Trembling With Fear 1-14-24
Greetings, children of the dark. How’s your 2024 treating you thus far? I hope well. Me, after spending a few weeks in intensive family catch-up mode (our first festive season together in 12 years! This is what happens when you live on the other side of the world…), I’m now fully in alone-recharging mode. My hubby (and sometime-Horror Tree contributor Chris Hawton) is currently in Minneapolis, USA, appearing as a special guest (alongside his podcast co-host Matt) at the CONsole Room Doctor Who conference. It’s the first time he’s met his co-host in more than seven years of hosting together, so he’s been rather excited. By the time you read this, he’ll be on his last day at the con, but good vibes are always welcome so do send them his way.
It feels like January is the time for these new starts, for obvious reasons. I’ve vowed (yet again; but I’ve kinda cleared more of a path this year!) to get my writing habit under control and start subbing shorts to wet my nose, so to speak. But what to write about, that is the question! I’m hoping two upcoming events will help to inspire me.
First, I’m helping to host the British Fantasy Society’s “Inspirations” event this coming Saturday, 20 January. It will not only feature readings from SFFH authors, but also an interview with the brilliant CJ Cooke, gothic author extraordinaire (her latest, A Haunting in the Arctic, is now available), as well as three panels looking at how we can get inspired by different aspects of culture: Fairytales, Gods & Monsters (including our own Steph Ellis as a panellist!); Music, Movies & Media; and finally, History & Current Affairs. I’ll be moderating that last panel, and will be chatting with Mary Robinette Kowal, Benjamin Langley, and Olivia Atwater. It’s free for BFS members and just £5 for non-members, so get your ticket here.
A week later, on Saturday 27 January, I’ll be hosting the latest in my Writing the Occult series of events, presented in partnership with Alex Davis Events, and this time we’re talking about ritual. If you have any interest in folk horror, faith horror, or aspects of the occult in fiction, come and join us! You’ll hear from the likes of Tracy Fahey, LMK Sheppard, Adam Scovell, Dr Helen Frisby, and Eden Royce, and we’ve got a big panel finale where Lee Murray, Robert P Ottone, Stephanie Ellis (again!), and Kev Harrison will chat about their own ritual inspirations in folk horror. I’m so damn excited! Details are over at writingtheoccult.carrd.co, and early bird ticket prices (£35+bf) end tomorrow, 15 January, so get in quick! Tix are here.
But that’s enough plugging; let’s get to why you’re here. This week’s TWF menu features a delicate warning about the dangers of pick-up culture from Michael Subjack. Then we’ve got three fabulous tasty morsels for dessert:
- Joshua Diabo is all-in on body horror,
- Brian McAuley has some terrible neighbours, and
- Robert Allen Lupton goes around in circles.
Finally – today is the last day to submit a short story in our Winter Window. Anything submitted after midnight tonight will unfortunately be returned unread, with a note to resubmit in the next quarterly window if you’re still interested.
Now it’s over to you, boss man.
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