Shanon Sinn

The Haunting of Your Bedside Table

In this interview, Darby asks the hard questions – we talk about common ghost story themes, racism, and the library copies of my book going missing! Our interview follows Casey’s Halloween reads, starting around the 17:45 mark.

Meet Me in the Stacks is Vancouver Island Regional Library’s podcast. Each episode is unique, but almost always has a book recommendation segment. I’ve added Casey’s Halloween recommendations to my reading list for next year.

Here’s a synopsis of the episode! You can find Meet Me in the Stacks wherever you get your podcasts, or you can listen to the episode by clicking on the image below: Continue reading “The Haunting of Your Bedside Table”

The Missing and Unexplained Podcast with Tyler Hooper

The Haunting of Vancouver Island is four years old! It’s hard to believe. Interest in the book–as well as my perspective on local ghost lore–hasn’t waned as much as I thought it would. This Halloween, I was interviewed for two podcasts and will be doing a large Zoom presentation for kids for Vancouver Island Regional Library on October 26th.

The Missing and Unexplained interview with Tyler Hooper was a lot of fun. It was the first time I’ve spoken about the Valencia story almost exclusively. The Valenica is a legendary West Coast phantom ship. There’s a chapter about her in The Haunting of Vancouver Island. In the interview, I explain the difference between a ghost ship and phantom ship and talk about the haunted vessel the Melanope–as a teaser for the sequel I’m working on, The Haunting of British Columbia (working title). Continue reading “The Missing and Unexplained Podcast with Tyler Hooper”

Huldowget by B. A. McKelvie

Huldowget is a 1926 novel by Bruce Alistair McKelvie. It’s an entertaining read–in a historical sort of way–but it is also offensive.

McKelvie was an editor for Victoria’s Daily Colonist. He is remembered for his involvement in the Native Sons (a colonist heritage fraternal order) and for promoting lost civilization theories (over Indigenous rights) through books, newspapers, and speeches.

I recently published an article on Ancient Pages about the Hepburn Stone, which is on display at the Nanaimo Museum. McKelvie was the main person who promoted the stone as a 15,000-year-old lost civilization artifact. I read some of his nonfiction during my research and was surprised to discover he had authored fiction, as well. Continue reading “Huldowget by B. A. McKelvie”

Christmas Photography in Victoria

Here are few photos of holiday lights and displays I took in Victoria, BC this year.

We often don’t recognize contemporary holiday celebrations as folklore in North America, but they are. Taking photos of Christmas displays allowed me to work on my night photography while simultaneously recording folkloric customs in Victoria for 2020.

I did this for Halloween this year, as well, but those images were low quality compared to these ones as they were taken on my iPhone. These are primarily DSLR images.

There are a few photos of Munro’s Books and Russell Books but there are none from Bolen Books. This is not meant as a slight towards them, but I went by twice and they did not have Christmas lights on or obvious decorations out this year.

Wishing you the very best for 2021 and beyond! Enjoy.

Continue reading “Christmas Photography in Victoria”

Exiles

Nothing brings me more joy than writing fiction. For this reason, I am excited to tell you about Althingi, Outland Entertainment’s newly announced Icelandic Viking game! More specifically, I am proud to tell you about the Althingi anthology I contributed a story to.

Outland Entertainment is an American publisher of games, comic books, and popular culture anthologies. Their brand is pretty badass, actually. A cowboy riding a dinosaur? I mean, come on! Why didn’t I think of that? Continue reading “Exiles”

Halloween Bike Ride in Victoria, British Columbia

Here’s a photograph I took of Graham Street tonight. I don’t want to spoil anything and say it isn’t anything supernatural. It’s too cool of a Halloween image for me to do that.

I was looking forward to Halloween this year. Being the end of the month, I only had 7 km left to make up my 100 km-a-month biking goal. Staying active has been good for me, though it is hard to make my goal some months with my nerve damage, and everything that is affected by that. But I knew tonight would be different than other month ends due to Halloween. If I timed it right, I’d probably get to see some Halloween displays, which to me are works of art. My greatest regret is that I didn’t bring my camera. Just my phone.

I haven’t altered any of these photos except to straighten two crooked ones. Two others at the end of this post are somewhat strange. If nothing else, they’re cool to look at. Continue reading “Halloween Bike Ride in Victoria, British Columbia”