It’s the best time of year; at least, if you’re a ghoul as I am. Halloween is finally here, hurray!
Happy Halloween to all you witches, and Samhain blessings to all you spooks (like me). I’ve been up to some Irish traditional festivities here in Northern Ireland, what with turnip carving and Irish mummer masks at the Ulster Folk museum in Cultra, and a haunted ghost train ride on a Guinness steam train at Whitehead; of course in my various witches hats. But I’ve been missing the Q Radio hosted Thriller dance mob at Writer’s Square Belfast, and some grisly cannibalistic body horror at Carrickfergus castle that took place last year.
Anyway, this is a short and (not so) sweet post, since I’ve got lots planned for tonight, rather than wasting my life (er, pun intended, lol) online. So let me love you and leave you (to death, ha ha) and I’ll see you on the other side of the veil in November.
It’s Halloween half-term break for schools in the UK, and since I work in secondary education, that means I’m off. Hurray! My schedule is always rammed with spooky events in October; here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to.
Spooky shopping: the witch’s hat pictured above was very tempting, but I needed to save the coins in my cauldron for other social events on the calendar…like going for drinks at White’s Tavern, the oldest tavern in Belfast, established in 1630.
It goes without saying that in such an old establishment, that there would be rumours of a haunting: apparently the ghost of a girl haunts the upstairs Oyster room at White’s Tavern, and her bones have reportedly been found in the walls. Creepy.
I love seeing Belfast decorated for Halloween. It’s a pet peeve when businesses put up their Christmas trees in October; that’s far too early. I enjoy the seasonal spirit of Yule, but not before the end of November. Joy’s Entry in Belfast is looking spooky this month. Hopefully the decorations survived Storm Boelo on Saturday though.
This morning I made a batch of high-protein, low-sugar pancakes. I’m not sure what to do with this little pumpkemon, but it sure looks cute for the seasonal photo. It’s harvest time, so I went with a sunflower display for the occasion. Why not?
Can you tell I love Halloween? Maybe a bit, lol. These are some of the things that have filled my calendar during the countdown to Samhain. Halloween makes my spooky little heart sing, for sure.
Happy Book Week NI! Here’s a throwback to my guest appearance on BBC Radio Ulster show, The Ticket, hosted by Kathy Clugston, where I discussed my writing influences. My former career as an archaeologist and previous work teaching English in Japan have been a continuing source of inspiration for my writing. These days my work revolves around all things literary: working in a library, teaching creative writing in a grammar school and providing literacy support to pupils, but I still use elements from my former careers in my writing even today.
Archaeology in particular is an ongoing source of material for my books. I love doing research for my books, which to some extent, keeps my knowledge current.
The town I lived in, Tottori, in Japan inspired my Buddha’s Bone series as it was such a beautiful location, but beyond that I had to do a great amount of research to write my duology of books comprising The Buddha’s Bone and The Wabi-sabi Doll.
Don’t you love how creative writing contributes to lifelong learning for the author? I sure do!
Want to hear something weird that happened to me? We’re getting eerily close to Samhain, and I would be remiss as a horror author if I didn’t tell you about some real-life spooky inspiration that decided to haunt my life yesterday evening. Randomly, after dinner, my left eyeball decided to swell up with a huge yellow blister. This happened literally out of nowhere. (Photo in the video, so look away if you’re squeamish!)
Lo and behold, just as quickly as the cornea-blister appeared, I was struck by an idea for another body horror story for the collection I’m writing. Of course, as a horror author, all of my stories turn into one of three things: ghostly, gory, or psychological. Well, inspiration has guided me (from beyond the veil, lol) and I will be working this strange experience into a ghost horror. What if a malevolent spirit was behind such a physical manifestation on a poor unwitting protagonist? Even weirder, because it was gone by the morning…
Expect a spooky – and weird – horror story coming up.
I finally got my paperback of Harvest Lilies anthology 2 weeks after publication on 23rd September; I was too broke to buy copies sooner, as we had a gigantic heating bill this month, plus other expenses. One copy is for me and Bindweed co-editor, my hubby Joseph Robert and the other is for legal deposit at The British Library. We’re really pleased with all the reviews so far from the US, Australia and UK and the feedback from happy contributors who love the book design and internal artwork accompanying their stories/poems. Positive feedback really motivates us to keep Bindweed going; we’re currently working on a theme for our 2027 anthology.
An inflatable foil banner is essential for Halloween
Aside from buying copies of our autumnal publication, this week I was busy at work running Team Halloween; in other words, I was the witch in charge of decorating (lol). Time well spent, of course.
