Hadassah Shiradski
@dassawrites.bsky.social
470 followers 24 following 280 posts
Queer ND goth. I write spooky stories! 'What Happened at Hawthorne House', my debut, is out now! Writing a second novella, a story in verse, and a collection of doll stories 🖤 Playing with poetry and interactive fiction 🖤 🚫No AI🚫
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dassawrites.bsky.social
Set in 1926, Rosalyn (9) invents a game of royalty with her dormmates. Everyone needs to be in control, and stopping isn't an option; Rosalyn must be Queen.
Get it: brigidsgatepress.com/product/what...

Stories, free:
crowcrosskeys.com/2021/05/05/o...
nightterrornovels.wordpress.com/2022/06/24/t...
What Happened at Hawthorne House - Brigids Gate PressWhat Happened at Hawthorne House
brigidsgatepress.com
dassawrites.bsky.social
It's dark now, so I'm done for the day -- for some reason, this can only be written in daylight hours. I got good stuff done today, and had the opportunity to use a metaphor that's been lingering in my head since I realised where I wanted to take this story🖤
Now to get into #LittleNightmares 3!
🩸📚💙
dassawrites.bsky.social
Writing disturbing poems today, working on the final chapter of my novella in verse! Putting the 'romance' into 'horrormance' with this sapphic dark fantasy🖤
My narrator is very conflicted re: her situation & the witch
Todays writing song is from The Path!
💙📚🩸
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYLQ...
Forest Theme
YouTube video by Kris Force - Topic
www.youtube.com
dassawrites.bsky.social
Writing disturbing poems today, working on the final chapter of my novella in verse! Putting the 'romance' into 'horrormance' with this sapphic dark fantasy🖤
My narrator is very conflicted re: her situation & the witch
Todays writing song is from The Path!
💙📚🩸
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYLQ...
Forest Theme
YouTube video by Kris Force - Topic
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Hadassah Shiradski
bookshop.org
Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚
dassawrites.bsky.social
Thanks for running this, Eryn!
I have a gothic horror novella set in 1926, in which 9-yr-old Rosalyn plays a make-believe game of a Royal Court with 4 other girls. All of them want to (need to) be the Queen... Things escalate. Badly.🍀🔨👑
brigidsgatepress.com/product/what...
📚🩸

🖤
#HorrorWritersChat
dassawrites.bsky.social
Augumented reality, possibly? I'm not sure; it's very easy to find horror in technology, especially given the general erosion of privacy and rise of censorship and such...Augumented reality at least is 'familiar' as a basis for horror, so is easier to incite horror-esque feelings.
#HorrorWritersChat
erynmccee.bsky.social
Nearly there, #HorrorWritersChat bods. Hang around for the outro when you can throw out all the links. But not yet, my darlings, not yet.
We live in a world that we saw loom in scifi, the rise of AI, but not yet the Terminator... drones, smart devices, Alexa...
So what do you think brings the fear?
What piece of technology  exists right now that you think has the most horror potential?
dassawrites.bsky.social
I much prefer leaning into older technology, to say the least. I'm pretty sure the most modern tech I've had in a story has been a payphone, and that was mostly so I could make it useless (it's also partly why the story is set in the 1990s - I wanted Gem to find a broken one).
#HorrorWritersChat
erynmccee.bsky.social
Catching up, somewhat.
Tech is tech. We forget that wheels, fountains, cars, were tech once, something new and exciting. Our brains making something new.
What's scarier, really? An old tv? An old setting? Nostalgia?
Is tech our new religion?

#horrorwriterschat
Old tech (VHS, landlines, flickery screens) can feel creepier than the newest AI. Do you lean into outdated tech for atmosphere, or do you prefer cutting-edge horrors?
dassawrites.bsky.social
Most of my stories are set pre-1900, so the tech involved is that of the time period and usually used as an aid. Kind of. My protagonists aren't always good people, and they are sometimes comprised of technology in a way. So my answer is 'both, often simultaneously'!
#HorrorWritersChat
erynmccee.bsky.social
Q2, #HorrorWritersChat! You lot were chatting so much I ran over. Hmpf.
Anyway you know the theme. Hit me with it.
 In your stories, do you use tech as a threat (AI gone rogue, surveillance, biotech nightmares) or as a tool that characters rely on?
dassawrites.bsky.social
Hi, I'm Hadassah!
I write gothic horror, usually historical or supernatural, as well as poetry and dark fantasy. I tend to write short stories and novellas, and I don't particularly swear by any tech; my only requirements are that it doesn't use AI in any way, and that it works.
🖤
#HorrorWritersChat
erynmccee.bsky.social
Dum, Dum, Dum!!!!!!!!!! Assemble, #HorrorWritersChat writers. Assemble, and give us your shit for Q1.
Your name, your number, but not your links. You know the game.
Leave that for the end. Right? Right.
step inside, horror writers. What do you write and what writerly tech (if any) 
do you swear by?
dassawrites.bsky.social
To get more lives, you can find 'soul fragments' hidden behind breakable walls and in hard-to-get-to areas, 4 fragments = 1 life. You can also get them after important fights. You can also find blue glowy cocoons that give 2 temporary lives if you break it. The dream nail is part of the 'main' story
dassawrites.bsky.social
In Dirtmouth, if you go all the way to the right, there's a locked house. Iirc, you can open it with a key bought from Sly (A bug you can save. He sets up shop in Dirtmouth). You can give the person in there rancid eggs, and they bring your shade to you so you can get your money back. 1/2
dassawrites.bsky.social
Alas. On that note: Fog Canyon with no map... (now obtained, but still) and the pile of rancid eggs sitting in the inventory.

