WELCOME ABOARD! SPOOKFEST24 IS HERE
Hejsan, Tjena, Hallå, and Happy Monday, Messmate!
Welcome to #Spookfest24 aboard the Resilience! This year, we’re keeping things short and sweet with daily doses of treats, tricks, and tales, so you’ll want to check in each day.
If you read yesterday’s heads-up bottle post , you already know we’re about to dive headfirst into a week of spine-tingling tales, mischievous misadventures, and, of course, a hearty helping of pirate-themed hijinks to keep you grinning all the way into November.
Today, we’re kicking Spookfest off with a little something to get you into the spirit! You’ll find today’s freebies and book recommendations below. I believe we have a few words from our resident ghost writer, a hundo, a fun word search, and a Noctober Quest in store for you as well.
Oh, and can you smell the rum? Rumour has it not me looking at Belle again that I’ve been sloshed on rum lately! I’ll set the record straight below, but I’ll leave it up to your imagination to decide which story sounds more fun!
Here’s to a frighteningly good week. Just don’t forget to watch your step – things tend to get a little eerie onboard this time of year.
Happy haunting, me hearties!
//Linn 🧡
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” (Frankenstein, Mary Shelley)
A MESSAGE FROM HEMINGWAY
If there is one thing life taught me, it is that life is a struggle. If there is one thing death has taught me, it is that life was just the warm-up. When you get a marlin on your line you feel it shake your boat. You feel it pull you to deeper waters as you try to land it. The infinite sea stretches before you like a realm you will float in without hope or joy as it consumes you. If it’s not clear, the marlin was my fourth wife.
>>> READ ON
FREE SPOOK READS
Liam Armitage
Red63Tennis
Matt J. Large
Forgotten Shapes
Sibley Stamps
Halloween Encounter
Why did the ghost bring a ladder to the bar? Because he heard it had high spirits!
– Share Your Pirate Story With Us?
LIBERTALIA TALES: PIRATE LEGENDS
This spook season, we invite you to unleash your storytelling skills. We’re about to launch our next Libertalia Tales series, and this time, the prompt is PIRATE LEGENDS.
Would you like to join our ranks as a proud Resilience Writer?
We’re on the lookout for stories or poems that bring pirate legends to life in ways only a true mate of the Resilience could. Think poems, sea shanties, and the kind of tales you might hear at one of Belle’s legendary piss-ups down at Smugglers Cove. Or – if you’re that way inclined – in Sir Bear’s Snuggery at the Bear & Wench.
Our current mix of characters includes an elf, a minotaur, three pirate captains, a mermaid, a couple of orcs, a snurkleblatt, two sea witches, and a host of humans. And that’s just four stories! Two of these are already primed for release, and two are still in the drafting process.
- Genre: Pirate-adjacent stories or poems
- Word Limit: 10,000 words
- Deadline: There is no deadline
If your piece is selected for publishing, we’ll handle the edits, formatting, and cover design. If it’s not quite the right fit for the series, we may still share it on our website or offer it as a freebie for our subscribers.
Send your script or any questions to linn@aswewrite.com, and we’ll take it from there. We can’t wait to see what tales you’ll bring aboard!
SPOOKY BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
What’s your favourite book for the season?
Help us pick the best spook reads and see if we can list them in some kind of order. It can be your own story, or a book by another author, but it must be fitting for Halloween.
Email me your nominated titles, or come talk to us about your favourites on social media.
I’m not a cat or a kitten, yet I purr. I have sharp claws and teeth, yet I’m not a threat to you. What am I?
DID YOU KNOW?
Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, is not just a modern-day festival of costumes and candy; it has ancient roots. The holiday traces back over 2,000 years to the Celtic festival of Samhain (sow-in/sah-win/sown from Manx ‘Sauin’ – reunion, assembly), which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. A time associated with death and the supernatural.
As Edda will tell you, in the Northlands we have our own version of a haunted holiday. Álfablót (elf sacrifice) is a time to give thanks to the elves and the spirits for their blessings and to ask for their continued protection. To celebrate the harvest and the changing of seasons. Not much is known about the origin. It was taboo for strangers to watch or participate, but it was a time filled with reverence, mystery, and maybe just a little bit of otherworldly fright!
A SPOOK HUNDO
Louise had always loved the sound of her vintage typewriter. Each key was like a musical note composing the symphony of her life. One evening, as she typed away in her study, there was an extra keystroke, like an echo, just after hers.
Puzzled, she typed, “I am alone.”
The typewriter wrote back, all by itself: “No, you’re not.”
Eyes widening, Louise stood up and peered around the room, a shiver running down her spine. Phew! She was all alone. But as she returned to the typewriter, it continued: “It’s so cosy in here, Louise. Thanks for letting me in.”
SPOOKFEST PROMPTS
Our cartographer CF Sten challenged us all to go on a Noctober Quest this season. The prompts are open to free interpretation and can be used for all sorts of spooky fun.
Songs? Poems? Books? Films? Food? Drinks? Cosplay? Use one or all, in any order, and give your creative side a chance to bloom. Post your pictures on social media and tag them with #NoctoberQuest so we can share in the fun and see what you came up with.
See You Tomorrow…
Here Oh, look, we’ve made it all the way to the end again.
Before I bid thee farewell, I’d like to leave you with a question to consider: Why do we love ‘dressing up,’ creating fictional worlds, and spinning tall tales so much?
As pirates, writers, and dreamers, we share a fascination with stepping into new roles, donning different guises, and hosting legendary gatherings where reality blurs with fantasy. Especially this time of year, when it’s not just our role-play that takes on a life of its own. Tomorrow, we’ll talk a little bit more about that.
We’ve also lined up more tricks and treats, with a touch of mystery and magic. And, who knows, maybe a bit of rum… or something rum-ish? Which leads me back to what I was saying earlier. Rumour has it that I may have been looking too deep into the rum barrels lately. While it makes for a funny story, I’ll have you know I’m a devout tea-total (spelling intended).
Having said that, can you smell it? The rum? It’s worse than cigarette smoke or me old mother’s perfume the way it seems to cling to everything. It’s the experiments below deck. This is what happens when we lie becalmed for weeks on end. SIr Bear and his Dwarven friend, Cerran, set up shop in the holds. They’re obsessed with the idea of creating a Resilience Rum, and it’s a bloody nuisance I tell ya.
Anyway, it’s time for me to get on with the book midwifery, but I’ll be back with more ghostly fun and scandalous tales tomorrow. Until then, keep one eye on the shadows and the other on your cup – you never know what’s in it on the Resilience!