Greetings, Trick or Treaters!
So I have this new favorite word: liminal. It means relating to, or being in an intermediate state, in-between, not one place or the other. It beautifully describes those mysterious, shady places that occur in nature, such as twilight, the edge of a river or pond, the space where a forest meets a field, or the veil between the mortal world and the otherworld. It can also refer to a state of consciousness or an aspect of life in which a person is in transition, suspended in that frustrating hinterland where everything is still for a time.
October is a liminal time of year, when the sun drifts lower in the sky and shines through tall trees, casting long shadows. The wind is cold, whispery and strong. This shift culminates on All Hallows’ Eve, when spirits and dark things emerge from the veil between the worlds, curious and enraged. This is the realm of not only honoring the shadows, but facing them: the beast in the dark you don’t see coming, or that keeps rising again and again no matter how many times you kill it, and will shred you like a cabbage if it catches you. This can be transformative or terrifying—usually the latter.
Some souls are more attracted to monsters, cliffs and chasms than others. It’s a dirty job. Personally, while I love a good science experiment gone bad, my favorite monsters are those that are themselves liminal: shapeshifters, vampires, elves, draugr, demons and the like. Fae cursing humans. A river or a tree that can devour you. That eerie feeling of being watched from the eaves of a twilit forest.
Naturally, this comes out in the things I write. A shrink might say that’s healthy or even necessary, to give my personal monsters some airtime. Well. Maybe. Assuming I have a choice.
Ahem. Anyway, if you like dark fantasy, here are some offerings:
The Chronicles of Ealiron. This series involves the shady exploits of an assassin who is trained in magic and has an inborn talent for sensing and trafficking with the darker forces of nature. By way of his penchant for getting into trouble with all the wrong kinds of things, you’ll find powerful witches, apparitions, curses, immortal predators, sea monsters, evil gods and wizards behaving very badly.
The Fylking. This series takes place in a war-torn realm occupied by immortal warriors who for millennia have used it as a military outpost. Magicians, shapeshifters and masters of the liminal, these beings maintain an interdimensional portal that has, over the centuries, caused the natural veil between the worlds to thin. When their enemies come to play, all manner of things come to life: tricky gods, sorcery, draugr, goblins, immortal warlocks, elves, demons and an order of witches founded by an ancient king to honor the magic practiced by their immortal overlords.
A Northward Gaze. A gothic fantasy novella. This is a wicked dark tale with a silver thread. Neurotic family, old tricky forest bordering the estate, a string of unexplained deaths. A sensitive, hypervigilant young woman who sees things in the floral patterns of her bedroom wallpaper.
And elves. These aren’t the goofy little characters you see in Christmas specials. No, this lot plays for keeps. The forest is theirs—and so is our protagonist.
She leaves a trail of monsters, brutes and fools on her way across the threshold.
Stay safe, stay sane, and remember: “Fun Size” is a shameless marketing euphemism.
© F.T. McKinstry 2023. All Rights Reserved.
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