Virginia Woolf, more than a hundred years ago:

"But for some people horror is cozying up with something lightly gothic on a rainy day"
GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE. WE ARE IN AN AGE OF CENSORSHIP AND CORPORATE SANITIZATION OF OUR OWN HUMANITY. I REQUIRE DISTURBING TRUTH TO SHATTER COMFORTING LIES.

Some NC spring flowers to help you through The Horrors

"I don't want to happen but it probably will" is classic abuser language: "look what you made me do." Except it's not on the scale of a household, but of a nation of 90 million and millennia of civilization.....

Five books to get to know me by (novels only edition):

1. Harriet the Spy
2. We Have Always Lived in the Castle
3. Parable of the Sower
4. Bunny
5. My Heart is a Chainsaw (but really the entire Indian Lake trilogy)

Happy end of Women in Horror Month! Remember to keep reading books by women all year, you know, or else. Beneath this is an image of a woman with a book open. I don't know which movie this is. She says "Everything we want will require unfathomable violence."

Photo of North Carolina backyard covered in snow

Our backyard camellias are usually blooming this time of year

I don’t think we should make concessions to the Masked Murderers Guild of America. I don’t think we should compromise so the Masked Murderers Guild of America stops using kidnapped kids from schools as bait. I thought this was already illegal. The Masked Murderers Guild of America should not exist.

one of the funniest things i’ve ever seen

*whispers* I finished a rough rough rough draft of a novel yesterday 🌚

Stranger Things S5:

I know there are many writerly opinions about adverbs out there, but for me, no one uses them quite like Mona Awad:

extremely bummed every time I encounter a lit mag using AI generated art

This is Spinal Tap. “It really puts perspective on things, though, doesn’t it?” “Yeah, too much. There’s too much fucking perspective now.”

Benoit Blanc whispering "Scooby dooby doo" is exactly what I needed to keep me going until 2026

Sal's "you don't need money to dress better than you do, Duane" line from season one is my favorite bitchy character moment in all of TV ❤️

My neighbor is standing on his roof, using a leaf blower to move leaves from gutters to lawn. A new horror every day.

Honestly, writing horror feels like the sensible response to reality right now.

Our annual romp through Kersey Valley Spooky Woods was a delight, as always. Huge fan of Freddy's boiler room set.

the audacity of the Duffer brothers to title episode 4 of Stranger Things "The Body" and never mention Buffy as an influence

Drink less. You won't have less fun and you'll feel a lot better.

37 and just got my diagnosis a few weeks ago. This resonates 🖤

Inside you are two wolves

Do y'all ever think about how Rowling's "not my daughter, you b*tch" line is just a barely rephrased version of the most iconic line from Aliens? Because I think about it a lot.

I think nearly the entire Horror genre boils down to the idea that it is worthwhile to fight until your very last breath. Even, and maybe especially, when there is no hope.

I will be thinking about this passage from Mapping the Interior forever. Thank you, @sgj.bsky.social

Important to remember re: most NYT opinion pieces

pride month might be over, but it's still gay in this house

hoping Lisa Murkowski has an absolutely terrible day

Immediately blazed through Mapping the Interior and Gospel of Z after finishing The Only Good Indians & mad at myself for not reading some Stephen Graham Jones sooner. Every book is so thoughtfully constructed and impossible to put down.