Spooky season is officially underway! I’ve been enjoying all the fun, vibey posts on Insta and Bookstagram, all the festive podcast episodes coming out, and all the decorations popping up everywhere. Hubby hauled out our own Halloween decor from the attic over the weekend, and yesterday I put everything in its place.
No judgment against anyone who enjoys decorating early for Halloween, but I’ve always liked to wait until the first of the month to keep it special, and to avoid getting sick of everything before the Spooky Big Day.
In the spirit of the season, then, I thought I’d share some easy, fun stuff–all about my writing space, now decorated for Halloween, and all the things I love about the fiercely gorgeous fall anthology my work’s published in, The Veneficium Feminae, from Amaranth Publications.
First, my writing space.
If Zoom webinars and social media are anything to go by, most writers have their own beautiful offices in which to work. I see large desks, sometimes with dual monitors, set before bookshelves aesthetically filled with their favorite hardcover books–many of them their own, if these writers are published. I love seeing these spaces. They look so cozy, private, and inspiring–beautifully conducive to word flow.
But since we, the Shaws, live in a 1900 sq ft, two-hundred-year-old farmhouse, I have no such office. Instead, I write in our dining room, right at the table, and I am perfectly content with this.
My dining room is actually my favorite room in this old house, and I think of it as very much my own. I selected and arranged everything in it, and many of the items are antique family pieces.
The story this room tells is of old, pretty things, and my vision of bucolic, historical New England, where I am now lucky enough to live.
It might not seem private or quiet, but the space works well for me. I have a beautiful view of our acreage, looking out at the Frasier Firs growing all the way back to the tree line of a dense forest. On days when the weather’s nice, I open the window to let in the breeze, and I can hear the birds chirp.
This spot also allows me to keep an eye on our free-ranging chickens, and I can tend to any deliveries or repair/maintenance people who show up during the day.
I am also right by the bathroom and kitchen, so it’s quick and easy to take care of my needs, which helps sustain my concentration.
It’s easy to chat, too, with my husband as he passes in and out of the kitchen between his work meetings. In this way, we keep each other company without intruding on the other’s work.
And I can gaze up at the beautiful, old wooden beams running the length of the ceiling any time I need to channel the past.
It’s a gorgeous, bright space, in short, and I’ve never found anything about it distracting, despite Joyce Carol Oates’s argument that one needs a room with no good view to keep one’s attention on their work.
And when Daph’s at school, the house is plenty quiet.
The only drawback I can think of is that I have to get out my things–laptop, pencil pouch, and paper files–any time I go to work, and then I usually have to put them all away again. It’s no major inconvenience, though, and it allowed me to rationalize buying a new pencil pouch from Amaranth’s online boutique, The Stack, so I won’t keep misplacing my pens and pencils.
I am extraordinarily lucky to call this space my own.
Now, allow me to gush a bit about the cozy-creepy stories that fill the pages of The Veneficium Feminae.
“Candlelight” by LeeAnn Weaver
“Old Lady Cornish at her sewing machine/Needs a huge needle to stitch every seam./It’s a cold, cold night and her cover’s too thin,/So she makes another blanket with your SKIN, SKIN, SKIN!”
It’s a playful spooky legend, but is any of it true?
On a chilly night out, four carefree friends are curious to find out. Do any of them have what it takes to confront whatever’s in that old cabin?
Chilling imagery and a tragic backstory pull readers into this brief but haunting, melancholic tale, the piece that perfectly opens Veneficium.
And that rhyme burrowed right into my brain!
“Into the Mist” by June Baker
A story about wicked Mother Nature.
Kat is optimistic on her first kayaking trip in Alligator Creek Swamp State Park. She’s just moved in with her boyfriend and feels like her adult life has begun. But tucked into the natural beauty of the lake are subtle signs that all might not be well… that dark things slither just beneath the surface, threatening to upend all her hopes and plans.
Can Kat stay the course?
The specific details of the setting and the loneliness and fear that Baker skillfully develops in both Kat’s internal and external worlds make this story a truly immersive, slow-burn horror. Toward the end my stomach was sick with tension!
“The Cult of Bram Stoker” by Emily Holman
Mina and Lucy are best friends… or is that all? Can they be more? It seems circumstances and timing only work against these two, culminating in a tragedy that nearly destroys poor Mina. Believing she will never see her friend again, she is visited late one night by a surprise visitor.
And even though something’s not quite right, might she and Lucy have a second chance–this time for all eternity?
I love this eerie and bittersweet retelling of Dracula, with Mina and Lucy as the main characters.
“Unremembered” by Abel Ruiz
Claret has lost her husband of many years, that loving and pragmatic man who brought order to the creative chaos of her life, and her grief manifests in unsettling ways. It seems that her house and garden will not cooperate with her determined efforts to move on–why do the weeds keep growing through the cracks in the flagstones? Why is that spiderweb still there, after she brushed it away? Why does she keep making her dead husband a sandwich for lunch? And why is he there, leaning against the doorframe?
The lyrical details in this piece do a fabulous job suggesting how poor Claret’s mind unravels. Or does it? Is something else at work?
I found this a poignant story of loss and psychological unease.
“One Last Tap” by Nicci Schwartz
I love this artwork, too. It suits the themes of the stories well. To me, it suggests the dead trying to pull just a little more from the living.
“The Hunt” by Tera Schreiber
Becca is a young college student haunted by loss yet trying her best to move on with her life. All she wants to do is earn enough money tending bar to pay her rent, bills, and tuition while she studies to be an ER nurse. But one night, one of her professors, a beloved member of the faculty, enters her workplace and begins to chat with her–flirt, even, in ways Becca’s not entirely comfortable with. Slowly, she senses what a predator he truly is, and he has chosen her as his next prey.
Can she get away in time from this big bad wolf? Or will she freeze in the face of tragedy once more?
I adore this eerie, suspenseful retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, with its strong narrative voice. And while the ending does not disappoint, I found this story tragic for several reasons, making it linger in my mind long after the last page. Amazing work!
“Bone White, Blood Red” by Sybil Wainwright
This is the perfect piece to end Veneficium. It’s a short horror-fantasy with an epic feel. Princess Artemine is the heiress to her father’s kingdom, but her wicked step-mother wants the reign for herself and plots to have her step-daughter murdered. Thus, Artemine flees just weeks before her 21st birthday into a haunted forest, willing to die from exposure in the elements, her body undiscovered, as a way to compromise her step-mother’s legitimacy on the throne, rather than allow herself to be murdered by the Queen Consort’s henchmen.
A strange, bone-white knight discovers her hiding, however, and takes her to an arboreal palace deep in the forest, hidden from the sun. There, Artemine is made an offer, and she faces a difficult choice. What kind of life is she now willing to live? What will each option bring her, and what will it cost?
This tale is a rich re-imagining of Snow White. I enjoyed the romantic element and found it morbidly uplifting. The author has created an amazing world in which I’d love to see her continue Artemine’s story.
I hope I’ve tempted you to check out this amazing anthology, a perfect read just in time for Halloween. The digital version is available from The Stack, and print versions can now be found on Amazon.
Happy reading, and happy haunting!
If you’re a fan of spooky season, what’s your favorite thing about it?
Talk to you next week!
XOXO,
Jenn
Jennifer Shaw 