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Maria J Pérez Cuervo

@mjpcuervo.bsky.social

5.5K followers 780 following 1.9K posts

Writer, editor, comms manager • Founder/ editor @helleborezine.bsky.social (World Fantasy Awards and British Fantasy Awards finalist) • History, art, myth, mystery. 👩🏻 mjpcuervo.com/portfolio-page 📖 helleborezine.com

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 11d

Come with us into the magical, mystical world of HELLEBORE. I’m beyond excited to share this book with you: nine new stories by some of my favourite writers of the supernatural and strange.

👉🏼Pre-orders for TALES OF OCCULT BRITAIN are open worldwide on helleborezine.com.

Delve into a world of old gods, strange rituals, sinister faeries, hill figures, shadowy churches, vast forests and rugged coastlines. Set in some of the most beguiling locations in The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain and Northern Ireland, this collection features nine new stories of the supernatural and the strange by contemporary masters of the genre.
Nina Antonia • Ramsey Campbell • Steve Duffy Helen Grant • Verity Holloway • Eóin Murphy • Reggie Oliver • Steve Toase • Ally Wilkes
Edited by Maria J Pérez Cuervo
Design by Sam Freeman
Cover art by Isabella Mazzanti

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 15h

Coming very soon! 🙌🏻

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 15h

Gorgeous edition, has a couple of new stories too.

Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 15h

It’s a fine evening for #CrushingOnCushing

Peter Cushing in a smoking jacket with pince-nez

Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 22h

For Crowley’s 150th, a documentary first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1986 is now available on BBC sounds.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 1d

Bedtime reading: Misty serial “The Sentinels”. Part doppelgänger story, part Man in the High Castle, plenty of social commentary with its homeless female protagonist.

DWARFING THE RUN-DOWN AREA OF BIRDWOOD WERE TWO MASSIVE BLOCKS OF HIGH-RISE FLATS.
BUILT AT THE SAME TIME THEY WERE IDENTICAL IN EVERY WAY, EXCEPT...
... IN ONE, FAMILIES LIVED HAPPILY EVEN ON THE 26th FLOOR.
BUT IN THE OTHER NO ONE WOULD LIVE-NOT EUEN RENT-FREE.
THE LOCAL PEOPLE CALLED THESE TWO BLOCKS...
The sentinels

First page of the comic

P-PLEASE, NO-NOI
IDIOTSI DON'T YOU KNOW JULIE'S BEST FRIEND AND HER FAMILY DISAP.
PEARED IN THERE.
WHA WHAT OH, NO..N
HEY, WHAT ARE YOU LOT UP TO?
IT'S JULIE'S BIRTHDAY,JAN.
WE THOUGHT WE'D GIVE HER A TREAT... A GUIDED TOUR OF THE SENTINELS!
SORRY, JULIE, WE DIDN'T KNOW..
AND ANYWAY
WE'D NEVER ACTUALLY HAVE GONE IN THERE.
NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD.
SEE YOU LOT
TOMORROW...COME
ON, JULIE
DO YOU BELIEVE THE STORIES ABOUT THAT PLACE, JAN?...
ABOUT GHOSTS, ABOUT EOPLE DISAPPEARING?
ABOUT THE PLACE
BEING EVIL?
RIGHT NOW WE'VE GOT OUR OWN PROBLEMS ABOUT WHERE TO LIVE. MY AUNT AND UNCLE ARE PUTTING US UP, BUT THEY CAN'T DO THAT FOR EVER.
I-I HOPE YOU ALL FIND A PLACE TO LIVE SOON. SEE YOU, LAN AND THANKS FOR EVERYTHI
SUDDENLY..
لسعه
٨ ١٨٨٩٧
WE'RE
THE PEOPLE WHO USED TO LIVE THERE BELIEVED IT. THAT'S ENOUGH FOR ME.
AND THEY NEVER DID
FIND ANY TRACE OF YOUR FRIEND'S FAMILY, DID THEY?
ISJUST SUPERSTITIOUS NONSENSE, ALL THAT TALK ABOUT THE SENTINELS.
NO WHAT A MELODRAMATIC
NAME TOO.
BUT PEOPLE HAVE DISAPPEARED IN THERE - VANISHE
DAVE
BES

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 1d

Absolutely not. Someone gifted me a second-hand crystal ball once and I kept it covered with a black cloth until I finally donated it.

Reposted by Maria J Pérez Cuervo

Hellebore @helleborezine.bsky.social · 1d

British folk horror and occult characters to be on Halloween, a thread.

1. Mr Fisher from Robin Redbreast (1970).
Catchphrase: “The study of religions is one of my many interests.”
You’ll need:
- Tweed trilby
- Mutton chops
- Cracked spectacles
- A copy of The Golden Bough

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 1d

Be careful out there, friends.

Peter Cushing as an antique dealer in From Beyond the Grave

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 1d

Found the loveliest ring in a second-hand shop earlier, nice violet-blue, slid perfectly around my scrawny index finger. Didn’t bring it home because it’s October, nearing Halloween, and I know exactly what happens when you buy a second-hand ring.

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 1d

Marvellous film 🖤

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 2d

Andrew Eldritch could never.

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 2d

Catholicism being goth af again.

Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 2d

The Shining theme on glass harmonica. This is based on the somber Medieval melody of the Dies Irae, the Last Judgement: “The mighty trumpet's wondrous tone/ shall rend each tomb's sepulchral stone/
and summon all before the Throne.”

youtu.be/TsjLBdCeewg

"Shining Theme" on the Glass Armonica

YouTube video by TheBrianBonelli

youtu.be

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 2d

Benjamin Franklin’s 1761 invention, the glass harmonica, produced a sound so ethereal and otherworldly that some claimed it “excessively stimulates the nerves, plunges the player into a nagging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood” leading to “slow self-annihilation”.

Cover of a magazine showing Benjamin Franklin playing the glass harmonica

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 2d

This looks like the perfect bi awakening

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 2d

I don’t think these were shown in Spain. I would have been very young, but old enough to have been glued to the screen waiting for the next instalment.

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Maria J Pérez Cuervo @mjpcuervo.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you to the kind soul who compiled all the late 80s Nescafé Gold Blend ads. Can’t stop thinking of them as Rupert Giles’ backstory. Absolutely riveting.

youtube.com/playlist?lis...

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Reposted by Maria J Pérez Cuervo

Bård Harstad @bardharstad.bsky.social · 3d

Note the wording.. Ms. Machado receives the prize for:
- promoting democratic rights
- struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition
- At a time when democracy is under threat
- where democracy is in retreat
- more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norm
www.nobelpeacecenter.org/en