#SomethingWickedFall featuring The Woman in White #ReadAlong

It's our third year of Something Wicked Fall! Woot! Keep reading for all the details.

Everything on the agenda is on the button above, but I'm going to share more details below. If you're on Facebook, we have a Seasons of Reading group and page, where we interact during readathons so I'll be sharing info there, and also on the Seasons of Reading Instagram, and in our Seasons of Reading Goodreads group. Castle Macabre also has a Facebook page.

💀 Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White read-along. We will be reading the book for the entire two months. I've been wanting to read this one for a long time. 

Discussions will be held on this blog. I will put a new post up each week on Sunday (with final discussion post up on Sunday, November 1...we will skip Sunday, October 25 since it's the day after Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and people will probably be recuperating) and we will read along according to the schedule below.

My edition is the Penguin Classics edition, published 2009. 672 pages, though we are only going to reading page 3-626 which includes the two prefaces and the full book text. We are going to have to wing it with page numbers only, as there are so many new chapters under each character's point of view, I couldn't figure out how to split them up. I hope this will work for us. Yikes!

Read-Along Schedule

• Week One (start Sept 1): Preface (1860) - starting The First Epoch (pp 3 - 77)
• Week Two (week of Sept 7): The First Epoch: XIII -  (pp 77 - 156)
  UPDATE: FIRST TWO WEEKS DISCUSSION WILL BE POSTED THIS SUNDAY, 9/13
• Week Three (week of Sept 14): The First Epoch and into Second Epoch (pp 156 - 241)
• Week Four (week of Sept 21): The Second Epoch (pp 241 - 316)
• Week Five (week of Sept 28): The Second Epoch (pp 316 - 398) 
• Week Six (week of Oct 5): The Second Epoch and into Third Epoch (pp 399 - 477)
• Week Seven (week of Oct 12): The Third Epoch (pp 478 - 555)
• Week Eight (week of Oct 26): The Third Epoch (pp 555 - 627/end)

👻 In September, we're focusing on Gothic stories (Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and others). There's a great list on Goodreads for reference, Best Gothic Books of All Time. I'm not going to set up any read-alongs for this. I'll create a master post and you can stop by and share what you read, and your thoughts, in the comments.

👿 In October, we're focusing on horror stories. There are a couple of great lists on Goodreads for reference...Best Horror Anthologies and Horror Collections (Single Author). I'm not going to set up any read-alongs for this either. I'll create another master post and you can stop by and share what you read, and your thoughts, in the comments.

👹 We're going to have one or two horror movie watch-alongs! I'm not sure which ones we will watch yet. I will mull some titles over and then create a poll so everyone can vote. Any suggestions? Leave me a comment. Since not everyone is on the same social media platforms these days, I have a Seasons of Reading Slack group (I use it for my online book group and it's so much better than Twitter chats) for our watch-alongs. Slack is free so you don't have to worry about that. Stay tuned!

🎃 #FrightFall Readathon, is running in both September and October this year at Seasons of Reading. Sign ups for the readathon are open and you can sign up here. There is also Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon on October 24. Yay!

😈 I'm hoping to get some of my horror author friends to contribute some guest posts. If anyone else would like to contribute a post or guest review, please let me know. You can send me a message via the contact form here on the site.

I think that's it! Hope I didn't leave anything out. No official sign-up for this. Just share that you're in by leaving a comment. You can join in as little or as much as you want. Let's do this!

Save the Date! #SomethingWickedFall 2020

Stay tuned for details...coming later in August.

Brandon Ford's Open Wounds #Review

Brandon Ford is a horror author of scary stories I've enjoyed in the past. Open Wounds is different, but that doesn't make the story any less horrific. The book shines a spotlight on abuse: emotional, physical, sexual. It's a spotlight many of us would rather go dark, as the subject of abuse is so very hard for so many. However, it needs to shine brightly to bring awareness to something which still happens far too much in our society.

The story is set in 1981. I was thirteen that year and I am so thankful I did not have to endure what Kate did. Ford was smart setting the story in this era because these kinds of abuse were even less recognized back then. Often, if a girl told what was happening, no one would even believe her. We're seeing this come out in the present time...that abuses were going on back then and no one believed.

