S.P. Oldham's Blog, page 42
October 30, 2018
Enter Before It's Too Late
Time to enter my competition is running out! Bumper Halloween Competition - So Lost in Words on Facebook
In the spirit of Halloween, I had a go at carving a tree a bit like one of the 'scary' trees from my logo into a pumpkin! For free scary stories try my website, leave me a message, enjoy! https://solostinwords.com/home/halloween-2018-
October 26, 2018
Hag's Breath - A Great Read for Halloween!
A thrill to find this great little review left for 'Hag's Breath: A Collection of Witchcraft and Wickedness' today. Halloween is almost upon us, for less than $3/£2 why not treat yourself to a read? Or enter my competition to win a download of the book as well as a bundle of other great prizes? My thanks to the reviewer, David Hilley Junior, who writes:
"5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book if you love good short stories!
This book is chock full of great short stories. I really enjoyed it, particularly since I read it just before Halloween. Who can resist witches and ghosts?"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M4JMXMA#customerReviews
October 23, 2018
October Terror Short Story Awards
Voting opens today (23rd October) and runs for one week, for the October Terror Short Story Award! Please check mine out - 'Cold Fish' - and if you like it, vote for it. VOTE HERE (be sure to check the circle ABOVE the story you choose:) http://www.theboldmom.com/october-terror-readers-choice-a…/…
Of course there are plenty of other stories too - if you like them, vote for them- all good stuff, folks! My story 'Cold Fish' is here: http://www.theboldmom.com/october-terror-2018-39-cold-fish…/ and the complete list of stories, should you fancy curling up for an hour and reading, is here: http://www.theboldmom.com/october-terror-2018-short-story-…/
Good luck to everyone involved and thank you to Mar Garcia aka The Bold Mom for running the contest and showcasing my story.
Please share. Thank you
.
October 22, 2018
HALLOWEEN 2018 BUMPER COMPETITION
BUMPER HALLOWEEN COMPETITION! To be in with a chance of winning this prize bundle, including a signed, paperback copy of 'Wakeful Children: A Collection of Horror and Supernatural Tales,' ebook downloads of 'The Mindless Trilogy - The Zombie Apocalypse: When a Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing,' and 'Hag's Breath: A Collection of Witchcraft and Wickedness,' as well as a So Lost in Words tote bag, bookmark and pen, just like this post, like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/solostinwords/ and comment 'So Lost in Words.' Competition ends midnight October 31st GMT and a winner will be chosen at random. Good luck! Feel free to share.
Please note, it is up to you to ensure you have a device which can download ebooks. So Lost in Words/S P Oldham cannot be held responsible if you are unable to claim ebooks if you do not have a suitable device for doing so. No cash alternative. Competition is in no way endorsed by or affiliated to Facebook, Twitter or tumblr. Entry to the competition is deemed acceptance of these rules.
So Lost in Words Halloween 2018 FREE stories and poetry to find out more and to enjoy some FREE Halloween short stories and poetry to whet your appetite for the big day!
October 21, 2018
October 16, 2018
Punctured
Punctured
Dana crested the highest of the Tops, the name the locals used for the series of low hills that separated the small rural town she lived in from the village the other side. The gravel crunched softly beneath the wheels of her bicycle. The ground was still wet, raindrops falling silent as tears from the heavily leafed trees flanking the road, such as it was. The sudden downpour she had been caught in had come to an equally abrupt stop.
