Saturday, April 3, 2010

Vampires

I haven't really gotten into the vampire craze.
I read the first Stephanie Meyers book "Crepúsculo" even in spanish I could tell that it was simply written... Sparkly? Spanish

I have read "Dracula" twice and enjoyed it immensely both times.  I currently have two books of short stories written by Bram Stoker sitting in my room, waiting to be read.

Currently there is a contest going on at Blog with a Bite that I am entering.  I hope I win!  I love short stories.

I'm currently reading H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror.  and I'm rather enjoying it.  It has many short stories by many different authors!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

X-Files

I'm almost done with Season Two of The X-files... The end has gotten really exciting! Oh gosh, I don't know what else to say : ) but I'll have to watch it again.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Lloyd Alexander

I have always loved reading Lloyd Alexander. Even now that I am nearly in my mid-twenties (scary no?) I still love reading his stories. And I have read them over and over again


He has a long long list of books
I have read 14 of them (approximately) and now I think I need to read the rest of them.

Right now I am reading The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen. I started it on Saturday, and I have been flying through it. It has become even more interesting now that I speak some Chinese. A tiger in the story is called "Lao-Hu" which means "Old Tiger"

I love how the stories of different people Prince Jen, the main character in the story, meets continue even after he has left. Reminding me that my contact with a person, however brief has an impact on them. Jen has a good heart, and I can't wait to see how this story ends.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Life and Those Who Live it

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

One of my relatives (I'll find out on Christmas Eve) gave me a subscription to Weird Tales and I'm enjoying reading it immensely so far.

This month they are celebrating the 200th birthday of Edgar Allen Poe. There are several articles from various authors about how Poe affected them growing up. Very interesting.

I was reading some of the stories on my breaks during work today, let me tell you. There are some things that should not be read while eating... Weird Tales is one of them! Not that I let that stop me. Let me see if I can give you a taste of what I mean without giving away any plot points. How about "gut-locked stony constipation on one side, and fluid Lovecraftian bowel-horrors on the other." (From Twisted by Kevin Veale). Ok... that one didn't gross me out as much as make me laugh out loud. But in my defense I was running on four hours of sleep. I haven't finished your story yet Mr. Veale, but I'm working on it! You keep up the good work. : )

Another Magazine I try to keep track of (but fail miserably at) is Fantasy Magazine. It is run by Cat Rambo, who also helps out and has fiction for Podcastle, Pseudopod, and Escapepod. Three of my favorite podcasts... Anyway. I just finished reading The Raccoon's Daughter by Nicole Kornher-Stace. And I loved it! The mood it created was wonderful and surreal. I also really love when people tell me stories. I really didn't want it to end. Please go check out her fiction! I know I can't wait to see more. It says in her info that she has a collection of poetry, and I can see how she could be a poetess. Her words flow smoothly, even if the story is set up like a journal.

Well, I should get back to the real world. Nice talking to you!
Amy

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Horror

When I was little, I terrified at the idea of being scared.

One of my first memories of the horror genre is of Dad and I, home alone. It was raining, hard. Dad was watching a movie on Tv. I think, it was The Mummy. It involved, of course, an ancient Egyptian mummy coming back to life and trying to kill the living. I remember being so scared and trapped. I was scared of the darkness, scared of being alone, and scared of watching the movie. I cowered next to Dad the whole time.

Probably one of the scariest things for me about Horror is the lack of control you feel in the events as they occur. I now have an appreciation for Horror, so much so, that I wanted to create a creepy environment to heighten it's effect. To do this my friend Superdestructivesheep and I walked silently to a graveyard late at night, listening to music created in an asylum. We wore dark colors and hoods to hide from infrequent oncoming traffic. Then we sat under a aged twisted tree, and listened to a Pseudopod episode called "The Sons of Carbon County".

All in all, it was quite a good experience. My friend left at one point to get something from the house, and I was able to sit alone in a graveyard, late at night. It was a bit frightening, simply being alone and waiting in such an open but shadowed space. It was soothing to have the light of the moon shining on the bleached gravestones.

I would like to do this again someday, someday soon.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Great story

I was listening to a Call of Cthulhu RPG podcast last night. It was run by British people. Apparently they think that wintergreen is only for rubbing on sore spots, that root beer is gross. and that we don't use the word jelly. It's so funny how we have these little stereotypes for each other. I wonder if their readers set them right..

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Call of Cthulhu

I was listening to a Cthulhu podcast today, and I learned that there is a role playing game called "Call of Cthulhu" (I'm not posting links today, I'm on a different computer). It sounds really interesting.

It is quite different than Dungeons and Dragons. You play a regular person who discovers that something is not quite right in the world. Then you must try to stop the world from coming to an end. You might win or you might lose, but hopefully what will really happen is that you will be drawn into the story playing out before you and feel real, strong emotions. I'm intrigued by this, and I really would like to try to play it.

My brother recently played a game very similar to this with a friend and he told me about it. It has cards to pick out the character you play and the monster you must defeat. It was really more of a complicated board game. My brother said he didn't really get into the story the way the creator of the Call of Cthulhu described in the podcast. I would like to try this game too, but we'll see how the rest of this summer goes.