My mom was an inveterate reader. Reading “a book” was for amateurs. She usually had three: the current book-club selection, the book she really wanted to read, and something light on the nightstand to fall asleep by. It didn’t take much to sweep her into a story. A page or two and she was gone,…
Grave Matters
Once upon a time, people stayed put. They lived and died in roughly the same geographical area in which they’d been born. It made sense to bury them there as well, where family and friends who’d celebrated and mourned with the individual during his or her lifetime could stop by the cemetery on holidays and…
Thorne Smith and the American Ghost
How do you prefer your ghosts? Do you like them spooky and atmospheric? Maybe you fancy something gothic, laced with fear and darkness. Perhaps you’re more the romantic type, savoring a good tale where the supernatural explores the human psyche. If any of those descriptions float your boat, I’ll direct you to Washington Irving, Edgar…
Metanoia
A blinding light from the heavens, a booming disembodied voice, and the man falls to the ground. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” the voice demands, and the man is forever changed. This is the conversion story of St. Paul, a man who spent his existence persecuting Christians until a supernatural experience on the…
Wrote the Book, Hated the Movie
“I cried when I saw it. I said, ‘oh, God, what have they done?” “I was deeply disappointed.” It’s “crummy.” Ouch. Hardly the responses movie directors want after a screening. Worse, these comments didn’t come from random viewers, but from the authors of the books on which each film was based. (Which author said which…
Write Boldly Badly!
Are you a good enough reader to write badly? I mean, really, really badly. If you are, it’s time to prove it by submitting to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. This fiendishly alluring competition asks contestants to create a first sentence to an utter bomb of a book. With enough skill, that sentence will equal or…
The Lure of the Séance
Once, decades ago, I attended a séance. The medium, Mrs. B, had since childhood spoken to people nobody else could see. In her eighties, she’d been a minister in the Spiritualist church for years. She was part of a long tradition. The American Spiritualist movement dates back to 1848, when the Fox sisters of upstate…
