Dare you read it? What is spooking our favourite authors?

 

 

 

They write the books we love reading; some of them even write crime ficiton to tease and terrify us. But what scary books do our favourite authors read themselves? What sends them scurrying back under the covers? Let’s find out….

 

Lindwood Barclay

 

 

Linwood Barclay is the author of four crime fiction novels including No Time for Goodbye. He has chosen Carla Buckley’s The Things That Keep Us There as his scary read.

 

Linwood Barclay's choice

 The scariest book I’ve read in a while is The Things That Keep Us Here, by Carla Buckley. It’s not a traditional horror novel, but a thriller about an outbreak of avian flu. Vampires, aliens, serial killers — they can be pretty scary, but at some level you think, this really couldn’t happen to me. Certainly  not  the vampires. But Buckley’s novel is set in a middle America and features people we know. And when the epidemic hits, and unleashes its terrors, you can’t help wondering what you would do if this kind of plague hit your own community. The story is rooted in today’s headlines. I found, when I put this book down to do other things, I was still thinking about it. 

 

 

Elly Griffiths 

Elly Griffiths is author of the forensic archaeology crime series, starting with The Crossing Places.

Elly Griffiths' choice

  My favourite ghost story is M.R. James’ ‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll come to you, my lad.‘ For me it has everything a ghost story should have: a wonderful setting on a lonely East Coast beach, a buried object, a tantalising clue, a ghostly wind and night-time horror which may be nothing – and yet may be something. Just reading the title makes me shiver and yet, in the end, the ghost may be nothing but a pile of old clothes….

 

 

R J Ellory

 Roger J Ellory is the author of several crime fiction books including A Simple Act of Violence, A Quiet Belief in Angels, Candlemoth, The Anniversary Man and his brand new book Saints of New York.

  

 

R J Ellory's choice

 I was thirteen years old.  I was ill with chicken pox at boarding school and quarantined.  It was a twelve-bed room, and I was in there alone.  The door was locked.  Through the round porthole window of that door was a long black-and-white checkerboard tiled corridor.  Every once in a while I would hear the nurses’ footsteps outside.  I would hurry to the window, but by the time I got there whoever had been out there had disappeared into another room.  Hence I kept hearing people who didn’t really exist.  And then I decided to read ‘The Shining’.  Unnerving, disturbing, unsettling, creepy, provoking fitful sleep and disturbed dreams right to the end.  Half the book I didn’t really understand, and half of it scared the hell out of me.  It was the first time I was truly aware of the power that fiction possessed to evoke an emotional response.  I have read the book again since, and not only is it a great book, but it reminds me of how I felt at thirteen years old.

 

Gail Carriger

Gail Carriger is the author of the fabulous steampunk Parasol Protectorate series – the first three books in the series are Soulless, Changeless and Blameless.

 

 

I’m going to suggest Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado.” I read this story first in High School and it has stuck with me ever since. There is something about not only the creepiness, but also the clean directness of the writing, and seeing an event from the mind of evil that only Poe can handle with such elegance. Oh, and it scared the hell out of me.

 

 

Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue is the author of this years Man Booker nominated book, ROOM.

 

 

Emma chose The Road by Cormac McCarthy. 

“THE ROAD, by Cormac McCarthy, scared the bejaysus out of me.  I found his vision of a destroyed Earth – vague in the details of how it happened, but precise in the descriptions of the grey, cold wasteland that resulted – dreadfully credible. And the idea that human emotions such as parent-child love go on in an even more intense form, after the apocalypse, didn’t comfort me but scared me even more.  The idea that love might come down to: do I shoot my child now before the cannibals catch him?”

 

 

Katherine Webb

Katherine Webb is the author of this summer The TV Book Club’s The Legacy.

 

 

Katherine has chosen Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd as her spookiest read.

” Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd is set partly in the present day, with a detective struggling to solve a series of grisly murders in London; and partly in the eighteenth century, as architect Nicholas Dyer begins to use ritual violence and the black arts to plant a dark heart at the centre of each new church he builds. Past and present converge in a chilling, uneasy and intense story that perfectly captures the foggy, secretive and dangerous atmosphere of a bleak London underworld. Ackroyd’s vivid prose style truly brings his settings to life, and pulls you into them. I was looking over my shoulder for weeks after reading it!”

