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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 3h

I updated the Online Class page so that now you can:

See the programme right up to the end of the year!

See ALL out Saturday and Sunday talks from the last 5 years!!

romancingthegothic.com/class-schedu...

Class Schedules

For classes that have already happened, you can click on ‘Online Here’ to see a recorded version. Check out the YouTube channel for earlier classes as well! Sign up here Date (All times…

romancingthegothic.com

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Eldritch Girl Podcast @eldritchgirlpod.bsky.social · 10h

it's live!

Mini-season for #SpookySeason: audio for my #AScareADay posts, using the poems and stories as prompts for longer creative fiction & nonfiction responses on my site & Ko-Fi.

Days 01-07 are now live. Ko-Fi members get advance episodes.

rss.com/podcasts/eld...

#AScareADay - October Reading Challenge Days 01-07 | Podcast Episode on RSS.com

MINI SEASON!Days 01-07 of #AScareADay, featuring my thoughts on each of the challenge reads and summary (with spoilers) of the stories and poems. We go from the 1600s-1800s this week! Additionally thi...

rss.com

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C. M. Rosens @cmrosens.com · 8h

#AScareADay="text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400">#AScareADay – Day 14 – Charon by Lord Dunsany

#AScareADay - Day 14 - World War 1 trauma flash fic today! And for today's creative response to the story, I'm posting a Ko-Fi exclusive I wrote for my members as the June 2025 reward.

#AScareADay – Day 14 – Charon by Lord Dunsany

#AScareADay - Day 14 - World War 1 trauma flash fic today! And for today's creative response to the story, I'm posting a Ko-Fi exclusive I wrote for my members as the June 2025 reward.

cmrosens.com

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 6h

It is such a good line. The rhythm and cadence of it as well. Perfect.

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Julia O’Connell @juliajoyce.bsky.social · 7h

Day 14 of #AScareADay is “Charon” by Lord Dunsany.

Such a brief little snippet of micro-fiction, and yet what a story it tells! The apocalypse from a psychopomp’s perspective.

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 11h

Day 14 of #AScareADay. Today was a really short short story by Lord Dunsany called 'Charon.'

I loved every word of this but especially the ending which does a LOT with a little.

'No one had ever made Charon smile before, no one before had ever made him weep'

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Johannes T. Evans @johannestevans.bsky.social · 1d

Just some questions to consider when writing the Accessibility notes for your event or your venue!

white text on a blue background, with an icon of a person in a wheelchair beside the heading "accessibility at your events".

the body text reads, "Some things to consider adding to your Accessibility section for your event and/or your venue, from a disabled man.

“The venue is semi-wheelchair accessible” is a good place to start, but when planning a night out, more information is better than less!

Accessibility is the most basic thing I look for in a venue, especially for events."

$white text on a blue background, with an icon of a cane beside the heading "accessibility at your events". Firstly, not all wheelchairs look the same. Motorised and power chairs might be wider, longer, or heavier than lighter chars without a motor - these chairs may need more space to go through doorways. Secondly, wheelchair-users are only a fraction of disabled people who may have additional access requirements - some people use canes, crutches, frames, rollators. Some may be photosensitive or use hearing aids, etc.$

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 12h

I think I read the smile as a sort of happiness at freedom and weeping because everything is already over!

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Robert W. Williams @robtwilliams.bsky.social · 21h

#AScareADay Dunsany "Charon"
A ceaseless task lasting an eternity? It reminds me of Sisyphus' punishment.
Yet Charon's task is godly service. And in the story it has an unexpected expiration date.
Sisyphus should be so lucky, for rock apparently erodes more slowly than an unfolding extinction event.

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Dr_Alessandra_P @alessandrapino.bsky.social · 14h

Today’s #AScareADay crosses the Styx with Lord Dunsany’s Charon.

The ferryman rows on, weary beyond time, until one day only one soul arrives.
“I am the last,” the ghost says.

And for the first time, Charon weeps.

@romgothsam.bsky.social

www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7...

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 13h

I cannot imagine anyone disagreeing with so much sense.

