BW5: E is for Epic

Courtesy of NTP012419

Happy Sunday!  I have an affection for long novels, probably because I read so fast.  Books of 200 to 300 pages go by in a flash leaving me wanting more.  And for some strange reason, I tend to read books of 500 pages and up much slower.  Maybe there is more to savor, to absorb, to ponder.  Maybe it's the world building or the ensemble cast of characters, or the scale and detail of the story itself.  

What makes a novel epic versus just being a chunky book full of story? A story is full of narrative, generally focusing on a single event.  An epic is a quest, or a series of quests, a mingling of stories and characters, told on a grand scale, encompassing years and years of history, mythology, or fantasy. 

My favorite epic stories have been a variety of historical fiction, to fantasy to westerns with Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Stephen King's Gunslinger series, Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove,  Marian Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Aragon, J.K. Rowling Harry Potter Series, to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy.   

From the ancient epics to modern epics, there is a wide variety to tickle your reading palate. 

What books would you consider epic? Share the most epic story you have ever read.  What stories set in the modern day, besides fantasy or paranormal, would you consider epic? 

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BW40: October Spooktacular

 

Happy Sunday!  The first of October means it's time for our October Spooktacular! Once again, I have the Adam's Family theme song along with their snapping fingers, running through my mind while I write this. 

Everyone's definition of what is spooky is different. Some people can handle higher levels of outright horror to those who can barely handle the kid friendly ghost stories.  From all out horror to horror lite, from psychological thrillers to gothic, from the paranormal to the supernatural, there are stories for every level of spookiness. 

If you're like me, I can't stand horror books filled with blood and guts.  I prefer psychological thrillers, tales with nail biting, spine chilling suspense, creepy settings, and characters you certainly wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.  

I've grown to love psychological thrillers, scary supernatural fiction, and more, and have a library full of Dean Koontz, Ted Dekker, Bram and Dacre Stoker, Charles De Lint, Frank Peretti, and more.  

Currently on my nightstand for October are House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski,  The Last Man by Mary Shelley, Graham Moore's The Sherlockian, as well as several Dean Koontz's books including 77 Shadow Street, The House at the End of the World, and Fear Nothing.  No, I won't get to them all this month, but love having the choice. 

If you dig through the classic to the modern authors such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Neil Gaiman,  Edgar Allan Poe, or Shirley Jackson's Bibliographies, to name a few, you'll find gems that are more psychological thriller or just plain scary, rather than outright blood and guts horror.  

If you haven't read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Bram Stoker's Dracula, now may be the time to dip your toes in. Put away all your preconceived notions and be prepared to be surprised, because the books are very different from the movies.  

Part of the fun is in the search and a quest for a scrumptious scary read, so leaving out the links. 

What is one of the spookiest or most thrilling book you have read?

This post is brought to you by the letter M and macabre, mad, mayhem and mundane. 

BW41: Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts! Oh My!

 

Happy Sunday! Our spooktacular reading month continues and it isn't all about horror.  Oh no! Especially since I'm not into blood and guts violence.  I like the type of books that get your adrenaline going, keeps you guessing, finger nail biting, keep you up all night reading suspense.  There are a number of ways to go with psychological thrillers, gothic, paranormal reads that run the gamut from the supernatural to urban fantasies. Books full of bad guys, ghosts, and scary as well as delicious vampires, and werewolves.  

Authors whose books I've enjoyed:

Stephen King's World of the Dark Tower or his psychological thriller Duma Key.  

Dean Koontz's series: version of Frankenstein or take a trip with Odd Thomas who communicates with the dead. 

Christian writers that will scare the pants off you: Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. I've read all their books which are chilling and thrilling.

Take a tour through stories about haunted houses.

Psychological thrillers that will play with your head. 

The Best Gothic Horror Books Of All-Time.

30 Best Vampire Romances to sink your teeth into. 

17 Werewolf Romance Books That Will Have You Howling for More.

Need something a little lighter? Check out Cozy Mystery's Halloween Mystery Book list

This week's A to Z and back again letter and word of the week are L and Looming.

