One evening many years ago and after a couple of buckets of wine, my friend Allie and I decided it would be fun to have a go at contacting the dead. Yes, I know. I’m always lecturing you about playing about with ouija boards and if we’d known then what we know now, we certainly wouldn’t have dabbled. In our slightly pickled state, giggling inanely, we set up the table thinking it was all a great joke. All went well at first. My darling Gran came through with a couple of messages. Pause for a bit more Rioja and back to the table hoping that Gran was still lurking around. But the next session didn’t go quite as planned. Instead of Gran’s benign presence, we were suddenly aware of some huge dark force appearing through the French windows. The room became icy cold and there was an overpowering sense of evil. We were terrified. Clutching hands we recited The Lord’s Prayer over and over again until the black mass dissipated. Instantly sober, our relief at having got rid of the thing was enormous and after a little while and much coffee, Allie drove home. I thought we’d had a lucky escape and it had gone back to whence it came, but the next morning I got a phone call.

“It’s me. Whatever that was it came back in the car with me and it’s still here.”

We hadn’t got rid of it; it had followed Allie home.

What to do? I immediately got in touch with a lovely old medium I knew, Mrs Butterfield, who was quite used to battling with the Dark and she sent it packing tout de suite.

However, having sent the Devil off with a flea in his ear, she then gave me a right bollocking for messing around with the occult. She explained that the better the spirit, the higher Astral plane they went to – rather like the rings in Dante’s Inferno. Conversely the real baddies got stuck in the lower planes or as she so succinctly put it, they were ‘stuck in the Astrals’ which sounded rather painful. She said that was the reason mediums had spirit guides to negotiate the badlands of the lower planes. When I asked how we’d managed to contact Gran originally, she told me that Gran must be a very strong spirit to be able to come through on her own but that it must have taken much of her strength. And then she threw me a real curve ball.

“If you want to talk to Gran, write to her.”

What?! How?!

And then she explained spirit writing. She told me to sit quietly, just rest the tip of the pen on paper and it would start to write. Well, I did think she’d gone a bit cuckoo but once I got home, feeling a bit silly, I did as she’d said. The pen started to move. At first it looked as if a spider had fallen in the inkwell and crawled over the paper, but then real letters began to form. It was as if someone had taken over control of the pen. Messages started to come through from Gran. At first I thought it was my imagination and my brain was somehow relaying things I remembered, but over time I realised I was getting actual information about the future as well as past memories.

As a medium, I use Tarot cards for my readings. I have been known to use the contact through hands or even a bit of psychometry, but if I need information for myself, I find spirit writing by far the most reliable way. But it seems there is more to it than just knowing what the future will bring.

When I wrote The Unintentional Medium I truly felt I had help, but I couldn’t be sure. After all, it was a series of memoires, of things that had happened to me, but The Dark at the Threshold was a completely different kettle of fish. Whenever I started to write, I didn’t have much of an idea of what was going to happen. Obviously, I had a broad outline in my head but as soon as I sat down at my computer, the story almost wrote itself.

This was wonderful, but there was a down side. Spirit liked to write in the middle of the night. I would be sound asleep when I would feel something tapping me on the shoulder.

“Wake up and write.”

“No. Go away.”

“Get up and write.”

“I’ll write in the morning. Promise.”

I’d pull the covers over my head and try to get back to sleep. Tap, tap, tap.

“Get up now and write.”

I have learnt over the years that there is no point in arguing with a determined spirit, so up I’d get and start writing. It was not until I’d finished a chapter that spirit was happy and I could go back to bed.

Since I finished the book, my nights have been relatively undisturbed. However, I’ve starting writing the sequel which is called The Long Tentacles of the Dark. So far, so good but I wonder how long it will be before I feel tap, tap, tap and hear the voice telling me to get up and write.