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Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 1d

Romanticism is more aesthetically interesting than Modernism

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 1d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 1d

17) Letters on Chivalry and Romance - Richard Hurd

I've only read extracts before so it was about time to read it from end to end. A useful context for the early Gothic novels!

Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 1d

Who knew what I needed in this life was a book about a cat doing supernatural detective work

Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 1d

16) Detective Daintypaws: A Squirrel in Bohemia by Andrew K. Langston

Reading this for a book group and wasn't expecting it to be such a gem. A funny book that blends cat detective with owl-worshipping cults and vampires called Dave who just want a bhuna. I enjoyed it and laughed!

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 1d

16) Detective Daintypaws: A Squirrel in Bohemia by Andrew K. Langston

Reading this for a book group and wasn't expecting it to be such a gem. A funny book that blends cat detective with owl-worshipping cults and vampires called Dave who just want a bhuna. I enjoyed it and laughed!

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 1d

Week 2 (11) - Summary

I just had a really bad week this week, so my reading went through the floor

6 short stories, 1 novel and 1 novella.

I better get speed-reading, I guess!

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 1d

Omg, me too xD

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C. M. Rosens @cmrosens.com · 1d

#AScareADay="text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400">#AScareADay – Day 13 – The Spider and the Ghost of a Fly by Vachel Lindsay

#AScareADay - Day 13 - Today's femme fatale short poem is answered by 2 chapters from my Ko-Fi exclusive sapphic novella, THE POETRY OF BETRAYAL. It's the first part of an enemies-to-lovers cycle.

#AScareADay – Day 13 – The Spider and the Ghost of a Fly by Vachel Lindsay

#AScareADay - Day 13 - Today's femme fatale short poem is answered by 2 chapters from my Ko-Fi exclusive sapphic novella, THE POETRY OF BETRAYAL. It's the first part of an enemies-to-lovers cycle.

cmrosens.com

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Dr Sam Hirst @romgothsam.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, I love this connection!

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Julia O’Connell @juliajoyce.bsky.social · 1d

Day 13 of #AScareADay is the 1914 poem “The Spider and the Ghost of a Fly” by Vachel Lindsay

A poor fly has the misfortune to fall in love with a spider. After getting eaten, he comes back to haunt the spider, but she doesn’t seem too bothered…

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Julia O’Connell @juliajoyce.bsky.social · 1d

It’s fun reading “The Spider and the Ghost of a Fly” after just having caught up with #DraculaDaily. I can’t help thinking of Renfield’s distress when Seward suggests he might be haunted by the souls of all the flies he’s eaten.

“I don’t want their souls buzzing round me…”

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Sarah @sarahalba.bsky.social · 1d

#AScareADay Day 13 – The Spider and the Ghost of a Fly by Vachel Lindsay

A short little poem today. Love is a dangerous game when you are a fly falling for a spider, but sometimes you just can't help yourself.

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Laura Vivanco @lauravivanco.bsky.social · 1d

This update got very long, but maybe that means there's a higher chance of it including something you'd be interested in reading?

Most of the entries are to open-access publications, so they're free to view.

A very long list of new (and some not so new) publications about romance

The open access journal TEXT dedicated a special issue to romance/romantic fiction, under the subtitle " Trope Actually – Popular Romance" b...

teachmetonight.blogspot.com

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Dr_Alessandra_P @alessandrapino.bsky.social · 1d

🕷️ #AScareADay

Once I loved a spider… but love bites.

Vachel Lindsay’s The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly (1915) turns a nursery rhyme into a nightmare of beauty, hunger, and revenge.

Beware the velvet-footed ones, they always come for the heart. 💔🕸️

@romgothsam.bsky.social

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Robert W. Williams @robtwilliams.bsky.social · 1d

#AScareADay Lindsay "Spider & Ghost of the Fly"
In poems spiders eat flies who write about it.
With human romances one figuratively can ensnare & devour another.
The poem seems metaphorical. It presumes the devourer to have a conscience able to be haunted. Sometimes this presumption is realistic.

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