Category: storytelling
-
Some of us prefer darkness
•
Maybe I am a vampire. My hubby’s been insisting for a while. For the most part, I don’t like sunny days – except for photography, and in the winter when they perk up the weeks of dreariness. I prefer my days cloud-covered and moody, and if there’s a bit of…
-
Lovecraft weirdness lives on
•
Where can you go, if you’re an author, to celebrate the weirdness that inspired your own work? Try a literary festival based on a horror writer with issues: the notorious NecronomiCon conference/convention in Providence, Rhode Island. My hubby and I went this summer, and it more than lived up to…
-
Why haven’t I written a vampire tale?
•
Keeping up with everyone who’s now referring to this month as ‘Augtober’, dreaming of the impending Halloween season, I thought I’d address this burning question. (At least to me, maybe not anyone else 😉) I’ve been enthralled with vampire stories and movies ever since I first saw the superb Christopher…
-
Fae-ry Tales, Not so nice
•
But the old woman had only pretended to be friendly. She was a wicked witch who was lying in wait there for children. She had built her house of bread only in order to lure them to her, and if she captured one, she would kill him, cook him, and…
-
The lure of Lost World adventures
•
“Who was this extraordinary woman, Queen over a people apparently as extraordinary as herself, and reigning amidst the vestiges of a lost civilisation? And what was the meaning of this story of the Fire that gave unending life?” She, by H. Rider Haggard There was a moment at Machu Picchu…
-
Where do ideas come from?
•
It’s a common question for authors. I was reading an interesting article the other day, from a writer who was facing severe idea-blockage during the COVID lockdowns, until his wife convinced him to get a dog. He found inspiration in the new relationship, as so many people have. Maybe blockage…
-
How quickly things change
•
This is not a political blog post. It’s about how countries evolve, develop problems and work them out. Authors pay attention to these things when we’re crafting the worlds our stories play out in. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention in May, when the protests in Bolivia began –…
-
Bringing a dream bookstore to life
•
It was the bookstore of my dreams – literally. White shelves zigzagging in and out along the walls, on a raised perimeter just a couple of steps above the central space. A treasure trove of wonderful books of all kinds, from fiction to historical. Tables in the centre with delightful…
-
Be like a writer: Stop and smell the lilacs
•
When I was growing up, we had a lilac shrub in the back yard, and each spring my mother would clip panicles of the lavender flowers and bring them inside. Sitting in a vase in the living room, they would fill the house with scent. The smell of things is…
-
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…