Author | Lightnews

Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 12h

One queen (on a forcibly rotating basis) and it's a traumatised little girl...

Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 12h

Thanks for running this, Mary!
#HorrorWritersChat

I have a gothic horror novella set in 1926, in which 9-yr-old Rosalyn plays a make-believe game of a Royal Court with 4 other girls. All of them want to (need to) be the Queen... Things escalate. Badly.🍀🔨👑
brigidsgatepress.com/product/what...
💙📚🩸

🖤

What Happened at Hawthorne House - Brigids Gate Press

brigidsgatepress.com

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 13h

Nice!!

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 13h

I have the 15 minute extended version on my writing playlist -- I use it to time how long I've been writing a scene for.

Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 13h

Yep, that's the one! I am literally listening to Forest Theme and The Girl in Red (Ginger's Wolf theme) on repeat when I'm writing it!

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 13h

Violet, a sentient porcelain-clockwork doll from an unpublished story is at the door. She's here to ask me to write a sequel where she gets a good ending instead. She's my favourite because she's so fun to write!
or
Gem, a teenage vampire from my WIP, asking 'wtf, Hadassah?!'

#HorrorWritersChat

Mary Wyrd (she/her) @marywyrd.bsky.social · 13h

QUESTION FOUR

There’s a knock at the door.

Before you can answer it, the door opens and reveals…your favourite character. They are your creation.

Who is visiting you?
Why are they your favourite?
And why are they here, now?

- - -

Linger a little longer for the outro & promo #HorrorWritersChat

Question four - From your work, who is your favourite character? Antagonist? Protagonist? Who are they? Why are they your favourite? And why are they visiting you? #HorrorWritersChat - background composite image of a series of abandoned interior rooms. On either side of the opening to the next room, a pair of shadowy hands presses against the walls.

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 13h

I would have to choose the dolls very carefully to make sure I'd be comfortable with their respective gazes, that's for sure!

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 13h

For my WIP:
The Path (OST)
The Witch's House
Carmilla
This specific piece of art: www.tumblr.com/garlicbunny/...

For Hawthorne House:
Grrrls (AViVA)
Alice Madness Returns (OST)
Promise (Silent Hill)
Entomologists (GHOST)
Honourable mention: Rule of Rose (which I discovered after)
#HorrorWritersChat

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 13h

That's very much what I was thinking of!

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 13h

Obviously, there's my laptop (usually), but I also like to have something relevant to the piece I'm working on (eg: flowers/bobbins/doll...). For my current project (an interconnected poetry narrative), I use Twine, a free online software used for branching narratives/CYOA!

#HorrorWritersChat

Mary Wyrd (she/her) @marywyrd.bsky.social · 13h

QUESTION TWO

We stand before your writing area #HorrorWritersChat

Which three tools (apps? Items? objects?) do you find useful when writing?

Are there any you’d recommend to other writers?

The stranger the better...

Question Two - Which three tools, apps or items do you find useful when writing? Which would you recommend to other writers? Quote Post your answers with the hashtag. Don’t forget to like/share other answers and chat in the comments #HorrorWritersChat - background composite image of a series of abandoned interior rooms. On either side of the opening to the next room, a pair of shadowy hands presses against the walls.

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 14h

Hi, I'm Hadassah! I write gothic fiction, usually historical and/or supernatural.
Dream writing room would have a comfortable window seat, a view of a forest & stream, Victorian furniture, reference books, cabinets displaying porcelain dolls, butterflies/moths/beetles, old maps...
#HorrorWritersChat

Mary Wyrd (she/her) @marywyrd.bsky.social · 14h

QUESTION ONE - #HorrorWritersChat

Behind this door is your ideal writing room. 🚪

If money were no object and dreams were reality, this is where you’d write, relax, and conceive of your next great work.

Introduce yourself along with your horror niche, then open the door and describe your space.

Question one - Introduce yourself! Your name, your corner of the horror genre and describe your dream writing room. Quote Post your answers with the hashtag. Don’t forget to like/share other answers and chat in the comments #HorrorWritersChat - background composite image of a series of abandoned interior rooms. On either side of the opening to the next room, a pair of shadowy hands presses against the walls.

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 14h

This is amazing! What a beautiful tribute to Hollow Knight and Hallownest!

Martin Tomsky @mtomsky.bsky.social · 15h

I've been working my way through #Silksong recently, so it was a genuine pleasure to remake my original Hallownest in all its frankly ridiculous level of detail. Particularly pleased with my tiny rendition of Hornet with her needle.

www.martintomsky.com/shop/preorde...

#hollowknight #art #woodwork

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 12d

It's dark now, so I'm done for the day -- for some reason, this can only be written in daylight hours. I got good stuff done today, and had the opportunity to use a metaphor that's been lingering in my head since I realised where I wanted to take this story🖤
Now to get into #LittleNightmares 3!
🩸📚💙

Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 12d

Writing disturbing poems today, working on the final chapter of my novella in verse! Putting the 'romance' into 'horrormance' with this sapphic dark fantasy🖤
My narrator is very conflicted re: her situation & the witch
Todays writing song is from The Path!
💙📚🩸
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYLQ...

