The Scrawler Tapes: A (horror) Writing Craft Blog

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External Footage: Reviews

Killing the Dead Read-Along, Part 2: Clarifying Sources and Stories

This post might be a bit of a blitz! I want to try to get through the rest of the “Approaches” section of this book so that we can finish the introductory portion and start digging into the history and archaeology of epidemics of the dangerous dead. I do want to spend enough time here, though, because he talks in detail about a critical category: Sources! Not just what he’s using but how we should think about and take in an archive that includes archaeological work, stories, legends, and even academic studies. Let’s dig in (heh)! Fearing Dead Friends, Killing…

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External Footage: Reviews

Offsite Footage: Killing the Dead Read-Along, Part 1

Killing the DeadVampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World John Blair | Princeton University Press, 2025 | 536 pgs | 38 color + 41 b/w illustrations, 10 maps “Killing the Dead provides the first in-depth, global account of one of the world’s most widespread yet misunderstood forms of mass hysteria–the vampire epidemic. In a spellbinding narrative, John Blair takes readers from ancient Mesopotamia to present-day Haiti to explore a macabre frontier of life and death where corpses are believed to wander or do harm from the grave, and where the vampire is a physical expression of society’s inexplicable terrors and…

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The Archivist Abroad

Archivist in the Wild: Spooky Season Readings

If you’re based in North Carolina, consider checking out one of these events! More potentially to come; I will keep this post updated. First In Fiction | Thursday, September 17, 8:00pm – End Berkeley Cafe | 428 S. Dawson, Raleigh, NC I’m joining the First in Fiction reading series! This is the second quarterly event, with more to come. Check out Thalia Press for more about the event series. “Join your fellow Triangle book lovers at the Berkeley Cafe for First In Fiction, a multi-genre reading series featuring award-winning North Carolina authors. Experience literature as it should be — accompanied…

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The Archivist Abroad

Book Announcement: Flame A-Kindle

Announcing my Debut Novella, Flame A-Kindle I’m incredibly grateful to Sirius, EIC of The Laughing Man House, for giving this strange little book a home! My first novella will be released in October 2027. Flame A-Kindle is a seventeenth-century folk horror story with supernatural elements for fans of Robert Egger’s film The Witch, and crosses Brom’s Slewfoot with Lee Mandelo’s The Woods All Black. It is about monsters, mythology, patriarchy, and the devils we make ourselves. When the Devil comes to the sheep fold as an enormous Wolf, Tace is sure He has come to drag em to Hell as…

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The Craft Files

On Editing, or: How I Cut 100,000 Words From My Novel

I meant to write this post a lot earlier, but the novel workshop got in the way. I blew past my goal of 70,000 words to write 83,000 words. I’m excited about this book. It’s extremely first draft-y, but I feel like I’ve got a lot of the bare bones in place. And, importantly, it’s already within the preferred word counts for the horror genre. A huge part of the reason why this book is the way that it is results from the book that I am currently querying. It’s an adult dark fantasy novel of 115,000 words, which is…

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The Craft Files

Finding and Making Motivation (Plus, a Workshop Check-in)

This post took a long time to write. With a day job, in the tug-of-war over the writing I do during the rest of my day, my current book has won every time. 800 words a day is a lot! I’m keeping up with it and I’m really proud of myself. The book is taking shape, and I’m on track with my word count!!! But, this post has fallen by the wayside a bit, womp womp. I have had people ask me how I work up the motivation to write 700-800 words a day, and instead of writing probably 400…

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The Archivist Abroad

In the Field: StokerCon 2026 Retrospective

I attended StokerCon, the annual convention of the Horror Writers’ Association, for the first time this past weekend. I remembered that I’m the loudest shy person you’ll meet, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who didn’t comment on my awkwardness as I waited beside them, looking for an opportunity to introduce myself. It was a lovely weekend, busy and exhausting but also fun and incredibly productive. I met soooo many wonderful people and made new writer friends. I got the opportunity to tell two of my favorite authors, James Tynion IV and Caitlin Starling, how much I love their work…

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The Archivist Abroad

Archivist in the Wild: June-July Panels & Readings

You can find me at quite a few events over the next couple of months. Stokercon 2026 First, I’ll be in Pittsburg at StokerCon! Some details are still forthcoming, but I’ll update this post when I know places and times. (Consider subscribing to get updates!) I am reading Thursday at 2pm alongside Jacques Mersereau and Kathleen Palm. We’ll be in the Fayette room. I’ll also be participating in an amazing panel on “Nonbinary Authors in Horror” with Eric LaRocca, Saratoga Schaefer, and Rook Riley on Saturday at 3pm in Somerset! It will also be available to virtual attendees, so you…

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The Craft Files

Basics, Volume I: Voice

Voice is a tricky concept to define for a writer, and one that I struggled to understand early on. Worse, I couldn’t figure out how to actually spend time developing my voice as a writer. Today, I’m breaking down the basics by defining the concept of “voice” and providing some examples, resources, and even a few exercises. My goal for this post is to suggest ways that you can understand the voice you already have and learn ways to identify its elements and deliberately change it to suit your purposes. Defining “Voice” I love Sonya Huber’s definition of voice, both…

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