#BUT particularly in shirley jackson

[famousblueraincoatmp3]

i think my primary tip for reading is not very helpful. like with any hobby you have to set time aside for it and that can be hard, but its not a contest. reading is a personal experience and you shouldn’t compare how well you do it compared to others. i have been reading my whole life and grew up with a mother who loves to read, so i have been conditioned to set time aside for it. even if you only read 2 pages or 20 it is still progress.

#sam.txt #this is the only self help adjecent post you will see on my blog #my blog is for gay men and bitches not posting 'clean your room core advice #sorry once again i am unsure how to answer asks on mobile #but basically the ask was like how do you set time aside to read. so i try to answer it #i didnt like my other post but idk how to answer this because #my tips are going to be very basic #because i dont understand how you are intimidiated to read. #its literally just numbers that decrease the more u read it. read some short stories #borges is a master and so is shirley jackson #toni morrison has several books under 200 pages #so do a lot of japanese literature #including my favorite nobel prize winner yasunari kawabata and his masterpiece snow country #all of his books are very short and beautiful. #particularly snow country but also beauty and sadness

[leliosinking]

“Marius and David not welcome” is sort of funny to me in the grand scheme of this series, like I get the basis of this argument is “well they’re both creeps” but to that point I’d recommend a reevaluation of the entire series, particularly its cast of characters.

They are all guilty of some manner of abuse. They all commit horrific atrocities. And they moralize over these atrocities. Like. That is the principle upon which the entire series is built. Can these literal monsters ever be redeemed?

When you read Interview with the Vampire did you feel some extreme discomfort with the father/lover dynamic between Louis and Claudia? (which was excised from the show I might add) That locked-door uneasiness is the essence of southern/gothic fiction. Read V.C. Andrews. Read Shirley Jackson. Read William Faulkner. The taboos, the ick if you will, is the foundation of gothic horror. You are meant to feel this. It is an essential function of the genre.

Like- every one of Anne’s books that followed IwtV had to essentially compete with the gothic genius that is the invention of Claudia and the sickness that is her story. It’s not all effective, but it’s there in almost every work. TVL has Lestat and Gabrielle’s incestuous relationship, QotD has Armand’s abuse (yes, abuse) of Daniel. For god’s sake, TTotBT features Lestat committing a rape, and I know that you all know this. Yet no matter how you try to headcanon that scene away, it will always be significant because its very function is to service the larger themes of bodily autonomy and consent within that specific novel.

Killing in fiction is benign. We are desensitized to it. And we know this. Killing means nothing, so the narrative must work harder to find a violence that can demonstrate evil to a desensitized audience. There is a reason that these books are shelved in fiction as opposed to genre. By design, their difficulty is inherently literary. You’re uncomfortable? Good. Then Anne achieved her goal.

But if you’re looking to proselytize and transform the work into something with a black and white morality system then you have come to the wrong series. You are gatekeeping yourself from a nuanced understanding of the material. David and Marius are as bad as everyone else. The main trio are not exempt from this reading. That was the point. They are all bad. They are all complex. It is meant to be difficult to parse. Engage with it or don’t, but you are deluding yourself if you think that these two main characters are somehow going to vanish from the tv show.

(And again, AMC is going to strip away the most challenging character traits anyway)

#interview with the vampire #iwtv #anne rice #lestat #amc iwtv #vampire chronicles #amc interview with the vampire #the vampire chronicles #tvc #armand #louis de pointe du lac #marius de romanus #david talbot

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

Some books and stories that I think are worth reading in conversation with Yellowjackets

Shirley Jackson, all works but especially The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Jackson might or might not need any introduction in this fandom. The Sundial is her take on doomsday preppers, Hill House is of course her haunted house novel (one of the classics of that genre), and Castle has a female protagonist who makes Shauna look like a plaster saint.

Flannery O'Connor, The Violent Bear It Away. O'Connor's work has some of the most pervasive darkness and brutality of any major American writer (maybe Ambrose Bierce comes close), and the second of two novels that she completed before her death is no exception. (The first, Wise Blood, is also very good; the intended third, Why Do the Heathen Rage?, only exists as a fragmentary short story.) Francis Marion Tarwater is kidnapped and raised in the woods by his great-uncle, who is convinced that Francis is destined to be a prophet. The great-uncle's death commences a bizarre adventure involving auditory hallucinations, sinister truckers, an evil social worker, arson, developmental disabilities, and baptizing and drowning someone at the same time. Content warnings for all of the above plus rape. O'Connor is also a fairly racist author by today's standards--she was a white Southerner who died in 1964--so keep that in mind as well.

Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness. Teenage protagonist is schizophrenic and also a channel for a genuinely supernatural force; well-intentioned but poorly-considered efforts to treat one of these issues make the other worse. Sound familiar? There are supporting characters who are affectionate parodies of Slavoj Zizek and Marie Kondo. A minor character is a middle-aged lesbian who cruises dating apps for hookups with much younger women. Some people find this book preachy and overwritten, but I really like it and would plug it even if I didn't because the author is someone whom I've met and who has been supportive of my own writing.

Yukio Mishima, The Decay of the Angel. Can be read in translation or in the original Japanese. This is the fourth and last book in a series called The Sea of Fertility but I wouldn't necessarily recommend the first three as particularly YJ-ish; Decay is because it deals at great length with issues of doubt and ambiguity about whether or not a genuinely held, but personally damaging, spiritual and religious belief is true. There's also more (as Randy Walsh would put it) lezzy stuff than is usual for Mishima, a gay man. Content warnings for elder abuse, sexual abuse of both children and vulnerable adults in previous books in the series, forced abortion in the first book if you decide to read the whole thing from the beginning, and the fact that in addition to being a great novelist the author was also a far-right political personality.

Howard Frank Mosher, Where the Rivers Flow North. An elderly Vermont lumberjack and his Native American common-law wife refuse to sell their land to a development company that wants to build a hydroelectric power plant. Tragedy ensues. I haven't read this one in a long time but some images from the movie stick in my mind as YJ-y. Lots of fire, water, and trees.

Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers. Yes, this is the same Leonard Cohen who later transitioned into songwriting and became a household name in that art form. Beautiful Losers is a very weird, very horny novel that he wrote as a young man; it deals with the submerged darkness and internal tension within Canadian and specifically Quebecois society. One of the main characters is Kateri Tekakwitha, a seventeenth-century Iroquois convert to Catholicism who was probably a lesbian in real life (although Cohen unfortunately seems unaware of this). This one actually shows up YJ directly; the song "God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" that plays in the season 2 finale takes its lyrics from a particularly strange passage.

Monica Ojeda, Jawbone. Can be read in translation or in the original Spanish. Extremely-online teenage girls at a posh bilingual Catholic high school in Ecuador start their own cult based on such time-honored fodder as Herman Melville novels, internet creepypasta (no, this book does not look or feel anything like Otherside Picnic), and their repressed but increasingly obvious desire for one another. The last part in particular gets the attention of their English teacher, whose own obsessive internalized homophobia grows into one of the most horrifying monstrous versions of itself I've ever read. Content warning for just about everything that could possibly imply, but especially involuntary confinement, religious and medical abuse, and a final chapter that I don't even know how to describe. Many thanks to @maryblackwood for introducing me to this one.

Jorge Luis Borges, lots of his works but especially "The Aleph," "The Cult of the Phoenix," and "The South." Can be read in translation or in the original Spanish. The three works I list are all short stories. The first deals with mystical experiences and the comprehensibility (or lack thereof) of the universe, the second with coded and submerged references to sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular, the third with leaving your well-appointed city home for a ranch in the middle of nowhere and almost immediately dying in a knife fight, which is surely a very YJ series of things to do.

H.P. Lovecraft, "The Colour out of Space," "The Dunwich Horror," "The Dreams in the Witch House," and "The Thing on the Doorstep." Lovecraft in general needs no introduction--the creepiness, the moroseness, the New Englandness, the purple heliotrope prose, his intense racism (recanted late in life but not in time to make any difference in his reception history) and the way his work reflects his fear of the Other. These short stories are noteworthy for having settings that are more woodsy and less maritime than is usual for Lovecraft's New England, for overtones of the supernatural rather than merely the alien, for featuring some of his few interesting female characters, and for their relative lack of obvious racial nastiness. Caveat lector nevertheless.

Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. It's Moby-Dick. Once you realize that Captain Ahab is forming a cult around the whale and his obsession with it you can't unrealize it.

