**FACT OR FAKED, SYFY TONIGHT**
Goths know how to do it; some leather cuffs with spikes, some black-dyed hair, gauged ears, tattoos…spooky, right? (Maybe just to their parents whom they’re probably out to distress).
What about the average adult wanting to express their love of horror in their everyday life? I know people who adore scary movies and Halloween and yet reserve that just for the month of October. Sort of like becoming a practicing Catholic just when it’s Easter month.
You don’t have to be a downer, a moody poet or an angry person to appreciate the tensions and suspense of horror. Those of us who love dark things come in every degree. Some are preoccupied with it. There was a time when my entire house was a blacked out medieval castle theme with no sunlight and lots of scary weaponry hanging on the walls and heavy drapes and a knight in shining armor. At the time, it seemed the best way to express—I am not and have never been of the surburbs.
Admittedly, over time, it brought me down. Too much of a good thing makes you numb. I didn’t appreciate the horror because it was EVERYWHERE. Now, I have a house that’s as sunny and plant-filled as my personality, but there are subtle and haunting reminders of just what I am at heart…a Celtic goddess of spookiness. And, it’s not just in my choice to run a blog about ghost hunting theories or my love of horror writing and photographing abandoned places. I express this horror side of me in music and some choice steampunk-looking hauntingly creepy jewelry and odd clothing pieces. I might go in the backyard at night and sit down on a chair and write on my laptop near my fake cemetery with the lanterns glowing. On the walls in my cheery home, there are wrought iron Green Man’s heads and rows of candles partially melted down, a vase filled with bare branches painted white… It’s an homage to my Celtic/Nordic background. My home office where I work from has all my reminders of ghost hunting including the Ghost Busters action figures, a Bigfoot doll, a little cemetery arrangement, scary photographs and art work. A sort of place for my eyes only. In the living room there are old steamer trunks from an abandoned site in the desert and Dale the doll studying me as if he wants to steal my laptop and dash for the door.
The ways in which you incorporate your love of horror can be musical like listening to Nox Arcana, having a display of horror DVDs on a shelf, wearing a big gothic steampunk ring, one stripe of purple in your hair, having rows of books about the unexplained on your shelves… You can still live with it but not be brought down by your love of horror. In other words, no need to do your house up like the 40-year-old virgin’s with posters and dolls. One vignette can say it all. I’ve always wanted to get a coffee display table with the glass top and you can put things inside. There, I could at different times of the year spread out horror movie covers, a Jason hockey mask, a popcorn container, movie stubs then perhaps change it to a bunch of spookytown Halloween sets another time.
Whatever you do, be sure and own your love of all things spooky and do so proudly.