Author Archives: SamHirst

Happy Halloween everyone! We’re finally at day 31 of the ‘A Scare A Day’ challenge. I hope you’ve enjoyed the stories and the blogs! It’s been a lot of work but I’ve loved seeing everyone’s opinions (whether you joined the discussion here, on social media or just in chatting to me!) and the blog hasContinue reading “Day 31 of #AScareADay – ‘The Girls That Follow’ by J. Choe”

Today’s story was published in Fantasy Magazine in 2022 and you can read it online here. The story opens with the revelation that you can now grow your own girlfriend. Just add water (and some liquid nutrients to enhance your desired characteristics). Our protagonist isn’t interested in a girlfriend though, she’s interested in transformation. AsContinue reading “Day 30 of #AScareADay – ‘Girlfriend Material’ by M H Ayinde”

Today’s story is the novellete ‘The Night Cyclist’ by Stephen Graham Jones. You can read it here. Stephen Graham Jones is perhaps best known for his novels like The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw (an ode to the slasher) which have both won a couple of awards. Today’s novellete was nominatedContinue reading “Day 29 of #AScareADay – ‘The Night Cyclist’ by Stephen Graham Jones”

Today’s story is another Fireside publication, T. Kingfisher’s ‘Bluebeard’s Wife’ which you can read here. It’s not the only Bluebeard retelling that T. Kingfisher has written. I recommend checking out the book The Seventh Bride for a darker Gothic world (with an adorable hedgehog familiar!) The Bluebeard narrative is at the heart of many GothicContinue reading “Day 28 of #AScareADay – ‘Bluebeard’s Wife’ by T. Kingfisher”

Today we take a leap forward into much more current writing. Hesper Leveret’s short story ‘Not a Basking Shark’ was published by Fireside in 2022 and you can read it here. If you’re wondering why these lists often jump from the early 20th to the early 21st century with little in between, it’s because bothContinue reading “Day 27 of #AScareADay – ‘Not a Basking Shark’ by Hesper Leveret”

Today’s story is the 1882 tale ‘The New Mother’ by Lucy Clifford (the publication was under the name Mrs. W. K. Clifford). You can read it or listen to it here. ‘The New Mother’ was part of a collection she wrote for her children called The Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise. The collection was illustratedContinue reading “Day 26 of ‘A Scare A Day’ – ‘The New Mother’ by Lucy Clifford”

Today we’re reading one of the most well-known American short stories of the 20th century, Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’. You can read it (or reread it) here. I know a few people who are experts on the work of Shirley Jackson (you can even catch a few of their Shirley Jackson classes with Romancing theContinue reading “Day 25 of ‘A Scare a Day’ – ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson”

Today’s story is one of my favourite examples of ‘women’s weird’ writing. You can read ‘Outside the House’ here (you’ll also find other Bessie Kyffin-Taylor stories if you like this one!) I have often heard that ghost stories went out of fashion with the horrors of the First World War. This was, of course, theContinue reading “Day 24 of ‘A Scare A Day’ – ‘Outside the House’ by Bessie Kyffin-Taylor”

Last year, people told me that they liked the poetry on the challenge list and asked for more so I’ve tried to incorporate a little bit more and not keep it isolated to the early Gothic! This is our last poem on the list ‘A Child’s Nightmare’ by prolific poet and author Robert Graves, whoContinue reading “Day 23 of ‘A Scare A Day’ – ‘A Child’s Nightmare’ by Robert Graves”

M R James is one of the most famous authors of ghost and weird tales and this is one of his best. I’d actually forgotten how chilling ‘Count Magnus’ is and how little it tells us, how much it suggests. You can read it with your eyes here and enjoy a great audio version here.Continue reading “Day 22 of ‘A Scare a Day’ – ‘Count Magnus’ by M R James”