31 Days of Halloween: Day 10

Continuing with my Halloween month (though a bit less intense than yesterday)... I just had my daily horror story and seasonal tea today...

Today's Story

Today's story was 'Lot No. 249' by Arthur Conan Doyle, a creepy story about 'the great terror of Abercrombie Smith' (that may or may not be a resurrected mummy).

Today's Tea

Today's tea was H.P. Lovecraft from The Literary Tea Company, a pumpkin black tea with toffee, liquorice and the fear of the unknown. H.P. Lovecraft smells and tastes quite strongly of toffee, which is actually surprisingly nice for a black tea. Mmm... eldritch.

Stories to be Read with the Lights On 10: Pin Money by James Cross

The next story in my Hitchcock reread is 'Pin Money' by James Cross. This is another one that feels very familiar. I don't think I've read it again since I was a teenager, but it feels like I might have read/seen something similar. It's the second one where I've wondered if there was a Twilight Zone episode with this plot.

Cross's story about two men who use nefarious means to get a promotion has a really satisfying ending that clearly stuck with me (it came back to me as soon as I started reading the story). But I did also immediately recall being a bit creeped out by the way both men use their wives to try and secure the boss's favour. And frustrated by the way the wives accept this.

But the clearest memory I have related to this story is that I'm sure I read it shortly after I first got interested in stories about Dr John Dee. I'd read a novel about Dee around the same time, I think. 'Pin Money' has an odd little version of Dee (or at least a character called 'Dr Dee') who is very much like the sort of goofy genie characters that crop up in some Twilight Zone episodes.

Isn't weird which stories are familiar on this reread and which ones I've completely forgotten? There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern to it!

Next Story 🠆

🠄Previous Story

31 Days of Halloween: Day 9

My month of Halloween continues! I've done a few seasonally spooky things today, so it's a little bit of a longer post this time.

Haunted Whisky Tasting

Tonight I did a haunted distilleries whisky tasting with my husband and my brother. I found five ghost stories about distilleries, and chose a whisky from each of those distilleries (from Master of Malt) that Rob and James tasted blind (I also tried the whiskies, though I had the background info of course). All they had to do was match up the whiskies with the ghosts. Unfortunately, they didn't do too well at identifying either the distilleries or the ghosts, but we still really enjoyed drinking five excellent drams! Oh, and we also had some Halloween crackers to set the mood for the night!

Abominable Books

Cheating a bit with this one, as I do it every month... I have a subscription to the Abominable Book Club, a monthly horror book subscription box. October's box arrived today, so I got to do my regular unboxing (and I like to take my time over this). And woohoo! lots of goodies this month! I've got My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones and Six Rooms by Gemma Amor, plus some chocolate ginger biscuits and a Pinhead pin! And my mystery book this month was... The Uninvited! It's apparently the novelization of ITV's chilling new (1997) series starring Douglas Hodge & Leslie Grantham, from the producers of Hamish Macbeth!

Snail

Not the most Halloween-y thing, but I think it still counts. I spotted this snail on a litter-pick in Boggart Hole Clough this morning. I don't know if I'm including it for the snail or the fact that Boggart Hole Clough is an inherently Halloween-themed place!

Today's Story

Today's story was 'The Bird' by Thomas Burke. Did not expect the direction this dark little tale took at all.

Today's Tea

Today's tea was Enchanted Narnia from Bird and Blend Tea Co., which promised to be a Turkish Delight-inspired brew. It's certainly packed with rosebuds! But I've got to admit, the cocoa and lemongrass came through much stronger than the rose flavour. It was very light as well. I might brew the next cup a bit stronger to see if it's rosier!

31 Days of Halloween: Day 8

Carrying on today with my story-a-day and my Halloween tea-a-day. I've got something a bit livelier lined up for tomorrow though...

Today's Story

Today's story was 'The Idiots' by Joseph Conrad. This one is far from my favourite so far, and I'm not even sure it counts as a horror story. Ah well, there's always tomorrow's story!

Today's Tea

Today's tea was Blue Moon from The Tea Crew, another very fruity fruit tea. (And if you don't think Blue Moon has any Halloween/horror associations, then you're watching the wrong films.) Although it's meant to be a blueberry cream flavour, Blue Moon tea is quite red, and it tastes of very strongly of purple Skittles (but definitely not in a bad way).

