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?

 



Creepy or what? Xenophobia?

Fear of strangers or aliens is the dictionary definition of this word! And what a fabulous word it is to use when writing thrillers. I think it could almost be a spark for a damn good plot just on it’s own…

Fear, whichever way you use it has been the engine for many a good thriller story. And it never matters whether the fear is real or imagined. If it is what the character feels then it is ‘real’. In fact, all the phobias are rich pickings for thriller writers. I can think of many stories where you never really know whether the character’s fear is justified or not until well into the tale or even at the absolute end.

What it actually means is that fear is an overwhelming emotion that we all recognise and indentify with. Who hasn’t imagined all sorts of creepy things when alone in the dark? And phobic fear is just as powerful to the person who suffers it. The outcome for both types of fear in a story is good old fashioned suspense! It is the stuff that keeps people turning the pages and biting their nails! And of course it is Halloween this week and what better time to get the brain cells going and turning our innate human fear of the unknown into a story.

And keeping readers guessing is never a bad thing...

So do you have a phobic-type fear? Do you use it in your writing?