NEW RELEASE! NECROTIST A Novel

A New Novel for 2020…

Victoria Christie knows what you have done.  She knows what you are hiding.  With just one touch, all your secrets will be laid bare.  And that’s exactly what Governor Cloud is hoping for when he recruits her as a Necrotist for Firs County’s Finest.  But Victoria’s gift of Sight comes at a high price.    

When Victoria learns that Oscar Hale, a criminal on Death Row, isn’t guilty of the terrible murder he’s accused of, she discovers there are darker forces at play and they want Hale gone before their secrets are revealed.  

Torn between her loyalty to Governor Cloud and jaded Ring Chief John Hunter, can Victoria stop Hale from being silenced? 

NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK OR ON KINDLE

Nicola

weirdworld@hotmail.co.uk

©Nicola Kirk and http://www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com 2020

Window Dressing – It Can Go Horribly Wrong.

I walk into work most mornings.  It wakes me up.  Instead of rolling off the train and stumbling into work hoping that enough caffeine will prise my eyelids fully open, a three-mile wander through London does an immeasurably better job.  The pretty parks, the unusual people you see going by, the shop front murder scene.

Wait.  What?

London’s going to be awash with people doing their LGBT thing this weekend, and there are rainbows on everything that isn’t tied down.  And some things that are.  Oxford Street and Regent Street are so heavily steeped in all things rainbow coloured, it’s like a trip to fairyland. Ha.  Fairyland.  Get it?

Nevermind.

But one shop.  Oh, one shop has made the most horrible design error of creating some kind of spray spatter effect window sticker to go in each window across their shop front, one colour of the rainbow in each window.  Should be nice, yes?  Well, it is.  Until you get to…

THE RED WINDOW OF DEATH.

The spatter effect of red up the sides and middle of the last pane of glass looks like someone has been fed through an industrial meat grinder on full throttle.

I want to take a photo (so want to take a photo…) but I’m worried I won’t be able to outrun the furious shop keeper.

TASTE THE RAINBOW!

But it’s the thought that counts.  If you’re doing the Gay Pride march this weekend in town, may your sequins and glitter sparkle all day long.

Nicola

weirdworld@hotmail.co.uk

©Nicola Kirk and http://www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com 2019

COMING SOON – SLIVER

Well, It’s Almost Done!

I’m pleased to say that after numerous re-writes, arguments with characters and the odd gender reassignment, my latest novel, Sliver, is finally out of my head and onto paper!  There’s still some editing, correcting and general faffing to do, but here’s a taste of what it’s all about:

I’ll let you know when the Beast is Unleashed.

Nicola

weirdworld@hotmail.co.uk

©Nicola Kirk and http://www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com 2017

Where Do They Get It From?

You know son, I’m not sure the cat was ready to be stuffed.

I don’t talk about my paranormal infatuation in front of my kids.  Mainly because I want them to be able to sleep at night (and thus let me sleep at night too) and partly because  I think they need to go and find their own infatuations.  As long as it’s not taxidermy.  Or pickling onions.  Can’t stand pickled onions.

Fine.  FINE!  I’ll have a shower later then.

So I find it a little puzzling when my daughter, who is only four, comes scooting downstairs from my room one afternoon, where she has been busy rearranging my books for me, whether I like it or not, telling me that: “There was a strange noise in your bathroom and I didn’t like it!  I think your bathroom is hunted!”  We had a brief debate about my bathroom not being hunted or haunted:  “No, it’s okay, we don’t have any ghosts here, trust me I’ve looked.  I’ve even tried phoning them…” I told her, looking wistfully at my Ouija board.

A few days before she had come bursting into my room at 3am complaining that there was someone in her room.

“There’s something in my room!  I saw it!”  I poured myself over the edge of my bed, half asleep, half wondering if I could get back to the fantastic dream I’d been having, scooped her up and said it was fine, there’s nothing, it’s fine, why am I awake at this hour, back to bed, go to sleep…

Two minutes later, she’s back.

“It’s no good mummy, I really can’t sleep, it’s just too dark!”

