunningly lovely, but there's always that worry in the back of your mind that one may have to escape the island at a moments notice. I barely unpacked anything from my case and lived out of my suitcase for the entire holiday!

As I was heading back to the Cable car ride back to the ski village I looked back to see huge plumes of sulphur smoke billow over the horizon. I Said to someone sitting next to me, “you don’t think that’s and eruption do you?” To which all other passengers turned to look a tad alarmed. And yes when I returned home I confirmed that Etna had indeed erupted again. It was cool to say I have been on a live volcano, but I seriously doubt I will dabble with fate and try that again!



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SciFi Weekender Discussion Panel - Promoting The Beyond Series - Supernatural Books

Last weekend I attended the SciFi Weekender in Pwllheli in Wales to try and promote and sell some of my Beyond Series books. So I was thrilled to be asked by Author Sam Stone to sit on a couple of discussion panels. As this is quite a long blog (for me), I decided to break it into two parts.

Graham Guy, Me, Sam Stone and Austin Chambers on first panel.

Horror Writing

Visceral Versus Psychological

Horror to me is defined as stepping into a fantasy world that you normally wouldn’t entertain in everyday life. For instance you wouldn’t court a mad psychopath who is so unpredictable that you could potentially become their next victim, whether rape, murder or cannibalised! Nor would you really meet a person or a mythological creature that frightens the life out of you and disturbs or disgusts you. To me, this is horror.

When I was asked to sit on two writer’s discussion panels for the Sci Fi Weekender, it actually made me think properly for the first time about the genre I regularly write in. I never normally analyse or label my work until I have to publish the book. So I lay awake most of the night before thinking about what horror writing meant to me and which did I prefer. Needless to say I was tired the next day, but with the adrenalin pumping and microphone in hand, an eager audience waiting for something profound to be blurted from my lips, this is what I wanted to say – even if I didn’t articulate it very well at the time.

Visceral Horror is the blood, guts and gore of the genre, the things that we watch or read that makes us go eeewwwuurgggh!!! Psychological Horror is suggestive, giving the audience the opportunity to use their own intelligence and imagination to make the spine shiver and the heeby jeebies get jiggy in your tummy.

Zombie Cop!

As I am predominantly known as a novelist, I wanted my audience to be clear that ‘writing horror’ isn’t just restricted to writing books and short stories for anthologies or magazines. Graphic Novels, TV Scripts, Film Screen Plays and Theatre all come under the writing banner too. At the end of the day a person thought it, wrote the script and then let others produce the creative media the story is being told in.

So we discussed novel writers such as Dean Koontz, Stephen King. Horror Films which crossed over into the Sci-fi genre too, such as Cloverfield and Skyline (I found terrifyingly disturbing films). Supernatural Horror like Nightmare on Elm Street, Carrie and Paranormal Activity – Serial Killer Horror like Halloween and Friday the 13^th. Granted there is some blood and gore in them, but only right at the end when the psychological tension has been built to a crecendo. I pointed out horror in the theatre, psychological plays like A Woman in Black, The Haunting and Ghost Stories (my personal favourite). I did see a visceral play in the form of a Jacobean Play called The Changeling (I have reviewed this play in my Blog before). Quiet shocked when there was a lot of stabbing and blood at the end.

The Weeping Angels on Doctor Who. The thought of something horrible happening to you when you close your eyes for just a second is terrifying!

I concluded that psychological horror worked much better for me because I like to think about what’s going on in the story, being kept on the edge of my seat or compelled to turn the next page of the book, but a certain amount of visceral horror is needed to push the story along. For instance, my Beyond Books do have a certain amount of violence or blood based wounds and deaths because the supernatural creature themselves are visceral and NEED to drink blood or kill with their bare hands or decapitate the odd immortal Lycan, because it is necessary for their survival.

One cannot help but feel sympathy for a vampire who is made against their will and then must feed on human blood to continue to survive – or a were-wolf pack ripping the heads of the feral wolves that attack them in their homes when all they wish to do is live peaceful lives and hunt in the forests.

