Cordelia Kelly's Blog: Curl Up With a Good Blog, page 3

Middle Grade Horror

Scariest Monsters in Lit

And if you would like to read my very own horror short story anthology, Then She Said Hush, is available for free on my website! Don’t miss out on the offer, it’s for a limited time only.

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Published on April 24, 2023 08:35

April 10, 2023

Then She Said Hush

Very exciting news, my friends!

I published a book! Then She Said Hush is a collection of short stories, most of them spooky. I think these are delightful to read around a campfire. You can read seven of my favourite shorts, including award-winning “Unfreeze.” And don’t worry, these aren’t too scary … not unless you really don’t like saunas!

Then She Said Hush is available on Amazon, but for a limited time, I am offering the ebook for free. To receive the free ebook, please enter your email here so I can send it along to you.

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Immortality in Literature

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Published on April 10, 2023 08:24

April 3, 2023

Scariest Monsters in Lit

Everybody has monsters that keep them up at night. I suspect the boogeyman that lives under each of our beds looks a little different. Different types of monsters light up different parts of our psyche, which is why we respond to them differently. But there are archetypes of monsters that we can recognize in books and film, in art in general, that mean certain things about us. What horror you respond to tells you a lot about what’s going on in your head.

Before this evolves into a psych dissertation, let me tell you I’m here to entertain – and maybe give you a little shiver. Because we all like to be a little scared, right?

The following archetypal monsters have always given me the heebie-jeebies (or in some cases, some hard-hitting existential dread). I would love to hear the monsters that keep you up at night, too – comment below!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, surrounded by flowers

Dementors

Many things have been written about Harry Potter (as well as its creator), but I think one of the reasons that the HP world has become a modern classic and will remain there is due to the creation of a world that many of us would wish to escape within (and do, year after year). But the books are more than dark academia and cozy castle aesthetics – there are genuinely terrifying monsters here.

But none are scarier, in my opinion, than the dementors. They cause a person to linger over the worst moments in their life, their fears and weaknesses. And if they get close enough, they’ll perform a Dementor’s Kiss, where they suck your soul out of your body, which is lost forever. You are nothing, then. You have no emotions, no joy, no memories or sense of self. You are nothing at all – just a shell of a person, empty.

Horrifying. Perhaps all the darker when you know they were based on depression. As in, they are in the embodiment of a mental illness that does something similar. Gone are joy and motivation, gone are reasons to continue on. The whole idea is terrifying, and all too close to reality, which is perhaps why it resonates so much. Also, the dementors in the movies could not be more scary.

As I was delving deep into the mythology behind Dementors, I found a chilling resemblance to something called a “psychic vampire.” These monsters (or people) feed off of the life force and energy of others. And they might be an actual real thing. Time to break out the garlic …

Werewolves

Speaking of vampires, when it comes to the vampire/werewolf showdown, I’ve always preferred werewolves. Vampires seek immortality (which I’ve stressed my feelings at lot in Immortality: Blessing or Curse?), while werewolves are so unapologetically animalistic that humanity is barely recognized.

A werewolf is a human who descends so deeply into their animal self that they become an animal in truth – at least, under the light of the full moon. Scary enough as a literary monster, but I think the reason why werewolves have struck a chord in our horror is the fact that this is a fear in reality. We humans always walk a fine line between our “baser” animal instincts, our id, and the control we enact over our desires, instilled by societal pressure and our own thinking minds.

There is such a thin veneer of control we really have, though, especially in times of trouble. The instinct or desire to return to our animal nature, to descend into chaos, is ever-present. How many people have wondered what would happen if they just give in? The answer may be: werewolves.

Digital book IT by Stephen King surrounded by flowers

Clowns

Pennywise. Need I say more?

Clowns hide their humanity behind literal masks, presenting instead only one exaggerated emotion. I believe it is this void of humanity that really freaks me out. We can’t actually connect with the clown, because the emotion they are presenting might not be the one they are feeling, and therefore they are devoid of empathy; inhuman.

Also, that string of armed clowns popping out at people a few years ago? Left me truly shaken. Anyone remember the 2016 Clown Panic? That was messed up. Also, I’ve discovered that coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) is a real thing. I’ve been dealing with this my whole life.

Man as God

Man long ago ascended to dominance in this world, but still, we always need to try to achieve more, more, more. Some say we won’t stop until we have achieved god-like control over the world around us. Literature warns us it is this hubris, this pride, that will be our downfall. Frankenstein created life, then watched as his creation destroyed everything he loved.

One of the greatest strengths of humans is how we can change and shape the world to our needs (a strength for those personally helped, obviously, not for the rest of the world, as we’ve seen). But what makes the man as god trope so horrifying is the fact that it is so very real, the threat ever-present that in our creations, we will destroy everything (see: nuclear war, AI bots that read our minds, cloning).

The leaps and bounds in our tech and research truly are astonishing, and much of it is very beneficial and life-saving. But without critical, conscientious thought about what – and why – we’re creating, as well as pondering on how far we should go, there is every opportunity we can create a creature like that of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. For we all know who the real monster is: man, who wishes to create but takes no responsibility for the consequences of his actions. His monster was Frankenstein’s karmic rebuttal.

The Odyssey, by Homer, surrounded by flowers

Sirens

Mythic, seductive women who use their voices to lure men out to sea – then drown them. I can see why they have such a bad reputation. Men love to blame their lack of sexual control on the object of their desire, don’t they? Sirens have a way of striking back.

