Thank you to fantastic blogger, John Rieber, for sharing a lovely post about my new book, Through the Nethergate. John is a very versatile blogger who shares posts about food, travel, books, films, recipes and pop culture. He offers something for everyone.

#31Daysofhalloween Has New Ghostly Horror!

First and foremost, bravo to Author Roberta Eaton Cheadle on the publication of her new book!

This Wednesday’s Bookmobile takes a #31daysofhalloween detour into the world of ghostly spirits!

Here’s the plot of “Through The Nethergate”:

Margaret, a girl born with second sight, has the unique ability to bring ghosts trapped between Heaven and Hell back to life. When her parents die suddenly, she goes to live with her beloved grandfather, but the cellar of her grandfather’s ancient inn is haunted by an evil spirit of its own.

In the town of Bungay, a black dog wanders the streets, enslaving the ghosts of those who have died unnatural deaths. When Margaret arrives, these phantoms congregate at the inn, hoping she can free them from the clutches of Hugh Bigod, the 12th century ghost who has drawn them away from Heaven’s White Light in his canine guise.

With the help of her grandfather and the spirits she has befriended, Margaret sets out to defeat Hugh Bigod, only to discover he wants to use her for his own ends – to take over Hell itself.

WOW!

Finish reading here: https://johnrieber.com/2019/10/23/author-roberta-eaton-cheadle-heads-through-the-nethergate-a-ghostly-wednesday-bookmobile-for-31daysofhorror/

What Amazon says

After going through the menopause Lyn finds that she no longer wants sex. This is unfortunate, as her husband Neil still does. When he discards her after 35 years of marriage like an old worn out shoe, Lyn moves to Cornwall to start a new life. However, new friends are hard to find, and she feels lonely. On the spur of the moment she decides to join an online dating site, ‘MatchULike’, just for companionship. Amongst the peculiar people she meets is Peter; shy, and conscious that his ‘gentleman’s’ operation has rendered him an unattractive prospect in the marriage stakes. Lyn makes a friend of Peter, but when Neil gets to hear about the friendship he realises too late that there is more to a relationship than just sex, and he suddenly starts to appear back on the scene and wants to turn her life upside down all over again!

My review

I found this book to be a very amusing take on menopause and its unfortunate side effects. Lyn has been married to Neil for twenty-nine years and, despite fertility treatment, they have never been able to conceive. Lyn’s life revolves around caring for her husband, who she loves very much, and their lovely home. Lyn is going through menopause and suffering from various uncomfortable side affects including hot flushes and a loss of interest in sex, which has become painful and unappealing. Lyn has decided against using hormone replacement therapy as there is cancer in her family and she is concerned about the link between HRT and various cancers. Neil is not understanding and is most unsupportive of her problems.

Neil starts behaving a little strangely and coming home late, but Lyn is not really suspicious until she accidentally discovers a pair of someone else’s lacy pink panties in her husband’s van. When she confronts him, he confesses that he has been having an affair with a younger woman. Lyn reacts badly and destroys all his clothes before packing up her things and leaving to their holiday cottage by the sea to get away from him and decide on the way forward.

The pair decide to get divorced and Neil moves in with his new girlfriend, giving Lyn the holiday house and their house in Surrey, which she can sent out and earn a living from. Lyn has not worked for many years. Lyn starts painfully rebuilding her life in a new place and trying to find companionship.

The author explores modern platforms like internet dating sites and the threats they pose in an interesting and informed manner. She also introduces the complexities of modern society with all its different and interesting people such as lesbian women, a woman born with the mind of a man who undergoes a sex change, men who have testosterone coming out of their ears and think that all relationships are just about sex, men going through manopause and even and elderly ex-military gent who has never had the time or inclination to marry and is lonely and looking for companionship. I loved all these interesting characters and, while I didn’t necessary like all of Lyn’s decisions along the way of her rebuilding exercise, I realise that you do have to be true to yourself and that acting out of pity or due to a need for security is not necessarily going to bring any of the involved parties happiness.

