The Mysterious Garden Muse

I have my daughter to thank for this topic. She is a makeup blogger (I should say "vlogger" since she mostly focuses on videos these days), but for a change of pace she did a post on her favorite spooky books. Here's her video: I've read a lot of the books she mentioned, and I agree with her comments. The first really scary book I remember reading was THE UNINVITED by Dorothy Macardle. Around the same time - I was in high school - I discovered the gothics of Victoria Holt, books like MISTRESS OF MELLYN and BRIDE OF PENDORRIC. I also enjoyed Anya Seton's GREEN DARKNESS, many of Phyllis A. Whitney's and Dorothy Eden's books, and everything by Mary Stewart. Soon I added more authors to the list : Evelyn Anthony, Velda Johnston and a few male authors, like Edgar Allen Poe. Stephen King later joined my list of favorites, even though sometimes his books were too scary - books like CUJO and PET SEMATARY weren't for me, but I loved THE STAND, FIRESTA...

The only writing I've accomplished this year has been a couple of posts for Romance University, one for The Contemporary Romance Writers Online Chapter and, oh yeah, my mom's obituary. I'm considering doing NaNoWriMo this year - I've skipped it since I moved to Chicago a couple years ago, but I might be ready for a month of November writing insanity. In the meantime, I've spent many joyful afternoons playing with my granddaughters. My free time - as in, not watching the girls or fixing dinner or doing all the usual things - has been spent reading. I'm back to my old, pre-grandkids, pre-move, pre-writing book-a-day binge reading. I reread all the J.J. Marric Gideon books, discovered and read all the Kerry Greenwood Phryne Fisher mysteries, reread almost all of my beloved Mary Stewart books, and I'm currently bingeing on Susanna Kearsley's wonderful books. I discovered them a year or two ago and read three of the books in succession, and then switc...

I calculated awhile back that if I read two books a day, every day for the rest of my life, I'd have to live to be about 150 years old before I get to the bottom of my waiting-to-be-read pile. Of course, it isn't really a "pile" - it's boxes and shelves filled with books waiting to be read. I've made some progress recently. I have more reading time now that my grandkids are both going to day care in the morning. At some point I'll use this free time for writing instead of reading, but this summer I'm firmly entrenched in reading mode. Two things about my "to-be-read" pile, besides the fact that it's not a pile. It's not static, since I'm always adding new and used books to it. And I don't always reach for a book I haven't read. I'm a big fan of re-reading old favorites. Several years ago I started logging all the books I'd been reading on the Barnes & Noble website. Later, I started building a more co...

BINGE I Googled the word binge and this was the top result: " a short period devoted to indulging in an activity to excess, especially drinking alcohol or eating. "he  went on a binge  and was in no shape to drive" synonyms: drinking bout,  debauch ;  In my lexicon, binge-ing almost always refers to a binge of reading. I read all the time, but there's something especially enjoyable and relaxing about reading in summer. I remember when I was a teenager, sprawling in the grass in our background, soaking up the heat as I devoured book after book.  As I've gotten older, bingeing has come to mean focusing on the entire booklist of an author, starting at book one and not stopping until I've read them all. This has always been my preferred way of reading. The luxury of reading ALL the books is a thrill that never grows old. When I was young and first fell in love with Nancy Drew, Bess, George, Ned Nickerson, Hannah Gruen et al, I got through ev...