'Seeing' is believing??

O – Oracle

My dictionary defines an oracle as a divine utterance or a prophecy. It also says that it can be a word used to describe a person who has special powers to see into the future.

Certainly a great word to use if you write supernatural thrillers like myself. It always fascinates me where special (often supernatural) powers come from. People think they are quite modern words, in that supernatural tales of ‘derring do’ seem to be a recent phenomenon but, as any student of the classics will say, soothsayers (oracles) prophets and seers appeared in the tales of the most ancient of story tellers.

However, I do think you can only use something like this if the tone of the story is already set to be something out of the ordinary i.e. paranormal or supernatural elements. Otheriwse it would simply look totally contrived if a chacracter could suddenly 'see' the future.

I used the motif myself in my book ‘The Witcheye Gene’ where my heroine had the ability to ‘see’ things ordinary mortals could not see. And who is to say these people do not have that ability? I think that many of us have some small measure of extra ability that we do not always recognise. I often know when the phone will ring and know who it is… Is that second sight or just a lucky guess?

One thing I do know – there are stranger things in heaven and earth than we mere mortals are aware of…

Do you think extraordinary powers truly exist? Or do they have a logical explanation?

A ghostly Christmas...

Bah Humbug!

Christmas is almost upon us and the frenzy of shopping and socialising is building day to day like a good, page turning, suspense novel!

But before I get into my post proper I need to apologise for my ‘no show’. My blog has been on hold for the last two weeks because I have been away on holiday and not within reach of a decent internet connection. BUT now I’m back - so it’s full steam ahead from here on in!

So, back to a Christmas Carol, of sorts…

At this time of year I always enjoy reading (or watching an adaptation) of Dickens Christmas Carol. As ghost stories go, it’s got to be THE classic. I often wonder if writers like Dickens ever had any idea just how time-honoured their writing would become. Every school child has heard of the story and most have watched a version of it on TV. If you ask people who Bob Cratchett was, I think most would associate the name as synonymous with a poor working class family man who was bullied mercilessly by his penny-pinching employer. And the word ‘scrooge’ (from Ebenezer Scrooge) came into common parlance after Dickens wrote his story. The word has come to be used to describe someone who is mean and miserly.

The story is of course a morality tale and Dickens meant it as such. But the scenes with the ghosts must have been pretty scary to readers and listeners of the day and even today it ranks with many as an all time favourite and goes with Christmas tide nicely as we should all be more aware of those less fortunate than ourselves. I know it made a lasting impression on me when I first heard it as a child and alongside believing in Santa Claus, I also believed in the ghosts of Dickens tale.

Since Dickens’s time many have tried to write similar stories but none, in my opinion, come close to capturing the sense of fear about the hereafter that “A Christmas Carol” did.

Happy Christmas and happy writing everyone!

Do you have a favourite Christmas story?