Recent Reads, research, Writing

2025 Favourite Readsโ€ฆso far

This year has been a whirlwind of amazing books by established voices and incredible works from new authors. Enter Shepard to save the day! readers ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿป Iโ€™ve read 63 books so far this year but wantrd to share my favourite ones so far which have had the greatest impact on me. Writers ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿป Shepherd are… Continue reading 2025 Favourite Readsโ€ฆso far

Writing

Carmilla: Week 6

VI. A Very Strange Agony When we got into the drawing room, and had sat down to our coffee and chocolate, although Carmilla did not take any, she seemed quite herself again, and Madame, and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, joined us, and made a little card party, in the course of which papa came in for… Continue reading Carmilla: Week 6

research, Writing

Carmilla: Week 5

V. A Wonderful Likeness This evening there arrived from Gratz the grave, dark-faced son of the picture cleaner, with a horse and cart laden with two large packing cases, having many pictures in each. It was a journey of ten leagues, and whenever a messenger arrived at the schloss from our little capital of Gratz,… Continue reading Carmilla: Week 5

reads, Recent Reads

Spirit Level

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Description A haunting collaboration between renowned editor & photographer Ellen Datlow, award-winning horror writer Kaaron Warren, and book artist Monica Carroll, Spirit Level transforms ordinary antique tools into vessels of dread.  This book, based on a limited edition artist's book, presents ten mysterious objects, from a 1930s German camera timer to corroded iron pliers, photographed… Continue reading Spirit Level

research, Writing

Carmilla: Week 4

IV. Her Habitsโ€”A Saunter I told you that I was charmed with her in most particulars. There were some that did not please me so well. She was above the middle height of women. I shall begin by describing her. She was slender, and wonderfully graceful. Except that her movements were languidโ€”very languidโ€”indeed, there was… Continue reading Carmilla: Week 4

reads, Recent Reads

Drowning in the Dark

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ **I received an ARC for an honest review** Description A beach that wipes people from memory. Aliens that just want to help humanity along a little bit. Monsters who love their fight club. A woman who trades a piece of her future to help a child. Guilt that serves as a door to dark… Continue reading Drowning in the Dark

Writing

Carmilla: Week 3

III. We Compare Notes We followed the cortege with our eyes until it was swiftly lost to sight in the misty wood; and the very sound of the hoofs and the wheels died away in the silent night air. Nothing remained to assure us that the adventure had not been an illusion of a moment but the… Continue reading Carmilla: Week 3

reads, Recent Reads

American Rapture

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ ** I received an ARC for an honest review ** Description A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust.  Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she… Continue reading American Rapture

reads, Writing

Carmilla: Week 1

To celebrate the approaching Spooky Season and coinciding with my deep dive research into vampires, Iโ€™ll share a chapter each week from the classic book Carmilla By Sheridan Le Fanu Prologue Upon a paper attached to the Narrative which follows, Doctor Hesselius has written a rather elaborate note, which he accompanies with a reference to… Continue reading Carmilla: Week 1

reads, Recent Reads

The Haunting of Alejandra

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ Description Alejandra no longer knows who she is. To her husband, she is a wife, and to her children, a mother. To her own adoptive mother, she is a daughter. But they cannot see who Alejandra has become: a woman struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her. Nor can they see what… Continue reading The Haunting of Alejandra