It seemed unanimous amongst the group that it was easier to accept this fictitious world because we all know it’s not real, but an escapism of the drudgery of real life. However, psychological horrors involving humans inflicting the visceral blood lust and gore on fellow humans is deeply disturbing for me. For instance, serial killer TV programmes that I have watched like Dexter, The Following, or Patrick Jane tirelessly hunting for Red John in The Mentalist is far more frightening because we are all too aware that these sort of people really do exist. In fact, as you read this and look around, (if in a public place, of course) notice the people and ask yourself – Who are they? Why are they there? Are they inherently good people or could they be the next Yorkshire Ripper or Myra Hindley?

How many times have friends and neighbours said in the news about killers. “Well, I’ve watched them grow up on our street. I’ve known them all their lives – He was such a lovely person – I can’t believe he could do such a thing!” And the shock quotes could go on and on. I’ve never heard anyone being interviewed after a revelation of a captured serial killer saying – “I knew all along the guy was a complete wacka-doodle… or - I thought about telling the cops when I saw him cooking his pet guinea pig on a campfire when he was a kid… He gave me the creeps!!” To me this kind of horror is truly disturbing and which is why I am exploring the mind of a serial killer in my crime thriller series Mancunian Tales. I have two books written so far, but I want the one I’ve been currently researching to write to be released first as part of a trilogy. 

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Ghost Hunt Of Healey Hall

Healey Hall is a beautiful old house in Rochdale. I was invited to a real Ghost Hunt, which was brilliant, I have to say. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do especially seeing as I write for a living about a paranormal investigative team in my Beyond Series of books. I thought it would be fun to go on a hunt and do a little research for my books characters at the same time - plus I wanted to have a nosy inside a big private manor house!

First we had a tour of the house and immediately I was creeped out by the maze of cellars and the attic rooms, especially when the owners had one of those creepy life size child dolls that face the wall as if playing hide and seek, but when you turn the things around they have no face, yahhhh! How can anyone find those things cute?

There was also a little chapel on the first that was currently being used as a dressing room for a guest bedroom and this also sent shivers down my spine. I’m telling you now, if I was a guest sleeping in that house, I would be sleeping in the lounge.

I heard a few moans and groans through the white noise, but the séances were a joke. There was a lady there who claimed to be psychic, and who blatantly directed the séances using a glass. There wasn’t even an attempt to use the power of suggestion through advanced language patterns. As an NLP Master Practitioner not much passes my attention, so I sat out of them both, especially when I felt other people in the seance circle actually pushing the glass around to spell out a word! Geeze!

Anyway, I enjoyed sitting in the darkened living room alone, until other people came wandering in and talking, which irritated me a little as it ruined the ambience for me. I left at 3 am because the “psychic lady” was banging on about a Victorian nanny that walked into the current nursery. Now I knew that that room hadn’t always been a nursery and it’s pretty safe to assume that a house that size would most certainly have had servants and a nanny!!! Oh yeah and I was tired. I didn’t experience anything conclusive that ghosts exist or blew my socks off scary like that librarian in the beginning of Ghostbusters movie!

We did have this machine that gave out white noise and if you went into this room you had to keep very quiet, unless something was heard through the equipment. So I spent quite a bit of time in here. I did hear something - I'm not sure what, a cry or a moan or a sigh! The organisers came running in the room very excited and asked me if I'd just heard 'that'? I said I'd heard something from the white noise box. Apparantly the two men had been in the attic and they claimed to have heard screaming and moaning! Creepy!! But sadly that was the only exciting thing that happened that night.   

In conclusion, I think it's fair to say that these ghost hunt TV programmes do exaggerate and sensationalise each and every hunt they go on just to make themselves more credible. I would really like to go on a ghost hunt with just two or three people and who are trustworthy enough not to fake stuff. Any Offers?

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Lycan Lamia - Book Four in The Beyond Series is NOW ON SALE

Book Four of The Beyond Series is out on sale now. After blood sweat and tears :- ie seven weeks to write, two months of arduous editing and the publishing process was a nightmare - I finally made and I can concentrate on what I love doing best again - WRITING!

Synopsis

Dawn rises over Danestone Glen following the battle between Christos and his vamp army. Galleano and his rag tag bunch of supers consisting of; werewolf packs from the five continents of The Beyond, a circle of four elemental demons who despise one another, and the Daryavaush paranormal team. Casualties are high and the groups have split and retreated. The four castles of Avalonia seem to have crumbled and the Romanov children are missing.

