At the request of JamesBorden, I’m updating my journal after a year! My computer has issues, so I haven’t put any new pictures up in–well, a year–but that may be changing this summer! Though afterwards, I make no promises; I’m moving to New Orleans in August. However, I’ve got a lovely wealth of new reference pictures for gothic drawings from a party I had on June 16th. ‘Twas on that night in 1816 that Lord Byron, Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, Dr. John Polidori, and Clair Clairmont were at Diodati Villa (“Byron’s Castle,” as Meghan calls it), reading ghost stories. After Byron recited “Christabel” from memory and Percy Shelley ran screaming from the room, he proposed they each write their own ghost story. From this competition came The Vampyre and, of course, Frankenstein. Mwa ha ha ha ha!

So on this anniversary, we all met at my house in full costume (much to the distress my male guests)–19th century gowns, harem slaves, vampires, etc., read ghost stories with much candles and opium-scented incense, and watched Ken Russel’s Gothic. As aforementioned, we took many wonderful pictures of this, which I plan to turn into drawings. And yes, there are lots of great pictures of JamesBorden, who looks very much like a vampire–on any given day of the year!

I love all of you! Xoxo