FREE BOOKS!

FREE! Free free...

For a few days only my thriller novel "The Witcheye Gene" is totally free on amazon. Get your free copy now!"The Witcheye Gene"
Stuffed cats, auras, second sight, different coloured eyes and evil personified all feature in this tense thriller.

We all have auras.

Kendal MacIntyre has fought long and hard to overcome the emotional scars of an unhappy childhood to create the successful boutique business she now has. Having lost her husband to cancer she is driven by one thing only – to see her daughter April have all the advantages in life that she herself was denied. So when someone appears to be snooping, she is terrified that her shameful secret will wreck April’s chances in life and she stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the hereditary trait of ‘special’ sight. But when an evil killer threatens the very existence of her family, she knows she must face her demons if she is to save the one thing she cares about.



The eyes have it!

How to plot a thriller - ways to make it easier.

So here you are with this brand new spark of a brilliant idea that you just feel sure will make a wonderful thriller… But what next, you may ask? 

Fascinating characters always help.

Well of course, you must have some fabulous characters in mind and they should be larger than life in lots of ways. The main characters should also be direct opposites in order to generate the maximum conflict. 

The setting should also reflect the type of story you want to write and the actual plot needs to be thought out in advance (well, at least a little). If you are a ‘seat of your pants’ writer that’s okay but you will find it seriously difficult if you don’t at least have some kind of idea of what your story is trying to say. For myself, I start with the main story question. Is my hero/heroine going to succeed/overcome whatever the story problem/quest is? I then plan the story as a synopsis type of thing. Using a paragraph to write a short description of the scene I see in my mind’s eye.

My own thrillers are all about plot and character. "The Witcheye Gene" &  "The Afterlife of Darkmares" (Both available on Amazon) But I digress...

Next I consider what conflict there will be and what story point is moving the tale forward.  I try to see the whole plot as a rising line on a graph where the incidents, the events, the suspense elements are all increasing and the hero’s problems are multiplying exponentially. Everything he/she tries to do to solve the problem is met by yet more problems, increasing all the time until the final climax after which the scenes become abut resolution of the original story problem.
 

After I have these rough ideas down I write scene cards but when it comes to writing the actual story I am free to discard and add as necessary but if and when I get a bit lost I can always refer to my original plot.  Then there is the issue of subplots and multiple viewpoints… But that’s for another post, methinks…

So how do you do it? Do you plan or just write?

presents for book lovers

What better time of year to buy books... the best presents ever!! Well almost... maybe I could think of one or two better pressies! If I try really hard...
Still hours of pleasure in a good book - don't you think?

Is the click mightier than the pen?

 

“We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure,”  John Dryden

I once put pen to paper (literally) and wrote.

Now I click, tap and navigate. What a huge change to the way we all communicate. I can’t even remember when I last received a hand written letter.   I am not a bright, young thing (although I’d like to think I’m still reasonably bright!) but I know many others of a similar age group who are also very au fait with computers and indeed to some degree, social networking.

For me the keypad is quicker than the pen when it comes to getting tumbling thoughts and ideas down on paper. Free writing engages the creative right side of the brain and not the analytical, logical left brain. I believe getting something, anything, down on a blank sheet is the best way to avoid writers block and so I often use free writing to help me think and get going on a project.

Using the keypad rather than the pen gives me a quicker easier way to re-write this stream of consciousness writing and make some sense of it. Whereas editing with pen and paper just leaves me with a confused mess of crossings out and no sense of what I am really trying to say.  Having said that, I have many friends who continue to write in longhand – at least initially. They still cherish the feel of pen on paper and love to fill the blank white pages of a notebook.

Long live writers of all kinds!

So are you a pen pusher or a keyboard clicker?

 

Free Promotion Success?

I'm not sure whether giving my book away for free -for a few days - through amazon was a good thing or not but I can say my promotion was a total success - just not monetary...

Although I wold like to make money, having people read my work is more important and still gives me a sense of satisfaction. I guess time will tell if the promotion gives me more than this...

The promotion has also increased my engagement with facebook, twitter etc. and has gained me new followers/likes on all my platforms. I hope to gain lots more new friends and maybe more sales of "The Witcheye Gene" which is also available on amazon.

So to all the hundreds of people who downloaded my free book - "The Afterlife of Darkmares", Thanks!

I hope you enjoy the read and perhaps feel able to comment or review the book?

What do you think? Are free books ever a good idea?

Plague, Thrills, Death and Evil Entities in this Novel...

the Plague cottages at Eyam

Last couple of hours for free download of "The Afterlife of Darkmares" Available for FREE from amazon.





The Chruch at Eyam

 A tense thriller set in the historic village of Eyam in Derbyshire UK.

Do you use real settings for your stories?

FREE, Free, Freeeeee...

The ancient celtic cross in Eyam Village

Last few hours for downloading my FREE book!!
 THE AFTERLIFE OF DARKMARES available on Amazon now.

Don't miss this great opportunity for a free gift.

