There are houses like this all over the world. Most people only know of them from whispered stories over campfires; tall tales told to scare the unwary. But some, those who suffer, some know better. They are drawn to the places where what ails them can be eased.
If you have the will, the fortitude, you can peer into another life, where the dead are not gone, where you can see that they thrive and go on, in the dreams that stuff is made of.
There it is in a nutshell. There are houses where people can go to get in touch with their dead loved ones.
But this gives me lots of things to play with. To even get inside a room, you need a sigil; a tattoo or carving on your skin, and a totem, a memento of your loved one. Then there’s the fact that your loved one might be a parallel universe version rather than the one you actually know.
And where do these houses come from? What’s behind the walls? How do they work? Why do they work? And who chooses the concierges who run them? Or fixes them when they don’t work?
So I’ve got all that to play with, plus the fact that the houses can exist anywhere, at any time.
They’re like lots of boxy, multi-faceted Tardis, spread across space time, places and situations, just waiting for their stories to be told.
It’s building into what i think will be a uniquely Meikle mythos. Several of these houses have already been visited.
HOUSE 1: NEW YORK
When a New York cop is called to investigate a murder at one such house, he is sucked in to a world he cannot fathom, cannot control, a place where past and present have no meaning, and where symbols and memories are as valid as facts and truths.
The black bird is speaking, but can he afford to listen?
HOUSE 2: EASTERN NEWFOUNDLAND
In this one you’ll find a hurricane, a scrimshaw chess set, a derelict boatyard, beer, cigarettes, a Newfoundland fishing town, more beer, sigils, totems, a ouija board and an old whaler, going to rot…among other things.
HOUSE 3: ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND
SONGS OF DREAMING GODS is the story of a house. In this one you’ll find creepy china dolls, a haunted lavatory, some hippies, some large, nasty ratty things, a chess board, a reaper, some cops, the great beyond, the other great beyond, and a lot of singing.
HOUSE 4: SKYE, SCOTLAND
In this one there’s a lot of fish, some drums, some beer, a lot of whisky, dancing, some good weather, some bad weather, weird noises in the night and some Spaniards – among other things.
No limbs, no limbs, no head, no head, left arm gone, left leg gone, no legs, no head.
HOUSE 5: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
An Edinburgh Sigils house begins to experience problems and it’s up to the concierge to fix them…but which one first? The ghostless rooms upstairs, or the snuffling, pig-like noises rising up from the basement?
HOUSE 6: GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
A Scottish manor house looks like easy pickings for burglars… but this house has a secret, one it will not give up lightly…and only then to the right person.
HOUSE 7: LONDON, ENGLAND
It’s a London house, its 1967, and the Russians are coming.
The grey men of MI6 meet their match when the Russians find a new way of passing codes… beyond the veil of death, where even spies must tread carefully.
HOUSE 8: GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
A crossover novella combining the Sigils and Totems mythos with my Midnight Eye character. Derek Adams visits a Glasgow house, and begins an adventure into the great beyond…and the other great beyond.
There are more stories published, more houses to visit, and more doors yet to be knocked on. The following are available in Kindle and in paperback. See my Chapbook Collection for details.
- FARSIDE is a novelette and another Midnight Eye crossover
- BEYOND, SLAVES TO THE RHYTHM, BIRTHINGS and A SECRET CHORD are all chapbooks containing three short stories, three houses in each.
WILLIAM MEIKLE 
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