On this page, you’ll find what I might call “deep cuts” — essays and researched pieces I’ve written for other outlets over the course of my career dealing with everything from creepypasta to haunted dolls. If you’re looking for more info on some of the subjects I’ve covered on The Ghost In My Machine (or info on some subjects that I haven’t covered here), this might be a good place to start.
Creepy Things That Seem Real But Aren’t
“Creepy Things That Seem Real But Aren’t” was a weekly feature I ran on Crushable (later Alloy) in 2011. An exploration of urban legends in the digital age, it’s essentially from whence TGIMM sprang. In case you’re curious about them, you can find links to some of the more widely-read ones below; the complete “Creepy Things That Seem Real But Aren’t” archives can also be found here. (Links via the Wayback Machine, as Alloy closed down in 2018).
- Killswitch
- This Man
- The Dionaea House
- The Rake
- The Marble Hornets Project
- Slender Man
- The Dybbuk Box
- The Hands Resist Him
- The Cave (also known as Ted the Caver)
Scare Yourself Silly
Between 2013 and 2015, I wrote a feature for The Toast called “Scare Yourself Silly.” A sort of spiritual successor to “Creepy Things That Seem Real But Aren’t,” these features took deeper dives into some of the weirder things I’ve found on the internet, specifically examining why we find them frightening, and if they’re fictional, why we find them so believable. I’ve covered a couple of the topics seen in “Scare Yourself Silly” on TGIMM; the difference is in both the style of coverage (TGIMM’s angles have typically been Encyclopaedia entries) and in the level of investigation (there was a lot more research and analysis involved in “Scare Yourself Silly”). Highlights are below; the complete “Scare Yourself Silly” archives can be found at The Toast.
- “The Noise Coming from Inside Children” and the Lost Works Of Ed Kann
- Bloody Mary and Other Games You Shouldn’t Play
- A Tourist’s Guide to 200 Phenomena in the City of Calgary
- Robert the Doll and the Uncanny Valley
Is It Real?
This one is less a formal series and more just a handful of heavily researched features I’ve written periodically for Bustle looking into whether or not certain creepypasta stories are real. They never are, of course; however, they do all have some elements of truth to them that make it seem like they could be — and in some ways, that’s the creepiest thing of all.
- NoEnd House
- Suicidemouse.avi
- Abandoned by Disney
- 1999 (Caledon Local 21 and Mr. Bear’s Cellar)
- Smile Dog
- The Disappearance of Ashley, Kansas