Some exciting conference news! A Call For Papers - Late Bowie: Legacy, Mortality and the Archival Impulse @kingstonuniversity.bsky.social #viscontistudio 11th/12th September 2026 Please visit this link wp.me/p3VQVb-y0 More details to follow

The deadline for applications to the role of Secretary to The Allan Lloyd Smith and Justin D. Edwards Memorial Book Prizes has been extended to 19 January! The successful applicant will receive a fee of £300. More information and application details: www.globalgoth.org/blog/applica...

All right, I'll honour my writing mentor's memory some other way. I'm not famous or glamorous; there is no point in trying to publish; at most I might copyright and blog this novel, if I ever finish it.

Thogh no thinge No thinge kan keepe us togethir We kan beat them Forevir and evir & we koude be heroes just for one daye 1947-2016

My writing mentor has passed; she was almost 97 years old and had been a friend almost 50. She knew I was writing a novel; she believed writing fiction to be my gift. And someday I must write (and publish) something worthy of her, so I can dedicate it to her memory.

More photos!

Photos!

Ten years ago David Bowie''s death shook the world. An inventor, a seeker, a musical chameleon and an ace vocalist who was at the forefront for four decades. He brought a touch of avant-garde into the mainstream. www.herecomestheflood.com/2026/01/in-m... @davidbowiereal.bsky.social #videos

Not untrue, despite being just over a week into it.

And, of course, the boulders are piling up at the mouth of the Cave of Work and Fretting (though oddly that's never prevented me from finding time to write when I've been motivated, so what I need is not necessarily time but renewed motivation).

A perfect song.

That was good of the lions.

Just old-fashioned tussling. #grickledoodle #wizards #fight #cartoon #art #drawing #funny

Now that I've sent the novel draft off to my beta reader, I seem to have lost all motivation to work on it. I don't want to lose it, I've given two years of my life to this thing so far.

Salem photos!

More photos!

Photos!

Well then.

Do what you love out there, everybody. Happy New Year. #grickledoodle #happynewyear #darthvader #trampoline #starwars #cartoon #art #drawing #funny

+++ On this day, the 1st of January 1818, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, was first published. +++ #frankenstein #maryshelley #gothichorror #gothic #OTD

The current state of the vampire novel.

I love these new colour-coded alerts on the weather site I use; I always hear the Supervisor's voice announcing then adding "approaching perimeter". And if you know, you know.

Reminder.

Tomorrow and/or Thursday there will be new photos, including some night sky shots on a rare clear night.

Chloe Dalton's RAISING HARE avoids ranting or preaching about the big issues it illuminates by patiently drawing us in to her own appreciation of hares and their (our) world, until we are ready to care and maybe even fight for them.

More photos!

Photos!

Every year he put up a little one. #grickledoodle #christmas #horror #holidays #vampire #cartoon #art #drawing #funny

Minimal decorations as mostly working through the break (and polishing the novel draft for my extremely capable beta reader). Fewer glimmer strings, a few shiny things. No tree (Salem is very good but let's be realistic). Any suggestions for season-adjacent music that isn't conventionally festive?

+++ Rest In Power - Remembering Ian Fraser Kilmister aka 'Lemmy' of Motorhead & Hawkwind fame - who was born on this day, the 24th of December 1945, in Stoke On Trent. +++ He would have turned 80 today. #lemmy #lemmykilmister #Motorhead #hawkwind #aceofspades

Thursday and/or Friday there will be new photos. 📱

Thursday and/or Friday there will be new photos. 📱

Have an Olly Jolly Christmas It's the best time of the year I don't know if there'll be snow But have a cup of cheer.

The shorteste daye The longest nighte Welcome, sun Welcome, lighte

My Top 5 2025 EDM Albums: #1 City of Clowns by Marie Davidson 🇨🇦 youtu.be/1s_nggyV444?...

What a time to be alive 😳

He ys ridinge a horse He ys emerald and svelte He will get reallye weirde If you lie about beltes The Green Knighte Ys Cominge To Toun

Gemini for all your alternate lifespans and countries of origin. And generic plain wrong portraits as well.

Has anyone seen the 2-season AMC adaptation of Interview with the Vampire? Is it any good? Is it worth $20 Cdn for a digital box set even if I just watch it through once? #interviewwiththevampire

'Brett’s greatest trick in channeling Holmes was to make Holmes seem like himself. His performances were an integration and shedding of the self, a foretaste and remembrance of where the character was going, and where he had come from.' Jeremy Brett, the Perfect Sherlock Holmes buff.ly/7UxfopN

Roger Clarke and I are writing a book about ghosts. We need a publisher. @tomsbrown.bsky.social and I are writing a graphic novel about boy mire maids and need a publisher. If you are interested, DM me.

Call for papers for our new special issue on 'Nocturnal London', edited by Maurizio Cinquegrani, Yihong Zhu, and @mcmccluskey.bsky.social. Abstracts due in by 31 March 2026. All submissions and reposts much appreciated.

No photos this weekend.

I would stay up all night if I thought there were owls to be heard. 🦉

The song titles are priceless.

I'm not sure why it's flashing like that, but the image contains the CFP for the edited collection @dianearodgers.bsky.social and I are putting together on Folk Horror on Television. We're looking for a wide range of texts, contexts, and academic approaches. Proposals by 15 January.

I am very glad I took that seminar in Old English about 40 years ago (and had an opportunity to revisit its content last year); I feel how this works; I can see it.

So much rain.

I have no idea what he planned to do with it. Anyway, back in the Cave of Work and Fretting, so probably no more photos for a while (though the almost relentless rain and by now early darkness have made daily-walk photography challenging at best, and Salem generally prefers not to be photographed).