Another Wonderlust 3 sneak preview

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Wonderlust 3: A girl for tea is nearing completion. Enjoy another excerpt…

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Even as the fairy-lights faded, light grew in the dell: all silvery-gold. Faint at first, but growing steadily stronger. It was the moon, Alyson realized: a glorious, yellow, full summer moon. Then, silhouetted against its light, she finally saw the approaching figure. At first she thought it was a man, but then he stepped out from the trees and into the full blaze of moonlight.

He had the shape of a man, tall and thin, but his head was crowned with two long ears. Then, as he turned to look down at the slumbering figure of the fairy queen, Alyson saw the long, furry nose and large, gentle eyes of a donkey.

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Wonderlust 3 excerpt

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I really, really want to write some more adventures for Gennara and Sharronne, the futa centaur, and I have some ideas I’ve been scribbling down. But, before I embark on any new projects, I absolutely must finish the ones currently running.

I’m currently working on the third installment of “Wonderlust”, titled “A girl for tea”. Naturally, it has the famous Mad Tea Party – only, with my special, Wonderlust twist. There is much else, besides, of course, but in the meantime, enjoy a little excerpt from the tea party.

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The time is tooth-hurty

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the-haunting-of-hill-house

Apologies for missing a post last week, but I spent most of last week battling the worst toothache I’ve ever had in my life.

I got an emergency dental appointment, where it turned out that I’d cracked one of my back molars pretty much all the way through the crown. So, out it came.

So, I’ve had a week of mostly guzzling painkillers, and watching TV. I binged on The Haunting of Hill House.

I’ve loved the Hill House mythos ever since watching the ’63 movie of The Haunting (I always thought the ’73 film, The Legend of Hell House was based on the same novel, but it turns out it was a separate novel, by Richard Matheson).

The Netflix series is beyond excellent. It’s incredibly spooky. The device of having multiple ghosts hidden away in the shadows and backgrounds of every episode is particularly effective: once you realise, you end up carefully watching every scene, with the effect of keeping you constantly on edge.

Episode 6, with its use of extended takes (up to 15 minutes long), was particularly impressive.

One spoiler below:

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The witch-marks of Tasmania

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Tasmania is a beautiful, haunted place.

Some of the most picturesque places on this island, like Port Arthur, are haunted by the past, distant and recent. Sarah Island’s wild beauty is haunted by the memory of the time when the entrance to its harbour was named “Hell’s Gates” by the unfortunate men who knew only too well the truth of the sobriquet. There are other giveaway names dotted around the island, like Gibbet Hill.

Even the most mundane locations contain eerily jarring remnants. At a local service club, the cold storage at the back of the kitchen looks odd and archaic, for good reason: it was originally the solitary confinement cell, when the building was a local lockup. The chill lurking behind its thick oak door seems not entirely natural.

Recently, though, a whole new window onto our haunted past has begun to come to life: reminders of a time when nearly all the common folk ardently believed in spirits and witches — and took measures to guard against them.

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