#yellowjackets #books #book recs

[flanaganfilm]

Hi Mike! Are you a big Twin Peaks fan (this is mostly rhetorical as I've found great creatives are and I figured you'd be anyway)? What was the process like of bringing Russ Tamblyn to Hill House? I was so thrilled to see him pop up, do you have any other TP actors you'd like to work with or have attempted to include in your projects?

Hey there! I am a Twin Peaks fan, but I wanted to bring Russ into the show because of Robert Wise's The Haunting ('63).

Russ played Luke in the very first adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel. The character was of course very different from the one we presented in the series, but as one of the only living actors from that amazing movie, I really wanted extend the invitation. Russ was retired when we approached him, but the chance to return to Hill House appealed to him and I was elated when he said he'd join us. He was only on set for one day, but it was a remarkable day. We made sure to allow time to sit at his feet and listen to his stories about working with Wise, and about his experience with The Haunting (though I peppered him questions about West Side Story for at least half an hour). It was a great honor for me to give him a tour of our set, and watch him light up as he recognized the overlapping elements (he particularly liked the spiral staircase).

I most remember him being on set with Victoria. Early in the day of their scenes together, he asked her what she had done before this. "This is my first job," she said. He smiled and said "That's fantastic. I think this is my last job." It was a surreal experience, and one of the brightest points of that production for me. It was an honor to bring Russ Tamblyn back to Hill House.

#the haunting of hill house #russ tamblyn

[beaft]

recommend some horror?

aha!! i am glad you asked (no really, i am, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be loud about my favourite genre). here is a non-exhaustive list of some of my personal favourites:

books

-the ballad of black tom by victor lavalle (retelling of lovecraft's "the horror at red hook" by a black author, i could talk about this one for hours suffice to say it's Very Good)

-pet semetary by stephen king (i have a love/hate relationship with mr king but i think this is one of his better books)

-the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson (actually, just about anything by shirley jackson, my personal favourite book by her is "we have always lived in the castle")

-beloved by toni morrison (it's not exactly horror, but i have to put it here anyway because it's too good not to)

-things we say in the dark by kirsty logan

-tell me i’m worthless by alison rumfitt

-house of leaves by mark z. danielewski (i detest this book. yes it's still one of my top favourites and no i will not be taking questions at this time.)

-my heart is a chainsaw by stephen graham jones

-literally anything by robert aickman

movies

-pan’s labyrinth (historical fantasy-horror, visually stunning, one of my favourite movies of all time)

-lake mungo (australian found footage horror about ghosts and grief)

-the texas chain saw massacre (not as gory as the title might suggest)

-the wicker man (the original version, unless you’re in the mood to see nicolas cage at his nicolas cagiest)

-jacob’s ladder (beautiful, eerie, hallucinogenic, you will not know what’s going on for most of it and that’s honestly kind of the point)

-carrie (the sissy spacek version NOT the one with chloe moretz)

-the ritual (it's not a perfect movie but the creature design is WONDERFUL)

-alien (grr! i'm gonna getcha! i'm the alien! and so on)

-nosferatu (both versions are excellent, but i am particularly partial to the 1979 one with klaus kinski as the vampire)

-whistle and i’ll come to you (unsettling short film based on an m. r. james story)

-hereditary (this one's best if you go in blind, but i realise that’s probably difficult since a lot of it has been memed to hell and back)

-the thing (sci-fi thriller/body horror movie set on an isolated arctic research base)

-don't look now (based on a daphne du maurier short story; light on the horror but heavy on the uncanny)

-cabin in the woods (comedy-horror) okay this one is kind of a guilty pleasure for me but it does have some clever moments and it’s genuinely very fun to watch

-silent hill 2006 (another guilty pleasure, it is very much not a good movie but also i've seen it like 7 times, so.)

-ginger snaps (the close relationship between a pair of misfit sisters is tested when one of them starts going through puberty, and also incidentally becomes a werewolf. similar vibes to jennifer's body although i personally prefer this one)

-penda’s fen (startlingly ahead of its time – it’s basically a coming-of-age story about a gay teenager in rural england with a tasty slice of religious/folk horror)

-crimson peak (love letter to the "gothic melodrama" genre)

-us (i personally preferred it to get out, but they’re both amazing; i haven’t seen NOPE yet but i hope to soon!)

tv shows

-castlevania (based on the video game, vampires + religious horror, gorgeously animated, unexpectedly funny)

-the terror (true-ish story of a doomed voyage to the north-west passage) (the demon bear may or may not be historically factual) (we just don't know)

-twin peaks (idk if it counts as horror but i’m putting it here anyway. it’s not for everyone but it occupies a special place in my heart)

-in the flesh (again, not quite horror, but there are horror elements, and i am putting it here because it’s both a pleasingly original take on the zombie-apocalypse genre and a beautiful queer love story. it got cancelled halfway through its run and i will never stop being salty about it.)

