December always feels like the soft closing of a chapter. The nights stretch long, the cold settles in and beyond glittering fairy lights and colourful baubles, the world takes on a hush that feels almost sacred. So as 2025 draws to a close, it feels like the right time to pause, reflect and celebrate all … Continue reading Ghosts of the Past…
Whatever you believe in, you can’t deny there’s a certain magic to December. Celebrating the winter solstice and the return of the sun feels fundamental, almost instinctive. We gather, look toward the light, and remind ourselves that warmth and renewal will come again. It’s hope in its oldest form. Age-old traditions passed down through generations mean we … Continue reading Yuletide Cheers…
It’s December already. The nights are wicked long, the air has bitey teeth and the countdown to Christmas has begun. But beneath all the noise and glitter, the veil is thinning. This is the season of quiet ghost stories. Forget New Year’s resolutions. They never stick (and are rarely inspiring). However, what I’m going to commit to is … Continue reading The Ghosts of Winter…
Yesterday, on the penultimate day before Kielder Forest Drive closes for the winter season, I did what any self-respecting lover of eerie landscapes and seasonal hauntings would do and went straight into the heart of it. It was the kind of trip that felt half like an adventure and half like an omen. The sky … Continue reading The Witch Holes of Kielder…
When the sun slips below the horizon and shadows uncoil from their daytime shapes (always more fluid and dramatic when you’re not looking), the world drifts into its most unreliable hour. Twilight. For lovers of horror and the supernatural, dusk is more than a time of day. It’s an atmospheric threshold. And thresholds have always … Continue reading Why Twilight Breeds Fear…
Johanna Van Veen’s engaging, creepy tale is written in such poetic prose that reading it feels like snuggling up to read an old ghost story beside a roaring fire in a centuries-old manor – blanket wrapped around you and a hot chocolate in hand – when suddenly you feel a delicious, ghostly chill at your … Continue reading My Darling Dreadful Thing…
Wow, it’s been a long while since I last wrote here. Life, work and family have a way of sweeping us along, don’t they? But the stories never go quiet, not really. Even when I’m away from my writing desk, the voices of my characters (and the echoes of all those haunted places, imagined and … Continue reading Stories That Linger Like Ghosts…
Next month marks the sixth anniversary of my horror/supernatural suspense novel, Cribbins. Cribbins got its name from the story’s ghostly antagonist; a fictionalised blend of two old men from my past. I amplified and exaggerated their combined badness, rolling all their nasty traits into one persona. Voila, Ronnie Cribbins! Let’s go way back to March … Continue reading Cribbins Relaunched: A Disturbing Ghost Story
As with Emergence and Cribbins, I brought the horror back to my hometown in my fourth supernatural suspense novel, The Cundy. But first thing’s first, what is the cundy? It’s a water conduit. A concrete tunnel that runs beneath Horden’s coast road. In the thick of the dene, it’s surrounded by nature and wildlife. I … Continue reading Viking Warlords & A Spooky Tunnel in the Woods – The Ideas & Inspiration Behind The Cundy
Ronnie Cribbins is the ghostly antagonist in my novel Cribbins. But who is he? A fictionalised blend of two men I knew in the past. You don’t need to know who. Would it matter if you did? Let’s just say they were both highly unpleasant people. The kind of men who would spit at you … Continue reading The Night the Wall had a Heartbeat – The Ideas & Inspiration Behind Cribbins
R. H. DIXON 