Iconic Settings: Monstrous May Challenge

The text version is available to Ko-Fi supporters only to read, but this is available to everyone to listen to. I haven’t edited this audio, as I recorded it quickly before work!

If you like this content and want to find more, you can tip me as a on-off and get access to all my supporter-only content for the month. If the story of Fairwood House intrigues you, this is a prequel piece to the novel THE CROWS which is available to buy from my Ko-Fi Shop (digital file) or from Amazon and other ebook retailers. The paperback is available through Amazon.

I am serialising this novel weekly on my podcast, ELDRITCH GIRL. You can listen to this on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and RSS.com/podcasts/eldritchgirl.

Day 13 of #MonstrousMay - The Doppelganger

https://ko-fi.com/post/Monstrous-May-2023-The-Doppelganger-N4N7LBBN0

Day 12 of #MonstrousMay : Trapped

We go back to 1973 for this #horror short where a woman is trapped in an unfamiliar room... but she isn't as alone as she thought.

https://wp.me/paaNfs-239

I've been travelling but I have caught up on #MonstrousMay - just didn't post about it! I need to cross post on Ko-Fi too.

Day 10: The Mermaid (it's a pub!) > a potted history of the pub and the fiends and monsters, human and otherwise, who drink there. http://cmrosens.com/2023/05/10/monstrousmay-2023-the-mermaid/

Day 11: The Monster's Wings > an extract from Nathan's journal, 1943, where he dissects a winged insect monster from another dimension.
http://cmrosens.com/2023/05/11/monstrousmay-the-monsters-wings/

#MonstrousMay Day 09 was The Tundra: I didn't do anything myself for this prompt, but in my post today I highlight 3 books on folklore and horror fiction from that region irl, focused on First Nations writing.

#Taaqtumi : An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories is one I'm dipping into soon! Been on my TBR for a while.

https://cmrosens.com/2023/05/09/monstrousmay-2023-the-tundra/

#horror #bookstodon #bookstadon #books #reading #arctic

#MonstrousMay Day 8: Reproduction

Key to the story...

#horror #horrorprompt #horrorstories #horrorfiction

#MonstrousMay Day 8: Reproduction

This is an experiment with a distant, omniscient narrator voice, reproduction method of human-passing sea nymphs inspired by ALIEN and daddy seahorses. CW for gore and unwitting surrogacy.

https://cmrosens.com/2023/05/08/monstrousmay-2023-reproduction/

#horror #horrorprompt #horrorstories #horrorfiction

#MonstrousMay Day 7: Camouflaged

I wrote my own version of a Sussex folktale for this, and got a (fictional) 19thC folklorist, the Rev. J. D. Allardyce, to annotate it!

It's The Dairymaid and the Knuckerhole, where a knucker (a water dragon in Sussex) camouflaged himself and attacked people. Like all good folktales there's a dark underbelly but an HEA.

https://cmrosens.com/2023/05/07/monstrousmay-2023-camouflaged/

Been seriously struggling for a while in general mental health wise but today I really do think I'm having a much better day. I even started reading again (Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer) and I wrote a short story for Monstrous May that I really like (already posted it with the #MonstrousMay tag) ...

It has taken a really long time for me to work with my brain and understand it, but since figuring out I'm #ActuallyADHD, these periods of depression and insomnia are less stressful for me.

#MonstrousMay Day 6: The Monster's Hide

This went a different way than I expected: cws for fungal horror, body horror involving skin, eyes.

https://cmrosens.com/2023/05/06/monstrousmay-2023-the-monsters-hide/