Beginning Work on a Christmas Ghost Story Including a Short Excerpt

Last updated on: December 7, 2016 at 11:07 am by David Russell Mosley

Beginning Work on a Christmas Ghost Story Including a Short Excerpt 2016-12-07T11:07:46-04:00 David Russell Mosley

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David Russell Mosley

Description
English: Snow covered trees in Buchholz Forest (Buchholzer Forst) in Recke-Steinbeck, Kreis Steinfurt, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Date 26 January 2014
Source Own work
Author J.-H. Janßen
(CC BY-SA 3.0)

Advent
7 December 2016
The Edge of Elfland
Hudson, New Hampshire

Dear Readers,

Back in October I had hoped to put together a short ghost story for Halloween. Sadly, a lack of time and lack of creativity meant I never got anything together. Now, however, I have begun work on a Christmas ghost story. There used to be a tradition of telling ghost stories in the winter and especially at Christmas Eve. It certainly predates the Victorian period, but how far back we can take it is difficult to say. Most of us, however, are familiar with perhaps the most famous example of it: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. From the description of dead Jacob Marley with his chains at the beginning to the terrifying and yet ultimately kind Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Dickens story engages us in the realm of the dead in order to reform that now archetypal miserly humbug, Ebeneezer Scrooge. Now, I make no claims to be Charles Dickens. Nevertheless, I have begun work on a Christmas ghost story inspired, in part, by Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and her Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories as well as by Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Below is an excerpt, the opening of the story, to whet your appetite. I hope to have it done by Christmas Eve and may even be doing a live reading of it around Christmas time. In the meantime, here is how the story begins, I hope you enjoy.

Sincerely,
David

It was dark. The snow covered the ground and was still falling. The wind caused the snowflakes to flit about. If Arthur Elwood hadn’t been so tired and the air so cold, he might have thought it beautiful. Instead, he trudged onward, head down, hat pulled tightly onto his head. Somewhere nearby a bird cawed. Arthur looked for the source. A large, black bird made a stark contrast on the snow covered trees. “Is that a crow?” said Arthur to himself. Before he could decide the bird opened its beak again. Instead of a caw, the bird spoke. “Sidhe” it shrieked. “Sidhe, Sidhe! Ban Sidhe.” The voice was unearthly, Arthur thought. He began to shake as the raven continued to shriek, “Sidhe! Ban Sidhe!” Now quite frightened, Arthur continued to walk toward the forest. Suddenly, an otherworldly wail rang above the winds.

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