-the enfield haunting (three-part tv drama) (much better than the james wan movie) (not that that’s hard)

podcasts

-the magnus archives (do not ask me about this show unless you're prepared to hear me yell about it for Ever and Ever and Ever)

-alice isn't dead (lesbian trucker searches for her missing wife amidst various spooky happenings)

-a scottish podcast (washed-up radio DJ decides to become a phony paranormal investigator to make some extra cash, but his scheme goes awry when he stumbles on a genuine paranormal event)

-i am in eskew (man attempts to leave city, is unsuccessful)

message me if you want trigger warnings or a more detailed description for any of these!

#horror tag #replies #recommendations

[flameswallower]

Hey I loooove your stuff! What are some other artists, visual, audio, and text based, who inspire you? I hope to be able to create something as evocative as your work one day myself <3

Thank you!! There are so many! In terms of really direct and really significant, enduring influences on my writing style, or approach to subject matter & narrative, or overall "aesthetic" what springs to mind is:

The short stories of Kelly Link, Clive Barker, M. Rickert, Elizabeth Hand, Joyce Carol Oates, Tanith Lee, Steve Rasnic Tem, Melanie Tem, Karen Russell, and Ray Bradbury

The early 1990s horror novels of Kathe Koja and Poppy Z. Brite/Billy Martin

Shirley Jackson's entire body of literary work

Porpentine's 2010s twine games & fiction from the same time

Junji Ito's comics

Emily Carroll's comics

Lynda Barry's fiction and comics

John Darnielle's music/songwriting with the Mountain Goats

Sarah Manguso's poetry

The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

In terms of artists/works I only encountered within the past few years, but am already feeling as "big influences" on my work in a similar way to the above:

Sayaka Murata's fiction, particularly her novel Earthlings

Samuel R. Delany's short fiction (I hope to tackle Dhalgren sometime in the next year!)

Max Graves' comic What Happens Next

Hal Schrieve's fiction and comics

Leo Fox's comics and art

Never Angeline North's fiction

Robert Aickman's short stories

Freshwater, by Akwaeke Emezi

I listen to a lot of music while writing. Recent favorites include Uyarakq, Guided By Voices, Nascent by Alexander Panos, Big Thief, Owen Pallet, and my sister Louise.

[13eyond13]

Who are your top 5 fav characters from all media (can be manga, anime, movies, books, games, etc)?

omg another good question, but also one I find very difficult to answer!

Uh. Would it be incredibly lame of me to have several top 5 favourites all from Death Note 😆 I feel as though it's maybe just because I've spent an ungodly amount of time discussing and enthusing over them with other people in the fandom, and this is really the only fandom I've ever been involved in, but...

L Lawliet - my #1 fave since forever!!!

Light Yagami - it's like he's also my #1 fave due to the fact that I think he's so well-written, entertaining, layered, and fascinating to analyze. I can never quite stop trying to figure him out. But he took me a lot longer to fully warm up to and appreciate than L did

Tom Ripley (in The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith) - particularly/only in the first novel that he stars in. He's got such a soft-spoken and gently polite, keenly observant POV that I find really comforting and enjoyable to hang out with in spite of how much creepy and sinister shit is actually going on underneath the surface and behind the scenes with him 😅 Clearly I have a bit of a type in fictional faves??

Beyond Birthday (in the Another Note novel by Nisio Isin)- I just felt too bad at the thought of not including B here, I simply can't betray my stupid son like that. He's the only fictional character that has ever really inspired me to hop right into his head and attempt to take the reins through writing fanfics, after all. I definitely urge anyone in the fandom who hasn't read the LABB novel yet to read it if you want to know what a colourful character B is... fanon B often just doesn't quite reach the true heights of absurdity and awkwardness that the original B does

Those MIGHT be the only ones I ACTUALLY consider my top faves right now at the moment? I have had other ones in the past, but currently that's the only list that actually sprang to mind.

