Paul Kane’s “The Whistling” in Midnight Oil

I asked fellow Midnight Oil anthology contributors to share some things about themselves prior to publication and those generous enough to do so will be appearing here for the next week or so.

Each entry gives a taste of their contribution, a little about them, how to contact them, how their story came about, and definitely a link to Midnight Oil (which you should purchase because it would make each and every one of us happy.
you do want to make us happy, don’t you?
i mean, considering what we wrote, you want us to know you’re a good person, right?).

And now, Paul Kane’s The Whistling:

“We were all three of us hit by a blast of something, as if a huge maw had opened – the mouth of a vast pit – and unleashed its fetid breath. It was accompanied by a loud crack of thunder and lightning from outside, at least I think that’s where it was coming from.
“We were driven back and half-fell, half-stumbled down the staircase. Back onto the lower level of the house. It wasn’t much more pleasant down there, the noise stalking us and the walls and floors shaking accordingly. It felt like an earthquake was going to tear the entire building apart…”

How the story came about:
After writing ‘The Grey Room’ for the collection Dark Reflections (Black Beacon Books), and ‘Laurel House’ for The Roads Less Travelled (Crossroad Press), I was chomping at the bit to get stuck into another of my modern takes on William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, investigator of the supernatural. This time around I took my inspiration from ‘The Whistling Room’, updating it and telling it – as always – via Carnacki’s friend and chronicler, Dodge.
It involves Tom looking into a strange whistling sound at an ordinary house that one man is fixing up for his intended bride. Expect paranormal activity, jeopardy, and a whole lot of spooky shenanigans, as the extract suggests! I really hope people enjoy it, and then maybe go off and seek out the original in the collection Carnacki, The Ghost Finder.
As well as my site, you can find me on Facebook, X (@PaulKaneShadow), Instagram (@paul.kane.376) and Bluesky (@paulkane.bsky.social)

About Paul Kane: Paul Kane is the award-winning (including the British Fantasy Society’s Legends of FantasyCon Award 2022), bestselling author and editor of over a hundred and sixty books – such as the Arrowhead trilogy (gathered together in the sellout Hooded Man omnibus, revolving around a post-apocalyptic version of Robin Hood), The Butterfly Man and Other Stories, Hellbound Hearts, Wonderland (a Shirley Jackson Award finalist) and Pain Cages (an Amazon #1 bestseller). His non-fiction books include The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy and Voices in the Dark, and his genre journalism has appeared in the likes of SFX, Rue Morgue and DeathRay. He has been a Guest at many conventions as well as being a panellist at FantasyCon and the World Fantasy Convention, and a fiction judge at the Sci-Fi London festival. A former British Fantasy Society Special Publications Editor, he has also served as co-chair for the UK chapter of The Horror Writers Association and co-chaired ChillerCon UK in May 2022. His work has been optioned and adapted for the big and small screen, including for US network primetime television, and his novelette ‘Men of the Cloth’ was turned into a feature by Loose Canon/Hydra Films, starring Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, You’re Next): Sacrifice, released by Epic Pictures/101 Films. Paul was also asked to pitch, along with a co-writer, for the remake of Hellraiser in the late 2010s. In 2023 HorrorCon screened a retrospective of his Film & TV adaptations, and interviewed Paul in front of the live audience. His audio work includes the full cast drama adaptation of The Hellbound Heart for Bafflegab, starring Tom Meeten (The Ghoul), Neve McIntosh (Doctor Who) and Alice Lowe (Prevenge), and the Robin of Sherwood adventure The Red Lord for Spiteful Puppet/ITV narrated by Ian Ogilvy (Return of the Saint), plus his plays have been performed at FantasyCon and by Hideout Theatre in London. He has also contributed to the Warhammer 40k universe for Games Workshop and has been asked to pitch on projects for both DC/Warner Bros. and Marvel. Paul’s latest novels are Lunar (set to be turned into a feature film), the YA story The Rainbow Man (as PB Kane), the sequels to RED – Blood RED & Deep RED, all collected in an omnibus edition – the award-winning hit Sherlock Holmes & the Servants of Hell, Before (an Amazon Top 5 dark fantasy bestseller), Arcana and The Storm. In addition he writes thrillers for HQ/HarperCollins as PL Kane, the first of which, Her Last Secret and Her Husband’s Grave (a sellout on Waterstones.com and at The Works) came out in 2020, with The Family Lie released the following year (all three novels were Amazon sellouts). His books have been translated into many languages, including French, German, Spanish, Ukrainian, Turkish, Czech, Bulgarian and Polish. Paul lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife Marie O’Regan. Find out more at his site www.shadow-writer.co.uk which has featured Guest Writers such as Stephen King, Charlaine Harris, Robert Kirkman, Catriona Ward, Dean Koontz, Olivie Blake and Guillermo del Toro.

See all Midnight Oil stories here.

And for our finale, a teaser to the anthology