Urgh…

I scooped her up, again, took her back to bed, again, and left her little bedside light on and her door open.  She was happy after that.  She never used to be worried about the dark but recently she’s got this thing about the house being haunted.. or possibly hunted, it’s hard to tell at times.  I’m pretty sure that she’s not been reading my blog…  so what is it?  What changes in kid’s minds from not caring less that their door is shut at night and their room is dark, to suddenly waking up, complaining that something is in their room, that it’s too dark, that their parent’s, um, bathroom is hunted…haunted?

When my son was smaller, I recall coming home once with him from an outing and opening the front door.  My son went in first and while I turned to shut the door, he said to me: “Who was that man?”

“Hmmm?  What man?” I asked, thinking he’d seen someone go by outside.

“The man that went up the stairs?”

I turned around and had a proper Sixth Sense moment:

WTF…? A man went upstairs what man who just went upstairs do I go and look do I get the hell out of here is my son having a laugh here because I’m SO not laughing right now what if there is someone upstairs I never heard someone going up the stairs should I tell my son to wait here while I go and look what if I tell him to hide in a cupboard no can’t do that or I’ll be hours looking for him afterwards what is going on here I am TOTALLY FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW!!!

Needless to say, I didn’t find anyone and as soon as my son had announced he’d seen someone going up the stairs leaving mum in a horrified stupor he just went right back to whatever he’d been doing before without a care that he’d probably given me at least three new grey hairs.

On a separate note,  the house has been remarkably quiet of late.  A picture did fall off the wall but… that was probably my fault because I’d used one of those dodgy ‘Will Hold Your Picture Up Forever!’ sticky hooks which clearly hadn’t paid attention in class.

And finally… just because it’s funny:

Nicola

weirdworld@hotmail.co.uk

©Nicola Kirk and http://www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com 2017

Death Clicks: When Death Snaps His Fingers

Cooling Pipes… Or Death Looking For A Way In?

Paranormality defines ‘Death Clicks‘ as: “a strange phenomenon that has its origins in Samoa.  Like the wailing banshees of Ireland, believed to predict the imminent death of someone in the household, death clicks are the sudden onset of persistent and loud clicking that sounds throughout the house of someone who is going to die soon.”

My house seems to be full of things that bang, pop and click (including my mother -in-law), but I’ve recently conducted a head count and, touch wood, everyone still seems to be lurking where I left them.  Fortunately, it would appear that Death is not trying to get my attention just yet.  Who am I kidding, what with the general chaos that’s usually going on at home, we wouldn’t hear him knocking anyway!

But should you panic if you hear the strange knockings of, say, the Deathwatch Beetle?  The film ‘Practical Magic‘ suggests pulling up floorboards to conduct a frantic search for the little bugger is in order if you wake up in the small hours to hear the peculiar knocking noise they make.

WARNING: the following clip is a guaranteed blub inducer, get thy tissues at the ready:

There is, apparently, an old superstition that if you hear three knocks that seem to come from nowhere then, in a nutshell, someone you know is going to peg it.  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but… you get my drift.  There are quite a few stories out there from people who have indeed experienced this strange occurrence for themselves – click on the following link to read about those who have been dragged into the fateful game of:

KNOCK KNOCK, WHO’S DEAD?

So, now I’m somewhat confused.  What do I do if I hear someone knocking at my place of residence? I can’t help but feel it’s a little bit rude to yell at them to ‘use the doorbell or I’m not coming to the door!’  Or maybe I should just board the front door up for good measure and wait for Death to come crashing through my window in a flurry of highly charged black nylon and plastic scythes like this guy:

My fellow Researcher of Much Spookiness and  Head Sifter of You Tube Clips, Tarryn, has also come across some records of strange knockings that preceded deaths: Click Here for more tales of ghostly knocks in the night…

Meanwhile, in the distant land of Can’t Understand What You’re Saying,  from what I can make out, this lady appears to have experienced mysterious knocking sounds in her house and the perpetrator can not be located.   Or… she could just be looking for her kettle:

A further donation from Tarryn comes from SeeksGhosts Blog Spot, who also has a few stories about strange Knocks of Doom:

“The Irish and the Scots both have traditions that state three knocks on a door or three taps on a window especially when heard at regular intervals – lasting for two minutes-means death.