The characterization of Neil is intriguing as initially, he is the guy you love to hate with his selfish behaviour and lack of understanding about his wife’s circumstances. As the story progresses, the reader realises that there is more to Neil than meets the eye and wonders if he can redeem himself.

A thoroughly enjoyable book that will entertain male and female readers of all ages.

Purchase No Sex Please, I’m Menopausal

Do you try to be more original, or to deliver to readers what they want?

I have only been writing for three years, so I cannot claim vast experience in the writing and publishing business. I have, however, been a huge reader all my life.

When I looked at this blog hop question, in my mind it immediately boiled down to a basic money question. Publishing is a business that aims to make money. Making money means you have to provide the products that people want. So, what is it that people want?

I think most readers are looking for mental relaxation and entertainment. Modern people are always short of time and overly rushed and busy. They want instant entertainment gratification. They do not necessarily want to dwell on the ills of the world or read three pages describing a river during a storm [think Charles Dickens] or anguish over the personal problems of a main character [think Jane Eyre or Catherine Earnshaw]. The modern reader wants escapism from reality in a well written, and not overly long, book. These are the books that sell well because they deliver what readers want.

Many of the successful modern authors write to set formulas laid down by the traditional publishers and which are geared at creating stories with mass appeal. These books, in my view, do not have a lot of original content but rather provide a good twist on an existing story line that has already proved its marketing success. These authors achieve short to medium terms fame, but few will become writers whose books are in the classical category alongside the likes of H.G. Wells, Tolkien, George Orwell, Hemmingway and Ray Bradbury, to name just a few.

This leads to my other point, fame. Authors that achieve long-term fame with classic books that endure the passage of time usually make some sort of strong social or political statement. These are the books studied by English literature students and pawed over by academics who access the value of their striking messages. These books have usually been very original at the time of their publication and have enduring messages. These are the books that achieve fame but did not necessarily earn the authors a lot of money during their lifetimes. Striking out on your own in an original way is scary as it could be a complete failure, but it could be successful and bring huge recognition.

I have read Indie books that fall into both of the categories above. For some of them the money or the fame may come in due course as they do it really well. For me, I try to do both, packaging my social and political message within a reasonably attractive and well know story concept that might attract readers.

That is my aim, in any event. I know that I will never entirely escape my need to share history so that people remember the mistakes of the past. I attempt to weave it into stories that show how the bad feeling and social problems that have arisen due to past mistakes are impacting on our now and our future, in a way that is interesting and intriguing to a reader.

Having written out my thoughts above, I have concluded that I try to write original content, but within a framework of what people want as great story ideas don’t do much good if they never reach any readers.

What are your thoughts on this interesting question?

What do other blog-hoppers think?  Click on the link below to find out.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

The amazing Lisa Burton aka C.S. Boyack, has interviewed the evil black dog aka Hugh Bigod from my new book Through the Nethergate on the Lisa Burton Radio show. Thank you Lisa for tolerating Hugh for the duration of this interview.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Lisa Burton Radio. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and today, my special guest is a cute black doggie with the awful name of Hugh Bigod. He’s here to talk to us about a problem he has. Probably something to do with that name. “Welcome to the show, Hugh.”

“A cute black doggie! How dare you refer to Hugh Bigod, the First Earl of Norfolk and the most evil man who ever lived in Norfolk as a cute black doggie? I am the most powerful ghost in Bungay, master to all the other ghosts. I choose to take the form of a huge black dog with red eyes as it strikes fear into the heart of my victims.”

“You’re telling me, you’re not actually a dog, but a ghostly apparition of a man named Hugh Bigod?”

“Yes, you imbecilic machine. After King Henry I of England died, I betrayed his successor, Stephen of Blois, usurper of the crown, and allowed him to be captured and imprisoned by dissidents. I then formed a huge gang of bandits who roamed the countryside, spreading terror, burning villages and torturing people and holding them to ransom.