Overhead, a pale moon showed now and then through the smoke-grey clouds as they drifted. To the west the sky was a darker grey, threatening more rain to come...
https://solostinwords.com/home/hallow...-
October 15, 2018
October Terror 2018
Excited to have my short story 'Cold Fish' accepted for entry into the October Terror 2018 Short Story Award competition run by The Bold Mom - Mar Garcia. To read my entry click the link below. Submissions close on October 23rd, then readers have the chance to choose their favourites and vote via the poll. The winner will be announced on October 31st! You can click through to all the other stories too, and enjoy some horror and dark fiction stories free of charge throughout the month! Then vote for the one you like most. Thanks all, hope you enjoy and feel free to share this post.
http://www.theboldmom.com/october-terror-2018-39-cold-fish…/
October 10, 2018
The Fear Collector
The Fear Collector
You will never catch it, never spy it, never see it
Though it dwells in the corner of your eye
You think, if quick, you’ll glimpse it
But you’re too slow and it always seems to fly
Nothing more, you hope, than a shadow
Nothing more substantial than a shade
There’s nothing to be scared of, this you know
Yet your heart races and you are afraid
Where does it go, when you have turned the lights out?
When there is no contrast to alert your watchful eye?
Your daytime certainties soon become doubts;
It must go somewhere, or does the darkness make it die?
That tiny touch, feather-like, when you’re drifting?
The weird sensation that you are about to fall?
That makes you lurch in your bed, your body shifting?
Could it be that flitting figure does it all?
Perhaps it’s just as well you are too slow
To lay eyes fully on the spectre
That makes you turn your head, lets you know
Here be a subtle fear collector
S P Oldham
https://solostinwords.com/home/hallow...-
October 1, 2018
Indie Writers Review Magazine - The Offering
Thrilled to have my poem, 'The Offering' included in the Halloween edition of Indie Writers Review! Click the link to pick up your copy for only £1.99!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HWW9DYW
September 29, 2018
Film Review: Phantom of the Opera 1925
I just watched another of the films listed in Wednesday Lee Friday’s ’15 Black and White Horror Movies That Are Scary as Hell,’ posted on ScreenRant on 2oth August 2016. Find it here: https://screenrant.com/scariest-black-and-white-horror-movies-ever-all-time/
Today, I watched the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, Mary Philbin and Norman Kerry.
SPOILERS THROUGHOUT
The opening scene is very dark in a literal sense. Bearing in mind the age of the film, its quality now lends to the atmosphere, in which we first see a man bearing a lantern, peering in what looks like caves but is actually below-stage. We also get our first shadowy glimpse of the phantom. It is of course a clever device, setting the story in an opera hall which has been built over medieval dungeons and torture chambers. What a fantastic setting for a spooky story!
At first, I found the way that the ballet dancers continued to dance even when they were off-stage in the film very annoying, until it occurred to me that, this being a silent film, dance was being used as a means to communicate to me, the viewer. In that sense, the girls expressed their agitation and excitement at having seen the phantom via this means.
I appreciated how the characters and the acting are rather restrained, not over-the-top theatrical as many films from this era seem to be. Lots of the facial expressions made me wish I could hear the actors talking, their physical acting being good. In all honesty though, I found this film hard-going, not because of its content but because of its age and style. A little unfair of me, given that I knew it was made almost a hundred years ago, and I knew it to be a silent film, but true nonetheless.
Just like Frankenstein, this film, despite being set in an opera house, also culminates in the ‘angry mob,’ complete with burning torches, running through the streets of Paris in pursuit of the Phantom. He is fleeing in horse and carriage, our heroine his hapless victim laying captive within.
There is a nice little moment near the end of the film when the Phantom, surrounded on all sides at the banks of the Seine, holds up his clenched fist. The motion is enough to stop the baying crowds on both sides. The Phantom unclenches his hand, revealing there is nothing in it, laughing at the people. To me, this was a clever little device to illustrate how easy it is to control the masses via fear, ignorance and bravado.
I am not quite sure why one or two of the mob jump into the river at the end, as there was no apparent reason for this. Perhaps it was meant to convey the number of people assembled in the small space, them being pushed into the river accidentally, but it looks very much like the simply jumped in. Perhaps it was communication via dance or otherwise, but it looks, now, to be rather unnecessary and even a bit silly. They beat the Phantom to death on this small platform before throwing him into the dark water. Then suddenly, it is Finis; the end. Another abrupt halt to what has been a lengthy story.
Scary as hell? No, though I can well understand that it might have been at the time of its original release.