The legend of sirens has been around for a very long time, essentially as long as written history, as they first show up in Homer’s The Odyssey, when Odysseus orders his men to block their ears as they pass the legendary sirens, but commands that he is chained to the mast so that he may hear the siren song without diving into the sea. The effects nearly drive him mad. Sirens are viewed as monstrous because of their power over desire. Even in Disney, the siren had to lose her voice, rendering her powerless. Fear of what a woman might be able to do if she were given a voice?

Sirens are feminist horror creatures. Rarely does it speak of women being affected by their song, although that scenario did come up in Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. The sirens are always female, and they use the powers men see them as having (looking and sounding nice) to end them. Perhaps one of men’s greatest fears is the perceived power women have over them, and why they continue to try to silence men.

Another siren myth is that of the Germanic lorelei, very similar to the Greek sirens. One book that has an iteration of the lorelei is one of my favourite young adult novels of all time, The Darkangel. A lorelei, or water witch, lives in a lake within a desert, drowning anyone who comes to drink her water. Unless, they give her a male child, who she drains of blood and covers their heart with lead so they become incubi. A very cool book (also super feminist, check it out!)

Digital edition, The Darkangel, surrounded by flowers

My Soul to Take book surrounded by flowers

Banshees

The concept of a banshee has always freaked me out. Banshees appear to a person shrieking, warning them of the imminent death of one of that person’s family members. They are Celtic legends, and are said to be fairy people, harbingers of death.

I’ve struggled to find examples of banshees in fictional literature, although I’m sure it’s out there. My Soul to Take, by Rachel Vincent, is a young adult book that does follow a girl who screams while predicting death. There is also a banshee in the TV show The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (E.27). But there’s not much to what a harbinger can do. Predicting death of a loved one is horrifying for the person who receives the message, but they don’t actually do any of the killing. They are less monsters, and more the precursor to the monster that comes – be it death or the thing that brings it.

Cassandra, the prophetic princess of Troy who foretold them all of their doom, was a harbinger, in some ways like a banshee. Of course, she was doomed to never be believed. When it comes to doom and gloom, nobody wants to hear it. A more modern harbinger was The Grim in Harry Potter – seeing a large black dog can foretell death (unless of course, it’s just your godfather checking in).

Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series speaks of the deathwatch beetle, who begins buzzing just before the death of a loved one. But at the end of the day, the horror that comes from a loved one’s imminent death can’t do much in terms of a storyline, which is perhaps why it’s little used in literature. It doesn’t stop me from being kept up at night, wondering what it would be like to glance out the window, to see the shape of a floating woman wailing, shrieking, telling me my loved ones will die. Chills …

Digital book Eichmann in Jerusalem surrounded by flowers

Bureaucracy

Man is the most horrendous monster that ever existed on this planet. And nothing is more chilling than the way we rationalize our evil, the way we explain away the horrors we cause. This should send us all shuddering under the covers.

Hannah Arendt introduces the phrase “banality of evil” in her report on Albert Eichmann’s trial for the part he played as a major organizer of the Holocaust (his actions contributed to the death of millions). He claimed he bore no responsibility for his crimes, for he was only following orders, doing his duty (and following the law).

But if people refuse to think critically about their orders, to question authority and whether the laws and the orders are right and true to their values, then we as a species descend into something less than human – obedient slaves to higher-ups, which allow the worst kinds of tyrants to take over.

In literature, we see the consequences of refusing to question authority, and it goes beyond ordinary horror. Orwell’s 1984 is the kind of book that lives at the back of your head, rent-free, popping up at inopportune times to horrify you. The bureaucracy that runs the dystopian hellscape that is Oceania, run by “The Party,” is not so far off from some real-life dictators. In fact, it was based on Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. It’s a cautionary dystopian, a what could happen if we stop thinking for ourselves and wash our hands of any responsibility for our actions, as long as somebody else told us to do it. This brings me to the worst of all the literary villains …

It all seems to come back to Harry Potter, doesn’t it? Man, the author really knew how to create perfectly evil villains, and none were worse than Dolores Umbridge. She was self-serving, yes, but the worst of her crimes is that she happily acted under someone else’s authority. She felt she herself was not responsible for the crimes she committed, as long as the party in power told her they weren’t crimes. Taking away our personal responsibility for our actions turns us into soulless monsters. We must always ask the hard questions about what we are doing, and accept that we are responsible for our actions at a soul level. If not, horrible things happen. Like Umbridge’s Inquisitorial Squad. Or the Holocaust. Let’s not let that happen ever again.

Want more book recommendations? I got lots. What are you in the mood for:

Middle Grade Horror

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Published on April 03, 2023 09:48

February 25, 2023

Immortality: Blessing or Curse

Listen to: Immortality

Immortality in Literature

I am about to dive deep into a controversial opinion. This blog is about immortality – and how it is essentially ultimate-level horror when taken to its full and truest sense. So much of our literature and art delves into immortality, which humans have been chasing basically since we understood the concept of death. Up to this point, though, nobody’s figured out the immortality thing. We are, for better or worse, very definitely mortal.

There is a superb podcast called This Podcast Will Kill You (thanks so much, Carol Ann, for the recommendation, it’s fantastic). Two disease ecologists talk about a different disease in each show, from their history to how scared you should be (the answer is often: very). It’s a brilliant podcast and excellent fodder for horror, but one of their most interesting recent shows has been on immortality (listen here). In this case, the “disease” is not immortality, but rather mortality, and how we humans have chased its cure for eons. Hint: so far mortality is winning.

Despite this, or perhaps because of this, we continue to chase immortality in our imaginations and our art. It’s a common fantasy trope, to discover a way to stay young forever, the Elixir of Youth, a way to reverse the ravages of time, to become invincible even to death.

