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Books specifically horror novels, also a bit on spiders
I get Junteenth off now. Crazy Workplace has its advantages. Also taking Thursday and Friday off. So a nice five day break from work. I can sleep in, and play. Well, I also have a dentist appointment and a mammogram, so there's that. But I've been procrastinating both for about two-three years, so they are overdue.
Facebook - Kensington Neighborhood Page: Venomous flying spiders with four inch long legs are invading the Northeast.
Poster: I thought they'd already arrived.
Poster 2: They are not venomous to humans and pets, perfectly safe.
Me: Uhm, there are flying spiders now? Big flying spiders?????
And I thought jumping spiders were bad. Frigging internet is intent on scaring me again.
Friend: No, they don't really fly - it's just a parachute type web that carries them over the wind to a new spot. And they are harmless. Won't hurt you.
Babs: I read they were about the size of a child's hand though.
Me: Okay...can we just not have the spiders? [I looked it up, they are apparently Joro Spiders. I didn't make it very far - because pictures. And I just can't look at pictures of spiders. I've tried. I don't make it very long and it gives me nightmares and makes it hard to sleep. I did not watch the spider scenes in Lord of the Rings, or the Hobbit, or Harry Potter, spent most of the time with my hands over my face. Anyhow, they said they aren't venomous to humans or pets, they have web parachutes like baby barn spiders, and usually travel that way when small, and long legs.]
Poster: They kill lantern flies, and don't hurt you. Which would you rather have the lantern flies or the spiders?
Me: The lantern flies? (Okay I realize that's the wrong answer, so I didn't post it to the neighborhood page.)
And here, I thought, jumping spiders were bad. I should have been grateful that was all they were and quit while I was ahead. They were at least tiny.
***
I'm flirting with horror novels. Here's the complete LIST of Ten Incredible Horror Books That Would Make Great Movies.
These are the horror novels that I'm flirting with:
* I Found A Circus Tent In The Woods Behind My House, By Ben Farthing
Although relatively obscure, I Found A Circus Tent In The Woods Behind My House follows a simple storyline where a father and a son get swallowed into a creepy world of endless circus tents. Using this strange setting as a narrative device, the Ben Farthing book highlights the lengths a father would be willing to go to protect his child. The book also leverages the universal phobia of clowns, tapping into a reader’s primal fears with its bone-chilling exploration of the fragile boundaries between the supernatural and reality.
* The Fisherman by John Langan
Cosmic horror rarely translates well to the big screen. However, time and again, movies like Annihilation and The Endless have proven that if executed well, films can make sense of the unknown without completely alienating audiences. The Fisherman, too, offers one of those Lovecraftian narratives that may not traverse easily to the audiovisual medium. However, if handled with the right approach, the book's depiction of a malevolent fishing spot that threatens the sanity of two characters could become another plausible cinematic portrayal of the proverbial fear of the unknown.
* The Only Good Indians By Stephen Graham Jones
Touted as a treat for Jordan Peele fans, The Only Good Indians merges culture, identity, and tradition with horror. The book walks through a tale of four Native American friends who blatantly break their tribe's law and moral values by going on a ruthless elk killing spree. Their act of defiance gives birth to a curse that gradually comes into existence over the span of a decade. Like a Jordan Peele movie, The Only Good Indians takes its time to find its find and waits until its final arcs to connect the dots and make sense of its overarching mysteries. However, this approach pays off incredibly well as it allows the book to bring a lot more than cheap, one-dimensional terrors to the table.
* The Last House On Needless Street, By Catriona Ward
From its title, The Last House on Needless Street comes off as another run-of-the-hill haunted house novel that may not rise above the tropes of the genre. However, the book is far from being a typical addition to the horror genre. Unfolding from several perspectives, The Last House On Needless Street highlights the complex nature of psychological wounds and how trauma can often skew one's sense of memory and perception. With an unreliable narrator at its fore, The Last House On Needless Street is a character-driven horror story that could become a successful film if crafted with meticulous storytelling and attention to detail.
