Unfeared: A podcast of ghost stories written by women

Episode XIII: The Snow Ghost by Linda A Gould “Her dead eyes scanned the forest floor, hunting for a warm body.” In the forest a blizzard rages, the perfect cover for Yuki-Onna to stalk her prey… But what of that prey, what do they feel when they realise the cold embrace of Japan’s famous snow ghost might be just around the corner? Listen to our shortest episode of Unfeared, Episode XIII, ‘The Snow Ghost’ by Linda A Gould to find out… ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded after a snowstorm in Robin Hood’s hood — Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England. Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. Find out more about Linda A Gould in our 'A Few Facts About...' section. And check out our Kofi Shop for a FREE downloadable Do Not Disturb door sign to keep out ghosts and anyone else who might get in the way of listening to Unfeared.   Follow us on Mastodon @UnfearedPod, Twitter @UnfearedPod and TikTok on unfearedpod

Episode XII: Mother’s Day Special: If The Dead Knew by May Sinclair “And now it was a formless mass that drifted to the window and hung there a second, and passed, shrinking like a breath on the pane…” For 35 years Wilfrid Hollyer is perfectly happy living with his mother, his now 60 year old mother who has never had a sick day in her life and who he owes everything to and loves more than anything. But then he meets the genteel and beautiful Effie? And he has a thought. And he makes a wish. Find out what he wishes for in our Mother’s Day episode of Unfeared: ‘If The Dead Knew’ by May Sinclair. ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded in  Jacqueline’s home somewhere in Bedfordshire, UK. Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find facts and photos about May Sinclair - did you know she was a member of the Society for Psychical Research and the Women’s Freedom League?  As well as information about the podcast and all the other authors.  If you’d like a FREE downloadable Do Not Disturb door sign pop over to our Kofi shop today.   Follow us on Mastodon @UnfearedPod and Twitter @UnfearedPod

 “And you–you, if you died before me–the cold earth would not hold you from me; if you loved me, you would return, and again these fair arms would be clasped round my neck as they are now” Till death do us part… but is death the final parting between Gertrude and the artist who spurned her? And why does this heartless artist find ways never to be alone? And what of the macabre dance at the Paris Carnival? Listen to Episode XI of Unfeared, ‘The Cold Embrace' by Mary Elizabeth Braddon to find out… Trigger warnings: this story has scenes about suicide and mental ill health. If you have been affected by material in this story and need to talk to someone please do contact local listening services available to you. For listeners in the UK the following link to the NHS may help https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/mental-health-services/where-to-get-urgent-help-for-mental-health/ ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded on the 250 year old Clumber Bridge, Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, UK on a cold February evening. To find out more about Mary Elizabeth Braddon and our recording location, pop over to our Kofi page at https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer as well as behind the scenes pickies. And we’ve just opened our Kofi Shop. If you’d like a FREE downloadable Do Not Disturb door sign pop over to our shop today. Follow us on Mastodon @UnfearedPod and Twitter @UnfearedPod

“When I bend down again, I can see on the same step a cluster of three tiny teeth like kernels of corn cut from the cob…” When we die, what is left behind? What traces of our lives? Of our loves? And what if, when we die, we still are ferociously connected to them — to their moments, to what they mean to us — and what happens, then, if someone tries to take them away? Listen to our special Valentines Episode of Unfeared - Everything Here is Mine by JAW McCarthy - to find out… ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded in a house in the middle of England and comes from The Corona Book of Ghost Stories (Corona Books, 2019) edited by Sue Reid. Sharing the Love -  The four podcasts we mention are:  Spirits Podcast (Multitude) - spiritspodcast.com at https://spiritspodcast.com Kowabana: ‘True’ Japanese Scary Stories from Around the Internet - kowabana.net https://www.kowabana.net/podcast/ Kaidan  Kaidankai - whiteesnso.com at www.whiteenso.com Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer as well as behind the scenes pickies. And we’ve just opened our Kofi Shop. If you’d like a FREE downloadable Do Not Disturb door sign pop over to our shop today.   Follow us on Mastodon @UnfearedPod, Twitter @UnfearedPod and Instagram @UnfearedPod

“The saucepan — the little one on the stove, nearest the door — seemed to lift its lid a shade — it seemed to tilt ever so slightly, cautiously, and from beneath its tilted lid, it looked at me!” When Mr Connor rents himself a comfortable flat in London’s St James’s for practically a pittance he’s over the moon. But every night, when the clock strikes midnight, something sinister haunts the kitchen of his new home — something that nearly kills him, his valet Strutt, and the porter’s dog Ben. Find out what in ‘The Haunted Saucepan’ by Margery Lawrence. This version of Lawrence’s story comes from Women’s Weird, edited by Melissa Edmundson and published by Handheld Press.  ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded in the Jacqueline’s kitchen (complete with creaky cupboards and scary things in the windows) somewhere in Bedfordshire, UK. Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer as well as behind the scenes pickies. And we’ve just opened our Kofi Shop. If you’d like a FREE downloadable Do Not Disturb door sign pop over to our shop today. Follow us on Mastodon @UnfearedPod, Twitter @UnfearedPod

“In the mirror, a woman.  Black dress suit, hair pulled tight from her face. Eyes like chasms. Mouth red…” What dark secret hides in the bathrooms of marketing company Senners and will its newest recruit Naomi Silvin survive working there…? Find out in ‘The Lights’ by Jacqueline Gabbitas. This episode was recorded in the bathroom at Jacqueline’s office complete with strange creaking doors, hollow acoustics and extraction fans with a life of their own.  Trigger warnings: this story mentions suicide and survival of a train crash. If you have been affected by material in this story and need to talk to someone please do contact local listening services available to you. For listeners in the UK the following link to the NHS may help https://www.nhs.uk/ ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded in the bathroom of Jacqueline’s office in the East Midlands, UK. Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer as well as behind the scenes pickies. And we’ve just opened our Kofi Shop. If you’d like a FREE downloadable Do Not Disturb door sign pop over to our shop today.   Follow us on Mastodon @UnfearedPod, Twitter @UnfearedPod

Episode VII: Christmas Day Special Episode: A Strange Christmas Game by Charlotte Riddell “Weary with many nights’ watching, and tired of my solitary vigil, I dropped at last into a slumber from which I was awakened by hearing the door softly opened…” Following in the tradition of the Christmas Ghost Story, our Christmas Special Episode is Charlotte Riddell’s ‘A Strange Christmas Game’ first published in 1868. John and Clare Lester inherit the Martingdale Estate - a grand mansion of a home with a haunted secret. Forty one years previously their ancestor, Jeremy Lester, disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Find out what he wants his descendants to know in A Strange Christmas Game… ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded in Jacqueline’s home, in Bedfordshire on Christmas Eve, 2022. This version of Riddell’s story is from The Open Door: Collected Ghost Stories of Charlotte Riddell.  Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer as well as behind the scenes pickies. And we’ve just opened our Kofi Shop. If you’d like a FREE downloadable  Do Not Disturb door sign pop over to our shop today.   Follow us on Mastodon @UnfearedPod, Twitter @UnfearedPod and Instagram @UnfearedPod

‘“Safe, safe, safe,” the pulse of the house beat softly.’ Not all ghost stories are written to scare us, some, like ‘A Haunted House’ by Virginia Woolf want to explore what it means to live, love and be in a house that others have lived, loved and been in.  And if we are haunted, are the hauntings always sad, disturbing or frightening or might they just be ways in which we can connect to one another over time? Listen to Episode VI of Unfeared to find out. ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded in a mid-century house in the East Midlands of England in December 2022. This version of Woolf’s story, written in 1921, is from A Haunted House and Other Stories by Virginia Woolf (e-artnow 2013).  Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer as well as behind the scenes pickies. And we’ve just opened our Kofi Shop. If you’d like a FREE downloadable door sign pop over to our shop today.   Follow us on Mastodon @UnfearedPod, and Twitter @UnfearedPod 

Episode V: The Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton “The spot had an ugly fascination. Weigall stood visioning skeletons, uncoffined and green…” When Weigall’s best friend Wyatt Gifford walks out into the Yorkshire Dales of West Riding one morning and never returns, Weigall finds himself inextricably drawn to The Strid, known as the deadliest stretch of water in the world and grave to many adventurous a young man. Find out what he finds there in…The Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton.  ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for strange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded in the Yorkshire Peak District, England in May 2022. This story is from Avenging Angels: Ghost Stories by Victorian Women Writers edited by Melissa Edmundson.  Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer as well as behind the scenes pickies. And we’ve just opened our Kofi Shop - did you know you really needed a downloadable Edith Nesbit Wordsearch or a hand-made Monkey’s Paw Christmas bauble? You do now! Use CODE UNFEAREDFRIDAY22 for 10% Black Friday discount.  And you can help us even more by telling even just one other person about Unfeared - go on, drop them a text today and share the scare! Follow us on Twitter and Mastodon @UnfearedPod.

“Who can trust the discretion of a wronged and forsaken woman, but the dead tell no tales…” A debunker of fake psychics and phoney mediums, dubious Dr Valentine Burke is determined to make his indelible mark on the world of Spiritualism. But Valentine holds a dark secret, which only one other person knows about. Find out what in… In the Seance Room by Lettice Galbraith. ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for the stange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded on a canal boat by the Grand Union Canal, England 9th November 2022. The version Jacqueline chose for this story is from Victorian Ghosts, 1852-1907 by Scalar Library, York University at https://scalar.library.yorku.ca/victorian-ghosts/lettice-galbraith---in-the-sance-room-1893 Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer as well as behind the scenes pickies. And we’ve just opened our Kofi Shop - did you know you really needed a downloadable Edith Nesbit Wordsearch or a hand-made Monkey’s Paw Christmas bauble? You do now!

Episode III: In the Lush Forest Nothing Dies “It emerged from the soil, a white, slender thing, with fingers on one end.” Friendships make a mark. Best friendships make the deepest marks of all. In this story two new best friends take a hiking trip through a vibrant forest alive with fungi and heaving flora to Echo Beach campsite. But someone is waiting for them… Find out who in ‘In the Lush Forest Nothing Dies.’ ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. Each week Jacqueline sets off for the stange-familiar places with a story, an iPhone and a microphone in hand. This episode was recorded by the lake at Stockgrove Country Park in Bedfordshire, England in October 2022. This story is from On Spec magazine (Dec 2022 issue) https://onspecmag.wpcomstaging.com/ . Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer, cool illustrations and downloadables as well as behind the scenes pickies.

“Out of my sight before I do the thing I want to do!” I came across Elia Wilkinson Peattie when I was researching a writing course. Her weird and ghost stories are wonderful — she takes ordinary, everyday situations, innocuous situations in any other imagination, and brings to them a dark (but very human) twist. In this Michigan-based story find out what happens in the old rectory’s pleasantest room when the night settles in and the fire is lit in ‘The Room of the Evil Thought’… ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. This episode was recorded in October 2022 before a roaring, crackling fire in Jacqueline’s home. This reading is from The Shape of Fear by Elia Wilkinson Peattie, published by Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.com). Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer, cool illustrations and downloadables as well as behind the scenes pickies.

Episode Notes  Episode I: From the Dead by Edith Nesbit “One always forgives dead people…” Edith Nesbit is probably best known for her children’s books including The Railway Children and Five Children and It, but she was also a prolific ghost story writer. I am, I won’t deny it, a bit of a fangirl of her ghost stories so what better way to kick off this podcast than with this very creepy, very sad and desperate love story? Can a woman’s love — body, soul and spirit — be so strong she can even defy death? Find out in ‘From the Dead’… ‘Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women’ is researched and hosted by Jacqueline Gabbitas with sound and production by Martin Parker. This first episode was recorded in July 2022 in the Derbyshire Peak District near to Marple and Mellor (and obviously under the flight path of Manchester airport!). You can hear birds, bees, flies, mosquitoes, planes and if you listen closely perhaps a voice behind you, just on the edge of hearing.  Help support Unfeared by buying us a coffee over at Kofi https://ko-fi.com/unfeared. You’ll find snippets about each episode’s writer, cool illustrations and downloadables as well as behind the scenes pickies.

Find out more about Unfeared: a podcast of ghost stories written by women. First episode drops Oct. 9th.