reads, Recent Reads

By the Moonโ€™s Good Grace

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Description The night after the tumultuous events at her grandmotherโ€™s house, Little Red ventures into the woods to find her missing grandmother. Instead, she discovers a stranger who claims to be her aunt โ€ฆ and learns a startling secret. Her family are wolves, changing form in phase with the moon, and the beast slain… Continue reading By the Moonโ€™s Good Grace

Writing, research

Slavic Myth: Morrana

Morrana is the Slavic goddess of winter, death, decay, and rebirth, a queen of endings who makes space for beginnings. Not evil. Necessary. Who is Morrana? Goddess of Winter & cold Death, decay, and the grave Night, stillness, and silence The threshold between life and afterlife   In old Slavic belief, death wasnโ€™t feared and… Continue reading Slavic Myth: Morrana

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Cinder House

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Description You think you know Cinderellaโ€™s story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince. Youโ€™re halfway right, and all-the-way wrong. Ella is a haunting. Murdered at sixteen, her furious ghost is trapped in her fatherโ€™s house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters. Even when she discovers how to untether herself from… Continue reading Cinder House

research, Writing

Favourite Reads, Folklore & Fairytales

Book DNA is working to connect readers and authors through shared interests and passions. I participated in one event to help promote Three Curses and Other Tales while also sharing the books and authors who influenced me most in writing that collection. You can read my thoughts on my 5 favourite books that influenced me… Continue reading Favourite Reads, Folklore & Fairytales

research, Writing

Historical Mass Hysterias

Mass sociogenic illnessโ€”also known as mass hysteria, epidemic hysteria or hysterical contagionโ€”occurs when symptoms without a clear medical cause spread among members of a community. โ€œThink of it as the placebo effect in reverse,โ€ says Dr. Robert Bartholomew, an honorary senior lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at Auckland University. For centuries, human societies… Continue reading Historical Mass Hysterias

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The Sourdough Compendium

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ ** I received an ARC for an honest review ** Description Within these pages, coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead buried and their own murderous urges in check; poison girls are schooled in the art of marital assassination; books carry forth stories and forbidden secrets; a young witch wreaks a terrible revenge on… Continue reading The Sourdough Compendium

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Emily Wildeโ€™s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Description Emily Wilde is good at many things: she is the foremost expert on the study of faeries; she is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encylopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik,… Continue reading Emily Wildeโ€™s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

research, Writing

Scottish Folklore: The Cรน-Sรฌth

The Cรน-Sรฌth (pronounced koo-shee), a legendary fairy hound from Scottish Highland folklore โ€” and itโ€™s actually a very faithful, atmospheric portrayal. What is the Cรน-Sรฌth?โ€ข The name literally means โ€œfairy dogโ€ (cรน = hound, sรฌth = fairy / otherworld).โ€ข It is not just a magical animal โ€” itโ€™s a liminal being, halfway between:โ€ข the fairy… Continue reading Scottish Folklore: The Cรน-Sรฌth

Writing

Lunar Calendar Animals

Itโ€™s the lunar new year and wishing everyone a prosperous and healthy year. Itโ€™s also the year of the Fire Horse. Curious about the animals that appear in lunar New year? I was! Turns out Iโ€™m an Ox so hereโ€™s a useful article on the different animals of the lunar calendar. Animals of the Chinese… Continue reading Lunar Calendar Animals