supernatural

Too Close To The Sun – republished

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My short-story and poetry collection ‘Too Close To The Sun’ is once again available to buy from Amazon in its new hardcover edition – but now with a brand new cover, and including a never before published short-story called ‘Nora’.

The stories and poems within ‘Too Close To The Sun’ represent a shift, as well as an experimentation phase, in my journey as a writer and an author. When it was first published in 2016, I knew that ‘Too Close to the Sun’, was somewhat of a new beginning and a new direction for me – and the stories and poems within are symbolic of what kind of writer and storyteller I have grown to become, and what kind of stories I am interested in telling.

“A sad story about the end of the line for a lonely ghost girl. The thrilling tale about the devilish gift of a psychic psychopathic psychotherapist. A word of warning about the wicked “Witch in The Well”. A ray of hope in form of a story about a New York City bartender who discovers that there is more to life, and to death, than they could ever have imagined. A vision of another universe where a vengeful Vampire King finds love, but who must also embrace his fate. The tale of a dragon and a hero – who both discover they are not who they think they are.

Short-stories and poems of strange, magical, and extraordinary other realities that exist on the other side of doors that lead to other worlds and possibilities that can be found when you venture too close to the sun.”

Get your copy of the brand new hardback version of ‘Too Close To The Sun’ on Amazon now! 😎

‘The Angel’s Halo’ (2016) – The Complete Short Story

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In this episode, Mark recites the complete short story ‘The Angel’s Halo’ from his 2016 short-story/poetry collection “Too Close To The Sun”. The story tells the tale of Holly Harris: an imaginative young woman living and working in New York City, at a bar called “The Angel’s Halo,” who is looking for love, as well as dreaming of finding her purpose in life – not knowing that she has already been been chosen for something and will soon find out who and what she has always been meant to be. You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings (2022) – The Complete Audiobook

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The Complete Audiobook of Mark’s 2022 novel, ‘The Wolf In Us’. The sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’, in which the story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Chapter Seven: “The Last Werewolf” – part 1

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In this episode, Mark recites part 1 of Chapter Seven of his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’: “The Last Werewolf”. The sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

Happy Birthday to “The Wolf In Me”

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It’s been four years since my first novel “The Wolf In Me” was published! Wow! I can’t believe how time moves so fast! “The Wolf In Me” was my first book to feature my character Olivia Hunter, which I subsequently wrote a sequel to and got published via my great publisher Zeloo Media, in 2019 called “The Wolf In You”.

I consider both “The Wolf In Me” and “The Wolf In You” as Volume One and Volume Two in the extraordinary and supernatural story of Olivia Hunter and I still love and look back fondly on the journey of discovery that I took with the character of Olivia Hunter in both of those books.

Happy Birthday to “The Wolf In Me”! 😊🐺📖📚✒📝

My Poem “Scary Movies”

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As a child, I – like so many children do –
grew up watching so called
“scary movies”, “horror films”,
that truly scared me,
and I also watched thrilling
and occasionally comedic depictions
of fictional, supernatural and paranormal
events and characters
that made me jump, entertained me,
made my heart beat fast, made me smile,
and put me in a good mood…
films like ‘It’, ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’,
‘Jaws’, and ‘Alien’ initially effected me
on an emotional level –
however now I can appreciate
the “fright tactics” of the film-makers,
because what feeling they were
attempting to illicit in people
is what they succeeded in making
me feel quite profoundly…
I also watched such paranormal comedies,
like: ‘Ghostbusters’, ‘The Addams Family’,
‘The Munsters’, ‘Beetlejuice’ –
which were fun to watch,
enjoyable, and they did not
take their subject matter too seriously.

Even to this day, I still occasionally
watch scary movies –
and I would have to highlight
the films that take place in the
“Conjuring Universe”, that feature
fictional depictions of real-life
paranormal investigators
Ed and Lorraine Warren,
based upon documented
supernatural experiences
that occurred around the world,
as being some of the scariest,
the most thrilling, the most heart-racing,
and the most believable of any
and all of the scary movies
that I have seen recently
and the experiences that I had
of seeing them in a cinema
will forever stay with me.