“When I died, I turned my back on Heaven’s White Light and stayed in the Overworld, the shadowy dimension between human life on earth and either heaven’s White Light or the Underworld. I became a poltergeist and haunted Bungay Castle and anything affiliated to it, including a local inn which shares a wall in its basement with the castle. I soon realized that a large number of wretched people were affiliated to the inn either as employees, guests or visitors to the pub or dining hall, and it became one of my primary hunting grounds for servants. It wasn’t difficult for me to infiltrate their depressed and hate filled thoughts and encouraged them in the direction of suicide or murder. I appeared at the deathbeds of these people who were dying badly of unnatural causes and incited them into following me. I soon discovered that my powers of persuasion worked on anyone associated with Bungay and my scope for new souls grew.

“People who chose to follow me were forced to acknowledge me as their master and I quickly became the lord of the Overworld in Bungay.”

Carry on reading here: https://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com/2019/10/17/through-the-nethergate-on-lisaburtonradio/

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! The terrible loud explosions shatter the quiet as the bottles of alcohol on the folding table, and cans of beer in the cooler box beneath it, burst apart in an eruption of glass shards, twisted metal and liquid. Water boils out of the open cooler box as the plastic soda and water bottles rupture and twist into lumpy shapes. Simultaneously, the candles flicker and blow out in the wake of a sudden, icy breeze that whips through the room, leaving the group in darkness. There is a heavy thud and then silence.

A shriek rents the quiet and Michelle, who is closest to the door, heaves back her chair, which falls to the floor with a thump, and moves towards the doorway. Groping, she finds the light switch on the wall and flicks it on, illuminating the scene of destruction.

Sue, who is standing, and Tom, who is sitting at the head of the table, received the brunt of the unexpected shower of booze and water, which drips from their hair and clothes. Tiny splinters of glass have speared their exposed faces and arms, causing lacerations which ooze beads of blood.

The explosion knocked over the folding table, shielding them from the spray of mental and plastic fragments emanating from the cooler box.

“Sue,” Michelle shouts, “are you okay? Tom?”

Tom nods his head; he is okay. Sue croaks “Okay,” and then bursts into braying sobs which seem to wrench themselves out of her throat like vomit.

Michelle rushes away to get some towels, while Carl tries to placate his distraught wife. “Wh..wh…what happened, Carl? How could the bottles explode like that? she whispers, eyes bulging from her sockets in a most unflattering way.

Carl looks at Tom. He is at a loss for words. “Maybe the heat?” Tom ventures. “I’ve never heard of bottles exploding like this.”

This extract from my now nameless WIP (it was A Ghost and his Gold but it may change now) was written for Linda G. Hill’s stream of consciousness Saturday. You can join in here: https://lindaghill.com/2019/10/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-19-19/

Horror, supernatural and science fiction author, Teri Polen, is hosting her #BadMoonRising series of posts for the month of October. She is featuring the scary, dark or thrilling book of a different author each day. It is a great series and I was delighted to be part of it this year.

Many of you know today’s author from her children’s books (I dream of living in Chocolate Land), poetry, the book she co-authored with her mother, and extraordinary baking creations.  But did you also know she’s the author of a new young adult horror book?  Welcome Roberta (Robbie) Cheadle!

Would you rather walk through a haunted graveyard at midnight or spend the night in a haunted, abandoned house?

I would prefer to walk through a haunted graveyard at midnight. That is the witching hour and there is no telling what interesting ghosts you might meet during your stroll. Graveyards frequently contain the bodies of people from many different eras and, as many people don’t die badly, these spirits would be peaceable and have no reason to scare or haunt anyone. In the UK, many graveyards are up to three people deep – just think of the fascinating history these ghosts could share on a moonlight stroll through their tombstones.

Would you rather be a vampire or a werewolf?

I would never chose to be a werewolf as I do not like a lot of body hair. I also don’t think that werewolves are glamorous, beautiful or subtle in any way. They kill in the most basic and savage way.

Vampires, on the other hand, are described as being very beautiful in both Dracula by Bram Stoker and Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. If you have to be one of the undead, why not be a beautiful one? They also have an air of sophistication, age and history about them which are all things I like.

