On 16 August 2026, author E.L. Ravenheart stepped into the flickering candlelight of Tony Riches' renowned blog, The Writing Desk, as a special guest. In her feature, she invites readers behind the veil of her latest collection — into the wind-scoured lanes, haunted hills, and ancestral echoes that shaped The Shadow Keeper: Gothic Haunting Tales from Somerset.
Writing in her signature dark, atmospheric voice, Ravenheart traces the first stirrings of the book back to nights on the Somerset moors, where ragged clouds crawl over the sky and the land itself seems to remember old bargains. She speaks of lonely farm tracks, ruined chapels, and ancient standing stones that watch with a patient, unblinking gaze — the kind of places where a modern traveller might feel an inexplicable shiver of being seen, or summoned.
She also shares how the collection was born from the meeting of two story-worlds: the Chippewa (Ojibwe) tales and teachings that shaped her understanding of spirits, memory, and responsibility, and the brooding British gothic traditions threaded through Somerset's folklore — weaving these influences together with care and respect, allowing each mythic current to speak in its own voice.
For readers drawn to fog-draped graveyards, candlelit rooms, and stories where the dead do not always stay politely silent, her guest post offers a lingering taste of the world inside The Shadow Keeper — and an invitation to walk a little further into the dark.
Read the full guest post on The Writing Desk | Order The Shadow Keeper | Get the free PDF edition