Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
Folk Horror - Blog Posts
Migrating to Tumblr and posting a concept art for my Horror Folk Visual Novel - Soulless.
In this game you play as a young human in old-time Ukraine that was taken by supernatural forces and now has to deal with it.
Mara is a powerful Slavic goddess who personifies winter, cycles of life and death. She is also considered the patroness of witchcraft and symbolizes justice.
Mavka is a character in South Slavic demonology, an evil spirit, a mermaid. According to a number of signs, it is close to a mermaid, a Carpathian “forest lady” or a mountain female spirit. It was believed that young girls or young children who died on Trinity Week because of unhappy love or whose parents were killed this week became Mavkas.
The second photo is stills from a photoset on this topic inspired by the theme
Always looking for a sign
A message
That it is OK to keep going
There is something inside
I see it
But I cannot touch it
DONT GET LOST IN THERE
comfy culty cozy library haul for fall:
THROUGH THE NIGHT LIKE A SNAKE (LATIN AMERICAN HORROR STORIES) by VARIOUS AUTHORS
A FEW RULES FOR PREDICTING THE FUTURE (ESSAY) by OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS by OCTAVIA E. BUTLER
THE GATHERING DARK (FOLK HORROR ANTHOLOGY) edited by TORI BOVALINO
THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by CASSANDRA KHAW
BLACK OBSERVATORY (POEMS) by CHRISTOPHER BREAN MURRAY
PARABLE OF THE SOWER (GRAPHIC NOVEL) by OCTAVIA E. BUTLER*
*read Parable of the Sower earlier this year, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★!! The story is even more poignant, now that her predictions have come true. Rereading this in graphic novel form before I move on to the sequel, Parable of the Talents!
Dead West Part 7: Paw and Poppet is Live!
In Part 7, Conrad and Louis compare their pasts and confront one another about the use of knacks and other magics.
Trigger warnings: Talk of closed practices, medical procedures through out, harm to children (implied), old practices using antiquated terms. ================================================ LISTEN HERE: SPOTIFY: APPLE: WEB RSS YOUR PREFERRED PLAYER ================================================
Be sure to check out our Ko-fi and Patreon for options to support the show.
[The phrase "even the worst days end" on a background of trees with eyes carved into them. Original from the Dead West Patreon]
10,000 listens! Thank y'all so much for checking out the DEAD WEST podcast!
Your support has been incredible, so appreciated, and insanely validating. When you put a creative piece of yourself out there, you dream of it finding the right audience and it is incredible to me that this show has resonated with so many folxs. Knowing that 10,000 people gave us a shot blows my mind.
Every listen, every share, every review, every rating, every piece of engagement on social media, every single thing YOU all have done has helped to lead us here. So, speaking on behalf of the incredible cast and crew, we at the Dead West thank you so much for showing up & showing our story love! Spotify Apple Web Your Preferred Player
DEAD WEST PART 6: As above, so below is Live!
In Part 6, Conrad comes face to face with the Mother of the Mountain only to realize that around every corner there is some monster or another.
Please be aware there are a LOT of content warnings for this episode. Be sure to check them out before diving. ================================================ LISTEN HERE: SPOTIFY APPLE WEB RSS Your Preferred Player ================================================ Be sure to check out our Ko-fi and Patreon for options to support the show.
My favorite comment to date.
Episode drops tomorrow, catch it everywhere!
Conrad and Father Gregory finally meet! Letting us learn more about Blackwater and the Father's role in it. VA credit: Zach Scott
I HAVE A GOD DAMN PLAN, to listen to this for the rest of the day! Honestly between this new beauty and the Port Sulphur Band record I am in hog heaven while I finish up some writing and planning for the next podcast episodes.
This makes me so damn proud.
When I was first spinning this show up I had a lot of reservations with putting it out into the world. The time period I wanted to set the show in comes with a LOT of bigotry, religious zealotry, racism, sexism, and xenophobia. With that, fictional media coverage of this time period is traditionally through the lens of a glorified "tough guy" acting under the eye of the Christian God or guided by the principles of Manifest Destiny. Which means the audience that flocks to Westerns are traditionally cis white dudes in which the bigoted, racist, sexist, xenophobic rhetoric has the possibility of feeding into their lived experiences and view points. Hell, I even started a TikTok for the show to help market it. My first podcast episode EXPLODED from a couple of posts I did over on TikTok, with 90% of the listener-ship being funneled over from social media identifying as men. Which on it's own isn't a huge issue; it becomes one when some of these commenters on Tiktok have usernames like "yourn*zihero88." Saying they see this being their favorite podcast in the future. (Username exaggerated for this post, but not by much.) So seeing stats like this give me a lot of hope for the future of the story I am working on telling here with Dead West. And we haven't even gotten to the real depth of this world or the stories I want to see come to life in it yet. Still on the horizon: - Sapphic Betrayal and Revenge - Trans Outlaws - POC Monster Hunters All informed by real life examples from the Wild West. Don't believe me? Go check out Henry Allen! I know at this point and time we have a little white boy as our driving narrative force, but my intent with the show wasn't to stay with Conrad forever.
