Daniel Carpenter

Who wants a ghost story these days? These people totally have the answer…

@dancarpenter.bsky.social @unheimlichmanvr.bsky.social @willmclean21.bsky.social

I was bleary-eyed and Not Quite Awake but after @dancarpenter.bsky.social’s workshop on experimental fiction I am not only energised but also might have an inkling of how to tackle structure challenges in the novel?!

This morning I finally wrote a sentence in the novel that I have had in my head since I wrote the very first sentence about three years ago. The big, big reveal. Feels very satisfying to have done that... now I've just got to finish the damn thing.

Today!!

A ghost

Getting serious at the ghost story festival...

Hunting by the River, by the pool!

The artist pictured with a ghost.

En route to the UK Ghost Story Festival.

Appearances at the Ghost story festival

Here's where I'll be over the weekend at the UK Ghost Story Festival in Derby.

The kids watched IF yesterday, and not the good one. My takeaway from it is that I'm now absolutely convinced that John Krasinski has never seen a film in his life.

The Gorton and Denton result is fantastic for several reasons, but easily the funniest one is that the Tories got so few votes that they LOST THEIR DEPOSIT.

In a word: yes!

In several more words, Joel Lane on Cornell Woolrich:

Appearances at the Ghost story festival

Here's where I'll be over the weekend at the UK Ghost Story Festival in Derby.

YouTube video by MUBI TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA | Official Teaser | In Theaters August 7

"There is a hole at the bottom of the lake, where the movies come from."

I AM SO IN.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA5N...

I've been running workshops recently about horror, but one of the things I've tried to impress on people is that prose is a form that has distinct advantages over movies and TV, and as writers, we should be exploiting those advantages.

This is a really good piece about that very thing.

What does an artist do, mostly? She tweaks that which she’s already done. There are those moments when we sit before a blank page, but mostly we’re adjusting that which is already there. The writer revises, the painter touches up, the director edits, the musician overdubs. I write, “Jane came into the room and sat down on the blue couch,” read that, wince, cross out “came into the room” and “down” and “blue” (Why does she have to come into the room? Can someone sit UP on a couch? Why do we care if it’s blue?) and the sentence becomes “Jane sat on the couch – ” and suddenly, it’s better (Hemingwayesque, even!), although … why is it meaningful for Jane to sit on a couch? Do we really need that? And soon we have arrived, simply, at “Jane”, which at least doesn’t suck, and has the virtue of brevity.

See also, George Saunders' essay "What writers really do when they write" which has maybe the definitive paragraph on editing I've ever read. www.theguardian.com/books/2017/m...

I've been running workshops recently about horror, but one of the things I've tried to impress on people is that prose is a form that has distinct advantages over movies and TV, and as writers, we should be exploiting those advantages.

This is a really good piece about that very thing.

Congratulations to all of the 2025 Bram Stoker Award® finalists! It’s so wonderful to see so many Titan authors on the list! 🎉

I know a guy, but he's constantly shifting.

My copy of 'Farewell, My Lovely' has the inscription "Ignore the title darling, I'm not going anywhere".

A+ State of the Union counterprogramming by TCM.

A huge thank you to the @britfantasysoc.bsky.social for helping us to reveal the cover for LAND OF OZ, an anthology inspired by the classic tales of L. Frank Baum, and edited by the wonderful @marieoregan.bsky.social & @paulkane.bsky.social 🌈🪄🌪️

Coming September 2026!

Three days until kick-off for the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL, and here's everything we have on the slate for Saturday! www.derbyquad.co.uk/ukgsf/ #derby #derbyshire #ghost #ghosts #ghoststory #ghoststories #writing #events #festival #festivals

a photo of Hailey Piper holding her Bram Stoker Award-nominated collection Teenage Girls Can Be Demons. Beneath is a screenshot of the Fiction Collection ballot of the Bram Stoker Awards as follows: Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection Chapman, Clay McLeod — Acquired Taste (Titan Books) Files, Gemma — Little Horn: Stories (Shortwave) Langan, John — Lost in The Dark and Other Excursions (Word Horde) Piper, Hailey — Teenage Girls Can Be Demons (Titan Books) Tantlinger, Sara — Cyanide Constellations (Dark Matter INK)

TEENAGE GIRLS CAN BE DEMONS is a Bram Stoker Award Finalist! 🤩😈

I'm ECSTATIC to see my demons nominated and overjoyed to be on the ballot with the wondrous Sara Tantlinger, John Langan, Gemma Files, & Clay McLeod Chapman 🎉 congrats to the Fiction Collection finalists & everyone on the final ballot!

Four days and counting to go until kick off for the UK GHOST STORY FESTIVAL, and here's everything on tap for Friday! www.derbyquad.co.uk/ukgsf/ #Derby #Derbyshire #ghost #ghosts #ghoststory #ghoststory #writing #writers #fiction #authors

How cool is it to be in a new anthology alongside the likes of Tananarive Due, Bat Cassidy, Hailey Piper, Cynthia Pelayo and so many others? Huge congrats to editor/writer Johnny Compton on the announcement of his upcoming anthology WHERE DEVILS STAND, out from Titan Books in 2027: bit.ly/4tKkPBE

Finished the ARC for BODIES OF WORK by @claymcleod.bsky.social today. What a trippy ride. It’s got a serial killer, ghosts, and a FEMA deer (iykyk). Only question is, when are we getting a CMC fantasy novel?

I used to go to the Crinkly Bottom theme park as a kid and that place was definitely haunted even before it got shut down.

If anyone wants to do an anthology of New British Cryptids, I would very much like to write a story for it.

Author Panel – Ghost Stories in the Modern Publishing Climate | Derby QUAD View our latest event: Author Panel – Ghost Stories in the Modern Publishing Climate. See what the available times are for this event.

I'm also on a panel on Ghost Stories in the Modern Publishing Climate where I will have *opinions* about horror and genre publishing. www.derbyquad.co.uk/events/ghost...

So happy Devil's Path was included in this anthology helmed by the handsome @comptonwrites.bsky.social and published by @titanbooks.bsky.social. It'll be worth the wait!