I'll be honest. This story is very dark. I sometimes found it hard to continue because it was so disturbing and distressing. Plus, I listened to the audio book which made it even more real. The young voice of the reader made it seem like Kate was really relating the story. I had to keep listening though. I had to know how it would all end.

I love stories that draw me in, while still teaching a lesson along the way. I warn again...it's very dark, and those who are triggered by stories containing subjects of abuse and self-harm (though not suicide) should probably avoid. For others, read it. Learn why it's so important to believe when someone tells you something bad is happening to them. If they're lying, fine, but if they're not, you just might save a life.

About the book
The first cut brings a wave of calm that immediately washes over her. The second, an incomparable bliss. The third, euphoria in its purest, most absolute form.

A twisted and often unsettling glimpse into the mind of an unwitting victim, OPEN WOUNDS tells the story of a young girl’s battle to maintain her safety and sanity after she is preyed upon by a savage predator. She finds only the slightest comfort in scrawling the details of her horrific tale onto the pages of a leatherbound diary. But when her living nightmare becomes more than she can bear, the only comfort she finds is beneath the blade of a paring knife. Night after night, she slices into her own tender flesh, while praying for some escape from a world filled with anguish and torment.

Before long, those leatherbound pages are dripping with crimson and soon, open wounds become ripples of scar tissue.

About the author

Brandon Ford (b. August 28, 1981) grew up in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He started writing at the approximate age of 8 and spent a lot of time testing the waters with various genres. He wrote dramas, comedies, essays, plays, and, of course, thrillers. There were few things he took pleasure in crafting more than a good old-fashioned scary story. Throughout grade school, as well as high school, he continued to build his portfolio with various works (mostly short stories and novellas, but a few plays here and there). He’d pass around these manuscripts to friends and teachers for feedback. Knowing others enjoyed his work and craved more inspired him to keep going.

A few months shy of 23, he sat down to pen his first novel, which became Crystal Bay. Arctic Wolf Publishing, a small press based in Georgia, picked the book up a few years later. Shortly thereafter, he completed Splattered Beauty, an ode to his favorite Scream Queens. In 2009, he teamed up with Alan Draven and Jessica Lynne Gardner for Creeping Shadows (Pixie Dust Press), a collection of three short novels. Ford’s contribution, Merciless, was heavily inspired by a real-life kidnapping that took place in California in 2002. In March 2010, Arctic Wolf released his third novel, Pay Phone. Ford has also contributed works of short fiction to several anthologies, including Abaculus 2007 and Abaculus III (Leucrota Press), Sinister Landscapes (Pixie Dust Press), Raw: Brutality As Art (Snuff Books), and The Death Panel (Comet Press). Some of his biggest influences have been writers like Jack Ketchum and the late Richard Laymon. In his spare time he enjoys reading, watching bad TV, and all things horror. He still resides in South Philadelphia. (From Goodreads)

Read my review of Creeping Shadows (a collection by Brandon Ford, Alan Draven and Jessica Lynne Gardner).

Doctor Sleep Read-Along - Final Thoughts #SomethingWickedFall

Yes, I am dreadfully late with this final post for the Doctor Sleep read-along. So sorry!

Did you finish? What did you think?

I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was a solid sequel to The Shining. Finding out what happened to Danny when he grew up was one of life's big unanswered questions for Stephen King fans. He granted our wish. It was a fitting choice for Danny to have become an alcoholic, just like his father. We also learn that both of them took to drinking as an escape from the "Shine," as we find out that Jack Torrance probably had a bit of the shine himself. What worked in this book was how Dan was not doomed to repeat the legacy of his father, but instead found a way to heal himself and really live a life that matters.

The True Knot was a brilliant addition to the story. What a scary bunch of creeps. SK really knows how to invent some interesting villains. Loved the twist on vampirism too. Rose the Hat and that tooth. Ugh!

Really looking forward to the movie next week. It's apparent that the film is going with what happened to the hotel in Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining, in which the hotel does not burn to the ground, as it did in King's novel. It's going to be an interesting change from this book. We shall see how well it works.

Let me know what you thought of the book, and if you're planning to see the movie.

Thanks for joining me for the read-along, and for Something Wicked Fall. See you next year!