The House on Blackstone Moor Review, Guest Post & Giveaway

The House on Blackstone Moor

Carole Gill
Genre: Gothic Romance/Paranormal

Expected Publication: May 2, 2012

Publisher: Tudor Rose Press

ASIN: 00804XJBA

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Description:

“They say my father was mad, so corrupted by evil and tainted by sin that he did what he did. I came home to find them all dead; their throats savagely cut. My sisters only five and eight were gone as well as my brother who was twelve. My mother too lay butchered in her marriage bed. The bed her children were born in…”

Young Rose Baines discovers the savage murders of her family by her mad, incestuous father.

She is plunged into a nightmare of hell and is incarcerated in two madhouses after which she is helped to obtain a position as governess at Blackstone House.

The house is located on haunted moorland. Nothing is as it seems for Blackstone House and its inhabitants have hideous secrets. There is unimaginable horror there but there is love too--love that comes at a terrible price.

The story is as haunting as it is terrifying and will remain with the reader long after its disturbing tale has been told.

Review:

Rating:

 ‘The House on Blackstone Moor’ blew me away. This book is so intensely dark and twisted and will take you on a journey that will change you forever. Rose, is a young woman who goes through hell and back nearly literally, her family is brutally murdered by the hands of her own father. After years of being tortured in many ways by her demented father she loses her whole family and before she knows what is happening she is admitted to a insane asylum. She doesn’t know where to turn and who to trust. She just focuses on getting out of the hell whole she calls home for the time being. The only person she really confides in is her doctor, Dr. Bannion and he gets her a job outside of the asylum. She is to a governess to a well-established family, or so it seems.

After she moves in with this family and begins to take care of the children she slowly starts to realize things that are very strange the problem is she has nowhere else to go and she simply adores the children. What is a girl to do when she has no family left and everyone is convinced she is crazy?

This book is so intriguing and dark, it contains so many gothic elements and the story keeps taking so many twists and turns that you will have absolutely no idea what is going to happen next. It is in a certain way a paranormal romance but definitely a lot different than a lot of the other ones out there. I truly could not put this book down, I finished it in three days between going to work, that it how captivating it was. It was amazing and deliciously dark, I loved it.

Guest Post:

Starting Out As a Writer

by Carole Gill

I think writing picked me. There I was an eight year old kid, saturated with sci-fi films (my parents were huge fans) and my fourth grade teacher had us write a story.

“Just write a story, children.”

I wrote about Martians invading earth in order to take the children back to Mars. The teacher sent for the Principal and asked me to read it to the class, so I did.

That was actually the first time I remember writing a story. I wrote another one about that time, which was surreal. A child climbs inside of a huge globe in the library or museum and inside is outer space.

My parents were proud and delighted. Their joy eventually was tainted with worry when I became the first Goth. Yes, that’s right you might as well hear it from me today, I am the first Goth of the modern Goths.

I began reading Poe at eleven and wrote about death and the next world, about cemeteries and graves, too. 

My parents saw my teacher and my teacher said they shouldn’t worry ‘it has to come out.’

It did.

I wrote more, a lot more. But then life happened. It just got in the way of my writing for a long time. I only turned back to it about twelve years ago.

My first marriage was over, my mother was gone—I had cared for her for twelve years. I found myself, for the first time in my life, on my own. I joined a local writer’s workshop, and was encouraged to really go for everything.

I was chosen by North West Playwrights of England for further development and found that to be a great experience. I think my writing got very dramatic and my dialogue skills improved.

Three years ago is when I really knuckled down and began sending stories in for publication. Some were rejected, but I carried on. 

I wrote stories and novels. I wrote a crime novel which was ridiculous and a love story which was worse, but I kept on, exploring and reading lots while I did.

Horror was a natural for me, what with being the first Goth and everything and besides, my first marriage was a Hammer film. Yes, it really was! As a matter of fact, I remember writing a story that was inspired by that horrific marriage on Valentine’s Day 2009.

I will be delighted to send it to anyone that would like to read it. It is on Amazon with another story, but as the theme is domestic abuse it would be my pleasure to provide it for free.

Horror that exists close to us is what I find terrifying. No Count in Transylvania is going to drag us to hell with him. Chances are no boogey man will jump out at you either. ‘The monstrous husband,’ is real horror.

I write from the heart. I think every writer should write what they feel, what they have lived through.

‘Write what you know’ is too simplistic; I think the meaning there is to write about what you feel. Isolate an emotion and watch it come to life. A master at doing that is the great Stephen King. He depicts bullies brilliantly for instance.

Life’s experiences, all the things you’ve lived through, will all be stored in your own mind files. As a writer you tap into those files because that’s where your soul is too.

I think of that kind of writing as coming from the heart. Heart/soul—it’s your center. It’s the core of your being. It’s what makes you, you.

Write things you feel, and watch what happens. It will be real; it will read real and feel real to you and to others.

You’ll know what your expectations are, but don’t try to do too much too soon. You have time. Time is your friend not your enemy, you can use that time to grow as a writer!

About the Author:

I wrote my first story at age 8. It was sci-fi but as both my parents were sci-fi fanatics it wasn’t a surprise.

I continued to write however life got in the way as it often does, and it wasn’t until 2000 that I turned back to writing. I joined a local writer’s workshop and was greatly encouraged to keep up with my writing and to send things out.

Shortly afterwards, I was selected by Northwest Playwrights of England for further development but found I preferred fiction writing.

Widely published in horror and sci-fi anthologies, The House on Blackstone Moor is my first novel. It is a tale of vampirism, madness, obsession and devil worship.

Set in 19th Century Yorkshire, its locales include Victorian madhouses as well as barren, wind-swept Yorkshire moors. The story is a marriage of horror and gothic romance. I think it can best be described as being gothic paranormal romantic horror.

I suppose you could say I want to put the Goth back into Gothic.

Living in the area the novel is set in, was very beneficial. Also, as a great admirer of the Brontes and frequent visitor to the Bronte Parsonage in Haworth, I found myself nearly obsessed with recreating the gothic romantic narrative.

Having been employed in a hospital which had been historically a workhouse and asylum in Victorian times, I was able to add great realism to the depiction of the asylums as described in my novel.

The sequel, Unholy Testament, is the confession of a demon to the woman he loves. It is nearing the end of its first draft and will be released shortly. 

Giveaway:

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*Disclosure of Material Connection: I am a member of Reading Addiction Blog Tours and a copy of this book was provided to me by the author. Although payment may have been received by Reading Addiction Blog Tours, no payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own and may not necessarily agree with those of the author, publisher, publicist, or readers of this review. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning Use of Endorcements and Testimonials in Advertising*