So, in the absence of influential friends in high places, desirable / attractive genetics, oh, and yes, talent, I have decided to blow a raspberry at the publishing industry and just write and produce material that I think is of good quality, and will appeal to the particular genre that I am writing within.
I am not big on selling myself to prospective publishers, and I no longer care what book publishers think of my work. I have read enough rubbish that masquerades as published fiction of late to know that my material can go toe to toe with the best of them. I am specifically referring to ghost fiction.
When was the last time you read a good ghost story? I can name a few, and that is about all. Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House still sticks in my mind, as does Henry James' The Turn of the Screw , and really nothing much else.
In my novel In the Company of Ghosts, I deliberately attempted to create a scary story. I wanted to unnerve the reader, and make them feel queasy with dread. I say "attempted" because I really don't think I succeeded terribly well. One thing I discovered is that it is not easy to write stuff that actually scares you. Henry James' novel probably comes closest, but even that story has few intense moments of genuine eeriness. I wanted to make the reader really feel uncomfortable reading this book, and by that I mean unsettling, because to be unsettled in a good book can be a wonderful experience.
I think it has is scary moments, but I admit, it falls short (like just about every other ghost story) in the scare factor.

Hey, but I could be wrong.
I certainly would love to hear what you think of it.