Little Tid-bits of Terror

Like many writers before me, I’m forever saving little snippets of information that I think I may want to revisit some day. Technology has made this packratism simpler and less messy – I now have a folder marked ‘Things I Want to Save’ on my desktop and I pop articles, links, photos, and other tidbits into it regularly.

Not everything is virtual (yet), though, and as such I also keep an envelope by my couch to stuff recipes, organization tips, book reviews, gift ideas, and other scraps. I recently came across an old, misplaced envelope of this kind in a drawer, and it was full of Octobery goodness, just in time for #Blogtoberfest. Insert high-pitched squeal here.

Take this little featurette from an issue of Real Simple, for instance:

It lists six picks for grown-up ghost stories, and fits perfectly into the Blogtoberfest milieu. Yeah, I said milieu.

It’s a solid list: The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson, Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber, The Shining by Stephen King, and The Monk by Matthew Lewis.

I try to pick an ‘October book’ to read each year, and most of my choices have been good. The Bell Witch: An American Haunting is on the list every year, it’s a great yarn. I picked up A Bewitched Land: Ireland’s Witches on a trip to Ireland, and its stories remind me of places I visited. And even if you’ve seen the films, I still recommend Thomas Harris’ Hannibal, Silence of the Lambs, or Red Dragon – the novels make the movies look like The Sound of Music — plus, Hollywood took some plot liberties.

I haven’t chosen an October Book yet, and I’m open to suggestions — so are the comments. Go.