If could pick just one
so called “scary movie”,
or a particular supernatural thriller,
that I believe is my favourite
of all that have been made,
I would have to choose
‘The Shining’, directed by Stanley Kubrick,
based upon the book of the same name
by the one and only “master of horror”,
Stephen King – because to me
‘The Shining’ is a masterpiece
of both storytelling and film-making
that entances you from the first
camera shot and from the first
note of music of the film’s soundtrack –
just as the original ‘Jaws’ does;
and, in my opinion, the ability
of movie-makers to be able to
take a viewer on a roller-coaster
ride of emotions, thoughts,
and feelings, while watching
something “otherworldly”,
by using all the magic of
movie-making at their disposal,
in a truly collaborative effort,
is what contributes to what makes
the most thrilling and the most scary
of thrilling and scary movies.

Happy Halloween! 🎃

Mark The Poet – The Podcast: Episode #66

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My Poem “Superstitious”

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Ghosts from the past are real…
real witches were once tried
and sentenced to death
all around the world…
myths and legends of individuals
capable of doing supernatural acts
have been recorded and they have
become a part of the history
of every civilization on Earth.

Superstitions were once taken
even more seriously than they are now
and over time most societies
have assimilated certain long-held believes
into their daily lives and they still
carry some meaning to them –
like not having a house on a street
with the number thirteen,
counting the number of starlings
that people see and interpreting their
number to mean that there
are invisible forces at work,
or hesitating at the possibility
of having to cross the path of a black cat.

Certain words, certain names,
certain numbers seemingly
have a natural weight
and a significance to them
that has only grown over time,
as more people continue to believe
that certain symbols and signs
are precursors to a particular
event transpiring.

Some of the things that happen
to people are considered to be too “spooky”
to be judged as being mere coincidence:
moments like when you are thinking
about someone in particular
and then the next minute that same
person is calling you on the telephone,
or that feeling of being at the exact
right place at the exact right time
to reap the rewards of a fortune,
or when you wish for something
to happen and seemingly,
remarkably, the thing that want
comes to pass and puts a smile on your face.

“Old Wives Tales” always have
a tried and tested ring of truth to them…
carrying out a particular routine
before committing yourself
to do something
has been known to be effective
in giving someone a sense
of peace of mind…
some people have hand-on-heart
admitted to have had near-death
experiences that cannot be explained…
some people will do anything
and everything not to step on a crack
on the side-walk, or step underneath a ladder,
or look a crow in the eye
for fear that the consequences
could be deadly and hazardous to their health.

Some people could not care less about
superstitions and refer to them
as “nonsense” and “rubbish” –
however, there are still many people
who believe all that they have
ever been told since they were young
who always carry out
the necessary customs
needed to counteract the “bad luck”
that may have been triggered,
and there are people who swear
by the validity of every word
of every superstition
that they have ever heard.

My Poem “Supernatural Obsession”

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The thing about the universe,
the thing about the world,
the thing about life,
the thing about death
and what happens after we die
is that we simply do not know
everything that is out there,
nor do we know what is going to happen next…
we don’t know why any of us are here,
nor do we know what real aliens look like,
or why some people are haunted by ghosts?
So much is known about the world –
however, so much about life is still unexplained…
so much has been explored
and so many questions have been answered –
and yet there still remains fundamental questions
about the nature of life and what awaits us all
in our after-life that are constantly being posed
within someone’s brain.
Heaven? Hell? Angels? Demons?
What world awaits us and who should we expect
to find on the other side when it is our time?
Is where we go next dependent upon
if we have lived a life in which
we have been cruel, or if we have been kind?
It is existential questions
that drive our souls as we live our lives…
it is questions of morality that define
the stories that we tell one-another
that are the content of what we dream about at night…
it is our fascination with questions of the incredible,
the impossible, the unbelievable, and the phenomenal
that will continue to always spark to life
humanity’s collective imagination…
there will always be characters
in paranormal stories and adventures,
like Sam and Dean, who will be our guides
and our storytellers of paranormal events
and experiences that will continue to fuel
our long-held supernatural obsessions.