Scary Places

The new book for New Page is now underway and some of the places that I'm including are even starting to scare me!

Looking at the list in front of me I see that we'll be paying a visit to the tomb of the man who served as the model for Hugo Baskerville in the Sherlock Holmes novel "Hound of the Baskervilles"; the castle where the Countess Dracula was entombed; the home of the Dublin Hellfire Club, and a mysterious house in California which just kept on growing.

Of course, when I was asked to do a Guide to Creepy Places the first question I asked was "What do you mean by creepy?" Is it some place that's supposedly haunted, somewhere where something terrible might have happened or something associated with a wierd or eccentric character? And what might be creepy for one person may not be creepy for another.

I have a list of sites made out which I sent off to New Page but, as usual, as I worked on it, other places with all sorts of meanings behind them also occurred to me so I may include a few extra and let them choose if they want to include them in the book. But I hope that at least some of the places in the finished book will give you a bit of a chill. Maybe a drive through rural Ohio will never be the same - you never know what's watching you from the woods.

And speaking of Ohio - I'll be speaking on Monday night at 7 pm to Rob Bradbury on radio in Hamilton Ohio. We'll be talking about Man Made Monsters, my last book. And on 23rd I'll be recording a series of interviews in Belfast with Prometheus Pictures who are flying in from Los Angeles to interview me for a series on Civilisation for the History Channel. I've been approached by a number of documentary makers over the past few months and so in 2012 you may be sick of the sight of me on your televisions.

The comics end goes very slowly at the moment as we pull a few things together - the problem is that we're all very busy in other jobs and we all live a fair distance apart so it's not easy. However, I'll soon be posting something on the Bog Standard Comix site very soon and hopefully we'll get something up before the end of the month.

I'd also like to mention the fearful loss of life in Japan due to the earthquake and the tsunami and now nuclear radiation. I've been doing some work in Japan over the years and have a number of good friends out there. So my thoughts and prayers are with the Japanese people in the midst of what is a horrific time for them.

Lastly, my computer is going in for an upgrade - all sorts of new additions to drag me kicking and screaming into the 21st century so I'll be off-line for a couple of days. But I will be back, new and improved at the end of this coming week I hope. Now back to scary places - I'm trembling already.

Bob