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Bottle
1977. Two 12 year old schoolboys break into a derelict vicarage and find a mysterious ancient bottle. The more determined of the two, Melly, insists on taking the bottle home. Later that night the bottle glows and Melly feels compelled to drink from it. What follows is a tale of hair raising horror as Melly's friend Skinny battles to save his life from the strange forces that have engulfed him.
I had a top agent for children's fiction back in the seventies and he gave a copy to an 8 year old son of a friend. Big mistake as the book is aimed at 10 to 12 year olds and not surprisingly it terrified the life out of the boy giving him nightmares for weeks. The book was not published even though I did have offers but the offers I got would have meant making the book into something it wasn't designed for.
I had a top agent for children's fiction back in the seventies and he gave a copy to an 8 year old son of a friend. Big mistake as the book is aimed at 10 to 12 year olds and not surprisingly it terrified the life out of the boy giving him nightmares for weeks. The book was not published even though I did have offers but the offers I got would have meant making the book into something it wasn't designed for.
247 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
4 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
About the author
R.I. Heslop
16 books8 followersI have three sons, one daughter, two grandchildren and have been married for 49 years to my wife Sylvia. I am 70 years old, a retired high school teacher of English, Drama and Special Needs, and have been writing off and on for as long as I can remember. Amazon and Kindle are leading the way for authors like myself to at last gain recognition.
Back in the seventies I wrote a horror novel for children 11 to 12 years old. This came about because I wanted something that would work as a class reader when I was Head of English at my previous school. I even managed to get myself one of the leading children's agents of the time but the offers I got for the book would have meant me destroying the best of the book in order to make it fit into a series already conceived. I wasn't prepared to do this.
I have tried over the years to become published but have become disheartened by rejections. Globe came about because a dear friend of mine got me started writing again when he came up with the idea of a molecular computer. It was entered into a competition, didn't win but got enough plaudits to get an offer to publish. We naturally took this up but the book never got any publicity and later the publisher went bust.
My old school, Walbottle High School, in the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, always puts on a musical as the main production every summer. I helped to produce a number of them but the best one was in 1997 when I wrote the book, music and lyrics for my musical Ghostwalk. It is a rock and roll musical set in an American high school, circa 1955. It is loosely based on my favourite play, Hamlet, by the greatest writer who ever lived - William Shakespeare - and also refers in some of the events and names to my other hero, Elvis, the greatest singer who ever lived.
I have published a romance, Annie's Guest, on the Kindle. Set in Vermont in one of the worst winter storms for years it is the story of lonely Annie whose life is disrupted by the sudden appearance of a strange young man.
Since about 1997 I have been writing sonnets for my wife on the following occasions: Christmas, Valentine's Day, her birthday and our wedding anniversary. I've written close on fifty and the first batch called Sylvia’s Sonnets is now available on the Kindle.
My friend Jim and I are now working on a series of seven books called The Seven Runes. The first one, The Alchemist’s Daughter, is now available on the Kindle. The second one, Knights of the Wyrm, should be available later in the year.
My latest book was produced in instalments and is now available on the Kindle as one full length book. It is called Growing Pains of a Teenage Werewolf: Michaelmas 9 and features two very handsome and beautiful teenagers who are very clever but who are also much more than they seem.
Back in the seventies I wrote a horror novel for children 11 to 12 years old. This came about because I wanted something that would work as a class reader when I was Head of English at my previous school. I even managed to get myself one of the leading children's agents of the time but the offers I got for the book would have meant me destroying the best of the book in order to make it fit into a series already conceived. I wasn't prepared to do this.
I have tried over the years to become published but have become disheartened by rejections. Globe came about because a dear friend of mine got me started writing again when he came up with the idea of a molecular computer. It was entered into a competition, didn't win but got enough plaudits to get an offer to publish. We naturally took this up but the book never got any publicity and later the publisher went bust.
My old school, Walbottle High School, in the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, always puts on a musical as the main production every summer. I helped to produce a number of them but the best one was in 1997 when I wrote the book, music and lyrics for my musical Ghostwalk. It is a rock and roll musical set in an American high school, circa 1955. It is loosely based on my favourite play, Hamlet, by the greatest writer who ever lived - William Shakespeare - and also refers in some of the events and names to my other hero, Elvis, the greatest singer who ever lived.
I have published a romance, Annie's Guest, on the Kindle. Set in Vermont in one of the worst winter storms for years it is the story of lonely Annie whose life is disrupted by the sudden appearance of a strange young man.
Since about 1997 I have been writing sonnets for my wife on the following occasions: Christmas, Valentine's Day, her birthday and our wedding anniversary. I've written close on fifty and the first batch called Sylvia’s Sonnets is now available on the Kindle.
My friend Jim and I are now working on a series of seven books called The Seven Runes. The first one, The Alchemist’s Daughter, is now available on the Kindle. The second one, Knights of the Wyrm, should be available later in the year.
My latest book was produced in instalments and is now available on the Kindle as one full length book. It is called Growing Pains of a Teenage Werewolf: Michaelmas 9 and features two very handsome and beautiful teenagers who are very clever but who are also much more than they seem.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 2, 2018
***I won this book via the Goodreads Giveaway program. This has not influenced my review.***
This is a quick read, which was a good thing. Because this book is not very good.
The storyline is ok, but not unique. The real problem was with the writing and the editing. Bot main characters had given names and nicknames. The author chose to use those names interchangeably within the first few pages of the book. I had to keep going back to figure out which boy was which name and which nickname. This continued throughout the book. The use of both the given names and the nicknames was inconsistent, which also led to my confusion. There are punctuation errors on nearly every page, in addition to quite a few formatting issues.
There are better horror books out there to read.
This is a quick read, which was a good thing. Because this book is not very good.
The storyline is ok, but not unique. The real problem was with the writing and the editing. Bot main characters had given names and nicknames. The author chose to use those names interchangeably within the first few pages of the book. I had to keep going back to figure out which boy was which name and which nickname. This continued throughout the book. The use of both the given names and the nicknames was inconsistent, which also led to my confusion. There are punctuation errors on nearly every page, in addition to quite a few formatting issues.
There are better horror books out there to read.
June 4, 2018
I intended to give the author a bit of a slide and give this 2 stars as I found the story cute, but when I realized the author was a retired English teacher I found it impossible. Every English teacher's mantra is "Edit, Edit, and Edit again" but the typos and other editing issues needs to be corrected before I could recommend this story to anyone.
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November 12, 2021
Once I got past the odd way of the characters speaking to each other, this really was an enjoyable read. I always love anything to do with abandoned buildings or structures. GREAT read if you want a trip on the wild side. :)
August 16, 2018
Not a very unique or original storyline. Seemed as though not a lot of thought had been put in it. Loads of flip-flopping between names. For me this book was a flop.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews