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Time & Place

Here & now & then & where & more

    So you’re walking down the same street as every other day, barely paying attention as you doomscroll, but then… something switches. The hair on the back of your neck bristles. You look up from your phone and you’re not where you’re meant to be. Something’s changed. The street is the same, but the cars are older. That shop’s meant to be a Poundland, not a butcher’s. And that guy coming towards you is dressed like your grandad in old photos.My friend, you have entered a time slip.It’s something we don’t really think about, that importance of the here and now, the time and place that anchors us to our lives. Yet time travel and teleportation have always been an ever-present goal for many. From the Bermuda Triangle’s disappearances, to the Philadelphia Experiment’s cloaking of a battleship, to tales of technology in use that really shouldn’t be possible, time and place anchor so many occult tales—which is why we’re diving in. We’re going there. And then. And the future, maybe. You coming?Full schedule to come.

    Writing the Occult is a boutique series of events brought to you by the Society of Ink Slingers, in partnership with Alex Davis Events. Our approach is to bring together the fiction world with folklore and academia to bring a well-rounded view to a specific area of interest to both speculative fiction writers and those with a hankering for the esoteric.
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    © Society of Ink Slingers, 2026. All rights reserved.

    Explore the full 2026 season

    Writing the Occult: Harbingers & Spirits
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    Writing the Occult: Love & Death
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    Writing the Occult: Cryptids & Creatures
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    Writing the Occult: Belief
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    Featuring: Dr Francis Young, Lilith Dorsey M.A., Wole Talabi, Deborah Hyde, Brandon R Grafius, Ella Snyder, Dr S Jonathon O'Donnell, Jordan S. Carroll, Sarah Elliott, and Chris Hawton.

    Writing the Occult: Relics
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    Featuring: Cat Irving, John J Johnston, Ally Wilkes, Rebecca Stone Gordon, Steve Toase, John Buglass, and Jon Dear.

    Writing the Occult: The Uncanny
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    Featuring: Dr Elizabeth Dearnley, Zebib K. Abraham, E. Saxey, Dr Vicky Brewster, Dr Steph Lay, and Chris Hawton

    Writing the Occult: Hauntology
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    Featuring: Evelyn Hollow, Professor Robert Edgar, Adam S. Leslie, Dr Icy Sedgwick, Lindz McLeod, TC Parker, Mina Ikemoto Ghosh, and Robert P. Ottone.

    Writing the Occult: Connection to Land
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    Featuring: Ally Wilkes, Eve Smith, Caroline Wise, Dr Kevan Manwaring, Tiffany Morris, Xan van Rooyen, Akintoba Kalejaye, Penny Billington, Kerry Hadley-Price, Lindz McLeod, Shona Kinsella, Renan Bernardo, Paul Hardisty, Lisa Brideau, and Lindsey Trout Hughes

    Writing the Occult: The Fae
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    Writing the Occult: Ritual
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    Writing the Occult: Vampires
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    Writing the Occult: Witches
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