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Dickens: Things You Might Not Know

Did you know A Christmas Carol was just the first of many Christmas books by Dickens? And whilst their quality was not as good as A Christmas Carol, they all made more money for him. This was because his publishers chose not to invest as much in the quality and wrapping of the later books, which Dickens had insisted upon for the first.

Christmas Stories Dickens


I was surprised how little I knew about Dickens before I read the remarkable biography by Claire Tomalin recently. He was more complex than I’d realised. Here’s some highlights of things I found out about him.

Facts about Dickens

  • At the age of twelve, he was sent away by his wayward father and not-much-better mother to live alone and earn an income to support them by labelling pots of blacking for shoes in a factory on the Thames. In an untypical inversion of social mores, his sister Fanny was sent to the Royal Academy for Music because of her talent playing piano.
  • His father was hopeless with money and was imprisoned in the Marshalsea for debt.
  • Dickens had irrepressible energy. He would write, set up magazines, host parties, meet dignitaries (including the Prime Minister, famous writers, and the Queen), and drink and dance the hornpipe until the early hours. He shared his time between dwellings in London and Kent.
  • He took long walks each night after working, frequently touring the less salubrious areas of London, where he found rich material and characters for his writing. He often clocked up 12 miles or more.
  • As his fame grew, and especially after he started doing paid readings, he toured relentlessly. He toured America twice.
Charles Dickens book cover
  • Initially he was excited to visit the States, where he was given an ecstatic reception upon arrival at Boston. But his relationship with the country soured because there was no copyright law so he didn’t get paid a penny for his works initially, which sold in their thousands. When he brought the issue up, the press turned against him accusing him of colonialism.
  • He had 10 children with his quiet but loyal wife Catherine, most of whom had ineffectual and hapless lives.
  • He was a big drinker and raised the spirits at his parties with his own gin punch.
  • He left Catherine in middle age when he fell in love with an 18-year-old girl, Nelly Ternan, with whom he had an enigmatic relationship for the rest of his life. He was heartlessly dismissive of his children who sided with their mother, especially his firstborn son, Charley. As his spirited daughter Katey said, ‘My father was like a madman when my mother left home. This affair brought out all that was worst—all that was weakest in him. He did not care a damn what happened to any of us. Nothing could surpass the misery and unhappiness of our home.’
Dickens's Christmas Stories content page
  • He was involved in a train crash on a viaduct at Stapleton, in which many died and he had to scramble out of the window of his teetering carriage. He helped others caught and injured in the train, then put Nelly and her mother on the next train to London to avoid scandal.
  • He supported the cause of the poor on a political and practical level, investing vast amounts of time and money in helping those in need. With the wealthy banker Ms Coutts, he established a home for prostitutes, helping them gain self-reliance and a range of skills and, if they wished, supporting them to emigrate to Australia.
Dickens's Christmas Stories spine

A Growing Interest

I’ve been increasingly interested in Dickens over the last few years. Some believe he’s a greater writer than Shakespeare. I’ve been reading more about him recently because I’m doing research for the latest Ghosts of Alice novel. His writing was often gothic and, alongside A Christmas Carol, he wrote several ghost stories, including the chilling The Signalman.

I’m lucky to have inherited a complete set of Odhams Press editions from 1934 from my great-grandmother, who was a passionate fan. My favourite Dickens novel is Little Dorrit. We struggled through it for English A level, but I’m glad we did as it’s seeped into me and I love it. (As an aside, the BBC TV series is fabulous and I urge you to watch it.)

Leave a comment if you’re a Dickens fan, and let me know which of his books is your favourite!

Charles Dickens biography Tomalin

Searching through cobwebs…

This one to the authors out there…

Plotting is like searching through cobwebs


How do the ideas for your books come to you? Inspiration is a drip feed for me – and an erratic one. At the moment, I’m developing the storyline for the next Alice book. I have the setting, the mood, and some of the characters. I have some of the weirdness and scariness. But the detailed storyline is taking a while. It moves on at the pace of one new insight every day or two.