Continue reading here:

https://teripolen.com/2019/10/15/badmoonrising-through-the-nethergate-by-roberta-eaton-cheadle-ya-horror-supernatural/

Author, James J. Cudney, has written an in-depth review of Through The Nethergate for which I am greatly appreciative. If you haven’t met James, do go over to his blog and have a look around. He has two wonderful family drama books and a series of entertaining mystery books.

The other good news is that the paper back of Through the Nethergate is finally available on Amazon here: Amazon US

Today, we’re gonna take a step in a new direction with Roberta Eaton Cheadle. You might know her better as Robbie Cheadle, author of While the Bombs Fell, several short stories included in anthologies, and the Sir Chocolate series, but now she’s ventured further into the fantasy and young adult genres. I’ve reviewed ~5 of her previous books, and today I’m sharing my thoughts on her latest release, Through the Nethergate. Before we get to the review, let’s talk a little bit about the author and the book…

About the Author

Robbie is a qualified chartered accountant and works in corporate finance specialising in advice relating to the listings requirements of various stock exchanges, in particular the JSE Limited, and takeover law. Robbie’s hobbies are writing poetry and children’s stories as well as baking and fondant art. Here she tells why she became an author. Find Robbie on Goodreads where she’s posted some of her unpublished poetry and on Facebook. She’s also on Twitter @bakeandwrite and manages a website that will make you fall in love with her creative side. Let’s here a few words directly from her…

I am an author who has recently branched into adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my young adult and adult writing, these will be published under the name Roberta Eaton Cheadle. My first young adult supernatural novel, Through the Nethergate, has recently been published.

I have two short stories in the horror/supernatural genre included in Dark Visions, a collection of 34 short stories by 27 different authors and edited by award winning author, Dan Alatorre as well as three short stories published in Death Among Us, a collection of murder mystery short stories by 10 different authors and edited by Stephen Bentley. These short stories are published under Robbie Cheadle.

Continue reading here: https://thisismytruthnow.com/2019/10/15/book-review-through-the-nethergate-by-roberta-eaton-cheadle/

Thank you, author, Kaye Lynne Booth, for inviting me over to Writing to be Read to talk about my dark/horror writing and how I started writing in this genre.

Today my guest is an author who I’ve gotten to know well, because she is a member of the Writing to be Read team, where she writes a monthly blog segment on children’s literature that’s proven to be very popular, “Growing Bookworms”. By day she walks in the world of fondant and children’s fiction, but when darkness falls she transforms into an emerging horror author. But this author doesn’t just emerge, she explodes onto the scene with  this month’s release of her first novel length horror tale, Through the Nethergate.  In addition, this month she also has a short story appearing  in  Dan Alatorre’s Nightmarland anthology, and another coming out in the WordCrafter paranormal anthology, Whispers of the Past. I’m really excited to be able to interview her about her experiences with horror, so please help me welcome author Roberta Eaton Cheadle.

Kaye: You started out writing children’s stories with your son, but you’ve recently leaped into the horror realm, which is kind of at the opposite extreme of the spectrum. Was that a hard transition for you?

Roberta: It wasn’t a hard transition for me at all. I have always loved supernatural, horror and dark psychological thrillers so I think this genre comes naturally to me. More recently I have been reading and re-reading a lot of dystopian fiction such as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King).

I can remember reading my Mom’s copy of Stephen King’s The Shining behind the couch in the lounge when I was ten years old. After that book, I worked my way through the rest of her Stephen King collection and several other adult horror books too.

Kaye: Can you name one thing you have to think about when writing horror that you might not ever think about when writing for children, (or any other genre, maybe)?

Roberta: When writing from the point of view of the victim, I need to imagine their fear and describe this in a way that brings out the same emotion in the reader. When writing from the point of view of the party who sees a ghost or discovers a body, I need to imagine their shock and horror at what they are seeing. To describe the tumultuous feelings that would bubble up inside them at seeing something truly frightening or gruesome.

I would never attempt to scare children or invoke feelings of fear and anxiety in them. My Sir Chocolate books series is my attempt to draw children into a happy and safe world of complete fantasy where good always wins and any less likable characters are drawn into the circle of friendship and become part of the team.