Even as a young child, the concept of living forever horrified me. Do you know how long that is? Cause, like, no one does. I’m not saying I’d turn up my nose at a few extra hundred years, who wouldn’t? But we’re talking far longer than our imaginations can actually process. Eight-year-old me, terrorized, said no thank you.

But I might not be in the majority. There is a substantial body of work, often young adult, that describes immortality as the be-all and end-all (often of young love).

“… we’ll get to do the two things every American should have the chance to do: die young, and stay pretty.”
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer, S2:E7, “Lie to Me”

Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer

Therein is the temptation, I think, the reason why we’ve made up vampires. The idea of not just living forever, but being young and beautiful forever. There is a huge difference. Could you imagine if Edward and Bella were middle-aged and overweight? Less people would be sighing over the perfection of their lives stretching out into the centuries.

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, BY V. E. SCHWAB

Another YA that dives more deeply into the concept of immortality is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. You may have read it: it’s one of the most hyped YA books to come out in the past few years. The concept is cool: Addie LaRue makes a deal with the devil that she can live forever … but nobody will ever remember her. Like, if she passes out of their vision for a moment, they have no idea who she is. It makes her immortal life hard.

One of my major problems with the book is that though it’s supposed to be the ultimate wanderlust dream, it seems like the dream of a very young person who doesn’t know much about the world. She hung out in France for a bit, saw some big cities in Western Europe and the US. … that’s not exploring the world.

But my major problem with the book is that despite being supposedly influenced by 300 years of philosophy and knowledge, Addie gains no wisdom. She remains in the mind of a 23-year-old, narcissistic and looking out for her own pleasure. In the end, she chooses … more immortality, and I was so disappointed. I thought there would be a deeper message about life, love and death, or at the very least something approximating “quality over quantity.” I read one reviewer getting into it, saying anyone who doesn’t want to be immortal doesn’t have enough imagination. This gave me pause for a long time, because I believe the exact opposite is true.

Death Becomes Her

This is best shown by one of the most brilliant movies from the ’90s, Death Becomes Her. Two aging beauties are offered immortality and eternal youth, and jump at the chance. However, their pettiness gets in the way of a happily ever after, and they brutally sabotage each other until they are basically just body parts weirdly assembled together. It sounds horrifying, but it’s actually hilarious (time for a rewatch?) Bruce Willis plays the part of their shared love interest, and he’s the wisest of the bunch.

“I don’t want to live forever. I mean, it sounds good, but what am I going to do? What if I got bored? … everybody else will [get old]. I’ll have to watch everyone around me die. I don’t think this is right. This is not a dream. This is a nightmare!”
-Death Becomes Her

Bruce Willis gets it. So does one of my favourite shows of all time, The Good Place, where a group of recently deceased people try to figure out the ins and outs of heaven (or is it?) The ending was pitch-perfect, because they took the eventuality to its full conclusion. No matter how wonderful life, or the after-life is, there has to be an end.

Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins

One book that explores the positives of immortality from a more adult perspective is Tom Robbins’ Jitterbug Perfume. A pair of lovers from 8th century Eurasia discover the secrets to immortality. In a duel storyline, a perfumer and a philosopher attempt to recreate a perfume found in traces amounts in a 300-year-old bottle. There’s a lot of metaphysical stuff, and the secret to immortality also involves bathing a lot and having lots of sex. Basically, if you’re into Tantra, you’re about as close as your going to get to living forever.

While the book was at times funny, kooky, definitely written in the ’80, at the heart of it, it seems to revolve around a bunch of narcissists – I suppose because the search for immortality is essentially narcissistic? Come at me about this if you want – I would LOVE to discuss. Also, the reality is that even if there was a secret oil of immortality, or a fountain of youth, not everyone could use it. The reason why is showcased in one of the books that has haunted me most throughout my adult life.

The Postmortal, by Drew Magary

The Postmortal, by Drew Magary, is a brilliant, though disturbing read, and I recommend it to anyone. This is probably the most realistic portrayal of what would happen if humans achieved immortality, and the result is a total shitshow horrorscape.

A vaccine to end aging has been discovered, and so people start taking it. And there are so many unforeseen consequences, most of them devastating. The overpopulation? Famine? The world descends into utter chaos, and people have to choose suicide to end their own lives. It seems pretty clear that if people could live forever, not everybody could. There’s not room for all of us. And people kind of suck, anyways. So it seems there can only be an elite group of people who could be immortal.

Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris

Enter our obsession with vampires, which I didn’t realize I would talk so much about when I started this blog, but it does make sense. An elite group of people (who are typically beautiful) are elevated to immortals, and then they need to bloodily contain their population so the world doesn’t completely fall to shit. But even they don’t want immortality in the end, because, as the thesis of this blog concludes: Immortality is a curse. In the Sookie Stackhouse book Living Dead in Dallas, a vampire who had lived for 2000 years chose death by sunlight rather than live any longer. I think no matter how hard we search for immortality, this will in fact be the end. Humans with any amount of wisdom will eventually choose death. Because we are meant to end.

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

Which brings me to the sweetest of the books on immortality, Tuck Everlasting. This is a childhood classic, and everyone should read it. Talk about the wisdom of children. The Tucks are an unassuming family of settlers in America who, in their search for land, stumble across a lovely spring in a wood. Upon drinking it, they eventually discover the (horrible) truth: they have found and drank from the fountain of youth, and they can never age, never die.

