Writing the Occult - Love and Death

Saturday 14 February 2026

Starts 1pm UK / 9am ET

Early bird tickets are £35 until Saturday 31 January, or £40 from 1 February. Sales end at midnight GMT on 13 February 2026.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… The bouquet is in hand; the champagne’s on ice. But why are the roses black? And who thought a cemetery was the perfect date location?

(Us, actually, but anyway.)

The stage is set for a very special Valentine’s Day in 2026, as Writing the Occult tackles the different worlds of love and death. Forget finding a restaurant for V-Day, or Galentine’s, or whatever you celebrate / commiserate on this most auspicious of occasions. From love spells to death rituals through all things obsession, lover’s leaps, and the romance of graveyards, our celebration of matters of the heart is going to be as far removed from Hallmark greetings as you can get. Can we add your name to our dance card?

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.

Speaker bios and session details at writingtheoccult.carrd.co. Follow @societyofinkslingers on Instagram for announcements.