Rufus Woodward's Blog

Happy to announce that our new book ‘The Ghost in the Hill’ is now available to download from the kindle store.  Take a look here. I hope you enjoy it.

There are haunted places. There are haunted books. There are haunted people. There are haunted friendships. Dark, uncanny, and fantastical, The Ghost in the Hill is a book of strange tales to keep you company through a long winter’s night.

Three friends come together to spend a evening sharing ghost stories around a fireplace. Each story reveals a secret, and a mystery they have been haunted by for a decade threatens to overwhelm them all completely.

A curious entry in an old diary seems to contain a message from the dead. What do you do? Close that chapter once and for all, and never look back again? Or follow where the message leads you, no matter how strange a place that might be?

Bookshops are usually such safe places. Not this one. A girl goes hunting for a book to read and ends up trapped in a strange world full of crows and were-witches, dog-boys, and a woman who looks just like Cyd Charisse.

Three new strange tales from the author of ‘The Old Maid‘, and ‘The Shorecliff Horror‘. Readers say:

“Fast become one of my favorite writers, especially for weird, literary suspense.”

“I don’t usually read ghost stories but the three stories in this collection were exceptionally good, atmospheric and very well written.”

“Creepy and atmospheric…this small volume is a good read and I’m definitely interested in following up with Woodward’s other weird/strange story collections.”

“I’d certainly read more of this author’s work.”

“The Old Maid … to me reads like Robert Aickman. The story isn’t horrific or scary but there is a palpable feeling of something being off.”

“Woodward has a deft hand at description, narrative, and character-sketching.”

“I very much enjoyed the beautiful writing style.”

“I can recommend anything written by this author.”

“Reminded me of Poe, in a more modern setting.”

“A very gifted author and I’m very happy to have stumbled across him.”

“His stories have a very literary, almost poetic feel.”[image error]

[image error]There are haunted places. There are haunted books. There are haunted people. There are haunted friendships.

Three new strange tales from the author of ‘The Old Maid‘, and ‘The Shorecliff Horror‘. Available now for preorder in advance of publication on 28th October.

The Book Cellar – “The old woman wasn’t very nice or anything, but she was only a book seller, so far as I knew. And nothing really bad could ever happen to you in a bookshop, could it?”

Eleanor’s Diary – “If I could just for a second feel that she was here with me, I think I’d take it. No matter how delusional, no matter how crazy I’d have to be to feel that way, I think it would be worth it. Maybe you shouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to lose that feeling? Maybe a little bit of delusion is what we need sometimes?”

The Ghost in the Hill – “All I’m saying is that I need to find the best story I can. I need to find it quickly, and I need to tell it as well as I can. Everything depends upon that. Everything.”

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There are haunted places. There are haunted books. There are haunted people. There are haunted friendships.

Three new strange tales coming soon from the author of ‘The Old Maid‘, and ‘The Shorecliff Horror‘.

The Book Cellar –  “The old woman wasn’t very nice or anything, but she was only a book seller, so far as I knew. And nothing really bad could ever happen to you in a bookshop, could it?”

Eleanor’s Diary – “If I could just for a second feel that she was here with me, I think I’d take it. No matter how delusional, no matter how crazy I’d have to be to feel that way, I think it would be worth it.  Maybe you shouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to lose that feeling? Maybe a little bit of delusion is what we need sometimes?”

The Ghost in the Hill –  “All I’m saying is that I need to find the best story I can. I need to find it quickly, and I need to tell it as well as I can. Everything depends upon that. Everything.”

“The minister here wears a wig the colour of thunderstorms, as dark as his eyes, as bright as his smile.”

We have a new flash fiction piece published today in the October 16 issue of Ink in Thirds.

Take a look and download it here for free.

Thanks for reading.

Time for a quick run down of flash fiction pieces we’ve had published over the past year or so.

Thanks for reading.

The Minister’s Wig – look out for this forthcoming in the October issue of Ink in Thirds

The Smile – published by the Flash Fiction Press

Daisy Chains – published by Fiction on the web

The Great Detective – published by Short-story me

Suspicion – published by Flash Fiction Magazine

Listening – published by The Drabble

Cornerstone – published by Wolf Publishing

Taking more – published by The Drabble

Lighting up the night – published by Wolf Publishing

“For months I only really went home to sleep. Some nights not even for that.”

We have a new flash fiction piece from Rufus Woodward published today over at The Flash Fiction Press.

Read it here for free.

Thanks for reading.

” I wondered how many miracles we would have needed. I wondered how many chances we missed.”

A new flash fiction from Rufus Woodward is published this week over at Fiction on the Web.

Read it here for free.

Thanks for reading.

“He is such a difficult man to say no to sometimes. He has an oddly persuasive manner about him. You find yourself agreeing to the oddest things.”

A new flash fiction from Rufus Woodward is published now over at short-story.me.

Read it here for free.

Thanks for reading.

The Old Maid and Other Stories.

Three weird tales by Rufus Woodwardavailable to read nowatAmazon,Smashwords,ibooks,orBarnes and Noble

Three short stories of ghosts and witches, of sibling rivalry and desperate longings, of the weight of time passing and the strange unsettling things that lurk on cliff tops and in sand dunes.

The Old Maid

“I was trying to help you,” she says. “You really shouldn’t talk to me like that.”

“Fine by me,” snaps Charlotte. “Whatever makes you think I want to talk t...

The Shorecliff Horror and Other Stories.

Three new weird tales by Rufus Woodward available now to read for freeat Smashwords, iBooks, or Barnes and Noble.

Three tales of loneliness and lost love, of impossible people and the weird creatures that live in forgotten places.

The Shorecliff Horror

I first moved into Shorecliff House on a bright, warm morning in early April. When I moved out again in the November of that same year, there were clouds gathering on the horizon and an icy wind threate...