A Message from your Batty Old Hungarian Vampire Granny

I never promised you a rose garden, but I did promise you a Gothic video...

In honour of last night’s Writers’ Trust Storytellers’ Ball, themed “Literary Gothic,” which I couldn’t attend as I was having a Metallic Makeover, here are some Gothic images. (The pacemaker is doing well. It thanks you for your interest.) Here’s the still:

And here is the video. The head decoration was facilitated by a plunge into Dollarama; the necklaces are authentic Mexican Day of the Dead ones, made out of bones.

As for the “little game”I mention in the video: Charlie Foran and I sat in a café while I did a Deep Dive into my memories of Gothic books and films of the past and near-present, and Charlie wrote the clues down. Then the clues were turned into an art project by the Gas Company. Each was typed out five times, using a restored typewriter of mine (the restoration by Dominion Business Machines, who have been repairing typewriters for over fifty years). The pages were then signed by me, framed, hung on the wall, and auctioned off during the evening to raise money for writerly Good Works. The installation looked like this:

As you won’t be able to read these very well, here is a link to the catalogue:

Ma Catalogue

3.04MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Go to the right of the box above, click on the three lines, choose Download, and it should open. (Yes, I know it’s Carmilla and not Camilla. It was a typo. It would not be a project by me if it didn’t have a typo in it.)

When you open the pdf, you should see the image below, by Isolde Ohlbaum, Berlin, 1984.

Then proceed to scroll down. Happy Gothic guessing!

For those who wish to plunge deeper, continue below The Dreaded Paywall (all revenues to the Pelee Island Bird Observatory). What’s behind the Wall? Ice zombies? Plain ol’ ordinary zombies? Other? Others? Who knows what weevils lurk in the hearts of men? Books I’ve enjoyed? Don’t open that crypt door! Of course you will, or there wouldn’t be a story…