In my defence, we're fast approaching the time of year when days blur together and time loses all meaning, so let's just say my brain got ahead of itself. 

Maybe it's because I grew up on 

The Dark is Rising 

and 

The Snow Spider

, but -- with all due respect to Halloween/Calan Gaeaf -- it's midwinter that feels like the true spooky season to me. The feeling is helped along by spooky traditions like Y Fari Lwyd and Christmas ghost stories, but there's something about those long hours of darkness and the strange liminal days between Christmas and New Year. The sense that, while we're slumped on our sofas watching 

Die Hard

 and munching the fifth mince pie of the day, something could be stirring out there in the cold and the gloom...

In that spirit, I wanted to share a snippet of a ghost story I wrote over the holidays last year. It was inspired by a

I watched in Welsh class a couple of years ago about the Mari Lwyd tradition in Glamorgan. The old gentleman being interviewed talks about how the only break in the Mari Lwyd tradition locally had been during WWI, when all the young men of the area were away at war. This story is narrated by a young woman whose brother is a soldier in France. She's talking with her brother's best friend, who was left behind due to his disability.

“I still think I hear him sometimes. At home, in the street. Just some passing sound, and my mind turns it into his voice, and I’m turning around to answer him before I remember.”

“Me too," Dyfan said. “Especially tonight.”

We carried on down the street, slower now, so I wouldn’t leave Dyfan behind. He began to whistle as we walked, and after a moment I recognised the repetitive tune. I was used to hearing it sung by a dozen rowdy voices, off-key with beery enthusiasm. Out here, solo and in that thin, high timbre, it sounded eerie.

I couldn’t very well ask Dyfan to stop. It was his way of remembering, and he had as much right to it as I.

Instead, I gritted my teeth and added my own voice, hoping to dispel the prickle of unease that touched the back of my neck. “Wel, dyna ni’n dwad, gyfeillion diniwad…”

“…i ofyn am gennad…”

We both fell silent as a new voice chimed in. It was a laryngitic creak, a thing choked with dust and grave-dirt—but it held the tune.

Dyfan and I exchanged startled looks as I racked my brain, trying to remember if another of last year’s Mari crew had been left behind. “Did anyone…?”

He shook his head quickly.

Another sound, so unexpected in the stillness we both flinched: the echoing

clop-clop

of a horse’s hooves on hard ground. The swish and rustle of something dragging along the ground accompanied it.

“There.” Dyfan pointed a shaking finger, and I turned to follow his gaze.

Out of the darkness at the end of the street emerged something pale and lurching, draped in a white sheet like a shroud. No ribbons this year, no baubles. The hollow eye-sockets of the Mari Lwyd bored into us, full of black nothingness.

I've been saving up my horror stories in hope of putting together a collection, so maybe the whole thing will see the light someday. We'll see.

What I've been reading

I'm currently between 600+ page tomes you could knock someone out with, so picked up 

White Trash Warlock

, the first instalment in David R. Slayton's Adam Binder series. It's less comedic than the title and cover suggest, and suffers from some of the same editing issues that unfortunately plague a lot of recent genre titles. (Seriously, publishers, what gives? Your authors deserve better!) I still enjoyed it quite a lot -- a classic urban fantasy with an openly gay protagonist and a strong focus on class and belonging.

What I've been watching

We recently finished watching our way through 

Justified

, which I didn't necessarily expect to like, since crime shows are not really my jam. However, shows full of terrible people bound together by terrible, unhealthy attachments and doing terrible things very much are my jam, so I ended up liking it quite a lot.

What I've been listening to

The most recent episode of 

Dead Languages

 is all about holiday horror, and they've got some interesting things to say about it (in their usual sweary and bodily-fluids-spattered style) as well as a ton of recommendations. Worth a listen if you're looking to read or write some Yuletide creepiness!

That's all from me for this month. See you at the end-of-year roundup!

JL