The Militiverse

  Why the Gothic Still Matters Good evening, my dear Gothic dark academics, The weekend has passed but its perfume still lingers, doesn’t it? Pull up a chair, warm your toes by the fire. I’m sipping the green fairy tonight. What’s your poison? Let me tell you in on a little secret. Paris, the city of love, light, and lingering ghosts. Dripping with gothic architecture and literary sorcery. Beautiful to a fault, like a princess in a doomed fairy tale. But… I wasn’t always seduced by it. Oh no! Hard to believe, isn’t it? I never could quite grasp its allure, what its pull was. It shimmered at a distance, a city behind glass. But as with all great enchantments, Paris found a way to creep under my skin. Slowly, insidiously, tenderly. And when it did? The Gothic Heart Found Its Way Home Picture it here, cobbled streets glistening under a rainstorm, Paris breathing mist like a dragon half asleep. People move not like modern tourists but like dancers in an old waltz, una...

  Writing Timeless Monsters with Human Hearts Good evening my gothic friends, Please have a seat, help yourself to some wine or absinthe, if you feel a little decadent or maybe I can tempt you with a brooding cup of tea. Tonight I am reflecting on a question asked of me a few weeks ago. A question that really stood out. The question? ‘Living Memory’ . More specifically about immortals and how they would perceive memory, what it would mean to those who don’t die? The psychology of immortality I remember asking my grandad, many years ago, what it was like in to live for hundreds of years. He was only in his seventies at that time, but as a child I believed he was much older than Methuselah. He spun wild, fantastic stories a little like Cervantes’ windmill chasing Don Quixote. He was a scallywag at heart really, a complete rascal with a great memory.  In a lot of gothic and fantasy stories, vampires seem to float through time with  with no memory of their human lives. But my...

  Good evening, my dark academic friends. Let’s pour a glass of wine, Pinot Grigio, perhaps? What a week we have ahead, the Buck Moon on Thursday, and I have a little surprise brewing for you, my darlings. But more on that later. Tonight, I’m treating you to a glimpse into some of the characters of the Tempus Militibus series but not the main guys, though heaven help my haunted heart, how could I not talk about them! No, tonight, I want to introduce those who give our vampire warriors a hard time, provoke deep and meaningful conversations, and have almost destroyed a Militibus officer. Picture this, you’re sitting at home, enjoying a rare moment to read, when there’s a knock on the door. In walk two very handsome, very imposing undead vampires. What do you do? That, my friends, is how our first character met the Tempus Militibus . The Priest: Father Tom O’Hara is a kindly old soul working among the forgotten residents of LA’s Skid Row. Raised on a dairy farm in the Midland...