The House Demon

Sing Sorrow Sorrow Edited by Gwen Davies My story 'The House Demon' is published in this anthology of gothic tales. Sing Sorrow Sorrow is 'a chilling collection of supernatural myth and otherworldly horror stories from some of Wales’ most exciting new and established authors.'

Available at Waterstone's and other bookstores. Also online from Seren Books (more info)

Pantybeddau - before the trouble started 'The House Demon' is the story of a demon of the hearth, a hobgoblin who moves from Russia to Wales with his newly-married mistress. I'd had the idea in mind for years, prompted by an incident in Gorky's My Childhood and something I overheard in a history lesson. Some time ago I wrote a very short story with the same title for the-phone-book.com. The commission to write 'something gothic' came at a difficult time: my dear husband, Mike, was ill and before long we knew he had mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the lining of the lungs. I gave up my job teaching at the University of Glamorgan and when Mike slept, I tried to work. We kept ourselves laughing and there's dark humour here, but when I read this story now I feel how I put into it much of my furious grief and loss.  It's close to home in another way too: the location is our house in West Wales, the name of which is Pantybeddau. I didn't use that in the story.

	'Relentless winters, dark and damp. The husband promised his wife he’d build her a conservatory where she could sit and sew in good light, for here it snowed only once every three years and then it lay bright for no more than a week. The children threw snowballs and made snow men and the youngest daughter cried when their stone eyes fell out in the warmth of midday. The demon risked the back garden at twilight to press them back into their icy sockets.'
I used to pass this dirty little gnome every day on my way to the shed to get feed for the chickens. We found him under a hedge. At one time he featured in the story, but as I written too many words for the brief, and had to cut out a more-or-less self-contained episode. This is part of that extract: 'Near the shed he stopped at the sight of a little man in a pointy hat, sitting in the snow with his sleeves rolled up. Abashed, the house demon smoothed his tangled beard, tried to cover the loose buttons on his jacket, coughed and said, politely, "Cold enough for you?" But when the little man just stared and said nothing, the house demon, suddenly furious, leapt up and punched him. The little man fell over at once and lay unblinking in the snow. Oh my, thought the house demon, sitting him up again. He’s frozen, frozen solid. This is what happens to those who are left outside.'

The anthology was launched in time for Hallowe'en, 2010, with events in Cardiff Waterstone's, Aberystwyth, Swansea and Caernarvon. I went to the Cardiff Waterstone's launch, without my husband, who died in April. I raised a shaky glass to Mike before I began reading my brief extract, and thank my friends and everyone else who also drank to him.

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