Tag Archives: scary

Fortnight of Fright (4)

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Wow. We are back here for a FOURTH year for Fortnight of Fright and I can hardly believe it!! As many of you know, September – January is my very favorite time of year and Halloween is my one true love! Therefore, it is no question that Fortnight of Fright is something that I love hosting along with Brittany (The Book Addicts Guide) and Amy (Tripping Over Books)!

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about (hello, and welcome!) Fortnight of Fright is a time in which we host and share different posts related to fall and Halloween! We work with you guys and some amazing authors to showcase some creepy books, interviews, movies, and SO MUCH MOAR! There is no limit on what you can post about! Do you have a signature Halloween or Autumn cocktail recipe? Pinterest board filled with DIY decorations? A book recommendation for those of us who love to be scared? We want it all!! JOIN US!!

Sign ups will be open from 9/9-9/20 and you will be notified the following week to confirm your post topic, and so on. We are going to ask that all posts get to us the week of 10/12 as we will be hosting you during the event which runs from 10/19-10/31! As always, the more the merrier, so scroll on down to our Google Doc and sign up to help us out!

Also don’t forget about All Hallow’s Read and the giving of books in lieu of candy!

Wondering what we had going on from years past? Check it out:

Fortnight of Fright – Guest Post from Danielle Shipley: Scary-Good Times as a Scaredy-Cat

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Welcome, welcome!! It is day two of Fortnight of Fright! For those of you wondering what Fortnight of Fright consists of, head on over to the intro post and take a gander! I am so excited to have so much excellent blogger and author participation this year, we are going to be bursting at the seams with Halloween happenings! Today I have a lovely lady featured on the blog, Ms. Danielle Shipley! Danielle is a pretty fabulous person, and author so go check out her blog or twitter after reading her post on Halloween from the views of a “scaredy-cat!” Take it away, Danielle!

As a general rule, I dislike being spooked, and anyone who goes out of their way to startle a scream of fear out of me is likely to end up on my black list for quite some time. But every so often, over the course of my life, I’ll come across something that inspires my fear… and my happy fascination.

Sometimes, it’s a song. As a youngster, I got a pleasant tingle up and down my spine every time I heard the ghost story set to music, “No Such Thing”. (Anyone of my generation out there who remembers that little number from the Olsen twins? Talk about ‘90s nostalgia.) And there was something about Men At Work’s “Who Can It Be Now?” that reminded me of my one (and in the foreseeable future, only) viewing of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” – but in a good way! If I’d owned something as futuristic as a CD back then, I would have had these tracks on replay, shivers and all.

Then there are the movies. For someone who lacks the nerve for horror films, I was shocked at how much I loved the moonlight reveal of the zombie-like crew of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl”. And even though its vampires and werewolves made me physically sick with terror, “Van Helsing” made it onto my list of all-time favorite movies. (Leave to a quirky Dracula to suck me in. …pun only realized after the fact.) I’ve lost count of how many times I put these DVDs in just for the heck of it; just for a few scenes, even; just for the chills.

Have I ever enjoyed a reading scare? There was that time I found myself entranced against my will by the “Haunting of Derek Stone” books by Tony Abbot. It was “evil dead people”-palooza, up in there, and I still read it all the way through to the end. No other series can boast that. And I once managed to thoroughly creep myself out in the writing of a short story. Even knowing from the start how it would end, I hadn’t expected experiencing it to shake me up that badly. So you know what I did with the creepy antagonist? Wrote that bad boy his own novel, that’s what! (Complete with yet another scene that made me shudder.)

All of which just goes to show, even us scaredy-cats can have fun with a fright, from time to time.

And no, that is not an invitation for you to try to scare the cookies out of me. I am serious. I will end you.

We asked a few or our participants to answer some questions about Halloween…

Why do you love Halloween? Because it’s one holiday closer to Christmas!

Any fun Halloween memories? One year my birthday (October 30th) coincided with the Halloween Costume Day held by the elementary school at which I was then a librarian. I got offered sweets all day while dressed up as Ralphie from “The Magic School Bus”. It was pretty awesome.

What was the best costume you ever had? (Or if you don’t have one, someone else’s) I’d say the Ralphie outfit made me happiest. Green jeans, green T-shirt with a big red “R” pinned to the front, red baseball cap worn backwards. That’s how little it takes to make me feel like a boss.