Sometimes, the ideas and plots race in, in quite a manic way. Last summer, I sat in the garden in the sun and two novels formed clearly in my head. One of them, I wrote over a couple of months before Christmas (this is next year’s Christmas ghost story, a standalone). But at other times, the process can be a bit tortuous. I know exactly where the Ghosts of Alice series is going and have strong ideas for the next book. But the meat of this plot is taking its time. It’s like I’m searching through cobwebs.


That said, I know it is only a matter of time. One thing I do have faith in, is the ability of my subconscious to solve problems and be creative. I’ll go for a walk, or wake in the middle of the night, or be sitting watching a film, and the idea for the next scene pops into my head. It’s just that sometimes it whizzes. And sometimes… it doesn’t, and the webs don’t clear.


How about you?

Ten Years of Publishing!

10 years of publishing Steve Griffin

This has been an amazing year for me. I’ve been writing since I worked out which way up to hold a pencil but my publishing journey didn’t begin until 2014 – ten years ago. Since then I’ve published 10 novels, 2 novellas, and 2 books of poetry!

It’s been a blast. Whilst it’s not my main income source (I also work part-time for a neighbourhood charity in London), reading and writing have always been at the core of who I am. I wrote stories as a boy for my friends, published poetry in literary magazines in my twenties and thirties, and began writing full-length novels in my forties.

Traditional vs. Indie

The City of Light

Like most writers, I attempted the traditional route of publishing with my first book, The City of Light, via queries to agents and publishers. I had a good deal of encouragement – agents requesting full manuscripts, asking for edits, having a Children’s Rights manager at Random House championing the book through editorial teams – but ultimately, it didn’t come off. After all that emotional investment, I gave up thinking I’d ever be published. Then a family member suggested publishing independently. I looked into Amazon and, to be honest, never looked back. Amazon may have its faults, but without it I would never have published all these books.

Books for Young Adults

10 years of publishing The Secret of the Tirthas

The first novels I brought out were for young adults. The Secret of the Tirthas is a five-book adventure mystery series with a novella prequel, Swift: The Story of a Witch. It’s based on a magical ‘garden of rooms’ that my wife’s parents owned in Herefordshire, where I imagined each garden containing a portal to the place in the world it represented. When I’d finished that series, I collected the poems I’d had published in poetry magazines together with a few new ones into two poetry books, Up in the Air and The Things We Thought Were Beautiful.

The Things We Thought Were Beautiful Poetry Book

Ghost Stories for Adults

Encouraged by good reviews and reasonable sales, I decided to branch out into writing for adults. I’d always loved horror films and books and so began The Ghosts of Alice series, starting with The Boy in the Burgundy Hood (2019). The story was inspired by an interview my wife had with a heritage agency to be a property manager in an old house where the previous owners still lived in a private wing. I was initially uncertain about changing genre, but The Ghosts of Alice found a bigger market than my young adult series – The Boy in the Burgundy Hood even became an international bestseller in Ghost Stories on Amazon! So I wrote more books in the series, and published two standalone supernatural thrillers. The Man in the Woods and Black Beacon, a Christmas ghost story, both came out in 2023.

10 years of publishing Discover The Ghosts of Alice

Sales and Reviews

I’m now approaching 10,000 copies sold. I know it’s not a huge amount when compared to big name authors, but I keep motivated by considering the average independent novel sells 250 copies, and traditionally published one 3000. Most of mine have significantly exceeded the first, and The Boy in the Burgundy Hood has sold over 3600 copies. My books have gained over 900 reviews on Amazon, averaging around 4.5 stars – with only my Marmite book a bit lower!

Who is the Man in the Woods - the perfect book for Halloween

What’s next?

I’m working on the next Ghosts of Alice story – I have a story arc that will mean two or three more books in the series. I have a second standalone Christmas ghost story nearing completion of first draft – but I won’t be bringing that out until next Christmas. I also have an idea for a sequel to The Man in the Woods, but it’s not fully fleshed out. And then a germ of an idea for another series of supernatural thrillers. Watch this space!

