Save the date...and a poll for our scary fall events

Save the date for our scary fall events. Something Wicked Fall, which runs through September and October, kicks off on September 1st. We will be having another Stephen King read-along and you get to vote for your choice. Just click this link when you're ready to vote: https://forms.gle/u8Pcb2QMEsk83LGK8 

Please only vote for one title. Voting is anonymous, but feel free to share what you voted for in the comments below.

I will have the post live with all the info, and the reading schedule for our TBD read-along on the kickoff date. The FrightFall Readathon, hosted over at my readathon blog, Seasons of Reading starts on October 1st. Sign-up for that event will be posted before mid-September on the Seasons of Reading blog.

Check out the preliminary event button for Something Wicked Fall below. I hope you will join us!

Gothic Horror - Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher

I've decided to do away with the Gothic and Horror Master posts, as no one (including me) utilizes them. For a wider audience's sake (if I have a wide audience...lol), I will do individual posts and anyone is welcome to discuss in the comments and/or share stories you've been reading.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS AHEAD

This is one of my favorite Poe stories. Probably in large part due to my love of Vincent Price and having seen the movie long before I read the story (I've read this many times). Of course, I can also credit Price with sparking my entire love of and fascination with Poe's works. I've read and reread so many of his stories, and my favorite poem of all time, Annabel Lee.

At the center of this story, in my humble opinion, is mental illness, and some of the factors that can bring about "madness" as they called it back then. Fear, dread, guilt. All are apparent and so expertly illustrated in Poe's Gothic tones. Also, the fear of being buried alive (Taphophobia), which was prevalent in the days before modern medicine. So much so that in the 18th and 19th centuries there were "Safety Coffins." William Tebb and Edward Perry Vollum even published a book titled Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented. There were coffins affixed with a string attached to a bell outside the grave. If a person found themselves buried alive, they could simply ring the bell (surely not so simple, and how many of those bells were actually heard...yikes!). Later inventions were more elaborate. (Read the entire article on Tebb's book and the various inventions here.)

SPOILER

So, why am I talking about premature burial? Precisely because that is what happens to Usher's sister. But for her there is no escape because she is not buried in a grave. She is entombed in a vault in the donjon keep! There is no bell for her to ring, or some other apparatus to make someone aware. Yet, when she somehow finally breaks free from her tomb, we learn that Usher had heard her..."I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them--many, many days ago--yet I dared not--I dared not speak!" Why did he not speak up? Was it the guilt of burying her alive in the first place? Who knows, but she does manage to break out and the state of her, of what she endured, scares Usher to death. As Usher's friend flees, the house literally cracks apart and falls into the ground. A metaphor for the destruction of mental illness, and the fear of death? Those are my thoughts anyway. 

The reason I wanted to read this story again is because one of my favorite horror (TV) series creators is bringing a new take on the story to Netflix. Mike Flanagan, the mastermind behind The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass, does it again with "A contemporary horror series based on multiple works by Edgar Allan Poe. To secure their fortune — and future — two ruthless siblings build a family dynasty that begins to crumble when their heirs mysteriously die, one by one." 

Here's a short trailer. Get ready to watch...the series premiere is October 12. 

This post is a part of...

Gothic September/Season of the Witch - Read-Along Info/Schedules #MissPeregrines #Poe #Lovecraft

Gothic September is just around the corner! Can't wait to get started reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Below is the reading and discussion schedule. On discussion days, I will do a general post of my thoughts and you can post yours in the comments, or on your blog and post the link in the comments, or you can do both. It's all casual.

Here's the schedule...

September 1st - Start Reading - through the end of Chapter 4 (page 103)
September 9th - stop by here for a discussion over the first section
September 9th - start reading section 2 - Chapter 5 through the end of Chapter 7 (page 206)
September 16th - section 2 discussion
September 16th - start reading section 3 - Chapter 8 through the end of Chapter 9 (page 268)
September 23 - section 3 discussion
September 23 - start reading section 4 - Chapter 10 through end of book (page 382)
September 30 - final discussion (section 4/book as a whole)

Note: My edition of the book - trade paperback, 382 pages
This post will be linked to the event button in the sidebar.

In addtion to the read-along, I'm hoping to share a little bit of Gothic all month so if you happen to be reading other Gothic literature (or poems) and would like to do a guest review, or write a guest post, let me know. Would love to have you!

Season of the Witch is going on here in October for the scariest month of the year. I'll be hosting read-alongs of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft stories each week.

Here's what we're reading:

Week One - The Mask of the Red Death, Poe - Discussion on October 7/8
Week Two - The Dunwich Horror, Lovecraft - Discussion on October  14/15
Week Three - The Pit and the Pendulum, Poe - Discussion on October 21/22
Week Four - The Dreams in the Witch-House, Lovecraft - Discussion on October 28/29

Note: I will post a reminder closer to October and share the schedule again.

I'm hoping to share the scary all month long so I'm looking for guest reviews on scary reads, and/or guest posts on favorite spooky topics. Get in touch!

It's going to be a frightfully awesome Autumn! Don't forget, the FrightFall Read-a-Thon will be going on the first week in October over at Seasons of Reading.

Upcoming Fall Events - Gothic September and Season of the Witch in October

Fall is just around the corner and it's time again for two of my favorite events of the year.

Next month is Gothic September and I'm hosting a read-along of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I've been wanting to read the book for some time and with the film coming out at the end of September, I thought it was the perfect time. Yet I wondered if the book could truly be considered Gothic (I think so). I found this article which confirmed my thoughts.

So, mark your calendars. Leave a comment if you think you might want to participate, and I'll post the reading schedule on the first of September.

October is my annual event, Season of the Witch. This year, I'm going to host some short read-alongs of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft short stories. I will announce which stories later in September to get ready for October.

I would love to have some guests during either event, so if you like Gothic or spooky, feel free to contact me via the contact tab. Would love some guest posts or guest reviews.

Can't wait for...

It's that time of year again...Season of the Witch!

Season of the Witch is back for another season! This year, I'm once again going to try to read some witch related books during October, but the event is really to focus on anything scary. I will be participating in my FrightFall Read-a-Thon (going on now--click link to join us!) from here during the event as well. Again, I would love some guest bloggers so if you'd like to participate by writing a guest post or being a guest reviewer, let me know. I hope you will join me and share your witchy or scary reads with me this month!

I have a lot of scary on my plate this month, with R.I.P. VIII in full swing so there will be some scary books up for review. Among these are This House is Haunted by John Boyne, Stephen King's Joyland, Season of the Witch by Natasha Mostert (how appropriate!) and Stoker's Manuscript by Royce Prouty. Royce will be stopping by with a guest post too!

If you do a post, feel free to share your link in the comments, or just let me know what you're going to be reading.

Robert Parry, author of The Arrow Chest, talks about the importance of being Gothic

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING GOTHIC (or at least some of the time, anyway)

by Robert Parry, author of 'The Arrow Chest'

What do you think of when you hear the word 'Gothic?' For most of us it conjures up images of old buildings with pointy arches and tall turrets, old churchyards, or Halloween and witches' hats. We also think of ghosts and of death. But who really likes the subject of death in real life! For anyone who has been recently bereaved, death is not a nice thing at all. And none of us want to think too much about our own mortality. So why do we so enjoy 'the Gothic' in literature, fashion and movies?

The Victorians, who gave us what is called the Gothic Revival of the 19th Century, were surrounded by death - the consequences of the overcrowded and insanitary conditions of the cities of the Industrial Revolution in which diseases such as cholera and typhoid cut down innocent victims of all ages in their thousands. And yet the Victorians celebrated the Gothic like no other! Was it a way of expressing their fears and grief, of making an accommodation with death? Perhaps. There are lots of good reasons for being Gothic, though, even today. Here are some of them ...

It quickens the pulse, gets us excited and scared for a moment and reminds us that our rational, day-to-day world with all its commitments and pressures is not the sole, be-all and end-all of reality.

Through festivals such as Halloween (and this goes back a long way in one form or another) we get in touch with the passing of the seasons and therefore with nature, too. 

