August 28, 2020
I first read Weaveworld in high school in 1988. I think it was the third Clive Barker book I read, with The Damnation Game being the first. At the time, a friend of mine volunteered at our local library and wanted to impress me, so he snagged an audio copy of The Damnation Game. I think I still have the…
August 19, 2020
One of the most common questions authors face is a deceptively difficult one to answer: “Where do you get your ideas?” Yet, the answers to that common question can be almost as interesting as the resulting story. Welcome to You’re My Inspiration, a column dedicated to discovering what inspires a particular author and their work. Whether it be a lifelong…
July 31, 2020
I first decided to read Lovecraft Country back in 2018 for no particular reason. I was scrolling through the titles languishing on my Kindle for something new to read and randomly stabbed the screen when I came across this particular title. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting; indeed, I cannot remember why I even purchased this book. Reading it…
June 26, 2020
At Speculative Chic, we feature a lot of authors who share everything from their favorite things to the inspiration for their work. But why not also share their fiction? Welcome to Fiction Friday, where you’ll be able to sample the fiction of a variety of authors, including those who write at Speculative Chic! Today, we’re featuring Michelle Renee Lane, whose…
June 3, 2020
Technically, this is a reread, but it’s a reread with purpose. Robert Jackson Bennett is one of my favorite writers, slipping onto my auto-buy list. The thing is, it wasn’t always that way. I read The Company Man, and didn’t like it. So then I read Mr. Shivers and didn’t like it. After that, I read The Troupe and almost…
April 23, 2020
I’ve been dying to talk about this book since reading the ARC in October. It drove me crazy not being able to tell everyone I knew how good it is. The release date was April 7, so without further ado, here is my review of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying…
March 17, 2020
Are you hiding from the outside world right now? Practicing “social isolation”? Welcome to my life! There are always good reasons to stay inside, especially if you’re an extreme introvert. However, there are other good reasons to sequester yourself. You may live in an area where COVID-19 has arrived. I’m so very sorry to hear that. If you’ve completed your…
March 5, 2020
The Hazel Wood is a part of my 2020 Resolution Project. I have 20 books that qualify as speculative on my shelves that I have yet to read — and that I have owned many for several years. The Hazel Wood, however, is not one of those books. I bought this book only a handful of months ago, although I’ve…
February 28, 2020
Ghost stories and haunted houses are my absolute favorites in horror, so I actively seek them out. But due to the quirks of my brain and the busyness of everyday life, I don’t have the focus to read books of standard or more length. I’ve kept to reading comics, novellas, and short stories for the last decade or so. When…
January 23, 2020
As you may or may not have heard by now, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat recently collaborated on yet another TV miniseries adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula — three episodes, produced through the BBC, available right now on Netflix. And much like Gatiss and Moffat’s version of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Sherlock, admired and hated in roughly equal measure by fans…