Mood Board for the Dead West Podcast
DEAD WEST PART 4: NOTHING BESIDE REMAINS is Live!
In this episode we start peeling back the layers of the greater forces at work in the world of the Dead West. Please be aware there are a LOT of content warnings for this episode. Be sure to check them out before diving. ================================================ LISTEN HERE: SPOTIFY APPLE WEB RSS Your Preferred Player ================================================ Be sure to check out our Ko-fi and Patreon for options to support the show.
Seance in the White House Fun fact: Mary Lincoln hosted many Seances in the Red Room of the White House after her son Willie died.
For anyone interested we have kicked up a Discord Server for folks to talk about the show, show off some gothic artwork, share some music, whatever!
Excited to announce that our next Tales from the Dead West episode is going to be written by the amazing @lawofnamesmedia! Be on the look out here and on their pages for casting calls, live dates, and more!
New Episode! Tales from the Dead West: La Loup Garou is live!
Our new podcast segment Tales from the Dead West is live! These are stand alone episodes from the wider world of the Dead West which allows us to both fill out the world and give you (the rabid listener) more of our weird little world! For this one we peek in on a moment in the life of Louis before his death. Please be aware there is a LOT of content warnings for this episode. Be sure to check them out before diving. ================================================ LISTEN HERE: SPOTIFY APPLE WEB RSS ================================================ Don't worry, these are going to be highly irregular on the main feed but if you like them then be sure to check out our Ko-fi and Patreon pages for more of these as they will be regular offerings for supporting the show.
Dead West Visual Trailer
So, I make little trailers like this for projects I do as sort of a moving mood board. Something about them scratches an itch in my brain. So here is the one I did for DW the moment I heard the final version of the Theme Music from Sage. I still get chills when I get to drop that glorious piece of art into each episode of the show. You know what? I should do some of these for funsies for other shows too! Hmmmm. Who to unabashedly show some love to first?
Parts 0-3 are available now on all podcast platforms! If you find one where we are not there please let us know and we will give you credit in the next episode for helping us out!
This clip features Devin Steffens as Conrad.
Just a casual reminder to do your best every day from an inspiration for the show.
Inspired by our friends @theholmwoodfoundation who posted theirs here as well. Be sure to check out their show! If you do, leave them a rating/review and let them know the team from Dead West sent ya!
So here is our presentation on why YOU should listen and support The Dead West Podcast!
Spotify
Apple
Youtube Music
Podlink (Links to all the apps) Spotify playlist as mentioned above Also, honorable inspiration mentions for Hunt Showdown 1896, Wild Wild West, Rango, Alex Grecian's Red Rabbit, Hayley Stone's Make Me No Grave, the Never Whistle At Night Anthology, Bone Tomahawk, the 1973 WESTWORLD, The Wickerman, Weird West from WolfEye Studios, and Inscription by Daniel Mullins.
Sometimes while I am writing for or editing an episode of the Dead West Podcast I get these images in my head and I have to get them out in some way or another. It normally comes out in some version of photo bashing or editing as I am still learning how to draw. This one is my edit of the American Gothic painting by Grant Wood. This came to mind as I was writing about the Davis Family in our first few episodes of the show.
New Episode!!!! Dead West, Part 3 is live!
Auggie confronts Conrad. Louis struggles with being a spirit. Conrad meets Mrs Davis who isn't who she appears to be. Oh and Mr Davis? We meet him too. In a manner of speakin' ================================================ LISTEN HERE: SPOTIFY APPLE WEB RSS ================================================ I do this show as a way to stay creative and stay ahead of corporate burn out. Wholly something mine. So, for those of you who have checked it out, thank you! I hope you enjoy the story so far and stick around for the ride. Be sure to send it along to a friend as well!
Little doodle I did a few months back. Copic markers on simple sketch pad paper.