This is a space for the stories that linger. You’ll find Slavic myths retold, original poetry, book reviews, and honest writing about the creative life — the work behind the work, and the life behind the work. Old stories have always carried something we haven’t quite named yet. That’s why we keep returning to them.


When I moved house in 2023, moving my home library was a special slice of hell. It took me six months to arrange my bookshelves the way I liked them and to finally feel comfortable and settled in my reading space. I used the upheaval as a reason to install…

I read Land by Maggie O’Farrell a few weeks ago, and it took me time to understand how I felt about it and what I wanted to say. O’Farrell’s book is wide open, like the land itself. She takes a place, a windswept peninsula in the west of Ireland, puts…

Gods, spirits, and old tales

Poems for the moments that don’t fit

On writing, making things, and building a creative career

The sun appeared out of nowhere and cast its golden breath across the furniture. It stroked the pillows, ruffled the plant’s rowdy leaves, upset the…
‘Unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years’ says the renowned Neil Gaiman about Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and…

‘OK, we’ll go there someday,’ she said and I said ‘Fine, great’ and walked away since then I’ve been waiting, every day hoping I would…

It smells like snow tonight The air splits open your lungs Every breath, a pale sprite Whispers in unknown tongues

I’m Erna — writer, poet, devoted cat lady, and a marketer who came to it the strange way, through stories. Slavic mythology sits at the heart of this space, alongside original poetry, book reviews, and honest writing about the creative life.
Pull up a chair. There’s always something worth reading.
Beneath the Surface is a poetry collection about the things we don’t say out loud — the secrets, the weaknesses, the quiet monsters of everyday life. Read more.
New myths, new poems, new stories — whenever they’re ready.