The Ghost Station

I have always found the London Underground fascinating, the deep tunnels, the map that isn't really a map but a diagram, the Labyrinth Art designs which all London Underground stations possess. Above is an underground poem I rediscovered in my great clear out at the end of 2018. Below are a couple of my own London Underground inspired designs.

Ignorance and Want

 

Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' has long been one of my favourite stories. One of the most stirring parts of the tale is the appearance of Ignorance and Want beneath the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present. 'A Christmas Carol' is relevant and poignant every year, it has helped make me a more generous person and generosity always seem to be something we could do more of along with love, kindness, patience, compassion, forgiveness, peace ...

 

The Need Fairy

I first thought of the basic story of the Need Fairy in the late 1990s when I got married, moved into my house and was hoping for a baby. I was so busy being a working mum in the noughties and also running my SubVerse poetry group, that it was ten years before I sat down and wrote it out as a proper story. It now exists in the real world as an ALF Book and on my Wattpad channel as one of my serial short stories.

The Need Fairy by LJ Finnigan
Tony and Cleo are happy in their new home, but the more they settle in, the more Cleo senses another presence in the house, one that is neither happy nor settled.

Christmas Day
As Cleo and Tony enjoy their Christmas dinner in their new house, the house's spirit reminds them of its presence.

New Year's Day
As Tony works in his home office Cleo ventures into the attic and begins to unearth the house's hidden treasures.

Valentine's Day
Cleo introduces the elaborate idea of the house possessing a Need Fairy to a bemused Tony.

Ash Wednesday
Cleo discovers a little of the house's gruesome history and the house spirit begins to find its voice.

Mother's Day
Cleo finds the true value of the attic treasures when she visits the local antique shop.

Palm Sunday
Cleo and Tony both experience tangible encounters with the house spirit when they both venture into the attic.

Easter Day
The Need Fairy visits Cleo in the middle of the night with a promise of love for the future.

Christmas Eve
The spirit of the Need Fairy is alive and well and living in the nursery.

Underground

'Underground' was one of my forgotten stories from the 1990s. I went back to it in 2016 as I thought it was written in just the right format that would suit WattPad. It takes place over two weeks and each day on the daily commute surreal experiences push the narrator to the edge of her sanity driving her into an alternative reality. It has been one of my more popular stories on WattPad. You can read my story here.

Ghost Writing

 

Ghost Writing has been a work in progress for a number of years now. I wrote this summary at the beginning of the project.

Summary

An ordinary wife and mother is inspired to write ghost stories by the appearance of a mysterious man. Through various artefacts she gradually gets to know this mysterious man and starts to think of him as her creative daemon. As this supernatural relationship flourishes so does her writing success. The story culminates in her winning a prestigious award and being taken on holiday by her unimaginative husband. Only then is the true connection between her recent creative success, her daemon lover and her husband finally revealed.

The action takes place over the time period of a year and a day, where the haunted objects grow in size and influence. This is how the ghost story progresses.

January - The locket
February - The clock
March - The photograph
April - The letter
May - The book
June - The mask
July - The painting
August - The mirror
September - The door
October - The room
November - The garden
December - The house
January 1st - The village

And this is the beginning of Chapter One.

January - The Locket

'It's so sad Cushing's Curiousity shop is closing,' said Maggie. She was sitting in Comfy Coffee, drinking a cappucino with her best friend Lizzie.

'Yes, it is,' Lizzie agreed, 'Let's go and have look round while we still have the chance. We might unearth something intriguing.'

They quickly drank up, crossed the road and entered the shop. Maggie looked at the larger objects; chairs, tables, bookases, while Lizzie's attention was drawn to a cabinet full of knick knacks; old jewellery, photographs. In particular her gaze was drawn to an ornate golden locket.

It glistened enticingly at her until she gave in and bought it.

At home, wtih the help of Photo Shop and Publisher, she created two tiny photogaphs to fit in the locket. A picture of her husband on one side and her children on the other.

She put the locket round her neck, it felt comforting and over the next few days she looked at it often.

As the days wore on Lizzie could have sworn the images inside the locket were sublty changing...

     

London Walks: a ghost walk

One of the highlights of my 2012 visit to Edinburgh was the ghost walk. Edinburgh is a great place for a ghost walk, an old Scottish-Gothic city with a murky past of fake witchcraft, over drinking and English nastiness. Cardiff in 2013 was too new for a ghost walk, but there is still enough of the old city of London to make for a substantial ghost walking experience. My ghost walk was a birthday treat on a misty chilly evening in November.

We started at Bank Station. I know from experience that Bank-Monument tube station is a tangled maze, so I was quite careful to get the exact exit to meet up with our guide and fellow ghost-walkers; the guide was an articulate English lady in a flowery hat. After the rules of the walk were explained to us we ventured out into the modern city. Most people on the walk were tourists and there was a little explanation of traffic protocol, in particular zebra crossings, before we proceeded into the shadowy alleyways of the City of London.

   

There are many old churches in the city, our guide pointed out one which had been bombed out during the blitz leaving it a particularly eerie looking sight on a moonlit, late autumnal night. We often found ourselves walking in the footsteps of Ebenezer Scrooge, down the alleyways of old London and within the earshot of the church bells that heralded the arrival of Scrooge's three redemptive spirits. The whole atmosphere and lighting of our walk did invite ghostly imaginings of half seen reflections and illusions, of odd shapes and figures.

There was talk of supernatural dramas and Harry Potter films around Leadenhall Market and our walk ended in the shadow of the Guild Hall. The London ghost walk was not as creepy as the Edinburgh ghost walk, but I'm glad we did it, maybe the Jack the Ripper walk would have proved more chilling.

The Need Fairy

I came up with the story of the Need Fairy when I had just moved into my house, before Amy was born. It wasn't until over ten years later that I had the time to work the idea into a proper story. Amy did the pictures for the story one wet Autumnal afternoon and I made a small book out of the illustrated story which we sell on our craft stall.

I have now added The Need Fairy to my Wattpad account, it is divided into eight parts, as it is in the story book; Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, Ash Wednesday, Mother's Day, Palm Sunday, Easter Day and Christmas Eve. You can find the story here.