According to several Native American tribes when the thumping of a stick 3 times on the ground is heard or the beating of a drum 3 times is heard it means someone will die.  This superstition also pops up in Arab and Jewish traditions.”

If you have had any strange experiences involving Death Clicks (or Death Knocks or Death Trying to Climb Through Your Window), please feel free to leave your stories in the comments section below!

But please, no knock knock jokes…

Nicola

©Nicola Kirk 2016 and www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com

A Shadow Of Their Former Selves

Even Shadow People Have A Sense Of Humour

Shadow people.  Have you seen such a thing before?  Have you woken up in bed thinking you can see the outline of someone standing in the corner of your room, silently watching you sleep?  Or have you been sitting there minding your own business, only to have your attention dragged to look at … what was it that you saw move in the corner of your eye, but doesn’t seem to be there any longer?  Was it the shadowy outline of a human figure?  And now you’re starting to feel just a little bit nervous and that maybe you are not as alone as you thought you were.  Is there someone else in your house?

It’s amazing how many people have reported having a run in with a shadow person.  Or shadow people, because they sometimes seem to travel en masse.  But who are they?  What do they want?  And why do they have a very annoying habit of playing ‘now you see me, now you don’t?  Or did you even see me in the first place…?”

Shadow Person or Shadow of the Backlit Photographer?

Wikipedia describes a ‘shadow person’ as being ‘the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure’.  Some people catch fleeting glimpses of something in the room with them but when they look there is nothing there.  I have also experienced this sort of thing before on occasion, but can’t decide whether I’ve actually seen something or if it was just a bit of my hair moving in the corner of my vision.  But many people are convinced that these shadow people are more than black figures teasing them and some people allege that they are physically attacked by them, as in the case of Anne Williams from Australia.

Occasionally, shadow people make quite a name for themselves, if that’s possible when you’re nothing but a shadow.  For example, the ‘Hat Man’has apparently been around for centuries and although he has a pretty limited wardrobe of a long black trench coat and some kind of flat brimmed hat, it doesn’t seem to stop him from visiting many an unwary soul in the dead of night.  The video link in red below byParahauntpost discusses this one in more detail:

Click here to experience: The Horror Of The Hat Man

Shadow people appear all over the world – this one turned up in Malaysia at a school although many were keen to put the sightings down to mass hysteria and the ‘high stress school environment’.  It’s one way to get out of sitting an end of year exam, I suppose.

Nicola

©Nicola Kirk 2016 and www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com

Creatures Of Much Weirdness…

There’s Some Seriously Weird Stuff Out There…

It’s so hard to tell these days what is real and what is not, especially when it comes to things you find on the internet.  Being a writer of fiction, most of the time I’m not too fussed about what the internet throws at me, real or fake, it all feeds the imagination and gets me writing.  But I still like the little thrill of ‘now, imagine if that was real…’ .  I enjoy watching these little You Tube compilations about ‘Top Five Things That Will Make You Hide Under Your Bed’ and ‘Top Ten Things That Will Make You Rush Out To Purchase Pepper Spray’ and, seeing as you’re reading this, I suspect you do too.  So, let’s crack open today’s little bit of weirdness and see what people have been creating with their latest hightech graphic programmes or have even, dare I say it, filmed for real.  Here we have one of today’s favourite YouTubey things: 5 Mysterious Creatures Caught On Camera And Spotted… In Real Life:

I particularly liked the Wessex Way Monster and the Sewer Monster.  I’m not saying I believe they’re real but… aren’t they great to watch?  The last clip is oddly chilling.  Yes, it’s easy to get your mate to dress up in a strange outfit and a wig and to shuffle about (or perhaps it’s just my friends who are that way inclined – you guys know who you are…) but there’s something decidedly freaky about the way the ‘person’ moves that gives me chills.  However, I can only assume the person filming it either has terrible toothache or he has a crash helmet on.  I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