* PenPal by By Dathan Auerbach
Auerbach initially started publishing Penpal in a short-story format on Reddit's famous Nosleep subreddit. As these interconnected stories caught on, the author compiled them into a book, creating a full-fledged novel. Auerbach's initial stories were so influential that many readers adapted them into illustrations, short films, and audio formats. The early success of the stories and the book alone reveals how Penpal has the potential to become a great full-feature film. The core concept behind its story, exploring a man's pursuit of unfolding the truth behind his horrific childhood, may not be unique. However, Auerbach has his way with words that allow his story to gradually creep under a reader's skin.
* The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks
First published in 1894, Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory unfolds on a Scottish Island where a 16-year-old teen, Frank, lives with his father. Disturbed by his circumstances, Frank spends his days performing bizarre and violent rituals, which are somehow connected to harrowing mysteries of his past. Although controversial in some ways, The Wasp Factory explores psychological and transgressive fiction like no other, allowing readers to briefly see the world from the skewed perspective of its protagonist. Given its psychological depth, adapting The Wasp Factory to the audiovisual medium may not be an easy feat, but if executed carefully, it could be an epic horror drama.
* Bluejay by Megan Stockton
Unfolding like an episode of Black Mirror, Bluejay focuses on three characters, Noah, Jack, and Phil, who collect horror items for fun. However, their pursuit of chasing terror and thrill takes a grim turn when, on one of their weekly boys' nights, they acquire tickets to an exclusive club that promises an immersive torture simulation experience. Naive about the world they will step into, Noah, Jack, and Phil visit the club only to discover that nothing there is a simulation. By gradually unraveling the tapestry around the dark underworld where Noah, Jack, and Phil end up walking, Bluejay shows the potential to become the next Hostel.
* Experimental Film by Gemma Files
In Experimental Film, author Gemma Files seamlessly merges the word of audiovisual cinema with literature by walking through the story of former Canadian film history teacher Lois Cairns, who becomes obsessed with the silent films of Mrs. A. Macalla Whitcomb. The deeper she delves into the mysterious works of the early 20th-century filmmaker, the more she unknowingly opens the gates to the hauntings that led to Whitcomb's disappearance. Often blurring the lines between reality and fiction, Experimental Film's immersive and inventive take on the horror genre would perfectly traverse to the big screen.
[ETA: All the books listed except for the first two are dirt cheap on Amazon, either $0 for Kindle Unlimited or $1.99 or .99 cents.]
I've the oddest craving for a really good, creepy and/or thrilling horror novel for some reason or another. I gave up on the romance novel "As You Desire" (the writing was getting on my nerves, it was a bit on the amateurish side), and started Firebird by Susan Kearsely (it's not a horror novel - it's a supernatural historical time travel novel with two time lines, and a touch of romance - we'll see if I stick with it. For someone who claims they don't like time travel stories - I certainly watch and read a lot of them.) The difficulty with buying books based on SBTB recs or suggestions, is I don't tend to share their taste? And they often like amateurish writing. I also may start one of my new paperbacks/hardbacks. I'm clearly growing weary of e-books. They are lovely - but I like to jump ahead, and skip behind, and also see the cover and the title? Plus having to charge them or having them freeze up on me from time to time is aggravating. I like the feel of a book in my hands sometimes not to mention the certainty that it won't suddenly go poof without warning. And I love the smell of new books.
On my bed stand is The Master and the Margarita - the forward has enamored me of the writer Bulgrove (sp? - probably got that wrong and too lazy to look it up). It said that he spent over five years writing it. Was afraid to publish it. And was just happy to get it out of himself. And hoped maybe someone would read it one day. His wife didn't publish it either or not right away - she was afraid to as well. It's a thinly disguised political satire of Stalin's regime. They'd have been killed.
I'm enamored because it was a story he had to get out, a labor of love, he cared not if anyone read it, and he risked a great deal to write it, even if he could never publish it. That's what we do, writers - we have stuff to say, and we can't shut up, and if we don't get it out - we get constipated and hurt all over. But it is equally frightening to share the work. And in Bulgrove's case - downright dangerous.
Oh, final note:
* Apparently Eddie Remayne's performance in Cabaret and the Kit Kat Club was controversial? They were fighting over it on Twitter - we're talking about what was shown on the Tony's. It really irritated and scared a few folks, made them uncomfortable, while others were pleasantly surprised by the discomfort and embraced it - since that's what good satire should do, make you uncomfortable. [That's the argument.] And Cabaret is a political and social satire, so the folks who embraced it have a point. The others declare it's too over the top and on the nose, and satire should be subtle. (Since when? American Satire is hardly known for it's subtly.)
