Due to Kubrick’s relentless perfectionism, The Shining holds the world record for most retakes in a dialogue scene. When Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) and Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers) discuss ‘the shine’, it took 148 takes to wrap. #WyrdWednesday

‘She opens her mouth, exhales. A luminous ribbon flows out of it, drawing gasps. Her pulse goes wild. This has never happened before. The ghosts are coming. Her arms are glowing, her breath is glowing. She’s being swallowed. Myrtle says, “He’s here.”’ —Laura Purcell #BookologyThursday

The creation of sinister penguin jewel-thief Feathers McGraw—criminal mastermind, long thought to be a chicken—was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 adaptation of Rebecca. Like Mrs Danvers, he is eerily composed, deeply unnerving, and a gliding menace. #WyrdWednesday

Oh my gosh, it’s been so long since I’ve read a book that was so utterly consuming; I could not put this book down! It’s slick, textured, insatiable. I devoured it in one sitting. ALL THE STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Diavola, Jennifer Thorne #booksky #horror #amreading 📚💙😱

“…I’ve realized there are two kinds of people. The ones who hear a creak in a dark, lonely house, and shut the windows because it must have been the wind. And the ones who hear a creak in a dark, lonely house, light a candle, and go to take a look.” —E Stonex, The Lamplighters #BookologyThursday

Last year, local artists transformed the forest into a gallery of brilliantly bizarre, wildly inventive, impossibly cool outdoor art—perfect for #WyrdWednesday!✨

“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.” —Shelley #BookologyThursday

“And the house implodes”: a four-word description in Spielberg’s Poltergeist that was known as “the $250,000 sentence”. For the effect, ILM built an upside-down model house, filmed it in high-speed as it was sucked into a vacuum, and then reversed the footage. #WyrdWednesday

‘He discovered… the tree he’d crossed an ocean to find. Void of leaves, as if fire-scorched and left for dead, yet somehow raging with life. He approached it with caution, saw movement across the dark, wet bark. Could it be? A real mare tree?’ —J.H. Markert #BookologyThursday

When pirates buried treasure, they’d often murder a prisoner and lay him on top—enlisting his ghost to guard the gold. If no prisoner was handy, a crewmate would do. Should the law come sniffing, they’d point to the fresh grave and say: nothing here but the dead. #WyrdWednesday

I’m weekending gothic-style and am so excited for this workshop on Saturday led by the brilliant Dr Charlotte Baker! Still time to book! 🖤 See www.eventbrite.com/e/gothic-ima... for details!✨ #writingcommunity #writing #writingcraft #gothic #gothicwriting 📚💙😱

‘There is water, dark and deep, and beneath it a sheen of silver—all those scales that haven’t been washed into the mine… And in the broad circle of liquid, the mer-queen, coiled in a space not quite big enough for her.’ A.G. Slatter, All the Murmuring Bones #BookologyThursday

A tidal island in the West Highlands, where three lochs meet, Eilean Donan is said to be the resting place of the Otter King—a powerful creature with silver-skin who once saved a selkie and was revered by locals. #WyrdWednesday

Just made my summer a little spookier and have booked this super awesome ghost story weekend packed with workshops and author interviews! All online! See www.eventbrite.com/e/spectres-o... for details and tickets! 👻💕 #writingcommunity #ghoststories #spookysummer @alexdavis1981.bsky.social

‘REDRUM. MURDER. REDRUM. MURDER. (The Red Death held sway over all!) (Unmask! Unmask!) And behind each glittering, lovely mask, the as-yet unseen face of the shape that chased him down these dark alleyways, its red eyes widening, blank and homicidal.’ —Stephen King #BookologyThursday

Currently reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier FOR THE FIRST TIME! I must admit, I’ve heard that opening line quoted so many times, but I got a little thrill seeing it on the page—like I was meeting a hero in real life! 😍 #amreading #BookChatWeekly #booksky 📚💙😱

As the sun's light stained the clouds "a blood red", Edvard Munch felt an "infinite scream passing through nature". This grisly sunset over the Kristiania fjord triggered a panic attack, which drove Munch to craft his tortured vision—The Scream (1893). #WyrdWednesday

“Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where—” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. —Lewis Carroll #BookologyThursday

Drusilla: “I’m naming all the stars.” Spike: “You can’t see the stars, love. That’s the ceiling. Also, it’s day.” Drusilla: “I can see them. But I’ve named them all the same name, and there’s terrible confusion.” —Innocence, Buffy the Vampire Slayer S2E14 #WyrdWednesday

Brilliantly concise and easy-to-follow, Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias teaches the ‘mechanics’ of writing emotion (and it has an outstanding section on dialogue)! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Good dialogue illuminates what people are not saying.” Robert Towne #WritingCommunity 📚💙

“We leave the city in a warm June dawn that promises another sweltering day, and drive up through the woods. We move backwards through the season, travelling through time, the summer growing younger and cooler as we make our way north.” -Catriona Ward #BookologyThursday

During the summer solstice, the veil between our world and the fairy world thins, bringing much magic and mayhem. On Midsummer’s Eve, leave a sparkly offering for the fairy folk, and stir your jam with a hazel twig to stop those tricksy fae from stealing it! #WyrdWednesday 🎨Midsummer Eve ER Hughes

“The way is shut... It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it, until the time comes. The way is shut.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King #BookologyThursday

Eight brand new online writing events and workshop now announced and on sale, with a fresh course from @unheimlichmanvr.bsky.social, the second running of Midwinter, the next 6-week horror writing school and much more! www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/alex-davis...