For the better part of a century, they have resolved to protect the spring and not allow anyone to drink from it. Because immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The world keeps changing, keeps moving on without them, they watch people grow and die, and it is heartbreaking. They endure wars, and can’t end the suffering that comes from within.

When young Winnie Foster stumbles across the spring itself, the Tucks kidnap her to ensure she doesn’t tell anyone about the secret. They are well-meaning, but the events lead to the Tucks being forced to flee for their (everlasting) lives, in order to preserve the secret. But the youngest of the Tucks, Jesse, gives Winnie a bottle of the spring water, telling her to drink it when she is seventeen (his age), so that she can join in his immortal life.

The ending is bittersweet, because so is life. It is a perfect book.

“Don’t be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don’t have to live forever, you just have to live.”
-Tuck Everlasting

I’ll end things with this song, which I loved when I was younger, still do … in my head, it’s about life in general. “No one’s getting out of here alive …” DOA, Foo Fighters

Looking for more book recommendations? I got lots. Check out these book posts, with a little something for everyone:

Middle Grade Horror

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Published on February 25, 2023 08:36

January 27, 2023

Horror: Middle Grade Edition

You might be asking yourself what right does horror have encroaching on the middle grade space? In truth, that age group, between 8 and 12 years old, is the perfect time to introduce kids to horror. These books offer a safe space for young people to explore concepts that scare them and provide context to their emerging world experience.

Many of these stories dive deep into concepts of grief, loss, bullying and emerging independence, all issues that are very real and relevant to that age group. Kids can connect to stories that help them deal with heavy emotions they may be experiencing, while giving them emotional tools such as finding strength, courage and patience to overcome the hard things in life.

The middle grade age group is also a sweet spot of magic and understanding. Kids at this age are still able to suspend disbelief enough that they are carried away by the magic of the horror genre, where monsters both exist … and can be overcome. Most kids love the spookiness of these books, but trust that the endings will make for a good experience.

Here are some of the amazing horrors I’ve read for kids recently – and I hope this genre keeps on building!

Scary Stories for Young Foxes, book surrounded by flowers

Scary Stories for Young Foxes, by Christian McKay Heidicker

I will tell you without a hint of shame that I could not read this book before I went to bed. Scary Stories for Young Foxes is dark, and at times I found it genuinely distressing.

Seven fox kits set out at night to prove how brave they are, to find the old storyteller of the forest and ask for a tale. One by one she tells them stories that chill them to the bone, until there is only one left.

One of the general rules of middle-grade horror is that nobody dies. Guys, the rule book is thrown out the window in Scary Stories, as we read the first horrifying tale about a creeping sickness that turns your eyes to goo. The seven stories follow two fox kits as they journey through the forest, encountering terrifying creatures and losing their faith and hope along the way.

Ultimately triumphant, this is a book where you must be as patient as the bravest fox kit to come to the end. But it is a tale of loss, grief, horror and sacrifice, and it does not pull any punches. I was both aghast and entirely entertained. If this is where middle-grade horror is going, I am 100 percent in.

May I also mention that Beatrix Potter has proven to be the most terrifying of villains I have ever read. Heidicker, what did Peter Rabbit ever do to you?

The Clackity, book surrounded by flowers

The Clackity, by Lora Senf

Ever since a fire destroyed her house and her parents disappeared without a trace, Evie Von Rathe has lived with her Aunt Desdemona in Blight Harbor, the 7th most haunted town in America. Ghosts and creatures might be a part of the landscape, but when her aunt disappears inside an abandoned slaughterhouse on the edge of town, Evie must muster all her courage to find her.

She meets the Clackity, a creature of arms and teeth who lives in the darkness, and makes a bargain with him – her aunt for the ghost of John Jeffery Pope, a serial killer who murdered people in the slaughterhouse more than a century ago. She agrees and descends into a nightmarish neighbourhood where she must face terror after terror, learning exactly how brave she truly can be.

The Clackity is a good representative of middle-grade horror, I think, and boy is it spooky. I actually read this one chapter by chapter to my youngest, and was unsure if it was appropriate (I’m still not actually sure – I mean, I’m explaining to her what serial killers are …) but she loved it. She’d beg me for just one more chapter, then make me stay with her until she fell asleep because it was spooky.

Use your own judgment as to age appropriateness, but the truth is The Clackity is brilliant. It is everything that middle-grade horror should be – it shows kids how to face their fears and be brave. It allows them to dabble with their nightmares, and come out on top. I think this is a fun book for grown-ups, and great reading for younger kids, especially if you’re reading together. Good discussions come up.

Nightbooks, by J.A. White

Nightbooks is a modern spin on the Scheherazade tale. A young boy is imprisoned by a witch, and he is forced to tell a new scary story every night in order to stay alive.

Alex thinks he’s weird – he’s totally into the macabre (every weird kid who loved horror before everyone else is eagerly raising their hand right now – me too!). He just wants to be like everyone else, though, so one night he sets out to throw all of his notebooks into the furnace of his apartment building. The horror writer in me is sobbing for the loss of those stories. But before he completes his tragic mission, he’s lured into another, magical, apartment, where a witch, Natacha, demands he appease the nightmare place by telling story after story.

Alex learns his twisted imagination is a strength, because not everyone could possibly create the stories he writes. He also discovers in other horror books within the library that there is a way to escape – and he must overcome both his fears and writer’s block in order to get out.

At times suspenseful and creepy, this is a great book for kids. The interludes of Alex’s stories within the story are great – kid’s got talent, and some of his stories kept me up at night!

Small Spaces, book surrounded by flowers

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden

Wherever you go in this big, gorgeous, hideous world, there is a ghost story waiting for you.