The Gothic allows us to communicate safely with the inner self - a landscape of the imagination which reveals the darker side of the personality, including the fears and anxieties that we all need to acknowledge sometimes. 

Exploring the Gothic is a creative experience. When we have a problem to solve and someone recommends we 'sleep on it' it really means we need to get in touch with the less-conscious parts of our selves. In our dark Gothic landscape of dreams and fantasy, all sorts of original ideas and creative solutions can be found.

Some of the fashions and styles associated with the Gothic are simply beautiful in their own right. Everything from clothing, to furniture, from architecture to the design of lettering has been touched by the Gothic to good effect.

So have fun this Gothic September! I will try to remember that not everybody will be quite so enthusiastic. Those who really have had to face bereavement in one way or another can seem a bit cool when presented with too much of the Gothic. That is perhaps why it is favoured by the young, by those who have not yet had too much death and dying to contend with. It's OK. No matter what our age, we should all still take a peep inside the Gothic box from time to time. It puts us in touch with who we are, where we come from and, of course, like it or not, that place to which we will all be returning one day. And that, as the title of this little article suggests, is the importance of being Gothic.

Robert Parry is a UK writer of historical fiction with special interests in Tudor and Elizabethan history, Victorian Gothic and Pre-Raphaelite art. His debut novel, ‘Virgin and the Crab’ appeared in 2009, and his 2nd, ‘The Arrow Chest,’ in 2011. He is currently working on a story set in the 18th century – entitled 'Wildish' - which, all being well, should arrive in February of 2013. His work spans the Tudor, Georgian and Victorian eras, and combines reality, dreams and the unconscious within a well-researched and vivid historical setting.

Details, plus news, competitions and more can be found at http://robertparry.wordpress.com
Also, various articles by Robert Parry can be found at http://endymion-at-night.blogspot.com

Join me for my FrightFall Read-a-Thon at Seasons of Reading and you'll have a chance to win your very own copy of The Arrow Chest!

This post is part of....

Gothic September and Banned Books Week

It's the final week of Gothic September. I hope you've been getting in some good Gothic reading. I've been enjoying our read-a-long of Robert Parry's The Arrow Chest. Such a wonderful book! I'll be sharing a guest post from Robert this week so stay tuned for that.

It's also Banned Books Week and I wanted to do some posts this week about books fitting to this blog's aesthetic which have been banned/challenged. Today I'm going to share what I would consider two of the most important titles in Gothic fiction and the reasons for their being challenged/banned in the past. But first, a little note on why challenged books are just as important as books that were actually banned...

"Challenges are as important to document as actual bannings, in which a book is removed from the shelves of a library or bookstore or from the curriculum at a school. Attempts to censor can lead to voluntary restriction of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy; in these cases, material may not be published at all or may not be purchased by a bookstore, library, or school district." (source)

Bram Stoker's Dracula has been challenged in the past for the following..."the book contains unacceptable descriptions in the intro, such as 'Dracula is the symptom of a wish, largely sexual, that we wish we did not have."

In 1955, the New York Times reported that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was banned by South Africa's Apartheid regime due to it being "indecent, objectionable, obscene."

I have not read Frankenstein yet, but have read Dracula. I think it's a downright shame to deprive anyone of the opportunity to read these classic novels. Would that we could hear the authors' thoughts on their books being challenged/banned.

To learn more about Banned Books Week, visit ala.org.

Gothic September and The Arrow Chest Read-a-Long starts Sunday...Are you in?

The Arrow Chest by Robert Parry Read-a-Long schedule

• September 1 (or before) - start reading
• Week One reading is Chapter 1 - 6, ending on page 82
• Week One discussion post will go up Friday, September 6
• Week Two reading is Chapter 7 - 12, ending on page 167
• Week Two discussion post will go up Friday, September 13
• Week Three reading is Chapter 13 - 17, ending on page 251
• Week Three discussion post will go up Friday, September 20
• Week Four reading is Chapter 18 - end of book
• Week Four discussion/final thoughts post will go up Monday, September 30

The Arrow Chest is available in paperback or eBook formats on Amazon Kindle for $2.99, Amazon, Amazon UK, Indiebound

Hope you will join me!

