The first time I approached my language students with some Gothic texts I was nicely surprised with their positive reactions. For me the Gothic has always been my hidden place, my dark secret, something that only belonged to me and that I only really showed during Halloween.

Over the years I...

When you’ve had a physical language school for ten years you have almost done everything that could be done to get your students where they need to be. Bringing natural situations to the class is not always easy, precisely because, despite all the efforts made and what some companies may...

Summer is here and for kids and young teens, it’s time to relax, to play out with friends until late, go to the pool, watch TV and of course get on with activities that they like. But it’s also time to learn new things but in a different way. For older teens, maybe it’s the time...

Everybody has at least one book inside of them. What is yours? Have you ever thought of writing it out? Would you even know where to start? Would you like to find out how to get on with it once and for all?

I’m sure that many of you have been meaning to write a book for a long time and...

In my quest to define the monster during this month of May, I bring you today a very personal review of Mad Dog by J.R. Park.

Last week we talked about some of the monsters that appear in Church Curiosities - Strange Objects and Bizarre Legends by David Castleton, by which we got a lot of the...

When I knew David Castleton had another book out in the market I bought it straight away. His first book The Standing Water was full of folklore and old legends I had never heard of before.  While reading it I learnt a lot about some legends and myths that triggered my curiosity and since I...

What is the first thing that comes to your head when you hear the word “monster”? Before I started my various investigations about them, what came to my mind were the classics: Frankenstein, Dracula, the Invisible Man, even the friendly Casper; all or almost all the members of the ...

THE CHILDHOOD FEARS THAT MADE ME

I remember the frightening thought of being inside my mother's womb but I don’t remember being afraid of the dark as a child, at least not in the sense that someone that age should be afraid of. I wasn't scared of the monster under the bed either, maybe...

When Tracy Fahey sent me a signed and dedicated copy of her Unheimlich Manoeuvres In The Dark (2020) with the words: To my dear friend and fellow Gothicist Alicia, I felt like a child with new shoes, as we say in Spain. As someone who pays attention to detail, the book came with a dedicated...

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR TRACY FAHEY AND THE MAN BEHIND HER J.R. PARK

Have you ever thought what you would like to ask the writers you admire in an interview? This is what I had the great opportunity to do last week: interview Irish writer Tracy Fahey and her editor and also writer J.R. Park. And...

THE MISINTERPRETATION OF THE ZOMBIE

From all the monsters in Gothic literature, my least favourite one is the zombie. Unlike the vampire, you couldn’t have a conversation with a zombie. They are slow, clumsy and although they seem to lack a real purpose, for some reason they are after your...

THE SMELL OF THE DEAD

It still comes to mind, sometimes, when San Juan approaches, my mother saying "it smells like the dead again." And it is that, although the Municipal Cemetery of San Pedro in Badalona was far from our block of flats, as the summer was getting closer that peculiar smell began...