HOWEVER I'll give you a bonus fictional character that I found incredibly interesting to get to know recently:

5. Mary Katherine Blackwood (from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson) - Merricat is the epitome of a unique and odd first person POV to inhabit. Her unreliable narrating and her childish worldview and her dark little habits and obsessive rituals makes for a pretty fascinating and disturbing read!

#ask #anon #top 5 meme #p

[astralscrivener]

For the End of the Year Book Ask! #3, #10, #16 <333 Let your correct onions be KNOWN Beautiful <3333

I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY BOOK ONIONS

3. what were your top 5 books of the year?

FUCK this one took a lot of thinking

i had to go to my shelf of favorite reads of the year and it was. very tough to choose.

firstly is yellowface by r.f. kuang, which i talk about more in the next question (i answered these out of order oopsies)

second i think is the fifth season/the obelisk gate by n.k. jemisin. i read the fifth season both last year and this year for two different classes, and then finally got around to the sequel + am currently reading the third book and i am bonkers about them. i am thinking about essun and nassun and alabaster and hoa constantly. deeply unwell. a lot more geology than i had initially expected but i'm having a GREAT time

the long way to a small angry planet by becky chambers. my fucking beloved. i've literally owned the book since like 2021 but took forever to read it but i love it sooo much i love the entire wayfarer crew but i think about kizzy and ashby constantly. the socks match my hat scene was so small but lives in my head rent-free

circe by madeline miller!!!! this one is popular for a reason. i know a lot of people tend to prefer TSOA/their first introduction to miller's writing is TSOA but circe was mine bc i love the odyssey (and also the emily wilson odyssey came out before wiliad. so. i have not had the brain power to get thru the fagles translation of either one yet). anyway i loved this a lot. i connected a lot with circe as a person and a character and her entire web of relationships...i am so emo about it. also i am a circe/penelope truther and when i write a sci fi or fantasy novel very loosely inspired by their dynamic. then what. ....wait i might have just had a breakthru on one of my wips wait a minute—

and finally the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson. i think about eleanor too often. way too often. someone in the goodreads reviews commented on her loneliness and it clicked for me why i like her so much and i have not recovered <3

10. what was your favorite new release of the year?

out of the ones i read this year? yellowface by r.f. kuang. i don't read thrillers much but this one was so much. i loved it. chaotic satirical thriller criticizing the publishing industry and raising questions about ownvoices and representation, which authors and stories the industry rewards and prioritizes, the pitfalls of being a young prodigy, and also it was just bonkers. i know this one was divisive for some people but i loved it. i had a great time. i have not stopped thinking about "they called it a globule" for months.

16. what is the most overhyped book you read this year?

you know DAMN WELL what you were doing when you chose this question. kissing you on the mouth

anyway is this a safe space. is this a safe space for me to be bitch. f**rth wing. it was f**rth wing. spoilering so tumblr doesn't put it in the search for the stans to find me

it is bad. it is bad. i initially gave it i think 1.5 stars (rounded up to 2 on GR) but i hate it more every single time i think about it. there is just so much wrong with it as a book but is also emblematic of a lot of larger issues in publishing, and particularly with red tower as an imprint, but i do not have all day to rant or we will be here forever

end of year book ask!

#eileen answers #literature #sweetheart tag

[chthonic-cassandra]

Recent books, vampire fiction (most of which I will be mean about) -

Claire Kohda, Woman, Eating - A young vampire woman puts her (vampire) mother in a nursing home and then tries to make a life for herself as an artist. I had mixed feelings about this novel, but ultimately liked it more than most of the other things I will talk about in this post. I found that it was a book that improved with contemplation; my predominant experience reading it was of irritation at how much it reads like all the other contemporary novels about disaffected young women, but ultimately Kohda is doing some interesting things with hunger and consumption and heritage and intergenerational trauma. I would have liked if the focus had been more sharply on those themes, the novel had gone through a few more editing passes, and the whole thing was willing to be more unapologetically weird.

