Billingshurst author explores our love of being spooked

Billingshurst author Petula Mitchell taps into our love of being frightened with At The Crossroads and Other Supernatural Tales.
Billingshurst author Petula MitchellBillingshurst author Petula Mitchell
Billingshurst author Petula Mitchell

The book has been published by Beul Aithris at £4.99.

Petula, aged 57, said: “I had been writing short stories for a few years, and like many aspiring authors I was trying different genres and styles. I have always enjoyed reading ghost stories, even as a child.

“I started to have a few supernatural ones published here and there online or in anthologies and had also been contributing articles to the Spooky Isles website about dark history and folklore.

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“My laptop had an increasing number of homeless short stories which I had put up on a self-publishing platform mainly to get feedback. A friend of mine, who is also a writer, very kindly recommended my work to Beul Aithris. I sent a selection of work to them and the book was created from there on with a few additional stories that I wrote specifically for them.

“I think horror writing and ghost stories are always popular. There is something in the human psyche that seems to enjoy being frightened or disturbed. I like to think that my stories have a twist in them and take readers down an unexpected road by the time they reach the conclusion. It’s also something that I think a wide age range will find appealing. I don’t write particularly gory tales or include extreme violence because I don’t enjoy that myself as a reader and in truth would make a terrible job of trying to write it.

“My day job is working for the NHS in general practice as a health care assistant, and when I changed job six years ago I reduced my hours which gave me some spare time to start writing again after a very, very long gap.

“The inspiration for writing ghost stories probably goes back to when I was at junior school. I was born and brought up in Horsham and went to Greenway Junior school. At the time we used to have somebody come into the school selling children’s books maybe once a year and the selection would be laid out in the school hall.

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“I would always ask my mum for yet more books as I was a bookworm. My favourites were The Armada Books of Ghost Stories for Children. They used to come in volumes of six or more books at a time and this strange world of haunted houses and creepy characters would keep me transfixed for hours. I can still remember some of them now.

“I hope that my book can be enjoyed by anyone over about 15 or 16 years old who enjoys a spooky tale. I would say the language and subject matter is quite mild by today’s standards and relies on the twists and turns to create suspense and surprise with one or two unpleasant ghosts thrown in along the way.

“The first story I wrote, a few years ago now, is one called Daniel about a musician with a deadly act... I won’t give anything away! The inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere. Snippets of overheard conversation. I carry a notebook most of the time or jot things on my phone. I can be in the middle of talking to my friends and burst out ‘That’s given me great idea!’ during a conversation, much to their annoyance I should imagine. I take lots and lots of photographs when I’m out for the day. Old buildings, gardens, the beach, all kinds of things can set the wheels turning.”

“I told my mum when I was seven that I was going to write a book. It only took 50 years! I wasn’t an only child, but there was a big age gap of over ten years between myself and my two siblings. They had both left home by the time I was five or six and I was pretty much left to amuse myself. Making up stories and writing them was one of things I did. I can remember when I was about nine my parents got me a second-hand typewriter for Christmas. I had gone on about wanting one. We were by no means a wealthy family, but it was just about the best thing I had ever been given.”

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