To Keep Away The Chill (and other victorian stories‪)‬

This collection of Victorian short-stories came about due to repeated requests from my readers, so I'm proud to bring it to you now.

A brief synopsis of each short:

A Shadow’s Passing is the quintessential gothic ghost story, with misdirection and surprises--the perfect steampunk genre story. If you like stories from The Oxford Collection of Victorian Ghost Stories, then you’ll love this one. Find out what happens when Mrs. Trumador’s maid doesn’t show up for work on Monday as expected.

To Keep Away The Chill--this title story settles on a plains family faced with the ultimate disaster...in mid-Winter with no resources but their own family.

A Most Traditional Christmas takes us to London, England and high-Society, and Ella Washington. When her Reverend father dies, and she discovers her Faith was wrapped up in him, she’s now faced with a major life-changing decision.

A Sleep To Startle Us is my lauded short-story about Charles Dickens and his trip to the Field Lane Ragged School. After witnessing the abject pain and suffering of so many, he decides never to write again--long before he ever wrote A Christmas Carol. But a meeting one night with his own soon-to-be-written fictional ghost changes Dickens forever. Titled after an actual Dickens essay, this short weaves historical fact with the magic question, “What if?”

Stone Witch--in 1817 in Robertson County, Tennessee, a prairie family is tormented by a dark entity, that eventually reveals itself as Kate Batts, a well-known witch of the town of Adams. She soon becomes known as The Bell Witch. This is a fictional account of one of those hauntings that lasted for four-years, based on the true story. For more information on this very real and highly-documented and witnessed event, visit the Bell Witch web-site.

The Tapestry takes us on a journey through one woman’s life. A literary fiction that uses three short-stories, it follows the life of Jane, a young girl who dreamed of mighty things, until one tragic event changed that dynamic forever, to an unavoidable end.

Secrets is my previously-published Victorian short that centres on the dark theme of addiction--a malady that was never spoken of in the day, and how one woman ends up entangled in a web of deceit of her own making in an attempt to cover that addiction. Published in January, 2011 by the prestigious Copperfield Review.

Excerpt from The Gaslight Journal--Chapter One included. Reviews have been comparing it to Jane Austen, so if you love her, you’ll love this novel. This is Book I of The Gaslight Series, with Book II, The Lady's Maid, coming in 2012.