Sleep - something so mundane we do it around eight hours out of every twenty-four - makes a great vehicle for horror. Judging by folkloric record and cross cultural points of similarity, it's been part of horror for millennia. From old hag syndrome to nightmares to the simple but essential necessity of being unaware and vulnerable for blocks of time, sleep is it's own carnival of terror. This week Jules and Madeleine delve into why, tracking through folklore into modern horror and looking at how you can use sleep effectively in your own writing. (Aside from aiming for eight hours a night, that is!)

Title music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic

This week's spooky season offering dives past the whole haunted house experience to go deeper. What if the haunting was more specific? An attic or cellar is well known trope, but what about a playground? A nursery? A clock or a mirror? What do those things say about the state of the main character's mind in storytelling? And what exactly is the quiet terror of the mundane more effective than dripping gore and howling monsters? Jules and Madeleine tackle these questions and more.

On the slab this week: Rebekah - Daphne du Maurier, The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Scald Crow - Grace Daly and many more

It's time for episode three of the dragons' spooky season extravaganza and don't be deceived by the title. Folk Magic can go to some pretty dark places... This week, Jules and Madeleine take a look at a magic system that relies on mundane objects and folk knowledge. In fact this type of magic is, on the surface, so mundane that many people would argue that it's more superstition than a magic system. It forms a backbone in many folk horror and dark fantasy stories and even creeps into sci-fi and urban fantasy. So where does the magic of the mundane originate from? What is its logic? And how do you incorporate it in your own world building?

On the slab this week - October Daye - Seanan McGuire, Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Practical Magic and many more.

Title music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic