Sorrows Of Blackwood

The official homepage of Sorrows Of Blackwood, a franchise of ensemble character dramas set in a cozy little valley full of unsolved mysteries and folklore. All intellectual property created and owned by Thomas Castle, unless otherwise noted.

[firecr0tch]

i am once again asking for donations 🙏

i have an amazon wishlist set up for real this time and $14 left in my paypal

these will all ship directly to me and they're all basic hygiene products i can't really afford or even leave the house to get at the moment so any of them would be helpful pls help thank u

[killyridols]

siri keeps the faith by robin f. williams, 2021, oil & acrylic on canvas, 48 × 56 inches

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In case anyone following this blog is still interested, Solemn Graces is alive and well on AO3! Currently, I've been running the storyline as a serial under my larger Pick-n-Mix Comix Presents project, and other storylines that were meant to be part of Sorrows Of Blackwood — like Prospero's Call and Eighth Wonders — will eventually join it.

There's a few other starter/test issues for other Pick-n-Mix ongoings, but since Solemn Graces is the core of all this for me, it's the one that's been sticking and giving me the most writing versatility and forward momentum. In this issue, Grace fights the Spring-Heeled Ripper and a werewolf, and there's a bonus story about Dorian Belgrave and the painter he's fond of, Galen Belmont.

And in the next issue: Gallo Belgrave finally shows up! Grace and Gallo, united on the page once again!

[sorrowsofblackwood]

Midnight Monsters

For, and from, the people.

He was a strange boy, Gallo; the strangest in all of town, they said, and that was quite saying something for the town of monsters in which he dwelled. No one quite knew where he came from; but they knew when he was around, for he was never around without his face drawn up like a skull and his hearse the color of the deepest shadow.

In fact, he was born in 1957 – the same year as the Ringmaster’s son, though the two weren’t meant to meet for many moons after that – through a series of tragedies that occurred both at Castle Gaunt overlooking the town of Grimstead, and at the hospital known as St Crucian’s that was located down in the town itself, out on Bleaker Street.

He was born alongside another, darker soul who has since been forbidden and banished from Grimstead and indeed the entire realm of Inglenook, shunted through to one of the Other Realms using an ancient piece of enchantment, and we shan’t talk about her quite this early in this story, shan’t we? We’re not supposed to know what goes on beyond the Veil in the first place, and that’s not a secret you must share with anyone else.

Everything said, Gallo was – to mention again – a strange boy, the strangest boy in Grimstead; for he was the hearse driver in town, and he came to collect the bodies from the scenes of every death and bring them to his cemetery way out at the other end of town – at the end of Bleaker Street, about two miles away in fact, where the main thoroughfare became Dead End Lane and the trees became thick and knobbly – and there, prepare the poor things for their inevitable burial beneath the dirt and earth.

He was very good at his job, which was to say that he always showed up on time and generally had each burial ready within just a few short days or so, and that was being optimistic. On his best day, and the worst for him personally, he’d had the burial ready the very next day, and that was only because he had been so overly eager to get them in the ground that he had stayed up throughout the entire night and most of the morning just to make sure the job was done, and done right, and that they would never be getting up or even rolling in their graves ever again.

He has never bothered to mention why exactly he’d buried them with such indecent haste, but most of us have had our theories, and very few of us especially minded anyway, given the exact nature of just who he was burying that night anyway. In any case, his status and work – not to mention his residence several miles from town, and the facts of his rather sudden appearance within it just a few short years ago – made him somewhat of an outcast amongst the rest of us weirdos and freaks in Grimstead.

If snake oil saleswomen and immortal police officers were the norm, the boy with a skeleton on his face who always smells like smoke and ash and rotting flesh and bone certainly stood out – and not for his own lack of trying, since he always seemed and acted as though he intentionally went out of his way to stand out so much and to be so different from the rest of us.

No one quite knows why, and very few of us want to take the time to understand why, since the merest sight of him generally means someone either has died or is probably going to very soon. An individual like that is generally not one most are going to take a liking to, nor even invite to dinner on most nights, leaving Gallo Belgrave to lead his distant life essentially and more or less alone in his stoop or roost or perch at the graveyard at the edge of town.

He owns a coffee shop down in the crypt of that graveyard, some say. I tried to check in there once, and found only cobwebs, coffins, and what seemed like the remains of an old cat or several that had crawled in there to die. It had no tail, but three skulls, and a ribcage with too many ribs that had been wrapped around its ancient and mummified hearts.)

What kind of coffee would he be serving there, anyway? The kind steeped from ash and boiled in blood? Often, we’ve spoken of it and no one who knows there seems to have gone there, so no one who’s been there will ever really know. The young people here speak of parties in the dark and sweets shaped like spines, and the older people warm them away, but for what? More death and burials, more parties in the ark, and whenever that skull boy shows up, they still clutch their pearls as if they know they’ll wake up in the morning buried in the back of his hearse, or even underground already, stuffed inside their six foot coffins, yanking on the bell-strings above in the hopes of living help that won’t ever come.

One person in town is known to have known him, and she can only be reached in the case of dire mysteries to solve, so if you’re curious, you can head down to the cul-de-sac of Mooney Crescent, where you can find her house at the very end of the lane – but this story isn’t about her, as most in Grimstead are not, and so I wish you the deepest of luck and the poorest of fortunes if you seek to bother her about such little things like this.

Her name is Grace Morgan, and she’s the one who inspired him toward making that cryptborn coffee shop anyway in the first place, at least if you listen to the stories what the young ones say. I’ve never spoken to her, nor even met her, but I’ve seen her sometimes, and usually with Gallo himself, and neither of them truly belong here, and we all know it.

He keeps a jar of ash with him, a glass jar filled with the stuff, and shakes it every now and then like a macabre form of a snowglobe. We talk of what’s in there, whether from bodies or smokes or something altogether more unworldly, while Grace sometimes watched him shake it and gives him, what? An ever-watching eye of the curious? The judging? No one knows with those two, and no one knows those two, and if someone says they do, you should know they don’t, and shouldn’t be here anyway, and maybe you shouldn’t be either.

This town is for the monsters and the monstrous, they say, and only those types of persons truly belong; and is a boy with a skeleton face monstrous? Do his actions make him a monster?

If the vampires below and the ravens above could find home here, then I suppose it’s natural I can tap out for a while. And why am I telling you this besides? Who is this story for, anyway?

Well, if you see him, you’ll know – and tell him I said hello. His parents are looking for him, and we just don’t know where to go.

Signed, Count Belgrave His father. His past.

[sorrowsofblackwood]

What’s one way of increasing your fandom outreach and other capabilities? Making an Instagram for your franchise. Go follow it at the username sorrowsofblackwood.