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Viking Women

Publisherโ€™s Description Letโ€™s travel in time together, a thousand or so years back, and meet Viking women in their hearth-lit world. How did these medieval viragoes live, love and die? How can we encounter them as flesh-and-blood beings with fears and feelings โ€“ not just as names in sagas or runes carved into stone? In… Continue reading Viking Women

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Slavic Folklore: Upiรณr

The Upiรณr is present in Slavic and Turkic folklore and resembles the vampire. The Upiรณr is depicted as a ravenous and insatiable creature with vampiric features. Belief in the Upiรณr may have spread across the Eurasian steppes through migrations with its origins in the regions surrounding the Volga River and the Pontic steppes. An Upiรณr… Continue reading Slavic Folklore: Upiรณr

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Diversity Grants & Awards

Iโ€™m really excited to announce Iโ€™ve been nominated for the Ditmar Awards for Best New Talent and Best Novella for Bluebells - an LGBTQI, disability dystopian alternate history horror. Iโ€™m a recipient of the 2023 Horror Writers Association Diversity Grants to allow me to continue research for my HWA mentorship project with Lee Murray. The… Continue reading Diversity Grants & Awards

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Arthurian Lore: Merlin

Merlin is the archetypal wizard from Arthurian lore. Merlin is a Latinized version of the Welsh Myrddin. His exact origins are lost in myth and there is no concrete evidence, but there was possibly several individuals who were guardians to kings, prophets and bards existed toward in the late fifth century. What we have today… Continue reading Arthurian Lore: Merlin

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Norse Mythology: Skadi

Skadi (Old Norse Skaรฐi) is a frost giantess. Her name is identical to the Old Norse common noun skaรฐi which means โ€œharm,โ€. Her name may be related to the naming of landmass of โ€œScandinavia.โ€ Skadiโ€™s domain is the highest peaks of the mountains where the snow never melts. She is an keen huntress and her… Continue reading Norse Mythology: Skadi

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Aztec Mythology: Mictlรกn

In Aztec cosmology, the soul intakes a journey to the Underworld after death and they have four destinations: the Sacred Orchard of the Gods, the Place of Darkness, the Kingdom of the Sun, and a paradise called the Mansion of the Moon. The most common destination for a soul is Mictlรกn (Place of Darkness) with… Continue reading Aztec Mythology: Mictlรกn

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Voodoo Folklore: Baron Samedi

Baron Samedi is the leader of the Barons and possibly the Gedรฉs. He presides over a sprawling, confusing, complex clan of spirits. Baron Samedi literally means Baron Saturday, which may sound innocuous compared to Baron Cemetery but a connection through Christianity is Saturday was between the crucifixion on Friday and resurrection on the Sunday. Thus,… Continue reading Voodoo Folklore: Baron Samedi

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Breton Folklore: The Ankou

The Ankou (Breton), Ankow (Cornish) or Angau (Welsh) from Celtic legend most commonly occurs in Brittany. Here you can still spot the Ankou haunting many of the churches and cathedrals. What is the Ankou? Itโ€™s defiant remnant of Pagan influence that had survived hidden among the stone-work of Christian buildings. The Ankou haunts the graveyard… Continue reading Breton Folklore: The Ankou

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Irish Folklore: Fรฉar Gortach

The Fear Gorta means Famine Man or Fรฉar Gortach and refers to the Hungry or Famine Grass in Irish folklore. The Famine or Hungry Man is a skeletal wraith and a harbinger of death. Fรฉar Gortach is a folklore tale of a cursed patch of land where if you tread, you are doomed to die… Continue reading Irish Folklore: Fรฉar Gortach

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The Dearg-Due

The Dearg-Due means โ€œredโ€ in Irish but wasnโ€™t the name of this poor girl during her life. In life, over two thousand years ago, she was a legendary beauty, with blood-red lips and pale blonde hair. Her true name has been lost to the ages, overshadowed instead by the thing she became. Men travelled from… Continue reading The Dearg-Due