Facebook - Kensington Neighborhood Page: Venomous flying spiders with four inch long legs are invading the Northeast.
Poster: I thought they'd already arrived.
Poster 2: They are not venomous to humans and pets, perfectly safe.
Me: Uhm, there are flying spiders now? Big flying spiders?????
And I thought jumping spiders were bad. Frigging internet is intent on scaring me again.
Friend: No, they don't really fly - it's just a parachute type web that carries them over the wind to a new spot. And they are harmless. Won't hurt you.
Babs: I read they were about the size of a child's hand though.
Me: Okay...can we just not have the spiders? [I looked it up, they are apparently Joro Spiders. I didn't make it very far - because pictures. And I just can't look at pictures of spiders. I've tried. I don't make it very long and it gives me nightmares and makes it hard to sleep. I did not watch the spider scenes in Lord of the Rings, or the Hobbit, or Harry Potter, spent most of the time with my hands over my face. Anyhow, they said they aren't venomous to humans or pets, they have web parachutes like baby barn spiders, and usually travel that way when small, and long legs.]
Poster: They kill lantern flies, and don't hurt you. Which would you rather have the lantern flies or the spiders?
Me: The lantern flies? (Okay I realize that's the wrong answer, so I didn't post it to the neighborhood page.)
And here, I thought, jumping spiders were bad. I should have been grateful that was all they were and quit while I was ahead. They were at least tiny.
***
I'm flirting with horror novels. Here's the complete LIST of Ten Incredible Horror Books That Would Make Great Movies.
These are the horror novels that I'm flirting with:
* I Found A Circus Tent In The Woods Behind My House, By Ben Farthing
Although relatively obscure, I Found A Circus Tent In The Woods Behind My House follows a simple storyline where a father and a son get swallowed into a creepy world of endless circus tents. Using this strange setting as a narrative device, the Ben Farthing book highlights the lengths a father would be willing to go to protect his child. The book also leverages the universal phobia of clowns, tapping into a reader’s primal fears with its bone-chilling exploration of the fragile boundaries between the supernatural and reality.
* The Fisherman by John Langan
Cosmic horror rarely translates well to the big screen. However, time and again, movies like Annihilation and The Endless have proven that if executed well, films can make sense of the unknown without completely alienating audiences. The Fisherman, too, offers one of those Lovecraftian narratives that may not traverse easily to the audiovisual medium. However, if handled with the right approach, the book's depiction of a malevolent fishing spot that threatens the sanity of two characters could become another plausible cinematic portrayal of the proverbial fear of the unknown.
* The Only Good Indians By Stephen Graham Jones
Touted as a treat for Jordan Peele fans, The Only Good Indians merges culture, identity, and tradition with horror. The book walks through a tale of four Native American friends who blatantly break their tribe's law and moral values by going on a ruthless elk killing spree. Their act of defiance gives birth to a curse that gradually comes into existence over the span of a decade. Like a Jordan Peele movie, The Only Good Indians takes its time to find its find and waits until its final arcs to connect the dots and make sense of its overarching mysteries. However, this approach pays off incredibly well as it allows the book to bring a lot more than cheap, one-dimensional terrors to the table.
* The Last House On Needless Street, By Catriona Ward
From its title, The Last House on Needless Street comes off as another run-of-the-hill haunted house novel that may not rise above the tropes of the genre. However, the book is far from being a typical addition to the horror genre. Unfolding from several perspectives, The Last House On Needless Street highlights the complex nature of psychological wounds and how trauma can often skew one's sense of memory and perception. With an unreliable narrator at its fore, The Last House On Needless Street is a character-driven horror story that could become a successful film if crafted with meticulous storytelling and attention to detail.
* PenPal by By Dathan Auerbach
Auerbach initially started publishing Penpal in a short-story format on Reddit's famous Nosleep subreddit. As these interconnected stories caught on, the author compiled them into a book, creating a full-fledged novel. Auerbach's initial stories were so influential that many readers adapted them into illustrations, short films, and audio formats. The early success of the stories and the book alone reveals how Penpal has the potential to become a great full-feature film. The core concept behind its story, exploring a man's pursuit of unfolding the truth behind his horrific childhood, may not be unique. However, Auerbach has his way with words that allow his story to gradually creep under a reader's skin.
