GOTHIC & DARK ACADEMIA ENTHUSIASTS!

DARLINGS! Just noticed the double-volume revised edition of STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL via @torbooks is on super-eBook-sale right now. 684 pages! For only $3.99! Via Kindle, Kobo & Apple Books! Includes THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER and THE DARKLY LUMINOUS FIGHT FOR PERSEPHONE PARKER + extra scenes & content.

This book of my heart is: GOTHIC. It's Jane-Eyre-Meets-Dark-Academia+Hot-For-Teacher+GHOSTS+Greek-Mythology+Jack-the-Ripper+Found-Family

YES, there is a paperback omnibus edition, available via Bookshop.org (my favorite link to send folks to, it supports local bookstores!), B&N and any physical store can order it in. It's on sale too!

Please share? Thank you!

Kindle - Kobo - Apple Books

A Goth’s Guide to Over the Rhine - PSYCHOPOMP.COM

Honored to share my thoughts and a personal, deep-dive retrospective on my beloved hometown band Over the Rhine at Psychopomp.com. Check out "A Goth's Guide to Over the Rhine" and then go listen to a beautiful, stirring Over the Rhine song. For fellow Goths, start with "Latter Days" from the album Good Dog Bad Dog or "When I Go" from Films for Radio. Let the melancholy beauty soak your bones.

So proud of my collaborator & business partner Thom for this very important essay via Reactor on the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Madripoor, a fictional city they've now set in Indonesia. Please read, please share & learn some history from a member of the Indonesian diaspora who beautifully weaves in his own family's difficult life experiences into this article about how Southeast Asia is depicted.

Please share, because I didn't know the Indonesian history Thom shares here and I find that tragic. Learn something new today!

Darlings! I'm heading into an event every upcoming weekend! (And 3 book deadlines! EEK!) SO, that means I'll be scarce here BUT you can come find me at any of the following places in Chicago, Ohio or Vermont this month!

Chicago Steampunk Exposition - April 12-14 - I'm so thrilled to be a featured guest! Theme: VAMPIRES!! Come hear me talk about all things Gothic and Stoker-inspired! Books available for sale and signing! More info here.

Ohioana Book Festival - Columbus Library - Main Branch - April 20th, I'm so excited to be on the HORROR panel! Books available for sale and signing! FREE to attend! More info here.

Vermont Sci-Fi & Fantasy Expo! - Champlain Valley Expo Center - April 27th & 28th! I'll be discussing the importance of ghost stories and the importance of women writers in genre fiction! More info here.

Further upcoming: If you go to Key City Steampunk in Gettysburg or DragonCon in Atlanta, I'll also be a featured guest again this year at both events!

Hope to see you there! Happy Haunting! BOOP!

*pause*

SUPER BOOP!

My current Boop-o-Meter for posterity. Let this be witnessed.

🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

LOL SATAN

This is perfection.

I love the story of POTO

Just wanted to say not only thanks for the mutual boops but I dig the Victorian goth style you flaunt. It’s quite a leap from the “Hot Topic” style I have mostly seen versus the elegance you bring to the style.

Anyhow, good to boop into you. Keep on keeping on and hope to see you around in the blorbosphere.

That is so profoundly kind of you! Thank you in turn!

I'm an "ElderGoth" at this point in my mid-40s and the Victorian Gothic part of the wide range in stylistic Goth expression has always called to me since I started this life as a teen in the 90s. If you dig my style, please follow @gothiccharmschool, my beloved friend, who literally has written the book on this kind of thing and she showcases the full, beautiful scope of what can be found in our subculture.

To defend Hot Topic just for one second, some of their corporate nonsense aside, I grew up in rural Ohio and the Hot Topic at the mall was really all Goths had as a store, save the thrift store and vintage store (which is where I really developed my style) but Hot Topic, for kids of any alt / punk / goth / emo kind of vibe, it literally was a lifeline to feel like you weren't alone in the world. (I was the one and *only* Goth at my college in Ohio, a school of 16k+ people, I was used in folks' "subculture discussions" in their English classes every year). So, a national chain (that's still around) was something we celebrated.

Thanks again for your kind words and HAPPY BOOPENING!

We'll haunt you when it is no longer Women's History Month but if you'd like to do one last act of solidarity today, you can share this post and pick up this book if you haven't already! Thank you to those who have supported this venture already! We care deeply about women's history through the lens of ghost lore. We hope to keep writing about it and your support ensures we can! Thank you from the bottom of our haunted hearts!

Retailer links here - Also, libraries buy multiple copies of books and support authors directly! Asking for our book through your local library is a GREAT way to help your favorite writer! Cheers!