Stories to be Read with the Lights On 9: Goodbye, Pops by Joe Gores

The next story in my Hitchcock reread is 'Goodbye, Pops' by Joe Gores. This was a weird one for me, as it sort of felt familiar but not as much as some of the other stories. I couldn't say I remembered it in any detail, but it didn't feel totally unfamiliar either.

I liked this one because it was a bit of a change from the others in the book so far. Although it's a 'tale of the unexpected', the twist is the opposite way round to usual. Normally in this type of story, you think things are working out okay and then something bad happens to pull the rug from under your feet. In Gores's story, you constantly feel something bad is going on, before being surprised by something... good, I guess? The story is about a criminal who breaks out of jail and returns to his family home. His father is dying, and he has a bad relationship with his brother and sister-in-law. What happens is certainly unexpected.

This is actually the first story that I'm glad I can't remember clearly, as I enjoyed hitting the big moment without any prior knowledge of what was coming. It's a bit more emotional than the previous ones, so it was nice to be surprised. Hooray for my fuzzy memories of the book!

Next Story 🠆

🠄Previous Story

31 Days of Halloween: Day 7

And it's another day of Halloween! Back to being a bit more low-key, with just a story and a tea. Still spooky though.

Today's Story

Today's story was 'The Withered Arm' by Thomas Hardy. Aka 'If Tess of the D'Urbervilles had lived' (spoiler alert: she wouldn't have been happy).

Today's Tea

Today's tea was Sailor's Brew from Flying Fish. Okay, a sailor isn't very Halloweeny, but look at that picture and tell me it's not Cthulhu dressed for a day's work at the bank. This is just a really nice Assam tea, and it's the one so far I'd definitely drink all year round.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 6

My Halloween month continues! (And yes... I know this post is a day late, but I've had a busy week of non-Halloween things as well, so I'm just catching up!)

John Carpenter's Village of the Damned

We decided on a random film on the Horror channel tonight... and it was a good 'un! I haven't seen John Carpenter's 1995 version of Village of the Damned for ages. It's got Christopher Reeve! And Kirstie Allie! But it also poses the question... where are the kids getting those creepy little outfits from? Are their 'parents' dressing them like that? Or is there a specialist clothes shop in Midwich? (As a side note, I really want to reread The Midwich Cuckoos now. And The Chrysalids too come to think of it.)

Today's Story

Today's story was 'The Hand' by Guy de Maupassant. It's a relatively short one, and it's creepy rather than horrifying. Vendetta!

Today's Tea

Today's tea was Berry Lugosi's Dead from Tenacious Tea - definitely the most awesome packaging so far, and the fruitiest tea! As the packaging promised, it is very much a blood red infusion as well.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 5

Continuing with my Halloween month, and I did a few seasonal things today that I definitely think I can count as Halloween celebrations.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

My tram reading this week is Grady Hendrix's The Final Girl Support Group. I didn't have a massive distance to travel today, so I only read the first three chapters (I love the chapter numbering so far, by the way). Let's see how this one works out...

Dead of Night

This week, we're doing horror cinema with the second year students. Today's film was one of my all-time favourites - the 1945 anthology horror film, Dead of Night. I had a really lively and fun seminar with my students this afternoon. I don't have any Hugo Fitch earrings so I accessorized my teaching with my new Billy the Puppet earrings from idlehandsx on Etsy.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

This seems to be the go-to drink for Halloween month, so I thought I should give it a try. I had my first ever pumpkin spice latte today! Not gonna lie, I'm pretty sure it'll be my last pumpkin spice latte as well. That is not a nice drink at all.

Today's Story

Today's story was 'An Episode of the Terror' by Honoré de Balzac. Earnest, but suspenseful, but more political commentary than straightforward horror.

Today's Tea

Today's tea was Spiced Winter Red Tea from teapigs. Technically, I think it's one of their Christmas teas... but I just thought the snowman was kinda creepy.

31 Days of Halloween: Day 4

And it's another day of Halloween for me! Not a lot of spooky stuff going on today (as I was mostly teaching and in meetings), but I still have my horror story-a-day and Halloween tea to celebrate the season!

Today's Story

Today's story was 'The Torture of Hope' by Villiers de l'Isle Adam. A grim little tale that makes the Poe stories that preceded it seem rather jolly (vanilla even, lol).

Today's Tea

Today's tea was Gingerbread Chai by Bird and Blend Tea Co. Wow - that's a gingerbread-tastic tea. Bit of a kick to it as well.