Small Spaces, by Katherine Arden, blew my mind! It is creepy, sad, beautiful and ultimately joyful, but first it will scare the pants off of you. I adore that books like this exist for kids. I think it’s essential kids can explore the spooky side of literature and life.

Ollie, a grieving 11-year-old, surprises herself when she rescues a book from a woman’s hands before it’s thrown into the river. Little does she know that the creepy story of disappearing brothers and a deal with a smiling man will soon become her reality. On the way home from a school trip to a farm, the school bus stops on a fog-shrouded country road. Ollie’s broken watch from her mother tells her to RUN. So she starts a terrifying journey to save her classmates while unravelling a devil’s bargain that happened long ago.

So scary! Scarecrows are the worst! But I absolutely loved it, as a grown woman. I think older middle-grade kids will adore it too. Maybe keep those nightlights handy!

Spirit Hunters, book surrounded by flowers

Spirit Hunters: The Island of Monsters, by Ellen Oh

After defeating the ghosts residing in her new home in Washington D.C., Harper Raine is coming into her own as a shaman with powers over the spirit world. But her new abilities are put to the test when her family takes a vacation on a remote tropical island. Harper begins to have visions of horrors that have occurred at the resort. She digs deep into the past of the dark island, using her skills as a spirit hunter to save everyone from murderous ghosts.

A fantastic sequel to Oh’s Spirit Hunters. These books are chilling, and some kids might find them a little intense, but on the older side of middle grade, I think this is the perfect read for a kid who likes their bedtime stories on the spooky side.

Looking for more book recommendations? I got lots. Check out these book posts, with a little something for everyone:

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Published on January 27, 2023 08:26

December 29, 2022

Happy New Years

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2022 is coming to an end. I’d be lying if I said that makes me sad. I don’t know what 2023 will bring, but if recent experience can teach us anything I expect there will be many challenges ahead of us, but I hope with kindness, patience and a good sense of humour, we will all rise to meet these challenges and become better people.

One awesome way to make sure you’re ready to meet everything this new year has in store is to take a break from alcohol! In case you were dreading waking up the first day of the new year with a raging hangover, here’s a gentle reminder that you don’t have to.

Sobriety is all the rage, and it’s gaining in popularity in 2023. More and more people are saying “no thanks” to the poisonous effects of alcohol. Dry January is the largest congregation of people at one time saying they need to take a break and go a month sober. Many people, after getting just a taste of how their body can function without the toxicity, decide to make the breakup permanent. I would suggest starting Dry January a day early, and party your heart out without alcohol over New Year. Wake up to a clear head, shiny eyes and a new perspective for the year.

I’ve written some of the major reasons/benefits I chose sobriety, in Breaking Up With Booze. All of these reasons are still fully in effect for me. And if you’re worried about some of the social impact from your family and friends, I’ve addressed some of the social challenges you might face and suggestions on how to deal with them in A Sobriety How-To Guide.

You don’t need to reach rock bottom in order to stop drinking. You can simply realize it’s a relationship that isn’t working for you anymore. And despite what we have been told continuously since childhood, alcohol doesn’t make things “more special” and it doesn’t actually add anything to an occasion. Choose to inhabit your own body and mind without the party blinders, and watch your life come into focus.

Mocktail with Seedlip mix and Christmas tree in background

Make it a Mocktail

Mocktails are huge right now, and you can’t walk into a bar worth its rimming salt without finding a decent mocktail menu. I think this is important, because it’s the presentation that makes things special. I love indulging in a beautiful, grown-up mocktail, with all the lovely fixings. It dresses up any occasion and you’ll never feel as though you’re missing out. Especially because you’ll remember all the good times with crystal clarity.

One of my favourite mocktail mixes at the moment is Seedlip Spice 94. Enjoy it over the rocks with gingerale for a special treat this New Years Eve.

Ginger & Spice

1/4 cup Seedlip Spice 94

1/2 cup Ginger Ale

Serve over the rocks in a highball glass with an orange peel garnish, and enjoy yourself, you beautiful soul!

With all my heart I wish you the best in the New Year! Cheers to your health, à votre santé

Follow me as we head into the New Year! I have tons of fun new content and releases coming up and I can’t wait to share them with you. Sign up for my newsletter for freebies and the inside scoop.

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Published on December 29, 2022 16:56

December 16, 2022

Christmas Baking

Christmas truffles lettering next to gold ornaments

Nothing gets me into the Christmas spirit like baking up batches of Christmas cookies. This year was extra special because my kids helped me make most of them. Honestly, it might be my favourite memory this year – I can’t remember the last time I laughed as hard. Both of my kids are big on inventing their own recipes, because apparently recipes are for unoriginals, while my children are very much Originals. We came away with the uber-sweet “Honey Dees” (honey mixed with sugar, chocolate chips and mint) and Chocolate Chip Mint Surprise (chocolate chip cookie dough wrapped around chocolate and candy cane). Awesome ideas all around, although if you’re going for a Honey Dee, be prepared for the sugar rush!

But if, like me, you are super unoriginal and prefer to follow a tried-and-true recipe, I have some great ideas for you! I dived into the world of no-bake truffles this season, and I’ve come away with my favourites here.

Davy Crocketts

Also known as Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls. These are awesome, and have been my favourite Christmas cookie since childhood! It’s a special recipe for me to share, so if you do make these, I hope you love them. They are reminiscent of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, with a tasty walnut crunch.