Team Halloween at work
As you know, I work in secondary education. The students loved the decorations; seasonal cheer is always good for one’s spirits (erm, spooky pun intended, ha ha).
Getting the decorations ready in the library
Aside from getting into the swing of the season, I’ve been busy working on my body horror short story collection and teaching creative writing to a new sixth form group (16-17 year olds). I’m very lucky to be able to share the thing that I’m most passionate about – creative writing – with the next generation of writers. Just over half of my newbies are interested in horror too. Hurray! What more could a horror author ask for, eh?
Happy National Poetry Day! Here’s a poem from my hubby Joseph Robert’s collection, ‘Mastered Thesis’ and one from my poetry collection ‘Toebirds & Woodlice ‘.
Thursday 1st October is also officially the start of spooky season and countdown to Samhain. Like my pumpkin and cat cardi? Me too. Expect all my Halloween outfits to be making an appearance over the next few weeks…
Happy Harvest Moon! Here I am doing a full moon salutation along with a reading of my poem Harvest Moon, published in Harvest Lilies anthology.
A full moon is a time for gratitude, so this week I’d like to say thanks to the fabulous author and book blogger, Laura Lyndhurst for her amazing review of my novel The Buddha’s Bone, as well as thanks to Bird Reviews Sal for reviewing Harvest Lilies, our latest Bindweed anthology that was published on the autumn equinox. And, of course, thanks to my lovely yoga teacher Diane for contributing so much to my health!
Many thanks to author and book blogger, Laura Lyndhurst for this amazing review of The Buddha’s Bone! 🥰🌞 You can read her full review on her website – Books that make you think:
Cause for Concern – 5* I wasn’t sure whether to salute Kimberly’s courage or worry about her foolhardiness when she set off to spend a year teaching English in Japan. It’s a long way from home, especially when you’re alone in a culture so different from your own … Read More
You might recall my blog post back in May about unboxing the final draft of my ghost novel work in progress of the last three years. Well, consider this a bit of deja vu then, for I have now ordered a revised final draft for another proof read and I’m hoping (oh please, oh please…) that this is actually the FINAL final draft.
Let me explain. After my lovely hubby editor gave the proof copy in May some much-needed red pen treatment, I realised that the historical details in my manuscript needed fine-tuning. You see, the part of London it is set in was not urban back in early Victorian England; it was still rural. That could have been a disastrous anachronism and I’m glad I caught the mistake prior to publication. After getting my hands on some archived maps of the area, I revised my details and now I’m confident that the novel is done. Whew!
I strive for historical accuracy in my books, as I really believe that authentic settings, even in a fictional book, grounds a story in reality; and particularly in the horror genre, enhances the fear factor. I aim to scare. Hopefully you will be the judge of that in the not-too-distant future, and fingers crossed my latest novel WIP will join my other published books soon.
School term has been in full swing for the past three weeks, and if I were to imagine life as a rug, it feels like it’s being pulled out from under me. I’ve been so busy with my day work in secondary education that I’ve had to try to squeeze exercise into my routine before work and writing time after, while our son is still at after-school club, and then family time in the evening before it all repeats. Lately it hasn’t left much time for anything else; I have barely been online at all as I have no time to pick up my phone (in fact my story of the week has been shouting across the house, “honey, have you seen my phone?” Lol). Unintended digital detox? Yep, pretty much.
The flip side of that is, I feel out of touch with the world. I haven’t even had a chance to read the news. I don’t know what is going on in my country, nevermind elsewhere. I don’t know what has been happening with all the social media accounts I follow. I haven’t had time to do anything online. In fact, I even just realised that it had been a week since my last blog post, so I decided to throw together this one.
Digital blackout is maybe more apt.
And a reading blackout too. I have barely had time to pick up a paperback. Normally I would read ebooks in bed at night, but I’ve been so zonked, I’ve been hitting the sack soon after our son is in bed. Should I be sleeping as much as a primary schooler? Maybe not, but that has been the case for me, certainly these past few weeks.
At least my writing is chugging along: if you imagine a slow, over-loaded cartoon cargo train trying to struggle up a steep mountain slope, panting and gasping, like in those black and white 1930s cartoons, that would be the train depicting my literary life balance. I’m getting the bare minimum done on my two current WIPs (a novel and a short story collection), but at least it’s enough to keep the ideas fresh in my brain.
Is my brain fresh, though? Hmm. I don’t know about that.
I’m still here. When I’m not sitting, I’m standing, and when I’m not standing, I’m sleeping. Everything in between is a balancing act. If you’ve read this far, thanks for bearing with my rambling. I’m still coherent, for now, at least. Good enough!
