# A.M. Blackmere Dark fiction at the crossroads of history and horror. Page: Feed: --- ## [Who Were the Celtic Druids, and Why Does Everything We Know Come From Their Enemies?](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/who-were-the-celtic-druids-and-why) _2026-08-02 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ A priesthood that refused to write, the empire that destroyed it, and the figure we can only see through the eyes of the people who feared him. ## [Quiet Gothic: Why Novels Like 'Burial Rites' and 'The Name of the Rose' Never Explain the Voice](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/quiet-gothic-why-novels-like-burial) _2026-07-27 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ From monastic labyrinths to walled-in cells, how dark historical fiction uses architecture to trap the reader in absolute narrative ambiguity. ## [The Blood Countess: Part III | History Told Like a Horror Story](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-blood-countess-part-iii-history) _2026-07-22 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ The Countess and the Crown | The Blackmere Podcast Episode 21 [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/207951974/fd4bd763757cf139f4c48d553b50553c.mp3) ## [The Year the Explanation Broke | The Second Plague](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-year-the-explanation-broke-the) _2026-07-19 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ You know of the Black Death, but do you know of the Second Plague of 1361? ## [The Blood Countess Part II: The Cellars | History Told Like a Horror Story](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-blood-countess-part-ii-the-cellars) _2026-07-15 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ The Blackmere Podcast: Episode 20 [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/207091731/807cbcf72b401107ecb12d2b08215b8f.mp3) ## [Buried Alive in a Church Wall | What is a Medieval Anchoress?](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/buried-alive-in-a-church-wall-what) _2026-07-12 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ How England’s enclosed women actually lived behind a squint, and the rules a few of them broke. ## [The Blood Countess | Part One: The Castle](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-blood-countess-part-one-the-castle) _2026-07-08 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ Elizabeth Báthory Before the Blood Countess: Her World, Name, and Marriage | The Blackmere Podcast: Episode 19 [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/205786870/c808e1c1cdd003250b90a738e063f8b3.mp3) ## [What is the Roman Testudo?](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/what-is-the-roman-testudo) _2026-07-05 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ A Field Guide to the Testudo Formation, Its Flaws, and the Myth of the Bog Battle ## [Roman Curse Tablets and Frontier Murder: The Real History Behind 'The Defixio'](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/roman-curse-tablets-and-frontier) _2026-07-03 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ How the Vindolanda tablets, ancient forensic medicine, and illegal intramural burials inspired a slow-burn historical mystery set in Roman Britain. ## [The Radium Girls: History Told Like a Horror Story | The Blackmere Podcast Episode 18](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-radium-girls-history-told-like) _2026-07-01 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ Discover the tragic true story of the women poisoned by luminous dial paint, the medical cover-up that followed, and how their dying fight laid the foundation for modern occupational health laws. [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/204152680/4163cb4f4e1e64c994b44ac066819289.mp3) ## [Generate Viral Hot Takes (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/gC5tiylljhFg) _2026-07-01 · **Sponsored**_ Get platform-optimized hot takes and rebuttals to spark debate and engagement ## [What is Medieval Horror? The Real History Behind the Genre's Worst Nightmares](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/what-is-medieval-horror-the-real) _2026-06-28 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ What is medieval horror? Discover how the real history of the plague and the Inquisition inspired the genre's darkest books, films, and video games. ## [The Tuskegee Experiment: History Told Like a Horror Story | The Blackmere Podcast Episode 17](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-tuskegee-experiment-history-told) _2026-06-24 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ The true story of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis. Explore the chilling reality of a government deathwatch, the denial of penicillin, and the forty-year silence of the medical establishment. [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/203258315/cab521eee44f85bd3ff9b1dea364b455.mp3) ## [The Bone Ash on the Parapet: A Field Guide to Psychological Warfare at Hadrian's Wall](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-bone-ash-on-the-parapet-a-field) _2026-06-21 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ They didn't just fight the legions; they unmade them. Step inside a field guide to the psychological warfare, haunting war horns, and ritual curses that terrified the Roman frontier. ## [Bedlam: Life Inside the Asylum](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/bedlam-life-inside-the-asylum) _2026-06-17 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ The Blackmere Podcast: Episode 16 [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/202300922/c413cd9f4ada2849751e9612ceffcf8c.mp3) ## [The Blackmere Podcast is Now on Spotify](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-blackmere-podcast-is-now-on-spotify) _2026-06-14 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ The Blackmere Podcast is now on Spotify. 15 episodes exploring the darkest corners of history—from the Black Death to Jack the Ripper. No dramatization needed. ## [The Lobotomy: How Ice Picks Became Treatment](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-lobotomy-how-ice-picks-became) _2026-06-10 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ The Blackmere Podcast: Episode 15 [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/201288011/fc74574a18eeb3e87ff0151fa1479948.mp3) ## [Ebola: The Invisible Predator](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/ebola-the-invisible-predator) _2026-06-03 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ The Blackmere Podcast: Episode 14 [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/200312279/c34a692b786eb419310bb29957b8abaf.mp3) ## [\[From the Archives\] Letters to a Dead Saint](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/from-the-archives-letters-to-a-dead) _2026-05-31 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ In the silence of the abbey, a monk discovers the cost of faith is written in a saint's own flesh. ## [The Princes in the Tower: England, 1483.](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/the-princes-in-the-tower-england) _2026-05-27 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ The Blackmere Podcast: Episode 13 [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/199312943/2d86df286a0de78f8b7de61b89fc394a.mp3) ## [100,000 Bonus Points Await You (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/vEPW1rBRkl9W) _2026-05-27 · **Sponsored**_ Earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. ## [Exploring the Themes of 'Shadows of the Wall'](https://amblackmere.substack.com/p/exploring-the-themes-of-shadows-of) _2026-05-24 · A.M. Blackmere | Author_ Historical Horror in Roman Britain