And so, moving on to the next video:

15 Paranormal Beasts That May Be Out There

I like the way the narrator talks on this video, it’s very engaging.  Anyway, here we have a selection of bizarre paranormal creatures and beings ranging from the mythical chupacabras to screaming banshees and horned demon cats (however, based on the description of the demon cat I suspect it was probably just an enraged feline with big ears and even bigger psychological issues).  I’m very interested in the concept of shadow people though.  There do seem to be an awful lot of people out there who have had strange encounters with these seemingly intelligent shades.  Sometimes they are benevolent, sometimes malevolent but they always seem to leave people feeling creeped out and very unsettled.  A bit like this guy:

Nicola

©Nicola Kirk 2016 and www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com

 

Things That Go BANG In The Night

Last night, whilst curled up in bed and just on the edge of sleep (a wondrous place to be), we heard a… BANG!  I opened my eyes to look at my husband and he looked at me.

“That sounded like a gunshot,” he said.  Well, I suppose it could have been a car backfiring or, more hopefully, it could be someone taking out the bloody rooster down the road who seems to have terrible trouble keeping quiet at 5am every morning.  We listened out for a while for further sounds of war and mayhem, but as we didn’t hear the scream of approaching police sirens and everything remained silent as the grave, we decided that everything was fine and, with any luck, we would be rooster free in the morning (alas, we weren’t). And then this morning, at 6am, we were awoken by the sound of more banging, this time coming (as they say in the movie) from inside the house.  Well, as I had to get up anyway, I went to investigate and found… nothing.  Where do all these weird sounds come from?  I didn’t find any zombies bashing at the windows, no doors mysteriously crashing open and closed by themselves… nothing but my brain shouting loudly that this was no time to be up and moving about.   I didn’t even get an EVP out of it.  Oh well.

While I was sharing these experiences over Skype with my friend in South Africa, we both carried out a little delving into the world of the internet to see what else out there has been banging and crashing about.  And we came across these little gems – this one has been rooted out by my South African friend, Tarryn:

5 Creepiest Ghost Sightings Caught On Surveillance Cameras

You may have seen a few of the clips from the above link before.  The office one with exploding filing cabinets and anti gravity chairs left me feeling a bit ‘staged and unusual’ but I did like the screaming hotel room and video store clips.

And now, la pièce de résistance!  I am proud to present the mother of ALL things that go Bump In The Night (viewer discretion is advised):

Things That Go Bump In The Night

Nicola

©Nicola Kirk 2016 and www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com

Did That Just Say What I Think It Did?

In my last post, I mentioned that I had once recorded some very curious sounds coming from the depths of a deserted bunker close to where I used to live.  You can hear me tramping about through the piles of leaves that coated the floor, but when I stand still and pan the camera around you can hear some clear knocking sounds echoing around.  I didn’t hear them at the time but… well, if you have any ideas what could have been making the noise, I would be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments section at the end of this post.  It could have been the sounds of a very old building shifting but then… it could be the restless spirit of Demented Bob seeking out his next prey.  But on a serious note, EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena) can be very interesting to listen to and some of them, as you will see at the bottom of this post, are very creepy indeed.

How hard is it to catch an EVP?  If you go by what you see on the television, we are permanently surrounded by the voices of the dead who are all hissing at us to ‘GET OUT!’, advising you that they are going to ‘KILL YOU!’ or, if they’re having a good day, they might just say your name in a nice whispery voice, just so you know you’re being observed while you creep about in the dark.  Is it possible to catch a clear EVP without having to do all the tweaking and clarifying that some ghost hunters seem to have to do when they make a programme?  One paranormal programme advised ‘spirit voices speak twice as fast as human voices so we need to slow them down to be able to hear them clearly.’  But… I’m pretty sure people have managed to record some pretty spectacular EVPs without having to mess about with them like that?

And so…I have decided to do a bit of my own EVP experimenting to see what I might come up with.