 

Gabriele Willis

 Gabriele has written a number of novels set in and around Muskoka in Canada including The Summer of the Storm. She has chosen Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House as her spooky book.

 

 

 I think that the two scariest books that I’ve ever read and liked – no gore – are “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson, and Stephen King’s “The Shining”. Both were read in the 1970s, so a long time ago, but some things just stay with you, don’t they? – even though on dark and lonely nights you wish they wouldn’t! Fortunately, my husband is not away on business trips much any more! The movies don’t do either book justice, especially the 1999 version of “The Haunting”, despite the big name stars (Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta Jones). The 1963 version was much spookier, although I was only 13 when I saw it and it scared the hell out of me for years – had to sleep with my light on!

Anyway, Shirley Jackson was a good writer, and Stephen King can make a fire hose or a hedge seem like the most sinister thing. I read and liked his early books, but he lost me with “It”.

 

 

 So what do you think to this collection of spine-tinglers? Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

Dare you read them?



 

Next up is…….What’s spooking the book bloggers?



Waiting on Wednesday

This weeks Waiting on Wedensday has to be Changeless by Gail Carriger as I just finished the first in the series, Soulless, and loved it so I am now waiting impatiently for the second to come out.

“Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears – leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria. But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can. She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.”

I am seriously looking forward to this. It is out in March in the US and April in the UK.

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. This event spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating. Please visit Jill’s blog to find out what other book bloggers are waiting for.

Our Mutual Read Challenge #1

 My first book in this challenge is completed.

I have read Soulless by Gail Carriger which falls into the Neo-Vic category as it is set in Victorian time. See my review of this book.

1) Soulless by Gail Carriger

11 to go!

 

This challenge is hosted by Amanda at The Blog Jar

Book Review: Soulless by Gail Carriger

Synopsis from Amazon:

“Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire – and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Or will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart? SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.”

What I thought:

What an absolute treat this book was to read! I absolutely loved it. I was recommended this book a few months ago so I picked up a copy when in NYC in December as it wasn’t out in the UK then. Then in January I was lucky enought to interview Gail for this blog and was even more fascinated and intriguied when I read her answers. Who knew a book about vampires, werewolves and ghosts wandering around Victorian London and attending tea-parties would be so much fun? From the minute I cracked open the spine I knew I was in for a great ride. Our heroine is Miss Alexia Tarabotti and she has fast become one of my favourite characters in any book: she’s feitsy, speaks her own mind, sarcastic, soulless, large chested and so funny!

In the opening pages, Miss Tarabotti accidentally kills a rogue vampire who tries to attack her, and although she is put out that said vampire doesn’t appear to know that she was born without a soul and therefore immune to any supernatural attack, she is more annoyed that the vampire landed in the middle of the food table and on top of the treacle tart, which she had particularly been looking forward to. Within minutes, The Earl of Wolsey, Lord Maccon, arrives in the middle of the mess – he has been sent by Queen Victoria to investigate the mystery of disappearing registered vampires and appearing rogue vampires. Lord Maccon also happens to be a werewolf, the Alpha at that, and Miss Tarabotti appears to exasperate him at every turn. The characters are what really made this book, for me. Alexia aside, I also fell in love with Lord Akeldama, a flambouyant vampire who practically minces through the pages, and Lyall, Lord Maccon’s beta werewolf and sidekick are fantastic, as are the vile Mrs Loontwill (Alexia’s mother) and her two sisters.

Miss Tarabotti’s adventure with trying to track down what has happened to the disappearing vampires and werewolves and getting herself kidnapped by a man with a wax face are nothing compared to the other big distraction that keeps following her around in the shape of an increasingly randy Lord Maccon.  There are fangs, fur, ghosties, tea, treacle tart, peacock hats, silver-tipped parasols, adventure,  science, satire  blended with steampunk and some fantasy – the whole shebang.

I really did enjoy this book and I can’t wait for the next in the series, Changeless, to come out in April. I can highly recommend this book and urge you to read it!