Dion Fortune, The Demon Lover - A young secretary answers a job ad and finds herself under the thrall of a would-be sorcerer who is using her for her psychic capacities. this is only sort of a vampire novel (it's really a psychic vampire novel, which is a topic about which we all know Dion Fortune had some things to say). It's bizarre, and has some disconcerting politics, but I was actually quite compelled by it. The early sections have some of the bleak claustrophobia of Shirley Jackson, though without her sharp eye and structural skill; the later sections explode out into a messy, exhilaratingly disturbing gothic romance. I'm glad I read it.

Nicole Jarvis, The Lights of Prague - vampire hunter in nineteenth century Prague accidentally falls in love with a noble-hearted vampire woman. This was fine but boring.

Isaac Fellman, Dead Collections - a trans vampire archivist begins a romance with the widow of a television writer whose fandom he wrote in as a teenager. Unlike Kohda's novel above, this was a book that I liked less and less the more I thought about it; I was reasonably engaged while reading, but afterwards kept thining about things that could have been better. Fellman has a couple of interesting ideas here about vampirism and archives, but they are scant, probably better suited to an essay or short story than a full novel, and I found the novel as a whole very dry and in places quite irritating. The world-building around vampirism (which is common knowledge in the world of the novel, which otherwise appeared set in contemporary California) involves what I felt were the blandest choices possible, including very tired and surface-level addiction parallels. The way that the deceased screenwriter character was handled was odd and uncomfortable, though the imagined tv show she wrote for sounded much more interesting than the book itself. Curiously, this and Kohda's novel both involve vampire characters trying to illegally live in their work spaces, which is a peculiar point of coincidence that probably says something about housing anxiety at this point in history.

Deborah Harkness, Time's Convert - a sort of stand-alone set in the world of in Harkness' popular All Souls Trilogy, following the vampire transformation of a young woman who is pursuing vampirism to be with her vampire lover alongside the backstory of that lover, who fought in the American revolutionary war. I had previously read the first of the All Souls Trilogy and disliked it about a decade ago; I tried this one because it seemed to be more solely focused on the vampire characters and in my vampire reading I am nothing if not comprehensive. The way Harkness deals with vampirism is so boringly wholesome that it almost becomes fascinating despite itself, almost like the nuclear family parody of Twilight; I was so tremendously weirded out by it. Vampires in this world have a lot of rules and protocols (sure, I can go with that) particularly around turning. They all call their makers "father" or "mother," and have a strong taboo against turning someone you have a sexual relationship with, or having your own maker turn someone you have a sexual relationship with, because that would be "incest." This attempt to excise the gothic liminality which makes vampires compelling was infuriating but inadvertently intensely hilarious to read. There's a little bit of interesting vampire hierarchy content, but I could not get over the attempts at wholesomeness, which I will be thinking about for a long time.

Jay Kristoff, Empire of the Vampire - in a fantasy universe where the sun has vanished and vampires rule, a member of an elite vampire hunting guild is captured and forced to tell his life story the vampires in power. I DNF'ed this at 200 pages (it's 800) total; I really disliked it. It's the one that I described a few days ago as wannabe Patrick Rothfuss with vampires, and I stand by that description. It was very sexist.

Kendare Blake, In Every Generation - published Buffy fan fic, which is something that appears to exist in not insubstantial quantities. Willow's daughter discovers that she is a slayer and has to embrace her destiny. Whatever. I don't know why I read this. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't particularly good either. I have little to say about. Fan fic should be left to fan fic authors.

#books #vampires

[thehorrortree]