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BW40: October Spooktacular

 

Welcome to our October Spooktacular reading month.  It's time to dip your toes into the water and scare yourself silly.  Read thrilling stories stocked with the mysterious and shocking, paranormal stories brimming with ghosts and goblins, or urban mysteries packed with vampires and werewolves.  If you are anything like me, I can't stand horror books filled with blood and guts.  Give me a psychological thriller any day, roiling with nail biting, spine chilling suspense, creepy settings, and characters you certainly wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.  

Choose from a wide variety of classics to the contemporary, or the Hitchcockian and Lovecraftian to Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill, to Dean Koontz, to the men and ladies of suspense.

If you haven't read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, now would be the perfect time.  Put away all your preconceived notions from the movies as the book is very different and will shock and amaze you.  If you have read it, dip your toes into retellings of the story as well as the reimagining's of  Bram Stoker's Dracula. 

From the really scary to the mild:

The 20 Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2020

Best Horror of 2020

31 Psychological Thriller Books That Mess with Your Head

Lock Your Doors: 8 Young Adult Thriller Books 

2020 Halloween reads for Kids and Teens

Currently on my night stand are Dean Koontz's Devoted, Josh Malerman's Bird Box, Dan Simmon's Hollow Man, and Marisha Pessl's Night Film, to name a few. Hmm! Which should I read first?

~Cheers to a spooktacular reading month~ 

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BW41: My first Stephen King Novel

My first Stephen King Novel 

I generally steer away from horror novels, same as I do horror movies. Blood and guts slasher movies have never really been my cup of tea. Which is the reason I have steered away from Stephen King for many years. Too much for my very vivid imagination. Until I read Stephen King's On Writing and found myself quite impressed as well as intrigued. I decided to give one of his fiction books a try. I picked one up at the used book store and five minutes into the story changed my mind - too icky. Can't remember the name unfortunately because I took it back for credit. However, when Duma Key came out, I decided to give him another try. I read the back cover, picked a few random pages out in the book, liked what I read and decided to get it. Duma Key wasn't so much a horror story as it was a supernatural, psychological thriller. Totally captured my attention and kept me reading long into the night.

Due to head injuries sustained when a crane backed over Edgar's truck, his temper is out of control. His wife wants a divorce and none of his friends want to be around him - he's too unpredictable and mean. His psychologist suggests he find a quiet place and take up a hobby, find something that he has always wanted to do and do it. Edgar loved to draw when he was young but had given it up. He moves to Duma Key, Florida and takes up painting. Soon his paintings take an eerie turn and he discovers what he paints becomes reality. He is also being visited by ghosts of Elizabeth's past and he must try to figure out what her cryptic statements mean, ones she can't explain as she slips farther and farther from reality.

 I don't want to give away any spoilers, so will leave you with an excerpt from the first page.


"How to Draw a Picture (1) 

Start with a blank surface. It doesn't have to be paper or canvas, but I feel it should be white. We call it white because we need a word, but its true name is nothing. Black is the absence of light, but white is the absence of memory, the color of can't remember.

How do we remember to remember? That's a question I've asked myself often since my time in Duma Key, often in the small hours of the morning, looking up into the absence of light, remembering absent friends. Sometimes in those little hours I think about the horizon. You have to establish the horizon. You have to mark the white. A simple enough act, you might say, but any act that re-makes the world is heroic. Or so I've come to believe.

Imagine a little girl, hardly more than a baby. She fell from a carriage almost ninety years ago, struck her head on a stone and forgot everything. Not just her name; everything! And then she recalled just enough to pick up a pencil and make that first hesitant mark across the white. A horizon line, sure. But also a slot for blackness to pour through.

Still, imagine that small hand lifting the pencil...hesitating...and then marking the white. Imagine the courage of that first effort to re-establish the world by picturing it. I will always love that little girl, in spite of all she has cost me. I must. I have no choice.

Pictures are magic, as you know."

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