What’s the most disturbing experience you’ve ever had in a train?
My wife and I were on the fast train from Paris to Calais, when there was an almost imperceptible bump, after which the train slowed and came to a complete stop.
Everyone wondered what was going on. It was a clear day. Was there an issue with the tracks ahead? Had there been an accident involving another train? Eventually, an announcement was made that we would be transported by bus the remainder of the way to Calais. Rumors circulated among the passengers, but the true reason finally emerged.
A man had been tied up and thrown from a bridge in front of the oncoming train. The bump had marked the end of his life.
We never learnt the identity of the victim or his murderer.
What’s the creepiest place you’ve ever been to?
Creepier than all the castles and ghost towns I have visited is the Old State Prison in Deer Lodge, Montana. Now a museum, the long, echoing hallways and the bare cells still seem to reverberate with the shouts and cries of the condemned. A place of violence and murder, anger and despair, those essences remained trapped within its bleak, unforgiving stone walls.
What scared you when you were a child?
My scariest memory is of feeling awake but paralyzed, sensing that a presence, unseen but evil, lurked nearby. Oh how I wished that I could move, and run to my parents’ room, but all I could do was lie there and pray and hope that eventually I might be able to move again.
My young mind had no explanation for these events, but now I know that they are called hypnagogic sleep paralysis and hallucinations. They are caused by issues with the reticular activating system, the part of the brain that controls wakefulness.
Describe your writing voice.
In my own ghost/weird/horror stories, I attempt to be unsettling and suggestive; not bringing the horror out into the open, but leaving it to the imagination.
What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?
I consider Ring of Time to be my best work. It is a mix of science fiction and historical fiction. Several centuries from now, Dr. Robert Cragg, a historian who has tragically lost his wife and child, volunteers to become the first time-travelling historian. Hoping to escape his grief, he accepts the mission to investigate people in ancient Rome – people that we in our time know to have existed, as archaeologists have unearthed their remains. While he cannot change what has already happened, he can influence it – and his life can be very much at risk as he has the unfortunate tendency to end up in dangerous situations. Instead of a dead past, he discovers that it is very much alive; and that he might even find love again.
What’s the scariest story you’ve written?
I think my scariest story would be ‘That Which Walks’ in my collection The Deadliest Sins. It is based on the ancient Babylonian myth of lamiae, brought into the present day.
What are you currently working on?
Current projects include a series of stories about a disillusioned British Army officer in the years following World War One. Accompanied by his faithful German shepherd Baltasar he encounters a series of supernatural events which will eventually prepare him to foil a Nazi plot in the next war. I’m also working on a series of reflections on running marathons, an anthology of wolf stories, and I really want to write a sequel to my SF novel Wreaths of Empire, if only I can put the parts into place…
ABOUT ANDREW M. SEDDON
He is a member of SFWA and the Authors’ Guild, and when not writing he be found hiking, enjoying classical music, and running marathons. Now retired from the medical profession he lives in Florida with his wife Olivia and German Shepherds Rex and Baltasar, where he hopes to write even more.
www.andrewmseddon.com www.andrewmseddon.blogspot.com
ABOUT THE BOOK THE HAUNTED TRAIN: CREEPY TALES FROM THE RAILWAYS
Come on board for a Gothic journey in a funicular railway in Victorian England, a freight train in the Carpathian mountains, a high tech sky train in Bangkok, an underground railway in Tokyo. Visit stations which lure with the promise of safe shelter but harbour unexpected dangers. Meet the people who work on the tracks – stationmasters, porters, signal-men – and those who travel – commuters, tourists, dead bodies, murderers and ghosts. In this volume, editor Rayne Hall has collected twenty of the finest– and creepiest – railway tales. The book features the works of established writers, classic authors and fresh voices. Some stories are spooky, some downright scary, while others pose a puzzling mystery. Are you prepared to come on board this train? Already, the steam engine is huffing in impatience. Listen to the chuff-chuff-chuff from the locomotive and tarattata-tarattata of the giant wheels. Press your face against the dust-streaked window, inhale the smells of coal smoke and old textiles, watch the landscape whoosh past as you leave the familiar behind and journey into the unknown. But be careful: you can’t know the train’s real destination, nor your fellow travellers’ intentions. Once you’ve closed that door behind you and the wheels start rolling, you may not be able to get out.
The ebook is available for pre-order from Amazon at the special offer price of 99 cents until 31 January 2023. (After that date, the price will go up.) https://mybook.to/Train.
The paperback edition will be available soon.
8 comments:
Those are some terrible events to experience.
The idea of being paralysed scares me so much, being trapped within your body and your mind, unable to move or communicate. I guess people, myself included, like reading horror stories as an attempt to purge these fears.
Anyway, looking forward to getting scared by some train tales.
God knows how much I hate to experience sleep paralysis. For me, it doesn’t take long to wake up but it is a cycle that continues since I keep going back to sleep and forcing myself to wake up after sensing the paralysis. As a kid, there were a few times when it was bothering me to the point that I even refused to sleep until the morning.
That murder on the railway is the cold terrifying reality of life, it's terrible. I shelter in literature and film to stay sane. The idea of an alive past attracts me, especially one that takes place in Ancient Rome - I will add Ring of Time to my reading list.
I love time travel books. I'll be adding Ring of Time to my list also.
Wow that train experience is grim. I really hope they caught the culprit. Say one thing about the French, say they do violence with a touch of originality.
I enjoyed writing Ring of Time. I was able to visit a couple of places where the stories occurred, and even to meet - in a sense - two of the characters; Eudaimon, whose mummy is in the Louvre, and Lovernios, who rests in the British Museum. And it was fun imagining how a person from the future would find life in the ancient past. Two physicists were kind enough to help me with a few details, although they didn't always agree.
Sometimes, I also can't help but wonder about the history of some places. I'm curious to know what the place is all about initially before evolving to what we know now. Some can be hospitals, and jails, just like what you mentioned. Aside from it being interesting, its kinda creepy to think that there was something before the present, especially if the past is something haunting.
I also experience the sleep paralysis phenomenon often. It was something really terrifying, especially if you're conscious and mentally awake but something prohibits you to move your body. Fortunately, my sleep paralysis moments don't come with a ghost or entity beside me. Still, I just pray to wake up and that usually works.
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