So. This post was planned a few weeks in advance. More on this in a sec; largely because it has to do with where I am when this post goes live. (Delays on comment responses will be inevitable, I'm afraid.) With The Forest's recently released, there's been a spike in talk about Aokighara Forest in Japan -- the setting in which the movie is based. You might have heard of it before, as it is featured in Kendare Blake's follow-up to Anna Dressed in Blood: the sequel to the series, Girl of Nightmares. Maybe you're a fan of Atlas Obscura (I sure am) and came across[...]
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MidnightSocietyKira
2 I think it might be safe to say I've overcommitted myself recently. Or, perhaps, my impulsiveness overtook my common sense and my pre-planning skills took a nosedive in my excitement. The short version: I committed to producing a short story a month for a year, with a public release and quasi-marketing; treating the project like the preliminaries in a grudge match against traditional publishing. I thought to myself initially, "Let's just see what it might be like to self-publish some small stuff instead of a whole book." Crackers. I am crazy crackers. It's mon[...]
Hello guys and ghouls! This, being the second in the series of Curious Things Found on the Internet (you can read the first here), I'm running with a literary theme this week. The way this works: I offer up an interesting tidbit found in my internet travels along with a book pairing inspired by the oddity, as well as a drink to go with it. Without further ado, let's get to it: 1. Popular Writers: A Stephen King interview In which Neil Gaiman interviews Stephen King. This is an older interview, dating back to 2012, but if I haven't already overstated it: both[...]
I first learned of Katie Alender by fluke. I was in Paris on my yearly backpacking trip, holed up with a cold in a Hausmannized apartment in Montmartre, a few blocks away from the infamous Moulin Rouge. I'd chosen an AirBnB rental without much of a view, but the apartment had a hammock in my room, a comfy bed, and two sets of double-door balconies that, at the time, I thought were cute. Equipped with cheap French wine, a baguette, hard cheeses, and several delicious French pastries, I gave up on trying to be a tourist after my first bateau mouche trip down the Se[...]
Hello, good day, bonjour. It's been many months since we chatted last. I took a much-needed hiatus from everything excepting real life -- hence my absence -- but as things go, I'm back like a bad case of herrrrr--- herpy derpies? Bunny rabbits. It's been long enough that you ought to suffer a re-introduction from me. So I'll keep this brief, sparing those who are familiar already: Hello! My name is Kira. I write low-key horror fiction and dark urban fantasy for young adults, I'm pre-query on my first novel, and I'm a senior-level graphic designer.[...]
I woke up this morning to rain and cold, and while making coffee and blearily looking onto the cross-street below from my kitchen, I noticed a hearse, a limo, six pallbearers, and a maple coffin being carried into the church across the street. I've lived in this apartment three years now, and this is the first time I've seen a proper funeral procession walk into that place. I realize this makes me a bit morbid, but with the weather as it is, all I'd really need to throw at this scenario to turn it into a plot bunny is Guns n' Roses playing "November Rain" in t[...]
Once upon a time when this creepy lady first met her honeybunch (hereafter known as HB for simplicity's sake), they discovered that they shared many geeky things in common and affection blossomed over text messages and in the depths of the blanket forts they built together to watch movies. He liked the Avengers and she liked the X-Men. He wrote code and she designed interfaces. They both enjoyed fiery Indian food and even though he didn't like horror movies, he curled up with her to watch The Babadook for the first time. Their blanket forts became architectural[...]
When we discuss folklore, the stuff of legends particular to certain areas, we're not always discussing the story itself -- we talk about the hype that surrounds it; makes it bigger than it probably is. The fact is, a lot of the pop culture we get our hands on today lies roots in stories that were told a couple of centuries ago. I can't say that this suggests that there's no original horror stories anymore, far from it; it's interesting, however, that the origin points for the things we find scary now might actually have kernels of truth to them because they're so[...]
Confession time, because I find myself in a horrific situation and it just keeps on going: I HAVE NO INTERNET AT HOME. About a month and a half back I decided to switch providers because I wanted more bandwidth for less money, and the transfer process in in its second week with no respite in sight. Let me tell you something, Midnighters -- where I live its as cold as a witch's ***** and I ain't shuffling off to the library to make use of the free wifi which I need to research my next article (which, by the way, was a fun little exploration of the Bell Witch Haun[...]
Since I was twelve years old and I put down the The Witching Hour by Anne Rice for the first time, I've had a love for the South. The swamps with cypress trees draped in Spanish moss, the balconies jutting over the narrow streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans, the slow dirge of jazz music played on the way to a funeral. The above-ground cemeteries. Sweet tea and humidity and a clean sweat on a spring morning. Gas light and the perfume of magnolia trees on a slow evening stroll through the Garden District. If I lived a past life or three, I'm sure one was[...]