A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Wikimedia Commons Because March is Women's History Month, I decided to do this week’s post on a female horror writer. However, before that, I wanted to make sure to read something by one. So, I went to my local library to check out a book last Friday afternoon. The book was "The Magic of Shirley Jackson" first published in 1966 and edited by her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman. It contains several of Jackson’s short stories, (including the famous "The Lottery") and three of her novels, although only one of these is even only remotely related to horror and is actually more suspense/psychological thriller (“The Bird’s Nest”). So, if you haven't already guessed, the woman horror author I've decided to focus this post on is, surely, Shirley Jackson! Shirley Jackson: A Brief Bio Shirley Jackson was born December 14th, 1916 and in 1965, sadly, died an early death at 48 years old. She was a native of San Francisco ("next door" to my home region o...

  Author Shannon Lawrence. (Photo Credit: Shannon Lawrence) Today I have the pleasure of interviewing guest author Shannon Lawrence! Shannon has published stories in more than 50 anthologies and magazines, and in her own collections. She’s a regular contributor to the Insecure Writer's Support Group monthly blog hop with her blog, “The Warrior Muse” , and co-hosts the podcast, "Mystery, Monsters & Mayhem". Shannon has an upcoming horror/dark fantasy novel, "Wendigo Nights", which features a Native American spirit. My own knowledge of the Wendigo myth mostly comes from a story in Alvin Schwartz's "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark", a children’s book of scary folk tales that a movie was based on back in 2019. The story from that book, "The Wendigo", involves an invisible creature that drags its victims until they burn up into ashes. However, Shannon's book features a variant of the mythical creature which she talks about here. So,...

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. I apologise for missing Monday’s monthly post. Because of that, I’ve decided to do a bit of a double-up on this evening’s post. That said, today I answer the blog hop's optional question of the month and I have mini reviews of two psychedelic, science fiction movie sequels, both of which are based on books: the underground short film, "Space Disco One", and "Dune: Part 2"! IWSG Question of the Month The IWSG question for March is: Have you "played" with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing? My answer to the first part of the question: no, I haven't and I don't ever plan to. Read on to know why and ...