Submission Window: January 17th - February 28th, 2024 Payment: $10 Theme: Dark genre-bending works in the realms of horror, sci-fi, the weird, the macabre, fantasy, and magical realism. Pyre Magazine is a biannual publication. Issues are released Spring/Summer & Fall/Winter. We are most interested in dark genre-bending works in the realms of horror, sci-fi, the weird, the macabre, fantasy, and magical realism. We want stories that grab us by the throat and ask questions about what it means to be human. Make us feel something long after we are done reading. The Editor is particularly fond of stories in the vein of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and Creep Show. When it comes to literary inspiration, think of Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and Mary Shelley. The Editor also enjoys almost anything produced by A24. Think of Pyre as a bonfire — a place of storytelling and sacrifice. Take a seat near the fire and listen or spin a yarn of your own. Here at Pyre, we worship at the altar of storytelling done well. We love genre work that tells us something about the human condition. Pyre is personally funded and maintained by the Editor. he asks you are patient with him as he gets back to submissions. PYRE WILL CONSIDER MATERIAL BY ANY WRITER AND ARE PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN AMPLIFYING UNDERREPRESENTED VOICES. FICTION GUIDELINES:  Submissions of fiction should be no longer than 3,500 words Please submit only one piece per submission period. Send submissions as attachments to: [email protected] with the subject line: fiction submission_yourname. Please include your name (or pen name), the title of the story, the word count, and a brief bio in your email. All submissions should be Word files (.doc or .docx), and they should be double spaced, ideally in Times New Roman 12 pt font, with numbered pages, titled as follows: fiction submission_yourname.doc. FLASH FICTION GUIDELINES: Submissions of flash fiction should be between 100 & 1000 words Please submit up to three pieces of flash per submission period. Send submissions as attachments to: [email protected] with the subject line: flash fiction submission_yourname. Please include your name (or pen name), the title of the story, the word count, and a brief bio in your email. All submissions should be Word files (.doc or .docx), and they should be double spaced, ideally in Times New Roman 12 pt font, with numbered pages, titled as follows: flashfiction submission_yourname.doc. NONFICTION GUIDELINES: Submissions of nonfiction should be no longer than 3,500 words Please submit only one piece per submission period. Please note that we are particularly interested in experimental nonfiction, and shorter is better. Send submissions as attachments to: [email protected] with the subject line: nonfiction submission_yourname. Please include your name (or pen name), the title of the story, the word count, and a brief bio in your email. All submissions should be Word files (.doc or .docx), and they should be double spaced, ideally in Times New Roman 12 pt font, with numbered pages, titled as follows: nonfiction submission_yourname.doc POETRY GUIDELINES: Please submit a portfolio of no more than three poems (3). Each poem should be no longer than two pages. Please use spaces instead of tabs to format your poetry. Please note that we are unlikely to accept micro poems. Send submissions as attachments to: [email protected] with the subject line: poetry submission_yourname. Please include your name (or pen name), the title of the story, the word count, and a brief bio in your email. All submissions should be Word files (.doc or .docx), and they should be double spaced, ideally in Times New Roman 12 pt font, with numbered pages, titled as follows: poetry submission_yourname.doc. PHOTOGRAPHY/ART GUIDELINES:  Please submit a portfolio of no more than four pieces (4) of art or photography. Please send a brief description of the themes and motifs of the work.

Nudity is fine if it's not exploitative, not overtly sexual, is between consenting adults, and the artists have proper model release forms.  Artists are encouraged to send website links to showcase more of their work. Send submissions as attachments to: [email protected] with the subject line: art submission_yourname. Please include your name (or pen name), the title of the story, the word count, and a brief bio in your email. VIDEO SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Please submit a URL link to videos no longer than 10 minutes in length. We are open to both fiction and nonfiction video work. Please note we love experimental video essays & narrative films. Filmmakers must have rights to all music present in their work and proper talent releases. Send submissions as a video URL link or attachment to: [email protected] with the subject line: videosubmission_yourname. Please include your name (or pen name), the title of the story, the word count, and a brief bio in your email. MICRO FICTION OR (VIDEO NASTIES) SUBMISSIONS: We consider anything 300 words or less to be micro fiction. Though we love these types of stories were are less likely to publish them in the official magazine issues. However,we do have a really cool series known as Video Nasties and you can read about those here! PLEASE NOTE: We accept simultaneous submissions. We only ask you to notify us and withdraw if your work is accepted elsewhere. Pyre Magazine currently pays a small honorarium of $10 US , paid via PayPal, for every piece published. We hope to increase this in the future as the magazine grows. Due to the high submission rates you may not receive a verification email. We ask for First Electronic Rights for the works we accept for publication. Upon acceptance, your piece may not appear anywhere else until we publish it. We ask you to credit Pyre Magazine as the first publisher when you republish the work that originated with us. We also reserve the right to archive, reprint, and of course, promote your writing or art. We will not publish blatantly sexist, racist, ableist, homophobic, xenophobic, or any sort of discriminatory pieces. If you have any further questions feel free to email us at [email protected] Submit Via: Pyre Magazine.

