A formatting test for The Bodmin Horror
A test to see how this platform handles formatting. It doesn't seem to do very well with paragraphs. How many words can one post handle? A hundred? A thousand? Hopefully more? Don't know. Now I do, 3442. Serviceable, but with over a million words to communicate over five books, it would take time—but, time well spent if it cheers just one person's day. Is there an audience? Don't know, If nobody enjoys it, nothing lost and I will continue to do so.
The first story is set in and about the village of Bolventor, deep in the heart of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, UK. And yes, I've been there, it's a few hundred miles away from where I live, and anybody else who's been there will quickly realise, liberties have been taken with the town, which in reality is little more than a hamlet. The same applies to the moor itself, but, you know, this is fiction and I wanted to include several places of note, even if their geographical locations may have been stretched and played around with. It's fiction, shoot me (not really, that wouldn't work) Anyway, sins confessed, that's out of the way. If you don't live there, nor have ever been there—take it as read.
This first section is mainly exposition to introduce the location, so don't judge a book by its cover, lol.
Disclaimer: The opinions of the characters are their own and do not reflect my own personal views.
PART 1:
shadow in the sky
FOREWORD
BODMIN MOOR
Rolling landscapes scattered with granite outcrops, Bodmin Moor is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covering eighty square miles. During the Bronze Age Bodmin Moor was densely populated and numerous hut circles, sacred sites and giant tors can be seen. Bodmin Moor is the source of the river Fowey which rises near Brown Willy which at 1377 ft. is Cornwall's highest point. Slightly lower but dramatically rockier is Rough Tor: with its memorials to Charlotte Dymond (murdered in 1844) at the bottom, and the Wessex Regiment at the top. Most of the towns and villages are around the edges of the moor but Bolventor, a small hamlet in the middle, is the home of Jamaica Inn, used by Daphne du Maurier as the setting for her novel of the same name, and once owned by the novelist Alistair MacLean. Not far from Bolventor is Dozmary Pool, a lonely expanse of water high on the moor. Here legend would have you believe is the resting place of King Arthur's sword Excalibur.
There had been people living on and around the moor for four thousand years; farming and living off the land, and in that time, it had been the scene of many strange happenings. The local folk claimed the moor was haunted; that the ghosts left their Neolithic burial chambers by night to wander eternally through the thickly wooded valleys that once existed there.
A legend of a great beast that preyed on sheep and cattle grew over time, glimpsed occasionally by the locals and visitors alike. Many attempts were made to ascertain the truth of this matter, but all ending in failure. As with all mysteries of this kind those that believed—believed fervently, while cynics rejected the notion with equal ferocity.
It is a haunted, barren landscape that, through the years, has engendered fear and awe, but also proved inspirational for writers, poets and artists. It has generated folklore and legend, fact often mingling with fiction to chill many a visitor’s spine. It is a place of melancholy and bleak danger. A solid path can become a bog without warning and draw the unwary to a terrible death; sucked in a moment beneath the peaty mud that lies in wait.
There are many bizarre and wonderful sights on the moor, many dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Stone circles and stone rows, as well as many natural sculptures in the shape of rocky tors. Mystery and intrigue wrapped itself around the moor like the mists that often shrouded it, but all in all life on the moor continued uninterrupted.
What was destined to be recorded in the annals of history as: The Bodmin Incident, began on the sixteenth of September 1962, when the sedate village of Bolventor went quietly about its business. That was the day when the first lights were seen flashing across Bodmin moor.
The first story is set in and about the village of Bolventor, deep in the heart of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, UK. And yes, I've been there, it's a few hundred miles away from where I live, and anybody else who's been there will quickly realise, liberties have been taken with the town, which in reality is little more than a hamlet. The same applies to the moor itself, but, you know, this is fiction and I wanted to include several places of note, even if their geographical locations may have been stretched and played around with. It's fiction, shoot me (not really, that wouldn't work) Anyway, sins confessed, that's out of the way. If you don't live there, nor have ever been there—take it as read.
This first section is mainly exposition to introduce the location, so don't judge a book by its cover, lol.
Disclaimer: The opinions of the characters are their own and do not reflect my own personal views.
PART 1:
shadow in the sky
FOREWORD
BODMIN MOOR
Rolling landscapes scattered with granite outcrops, Bodmin Moor is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covering eighty square miles. During the Bronze Age Bodmin Moor was densely populated and numerous hut circles, sacred sites and giant tors can be seen. Bodmin Moor is the source of the river Fowey which rises near Brown Willy which at 1377 ft. is Cornwall's highest point. Slightly lower but dramatically rockier is Rough Tor: with its memorials to Charlotte Dymond (murdered in 1844) at the bottom, and the Wessex Regiment at the top. Most of the towns and villages are around the edges of the moor but Bolventor, a small hamlet in the middle, is the home of Jamaica Inn, used by Daphne du Maurier as the setting for her novel of the same name, and once owned by the novelist Alistair MacLean. Not far from Bolventor is Dozmary Pool, a lonely expanse of water high on the moor. Here legend would have you believe is the resting place of King Arthur's sword Excalibur.
There had been people living on and around the moor for four thousand years; farming and living off the land, and in that time, it had been the scene of many strange happenings. The local folk claimed the moor was haunted; that the ghosts left their Neolithic burial chambers by night to wander eternally through the thickly wooded valleys that once existed there.
A legend of a great beast that preyed on sheep and cattle grew over time, glimpsed occasionally by the locals and visitors alike. Many attempts were made to ascertain the truth of this matter, but all ending in failure. As with all mysteries of this kind those that believed—believed fervently, while cynics rejected the notion with equal ferocity.
It is a haunted, barren landscape that, through the years, has engendered fear and awe, but also proved inspirational for writers, poets and artists. It has generated folklore and legend, fact often mingling with fiction to chill many a visitor’s spine. It is a place of melancholy and bleak danger. A solid path can become a bog without warning and draw the unwary to a terrible death; sucked in a moment beneath the peaty mud that lies in wait.
There are many bizarre and wonderful sights on the moor, many dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Stone circles and stone rows, as well as many natural sculptures in the shape of rocky tors. Mystery and intrigue wrapped itself around the moor like the mists that often shrouded it, but all in all life on the moor continued uninterrupted.
What was destined to be recorded in the annals of history as: The Bodmin Incident, began on the sixteenth of September 1962, when the sedate village of Bolventor went quietly about its business. That was the day when the first lights were seen flashing across Bodmin moor.
61-69, M
