Published: Tales from the Grave

My story, 'Sneak', in Tales from the Grave (edited by R. G. Nojek) is a bit different to my usual writing. And Tales from the Grave is a bit different to my usual anthology.

You see, it's true.

It's all true.

Not just my story, but all of them. Because this collection is about true life horrors, real hauntings, genuine fears.

My story is about a house I lived in (and, oddly, despite all the frightening events that took place within it, loved) between the ages of nine and fifteen. The perfect time, many experts and enthusiasts would say, for ghostly happenings to occur. A young, adolescent girl in a house that already had a bit of history, and the gates would be unleashed.

Perhaps so.

Perhaps that is what happened.

Perhaps it was my fault.

But whatever the reason, I can hold my hand to my heart and say now that I witnessed enough paranormal activity in that house, in my own bedroom nonetheless, to ensure that I would never again question a belief in the afterlife.

There was something there.

It was not happy, and it was not pleasant.

I found it rather cathartic to write this story. My family, especially my parents and sister who also lived in the house, and who also experienced the haunting first hand all those years ago, were aware of it, but I don't think I had ever actually spelled everything out, listed every event, given it a timeline and a tentative reason behind it.

This brought back a lot of rather strange and very real memories for me. It was only when I set out to put the story into my own words that I realised just how much I - we - had been through.

It still affects me now; I still get chills when I'm alone, I still have to have the radio or television on when I'm at home, even when I'm in the car I have to have additional noises. Just in case, I suppose. Just in case I hear something I'd rather not.

Want to know more? Buy the book and find out what I saw, what I felt, what happened to me and my family...

And sleep tight.