* The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks
First published in 1894, Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory unfolds on a Scottish Island where a 16-year-old teen, Frank, lives with his father. Disturbed by his circumstances, Frank spends his days performing bizarre and violent rituals, which are somehow connected to harrowing mysteries of his past. Although controversial in some ways, The Wasp Factory explores psychological and transgressive fiction like no other, allowing readers to briefly see the world from the skewed perspective of its protagonist. Given its psychological depth, adapting The Wasp Factory to the audiovisual medium may not be an easy feat, but if executed carefully, it could be an epic horror drama.
* Bluejay by Megan Stockton
Unfolding like an episode of Black Mirror, Bluejay focuses on three characters, Noah, Jack, and Phil, who collect horror items for fun. However, their pursuit of chasing terror and thrill takes a grim turn when, on one of their weekly boys' nights, they acquire tickets to an exclusive club that promises an immersive torture simulation experience. Naive about the world they will step into, Noah, Jack, and Phil visit the club only to discover that nothing there is a simulation. By gradually unraveling the tapestry around the dark underworld where Noah, Jack, and Phil end up walking, Bluejay shows the potential to become the next Hostel.
* Experimental Film by Gemma Files
In Experimental Film, author Gemma Files seamlessly merges the word of audiovisual cinema with literature by walking through the story of former Canadian film history teacher Lois Cairns, who becomes obsessed with the silent films of Mrs. A. Macalla Whitcomb. The deeper she delves into the mysterious works of the early 20th-century filmmaker, the more she unknowingly opens the gates to the hauntings that led to Whitcomb's disappearance. Often blurring the lines between reality and fiction, Experimental Film's immersive and inventive take on the horror genre would perfectly traverse to the big screen.
[ETA: All the books listed except for the first two are dirt cheap on Amazon, either $0 for Kindle Unlimited or $1.99 or .99 cents.]
I've the oddest craving for a really good, creepy and/or thrilling horror novel for some reason or another. I gave up on the romance novel "As You Desire" (the writing was getting on my nerves, it was a bit on the amateurish side), and started Firebird by Susan Kearsely (it's not a horror novel - it's a supernatural historical time travel novel with two time lines, and a touch of romance - we'll see if I stick with it. For someone who claims they don't like time travel stories - I certainly watch and read a lot of them.) The difficulty with buying books based on SBTB recs or suggestions, is I don't tend to share their taste? And they often like amateurish writing. I also may start one of my new paperbacks/hardbacks. I'm clearly growing weary of e-books. They are lovely - but I like to jump ahead, and skip behind, and also see the cover and the title? Plus having to charge them or having them freeze up on me from time to time is aggravating. I like the feel of a book in my hands sometimes not to mention the certainty that it won't suddenly go poof without warning. And I love the smell of new books.
On my bed stand is The Master and the Margarita - the forward has enamored me of the writer Bulgrove (sp? - probably got that wrong and too lazy to look it up). It said that he spent over five years writing it. Was afraid to publish it. And was just happy to get it out of himself. And hoped maybe someone would read it one day. His wife didn't publish it either or not right away - she was afraid to as well. It's a thinly disguised political satire of Stalin's regime. They'd have been killed.
I'm enamored because it was a story he had to get out, a labor of love, he cared not if anyone read it, and he risked a great deal to write it, even if he could never publish it. That's what we do, writers - we have stuff to say, and we can't shut up, and if we don't get it out - we get constipated and hurt all over. But it is equally frightening to share the work. And in Bulgrove's case - downright dangerous.
Oh, final note:
* Apparently Eddie Remayne's performance in Cabaret and the Kit Kat Club was controversial? They were fighting over it on Twitter - we're talking about what was shown on the Tony's. It really irritated and scared a few folks, made them uncomfortable, while others were pleasantly surprised by the discomfort and embraced it - since that's what good satire should do, make you uncomfortable. [That's the argument.] And Cabaret is a political and social satire, so the folks who embraced it have a point. The others declare it's too over the top and on the nose, and satire should be subtle. (Since when? American Satire is hardly known for it's subtly.)