UK GHOST STORY – ONLINE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Friday 14th February, 6:30pm-7:30pm
Charlotte Baker – Writing Workshop
Dwell on it: Writing Women in the (Dark) Gothic Romance
There's a fine line between Gothic romance and dark romance. This session will establish the difference between the genres and explore the subversion of stereotypes of women in the Romantic Gothic and Dark Romance. The session will include short, guided, creative tasks.
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Friday 14th February, 8:00pm-9:00pm
Benjamin Langley – Writing Workshop
Guilt, Grief and Ghosts
Sometimes a haunting is deeply personal. Join author Benjamin Langley as he explores loss in ghost stories and how grief can manifest itself in the supernatural.
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Saturday 15th February, 11am-12pm
Carly Reagon – Writing Workshop
Dank Cellars and Dusty Attics: Creating Your Perfect Haunted House
This session will help you create the perfect haunted setting for your ghost story. With a focus on haunted houses, we will explore how space is used to uncanny effect, providing you with tools to truly terrify your readers.
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Saturday 15th February, 12:30pm-1:30pm
Tiffani Angus – Writing Workshop
Who's Haunting You?
This workshop will introduce you to the various types of spirits, phantasms, and wraiths that have engrossed writers from the early years of the horror genre to now. We will look at how different types of ghosts can help you write stories that are about more than just jump scares and spooky howls, and you'll participate in an activity that will lead you through the steps of setting up a new ghost story.
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Saturday 15th February, 2pm-3pm
CC Adams – Writing Workshop
Building Your Ghost
Ghosts come in a variety of forms. With so many to choose from and only limited by your imagination, how do you pick which one you want to create? Starting with the basic foundation for a ghost story (i.e., why a ghost?), you can then craft something that truly entertains the reader. Or, better yet, disturbs the hell outta them!
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Saturday 15th February, 3:30pm-4:30pm
Vicky Brewster – Talk
Straights haunting gays: a ghostly plot-twist
In 1995, Terry Castle published The Apparitional Lesbian, a formative work of theory that linked homosexuality, and particularly lesbianism, to the ghostly. Castle believed that lesbians only appeared as spectres: ephemeral, cold, and inevitably eventually dead. The heterosexual norm was haunted by the disruptive but ultimately non-threatening presence of queerness. However, as queer theory has developed and the number of queer voices in Gothic and horror fiction has both broadened and increased, a new trend is emerging in which it is a queer norm that is haunted by the sinister presence of heteronormativity. In this talk, Dr Vicky Brewster will focus on the works of Ally Wilkes and Caitlin Starling to demonstrate this shift and suggest new directions in Gothic queer fiction.
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Saturday 15th February, 5:00pm-6:00pm
Essie Fox – Author Interview
Essie Fox grew up in Herefordshire, and now lives in Windsor. She studied English Literature at Sheffield University and worked in publishing and commercial design before she started writing. She has lectured on the history and inspiration behind her novels at the V&A, the National Gallery, and Westminster Library ~ as well as appearing at many festivals and literary events. She is the author of The Fascination, The Somnambulist, Elijah’s Mermaid and more.
In this interview slot, we’ll be discussing Essie’s inspirations, writing process, books and more.
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Saturday 15th Feb, 7:00pm-8:00pm
James Brogden – Writing Talk
Ghost Bostin': The Spooky Literary Legacy of Birmingham and the West Midlands.
What links the Headless Horseman, barrow wights, Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and Samuel Johnson: ghost-hunter? Join horror writer and naturalised brummie James Brogden on a virtual tour of the literary landscape of the Second City, from cosy catastrophes to secret lunar societies, exploring the supernatural fiction of writers who lived in Birmingham, were inspired by it, or just had the good fortune to be born there.
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Saturday 15th February, 5:00pm-6:00pm
T Kingfisher – Author Interview
T. Kingfisher is the vaguely absurd pen name author Ursula Vernon uses when writing for adults. In another life, she writes children's books and weird comics. As Kingfisher, she has won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Dragon Awards, including the Hugo for Best Novel for her book Nettle & Bone. When she is not writing, she is probably out in the garden, trying to make eye contact with butterflies.
In this interview slot, we’ll be discussing T Kingfisher’s inspirations, writing process, books and more.
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Sunday 16th February, 11:00am-12:00pm
Angela/AG Slatter – Author Interview
Angela Slatter (also writing as A.G. Slatter) is the author of the gothic fantasy novels All the Murmuring Bones and forthcoming The Path of Thorns (Titan Books), and the supernatural crime novels Vigil, Corpselight and Restoration (Jo Fletcher Books). She’s also written eleven short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and A Feast of Sorrows: Stories, and the novellas, Of Sorrow and Such and Ripper.
In this interview slot, we’ll be discussing Angela’s inspirations, writing process, books and more.
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Sunday 16th February, 12:30pm-1:30pm
Penny Jones – Writing workshop
The Ghost Within
Our brains are amazing from the smallest amount of data they can extrapolate meaning: they tell our bodies how to function, make sense of our environments, and keep us from harm. But what happens when this data is wrong? A look at how the mind can haunt itself.
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Sunday 16th February, 2:00pm-3:00pm
Helen Grant – Talk
Steinfeld, Viborg and St. Bertrand de Comminges: a journey around the imagination of M.R.James
Helen Grant is a lifelong fan of the classic ghost story writer Montague Rhodes James. She has contributed to the Ghosts & Scholars Newsletter many times, and spoken at two M.R.James conferences. She has also visited most of his foreign story locations, including St. Bertrand de Comminges and Steinfeld. In this illustrated talk, Helen shares her experiences of visiting these places, examining the ways in which real places inspired MRJ’s work. What does visiting the cathedral at Comminges tell us about “Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book”? How and why does the description of Steinfeld in “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” differ so startlingly from reality? And is there anything of “Number 13” to be found in modern Viborg? Hear the answers to these questions, and more.
Helen’s published work includes The Glass Demon (2010), inspired by “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas” and more recently Too Near The Dead (2021) and the Dracula Society's Children of the Night Award winning Jump Cut (2023), about a notorious lost movie.
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Sunday 16th February, 3:30pm-4:30pm
Leonie Rowland – Writing workshop
Therapeutic Ghosts
Ghosts haunt us, but can they heal us too? In this therapeutic writing workshop, we will use haunting as a framework for processing experiences and laying them to rest. Therapeutic writing emphasises process over product, creativity as a healing force and the compassionate witnessing of stories. The ability to express ourselves accurately, in our own words rather than the ones we are given, can provide us with the tools to self-regulate in our own space and come into more authentic contact with the world. This kind of writing is a communication between us and the ghosts—a séance with ourselves on paper than can be open and closed at any time. Come and befriend your spirits!
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Sunday 16th February, 5:00pm-6:00pm
Alex Davis – Writing Workshop
Ghosts of the Future
When we think of ghost stories, we might well think of the past or perhaps the world around us. But ghosts can be seen as a universal story element that can fit into any genre – so why not science-fiction? In this session we’ll be exploring how ghosts might fit into tales of the future and their unique applications in the far-flung worlds of sci-fi.
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Sunday 16th February, 7pm-8pm
Ashley Thorpe – Filmmaker Interview
After a number of years working for BBC Manchester then in London and Athens doing illustration, Ashley returned to his Devon roots in 2005 and focused all his energies upon creating a series of animated short films inspired by English mythology - 'SCAYRECROW' 2008 (winner of the Media Innovation Award 2009), 'THE SCREAMING SKULL' 2008 (nominated Best UK Short film at Raindance 2009) and 'THE HAIRY HANDS' 2010 (A SWS / UK Film Council project featuring VO by Doug Bradley).
His first feature 'BORLEY RECTORY' (a Carrion Film / Glass Eye Pix co-venture) with Reece Shearsmith & Julian Sands was completed late 2017 and premiered at GRIMMFEST, Manchester. In Nov 17 it won 'Best Animated Feature' at Buffalo Dreams Festival New York and a "Special Achievement in Cinema" accolade. After being released on Blu Ray in 2019 the film is now streaming on Netflix, Prime and Talking Pictures.
As a freelance animator Ashley has provided animated titles / sequences for such varied projects as the multi award winning 'WOODLANDS DARK & DAYS BEWITCHED', Saturn award winning 'TALES OF HALLOWEEN', Dominic Brunt's 'WOLF MANOR and titles and various graphics for Danny Robins hit BBC show 'UNCANNY'.
In this interview slot, we’ll be discussing Ashley’s inspirations, movie work, illustrations and more.
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Sunday 16th February, 8:30pm-9:30pm
Sara Gran – Author Interview
Sara Gran is the author of The Book of The Most Precious Substance. Previous work includes Saturn's Return to New York, Come Closer, Dope, Marigold, and the Claire DeWitt series. She is the founder of small press Dreamland Books and writes for television and film.
In this interview slot, we’ll be discussing Sara’s inspirations, writing process, books and more.