iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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cultauthor.bsky.social @cultauthor.bsky.social · 6h

Authenticity is a gatekeeping word used by pisspuffins. But truth, being truthful will always provoke those whose engine fuelled by hate.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I'll never forget the debacle that was The Wednesday Woodwose Walk. At least it alliterated.

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#FolkWitchFriday @folkwitchfriday.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The old idea of a familiar wasn't theatrical; it was domestic kinship. The yard dog guarding the gate, the porch cat watching the dusk, or the wild toad returning to the same stone step. How do the animals living alongside your home act as practical guardians and sentinels? #FolkWitchFriday

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Treadwell's Books @treadwells-books.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Last night were honoured to celebrate the creator and community of @hookland.bsky.social . Christina and David in the subterranean Hades before the main event.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Reminds me of when my Great Uncle Joe was superintendent of a rural school district. There was graffiti on the school: "Dr Fisher Sucks." Uncle Joe pointed at it & said, "At least I got my goddamn respect." You got your respect, David!

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This is such a lovely thing to read, especially from one of my academic heroes.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A good story is always the antidote to a bad day. Lucky to have @cultauthor.bsky.social remind me that even bubble gum cards are foundational texts. In @hookland.bsky.social, it's encouraged that one should have the curiosity of a scholar & the wonder of a child.

A draft of David Southwell's work on Hookland as an active act of enchantment.

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

My last talk of the year. It will focus on re-enchantment as resistance and include tales of Woodwosing, being re-enchanted during the Yugoslav Wars of Dissolution and waiting on the fetches of the future dead. www.tickettailor.com/events/tread...

tickettailor.com

Buy tickets – Hookland with David Southwell – In-Person Lecture – Treadwells Books

Hookland with David Southwell – In-Person Lecture – Treadwells Books, Thu 24 Sep 2026 - The creator of England's imagined lost county on re-enchantment as resistance. Through near-daily postings in th...

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C.W. Blackwell @cwblackwell.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

My last three published books are available at bookshop.org (and the other place too). #backlistsaturday

My last three published books: WHATEVER KILLS THE PAIN, HARD MOUNTAIN CLAY, and SONG OF RED SQUIRE, all lined up on a table

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

#Folklore matters and how we interact with it matters too. We cannot reduce it to ink stasis if we have any hope of enjoying its blessing of re-enchantment.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Last night I tucked myself in & read new "fragments" from @cultauthor.bsky.social's latest literary @hookland.bsky.social Like David, his work is a gentle rebuke/reminder of the personal purpose of lore & enchantment. Stories aren't "collected." Like anything loved, they are pursued w/ devotion.

Approached with politeness and genuine curiosity, people usually want to talk about their folklore. To represent for their locality through it. Especially when they have personal, intimate experience with it. Within us is a hardwired urge to share and transmit its stories. Folklore likes to travel – to possess and jump from person to person so it can walk further – and it has conditioned us from the first fires to enable this in acts of communal storytelling.

A couple of times I got to accompany a Krsnik to the crossroads or a hilltop where a spirit beacon blazed. I learnt about the ecstasies of flame-watching, village circumambulations as a route to the trance, the sorcerer’s sleep needed for magic. Learnt to see landscape as storybook, its landmarks as anchors for folklore. To understand place as a psychic battery holding the charge of tales told across generations.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I just saw that! My treat tonight!!!

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I'd read it. I'm getting ready to teach a class about Appalachia being the stories we tell about things wanted or misremembered (shout out to @cultauthor.bsky.social / @hookland.bsky.social )

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Oh! They know how to Folklore in the UK and @cultauthor.bsky.social is one of the best! David takes the lore to the folk better than anyone! Congratulations, friend! (The FOMO is real!)