Davy Crocketts

Ingredients

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup icing sugar

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup walnuts

1 cup coconut

3 blocks semi-sweet chocolate

2 blocks bitter-sweet chocolate

Instructions

Mix together ingredients from peanut butter to coconut. Roll into balls and chill in fridge for one hour.

Once balls are hardened, melt chocolate together in bain-marie (or microwave for 30 secs at a time, stirring between until just melted). Roll balls through the chocolate with two forks until coated. Chill and keep refrigerated.

White chocolate covered Christmas cookies

Gingerbread Truffles

Super easy and as decadent as sin, these Gingerbread Truffles are one of my surprise new favourites. The combination of the ginger spice with the meltingly sweet white chocolate works so well together.

Gingerbread Truffles

Ingredients

8 oz softened cream cheese

8 oz gingersnap cookies (can find gluten-free alternatives in stores)

12 oz white chocolate

Instructions

Crush cookies in a food processor; add cream cheese and combine until smooth

Form balls and place on parchment paper-covered cookie sheet. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Once hard, melt white chocolate in bain-marie (or microwave for 30 secs at a time, stirring between until just melted). Roll balls through the chocolate with two forks until coated. Chill and keep refrigerated.)

This recipe comes from lifestyle blog Moms Need to Know.

Healthier Gingerbread Truffles

I became so obsessed with the gingerbread truffles, I ended up finding two recipes I liked. This version has a healthier spin as they are gluten-free and paleo, while still being absolutely delicious. You can find the recipe I found on recipe blog Erin Lives Whole. I liked this because I didn’t need to use the food processor – everything mixes up super easy. I used milk chocolate for this truffle so I could get the full colour spectrum of chocolates on my truffles (but I suspect the white chocolate-gingerbread combination is the winner.)

Want more holiday baking? I got you covered with my Christmas Cookie Round Up. I guarantee you’ll find something you love in there.

Happy baking! And to all of you, have a very happy holidays. I will be back in the new year with more recipes, book recommendations, and lots of exciting publishing news from Cordelia Kelly. I wish you a season of joy – that you may find light in the darkest days and warmth in the coldest nights. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sign Joyeux Noel over stockings by the fire illustration

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Published on December 16, 2022 09:23

December 2, 2022

Books for the Holidays

Usually, my book tastes run pretty dark, but I set that (mostly) aside when it comes to the holidays. Now is the time for some feel-good Yuletide tales. For the most part, I describe my Christmas reading list as “Hallmark movie in a book” and I have zero regrets. When, if not now, can I read books that are designed to warm me down to my very toes? And with the deep freeze my province finds itself in right now, I will take every ounce of heat I can. For additional heat factor, some of these books offer up some significant spice!

Here is my 2022 Christmas reading list. From the classics to the decidedly not, each of these books was a pleasure for one reason or another.

Holiday romantic comedy book The Holiday Swap, sitting between Christmas ornaments and berries in red and white

The Holiday Swap, by Maggie Knox

The holiday book that was made to be a Hallmark movie – honestly, this is the book I wanted to read all season. It was twee and sweet and somewhat ridiculous, and I loved every word.

Charlie and Cass are twin bakers with very different lives. Cass runs her family’s bakery in the idyllic mountain town of Starlight Peaks, while Charlie is the host of a baking competition, living in L.A. But both have struggles in their lives – Charlie’s antagonistic co-host is out for her job, while Cass wonders if she could have done something more than stay in her small town with her high school boyfriend.

When an on-set accident leaves a concussed Charlie with no sense of taste or smell, she can’t do her job on air and needs help. The twins decide to pull a life-swap, taking over for the other. What could possibly go wrong?

Only everything! But of course there is romance and silly misunderstandings and sisters who would do anything for the other – including standing up for them in their lives. Honestly, if you are looking for a silly fun holiday book, this is the one for you.

Meet Me in London, by Georgia Toffolo

Meet Me in London is the first of Georgia Toffolo’s Meet Me series, and follows a group of girlfriends as they travel the world and meet the men of their dreams. In London, all romantic chaos descends when two near-strangers try to pull off a fake engagement … while trying to ignore the attraction which has become all too real.

Victoria Scott is an aspiring designer and would kill to find a store to showcase her beautiful dresses. Oliver Russell, heir to the Russell Department Store fortune, is trying to successfully roll out the opening of the newest store in Chelsea, while trying to keep his overbearing parents off his back about settling down. When he runs into Victoria (quite literally), he sees the perfect person to pretend all is well in his life. While Victoria is uneasy about the arrangement, she knows the opportunity to showcase her designs, as well as her underprivileged students, is one she can’t walk away from. If only she knew what to do with the pesky feelings that keep popping up whenever Oliver is around.

Romantic comedy holiday book The Mistletoe Motive, surrounded by Christmas ornaments and berries in red and white

The Mistletoe Mischief, by Chloe Liese

A slow-burn enemies-to-lovers workplace romance. It’s like The Hating Game, if it were set inside a Christmas snow globe. Jonathan Frost is a classic Grinch at the holidays, while Gabriella di Natale couldn’t love them more. They are co-managers of an independent bookstore, and their management styles couldn’t be more different. Now they learn only one of them can stay on as manager after Christmas, so they are each fighting to save their job.

Gabriella is autistic and demisexual, so falling for the right someone is essential. She thinks she’s found that person, but conflicting emotions swirling around her nemesis Jonathan send her spiralling into confusion. Will the two figure out how they feel before Christmas? It’s a Hallmark movie wrapped up in a book!

Romantic comedy holiday book A Merry Little Meet Cute, surrounded by Christmas ornaments and berries in red and white

A Merry Little Meet Cute, by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

This book ended up being far spicier than I had imagined! Of course, that’s on me because I went into it blind. Bee Hobbes has scored her first acting job on a Hope Channel Christmas movie – the first acting job she’s had outside of her successful adult film career, that is! And she’s starring alongside her former boy band crush Nolan Shaw. But nobody can know that she’s a porn star, otherwise the squeaky-clean Hope Channel will find grounds to give her the boot, and even porn stars need health insurance!

Nolan Shaw is a former disgraced bad boy who needs this gig to work out as much as Bee, and both their careers hinge on them being able to keep things as pure as the driven snow. The only problem is they can’t keep their hands off each other!

I loved this book for many reasons, not just because there was an extremely satisfying amount of spice here (I was reading this one in public and praying nobody on my son’s hockey team peeked over my shoulder, omg!). The story line is very body positive. Bee is plus-sized, and it isn’t a book about how she’s beautiful “despite” being fat – it’s just assumed that she is extremely desirable. I loved that. It is also very sex-positive, and pro-sex workers. While this is an idealistic version of sex work (and even in the book Bee speaks of how her experience is better than many), it doesn’t condemn or moralize that sex work is bad, or that sex is something to be ashamed of. Bee loves sex, loves sharing sex and views herself as someone who spreads joy in the world. I didn’t expect this rom com to go so deep, but the two talented authors have a lot to give with this one. Definitely recommended!

Christmas ghost story book Ghosts of Christmas Past, surrounded by holiday ornaments and berries in red and white

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, edited by Tim Martin

Alright, if you know me, you know I’m not going to pass up horror – even when it comes wrapped up at Christmas! The Ghosts of Christmas Past is a collection of Victorian-style holiday ghosts stories, including one disturbing little flash by Neil Gaiman.

The history of the Yuletide and the winter solstice is far spookier than the commercials would like you to believe, and for centuries a favourite pastime during the darkest days of the year were to gather round the fire and scare the wits out of each other. There are tales of dark wintertime creatures, ghosts of loved ones past, and stories of shadows chilling enough to rival the icy wind outside. This is my wheelhouse – of course I loved it. If you also enjoy horror, and a slightly more pagan view of the holidays, check this one out!

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is beloved for a reason, as nothing can touch the sweet charm of this book. Whether you curl up in front of the fire to read the original, watch live theatre, or you’re a Muppets fan, “God Bless Us Everyone” comes around once a year and never gets old.

I’ve been thinking about this, and I realize that Dickens essentially created Christmas as it is today, with all the decorations, the cards, the carolling, the sleigh rides, the gift-giving, the endless buying. I’m not mad about this, even if A Christmas Carol had been written entirely for commercial purposes. Why should that matter? Many good things have come from commercial intent. Like … all of society.

And in this little classic tale, Dickens gives us the very concept of Christmas spirit, and it does warm the heart. Listen to carols on a snow-swept street and tell me it doesn’t hit you in the cockles. Besides, I believe that people are kinder at Christmas.

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business.”

Christmas book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, surrounded by holiday ornaments and berries in red and white

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson

“Hey! Unto you, a child is born!”

Undoubtedly the best Christmas book of all time. Who is able to resist the charms of the sociopathic Herdmans? In an attempt to filch some Communion wine, the very worst kids in the history of the world get caught up in the Christmas Pageant and discover the spirit of Christmas. Unwittingly, they share that revelation with an uptight small town and the entire thing is both heart-warming and kooky.

I used to read this book every year with my family around the Christmas tree. When we were younger my parents would read one chapter a night to us as we counted down to the big day. As we got older, we’d pass around the book along with the wine as we read each other this family favourite. Each and every year this children’s book would reduce us to tears of laughter. This is one of my favourite memories.

Nowadays, I continue the tradition with my kids. We curl up every night and read one chapter. It ends with the two of them in heaps of laughter on the floor. This book helps me find a little Christmas magic every year.

Have a happy holiday season, and I hope that you find warmth and joy during these winter days, no matter where it is you are looking!

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Published on December 02, 2022 08:19

November 11, 2022

War and Remembrance

Remembrance Day is a time for reflection, especially on the horrors of war. The famous poems urges us to never forget, and yet as a world we seem to have a short memory, because it seems we end up in this position time and again. As the world now watches Eastern Europe with bated breath, hoping against hope we don’t descend into utter chaos, it seems more important than ever that we think on the consequences of war. Not that there are no wars worth fighting, but no wars are glorious.

Below are some of my favourite war reads. Zero of these support war for war’s sake, but deal with the devastating consequences when powers decide to clash for their own benefit. It is the people who suffer the most, and the fallout is felt through generations. War shapes worlds, global structures and individual, but the results are rarely what was predicted.

Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity is told as a written confession, taken down by British agent “Verity” after being captured and interrogated by the Gestapo in German-occupied France in 1943. Like Scheherazade, she unfurls a tale in order to buy time before her eventual execution. Her story begins with her best friend Maddie, and how it came to be that Maddie flew her into France before crashing.

The most important thing to know is that you will love the characters. As in, you will fall deeply in love with best friends Maddie and Verity. They are alive and breathe paper air; because you love them, this book will draw you in soul first. I think Verity goes to the top of the five fictional characters I’d like to be friends with.

The use of the unreliable narrator is exceptional here. Verity’s confession ends with “I told the truth,” and yet she spent the entire time demonstrating that she was a superb liar, designed for the “Great Game,” so the reader wonders how the Gestapo could possibly believe a word she writes. But Verity is so compelling, so charming, you want so badly to believe her. And then parts of her confession start to look an awful lot like plans, and you get so excited that maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance that everything could turn out okay. The storycraft here is exceptional, and keeps you guessing to the very end.

