This bank holiday weekend was the 'Anniversary of my inspiration'
It's one of those things that you tend to remember, I've told quite a few people this story but I thought I'd share it - there is always something needed to light the spark for all of us whatever we do.
Four years ago my local football team, Peterborough United won a play-off final to win promotion. it was a big day for sports fans and the match was live on TV. That same night my son, then 18, came home in the early hours and reckoned he'd seen a ghost under the Botolph bridge which is to the south west of the city centre on the outskirts of Woodston. The Oundle road leads out of Peterborough to the west and that was the route my son was walking home in those early hours to our house in Orton some two miles further away. To settle my little ones later that evening I found myself pouring out this adventure story more or less off the top of my head. It combined these two recent events.
I hadn't planned any of this at the time, I just had the ghost story idea on my mind having talked with my son that morning and seen his genuine reactions to the experience whatever it was he saw. We love football in my household so it seemed a natural thing to do - combine events and make it exciting. My elder daughter listened in and noticed how gripped the boys were and suggested I should write it all down, stating that some of the stuff she'd had to study for A - Level wasn't half as interesting . . . thus, my idea for writing ghost stories in a real 'what if' type contemporary setting was born.
It's one of those things that you tend to remember, I've told quite a few people this story but I thought I'd share it - there is always something needed to light the spark for all of us whatever we do.
Four years ago my local football team, Peterborough United won a play-off final to win promotion. it was a big day for sports fans and the match was live on TV. That same night my son, then 18, came home in the early hours and reckoned he'd seen a ghost under the Botolph bridge which is to the south west of the city centre on the outskirts of Woodston. The Oundle road leads out of Peterborough to the west and that was the route my son was walking home in those early hours to our house in Orton some two miles further away. To settle my little ones later that evening I found myself pouring out this adventure story more or less off the top of my head. It combined these two recent events.
I hadn't planned any of this at the time, I just had the ghost story idea on my mind having talked with my son that morning and seen his genuine reactions to the experience whatever it was he saw. We love football in my household so it seemed a natural thing to do - combine events and make it exciting. My elder daughter listened in and noticed how gripped the boys were and suggested I should write it all down, stating that some of the stuff she'd had to study for A - Level wasn't half as interesting . . . thus, my idea for writing ghost stories in a real 'what if' type contemporary setting was born.
Over the next week or two I honed the story, changing it quite a bit but basing it on the events of the football match and a similar event that had taken place in the city two decades earlier. I dropped the ghost under the bridge bit and gave that the full treatment for another story some months later. All the places and references are real although as a reader you don't need to know the area to appreciate the story.
A month or so later with the story typed up and approval from family members my mind was racing away conjuring up possible similar ghostly adventures. Over the next few months I researched historical events, interesting local facts, visited supposedly ghostly sites and continued to write. A year or so later my book was complete.
A month or so later with the story typed up and approval from family members my mind was racing away conjuring up possible similar ghostly adventures. Over the next few months I researched historical events, interesting local facts, visited supposedly ghostly sites and continued to write. A year or so later my book was complete.
| 'The Spirit of Peterborough' was finally published last summer and is currently on sale in bookstores in the city. However, it doesn't end there. I used the idea of the football match to write a Christmas ghost story 'I'll be there for the replay' which I published for Christmas 2013. (The story is not actually about football.) The story that came out of those events of that weekend four years ago is 'The Night Runner' and it is the second story in the book. You can read an excerpt here |  |
So, you see, we all have our starting point, we all need that little spark of inspiration to get us going. Once you nurture it - give the flames a little time to grow - who knows where it might lead you!
What has ever inspired you to create something? I'd love to know. click to tweet
You can read my other books here: The Spirit of Peterborough
I'll be there for the replay
Coming soon . . . 'A Prophecy of Peace' The first in a new series of mysterious adventures . . . subscribe to keep up to date.
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