Category: inspiration

  • What lurks in the fog?

    What lurks in the fog?

    Fog: “a weather condition in which very small drops of water come together to form a thick cloud close to the land or sea, making it difficult to see” Cambridge Dictionary Not long after I graduated from university, I worked on a funded project at a horticultural research station that…

  • Creating cursed places – inspiration from Dark Shadows

    Creating cursed places – inspiration from Dark Shadows

    “If I could speak the language of rabbits, they would be amazed, and I would be their king. I would be kind to my rabbit subjects. At first.” Rajesh Koothrappali, Big Bang Theory Have you ever played a Simulator game? One where you create a community, placing homes, stores, a…

  • April fun in a crazy world

    April fun in a crazy world

    Why are you looking at a graphic of Halloween stuff above? Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of the world at the moment! It’s finally Spring, and I want to have some fun after a long and stressful winter. April is “Halfway to Halloween” month –…

  • Being a bold woman today

    Being a bold woman today

    “And I may say, once for all, carefully weighing my words, that in no part of the world have I seen stones cut with such mathematical precision and admirable skill as in Peru, and in no part of Peru are there any to surpass those which are scattered over the…

  • Murder & Mayhem at Christmas

    Murder & Mayhem at Christmas

    Are the usual Christmas movies so sugary-sweet they set your teeth on edge? All beautifully-decorated-homes that seem to clean themselves, and perfect family meals that appear out of decorating-magazine kitchens? Then take a ‘stab’ at Christmas-themed murder mysteries, or the raft of holiday suspense and horror movies. Sometimes I’m in…

  • A spicy holiday season

    A spicy holiday season

    I love the scents of winter! For me, it’s all about the feeling you get when you smell pumpkin spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, gingerbread and spruce. Taylor Swift Sometimes Taylor speaks for all of us. When the weather in the northern hemisphere turn harsh and the nights grow longer, comfort foods…

  • Novel Writing Month lives on

    Novel Writing Month lives on

    Here I am, once more sitting with my laptop, a mug of one of my favourite teas, Milk Oolong, ready to hand, as I commit words of horror to ‘page’. Twenty-six years ago, a freelance writer named Chris Baty started NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) with just 21 participants. Originally…

  • New and revisited horror trends – Happy Halloween

    New and revisited horror trends – Happy Halloween

    The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. H.P. Lovecraft The Horror genre is having a moment – or several, if you consider its split personality. Some of it is old, a lot new, but all…

  • 75 years of “funny pictures”

    75 years of “funny pictures”

    “Charles M. Schulz was an innovative genius, creating a fantasy world that connected to kids as well as adults and all based on powerful iconic characters who express deep feelings of loneliness and resentment and despair. The feeling that everything is against us. The craving for love. An enormous earnestness…

  • Autumn: dark hallways, creepy teachers, what’s not to love?

    Autumn: dark hallways, creepy teachers, what’s not to love?

    If you attended a school where an atrocious murder was committed, or where something dark and unnatural crept the hallways, would you be fascinated, or horrified? I’m one of the few people I know who loved school, loved the entire back-to-school August prep. So why are so many people drawn…