This event is part of...

Click button for details!

Happy Birthday, Castle Macabre! Celebrating two years with my Fall events Announcement

Two years ago, in order to distance my other favorite genres...horror and speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, etc.)...from the more serious historical fiction/literary slant of The True Book Addict, I launched Castle Macabre. I wanted to showcase movies as well, as horror films are my most favorite. However, I tend to neglect poor CM more than I intend to so I try to remedy that by hosting events that happen around the scariest time of year...Fall and Halloween. So, Happy Birthday, Castle Macabre. You are loved!

And now, without further ado....

 In September, we will have Gothic September! A month of reading gothic lit. I'm hoping to get some guest bloggers who love the gothic in literature, whether it's a guest post or a guest review. If you're interested, leave me a comment below. Check out these lists on Goodreads for some gothic inspiration: Best Gothic Books of All Time, The best gothic novels, ghost stories and early horror 1764-1937, and Best Gothic Novels/Suspense Novels.

Also, in conjunction with Gothic September, I'm hosting a read-a-long of the gothic historical fiction novel The Arrow Chest by Robert Parry. In addition, the author will be stopping by as a guest during Gothic September and offering a giveaway of the book! Grab a copy (you can get it on Amazon Kindle for $2.99, Amazon UK, Indiebound) and join me! I will post the reading schedule soon.

About the book

London, 1876. The painter Amos Roselli is in love with his life-long friend and model, the beautiful Daphne - and she with him - until one day she is discovered by another man, a powerful and wealthy industrialist. What will happen when Daphne realises she has sacrificed her happiness to a loveless marriage? What will happen when the artist realises he has lost his most cherished source of inspiration? And how will they negotiate the ever-increasing frequency of strange and bizarre events that seem to be driving them inexorably towards self-destruction. 

Here, amid the extravagant Neo-Gothic culture of Victorian England, the iconic poem ‘The Lady of Shalott’ blends with mysterious and ghostly glimpses of Tudor history. Romantic, atmospheric and deeply dark.

About the author

Robert Parry is a UK writer of historical fiction with special interests in Tudor and Georgian England, Victorian Gothic and Pre-Raphaelite art. His debut novel, ‘Virgin and the Crab’ appeared in 2009, and his 2nd, ‘The Arrow Chest,’ in 2011. His latest, entitled WILDISH, has just been published, March 2013.

A fresh and original voice in historical fiction, his work spans the Tudor, Georgian and Victorian eras, and combines reality, mystery and imagination within a well-researched and vivid historical setting.

Details, plus news, competitions and more can be found at http://robertparry.wix.com/author  Also, various articles by Robert Parry can be found at http://endymion-at-night.blogspot.com

In October, Season of the Witch is back for another season! This year, I'm once again going to try to read some witch related books during October, but the event is really to focus on anything scary. I will be participating in my FrightFall Read-a-Thon from here during the event as well. Again, I would love some guest bloggers so if you'd like to participate by writing a guest post or being a guest reviewer, let me know. I hope you will join me and share your witchy or scary reads with me in October!

Thanks for stopping by!

Upcoming Events!

The Spring into Horror Read-a-Thon is just three days away! Hosted by me over at the Seasons of Reading blog, the only requirement is to read one scary book during the read-a-thon. It doesn't have to be horror...gothic mysteries, paranormal, thrillers all qualify. The rest of the read-a-thon you can continue reading scary stuff or read other genres. Easy peasy!

Find out all the information and sign up HERE.

I'm still seeking prize donations so if you know of any one willing and/or authors looking to promote their book, have them get in touch with me.

Sit Down and Write 3 is coming the first two weeks of May. This write-a-thon is designed for all writers, whether you're working on a novel or other creative writing, or a blogger just wanting to catch up on book reviews or other blog posts. I'm hosting at my writing blog, Stories Inside. Get all the details and sign up HERE.


Hope you will join me!