Western Massachusetts! So psyched to be part of this stunning lineup of paranormal talents for GHOST WRITERS WEEKEND, April 5-7, hosted by the wonderful author & TV talent Sam Baltrusis, at the historic (and very haunted!) Red Lion Inn! I'll be there on Saturday, April 6th to discuss A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA'S GHOSTS, our acclaimed non-fiction examining the intersection of women's history and ghost lore. My talk is scheduled for 3pm on 4/6! I'll have a table with books & jewelry available for sale and signing! With a great lineup of speakers and presenters, plan to spend the whole day learning about ghosts and paranormal phenomena!

Information and tickets here: Ghost Writers & Spirit Squad – Sam Baltrusis

Share with interested friends! Happy Haunting!

I want to believe in Potato. For myself. For you. For future generations. Believe in Potato.

Today is the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. This horrific event opens A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN. Read the chapter Andrea Janes and & I wrote about the avoidable carnage. Child Labor & Union-Busting remain despicably timely these days and attacks on labor law are constantly in the news. Never forget. Please share and please advocate against child labor and ANY rollbacks of labor and building safety codes! Labor law saves lives!

More about A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN here. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Please never, ever, take Labor Law for granted.

HELLO!

(Yes, this is me as Sarah Winchester for Halloween. Also, yes, this is pretty much my general wardrobe give or take a lace layer. Yes, I wrote a long chapter in this book about Sarah Winchester because I really love her and find her to be fundamentally misunderstood.)

I just wanted to drop by and say it's still Women's History Month and it's still a GREAT time to read about historical women and how their stories resonate with us today. BONUS: you can do this through ghost lore! Here's how!

A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA'S GHOSTS examines women's history by using ghost stories; unpacking how we talk about women, alive and dead. Available wherever books are sold, in paperback, audio and digital! Retailer links here!

Word-of-mouth is so important for books like ours, so if this book interests you, could you please share? Thanks so much and Happy Haunting!

PseudoPod 911: Flash on the Borderlands LXIX: Children of Melpomene

Darlings! Listen to me sweetly tell you a macabre little French tale of cathartic revenge!

I love doing audio fiction and this unnerving little short story was a real treat to narrate! Have a listen! Short, sweet and spooky!

Vampire Star: Bats & Blood Drops

This one-of-a-kind piece via Torch and Arrow features two blackened brass bats, the above in an Art Deco style the below with wide wings and a cute smile, set on a vintage 1970s silver-tone filigree five pointed star with a hanging diamond-shaped pendant from which 4 garnet crystals (with high facet counts) glimmer in crimson magnificence! 24 inch braided vintage 1970s chain with lobster clasp.

If you like the look of this, check out ALL our cool, Gothy stuff! Your purchase directly supports a female freelance writer, Goth & Gothic novelist (me) and a disabled loved one. We deeply appreciate your support.

PLUS I make a monthly donation to Lubee Bat Conservancy to help keep endangered bat species alive and the amount I am able to give every month is increased by the amount of bats sold from the shop!

Happy Haunting!

As a thrift-store Victorian-styled ElderGoth, wholly co-signed. Freshly Gothy friends, Baby Bats, Emo Beloveds, please, do not let corporations fool you: zero in on the wide range of black-colored things at thrift stores (or on the super-clearance rack at places like TJ Maxx, I've gotten some great lace blouses/skirts that way) and mix and match your wide range of black colors! (Matching them is your blessing and curse. That's IT.)

If some of you don’t understand why I’m so passionate about helping people understand the DIY and anti-consumerist themes of alternative fashion it’s because I just read an article about punk fashion that had a section dedicated to “shopping some of our punk favorites” that included a $53 pair of fishnet tights

I get my fishnets from the dollar store, I make jewelry out of safety pins and soda tablets cans, I buy “normal” looking clothing at thrift stores and cut it and sew it and wear it so it fits with my style. That’s what it’s about. When punks, goths, emos, scene kids, etc tell you that dressing this way should be cheap it’s because it IS. Don’t let big corporations tell you otherwise

How do we talk about women, alive & dead?

It is Women's History Month! Time to revel in some fascinating gals AND ghosts! A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN: TRUE STORIES OF AMERICA'S GHOSTS, available wherever books are sold, examines women's history through the lens of ghost lore, past and present. Those who were branded as "witches" or "madwomen", those who were relegated to specific roles and those who transcended and transgressed past them. This book is a unique exploration of femininity as a construct broken down and transformed by ghost lore.

Can you please share this post to help us find new readers? 🖤

Retailer links: https://linktr.ee/ahauntedhistory

Also, if purchasing this book isn't possible, just ask for this book at your local library! Libraries buy books and support authors directly too, we love libraries!

Thank you and Happy Haunting!