Island Life - a Hebridean horror story - only $2.99

[williemeikle]

An archaeological expedition is intent on opening an old barrow on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides despite the reservations of the locals, who all know and fear the old stories. The scientists unleash a colony of murderous monsters from deep under the earth. As the released creatures swamp the island, slaughtering livestock and people alike, the humans must band together to combat it with few resources save their courage and wits.

"...brooding, misty Scottish atmosphere... Many fears come into play—agoraphobia, claustrophobia, acrophobia...solid prose commands attention through to the climax..." -- Garrett Peck; Issue #40 of Cemetery Dance Magazine.

"...reads like Stephen King writing a Lovecraft story, bringing King's level of descriptive prose to the supernatural creature..." -- Steve & Lesley Mazey; The Eternal Night

http://www.amazon.com/Island-Life-ebook/dp/B003CYKQY6

[williemeikle]

The main inspiration for Island Life came from Lovecraft's Deep Old Ones. Like some people are with spiders or creepy-crawlies, I am with pale things that lurk beneath. It stems from childhood nightmares and a mixture of Morlocks, Tolkein's goblins, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and HPL. Those all got mashed up in my mind and led to the creatures that rampage on a Hebridean island. "Island Life" seemed appropriate, in that it can refer both to the people who live and work there, and the monsters that are after them.

Quite often it’s hard to remember exactly where a tale came from, but with Island Life it is easy. It started in October 1988, on Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel. We were there for Tim Stevenson’s birthday, and we rented a lighthouse that was now a self-catering establishment.

We drank a lot of beer and sat up in the old light room well into the night. On the way down we scared ourselves stupid when we encountered the screaming banshee that inhabited the building. In the morning I discovered a burial mound outside, and a local legend of a nine-foot skeleton found there.

And that was that, for several years. I only started writing seriously three years later. I was struggling for an idea one day and looked through some photographs. There it was - a burial mound, with a lighthouse in the background. I had a “What if?” moment, and the novel was born.

[williemeikle]

All the threes

#3,333 Paid in Kindle Store
#33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Horror > Occult

[williemeikle]

Island Life has picked up some great reviews in its time... but to get reviewed in Asimov's was a real treat.

---Paul Di Filippo in Asimov's SF Magazine Reviewing Island Life---

A lonely island in the Scottish Hebrides, sparsely tenanted, is host to an archaeological expedition intent on opening an old barrow. But the scientists are not prepared for a surviving colony of murderous monsters led by a mad Atlantean priest named Calent. As the released creatures swamp the island, slaughtering livestock and people alike, the humans find themselves first trying to understand the threat, then combat it with few resources save their courage and wits. A female inkeeper named Anne, her grown daughter Meg, and a researcher named Duncan prove to be pivotal to meeting this threat. Meikle has an engaging, sturdy prose style. And his familiarity with the terrain and culture of his setting contributes to a lively tale, where the inevitable bloodshed has more of an old-fashioned Richard Matheson feel to it than a Stephen King texture.