For more information:

Amazon

Gail’s Website

Interview with Gail

Author Interview: Gail Carriger

Firstly, thank you to Gail for taking part in this interview.  Here is the “obligatory bio” from Gail’s website for a quick overview of the lady herself:

“Ms. Carriger began writing in order to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. Ms. Carriger then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. She now resides in the Colonies, surrounded by a harem of Armenian lovers, where she insists on tea imported directly from London and cats that pee into toilets. She is fond of teeny tiny hats and tropical fruit. Soulless is her first book, Changeless is her second.”

Now on to the questions:

Have you made any new years resolutions and if so can you share any with us?
I have decided to do more yoga and drink less tea. So far this year, tea = 12 and yoga = 3. Not so good really.
 
Which book have you read in the last year that made you think “Damn, I wish I’d written that?”
That isn’t normally my first thought upon finishing a really good book, unless it’s a New York Times best seller. However, I really, really loved Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George. It obviously stemmed from a place of love and academic familiarity with Nordic fairy stories. The prose was beautifully lyrical and it was a genuine pleasure to read.
 
You’re about to be stranded on a desert island and you are only allowed to take 3 books with you: which do you take and why?
The Forgotten Beast of Eld by Patricia McKillip, By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey, and Taming the Forest King by Claudia J. Edwards. All for exactly the same reason: I can read them over and over again and never get tired of them.
 
Now onto the first book in the Parasol Protectorate series – Soulless. Where did you come up with the idea of vampires and werewolves prowling the streets of Victorian London?   It’s a ruthless vehicle to explain history’s greatest mystery: How did one tiny island manage to conquer an empire upon which the sun never set? I decided that the only possible answer was that England openly accepted supernatural creatures, and put them to good use, while other countries continued persecution. This gave Great Britain a leg up dealing with messy little situations like winning major foreign battles or establishing an efficient bureaucracy or convincing the world cricket is a good idea. It so very Victorian to take a stance the equivalent of, “Ah yes, vampires, jolly good chaps, excellent fashion sense, always polite, terribly charming at cards, we just won’t mention that little neck biting habit.”
 
What research did you do on London under the rule of Queen Victoria?
I had a fair bit of expertise in certain aspects of the era (fashion, food, manners, literature, theatre, upper class courting rituals, antiquities collecting) when I started but great gaps in other areas that I quickly realized needed to be filled. I spent a lot of time researching the gadgetry and technology of the day, travel and communications techniques, medical and hard science advances, not to mention other things like major wars and military strategies, configuration of army regiments, geographical lay out of London in the 1870s (shops and streets names), newspapers, and government policies. That’s the thing, you never know what information you are going to need until you need it, and inevitably the internet doesn’t have it. Since I’m writing alt history I can always disregard the facts, but I like to get it right first, before I mess with it. Most people won’t care to look up the details (or get it wrong by confusing my setting with Austen or mid-Victorian, I’m specifically 1773) but it will bother me if I don’t know the truth of the matter.
 
Which are your favourite books and authors from that era and did any of them inspire you while writing Soulless? 
I love Elisabeth Gaskell, so anything by her. I like Jane Eyre but can do without the other Bronte sisters. Of course, I lived and breathed Dickens for a very long time, still do once a year, so I have to mention him. I’m an aberrant in this, but David Copperfield is my favorite. Amelia B. Edwards’ A Thousand Miles Up the Nile was certainly an influence on Alexia’s character. As to inspirations, I’d say P.G. Wodehouse had more of an influence on my writing style than anyone from the actual Victorian era. 
 
Can you explain steampunk to us and what is it about it that fascinates you so much? 
There are two main kinds of steampunk. The first, and most common, envisions a future as the Victorians imagined it. Steampower dominates (usually at the expense of electricity) and Victorian science, morals, and manners reign supreme. The writings of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are good examples. The alternative option, depicts a far future world that harkens back to Victorian culture, for example a bustle dress made of kevlar. There are also other temporal “punks” like clockpunk (c. 1500s) and dieselpunk (WWII). I’m fascinated by steampunk because it allows me to play with all the intriguing and appealing bits of Victorian era, while ignoring the rotten underbelly (bigotry, slavery, destitution).
 