So that’s the story of my ten years of publishing. Every bit of it has been exciting – with the exception of some hardcore editing and marketing (although signing up to Irish book marketer David Gaughran‘s mail list has removed some of the latter’s pain)! There’s never a day when I don’t appreciate that people I’ve never met, from all over the world, are buying, reading and (mostly!) enjoying my books. And it’s not just the sales. As a writer, I’ve got to know some fantastic readers and writers on social media, and I’ve done talks in schools and libraries, signings in bookshops, and read and talked at festivals. Meeting readers is always a real privilege.

So thank you to all of you who have made – and continue to make – my dream a reality. Thank you, really.

Alice and the Broken Dead – out now!

It’s release day!!

Alice and the Broken Dead out now

The latest Ghosts of Alice novel, Alice and the Broken Dead, is out now!

I’d been planning to get it out at the start of October, well in time for Halloween – and thankfully, despite a few set backs, I’ve made it!

So what’s in store for our intrepid ghost-whisperer Alice next?

Well, it starts with Alice happy – very happy – standing in the Himalayas watching the sunrise over the mountains. Of course, as you’d expect, things can only go downhill – literally 😊 – from there, but at least she gets her moment of perfection. (I sometimes wonder about writers, locking themselves away all day, dreaming up torturous scenarios for their characters…)

Here’s the full blurb to whet your appetite:

She realised the emotion on his face was something else altogether…Fear.
Nicholas lifted his arm and pointed at her.
‘What?’ said his mother. ‘What is it, Nicholas?’
‘Her,’ he said. ‘It was her.’

Having lost her job at the Trust for England, Alice heads to India via Nepal to help a wealthy family beset by disturbing paranormal phenomena. She is soon embroiled in a strange and terrifying mystery. Who – or rather what – is bringing the family to breaking point, smashing things in their state-of-the-art house and threatening the couple and their two children?

Increasingly thwarted in her attempts to understand the destructive entity, Alice resorts to a wild scheme – one that threatens to bring more tragedy in its wake.

Has she made a terrible mistake?

Perfect to get you in the mood for Spooky Season!

Click here to view it on Amazon – and if you do read it please leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reviews make a huge difference in getting the books you love in front of other readers – which helps me to keep writing books. 😉

Thanks – and happy (?!) reading! 😱

My ‘Marmite’ Book

I’ve decided to do a few general posts about my books. Obviously every time you speak or post about something it’s promotion, but these are not going to be the usual my book is great please buy it sort of thing.

I want to give a feel for things that I think are interesting about each book, maybe why I wrote it, what I was hoping to achieve, how I tried to promote it, or just something leftfield about it.

I’m going to start with my ‘Marmite’ book.

I’ve got two novellas out, the second of which is The Man in the Woods. This is my ‘Love it or Hate it’ book, because it’s the only one that’s had a wide range of responses. In terms of reviews, most are 4 and 5 star – but it’s also got the highest number of 3, 2 and 1 star reviews of any of my books.

Some people love it:

Some people don’t get it:

And some people… well, check out possibly my most succinct review ever:

No one says it’s badly written, or unsuspenseful, or the characters are bad (thankfully).

I think things that might cause some readers not to like it include:

  • It’s a novella. People generally prefer longer stories, IMHO.
  • Whilst it’s dark like all my books, it has an unreliable first person narrator, which is different to the others.
  • It’s a ‘high concept’ story with a distinctive twist that turns the whole story on its head. Not many people guess it (only one person I know worked it out before the ending). Some people do not like the twist because of the way it changes everything (and just to add, no, it’s not one of those ‘it was all a dream’ stories, which I don’t like either).
  • I think some people might be expecting it to remain within the mainstream psychological thriller genre – and when the twist pushes it into a subcategory of that genre they’re not always happy (and no, it’s not mucking around with time slip / time travel – I don’t like those much either!)
  • After the twist it ends on a note where some have said they would like it to continue

Addressing the last point, I have to admit, I can see why. I had always conceived of this as a standalone long short story / novella. For me, it was a piece hinged on its short sharp shock, which would always end where it ended. Although now I do have the start of an idea for a sequel – whether I will ever write it, I’m unsure!

