The inspiration behind my latest novel White Stones came from an elusive piece of classical music which laid the foundations to the creation of a haunting love story.
In the early 1970s, I lived in a large Georgian mansion perched high on the Cotswolds. It was an isolated, wind-swept location with magnificent views. The house wasn’t spooky but there was a certain “atmosphere” about the place, especially when there alone, which was rare. We had two pianos: a full-size grand in the dining room, and an upright in the children’s dayroom; neither of which I could play, I didn’t know how to.
Conversations often revolved around a particular houseguest some years before who had frequently complained of being disturbed during the night by someone playing the piano, not that anyone else heard it. This occurred so often, after a while the guest refused to stay in the house. During my time there, I never heard anyone play either piano, day or night! The story intrigued me, and we often discussed what the cause might have been, no explanation ever being found.
I had forgotten the story until some 20 years ago when I heard a piece of classical music I hadn’t heard before; a beautiful tune I couldn’t get out of my head, but I had no idea what it was called or who the composer was. This was back in the days before the internet so finding out was exceedingly difficult. During my search, the seeds to a novel were sown, my mind being cast back to the story about the piano-hearing houseguest.
I’ve always had a fascination with the supernatural, not that I believe in ghosts as such as I believe all paranormal activity has a rational answer. Most can be easily explained; for the remainder, it’s more a case that the right explanation hasn’t been found yet. But, like many of us, I can’t resist a good, old-fashioned ghost story – it’s just when I hear them, I’m always searching for reasons using science and logic.
It was a simple step to merge both the house and the music, and thus White Stones grew into the story of a perceived haunting, mysterious music and a frantic search to find the source and the composer, and along the way create Filton Shields, an Unexplained Phenomena Investigator who is already on the hunt for his next case.
White Stones is available in various e-formats and in paperback
Paperback copies of White Stones are also available direct from me. Click here to be taken to my purchase page.
KIT DOMINO'S WORLD 