Another thing, and you wouldn’t expect this, but the book is in some ways quite funny. Verity is funny, even while being tortured, and you wonder how that is even possible. But she is so aware of her situation, of how on top of everything she needs to be, and she is still able to come up with zingers and set up her captors in little traps that have them running around in circles, barely able to keep up with their injured, bound captive.

At the heart of it, the book is about friendship, the deep kind of kindred souls which doesn’t come along every lifetime. Two beautiful spirits find each other and would die to save the other – or kill. I will never forget this book. Enough said? I seriously cannot convey strongly enough how well crafted this book is.

Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett

Follett is known for writing epic reads, and his Century Trilogy, writing about the 20th century, is about as epic as it gets. Fall of Giants begins at the tenuous time before WWI, the Great War, and follows several different families through the tumultuous century, generation after generation. It is done through a Eurocentric lens, but the basis of the First World War is entirely Eurocentric.

I enjoyed Fall of Giants the most of the three, as he introduces each of the families – from coal miners in England to Russian aristocracy. There is obviously just SO MUCH going on, and Follett manages to present this history in a way that is both entertaining and informative.

When it comes to the war, he doesn’t pull any punches as to the horrors, and the sacrifices, and the questions of whether they were worthwhile. This is an excellent book for those looking for a quality read on the First World War (as well as all the class struggles that were involved or ongoing at that time period).

Code Girls, by Liza Mundy

In the same theme as the Bletchley Girls, Code Girls follows the stories of young American women who worked as code breakers in WWII, and who helped shorten the war. Young women who never expected to be doing war work were recruited from all over the country to help in the war effort and revolutionized cryptanalysis.

The role of women in codebreaking was kept silent for a very long time, so it’s lovely there has been renewed interest in seeing the part these girls played in what was considered a man’s game. I will always be here for anything that has to do with code breaking and espionage during war, but a million times over when it’s feminist. This book is a fascinating walk through history – one that isn’t very well known.

The book is fantastically researched and there is a lot of information to consume. But it’s the women’s stories and their personal insights that make this book come together. An excellent non-fiction read on the role of American women in cracking Nazi codes.

The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

Who hasn’t had their heart broken reading the scrawlings of Anne Frank as she develops from a girl to a woman, all while hiding in a cabinet behind a wall for years on end?

As the Nazis invade Holland, the Franks are forced to flee their home in Amsterdam. As a Jewish family, they are aware they are not safe while the Gestapo surrounds them, and they find shelter in a small “secret annexe” at the top floors of an office building. There they stay for more than two years, before their location is betrayed to the Gestapo and the Frank family is taken to concentration camps throughout Europe.

Both Anne and her sister Margot died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen. Their mother Edith died at Auschwitz. Only her father survived, and he fought to have Anne’s diary published. Anne was fifteen when she died.

The diary is astonishing in how ordinary it was. Anne Frank was an insightful, intelligent teenager, but a teenager nonetheless. She writes of the joys and the boredom and the horrors of being locked up with her family month after harrowing month. Delving into her most intimate thoughts is to know her, to become her friend – and knowing how her fate ended makes it all the more tragic. The importance of Anne Frank’s Diary is that it gives a human face to the suffering and atrocity that occurred during WWII. The victims of the Holocaust were not numbers – they had names and families and they loved, and they lived. And remembering that is the most important thing.

Last Christmas in Paris, by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Last Christmas in Paris is neither a book about Christmas, or about Paris, but is a book about WWI. In England, spirited and charming Evie keeps correspondence with her brother, Will, her brother’s good friend, Tom, and her friend Alice, who are all deployed to France to fight les Boches. Secrets are spilled, miscommunications run rampant, important letters go missing and confessions are revealed. Love conquers all.

Though a war book, Last Christmas is full of hope and courage. The plot was pretty straight-forwarded and the “mysteries” that coaxed things along were pretty transparent, but is anyone minding here? No, we are not. I want romance and happy(ish) endings! I want engagements and secret babies and dastardly but handsome villains trying to woo the fair maiden’s heart! Yes to all of it!

One of the sweetest parts of the novel is that it’s told in letter format. While this isn’t new, it gives a sense of intimacy that works perfectly in this situation. It brings you back a century to a time when you waited weeks, even months, to get a response from a loved one.

There is an interesting concept of fake news that actually comes up in the book. The British government censored war news coming out of the battlefields and what was written in the newspapers, in order to control the story. People back home were kept in the dark as to the real conditions of the soldiers on the front. Evie is determined to enlighten the public as to the truth, and her efforts are met with mixed reactions. She concedes at the end that she’s not even sure revealing the truth is worth what she risked losing.

Does real reporting matter? Such an important question in this age, as rampant allegations of “fake news” are deteriorating the ability to report, or trust, the truth. As the public loses confidence in the press, the truth becomes more and more elusive. And a free press is one of the pillars of democracy.

What did the lack of truth mean to the public during WWI? Did it allow them to maintain a level of normalcy in their daily life to keep society alive? Or did it allow a government to control the message of glorious victory, that encouraged more and more volunteers and afterwards support for a conscription law, which provided more human fodder into a desperate war that shattered the souls of nations? Interesting questions, and I’m not quite sure how I’ve arrived here, as I swear when I read this book I was feeling light and fluffy and romantic. I’ve now convinced myself this feel-good book is also deeper than initially thought.

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