There are second and third books coming out this year (Changeless and Blameless). Is that it for the Parasol Protectorate or is there more to come? 
The usual rules of publishing apply. All I can say is, I’m open to more from Alexia and Lord Maccon. I’m currently under contract for only the three books. I don’t leave you hanging at the end of Blameless, so please don’t worry.
 
Do you plan on writing any more series after this one? Can you give us any juicy tidbits about your plans? 
I have a Sci-fi YA I’m playing about with. Who knows if that will ever see the ink of publication? I’m enjoying Alexia’s world so much I’ve become interested in exploring both the past (specifically Alexia’s father) and the future, perhaps overseas in the Americas. I’d like to do a Turn of the Century Old West steampunk setting, polluted with my general irreverence, of course. The first is probably a stand-alone book, the second could be a series. Who knows? All are mere twinkles in the eye at the moment.
 
And finally, the quick fire round: 
Favourite colour: red
Favourite item of clothing: A vintage 1950s black Dior suit (dress with jacket) that fits like a dream (thank goodness you didn’t ask about shoes, that’d take me hours to figure out)
Favourite animal: octopus (naturally)
Favourite flavour crisps (chips): Walkers roast chicken (I liked the pork & pickle too)
Favourite holiday destination: Italy, specifically Lake Como
Favourite childhood memory: sand ball wars on the beach (kind of like the California version snow ball wars, only harder and during the summer)
Always treacle tart or do other puddings get a look in? Oh, other puddings, by all means. Particularly custard. I am a sucker of custard in all its many forms.

These are the first two books in the Parasol Protectorate series. Here is a synopsys for both:

Souless: “Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire – and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Or will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart? SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

Changeless: “Alexia Tarabotti, now Lady Maccon, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears – leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria. But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her into the backwaters of ugly waistcoats, Scotland, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only A soulless can. She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.”

I’m back from NYC!

I’m back in good ole Blighty, armed with brand spanking new  books (bliss!) and although I had the greatest time, it’s good to be home.

As I am a good law-abiding citizen I didn’t want to be arrested for committing the crime of not obeying the law of “YOU MUST BUY BOOKS – AND PLENTY OF THEM – ON HOLIDAY!”, and dutifully managed to pick up plenty of lovely new shiny things. I spent lots of time in Borders (I had to pay hommage now that my beloved Borders is closing in the UK – waaaaahhhhh!) and also Barnes and Noble ‘cos we don’t get that over here so it’s like being let loose in a new playground. I love looking at books in the States as they have different covers to us in the UK so it’s like there’s a million new books that I have never seen before to make me run wild like a kid in a sweet shop.

As well as shop for books we walked in Central Park (love that place) and walked over Brooklyn Bridge for some amazing view of Manhattan. We also did the Christmas markets Bryant Park which had some gorgeous things. Our hotel was a suite in the Doubletree Hotel right in the middle of Times Square so we had the absolute best view!

I also met up with Lori, my lovely friend from Goodreads (who runs the TNBBC group and also has her own blog on www.thenextbestbookblog.blogsptot.com). Lori lives a couple of hours from NYC and came over with her family and we met at the Rockerfeller Centre christmas tree. We went ice-skating which was such good fun and Lori gave me a pressie of Joe Hill’s new book Horns that is due out in March 2010 (thank you Lori!). It was so cool to meet up after we have been chatting on GR for the last few years.

Anyway, so this is what I got in NYC:

 

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

 

 

 

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

 

 

 

Soulless by Gail Carriger

 

 

 

 

Lone Wolf by Kathryn Lasky

 

 

 

 

Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

 

 

 

Ballad by Maggie Steifvater

 

 

 

 

The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain

 

 

 

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

 

 

 

Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeta Naslund

 

 

 

 

The Animal Dialogues by Craig Childs

 

 

 

The Ghost Huntress by Marley Gibson

 

 

 

Secret Lives (Darke Academy #1) by Gabriella Poole

 

 

 

 

Horns by Joe Hill (my gift from Lori)

 

 

 

So, a pretty successful trip there I think. I keep looking at my new toys and admiring them. I can’t wait to dive in and get started on them. I think I will be buried in books over the Christmas holidays!