Category: Nonfiction

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What’s New Wednesday: May

The biggest change we have on the blog this month is everything returning to normal. I will continue sharing my photography with Snapshot Saturdays. Wacky Wednesdays are back. And I continue reviewing the many book of supernatural horror and magical realism on Coffee and Contemplation every Sunday. I also have a new serialized short story coming every Friday in May. It’s titled “Keys Reef” and is about a lobster and an alligator that live together. I also have some exciting news coming about new stuff I’ll be selling in my store to include books and bookmarks.

I’ll share in more detail about the Mad Monster Party Convention which I’ll be attending in July. I’ll have a vendor table and will be selling books and spooky bookmarks. I’ll write a special post soon providing more details about this and some of the things I’ll be selling. I’m also trying to get a small collection of stories put together that I can offer as a free download when people sign up for my mailing list. I’m excited about that and I hope many of you are as well. I still have a lot of things to finalize before that is ready. There’s a lot of fun stuff going on and I hope you’re looking forward to is as much as I am.

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Wacky Wednesday: May 5

Welcome back to Wacky Wednesdays! After a brief hiatus, we are returning to our trek into the world of 1920’s slang. We also have a ridiculous number of things to celebrate today. First, we have Bent Cars which refers to stolen cars. There’s also Big Cheese, or Big Shot which refers to “The Boss” or someone of importance or influence. There’s Big House when referencing jail and the Big One when referencing death. Sentences might sound like “He’s in the Big House” or “He bit the Big One.” I feel gangs and mobs used these phrases more than common folk, but I could be wrong.

For our holidays today, I’m going to list them off and you can do a bit of research if you’re interested. Cinco de Mayo is of course the most well-known. Check out this post I made last year about the Battle of Gettysburg. In the third paragraph I mention Cinco de Mayo (also known as the Battle of Puebla). Remembering the Battle of Gettysburg. We also have National Astronaut Day, National Cartoonists Day, National Silence the Shame Day, National Totally Chipotle Day, and National Hoagie Day. On the first day of Wednesday in May we celebrate National Skilled Trades Day and National Interpreter Appreciation Day. And finally, a holiday that changes annually, National Bike to School Day. That’s it. That’s all of them. I need to sit down after all that.

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Coffee and Contemplation: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

After a brief hiatus, we are returning to discussing supernatural fiction. Tremblay’s novel “A Head Full of Ghosts” was not what I expected. It was much better than it first sounded. It’s a kind of story where the reader isn’t sure what’s real or not. It’s open for interpretation but that was Tremblay’s purpose for the story. There are a couple of references to “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. That story is also open to a lot of interpretation. The reader will have to decide what kind of story they’re reading, and they have to decide if they want to believe the narrator. 

One of my favorite things about discussing stories is deciding on the validity of the narrator. Is the narrator lying? Are they projecting their own biases on the story? Are they telling their story or someone else’s? What gives them the authority to tell this story? Consider these questions after reading Tremblay’s novel. This is the only novel I’ve read by Tremblay so I can’t speak much on his style, but he makes everything feel rooted in the real world. Even the supernatural events have a way of being explained but the reader isn’t sure which parts of the story are truth and which are fiction. One of many reasons I enjoyed this book so much.

I recommend this book to everyone.

Spooky Spider Scale (How scary was the book?): 6 spiders 🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️🕷️

Overall rating: 4 stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