Daryavaush has another nasty shock waiting for them back at the Carmichael Mansion just as a stranger arrives to offer them salvation and protection from the vengeful rogue vampire-witch Kasha.

Galleano is at a loss, now doubting his own decisions from centuries ago to present day, he needs to find a cure for Amethyst's sudden 'illness'. Nathaniel and his five packs have suffered the worst losses in centuries and they want revenge.

Can the Daryavaush trust their new saviour and find the children of Avalonia before it's too late? Will Galleano save Amethyst's soul and finally find the answers he's so desperately searched for over half a millennia and across the world? Here and now he faces his darkest hour of enlightenment before his own destruction from the Lycan Lamia.

About Alison

Alison is a full time writer juggling her life between working on the popular supernatural novel series  - The Beyond, her new Crime Thriller series - Mancunian Tales and scripts for a TV series in development. As a great fan of theatre, Alison is now writing a play based on The Beyond Series, as well as short stories for her writing blog http://didikaiwitch.blogspot.co.uk and a historical true life novel set in war time Britain.

Alison also loves to travel, abroad and in the UK. There are many fascinating and beautiful places to see. These travelling sabbaticals are inspiration for her work. As a result Alison and her husband are currently travelling the UK in a large motorhome to promote The Beyond books. They are also using the opportunity to raise money for two great charities, Different Strokes and Lions Club International of which they are both members.

Alison’s Travel blog: http://penneysontour.blogspot.co.uk

Alison’s website: www.alisonkershaw.com

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Beamish Museum - Great Research Tool And New Writing Projects

Now that Lycan Lamia - Book Four in the Beyond Series is almost edited and ready for publication and can happily turn my attention to two new writing projects I've been itching to start. The feeling of releif when a writing itch is finally scratched is AMAZING!!!

Mink Coats is an History true life novel based on my both my grandmothers lives whom I promised to write about and they both lived astonishing lives. I also have a huge interest in all kinds of history, especially early twentieth century history so when I had the opportunity to visit an open air working museum set in Tyneside close to Durham I jumped at the chance. Not only was this an enjoyable day out, but for me it was an opportunity to experience what it was like to live in a northern town from 1900 right through to the Second World War.

So here is my tour of the Beamish Open Air Museum, and boy was it brilliant! I took a lot of photo’s, I loved it that much, but basically it is a working museum, where you catch a tram to a 1900’s coal mining Village of Beamish, which has mostly crumbled and collapsed into the mines, but what’s left has been beautifully preserved.

A typical looking early twentieth century Northern town.

The traditional bakery smelt AM-AZ-ING! They’d just finished baking hot cross buns and the scent of cinnamon and bread baking made my tummy rumble… so I bought a warm loaf…. Mmmm!

 Every building had been dismantled brick by brick and moved to Beamish. I caught the tram to 1900’s town, which according to Barclays Bank Manager all of it has been built from original buildings that were to be demolished from elsewhere, taken down brick by brick and rebuilt at the museum.

Barclays Bank just like one I worked in during the 80's

 Dentist Surgery

I had a nosy in the Dentist Surgery and he told us some gruesome stories about pulling teeth, so I went to the Music teacher’s house and she’d just baked some cherry cake in her wood burning range…. Mmmm! All that food we needed to wash it down in the local pub and warmed up by a roaring fire then headed to the sweet shop where they’d just made some lime and sherbet boiled sweets…. Mmmm!

 Clothes shop.

 Parlour

 Grocers just like the one my mum began her working life in.

 Kitchen and Hearth

 War time Britain and the Land girls cottage -A working farm preserved in 1940’s Britain, with your very own Home Guard and Land Girl to answer any questions and bake some very lovely cheese scones in an old wood burning range. Mmmm.

Nursery - So Cute!!

 Parlour- with a lot of stuffed animals!

Early Century Public House

 1900 School

 School Classroom

 Solicitors Office

Sweets!

By this point I was getting some serious cases of Déjà vu and it was bugging me so much I asked the tram conductor if they had ever allowed filming of period drama’s there and it turns out they have. Catherine Cookson? I enquired and I was right. The Sweet shop was the giveaway for me and as I love the Catherine Cookson films that are made for TV I was really chuffed to say, I’ve been on a film set of The Wingless Bird! Which made me even more excited, I've been on a film set!!

