Tagged: Drabble

Greetings, children of the dark. This week, I’ve mainly been pondering my life and trying not to make it morose or morbid. On Tuesday, I was honoured to be asked to speak to a university MA class about being a jobbing writer, which had me reflecting on an almost-30 year career across two continents and way too many different companies. And then on Wednesday, the All Creatives Now podcast released its recent interview with me where I spoke about something very similar. I’m not used to all of this attention. It’s a bit odd, to be honest.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but this sort of reflection doesn’t tend to make me celebrate the wins—it’s more likely to make me lament the losses. And as I stood there, telling this university class about how I dreamed of being an author but was directed towards journalism so I could make a living, I started wondering about what might have been. What if I’d ignored the advice and stuck to my young guns? What if I’d tried, right out of school, to write books? And the truth is that I know I would’ve sucked. I had no life experience. I hadn’t lived. I had nothing to say: I came from a somewhat middle class suburban background, and hadn’t really fought for anything yet. Now, sitting in a different country and comfortably in my mid-40s, I feel more able to do it. I have learned a lot in 30 years of wandering the world of writing, and picked up a few tricks along the way. 

But I also need to work harder on recognising those wins. I need to recognise that I have things to teach, things to offer. That I’m not a bunch of tightly compartmentalised options; I am a singular, whole being with all the good and bad that entails. So, children of the dark, any advice on how I do that? 🤣

Enough of the therapy; let’s get to the point. (BTW, did you know I’m a coach and mentor to writers as well? Little plug there!)

This week’s TWF menu is kicked off by a not-very-nice character being not-very-nice—and it is delightful. It’s one for the geocachers out there, and it’s by Sabrina Fisher. That story is followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• Ariya Bandy’s dancing queen, 
• FM Scott’s musical mindbender, and 
• Don Money’s haunted hoodlum.

And finally, a shout-out to the lovely Nicole Eigener and Beverley Lee, a West Coast/UK duo who last week launched a book they co-wrote across the Pacific. A Conclave of Crimson combines both writers’ individual book worlds, and is an unapologetically queer vampire love story. It’s available now from here. Nicole and Beverley were guest speakers at my Writing the Occult: Vampires event back in October, and I’m so excited to see their combined work finally released to the wild.

Oh, and speaking of my Writing the Occult events, we’ve announced the speaker list for the next one. Our look at the fae on 6 April will not only consider the fairy in literature and lore, the dark side of fairy folklore, and, of course, the changeling, as well as hearing from Gabriela Houston how to take inspiration from folkloric creatures for your fiction, but we’ll also take a tour around the world to find out how the concept of the fae is manifest in cultures including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, the Philippines, China, Iceland, Latinx, Greece, and South Asia. Event details are here, tickets are now on sale from Eventbrite, and I’d love to see you there.

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

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Greetings, children of the dark. I’m writing this on 29 February, that day which only happens once every four years. Today, I’m struggling. I am so fatigued I can barely function. I wish I could blame the extra day, but I fear it’s just chronic health issues rearing their ugly heads. So, to inspire—and mainly to distract—I’ve been pondering the folklore around leap years. I jumped on Tradfolk.co to see what they said.  

There is, of course, the well-known tradition around leap day proposals. Back in the day, 29 February was designated as the day when women could propose to men—according to Irish legend, it was declared so by St Patrick himself. While it’s generally considered a myth, I quite like the idea that men who turned the lady down had to respond by giving her a gift of a frock or some nice gloves. Staying with the Celts, Scottish tradition says babies born in a leap year would only experience a life of hardship; there’s similar beliefs in Germany and Greece. Marriages that happen in a leap year are said to end in divorce or the death of a spouse in those same countries. And finally, they say in English folklore that a leap year causes broad beans to grow “the wrong way”. Whatever that might mean!

The question, dear reader, is what strangely dark and speculative stories you could be telling based around leap year lore? It feels ripe for the picking.

This week’s TWF menu doesn’t feature much by way of leap year-infused delectations, but it does seem to have formed a consumption theme. Purely coincidental, I promise. First, Joelle Killian’s all-consuming client has a certain need. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• Íde Hennessy’s webs, 
• Bruce Buchanan’s tea, and 
• AW Voelkel’s infestation.

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark. I have returned from the land of ghosts and hauntings much refreshed and inspired. The UK Ghost Story Festival last weekend was a triumph once again—I even got roped into speaking on a panel on the final morning, talking all things “grand reveal” with Sarah Jackson and Simon Fairbanks, two fantastic indie writers you should check out. 

I’ve said a lot here about my struggles with the muse (I often feel so damn egotistical about all my complaining!), but I do feel like I’m starting to let go of the big picture stuff, the lofty goals, the far-away objectives so that I can focus and enjoy the here and now. Last weekend helped by just getting me out of my head and scribbling during workshops. I proved to myself that I might still have some life in the ol’ creative mine. It’s time to just remind myself why I always wanted to be a writer—because, reader, I never had an undying dream to write sales copy or business blogs, strange as that may seem! Let’s recapture that ghost of our internal passions, yes?

It seems fitting that we’ve chosen a haunting for this week’s trembling main course: a spectre that’s taken almost everything from Peter J Larrivee’s dying man. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• Jonathan Worlde’s foreign fight, 
• Lionel Ray Green’s mycophilic monstrosity, and
• SG Perahim’s impish influencer.

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark—greetings from Derbyshire, where I’ve been immersed in ghost stories and hauntings for the last few days. I made it to the UK Ghost Story Festival again, which is always a highlight in the calendar. I’ve come here because I’ve been coming here for the last few years, but also I’m hoping this little side trip to the dark side will leave me brimming with ideas to get back to the writing. That’s my goal this year: just play around with fiction again. No pressure, no goals, no Big Ideas. Just playing around. Getting my mojo back. Seeking the muse, who I’m hoping enjoys trips to the outskirts of the Peak District. 

So while I’m haunting the Midlands, let’s serve up this week’s trembling menu. Jennifer Lee Rossman takes us into the deepest reaches of space. That’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• Michael Davis’s medical experiments, 
• Ria Hill’s personal grooming issues, and 
• Alejandro Gonzales’s work woes.

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.

Greetings, children of the dark. Keeping it short and sweet this week as I’m entertaining an old friend who’s visiting London for the first time in a decade. We went to see the West End production of The Picture of Dorian Gray last night, staring Sarah Snook (who also happens to be from our home town as well as Succession), and it was bloody sublime. Go see it if you can!

To swiftly move to this week’s trembling menu, we have a super-sensory short story from Ben Jackson that’s followed by the short, sharp speculations of:

• DJ Tyrer, who’s digging, 
• S.C. Fisher, who’s in a sticky situation, and 
• Tim Kirton, who shouldn’t have got in the boat.

And remember, we’ve got an extra special edition on Wednesday—keep an eye out for this year’s Valentine’s spooktacular!

Over to you, Stuart.

ATTENTION YOUTUBE WATCHERS: We’ve had some great responses so far but are open to more ideas – What type of content would you like to see us feature? Please reach out to [email protected]! We’ll be really working on expanding the channel late this year and early into next.

For those who are looking to connect with Horror Tree on places that aren’t Twitter, we’re also in BlueSky and Threads. *I* am also now on BlueSky and Threads.

If you’d like to extend your support to the site, we’d be thrilled to welcome your contributions through Ko-Fi or Patreon. Your generosity keeps us fueled and fired up to bring you the very best.