You've seen those Hollywood creature features. You've hung out with Jenna as she compared Brendan Fraser & Tom Cruise in their respective Mummy movies. But that doesn't mean there still aren't secrets about mummies just waiting to be unearthed. I'll be the first to admit - I am OBSESSED with Ancient Egypt. I'm not even sure when it started. I mean, I hated history class in high school. But now, gimme a documentary on the History Channel about the latest discovery from Zahi Hawass and I'm there! So, a few years ago, I set out to write a mummy story. It gave[...]
Category
Cemeteries
2 It's zombie month here at The Midnight Society! But except for this gem (below), I don't do zombies. But taking a photo of my Pride & Prejudice & Zombies & Brains piece only made me want to document some of the other arts and crafts lurking in my house. Because truth be told, this month is kicking my bum. So I kind of feel like a zombie...that counts. And so here, in no particular order, is my personal art gallery. And yes, everything is for sale*. [...]
To be clear, this post is not a review of My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. It is a love letter wrapped in infatuation and sealed with the blood of a unicorn because THIS PAPERBACK COVER IS MY GD PATRONUS: If this cover was a man, my husband and I would need to have a very long talk. This brilliant paperback release cover of My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix was designed by the talented Mr. Doogie Horner, with illustrations by the venerable Australian artist Hugh Fleming. And oh. My. Demon. Aunt. did these gents nail it. I cannot de[...]
Hello, lovelies! I'm sitting here, sipping a little brew I whipped up in the cauldron (spearmint AND peppermint tea - I'm crazyAF), researching witches. I was originally going to take things back a few hundred years but I decided to keep this post a bit more current this time around. Growing up in a predominately Christian home, I was raised thinking witches were Halloween costumes and the stars of my favourite spooky movies (Hellllllo, Grand High Witch!). As I delved deeper into the bowels of the library, and then the glorio[...]
Hello, Dearies, How are you? How's life? Working on anything neat? Write any really awesome lines lately? Draw a cool picture? Show me. My brain needs some inspiration. I haven't written in weeks. So my apologies if this post is smeared in coppered flakes of rust. We've been discussing Urban Legends round the MS campfire. I've been digging into my city's online vaults for a tale or two, but there aren't any good ones. So this little tale comes from none other than the handsome, the fancy dancy, Mr. Jenna. "We're doing Urban Legends this month on the blo[...]
So, I checked out These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly at my local library, and holy crow, it is SO GOOD that I am completely obsessed with it. I don't want to eat or go to work or really do anything at all except read this book! I'm not even done yet but I've already bought my own copy to keep and the first book in her Waterfire saga YA series Deep Blue to start when I'm done with this. These Shallow Graves has everything I was looking for: a murder mystery, romance, high stakes, more murder, more romance, mystery mystery mystery, girls doing what they s[...]
I'd bet that everyone has, at some point or another in their lives, heard various urban legends. Maybe you heard it in a nursery school rhyme while playing hopscotch on the playground. Maybe it was something whispered to you at a sleepover when you were a pre-teen. Maybe it was something that made the rounds in the hall at school that you heard from your best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend who heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with some girl. LOCAL LORE When I was a kid living in the suburbs of Toronto, we moved down the s[...]
Every month I get together with my horror-loving friends and live-tweet a scary movie. Because it's more fun with friends. This month I will be watching the 2007 psychological horror movie 1408, based on the Stephen King story of the same title. If you haven't read the story...do. I love it! Super creepy and weird and mind warping fun! You can find it in one of his anthologies. The movie is pretty different than the written version. The main story is the same, just amped up a bit. When making a short story, rather than a full novel, into a movie there'[...]
My entire adult writing life has been about writing adult horror. Creepy, atmospheric locations to set the tone. Plenty of blood and gore, as the story allows. Strange and unusual twists to set the reader off-kilter. it's what I like to read, and what I love to write. But it hasn't always been that way. I had to start somewhere, and that somewhere was in a high school English class. Okay, so I wrote short stories before then (though I'm not sure my story about a talent show for aliens back in 7th grade would make the cut), but it was an assignment in one of my h[...]