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Mythology, Folklore & Madwomen in the Attic

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Expanded Horizons: Kaonashi

Expanded Horizons: Kaonashi

My Japanese ghost story “Kaonashi” is over on Expanded Horizons website. It’s free so read it now before continuing with this spoiler-tastic blog post. The stroy was first published in an indie press horror anthology called Candlelight Volume II, editor Jonathan Schlosser back in 2009. I love this story because of several things. Firstly, noppera-bo tales are great. They don’t tend to do much other than freak people out, but the concept of having no face is spectacularly cree

Winter Tales anthology now on sale

Winter Tales anthology now on sale

Cover by SL Johnson The much anticipated Fox Spirit anthology Winter Tales has been released today. Buy it on Amazon UK or Amazon US My featured story ‘Yukizuki’ was heavily inspired by the long Hokkaido winters during the 3 years I lived in Japan as well as my love of yokai. Margrét Helgadóttir was a dream editor and a lovely person whom I hope to work with again soon. As well as my Asian-inspired story, there are some brilliant stories and poems from the likes of Ruth Booth

Winter Tales

I’m very chuffed to announce my short story “Yukizuki” has been accepted for publication in Fox Spirit‘s Winter Tales anthology, due for publication in early 2016. “Yukizuki” was written after my two year sojourn in snowy Hokkaido where I tentatively learnt to snowboard and grew to love the 4-5 months of snow we had each year. That’s all the backstory you get for now. As for recent work, well I’ve always been heavily influenced by my surroundings. In my computer I have groupe

One Year On…

A year ago today a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Tohoku in Japan, killing nearly 16,000 people and leaving over 330,000 people to this day homeless. Sympathy, shock and support have been expressed across the word by every means possible: twitter books, photos, videos, art and short stories. There’s nothing really more for me to add other than my personal thoughts. Japan gave me lifelong friendship despite language barriers, apples from local farmers, fishing and BBQing by the

Christmas is a-coming!

I know it’s cheesy and commercialised but I love the run up to Christmas. I possibly love it more now than when I was a child because I have free rein (or is it free reign? They both make sense to me) to buy and decorate my place as I please. I think also, living in Japan where people don’t properly understand the spirit of Christmas, has added to that. No offence, people of Japan, I know you have spirit, common decency, love and respect for your families, I just know you don

Arts and Crafts

It struck me today that arts and crafts are still seen as something mainly for children. If not kits aimed at children (jewellery making, cards making, papermache etc), it’s kits aimed at making things for children (baby blankets, mitts, bunting etc) or kits for parents to bond with their children (cooking or baking together). Having ventured in my local WHSmith for a scrapbook project I have, I was trapped in the children’s arts and crafts section surrounded by crayola and s

Gender Bender

It defines us all. It’s the first thing you notice about a person and if you can’t pinpoint it, it drives you mad. And at the end of the day, why does it matter? I’m talking about gender, or rather sex since gender is more the psychological perception of one’s cultural difference based on their sexual organs. I’ll tell you a story, in my first few weeks in Japan a friend and I were in a convenience store and he picked up a teen magazine with one of those teeny bopper bands on

Call for Submissions

Write for Tohoku “We are a group of writers in Japan who are publishing an ebook to benefit survivors of the March 11, 2011 Tohoku-Kanto earthquake and tsunami. This project has two goals: to raise money for earthquake victims and to help overseas readers understand more about Japan and the kindness and hospitality of its people. We invite all writers and translators in Japan to submit short pieces of writing (500-1000 words). We welcome travel stories, humor pieces, essays

No News is Good News

No News is Good News

I’m probably not the only one who thinks the world is falling apart of late. Regardless of the war and mess we have created for ourselves, there has been in the last few months: flash floods in Australia; an earthquake in New Zealand; and now a tsunami in Japan. We all sit from the comfort of our homes and watch it unfold, over and over… and over again. Now I think it’s great that the internet, digital cameras and phones with video function and other advances in technology ha

English as a Foreign Language

I’ve been living in Asia for three and a half years now, having taught in the public sector of Japan for a year followed by the private sector for two. Japan is well-known for being a rich, high-tech country and yet their English is poor at best. The only people with any real English are those who have travelled and worked overseas. Yet after just over three months in Vietnam, the level of English here is impressive, especially for a country pulling itself out of the third wo

The Growth of Patriotism

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too enamoured with Scotland growing up. There were a lot of neds in Dumbarton, it rained a lot, beggars follow you down the street, international bands rarely came up and once I found out we could have emigrated to Australia or America I was a tad annoyed. Patriotism at football and rugby games confused me (as do most sports) and the only time I genuinely felt patriotic was at the Last Night of the Scottish Proms, listening to “Highland Cathedral” on

Ghost Stories

Perhaps due to the nature of the market recently or maybe more my interest in asian mythology but I appear to be writing a lot of ghost stories lately. For someone that doesn’t really read horror or even enjoy horror movies, it’s a bit of a surprise even to me. But here’s the thing about ghost stories, they don’t have to be scary. Suspense works for me so much better than gore. Have you ever watched a film which has been seriously creeping you out and then at the big reveal