The Season of Samhain
On October, Horror and Halloween
The month of October, or as it is better known to us spooky nerds, the month of Halloween, is possibly my favourite time of the year. A holiday I have been in love with from childhood, this coming month encapsulates something that is hard to replicate at any other time.
A time when we are encouraged to embrace the wild and weird. When ghosts and ghouls and myths and monsters are the norm. When everyone is enjoying the chance to be someone else for an evening without judgment or scorn. That is to me, what makes this time so special. While yes, as a kid, the concept of masses of sweets was great, I have always loved the theatre, the mythos, and the atmosphere of the holiday.
Even before I understood the real significance of Samhain in the Celtic calendar, I was obsessed with the idea of a thinning veil between this real world and the realm of magic, monsters, and the dead. I enjoyed spooky stories and dark humour. I was in love with the decorations, the crafting, the parties, the camaraderie, the gothic. I would read Goosebumps and the Wardstone Chronicles and series after series of twisted tales. I would hand craft decorations and curate a design for the atmosphere I wanted the house to have. I pushed for celebration in a household where Halloween wasn't the preferred Holiday, but still made it to the table when my enthusiasm bled through. I thrived on this safe darkness, this toe-tap into the dark waters that Samhain and festivals like it, bring to kids the world over.
As I grew this developed into a love of the gothic, of mind-bending darkness and moral monsters. I fell hard for the ideas and the aesthetic, and I would nearly bounce with joy at the opportunity to indulge in this love. This is likely the root of my love of steampunk, an aesthetic, and genre that is often called brown gothic. (An oversimplification but a point hard to argue against.) I watched horror films, preferring psychological to the gory, comedic to the graphic, and spent a lot of time writing short snaps of darker fiction. This habit has proved so influential, that I find most things I write are tinged with the darkness that Halloween always inspired.
In uni I rediscovered that feeling all over again, fully diving into the plethora of gothic literature and theory that was a specialism in my course. Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Turn of the Screw, Dracula, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, and many more. Examining these stories through a writer's lens helped me to discover that gothic writing, with its morality and questions, and insanity, was a genre that I enjoyed playing with. It was feeding into every part of my life. I even used a masquerade ball theme for my 21st birthday. (A concept I am so glad I pushed for considering just how successful the theme was.)
Now, as I look back I realise that I can never escape the hold this holiday has on me, my writing and my style, and nor do I want to. In honour of my first real Samhain as a self-employed individual, it is only fair then that I do something special.
This coming month I plan to create prose, poetry and flash fiction, in honour of the season. The aim is to create an interconnected series, offering bits and pieces of the plot through the spread of different mediums. Some posts will be found here on the Blog while others will pop up on my other socials. Experience the ride with me as I stretch to do something special and new. Follow along and see if you can piece together the mystery. Comment your ideas and theories, share it with your friends and families. I can't wait to get started.
I look forward to telling you all this tale of mystery, murder, monsters, and madness.
Join me on this journey and prepare.
The veil is thinning. Another year is drawing to a close.
Let's celebrate Samhain together...