reads, Recent Reads

The Dark Matter of Natasha

Publisherโ€™s Description Natasha stalks the quiet streets of dead-end Lunar Bay like doom in a denim jacket. Sheโ€™s a grim reminder that some teenagers can never escape the ever-tightening noose of their lives. Burned out and benumbed by a traumatic past, dogged by scurrilous small-town gossip, she finds solace in drugs, sex and Slayer. When… Continue reading The Dark Matter of Natasha

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A Dead Djinn in Cairo

Publisherโ€™s Description Egypt, 1912. In Cairo, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) divine.What starts off as an odd suicide case for Special Investigator Fatma el-Shaโ€™arawi leads her through the cityโ€™s underbelly as she encounters rampaging ghouls, saucy assassins, clockwork angels, and a plot that could… Continue reading A Dead Djinn in Cairo

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Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

Publisherโ€™s Description Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s - a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. What have you done today to… Continue reading Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

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The Path of Thorns

Publisherโ€™s Description Asher Todd comes to live with the mysterious Morwood family as a governess to their children. Asher knows little about being a governess but she is skilled in botany and herbcraft, and perhaps more than that. And she has secrets of her own, dark and terrible โ€“ and Morwood is a house that… Continue reading The Path of Thorns

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Scottish & Irish Werewolf Folklore

The Scottish Wulver Unlike the French loup garou, not all werewolves terrorise humans giving into their blood lust. The Scottish wulver of the Shetland islands, just north of the Scottish mainland, is a benevolent werewolf. The wulver was thought by the ancient Celts to be its own species between a man and a wolf. Folklorist… Continue reading Scottish & Irish Werewolf Folklore

Short Fiction, Writing

Reimagining Red Riding Hood

Recently I have been exploring the concepts behind the Red Riding Hood fairytale. There are two main versions I have used as inspiration for writing a new short story. The version by Charles Perrault called โ€œLittle Red Riding Hoodโ€ and the version by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm called โ€œLittle Red Capโ€. Both examine a young… Continue reading Reimagining Red Riding Hood

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Horseman

Publisherโ€™s Description Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Bruntโ€™s grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says thatโ€™s just legend, the village gossips talking. More than thirty years after… Continue reading Horseman

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Empire of the Vampire

Publisherโ€™s Description โ€œIt has been twenty-seven long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness. Gabriel de Leรณn, half man, half monster and… Continue reading Empire of the Vampire

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The Girl in the Corn

Publisherโ€™s Description โ€œBeware of what lurks in the corn.Fairies donโ€™t exist. At least thatโ€™s what Thomas Cavanaughโ€™s parents say. But the events of that one night, when he follows a fairy into the cornfield on his parentsโ€™ farm, prove them wrong. What seems like a destructive explosion was, Thomas knows, an encounter with Dauรฐr, a… Continue reading The Girl in the Corn