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

My last speaking engagement this year will be at the wonderful @treadwells-books.bsky.social where I will be talking about re-enchantment as resistance; communities of story and the importance of links between folklore and place. www.tickettailor.com/events/tread.... I hope to see some of you there.

tickettailor.com

Buy tickets – Hookland with David Southwell – In-Person Lecture – Treadwells Books

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Definitely should Flatwoods/Sutton is fantastic

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Yesterday, I made a research trip to Braxton County West VA. The Flatwoods Monster Museum was amazing. The WVa Bigfoot Museum has an exquisite collection of Boggy Creek memorabilia. The jewel was the town of Sutton, a @hookland.bsky.social town where the land asserts itself & refuses to be ignored.

Braxton County West Virginia mural feature the Flatwoods Monster and Bigfoot.

Flatwoods Monster Museum display case with depictions showing the evolution of the monster over time and telling.

A display of movie memorabilia from the cult classic docu-drama The Legend of Boggy Creek.

A burned out bank whose interior, including the vault, is slowly reclaimed by the hills and woods.

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SelineSigil @selinesigil.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

John Barleycorn is made of barley.The lyrics first written in 1624 describe planting, growing, harvesting, and brewing as a series of tortures and a symbolic death and rebirth. #Folklore #Lughnasadh

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The Swamp Wytch @theswampwytch.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Southern tradition holds that inner corn husks from the first harvest are saved to craft usually faceless dolls. Ritually, these "First Shuck" figures become vessels - bound with intention to guard the hearth, store seasonal virtue, and anchor home protection through the winter. #FolkWitchFriday

A handcrafted traditional corn husk doll made of dried, folded tan corn shucks, featuring a blank, faceless head, an apron skirt, and dried flower details.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_husk_doll#/media/File:Corn_husk_doll.jpg

A page from Foxfire 3 featuring a vintage black-and-white photograph of a finished cornshuck doll wearing a layered skirt and bonnet, holding a small miniature bucket made from a plastic cap. Below the image, printed text details instructions for adding accessories like buckets, flowers, and tiny brooms.

A page from Foxfire 3 featuring two vintage black-and-white photographs showing hands step-by-step assembling a cornshuck doll. The top image shows folded shucks being shaped into the doll's body, and the bottom image shows sleeves being wrapped around the arms near a spool of thread, accompanied by instructional text below.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

It feels like we reach a stage in life where "going home" is always for some disaster. Thinking of you and your family. Take care of yourself!

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I absolutely stand by this description of folklore. #FolkloreSunday

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Malarkey @malarkeybooks.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

We coat every page of our books with a patented clear resin, harmless in low levels, that activates when a page is digitally scanned, releasing a generational curse on anyone who is using our books to train LLMs. Fear not, scholars and librarians have access to non-cursed editions.

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Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Local plumbers two steps ahead of every university administrator in america 👏

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swadeshine☀️ @swadeshine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Re-enchantment IS resistance. Populist nostalgia is made entirely of boring tired memetics. Take it all back.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The euphoria that follows finding out something you needed to do was already done by past you and you want to give person a hug!

static.klipy.com

Spidey Points at Spidey

ALT: Spidey Points at Spidey

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Yes! Thank you, David! Does that grant me full access to the Nolan Archives at Woden College?

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

You mentioned that in another conversation. Those are powerful words! Folklore and trauma are certainly intimate. (Sidenote, slightly on topic, headed to Braxton County in a few weeks. When I get back I'm going to bend your ear!)

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cultauthor.bsky.social @cultauthor.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Ed is wonderful, inspiring folklorist and far too kind about my work.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

David, you are too kind. Let's get that pint!

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Phil Hine @philh.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Spotted in the wild. @hookland.bsky.social

Book: Hookland Fragments Volume One by David Southwell. Black paperback with black and white illustration of bear playing with bones. Propped against a tree.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

After a year of feeling less like my down on his luck folklorist self, I had a weekend that brought me back. A great turnout for my Ohio Brewfest presentation on Mothman and this gorgeous little number in the post from @cultauthor.bsky.social ! (My forward w/in). Let deep summer commence.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Giving myself a one day writing retreat before my Mothman and Mead presentation. I'm staying in a caboose in my own hills and it feels amazing.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Huge congratulations to @cultauthor.bsky.social on this delicious collection of @hookland.bsky.social fragments. I had the great honor of writing the forward. You don't want to miss this!!!! David, so very pleased for you. Well done!

