Book 5 of 7

Dog On It by Spencer Quinn.  This is the first Chet (the dog) and Bernie (his owner and a not terribly hard boiled P.I.), as told by Chet.  Although I've seen animal point of view stories before, Spencer Quinn gets it right.  The series is entertaining and well written, although Bernie's motivation can be questionable at times.  Still and all, this is a great series and one I'd recommend to anyone.

Dog On It by Spencer Quinn

Book 4 of 7

Hell House by Richard Matheson was published in 1971, and quickly became the epitome of horror novels about haunted houses.  Some critics have compared it to The Haunting of Hill House, a Gothic horror novel by Shirley Jackson.  I didn't find it so, and bluntly, Hell House makes Jackson's novel look like Casper the Friendly Ghost meets Ted and Sally.

Without giving too much away, the life and times of the previous owner, Emeric Belasco, was based on the real life events of Aleister Crowley, a Libertine, mountaineer, and self-proclaimed wizard.  At one time during his life Crowley was proclaimed the most hated man in the world by main stream commercial media.

Hell House by Richard Matheson

So here you have it.  If you want the best haunted house book available, buy this one.  You won't be disappointed.

Book 3 of 7

Book 3 is my favorite horror and supernatural anthology of all time, The Supernatural Reader, as edited by Groff Conklin.  I never appreciated an editor until I read this anthology.  Conklin really knows how to select and assemble short stories, and thankfully his taste leans towards the eclectic reader.

Originally, I got this book from my father, who read it and passed it along to me.  I lost that copy somehow, and found a replacement a few years back on Amazon.  The individual stories are difficult to find at best, quite possibly many are unavailable these days - which is a real shame.

So here it is: Choice Three, with a commentary on a few of the stories below.

The Supernatural Reader by Groff Conklin

The Angel With Purple Hair by Herb Paul
A test pilot encounters a very unusual friend who enjoys flying.

For the Blood Is the Life by F. Marion Crawford
Not vampires, no.  But what?

The Stranger by Richard Hughes

Mrs. Manifold by Stephen Grendon
Just what happens to Mrs. Manifold is chilling.

Piffingcap by A. E. Coppard

Shottle Bop by Theodore Sturgeon
An excellent story!  One of the best in the book.

Gabriel-Ernest by H. H. Munro
They might be orphans for a reason.

The Lost Room by Fitz-James O'Brien

The Traitor by James S. Hart

Angus MacAuliffe and the Gowden Tooch by Charles R. Tanner

Are You Run-Down, Tired— by Babette Rosmond and Leonard M. Lake
Too much of a good thing...

The Nature of the Evidence by May Sinclair

The Tree's Wife by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
Another chilling tale.

The Pavilion by E. Nesbit

Pick-Up for Olympus by Edgar Pangborn

The Swap by H. F. Heard

The Tombling Day by Ray Bradbury

Minuke by Nigel Kneale
An absolutely terrifying story.

Bird of Prey by John Collier
Read it, and... well, I don't know what.

The Thing in the Cellar by David H. Keller
You ever wonder why children are afraid of the dark?

Devil's Henchman by Will Jenkins

Lost Hearts by M. R. James

Thirteen at Table by Lord Dunsany
Classic Dunsany, and a great read.

Lights by Philip Fisher

The Silver Highway by Harold Lawlor

The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce

The Curate's Friend by E. M. Forster

All the others are great stories, but these few stood out to me.  Find a copy and read it for yourself.  You'll enjoy it.

Book 2 of 7

Here we are at book two of the seven day book challenge.  The biggest difficulty is selecting a suitable book from a lifetime spent reading.

On Writing by Stephen King

On Writing is part biography, part solid advice, and part rambling.  The point that King drives home several times is that when you're not reading, you should be writing.  The two are inexorably intertwined and should be treated as such.

If you've ever considered the craft of writing, I'd encourage you to skip all the How To books and read this one.  Then write something.  The only other books you'll really need is a good dictionary and a better thesaurus.

Book 1 of 7

I'm more than somewhat remiss about my blog updates.  I have no excuse, except that I find writing a bit more difficult than usual.

A fellow author, Charles O'Donnell, suggested I start listing one favorite book per day on my FaceBook page for seven days, with no explanation as to why I enjoyed the book.  I'm up to Day Five or something on FB, but I thought I'd do the same thing here.

Here's book one of seven:

Cowboy by Ross Santee

Cowboy, by Ross Santee (August 16, 1888 – June 28, 1965), originally published in 1928.  I inherited this and several other books by Santee from my father who read it when he was a boy.  The book is illustrated by the author, and although it's fiction the story is taken from Ross Santee's life and his experiences out west.

The story is written in the style of Mark Twain, and reminds me strongly of Huckleberry Finn.  The protagonist gets into one scrape after another, and even when things are calm it's an interesting read.

This, and several other books that belonged to my father, play a large part in my developing the habit of reading.

Beware Patreon Site

I cannot for the life of me remember or even find the blogger who tipped me off to the danger of using the patreon site, but whoever it was did me a real favor, for which I thank them.

Although I don't use www.patreon.com, anyone who does use it should take a hard look at the terms of use before they sign up for an account and actually use the site for anything.

For those of you who haven't heard of patreon (and I hadn't before yesterday), if you believe wikipedia:

Patreon is a crowdfunding membership platform that provides business tools for creators to run a subscription content service, with ways for artists to build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to their subscribers, or "patrons".

Patreon is popular among YouTube videographers, webcomic artists, writers, podcasters, musicians, and other categories of creators who post regularly online. It allows artists to receive funding directly from their fans, or patrons, on a recurring basis or per work of art.

Which sounds good until you read the fine print:

By posting content to Patreon you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, reproduce, distribute, perform, publicly display or prepare derivative works of your content.

Quote from another knowledgeable blogger and author:

It [Patreon's terms of use - wle] is too broad because there is no time limit, no limitations on use, no payments to you, and no ability by you to revoke the license should a falling out occur.

That last is a real deal breaker.

I've got enough problems in my life.  I don't need more, and this service is good for Patreon - not for the end users.

Again, my thanks to the unknown blogger who posted the quotes listed above.  If you read this, please speak up and I'll be more than happy to give you credit where credit is due.

Writer's Group

I joined the site Meetup! some time ago, and promptly filtered out all the groups the owners of the site wanted me to join.  I wanted a decent writer's group, and after reviewing a few I've determined that the best of the lot is Eastside Fiction Writers in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.  This is a great group of people, and unlike other groups almost all of us have been published.

I've been to quite a few meetings with this group, and everything has gone along very smoothly, with a bare minimum of ruffled feathers and absolutely no meltdowns at all.  That is, until today.