Do you prefer mild scares or hair raising horror? Mild, please!

Favorites:

Halloween Candy? I’ve always been a Snickers fan.

Paranormal creature? (ghouls, gobilins, vampires, witches, etc) Gotta give this one to the vampires. The fangs have a certain charisma.

Halloween Movie: Going back to the Olsen twins, my childhood Halloween favorite was “Double, Double, Toil and Trouble”.

Halloween TV episodes or TV Shows: Can I say “Scooby-Doo” as an overall premise? The Mystery Inc. gang pretty much had to deal with a dash of Halloween every day!

As always, head over to Brittany’s blog to see what she has featured and check back Monday for a scary book review from a fellow blogger!

Fortnight of Fright: Hallow’s Reads

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Welcome, welcome!! It is day one of Fortnight of Fright! For those of you wondering what Fortnight of Fright consists of, head on over to the intro post and take a gander!  I am so excited to have so many excellent blogger and author participation this year, we are going to be bursting at the seams with Halloween happenings! To kick off the event, Brittany and I thought that we would compile a list of some great Halloween recommendations from our fellow bloggers. So here we go, best Halloween reads!!

First up we have April from The Steadfast Reader recommended some of her favorite Halloween reads…and quick side note: I am PETRIFIED of IT (and all clowns, really) so there won’t be any images of him over here!!

– It by Stephen King (blog review): Why I love it: First line: “The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years–if it ever did end–began, so far as I can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”

It’s a deep and intricately woven tale about childhood, love, loss, and imagination. At it’s core it’s about the loss of innocence and the power children and imagination have. King does a masterful job of putting the reader in the shoes of his characters. The Loser’s Club, in all their glory, both as children and adults are what make this novel the fantastic piece of horror literature it is.

Why it’s great for Halloween? It’s the penultimate horror story. Every creepy, scary archetype ever rained down upon mankind is found in this book. What scares you? Clowns? Check. Sewers? Check. Spiders? Check. Dead children? Okay, that’s less of an archetype and more of a tragedy — but that’s in there too. It should be noted depending on your reading speed, if you start on Halloween, this one might take you until Christmas, but that doesn’t mean that the journey isn’t completely worth it.

– Demon Theory by Stephen Graham Jones: Why I like it: It’s a unique piece of work in that it’s written as a treatment for a screenplay. It’s packed with footnotes and so full of pop-culture that it’s practically bursting at the seams! I honestly can’t say that I’ve ever read anything else like it. Between that and the emotions that it pulled from me, I classify it as art.

Why it’s great for Halloween? Well, the screenplay treatment is for three movies that take place on Halloween. This piece pulled some visceral emotional response from me. There’s both camp-horror and really scary horror. This makes it an ideal spooky Halloween read.

Secondly we have Celine from Nyx Book Reviews  and as you can see Celine ALSO recommends IT as one of the scariest books out there…I TOLD YOU!!

– It by Stephen King (Goodreads)

It is by far the scariest book I have ever read. Not only does it deal with the evil inside humans, it also features a monster that is evil itself and that turns into your greatest fears. While reading this Stephen King classic you will find yourself turning on all of your lights and hiding underneath a blanket. It’s even more terrifying if you’re afraid of clowns.

 – The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff (Goodreads – my review)

With such a creepy cover, it’s almost impossible to go wrong. The Replacement is a lovely scary young-adult book, which has one of the most unique story lines and setting I have encountered so far. Deliciously weird, The Replacement is a great read for people that love their books atmospheric, but that value getting some nightmare-free sleep at night.

– The Trial by Kafka (Goodreads – my review)

Never has a book made me as uncomfortable as The Trial has. At first glance it sounds like your average thriller – a man gets accused of a crime. Kafka manages to turn this simple premise into an absurd surreal experience that gets under your skin. Reading this book is uncomfortable and confronting, and ultimately scarier than most books about monsters are.

Thanks so much for sharing your recommendations with us, girls!! I will definitely be adding a few of these to the TBR – and steering clear of a certain CLOWN..ahem..Make sure to head over to Brittany’s blog for some other Halloween recommendations!! Happy reading, my friends!