Love it or hate it, this time of year strips everything back to its stark white bones and asks quietly: What ghosts are you carrying into the new year?
Not literal ones (though those too, if you have them), but the emotional echoes we each drag behind us. All the unfinished stories and old fears and hopes that refuse to die.
As the dark months often feel the most creative (for me, in any case), I’ve been reflecting a lot on the ghosts of past selves. The things we hold onto long after they’ve ceased to serve us. The way grief reshapes a person.
And these ideas are quietly becoming the emotional backbone of Harrow House, my current writing project. I’m around 10% into the first draft and would love to share some snippets (and the cover) with you as the year unfolds.
For now, here’s a glimpse of what’s taking shape within its walls…
When Sharry Cross loses her mother, her job and her home in quick succession, the last thing she expects is salvation to arrive in the form of an enigmatic stranger.
Lady Helena Harrow offers Sharry a lifeline – a live-in position at her ancestral manor on the wild North Yorkshire moors.
But Harrow House is not what it seems. Its splendour hides rot; its silence hides whispers.
Sharry soon learns that Helena’s family carries a terrible secret – a centuries-old curse born of betrayal, blood and revenge. Each night brings strange noises, ghostly figures and the haunting presence of a beast that prowls the periphery of the grounds.
When Helena’s brooding son Beau returns home for Christmas, Sharry senses danger closing in. A snowstorm sees them trapped together, and the house begins to reveal its true nature. As the Harrow family curse stirs to life, Sharry must uncover the truth before she becomes part of it – before Harrow House claims her as it’s claimed so many before.
This project feels like a return. A voice I haven’t heard clearly in a while, finding its way back through the dark.
So here’s to a new year of strange stories, warm drinks and quiet hauntings.
R. H. DIXON 