December, 2020

The holidays bring twinkling lights and bright parties, but it can also bring a gloomy sky, damp air, and a howling wind rattling the windowpanes. At year’s end, we take stock of our lives, thus thinking about past events and people no longer with us. In Ireland, my own ancestors would spread ashes before the hearth in November to see if departed family members left footprints overnight; they would be on the lookout for the beansídhe, whose wrath-like wail could sound like an owl’s, or a song, but always foretelling demise. Certainly, Charles Dickens knew a thing or two about associating the holiday season with something altogether less jolly:

“It is required of every man," the ghost returned, "that the spirit within him that spirit
goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.”

A Christmas Carol isn’t the only Christmas ghost story Dickens wrote, and there are several holiday ghost stories by authors like Algernon Blackwood, Wilkie Collins and Elizabeth Gaskell. I highly recommend reading them, preferably aloud and in front of a roaring fire, your toes curled inside your sherpa slippers.

Our debut issue of Briar Press Magazine, ISSUE 1, is singularly devoted to all things ghosty and gothic, with a particular bent on Wintertime. We find this combination extremely romantic, and we hope you will, too (Cathy and Heathcliff, take note). ISSUE 1 is also entirely sourced from Public Domain (but perhaps little-known, read, or seen) sources. In this issue, you will enjoy a marvelously short and long stories, hauntingly romantic poems, fun book recommendations from the Editors, amazing images from the past, and fantastic quotes from authors you love.

There are ghosts floating around our earth this time of year. If you keep a keen eye out, and listen carefully, you may notice a hazy flurry of movement near a dark window... or hear the almost-silent footfall at the hearth.

~ The Editors, Briar Press Magazine