WWI U-boat UB-65 was plagued by disaster—three crew members were asphyxiated by diesel fumes, two crushed by a falling girder, one swept overboard—before war even began. Believed to be cursed; the German Imperial Navy reportedly called in a priest to exorcise it. #WyrdWednesday

“Not all ghosts haunt houses. Some try to live in your head.” Craig DiLouie, Episode Thirteen #BookologyThursday

For her 2-week voyage, the Titanic set sail with 34 tonnes (34,000kg) of meat, 5 tonnes of fish, 4.5 tonnes of sugar, 40,000 eggs, and 7000 lettuces. Over 6000 meals were prepared each day. Though the menus were divided by class, each offered the height of luxury. #WyrdWednesday

“As she stared impassively up at me, I was suddenly seized by the conviction that, if I were to haul her out of the raging stream, I would find the rest of her similarly transformed, her lovely body given over to rows of slime-crusted scales and sharp fins.” -John Langan- #BookologyThursday 📚💙😱

Scotland, 1725: When surgeons demanded fresh corpses and students might have paid their tuition with cadavers, two body snatchers got even more audacious and were caught smuggling a freshly exhumed corpse in a sedan chair. #WyrdWednesday

There is something about brutal and beautiful and desolate Gruhuken that will linger with me for a long time. This stunningly-written ghost story is perfect. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “The stillness. When you hear yourself blink. Is terrible.” -Michelle Paver- #BookChatWeekly 📚💙😱

“Sometimes the dark is that velvety midnight blackness, and around lunchtime it fades to a moth-light, owlish and ethereal, softening the lines of the hills in the distance and the zigzag of the turf houses on the other side of the bay.” - C. J. Cooke - #BookologyThursday 📚💙😱

A memo from Universal Pictures President Sid Sheinberg to Steven Spielberg, suggesting Back to the Future be renamed Space Man from Pluto. 🛸 #WyrdWednesday

A few things I learnt while reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz… 🧵 #BookologyThursday #BookChatWeekly #BookSky

Can the environment keep a recording of traumatic events - and then play them back for strangers who happen upon them? That was the idea behind Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape, and it's since developed into its own hauntological theory.🧵⬇️

1950s, York: Plumber Harry Martindale watched as a ghostly platoon of Roman soldiers marched knee-deep through a stone wall, aligning perfectly with the buried Roman road beneath the cellar. The encounter inspired ‘stone tape theory’—the idea that stone can record the past. #WyrdWednesday

Just finished The Hollows by @dannythechurch.bsky.social and adored it! Razor-sharp winter horror, a brutal setting, damned creatures from the literal depths, and the coolest women in town. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Board your window, keep on the light, When the Tatterskin walks at night.” #BookChatWeekly #booksky 😱📚

“The blood spread slowly at first, blooming like a flower across her gown… Time stood still. Dust motes drifted in the limelight as gory puddles formed. Then somebody started to scream. They sounded an awful lot like me.” The Whispering Muse - Laura Purcell #BookologyThursday

Deposition of Bess Hog, Marion Meik, and Patrick Watson (1649) who were accused of witchcraft, strangled and burned. Notorious “witch-pricker”, John Kinkaid, pricked them with a needle until he found a spot that didn’t bleed, which was taken as proof of guilt. #WyrdWednesday

“I am just going outside and may be some time.” —Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates, on the ill-fated 1912 Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole. After endless isolation, emotional strain, and Antarctic dark, Oates sacrificed himself—walking into a blizzard to his death. #WyrdWednesday

I’ve got ‘new book joy’, and am so excited to be diving into a new story in a new world with new characters. Outlining has officially begun! 😍 #writingcommunity #outlining #amwriting #middlegrade #horror

In the 1960s, the CIA spent $20 million trying to turn cats into spies. Code-named ‘Acoustic Kitty’, they surgically wired these floofs with a mic, transmitter, and antenna, and sent them on a mission to eavesdrop on the Soviets. It did not work out. #WyrdWednesday 🎨Lucy Semple

Just finished The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre—an unbelievably cool meta whodunnit, where ‘John McClane’ (Johnny Hawke) teams up with ‘Miss Marple’ (Penny Coyne) to solve an impossible crime. Brilliant! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #booksky #amreading #whodunnit #crime 📚

In 1865, RMS Rhone was caught in a brutal storm. Passengers were tied to bunks as they battled the waves, but violent winds slammed the ship into the rocks, shearing it in two. Today, divers report screams from the hull—echoes of those who linger in watery graves. #WyrdWednesday

I’m officially on sub with my latest obsession! I adore this story and am so excited for it to be flying into industry inboxes. May good fortune come on the wings of bats. 🖤 “The beginning is always today.” Mary Shelley. #writingcommunity #onsubmission #middlegrade #horror

“The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.” Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express #BookologyThursday

Many Cambodian refugees and Khmer Rouge survivors described encounters with Khmaoch Sângkât (‘the ghost that pushes you down’)—often a tall shadow, simian demon or red-eyed figure—underscoring the deep link between trauma, PTSD, and sleep paralysis. 🎨Stefan Koidl #WyrdWednesday

“Richard wondered if the hare in some way felt as he did that spring was always bestowed. That it was an invitation to come and watch the world moving and be among its tremors. Here in the field, those first shocks of the season were starting now.” Andrew Michael Hurley #BookologyThursday

A woman in white haunts the roadsides of Archers Avenue, Chicago. Said to be the victim of a 1930s hit-and-run, she is bound to the road forever. Drivers have reported picking her up, only for her to vanish as they pass the gates of Resurrection Cemetery. #WyrdWednesday

Just finished this utterly chilling ghost story by @adbarker.bsky.social. The setting was so textured—with 70’s nostalgia, a blazing heatwave, dread that’ll stick to your bones, and of course, the deeply hauntological Society Place. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #BookSky #BookChatWeekly #Horror 📚😱

“The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me, with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.” - Bram Stoker, Dracula #BookologyThursday