Forest Theme

YouTube video by Kris Force - Topic

www.youtube.com

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · 12d

Writing disturbing poems today, working on the final chapter of my novella in verse! Putting the 'romance' into 'horrormance' with this sapphic dark fantasy🖤
My narrator is very conflicted re: her situation & the witch
Todays writing song is from The Path!
💙📚🩸
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYLQ...

Forest Theme

YouTube video by Kris Force - Topic

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Hadassah Shiradski

Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 15d

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

64 2.8K 7.8K

Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 17

Thanks for running this, Eryn!
I have a gothic horror novella set in 1926, in which 9-yr-old Rosalyn plays a make-believe game of a Royal Court with 4 other girls. All of them want to (need to) be the Queen... Things escalate. Badly.🍀🔨👑
brigidsgatepress.com/product/what...
📚🩸

🖤
#HorrorWritersChat

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 17

Augumented reality, possibly? I'm not sure; it's very easy to find horror in technology, especially given the general erosion of privacy and rise of censorship and such...Augumented reality at least is 'familiar' as a basis for horror, so is easier to incite horror-esque feelings.
#HorrorWritersChat

Eryn McCee @erynmccee.bsky.social · Sep 17

Nearly there, #HorrorWritersChat bods. Hang around for the outro when you can throw out all the links. But not yet, my darlings, not yet.
We live in a world that we saw loom in scifi, the rise of AI, but not yet the Terminator... drones, smart devices, Alexa...
So what do you think brings the fear?

What piece of technology exists right now that you think has the most horror potential?

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 17

I much prefer leaning into older technology, to say the least. I'm pretty sure the most modern tech I've had in a story has been a payphone, and that was mostly so I could make it useless (it's also partly why the story is set in the 1990s - I wanted Gem to find a broken one).
#HorrorWritersChat

Eryn McCee @erynmccee.bsky.social · Sep 17

Catching up, somewhat.
Tech is tech. We forget that wheels, fountains, cars, were tech once, something new and exciting. Our brains making something new.
What's scarier, really? An old tv? An old setting? Nostalgia?
Is tech our new religion?

#horrorwriterschat

Old tech (VHS, landlines, flickery screens) can feel creepier than the newest AI. Do you lean into outdated tech for atmosphere, or do you prefer cutting-edge horrors?

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 17

Most of my stories are set pre-1900, so the tech involved is that of the time period and usually used as an aid. Kind of. My protagonists aren't always good people, and they are sometimes comprised of technology in a way. So my answer is 'both, often simultaneously'!
#HorrorWritersChat

Eryn McCee @erynmccee.bsky.social · Sep 17

Q2, #HorrorWritersChat! You lot were chatting so much I ran over. Hmpf.
Anyway you know the theme. Hit me with it.

In your stories, do you use tech as a threat (AI gone rogue, surveillance, biotech nightmares) or as a tool that characters rely on?

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 17

Hi, I'm Hadassah!
I write gothic horror, usually historical or supernatural, as well as poetry and dark fantasy. I tend to write short stories and novellas, and I don't particularly swear by any tech; my only requirements are that it doesn't use AI in any way, and that it works.
🖤
#HorrorWritersChat

Eryn McCee @erynmccee.bsky.social · Sep 17

Dum, Dum, Dum!!!!!!!!!! Assemble, #HorrorWritersChat writers. Assemble, and give us your shit for Q1.
Your name, your number, but not your links. You know the game.
Leave that for the end. Right? Right.

step inside, horror writers. What do you write and what writerly tech (if any)
do you swear by?

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 14

To get more lives, you can find 'soul fragments' hidden behind breakable walls and in hard-to-get-to areas, 4 fragments = 1 life. You can also get them after important fights. You can also find blue glowy cocoons that give 2 temporary lives if you break it. The dream nail is part of the 'main' story

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 14

In Dirtmouth, if you go all the way to the right, there's a locked house. Iirc, you can open it with a key bought from Sly (A bug you can save. He sets up shop in Dirtmouth). You can give the person in there rancid eggs, and they bring your shade to you so you can get your money back. 1/2

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 14

Alas. On that note: Fog Canyon with no map... (now obtained, but still) and the pile of rancid eggs sitting in the inventory.

I've added the Greenpath music to my writing playlist, and Deepnest and the Waterways are definitely inspiring... something, somewhere in my brain.

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 14

I'm watching a blind playthrough since I can't play it myself, and currently: going through the 49 Precepts of Zote. Dealt with all three Watchers but delaying going into the black egg temple. Found the Abyss as well as the cast-off shell at the Kingdom's Edge. I'm really enjoying this game!!

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Hadassah Shiradski @dassawrites.bsky.social · Sep 14

I got distracted by Hollow Knight, but I've finally managed to make a start on chapter 5, the final chapter of my witchy, erotic, gothic horror novella-in-verse! I've given myself til October to finish the first draft... doable, but difficult.
It's raining, and the light is soft.
🖤
#HorrorAuthor
💙📚🩸

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