Looking for Creepy?

You may not be aware that the celebration of Halloween originated here in Ireland. Unless, of course, you're Irish (or possibly Welsh or from another nearby location).

So, in preparation for Halloween I visited two of the most haunted places in Ireland. Because that's what I do for fun. Let's face it: anything that's haunted has a good story behind it, and I love good stories. So I had to explore.

The first place I visited is Loftus Hall, which offers special Halloween-themed tours of the diabolical building. Prior to taking the tour I spoke with a local who had gone through the building a few years ago and insisted that she would never set foot in it ever again because she was convinced it was completely evil. Lord Loftus was apparently not a very nice man, and the stories of his brutal mistreatment of servants and family members are so legendary he is rumored to have been close personal friends with the devil.

The second location I visited is in the Dublin Mountains and is known as The Hellfire Club. This building sits at the top of Mountpelier hill, and has a very dark past starting with the fact that the builder took stones from an ancient druid burial site to construct the building. The devil is reported to have been so outraged over this blasphemous act that he blew off the roof of the building within days of construction. Archeologists have recently validated that there is a 4,500 year old tomb beneath the building, so while not all the stories about the lodge and it’s owners may be true they appear to have their roots buried within some level of truth.

You can read more about the dark histories of these buildings in other places (see below for links). What I found interesting is that they share a story in common. No one knows if the same incident happened twice, or if folklore has attributed the same incident to 2 different locations. This wouldn’t be surprising, given that Lord Loftus also owned a hunting lodge in the Dublin Mountains, and the owners of these two lodges were both known for the brutal treatment and occasional murder of servants.

The story is that there was a group of individuals playing cards on a stormy evening, when a dark visitor arrived and asked for shelter while the storm passed. The gentleman joined the game and everything appeared to be going fine when one of the ladies accidentally dropped one her cards beneath the table. As the young lady reached for the card she noticed that the stranger wasn’t wearing boots, but had hoofs instead of regular feet. When the young lady screamed, the stranger burst into flames and vanished.

In the Loftus Hall version the daughter then becomes pregnant out of wedlock and is locked in her room for a decade or so (some say she died during this imprisonment and was buried within the walls of the house for a period, which is why her ghost remains there). In the Hellfire Club version the hunting lodge is turned into a place of satanic rituals complete with human and animal sacrifices (among other debauchery).

Regardless of what you believe, these two places definitely deliver the creep factor.

Here are a few photos I took of the Hellfire Club.

Loftus Hall doesn't allow pictures of the interior, but here's a quick picture I took as the moon was rising just prior to my visit.

Learn more about Loftus Hall and The Hellfire Club by clicking on these links:
Loftus Hall
The Hellfire Club

Discovering Philip K. Dick

 
I wasn't a big reader of science fiction, so I’d never read Philip K. Dick’s work, despite having seen Bladerunner over a dozen times. However, I recently watched the Amazon series The Man in the High castle, and while I loved the first season I lost interest during the second season. That’s when I asked the age-old question: How much better was the book?

We all know that movies and TV series almost always fall short of the books upon which these are based. A visual medium has some advantages over the printed word, but it also has limitations. A picture is worth a thousand words, but the printed word has the ability to provide insight into the cognitive depth of the characters. This is where the Amazon series fell short for me: it began with an alternate reality in which the characters discover the possibility of an alternate reality that is our current reality.

If this sounds a bit like reality inception, that’s because it is - but this concept alone isn’t what made the book more interesting. The characters’ psychological responses to the threat (or promise) of a different reality and the conjectures they make on the plausibility of our current reality are fascinating. This provides insight into the subjective nature of perception, especially when it comes to politics. It’s more than a simple picture of what things would look like if Hitler had won WWII. This books explores human nature and our psychological defenses. In other words, it’s the human, rather than scientific, element that makes the book speak to us.

I have since finished both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (which became the movie “Bladerunner”) and The Man in the High Castle, and am starting on Ubik, considered by many critics to be Dick’s masterpiece. I have a lot of respect for Philip K. Dick as a writer after reading these books. Even if you don’t think you’d like science fiction, you might want to sample a bit of this author’s work. It’s worth your time.

Letters to a Young Writer

Colum McCann has put together a collection of essays advising would-be writers. In an age where anyone can publish, this book addresses the serious writer and not those who engage in the profession as an endeavor to earn a fast buck. This book is about the craft of writing and the process of creation. It’s not about getting rich quickly.

Sure, we’d all love a best seller. However, financially motivated art often lacks the substance needed to draw an audience. This book is about the process which may or may not result in financial gain. If you have the disease of writing it is in your blood and you will seek to cultivate it more or less like an addiction, rather than an occupation. There is no way not to write if it’s within you. The worst part is that simply scratching down words isn’t enough: those of us with the writing bug must also continually seek improvement. That’s where this book comes into play.

A good part of writing is finding the connection with readers, and that only happens when we’re engaged and willing to be exposed in order to establish this relationship. McCann addresses this in his essay “The First Line.” He advises that each story should open with a natural flow, without forcing too much information upon the reader too quickly. Think of it like a first date: the goal is to incite interest but not to overwhelm or frighten the reader. This is the art of pacing or as McCann says, “achieving a balance.”

The book addresses the rules of writing by stating that “there are no rules,” but when the author states that you can dispose of grammar only when you know these rules he is really saying that you must understand this agreement of structure between the writer and reader before making the decision of when to ignore it. It’s like knowing when to use slang and when to avoid it. Once you know the purpose of these rules you can make a more informed decision about how well your piece fits into - or needs to be free from them.

This book was outstanding and one of the best I've read concerning the art of writing. It encourages creative types to get out of their internal vortex and to see their work from the reader's perspective, which is essential for gaining an appreciative audience. It also covers topics such as writer's block (which he refers to as "The terror of the white page"), why we tell stories, and handling critics. The essays are short and filled with bits of wisdom and insight that can assist writers at all stages of a career.

If you loved Stephen King's "On Writing" then this book is definitely for you. If you’re very new to writing and looking for practical advice on how to get your published, then the book isn’t for you. However, if you know that writing is your calling and there’s no way to avoid it - this is highly recommended reading.

Letters to a Young Writer is releasing on April 4, 2017.