Mining Local Legends for Story Gold

A practice I sincerely hope is in no way criminal

Greetings, fellow humans. I’m Caroline and I write fantasy and horror stories. I also have a mild obsession with Web 1.0-era websites. This is my newsletter.

I started writing The Obsidian Druid with the idea of incorporating some of the myths and legends local to Devon, which is my particular corner of the world. One that’s always fascinated me but didn’t make it into the novel is a story I was told as a child. We hadn’t long moved to the area and were spending a lazy, sunny Sunday happily driving along Dartmoor’s twisting country lanes. We stopped at a cafe—but knowing Dartmoor, it was probably called a tearoom—and the proprietor took great delight in spilling all the grisly details about a local site called Jay’s Grave.

Kitty Jay was a young, unmarried woman who found herself “in trouble” back in the days when being pregnant outside of wedlock was regarded as a mortal sin. The gruesome legend says that Kitty hung herself in a barn and was buried in unconsecrated ground on the outskirts of the parish. Apparently, this was because suicide victims would be denied access to Heaven, and the locals didn’t want to be bothered by a sinner’s troublesome ghost (I owe thanks to the Dartmoor National Park website for helping jog my memory on some of these details).

Kitty’s story is sad and bleak, but the part that fascinated me was what happened after she died. Her remains were moved to what was considered a more suitable resting place on the side of a road, one mile from Hound Tor (aside from the Hound of the Baskervilles connection, Hound Tor is a spooky place in its own right—my in-laws swore their dogs became uneasy whenever they passed near it). Ever since Kitty’s remains were moved and stones laid over her grave, fresh flowers have been placed there every day with no explanation. Nobody knows who does it. The final flourish to the tearoom owner’s story was the fact that a BBC film crew had once been sent to film the grave. They filmed all night long, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious bouquet-leaver, and in the morning there were new flowers on the grave but none of them had seen anyone approach. When they looked back at their footage, it was blank.

Jay’s Grave (photo borrowed from Mr Mortimer's Wife)

Okay, I can’t actually find any evidence of the BBC thing, but that is what I remember the tearoom owner telling us. We proceeded to spend the next half an hour or so attempting to find the grave, but it eluded us and I’ve never come across it since. Thinking back, this was probably a good thing. I don’t think the haunted grave of a wronged suicide victim should be a tourist hot spot, though apparently, it is.

Dartmoor is a place primed for stories like this. I mean, just look at it:

Photo borrowed from Visit Plymouth

It’s a large area of moorland full of hulking granite tors and deep forest-sided valleys that stretch into rustling darkness. It would be a crying shame if there wasn’t a profusion of slightly grim legends associated with it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle obviously felt the same way because Dartmoor is where he set the aforementioned The Hound of the Baskervilles, a story loosely based on legends of the Dartmoor Beast. Fun fact: there is also a supposed Exmoor Beast (Exmoor is Devon’s coastal stretch of moorland—we’re spoilt here). I thought I was about to meet the Exmoor Beast once. Well, I knew it wasn’t the real Beast. It was a beautiful black leopard who lived at Exmoor Zoo, and they really played up the “Beast” part:

Picture borrowed from The Zoo Guide Directory

We visited the zoo last year and spent far too long peering into the leopard enclosure, desperate for a glimpse of the fabled Beast. We came away disappointed after failing to catch even the whisk of a furred tail disappearing into the undergrowth, only to find out later that Zoysa the Leopard had recently died of old age and the zoo hadn’t yet repurposed the enclosure. True story.

One of my favourite stories that did make it into the novel (sort of) is about a witch called Vixana. Vixana was a hideously ugly old woman who lured travellers to Vixen Tor so she could drown them in a bog and eat them (they didn’t have online food deliveries back then). Some stories say she lived in a cave beneath the tor that was hollowed out by demons (other versions say it was gnomes). The witch met her end when a man wearing a spelled ring of invisibility crept up behind her and hurled her to her death. Vixana is just about the best name for a right-nasty-piece-of-work witch, so I borrowed it. As the legend is a good couple of centuries old, I’m hoping there are no sticky copyright issues.

