WANT

Apparently under the new Budget we will be £2.08 worse off. *shrugs shoulders*

F*ck this winter cold and the microscopic horse it rode in on. Really.

I'm currently reading the last story in ST60. I don't pass judgement on my OWN contribution, but the other four are absolutely stunning. This is a really standout issue. Get it if you can!!! www.lulu.com/shop/sam-daw...

It is prematurely dark, rainy and cold. We took the tiny doggo to the park for a walk and she just refused to walk, so we carried her around. I think the dog thinks the task before us is to go around the park by any means, not for her to get exercise.

I am reading this right now! Stuck at home with a vile cold so having lots of hot sweet tea and this.

More love for Tales of Occult Britain! Thank you so much 🖤

My report on the impact of GenAI on the novel is released 20th Nov. It includes some powerful findings from my BRAID UK fellowship research with almost 400 literary creatives across the UK. Honoured to be joined by Gina Neff, Kate Mosse & Richard Combes to launch this report. Book your place below!

Red sky in the morning— oh, fuck off November

I have an absolutely vile cold but I am going to have to go out today because we are down to one teabag. 😱

In a new and unpleasant turn of events, the cat has now started yowling discordantly for breakfast BEFORE the alarm goes off.

This was on the bathroom floor! 100% from Frankenstein's creature.

How OH spent his day. Tell me again how people in their 60s are "elderly"...

Here he comes with flaming bowl, Don't he mean to take his toll, Snip! Snap! Dragon! Take care you don't take too much, Be not greedy in your clutch, Snip! Snap! Dragon! With his blue and lapping tongue Many of you will be stung, Snip! Snap! Dragon!

They're going to introduce an entrance fee for the Callanish Stones. I can see the rationale, because so many tourists visit them. Those tourists need toilets, & parking, & somewhere to get a cup of tea, and someone to keep an eye on them so they don't scrawl "Kevin was here" on the stones. But...

Your annual reminder that the Victorians (and earlier) used to play a Christmas game called Snapdragon where you had a big dish of burning brandy and you had to fish raisins out of it without combusting yourself

So I wrote another very horrid story, and while OH was sorting his climbing gear I told him the plot, and he said EW THAT'S HORRIBLE. Job done, I'd say.

Perfect reading for a freezing winter’s night. @helleborezine.bsky.social make lovely things

Balancing act

Came over here for a bit because Threads is freaking bad tempered this evening 🙄

I'll have more to say about this on the blog tomorrow but the reason I was looking for hieroglyphics that spelled the name Nyarlathotep was so I could finish this piece for the Haunter of the Dark book.

There’s no way that kid isn’t thinking ‘WTF. This isn’t an advent calendar’.

Join me in Crieff for 2 events next week Creative writing workshop on Thursday 20 November The launch of my new novel, Barvick Falls on Sunday 23 November www.robmcinroy.co.uk for more info #WritingCommunity #HistoricalFiction #CrimeFiction #BookSky

Dec 18th at 7pm I'll be reading from ILLUSIONS OF PRESENCE, chatting about editing anthologies and ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS (within reason and taste 😉) - tickets are £8.83 (cushion admin and fees). I'd love to see you there, please reskeet far and wide! www.eventbrite.com/e/illusions-...

Ahaha I wanted to look at Google Street View for Clava Cairns for something I am writing, so I clicked on it and it put me right in the middle of one of the cairns, so all I can see is big stones...

I see Mark Gatiss's COUNT MAGNUS is on Apple TV for a mere £2.49. I have bought it, because although I like all his ghost story adaptations, I love that one inordinately. Not least because it is pretty true to the original story, and my aged Dad loved it for that.

OH posted this from Thursday morning's "Rise and Grind" bike ride. He showed me this photo, and remarked what a beautiful sunrise it was. Reader, I had not noticed the sunrise nor all the people on bikes. I had just zoomed in on that gorgeous standing stone...

Tesla driver who did not say thanks when I stopped to let you go first even though I had right of way: you have an indefinite face, the physiognomy of a man who lacks all conviction in life. So there.

The tiny doggo has been barking furiously at the French windows for the last ten minutes but whenever I open the door she backs off and refuses to go out. From this I conclude that there is something very nasty in the back garden - possibly zombies.

Our son is a field archaeologist in the Highlands and Islands, and he just sent us this pic from work:

I said I'd order takeaway for the family, which we rarely ever do, and now I am in a very bad mood

Well, I should have done this before but I'm soaking the fruit for my old Dad's Christmas cake. I am soaking it in home made cherry brandy!

The Secret Commonwealth is a genuinely fascinating text! The Rev. Kirk is buried at Aberfoyle, not all that far from us. Or perhaps I should say "supposedly buried" since according to legend he is away with the fairies.

“…a glorious, heady rush of red clay dusted prose… Miskowski has created a story that will linger in the darkest rooms where you store your secrets.” – Kristi DeMeester, author of Dark Sisters

IT’S HERE! Our first volume of strange and supernatural stories for the darker half of the year. Nine new tales by masters of the genre: Ramsey Campbell, Helen Grant, Reggie Oliver, Ally Wilkes, Steve Toase, Verity Holloway and more. 👉🏼 Get your copy on www.helleborezine.com

Squeee! I met @nunkie.bsky.social ! We went to see him doing THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH and RATS as well as AN EVENING'S ENTERTAINMENT at Innerpeffray Library. Quite literally a towering talent...

OH invited me to go to a climbing film evening with him tonight. I sat through two hours of people creeping up sheer rockfaces using their fingertips and toes. I think I have contact vertigo.

Just started a new story. Two lines in and we already have a fit bloke in a kilt.

Delighted to have a creepy story about online dating in the latest issue of fave Supernatural Tales!

This will be great! Go if you can, Perthshire peeps!

Hellebore's TALES OF OCCULT BRITAIN is out now! I have my contributor's copy and it's an absolutely gorgeous book. Would make a fabulous Christmas present! helleborezine.com/products/tales

If you are anywhere near Perthshire, @nunkie.bsky.social is doing a performance of M.R.James ghost stories on Wednesday night (19/11) at Innerpeffray Library, which has to be the ultimate Jamesian location!! Tickets here: innerpeffray-library.arttickets.org.uk/innerpeffray...

Gosh. I have become a Great Aunt.

I saw a Franciscan monk in Dundee! I googled, and apparently one of the two UK friaries are there.

I read Jump Cut by our very own @helengrantsays.bsky.social over the weekend. Thoroughly recommend. It was creepy, some properly dark tendrils permeating through a tale of love, loss and obsession. I really enjoyed it. Devoured it, even.

Lookee at the little delight I got in the mail yestereve from @helleborezine.bsky.social The cover is even more gorgeous in person. #bookmail #📖📫

Making a roast dinner, an endeavour that feels somewhat unwise considering how very very tired I am...

Perthshire is so very Gothic. As we were wandering across the fields today I remarked to my daughter, "The mausoleum looks very fine in the late afternoon sunshine, doesn't it?"

Loch Monzievaird 🍂

Autumn in Perthshire 🍂