'The Afterlife of Darkmares' is a part historical and part contemporary
supernatural thriller. The ancient part of the tale is set in 1665, in the rural villages
of the Derbyshire Peak district, at the time of the great Plague. The events of that time link forward to contemporary times and a woman and her family
- who have already suffered great tragedy – but who are yet to face a threat more evil than they can imagine.

 

Do you enjoy reading supernatural thrillers? Then try this one for free!

 

 

Back to the future?

I am so pleased to announce that my thriller “The Afterlife of Darkmares” by P J Newcombe is FREE on Amazon for a short time. So please get your free copy now.
Amazon.co.uk        Amazon USA
 

Eyam Church

This story is set partly in modern day England but also in 1665 in a rural village in Derbyshire which eventually became known as the PLAGUE village. My tale is fictional but the events and the settings are real and well documented. The story of Eyam – plague village - is threaded through my supernatural-type tale but the bravery of the real villagers in quarantining themselves voluntarily over a number of months, has long been recognised as perhaps, the greatest heroic story of its time.  Over a period of months the village was decimated by the disease with whole families wiped out but as a result of their sacrifice the surrounding hamlets and the Duke of Devonshire’s Estate (Chatsworth) was saved from infection.  

Set against this background “The Afterlife of Darkmares” is the story of one woman’s battle against an evil entity which threatens not only her child but ultimately all mankind.

Cucklett Delf

                    

The celtic Cross

Plague cottages




 

Available for kindle FREE as - well as the paperback book

Amazon

 

For more information or to read an excerpt from the book visit please my website:  P J Newcombe

Or my facebook page   http://facebook.com/ThrillerWriterPJNewcombe

Please feel free to follow me on twitter    http://Twitter.com/patnewcombe

Do you like to read thrillers?

Are you scared yet?

 

 

“There is no fear in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.” Alfred Hitchcock. 

 

 Scaring people is one of the satisfying aspects of my writing life!!

Sorry about that uncivil statement but it is true… I get a real kick when people tell me they were scared reading my stories. It is such a difficult thing to get right, I think. After all you want definitely want readers to be scared a little - but not so much that it overcomes their inclination to read on.

Raising the hairs on the back of my neck or causing me to break out in goosebumps is scary enough for me. Blood and guts kind of scary is not my cup of tea – although I know it does it for plenty of other readers… So how scary is scary for readers of paranormal thrillers?

For me, it is setting the imagination in play. A few well placed suggestions can get readers wondering and if they wonder then all things are possible. Witness a group of people quietly playing cards late at night. One says, “shush - did you hear that?” Everyone stops and listens carefully. Then another person hears a noise and someone else says it sounds like the creak a coffin lid opening might make…. Suddenly everyone’s heart beats a little faster. Then the lights go out… Now one of the players screams as he imagines something touched him…

But what has actually happened here? A fuse has blown and a door creaked slightly as it moved in a draught. But what has really happened is the imagination has exerted its full force and - as perceptive as we humans are – such things as atmosphere and sensing fear from another person is as infectious as laughing and yawning. We are all victims of our own imaginations in the right circumstances. It is this fact that all paranormal thriller writers trade in and has given rise to some of the scariest stories ever without spilling a single drop of blood!

I must apologise for the clichéd scenario but I’m sure you get my drift…

Do you use fear subliminally? Without being as clichéd as this, of course…

Can you be scared by the use of suggestions and atmosphere?

 

For all hallows day – a ‘haunting’ experience or a fascinating word?

I looked up the word ‘haunting’ in my dictionary and found it could refer to many different things. For instance, the most obvious is a ghost-type haunting, which, I guess, we have all heard of even if we don’t believe in that sort of thing.

Then there is the disturbing, provocative meaning of the word, such as in a ‘haunting melody’. Another meaning is when we say someone is possessed or jinxed – they may be ‘haunted by’ someone or something. Then again there is the expression we use when someone looks very worried or troubled by something – they may look ‘haunted’. My last offering is to use the word haunt when we mean a hideaway or den or even a normal place that we regularly return to.

All these words say ‘creepy’ to me - at least in the context of writing thrillers. Especially supernatural thrillers…

Even the notion of a haunting, sorrowful tune can be pretty sinister if it’s used in the right scenario. As for ghost haunting – well, we all know that can be scary, if handled properly… Haunting by other supernatural beings such as a demon/devil can be made to be pretty Spine-chilling too – witness the terrifying ‘Exorcist’ (for its time a brilliant movie) but these stories can equally be a lot like an old ‘b movie’ and they can be steeped in stereotypes and cliché.

Even the ‘haunt’ as a familiar place can be made to feel eerie with the addition of one or two strange and unfamiliar things. Even as I am writing this a few ideas have tickled my imagination and I am a little excited at the prospect of getting to my regular haunt ( in front of my PC) to jot a few words down!

So it’s all Hallows Day… An appropriate day, I think, for pondering haunting words and themes??

 

So do you ever pause to think of intriguing words and allow them to whisper in the ears of your muse?