Hello again, dear listener. You may have noticed that we accidentally ended up with a week of books – Rich Hawkins and his scary Plague Trilogy; Scott R Jones and his resonating Cthulhusattva: Tales of the Black Gnosis, and lastly Crystal Lake’s Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories. So we’re ending the week with a shout-out for a friend, author Ash Krafton and her YA/New Adult work (see later below), with some memento mori. Not quite the same sort of tales as the aforementioned, but a change is as good as a poke in the eye with a rolling stone, they say.
In other news, noted (-ish) author John Linwood Grant continues to write stuff and struggle with three dogs at the same time. The Ancient One, Twiglet, has developed yet more lumps (as usual) and a strange bald patch on her back, meaning additional vet home visits and the need to write much faster to pay for them. Chilli sleeps a lot due to the minor increase in temperature – she don’t like heat – and Django spends his time chasing flies…
Fiction under way includes a genuine Sherlock Holmes story, without a psychic in sight, more Tales of the Last Edwardian and possibly a bit of unrelated horror. Two new Carnacki the Ghost Finder stories by old greydog himself will be coming out in July, as mentioned last week, one of them almost setting the scene for the coming of the Last Edwardian. Here’s the current cover concept, from Ulthar Press – final details and release date will be finalised soon.
And the Occult Detective Quarterly group on Facebook gained over 250 members in its first week, with some great writers joining up as well as readers and artists. We’re now looking at an October first issue, if we can mobilise ourselves. Submissions welcome from writers, artists and reviewers – just join the group to get the full submission guidelines.
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Now we hand over to Ash Krafton, who talks about Victorian death customs and her book The Heartbeat Thief…
A Victorian Birthday and Memento Mori
The Victorian Era is steeped in traditions. Anything that flew in the face of tradition was shunned, cursed, and outcast. Tradition provided vital foundation, the legs upon which society stood.
Traditions embellished every moment in life. One such tradition was the celebration of birthdays. Considering this month marks the book birthday for THE HEARTBEAT THIEF, you might expect a post on birthdays. Right? Anecdotes about parties and pastries and pretty ribbons and…
…no. Just—no.
On one hand, THE HEARTBEAT THIEF *is* pretty on the outside, like a birthday party. Beautiful and beribboned and sweet as strawberries and cream. But what is a birthday if not all about victory over death? And, deep within, that is what Senza Fyne’s tale is all about.
She is, after all, the Forever Girl. Death’s Estranged. Endless. She stopped celebrating birthdays when she learned how to steal immortality. Eventually, there was only one day she marked each year: her Unbirthing Day.
So just think about all the lovely traditions she missed out on when it came to her death. The Victorians were morbidly fascinated with death and went to great lengths to mark the occasion.
Senza could not die. She denied her loved ones so many opportunities…
No one would stop the clocks or draw all the curtains, to dwell in sad, shadowy silence.
No one would post elegantly written funeral notes of invitation.
No one would stand watch over her body, every moment from death to interment (which could take three to four days to allow family to arrive).
No one would arrange flowers around her body to mask the signs of decay.
No final death portraits, with falsely life-like poses, cosmetically-created rosy cheeks, or painted pupils in propped-open eyes.
No hair trinkets. No one would trim her winter-fire red locks and weave the tresses into rings or bracelets or brooches to wear as mourning jewelry.
No one would wear mourning for her, deep black crinoline with heavy veils and dark jet jewels. Instead, those would be her own disguise, hiding the eternal freshness of her beautiful cheeks from her aging loved ones and she sneaked like a thief through the pages of time.
No drapes upon the mirrors to prevent them from enticing her soul to enter, only to become trapped for all of wretched eternity.
No black crape hung around the doorknobs to announce the tragedy of her passing, reminding callers to avoid ringing.
No elaborate funeral procession, aristocratic and stately, with plumes and pallbearers, a hearse trimmed in white to lament the passing of one so young.
No strings tied to her finger, connecting her to coffin bells above her grave. No dead-ringers, graveyard shifts, or being saved by the bell.
See what I meant when I said the Victorians were just a little on the morbid side? Bereavement, you see, was generally the order of the day, even when there was no one to bury, because life was fragile and brief and all too often lost in the blink of an eye.
Senza Fyne would not die. Mr. Knell had worked his dark spell on her and removed her from the march of time, placing her far beyond the decayed grasp of Death. Although the Ferryman would not come for her, she was forced to watch each and everyone around her succumb to the ravages of life’s bittersweet ending.
Shadows cluttered her heart, each and every day that she went forth, beautiful and young and free of what frightened her most. She could not die.
But in that, she very nearly forgot how to live.
You can read Senza Fyne’s dark tale and take that long walk with her. See what she sees, experience what she felt as she stood still, a statue in a fast-growing, fast-wilting, ever-changing garden.
This week until June 26th, THE HEARTBEAT THIEF ebook will be $0.99!
Find it at any of these retailers:
About the author: Ash Krafton
Ash Krafton writes New Adult speculative fiction under the pen name AJ Krafton. In addition to THE HEARTBEAT THIEF, Ash is also the author of a growing list of poetry, short stories, and urban fantasy novels.
Currently, she’s working on a new series, THE DEMON WHISPERER. First book, CHARM CITY, can be found on Wattpad.com where you can read it free. Find it here: CHARM CITY on Wattpad.com
Find more to love at www.ashkrafton.com
Join us again some time in the next couple of days or so, for more of the weird and wonderful – whatever that might be…
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