Now, I appreciate that it could be a long time before I come up with something that could possibly resemble a convincing EVP.  As it goes, I embarked on a bit of EVPing the other evening after I’d been out to dinner with my husband… but I couldn’t stop giggling so I had to write that one off as a somewhat ‘contaminated’ recording.  Either that or the paranormal world found me exceedingly amusing that night.

So, while I have a bit of a delve into the world of EVPs for myself, I have also been having a delve into the internet’s catalogue of EVPs to see what sort of things might be out there.  One that I found particularly haunting (excuse the pun) was this one.  Every time I watch it, it makes my hair stand up on end, I think it’s brilliant:

The Haunted Hotel Room

And then there was this one, which, fake or not, still induces a shiver:

Wogans Cavern at Pembroke Castle

If you have any EVPs you would like to share, please do.

Nicola

©Nicola Kirk 2016 and www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com

Freaked Out By Myself

Also Known As ‘I’ve Run Out Of Chocolate.’

I like spooky stuff. You may have realised that by now. It’s something I love to death, as it were.  I’m usually quite proud of the fact that the stuff I watch and write about doesn’t usually have an effect on me.  I think the last time I did something that ‘haunted’ me, was about eight years ago when I went to an old bunker in search of strange happenings.  I did find some strange happenings, as it goes, as while I was tramping about in the dark tunnels I recorded the sound of what appeared to be footsteps approaching me and then going away.  I didn’t hear anything at the time but later when I listened to the recording the hairs on the back of my neck did do a little Highland Fling.  That night, all I could think of was that old bunker and what it would be like in the middle of the night with the wind howling through the vacant tunnels, one of which had, incredibly, an old burnt out car languishing at the end of it.  Considering the bunker was sunken and surrounded by steep banks, getting a car down there must have been quite some feat.  For some reason, the thought of all those old dark disused doorways disappearing back into the hillside got to me and even after all this time, thinking about the place still makes me shiver.  Why?  I don’t really know.  I’m sure I’ve been to other places that were just as creepy but they haven’t affected me in the same way.  I even used the bunker setting in one of my books (Skaran).

I Suspect This Is What Really Happens.

The other night, I was watching one of those ‘ghost hunter’ type programmes.  Not mentioning any particular names, but it was… horrendous.  The assumptions the investigators leapt to were nothing short of spectacular.  The inventions they created to ‘capture ghosts’ with were, I’m sure, based on nothing more than ‘well, this would look funky, and we could set some explosives off at the same time!’  It was okay for some background noise while I did some sewing (I’m creating an absolute sewing masterpiece at the moment for my daughter.  Should be finished for her 21st birthday.  She’s going to be 3 next month).  Once the paranormal debacle was done and I wondered why on earth I’d recorded the entire series, I found another one to watch for a bit.

I love Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans and his crew.  I’ve never heard the word ‘Dude’ used with such carefree abandon and passion.  Just that one word can cover a multitude of occasions:

• Zak becomes possessed by a demonic entity: “Dude!!!”
• Zak pokes Nick in the eye while trying to find out if his colleague is wearing a respirator in the dark: “DUDE!? WTF?!”
• Aaron hears a strange noise coming from somewhere in the building: “Duuuuude, did you hear that?”

So, I watched a bit of that too, before heading off up to bed, just to round my evening off.

As I said, programmes like that do not usually affect me in the slightest.  I watch it, turn off and go do something else without giving it a second thought.  Last night, I watched it, turned off the television but then… my mind kept wondering off to think about the abandoned asylums and penitentiaries that Zak and his friends had be creeping around.  I had a curious moment whilst washing my face where I suddenly had to frantically scrape the soap out of my eyes so I could check that a creepy old woman wasn’t sneaking into my bathroom while I wasn’t looking to… um… do, I don’t know what to me… possibly something involving custard, but I can’t be sure.  But I was able to conquer my fears and get into bed without further ado.  Until I saw this:

And now I will never sleep again.

Nicola

©Nicola Kirk 2016 and www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com