Have I wondered about The Man in the Woods getting lower reviews than my other books and whether I should have published it? Yes.

Would I consider unpublishing it? No.

Some books we write just for ourselves knowing that, within those readers whose interests and passions cross over with ours, there will always be a few who like the twisted path you sometimes choose to take.

Next up, The Boy in the Burgundy Hood – a book I was very unsure about when I published it…

The Ghosts of Alice – Book 4

A few people have been asking whether there’s going to be another Ghosts of Alice book – so I’ll start by saying… yes there is!

Machapuchare - The Ghosts of Alice


Having written two standalone horror stories last year – The Man in the Woods and Black Beacon – I’ve returned to the fourth instalment of Alice’s story. I recently finished the first draft and am now going through, marking up changes. I’d give you the title but unfortunately I haven’t settled on it yet – which is unusual for me, because I usually know the title early on.


Here’s a little of what to expect:


Having lost her job at the Trust for England, Alice heads out to India via Nepal to help a wealthy family experiencing disturbing paranormal phenomena. She is soon embroiled in a strange and terrifying mystery. Who – or rather what – is bringing the family to breaking point, smashing things up in their state-of-the-art house and frightening the couple and their two children? Increasingly thwarted in her attempts to understand the entity, Alice resorts to a wild scheme – one that threatens to bring more tragedy in its wake. Has she made a terrible mistake?

Machapuchare - The Ghosts of Alice


Book 4 in The Ghosts of Alice will be out later this summer – if I can just work out that title… 😉


If you’re wondering about the pics BTW, they’re of beautiful Machapuchare, which I took when I was a young man trekking through Nepal. I thought Alice deserved at least a little reward for all she’s been through, so the book starts with her enjoying this stunning view.

The Ultimate Ending

I’ve been thinking recently, how often does the ending of a film, book or TV series exceed your expectations? How many times have you been blown away – either devastated or thrilled – in those closing moments?

Sixth Sense - the ultimate ending

(Alert – there are plenty of spoilers in this post, so proceed with caution…)

For me, there tend to be two, linked things that lift a story above and beyond the norm. Sadly, one of them is the death of the main character. As a young boy, I was forever imprinted by watching The Alamo with John Wayne, filled with feelings of horror, loss, admiration, and above all disbelief as Davy Crockett pitched himself into the magazine store with a torch in one last act of defiance. I felt similarly about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Saving Private Ryan (such a horrifyingly impersonal but cinematically astute way to pick off a character we’ve come to cherish), The Green Mile, Million Dollar Baby, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The ending of Night of the Living Dead is horrific, on both an intimate and a broader, social level. (Incidentally, that film was released a month before the US MPAA film rating system came into place, so was first watched by stunned kids and teenagers in a Saturday matinee in Pittsburgh). Everyone remembers the final episode of the First World War series of Blackadder, in which the sharp-as-a-tack Captain Blackadder is sent over the trenches with his hapless brothers-in-arms to certain death.

Wicker Man - ultimate ending

I think the ultimate story ending can also be linked to death, but doesn’t need to be. It’s more to do with a surprise twist that transforms or reframes all that’s gone before. The Wicker Man is one of these – what, no, it can’t all have been… and what’s going on now… surely he’s going to get out of there… Other films with great twists include The Others, The Usual Suspects, Get Out. But I think the best of all, and thus without doubt my favourite film, is The Sixth Sense. How many stories require you to retrace the whole course of an already gripping narrative right from the start?

I was thinking about all this because I’ve strived for those big twists that turn the whole story around in some of my own books. Particularly The Boy in the Burgundy Hood, The Girl in the Ivory Dress, Black Beacon and, probably most dramatically, The Man in the Woods. Because I love it. And want to do more of it. And most of all, because I want to make sure it works for you, the reader!

