There’s grief, madness, and loss steeped into it. And of course, the first truly malevolent haunted house in pop culture. In my opinion, what makes The Haunting of Hill House truly powerful is its narrative ambiguity – how much is happening in Eleanor’s head?

When I originally planned this blog, I was simply thinking of women writers who have influenced me and whom I haven’t already written about. However, once I really looked at my list, I realised that all five are best-known for their Gothic work.

‍Coldharbour I is the only book I’ve written so far in the series that doesn’t have a prologue of sorts, so here’s the official prologue to Coldharbour: A Gothic Tale of Love and Death, from an exclusive POV: the elusive Elizabeth Black.

World building is most commonly connected to speculative fiction, in which the writer has to create more of the environment their characters are in, as opposed to researching a real time and place.

I had to write something that at least partially reflected my own lived experience, seeing as Coldharbour is such a personal (if completely fictional) story. Here’s a relatively spoiler-free outline of some of the representation in Coldharbour.

I have a confession to make (as usual): I was incredibly snobbish about publishing at the beginning. I had this idea in my head that I had to get a literary agent and be traditionally published in order for it ‘to count’.

Why are we so fascinated by haunted houses? They crop up again and again in pop culture and I feel like it’s one of the first spooky things we discover as children. Most episodes of Scooby-Doo have some form of haunted house going on, after all.

I haven’t had a Netflix account for at least a year, but when I (briefly) reactivate it this winter, I’ll be paying a visit to some old favourites, because if there’s one shining light in Netflix’s library, it’s the horror series.

Full disclosure: I’ve studied much more poetry (reading and writing) than prose. But I always knew that the story of the Wildes was a story in prose, so I’d just have to spend years learning how to write a good book. In the most poetic way I could.

With my love for a good old British beach, it’s no wonder that my fictional setting Coldharbour is a seaside town. In alphabetical order, here are my top ten personal favourite seaside towns across the UK and Ireland.

I’m often asked about my influences when it comes to writing and obviously, I have many literary ones. But really, it all comes back to the legenday Jim Steinman. If you don't go over the top, you can't see what's on the other side…

Did you know that Halloween isn’t an American invention? It actually began in Britain and Ireland as Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival that heralded the beginning of winter and the ‘darker half’ of the year.

Most of my favourite Black writers are predominantly poets and their voices are as diverse, compelling, and fascinating as you’ll find in any canon of poetry. So, here are five Black poets whose work really speaks to me.

The Master and Margarita had been on my radar for a long time as someone who loves stories about witches and the Devil.

This is not exactly an advice post, but more the ‘character rules’ I (mostly) subconsciously abide by, which can give an insight into my process and characters – and if you’re looking for tips, something here might help you too.

In Irish storytelling traditions, the supernatural is entwined with the natural world (including the various traumas inflicted on the land, from invasion to famine). Here are three of my favourite stories.

Marathon Man perfectly captures the 1970s Jewish experience as my father described it: a generation away from the Holocaust, but Nazis were still being brought to justice. In other words, the trauma was generational and very much had not been forgotten.

When we read the best stories, we don’t notice this delicate dance between dialogue and description. We’re consumed in the characters, the plot, the setting. But we’ve all read a book where we start flicking pages because the balance isn’t right.