#vss365 The plague pits overflowed until the #dead lay higher than the churchyard wall. Priests stopped counting.

Then the corpses began to sink. From the rot rose a tall figure in a black cowl, carrying a scythe.

Death had not brought the plague. It had made him. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

Fiction has about five default ways of writing a witch. The hag. The seductress. The victim. The feminist icon. The eccentric with a cat.

In this post, I talk about three stories that each approach witchcraft from a different direction. #Edvane #TheDarkHearth #Witchcraft LINK IN COMMENTS

#vss365 The maid of Longwitton rubbed the ointment into her eyes and finally saw what guarded the dry well. She followed the demon, struck it with silver and watched it vanish. Water surged from the stones. They praised her #bravery

Something below realised the guard was gone. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 In the small hours, Rossmore House woke to a woman shrieking and sobbing beneath the windows.

“Rossmore! Rossmore!”

Servants ran to their master’s room and found him dead in bed. For years they said the #sound had foretold his death. Nobody asked why the banshee came. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

In 1990, with #DoctorWho off the air, I wrote my own adventure. Finding it 30+ years later, I thought it clunky, over-enthusiastic, too pleased with itself and desperate to explain everything. So I hit it hard.

Perhaps appropriately, the story regenerated too. LINK IN COMMENTS #Edvane #FanFiction

#vss365 Dr Powell had delivered children for forty years and never once lost a mother. People said it was his #calm hands...

#Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The old crofter began to #quake when the Fachan stepped from the mist.

His son whispered, “You’ve seen one before?”

“Aye.”

The creature stopped, then lowered its monstrous head to him.

“Father,” it boomed. #Edvane #DarkFantasy #Folklore

Fantasy has no shortage of monsters. The problem is that most exist only to be fought and defeated. I look at how some of mine work, and why dark fantasy benefits from monsters that refuse to behave like villains. LINK IN COMMENTS #Edvane #TheDarkHearth

#vss365 The professor’s new #siren was a beautiful construction of brass, gears and perforated discs. As his assistant worked the bellows, its note climbed until the laboratory windows trembled.

At precisely 23,000 revolutions, something began screaming inside the wall... #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 At night, the townsfolk heard the Hellwain grinding along the lane, its iron wheels blazing, chained unfortunates dragging it behind them beneath the demon’s whip. They said only those burdened by #sin need fear it...
#Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 Marguerite survived the #island for two years, fighting beasts, hunger and the shrieking demons.

When a ship finally found her, the captain asked how she had kept the dark devils away.

She stared back at him through wild eyes. “Kept them away?” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

King Arthur, Merlin, the Round Table are inventions. Fine. In Merlin and the Unburied King, I used what scholars broadly agree on: Arfderydd, Gwenddolau, and Myrddin, the bard who fled.

That was the scaffolding for my version of the story

#Edvane #Merlin #KingArthur

LINK IN COMMENTS

#vss365 The ship crossed the harbour without oars, crew or raised #sail. When fishermen boarded her, they found every sailor drowned, though the vessel had never sunk.

One corpse opened its eyes.

“Please,” it whispered. “Don’t let her reach the sea.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 A #hurricane tore roofs from houses and uprooted ancient trees, yet the old chapel stood untouched. Survivors crowded inside to give thanks.

The priest locked the doors. Outside, the storm stopped instantly.

He smiled. “There. It’s brought me a fresh congregation.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 For three nights, the dead followed a ship through the fog, their drowned faces rising beside the hull whenever the crew slowed. When they finally reached the #harbour, the sodden corpses stopped and would come no further...

#Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 The will-o’-the-wisp danced across the bog each night, bright enough to #lure travellers from the road. Villagers blamed the marsh for the vanished.

One night, a man tracked the light and saw it pause above a patch of black mud. Then the mud opened its mouth. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 A librarian found an old map showing a way through the #mountain where no road existed. After closing, he followed the map until he found the path at the place it promised. Eventually, the path disappeared into a cave... #Edvane #DarkFantasy

#vss365 Each month, a black #cloud rolled down and settled over the houses. The next day, another house stood empty. The priest said the mist carried souls to God.

When it reached his door, he finally saw what moved inside it.

Thousands of tiny hands. Reaching for him. #Edvane #DarkFantasy

With The Smothing of Dunsop Bridge, I wanted to write a piece of folklore that never existed, but might have. Something rooted closely enough in a real place, and old rural warnings that, for a moment at least, you might wonder whether I had made any of it up. LINK IN COMMENTS #Edvane #Folklore

#vss365 The wizard left his apprentice a single #bequest. Most pages of the book were blank, but each year a new spell appeared. He learned them all.

In the twentieth year, a final spell appeared. Beneath it, his master had written, “Now you are ready. You may bring me back.” #Edvane #DarkFantasy