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

As promised to link to my first actual Hookland book. It is only small, but covers a lot of the ghost soil. If enough of you buy it and like it there will be a Volume Two. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1068598123 It will also be available in an actual bookshop soon.

The coverplate of the book HOOKLAND FRAGMENTS VOLUME ONE by David Southwell featuring a picture of the Ghost Bear of Hookland by Maria Strutz and the following blurb:

I firmly believe David Southwell’s Hookland to be one of the great
imaginative achievements of our age. One that will one day be
spoken of the way Lovecraft’s Mythos is now. Hookland is the
folklore of the county that exists on the edge of our vision, an
unseen but sensed Britain that is at once familiar and strange.
It is the land just to the left of where we live. David’s work is
made even more remarkable by his open invitation for all to
come and play there. Though of course visitors to Hookland
must be wary, the county exacts its price from us all. – R.J.
Barker, award-winning author of bestsellers such as The Bone
Ships and Gods of Wyrdwood.

As a visitor I am more frequently in Hookland than the barrows
and chalk downs of my childhood. – Roger Clarke, best-selling
author of A Natural History of Ghosts.

Hookland is gold standard eldritch world building. – Ian
Simmons, Fortean Times news editor.

This a shimmering place of deep time, cold wars, old gods and
ever renewing mysteries.The heartland and home county of the
restless and the outsider, a lamp glow to welcome the lost, a
pole star for those who dare to step into the dark and follow its
glorious glowing ghostlight. – Rose Ruane. Artist and writer of
Birding and This Is Yesterday.

Hookland has been called many things. Psychic shrapnel
embedded in place. A re-wilding of folklore. The English Eerie
told in strange fragments. According to its creator David
Southwell, nothing in Hookland is made up, just remembered
differently.

Hookland Fragments Volume One offers both an introduction to
Hookland and an exploration of its agenda of re-enchantment
as resistance.

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Thomas S Brown @tomsbrown.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Just completed the interior illustrations for Woodwosing by @taliskimberley.bsky.social , so release some time in July (after I pester @comicprintinguk.bsky.social again.)

Cover for Woodwosing by Talis Kimberley, illustrated by me with a foreword by David Southwell. Artwork is in two panels. Larger right hand panel shows a woodsprite sort of creature with a staff over their shoulder and an apple in the foreground. Right hand panel is a decorative border of branches, flowers, buttons and a moon.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

This is something the reductionist totally miss...the Appalachian dad's affinity for international music. My dad had a vast collection of Peruvian Pan flute music. There was nothing better than hearing it blasting from the garage as he sharpened a lawnmower blade.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I'm trying to decide if I *really* need that hat.

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cultauthor.bsky.social @cultauthor.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

There is a similarity between those pisspuffins that say ancient aliens taught man how to make fire and those AI lickspittles who claim LLMs can do things we can’t. Both groups erase humanity’s ingenuity, ability to learn and agency. A pox upon them all.

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

100% bringing this energy back to Metaphysical studies!

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Alice Wickenden @awickenden.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I agree with all the takes about an attack on the humanities being an attack on critical thinking, &c. It’s also about joy, though. ‘Why bother studying that’ is always also a sneer at — why do you think you should get to do something you enjoy? Grow up and be miserable all the time!

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I have friends out there doing difficult, high stakes things. Then, there's me discovering a new Mothman/Cornstalk variant.

static.klipy.com

Antonio Banderas' Satisfied Reaction

ALT: Antonio Banderas' Satisfied Reaction

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EdKarshner 🫈 @edkarshner.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

I'm more than excited to get to represent Dutch Creek Winery for Ohio Brew Week. I'm going to look at how Appalachian Storytelling took Mothman from a "winged weirdo" to our monster. It's going to be fun! (And there's mead!)

Mothman and Mead Sunday July 12th 2-3pm at Dutch Creek Winery.

Mary Hyre newspaper clipping from original Mothman flap

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