Read the rest of this interview here: https://kayelynnebooth.wordpress.com/2019/10/14/interview-with-horror-author-roberta-eaton-cheadle/

What is your preferred method of writing? (by hand, on a computer, dictate it?)

This is a very easy question for me. My whole writing process is computerised. I write using both my laptops, one for writing and one for research and I often use my big screen too. At the moment I am using it to display the developmental comments I received on my new obsession WIP, A Ghost and his Gold.

I create notes on my plot outline in excel together with details of each character, including their full name, basic looks and sex. I then consider their role in the story and assign their charactarisation i.e. What kind of a person are they? Do they play by the rules of society or do they try to make their own rules? Are they idealistic, romantic, a reader, a dreamer? What characteristics do I need to assign them to make them work in their role i.e. in Through the Nethergate, Father Merton needed to be a bit superstitious and come from a background that accepted the idea of ghosts and demons. Without these characteristics, his character wouldn’t have performed convincingly in his role in the story. In A Ghost and his Gold, the main character, Pieter, is a reader and a bit of an academic. This is a bit unusual among his peers and he has been mocked for it in the past, but it is necessary for him to have an ability to question the circumstances of the war, to expect a negative outcome and to be able to feel great remorse and self depreciation for perceived wrong decisions. For me, the characterisation of my characters if vital so that I can get the emotion and description of situations and circumstances in the story correct.

I could probably create these tables by hand, but I haven’t really grown up in a “by hand” world. My whole working life has involved excel, word and power point so writing by hand doesn’t come naturally to me. Anyhow, my computer reliant generation can’t spell for toffee sticks and I am completely dependent on spell check.

I write in word because I am very proficient in that programme and it enables me to mark up changes, indicate movements of text and make notes and comments. These are for my own benefit and, sometimes, for the benefit of my editor.

I create my adverts in power point using my own photographs, which I change using a design programme. I then insert the book cover and a quote from the story into the advert. Once it is complete, I covert it to a jpeg and it is ready to go.

I use a designer to create my book covers so I don’t have a computer programme for those.

What are other blog-hoppers’ preferred writing methods?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or simply add a comment or even your own blog post.

Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

The stillness of the small figure in the bed makes Marta wonder fleetingly if she has died. She is as motionless as stone, arms lying limply on top of the blankets, until Marta gently touches her cheek. Reacting with great fear, she jerks her body backwards, hitting her head against the wall behind her. Marta can see abrasions and marks on her lower face and around her wrist. They stand out cruelly against her smooth flawless skin. Dark eyes fluttering open, she looks at Marta, who sees recognition stirring in their depths. She seems incapable of speech and makes no sound, but watches warily as Marta sets about caring for her wounds and bruises.

Marta wets the rags she has brought with her in the brine solution and cleans the open cuts. The sight of the puffy and discoloured side of her ribcage brings tears to her eyes. She shows Ardrina how to make a poultice from bread and wine to ease Dorthina’s bruising. The women boil the mixture over the open fire outside and, once it has cooled completely, apply it to Dorthina’s damaged flesh. She knows that Ardrina would have preferred a shaman’s remedies and is only accepting her help because nothing else is available.

Martha dips a little bread in some warmed milk and offers it to the girl. She eats a tiny amount and then turns her head away, starring with indifferent blankness at the wall.

“Let her sleep, Ardrina. Stay with her today and keep an eye on her. Clean her wounds with the brine solution again after supper and reapply the bread poultice. Send one of the children to fetch the beef tea tonight. It will be ready by then.”

Marta left the grieving woman and her daughter alone and walked back to her own house. She has done what she can for Dorthina’s external wounds. The damage to her soul will be much more difficult to heal.

This is an extract from A Ghost and his Gold. It was going to be a novella, however, I received amazing comments from my developmental editor, Esther Chilton, and now my head is filled with a whole lot of new ideas to expand this story. I think it may end up a novel. Isn’t life great!

You can join in Sue Vincent’s wonderful photo prompt: Stillness here: https://scvincent.com/2019/10/10/thursday-photo-prompt-stillness-writephoto/