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Edinburgh and East Coast Scotland

Holyrood House – To me most stately homes are pretty much the same these days. As a child I loved to go to Chatsworth, Tatton Park and other lovely country houses and imagine that I lived there in Victorian times. These days I look at such places and think 'oh that’s pretty, but worn' and move on. Holyrood was pretty much put in that category for me I’m afraid. What few rooms you did see were grand, but as a working palace I guess they don’t have to show all the house off. At least I can say I've seen it.

Mother Earth Museum – This has to be the best Museum ever!. First you go in a lift that takes you back through time. Then you walk through different ages of planet Earths life. So there was the dinosaur age, Ice age, various stages of human evolution then an actual rain forest that produced a rain storm every 30 minutes or so. Then you were whisked off to the future to decide the future of the environment. I guess the interactive stuff is great for children and I wish there had been museums like that when I was a child.

Edinburgh Castle – This reminded me of Tower of London. That’s as much as I remember. I don’t go wild for the massive castles, like Caernarfon, Windsor and Edinburgh… They’re full of tourists! No I love looking on an ordnance survey map, find a key for castles and Abbeys then drive to some random farmers field and wander around the ruins imagining what it must have been like as a busy working fortification. R=This is how I wrote about Criccieth Castle in Didikai Witch, the actual castle today is virtually in ruins, but my love for the landscape and the town meant it was a perfect location for the Romanov Coven.

 Christmas markets always make me feel warm and excited inside. Takes me to fond memories of my past.

 The Witchery just made me think of all things occult, dark and gothic - I've decided to decipher the signs and discover the history of this strange pub. One other thing I didn't do is the underground catacombs, which are very haunted. Next Time!

Seton Sands Holiday Village – A pretty little campsite spoilt slightly by a power station. Also have to cross the road to get to a muddy beach.

Hogmanay – Edinburgh was incredibly busy, but the Christmas markets were still on and I love that whole chestnuts roasting on an open fire and Mulled wine stalls, Ferris wheels and sparkly lights. It's all so cosy and lovely. It was nuts with far too many people for my liking. Glad I did, doubt I will go again.

I've always wanted to do Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the summer time, but I need to sort out my claustrophobia amongst crowds first I think. I definitely want to return to this side of Scotland as there is still so much to do and see. Watch this space.

Paranormal Research at Kingfisher Mill

I have done quite a lot of research for my Beyond Series of books and so whilst I was writing a section that featured ghosts and paranormal investigations, I decided I really wanted to have a go myself.

I worked in an old mill converted into offices and I was hearing stories from some of the tenants who claimed they had heard noises such as factory machinery, people shouting when no-one else was in the building and two people told me they had seen a man in a brown foreman’s uniform on the stairs and in the corridor of the fourth floor then just disappeared in front of them. Both descriptions were almost identical and neither had told anyone else of the sightings.

Another claim was hearing voices of ladies chattering and laughing on the second floor. When I researched it I discovered that the foreman had died there and the loudest lady was known as Kathy who was the supervisor in the sewing room on the second floor. (This was all when the mill was a shoe factory that closed in the early eighties.)

I had a night vision camera so I decided to stay late one night when I knew a psychic was having a meeting with my boss.

I went wandering around the building in the dark armed only with my camera and began calling out for any spirits to make themselves known. I wasn’t in the least bit frightened of the dark, until I stood in the corridor on the second floor and began goading Kathy the loud and larger than life seamstress to show herself to me, saying things like “Come on I know you like playing jokes on people, show yourself unless your chicken.” Just then she appeared right at the side of my face, just for a brief second, but long enough to spook me so much I ran back up to the room where my boss was having the meeting. It was a real Most Haunted moment.

I told them what had happened and the psychic just smiled and said, “Yes the foreman’s been keeping an eye on you, just in case Kathy went too far, although he is curious why you would want to frighten yourself like that.” Argghh!! I was freakin' out!

My boss nor I had told the psychic anything about what I was doing there so late at night and she knew nothing of the history or the spirits in the building as she was visiting from another part of the country. It was so cool I would love to do a professional ghost hunt one day.

My website www.alisonkershaw.com

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