I've added the Greenpath music to my writing playlist, and Deepnest and the Waterways are definitely inspiring... something, somewhere in my brain.
dassawrites.bsky.social
I'm watching a blind playthrough since I can't play it myself, and currently: going through the 49 Precepts of Zote. Dealt with all three Watchers but delaying going into the black egg temple. Found the Abyss as well as the cast-off shell at the Kingdom's Edge. I'm really enjoying this game!!
dassawrites.bsky.social
I got distracted by Hollow Knight, but I've finally managed to make a start on chapter 5, the final chapter of my witchy, erotic, gothic horror novella-in-verse! I've given myself til October to finish the first draft... doable, but difficult.
It's raining, and the light is soft.
🖤
#HorrorAuthor
💙📚🩸
dassawrites.bsky.social
Thanks for running this!
I have a gothic horror novella set in 1926, in which 9-yr-old Rosalyn plays a make-believe game of a Royal Court with 4 other girls. All of them want to (need to) be the Queen... Things escalate. Badly.
brigidsgatepress.com/product/what...
🍀📚🩸
I'm also on Insta & Tumblr!
🖤
What Happened at Hawthorne House - Brigids Gate Press
brigidsgatepress.com
dassawrites.bsky.social
I think our antagonists have a few things in common!
dassawrites.bsky.social
Agnes: '...I see. Well, I am none of those things you listed.'
dassawrites.bsky.social
It's less a dream and more a wish, but it would be amazing if I found it easier to find a character's voice when it comes to subtle wording choices, particularly in my more straightforward horror pieces.

#HorrorWritersChat
chaoticauthor.online
Question 3:

Share a horror writing related dream (interpret this any way you like!)

Quote post and include the tag #HorrorWritersChat so others can find you.

No links or covers. Save the self-promo for the outro.
Image shows creepy figures behind a curtain. All text in post.
dassawrites.bsky.social
Agnes: 'I'm definitely not going to eat them unless I absolutely have to, and if that situation arises, I'd use the other soul available to me first. If they never like me, I can change that, but I'd rather befriend them in a more traditional way first. ...Who is Jeffrey Dalmer?'
dassawrites.bsky.social
Agnes: 'Yes! Even though they don't like it, I'm going out of my way to make sure they heal properly and don't get an infection or anything -- it's really the least I can do.'
dassawrites.bsky.social
From my novella-in-verse WIP:
'I hurt somebody (for a good reason, I promise) and now I'm keeping them in my house until they like me because I really want the company of someone friendly. I'm being really nice to them but they still seem scared of me, AITA?'

#HorrorWritersChat
chaoticauthor.online
Question 2:

Write a post in the form of a Reddit "Am I the asshole?" question from one of your antagonist's perspectives.

Quote post and include the tag #HorrorWritersChat so others can find you.

No links or covers. Save the self-promo for the outro.
Image shows creepy figures behind a curtain. All text in post.
dassawrites.bsky.social
Hi, I'm Hadassah!
I'm a gothic spec-fic writer who prefers to write short stories and novellas, usually historical and/or supernatural horror. I also write poems!

A bad description of my current WIP: Poems as narrative, in which a girl gets stuck in the woods and has a bad time.

#HorrorWritersChat
chaoticauthor.online
Here we go with question 1:

Introduce yourself: tell us who you are, what you write and describe a current WIP (or published work if you don't have a WIP) badly.

Quote post and include the tag #HorrorWritersChat so others can find you.

No links or covers. Save the self-promo for the outro.
Image shows creepy figures behind a curtain. All text in post.
dassawrites.bsky.social
Thanks for running this, Eryn!
🖤
I have a gothic horror novella set in 1926, in which 9-yr-old Rosalyn plays a make-believe game of a Royal Court with 4 other girls. All of them want to (need to) be the Queen... Things escalate. Badly.
brigidsgatepress.com/product/what...
🍀🔨👑

#HorrorWritersChat
dassawrites.bsky.social
And with the final poem (titled 'Agnes'), I have finally completed ch.4 of my witchy/gory/gothic/sapphic story in verse! I still have a couple extra to write for ch.4, but that's for the second draft. I have a month to write the final chapter...
🖤

Current poem count: 82!
#HorrorAuthor #Booksky 💙📚🩸
dassawrites.bsky.social
I enjoy time loop and paradox stories quite a lot. I enjoy the concept of alternate timelines, particularly where a timeline can become 'doomed'; what does that spell for the people in that version of events? Do they just end? What prevents that, and what if things get mixed?
#HorrorWritersChat
erynmccee.bsky.social
So #HorrorWritersChat we're on the past now, so lets talk time travel. It's usually more scifi than horror but how could you incorporate it into horror? I'm all ears.
Q3 How would you incorporate time travel into horror? What makes it horrifying?
dassawrites.bsky.social
... I'm going to be predictable and basic and say the Victorian Era. There is SO MUCH to work with from every angle, and I have great fun writing stories set between 1840 and 1901 for a reason! (The reason is that I find it a fascinating sandbox. That's it. That's the reason.)
#HorrorWritersChat
erynmccee.bsky.social
I'm very much enjoying the historical doppelgangers. Well done #HorrorWriterChat bods.
So this question assumes that you have full knowledge of the era. You don't have to choose one you do write in, but you can. You absolutely can.
Q2 
Assuming you knew everything about the era what historical period would you most want to write horror about?