Tell me a book, film or TV show that’s made you sit up in your seat or burst out into tears. Endings that were devastating or breathtakingly thrilling, that took you somewhere above and beyond all the rest. I’m looking out for my next watch, and my next read.

2023 – A Year in Writing

As it’s that time for reflection, I thought I’d give an overview of my year from a writing perspective. First of all, the good. As most of you will know, I’ve been concentrating on my supernatural thrillers for the past five years. I’ve written three books in The Ghosts of Alice series, but this year I wanted to publish two standalone horror books that I’ve had in the pipeline for a while  and which I’m glad to say I managed to do.

The first, The Man in the Woods, I started several years ago but was interrupted by life and never finished. I realised when I re-read it earlier this year that I really liked it, it felt very different to my other writing and I loved the final twist.

Thanks to reader Linda Oliphant for this great photo!


Why was it so different to my other supernatural books? Well, several reasons.

  1. it’s the only one told in the first person
  2. it’s a novella
  3. it’s the only one of my supernatural thrillers not to feature ghosts (hope that’s not a spoiler… 😉)
  4. it’s about a teenage boy
  5. some people would even argue it’s not a supernatural thriller at all but… you’ll have to read it to decide whether it is or isn’t yourself!

I love this story. I thought it might well get mixed reviews – and possibly some negative reviews – but they’ve been (almost all!) positive so far.

The second book I published this year I actually finished as a first draft last Christmas – but decided to leave until November before I brought it out, for obvious reasons. It’s Black Beacon, a festive ghost story set on the snow-swept South Downs. I’ve loved writing this book as it’s by far the most personal of my stories, inspired by my grandparents, who met when my grandad was a German Prisoner of War and my grandma a young woman in Eastbourne. All my books tend to have a significant element or two inspired by real life incidents – but this is by far the most personal.

Black Beacon ghost story

What about the bad? Well, whilst life outside of writing has had its ups and downs this year (with a few more downs than usual, including my mum breaking her hip in the summer) the writing has been pretty steady. I miss the excellent independent bookshop we had near us in Leatherhead: Barton’s Bookshop, where I used to go for signing sessions at least once a year, usually during the festive season. I miss the owner, Peter Snell, with his penchant for dressing up as Santa Claus, and I miss the staff – I’ve done signings at other events over the years, but nothing is as satisfying as going to a local bookstore, where everyone has a passion for books and reading.

Barton's Bookshop

That’s it for me – next up for my writing is the fourth Ghosts of Alice story, which has a completely different feel and setting – but more of that later in the year!

I wish you a Happy New Year, and hope it brings you what you want – or at least what you need!

Steve

The Haunted House

haunted house

What image comes to mind for you when you think of a haunted house?

I’ve been writing ghost stories for 5 years now and I’ve realised that the houses I have haunted have become progressively more ‘everyday’ with each successive story. As if you don’t need heightened melodrama of a setting to chill – fear can come to you in the most mundane of places.

In The Boy in the Burgundy Hood, the red-hooded boy and the wounded woman haunt an old medieval manor with sprawling grounds and a creepy stumpery. Bramley Manor is a stately medieval hall with a grand fireplace and a Tudor section.

The haunting in The Girl in the Ivory Dress takes place in a Victorian guest house in a remote spot on the Welsh coast. The house is quite old, but it’s been completely renovated and has all modcons.

Alice and the Devil focuses on a rundown Victorian rectory on the moors in the Peak District, although much of the action takes place on a curious set of giant, wooded rocks nearby that are filled with caves and strange features.

My latest ghost story Black Beacon, however, is set in an ordinary 1930s house – although it is isolated from civilisation up on the Sussex Downs. And even more so, after a rare Christmas snowfall.

Do you prefer your ghost stories set in a classic, decaying country house – or do you think the spook can happen anywhere?

You can check out all my books on my Amazon page – perfect for the festive season!