[grendelsmilf]

hi orianne. out of curiosity, do you have any favorite short stories?

my favorite short story of all time is “the lottery” by shirley jackson. she has some other good ones in her collection dark tales, but “the lottery” is truly the goat. i have been chasing the high of reading a short story as excellent since I was 12 years old, but nothing has ever truly replicated that feeling for me. furthermore, I highly recommend the collection her body & other parties by carmen maria machado, who is an incredible writer. out of all the stories in that collection, I’ve reread “the husband stitch” most. I also really enjoyed the collection friday black by nana kwame adjei-brenyah. I love “the nose” by nikolai gogol. his other short stories are good too, but “the nose” is particularly iconic 2 me. “the ones who walk away from omelas” by ursula k le guin is also very iconic. I love the complete cosmicomics by italo calvino, and highly recommend reading the entire collection to get a full sense of the thematic throughline across the narrative. and finally, I love the collection entitled going to meet the man by james baldwin, especially the story “the outing,” which is poignant and lovely and subtly heartbreaking, but the titular story itself is in fact one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever read (which isn’t at all to say it’s bad but..... yeesh). there are some others of course, but since these are the first that spring to mind, i think these are the ones that qualify as my ultimate favorites.

#ask #anon #bolded the authors' names for legibility #highly recommend all of them so so very much #100 #short stories

[cryptotheism]

Hey, I just wanted to say, I'm reading Amber Skies right now and some of your prose really reminds me of Shirley Jackson, particularly the opening of Haunting of Hill House, which is my favourite opening paragraph ever. I'm really enjoying your work and hope you write a lot more!

Awh thank you!

[denimbex1986]

'Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal are electric in Andrew Haigh's twist on the modern ghost story, adapted from Taichi Yamada's cult novel.

Asleek but cold skyscraper in Croydon is the primary setting for Andrew Haigh’s queer adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel ‘Strangers’. Screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) is working on a script about his parents, who died in 1983 when he was 12, but despite mining the physical mementoes he keeps, the words just won’t come.

A chance encounter with his mysterious, charming neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal), seemingly the only other resident in the building, invites the possibility of romance into Adam’s life after years of solitude, and with it comes a strange new complication. When he returns to his childhood home in search of inspiration, Adam finds his parents exactly as they were before they died. Affable Dad (Jamie Bell) and doting Mum (Claire Foy) greet him warmly, eager to catch up.

Meanwhile, the process of reconnection allows Adam to let love in. His blossoming relationship with Harry begins as a hook-up; a way for them to stave off unspoken loneliness. But slowly something between them thaws. Adam begins to open up about his parents and his lonely childhood. Harry, who speaks with a syrupy Northern accent and is disarmingly forthcoming about his attraction to Adam, keeps his own troubles simmering beneath the service.

The chemistry between Scott and Mescal in their scenes is atomic; where Adam is shy and cagey, Harry is impossibly worldly, and just a little bit heartbreaking as he deflects by bringing Adam out of his shell. There’s something desperately sad in Mescal’s gaze that only begins to decode as the film slips into its devastating final act, while Scott’s delicacy is worlds away from the more bombastic performances he delivered in Sherlock or Fleabag.

Here he is tasked with portraying a protagonist who is withholding and drifting, stuck – quite literally – in the past, grieving for a life he lost, and a life he never got to live. Scott rises to the challenge, lost and lonely and lovely, a little boy who simultaneously grew up before he had to, while never quite processing his phenomenal loss.

It’s accurate to call All of Us Strangers a ghost story, but Haigh’s phantoms are far from the menacing Shirley Jackson or Henry James types. Instead, there’s a benevolence to these manifestations of insecurities and anxieties; they are avatars of conversations that were never had and time that was up too soon. One of Haigh’s great strengths is his ability to foster a deep connection between the audience and his characters, and the searing ache of losing a loved one is expertly captured here.

But so too does Haigh capture the catharsis offered by processing one’s pain, and learning to see your loved ones – particularly your parents – as human beings, flawed and fallible like anyone else. Such a painful excavation is profoundly moving and often wrenching, but also tentatively hopeful, suggesting peace only comes from learning to live with the melancholy of missing someone. It’s a ghost story, but it’s a love story too. One that will break your heart.'

#All of Us Strangers #Andrew Haigh #Paul Mescal #Andrew Scott #Sherlock #Fleabag #Taichi Yamada #Strangers #Claire Foy #Jamie Bell