It's that time of year, when I plant myself in front of the Hallmark channel and watch cute movies until my insides glow like Christmas lights and my heart grows three sizes. And I love it. Usually when January hits, I watch non-stop horror just to reduce my heart to normal size and counteract the glow of the season. But maybe I need a bit of balance during the month of December. There are alternatives to sickly sweet love stories and tales of finding the holiday spirit, maybe a few where the Christmas spirit tries to kill you. When a new scary movie release[...]
Tag
horror
0 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.[...]
Morning, Kittens. As most of you know, children are kind of disgusting. They grow INSIDE another person, FFS. They come into the world screaming and covered in goop, and that's just the beginning. Now don't get me wrong, I love my tiny human. He is my teenie best friend and I wouldn't trade one second with him for the world. But he is, for lack of a better word, a little bit gross. Some of my favourite horror movies of all time are speckled with creepy kidlets. So in honour of Thanksgiving and kids everywhere, here are some terrifying tots I'm thankfu[...]
We’re celebrating NaNoWriMo this week at The Midnight Society. Because, let’s be honest…it can get a little scary. I am not participating. I have never attempted the crazy race to write 50,000 words in one month. Dude, that’s insane. So I have been watching the tweets and FB posts as the month progresses and cheering you on, because you’re nuts and by nuts I mean FANTASTICALLY CRAZY AWESOME! The month began with hope and planning, with excitement and readiness to write all the words. However, the excitement has faded. Word counts vary from ahead of[...]
Currently for NaNoWriMo, Brian and I are writing our new series, ORCHARD POINTE #1. Without giving too much away (though Brian did give away a few more hints today...that's right Brian. I see you.), it’s a young adult novel series that was inspired by some of our favorite creepy movies and novels and television shows and our HUGE imaginations. Currently we are sitting over 30,000 words, and if I’m being honest, it’s mainly due to the unwavering dedication of my incredible writing partner Brian LeTendre. I am so proud of our book. I really can't explain it o[...]
Well, another October here and gone. And now it's November. I'm not quite sure where the time went, but I'm planning Thanksgiving dinner which is incredibly important. But there's also another reason to celebrate...NaNoWriMo. BTW, I suck at NaNo. I've never won. Never finished a manuscript in a month. Have I stressed myself out during NaNo? Um, yup. BUT NOT THIS YEAR! This year WILL be different. Mostly because I have a different attitude about my writing. There will be no sucking at NaNo this year. And there are a few reasons why. 1. Because I'm not[...]
Eeeeeek! It’s almost Halloween! This final week of October we, here at The Midnight Society, are celebrating Halloween traditions. There are five traditions that make Halloween… Halloween. At least for me. First… costumes. Halloween was always a special day when I was a kid. My mom made us our costumes every year and did her best to make our dressing-up dreams come true. Second…pumpkin carving. Every year Dad carved a pumpkin, and each Halloween night it would shine from our front window. When we got old enough, my sisters and I got to carve o[...]
I was initially going to post this week about my favorite slasher Jason Voorhees, and why I love him so. But my fellow Midnighters have done such a great job writing about different slashers and why they’re so great, I decided instead to write about the Woodsview Harvester. The Harvester is the slasher that Jolene and I created for our new Woodsview Murders series as our love letter to all the slashers that have come before. I can honestly say creating a slasher was one of the items on my writing bucket list. I literally grew up in the era of slashers. Texas Ch[...]
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) has a simple premise: Five friends drive out to where Sally and Franklin's grandparents used to live, in order to check out reports of grave robberies. It's when they continue the journey to visit their grandfather's house in the country, that the teens are hunted and terrorized by a chain-saw wielding killer and his family of grave-robbing cannibals. Just the text at the beginning of the film combined with the soft reading by John Larroquette does what so many older movies did…create tension and fear with little gadget[...]