There are many other legends, of course. I haven’t even told you about the Devil’s Footprints or the Hairy Hand. Promise to stick around for the next newsletter, and I’ll promise to regale you with two of the wildest stories that have ever been spun in this wild county.

The Obsidian Druid will be published in April 2024. If you want to see how the publishing process is going, just keep scrolling!

Santa is Stirring

Christmas stress has set in. I should actually be wrapping presents right now, but I’m planted in front of my computer instead. Is this the good kind of procrastination? This will most likely be the last newsletter I post until January so I hope everyone reading this has a peaceful Christmas break, full of all the things you enjoy with hopefully very little of the things you don’t. In our house, that means Playstation and pizza in pajamas and fuzzy socks. I’m very much looking forward to it.

Publishing News

If you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about, and what it is I’m actually publishing, may I kindly direct you here: Investing in Myself—I’ve started my self-publishing journey, join my descent into madness

Nothing monumental has happened on the self-publishing front this week. I finished incorporating my beta readers’ notes and ended up reading through a large portion of the novel again. I actually found an inconsistency with a rug colour that I was able to fix (fascinating, right?) Soon it will be in the hands of an editor, which is an exciting prospect.

I’m holding off on starting any new writing until January, but I’m still tweaking the outline for book two. I have a lot of broad strokes so far and not enough detail, which is worrying me. Hopefully, by the new year, I’ll be feeling more confident about it.

Current Favourite Website

Pi Zine - First Archived 2002 - Last Updated ?

Who remembers zines? They’re making a bit of a comeback online. Back in the day, they were small self-made magazines—usually photocopied and then stapled, covering topics ranging from punk music to literally anything. Pi Zine promised to deliver games, poetry, stories, pictures, essays, and “...oodles and oodles of great writing about feminism and grrrl issues.” This sounds like it was an utter bargain for the low, low price of “Just one dollar and fifty cents, as well as a stamp!” (never forget the stamp!)

You know an old-school webpage is going to be good when the homepage’s background is glittery purple dragon scales. The zine’s writers have amazing Web 1.0 handles too, namely thirdwavegrrl and miserywinter. My teenage self could only have dreamed of coming up with such awesomeness.

I assume physical copies of Pi Zine no longer exist, but thankfully there are some remnants of its former glory left on the site in the form of highlights from all four issues. Spooky Girl’s plea to adopt a cat had me wondering about the fate of Percy, who sounds like the cutest vampire kitty to ever prowl the night: “Are You A Lonely Little Goth Child? Well, of course you are - don't try to deny it! What you need is a cat! At A.S.A.P. there is the perfect cat for you - Percy! He is a neutered black cat about 8+ years old. He is a domestic short hair and has beautiful green and golden eyes. He's clean, calm, and very affectionate. The best part about Percy is his cute little fangs. you gotta check them out. I could swear he was a little vampire. So if you're looking for the perfect companion - come to A.S.A.P. and check out Percy! But hurry, we don't adopt out black cats near Halloween because of all the sick people out there.”

Pinky Royale from Zine Guide sums this all up much better than I could in Pi Zine’s (criminally) single review: "Goth poetry and thrift store reviews for the greater Santa Barbara area. Drawings of spiders and teeth, too. A good article on 'How To Beat Up Boys,' which, if you're a boy, could be seen as 'What To Watch Out For When You Cross The Line, Dumbass.' There's some information on runaways, and how to get help or help out. Sometimes life can be a big barrel of rancid pork rinds, drowning out that glimmer of hope that exists everywhere, and those damn goth folks really know how to balance their hope and their despair. Kudos."

If I’d stumbled across this site while the zine was still operational, this would have been me:

If you want to see the complete list of Web 1.0-era Websites of the Week, you can find it on my website.

Stalk me across the interwebs: Website - Dreamwidth - Bluesky - Read Stories Online

That’s it for now.