The hour draweth nigh...

I had a great email last night.

The House in Wales is looking to be released next week!!

I knew it was coming, I'd already been told it was on its final edit and they'd approved of the cover, but to read those words incited the same range of emotions I'd experience if I were locked in an off license.

So, what's it about?

Well, the main protagonist, Daniel Kelly, is a young man from Liverpool who has recently lost his mother during the Blitz. He's evacuated to Colwyn Bay to escape the destruction and ends up in the home of a vicar and his very prim house keeper.

However, all is not what it seems...

I won't go too much into the story but the prudish facade soon falls away to reveal the true nature of their relationship, one of sexual obsession, devil worship and human sacrifice.

It is, without a doubt, something I would not have naturally moved on to. My plan was to write part two to The Division of the Damned and then finish off my Jurassic Park meets War and Peace epic. However, Kathleen stopped those plans in their tracks when she wrote to me and asked if I would have a go at writing a story about a haunted house, (a part of the story I haven't yet mentioned but is germane to the plot).

The thing was, American Horror Story had just finished its first season and had done really well, putting haunted houses firmly back on the horror map. Would I be interested in having a go at writing something in that vein?

I hadn't even seen American Horror Story, but I tentatively said yes and watched some episodes, (kindly lent to me by my good friend Andi Renson) to have a feel for how it should be.

I loved it and started the project off more or less straight away. The whole twisted nature of the series, with the personal issues and histories of the characters adding to its maniacal ambience, inspired me immediately. Nevertheless, how was I going to approach it? There was no way I could simply copy the programme so I looked for an idea that could carry the plot.

I didn't have to wait long, (if there's one thing I'm never short of, it's ideas for stories) and I set the plot down.

We'd just returned from a holiday in Wales and my home town was ever present in my thoughts, so I decided to set it in Colwyn Bay, (well, Old Colwyn to be specific). I knew that The Bay had received evacuees from Liverpool and that period felt about right. Hardly anyone had a telephone at that time so isolating Daniel in a foreign environment would be easy. I could also make the prim and proper bearing of the villains believable. People like Miss Trimble and Reverend Davies just don't exist any more, not in these unashamedly self-indulgent times anyway.

The book is off my beaten track but I'm immensely proud of it and I hope that you'll like it too.

That said, I'm also praying fervently that my Mam doesn't read it. There are a couple of rather racy/pervy/sick parts in there that might mar the immaculate mental image she has of her eldest son... ;-)

All the best.

Reg.