This will be the last post I publish on Wyrd Words & Effigies*. I can't think of a better way of bringing this lengthy journey (I've been publishing here since 2013) to a close than by featuring a conversation with one of the most significant figures to have played a role in my life as… Continue reading The Last Conversation : An Interview With Bob Beagrie
My mum has found boxes of my old diaries in her loft. My first thought when she told me was 'I hope to fuck she hasn't flicked through them...I'll be MORTIFIED if she has.' One of the two she handed me today was from my second year at university in 2009 when I'd just had… Continue reading 100 Days Of Blogging #19 – Looking Through My Diary From 2009
I remember being so excited about World Book Day as a kid. At school we would all get a book token worth one pound, which we could take to a local bookshop and exchange for a book which had, if I remember correctly, been written especially for the event. The books were always shit, year… Continue reading 100 Days Of Blogging #17 – World Book Day Was Always Disappointing When I Was A Kid
The Anglo-Saxons called March 'Hlyd Monarth', which means 'loud' or 'stormy month.' And I can confirm that March, 1,600 years later, continues to be stormy. The rain didn't stop all day, and the clouds were some of the most ominous I've ever seen, but I had this unusual lightness about myself. I'm looking forward to… Continue reading 100 Days Of Blogging #16 – Hlyd Monath
I've only just realised that it's the last day of winter. That isn't like me. That isn't like me at all. Usually, I'm counting down the days with dread, wishing the cold season would just hang on and then some. But this winter has left me confused, worried and upset. I don't know what to… Continue reading 100 Days Of Blogging #15 – The Last Day Of Winter
This afternoon, I started putting together a post about the mermaid from Robert Egger's masterpiece, The Lighthouse. But then I went to visit my mother, and my attention was drawn to a notebook lying around that she's had for as long as I can remember. This notebook, to be exact. She's never written in it, but I became engrossed… Continue reading 100 Days Of Blogging #8 – The Universe Is Made Of Stories
Oh hell. This growing older thing is freaking. me. out. I was having a good day until it smacked me in the face that I'm nearly forty. And I just got really scared. But I'm not here tonight to talk about the terrible speed at which I'm approaching middle age. Who needs that on a Sunday, right?… Continue reading 100 Days Of Blogging #6 – Bites From A Few Books
I've been visiting my parents, and today, upon rummaging through one of their bookcases, I found a notebook of mine, gifted to me from them back in 2009. It's sparsely filled, predominantly because it's oddly shaped, so, awkward to write in. But also because, being a fucking massive colour snob, I snubbed it because it's… Continue reading 100 Days Of Blogging #4 – Writing Is Why I Do My Life
A poem from my forthcoming poetry collection which I hope to launch in Iceland later this year. (This sheep head eating experience was during my brief stint of eating meat. My diet is plant based again these days.) WordPress doesn't like poetry, so it's presented differently to how it will be in the book -… Continue reading Svið – A Poem
It's most certainly been a day. Not the happiest birthday I've ever had, nor the saddest. I was going to write a book-length post about 36 things I've learned in the 36 years I've been alive. But I've probably not learned enough to be qualified to write such a thing, especially considering my track record… Continue reading 36 Today But In Dog Years I’m Dead
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 