On Dice Rolled in the Hollow Fields
I must admit that I was taken aback when I learned that David Southwell had decided to produce a book relating to the Hookland project. Hookland is a project that began on Twitter at a time when people not only trusted that platform to host new work, but also to allow that work to develop […]
Canon Fodder is an ongoing series in which I return to authors and bodies of work over time, reading them closely and piece by piece. This essay forms part of the Lovecraft strand; a chronological index of my Lovecraft writing can be found here. Other Canon Fodder posts can also be browsed via the series […]
Strange Ground is an occasional series about particular places and the ways they resist easy explanation. Some pieces approach landscapes through history and reputation; others are closer to field reports, written from within the site itself. Rather than smoothing these perspectives into a single account, the series lets their contradictions stand. You can find the […]
Field Report is an infrequent series tracing physical zines that move in the same circles as this blog: Folk Horror, Forteana, Weird History, Occultism, and Roleplaying Games. It takes the place of my earlier Zine Corner series. The rest of the series can be found here. VIBE: A polished and characteristically beautiful issue that delivers […]
Canon Fodder is an occasional series in which I write about classic works of horror fiction. This particular part of the series is devoted to the complete published works of Thomas Ligotti which I will slowly be working my way through. “Purity” is one of Ligotti’s most arresting stories; Set in a bad neighbourhood that […]
I have been bouncing off of Robert Macfarlane’s writing for close to twenty years. The first encounter came, suitably enough, on a long-distance walking holiday. Having arrived ahead of schedule at that evening’s lodgings, I happened to take a look at a shelf of abandoned holiday reads. I read the first couple of chapters of […]
The other day, I happened upon a cardboard box containing a rather fancy embossed leather journal. The box was covered in dust and the journal was unused, though it did contain some thirty-year-old birthday wishes from an older sibling to whom I no longer speak. I have never kept a journal. My handwriting is poor, […]
Canon Fodder is an ongoing series in which I return to authors and bodies of work over time, reading them closely and piece by piece. This essay forms part of the Lovecraft strand; a chronological index of my Lovecraft writing can be found here. Other Canon Fodder posts can also be browsed via the series […]
Ian McDonald is a writer who has proved highly adept at re-invention. His first novel appeared in the late-1980s around the time when science fiction readers were begrudgingly beginning to accept that their future was not going to be built from rocket ships and competent space captains. Desolation Road is a novel about colonising Mars […]
Field Report is an infrequent series tracing physical zines that move in the same circles as this blog: Folk Horror, Forteana, Weird History, Occultism, and Roleplaying Games. It takes the place of my earlier Zine Corner series. The rest of the series can be found here. VIBE: A confident and markedly improved issue that shows […]