ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter


Horror Writers

  • For my last Horror Book Review for October, I am reviewing a book that I am actually a little bit sheepish to admit that I enjoyed, The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon. I am sheepish because it is the kind of book that almost anyone would, or probably should, find offensive. It is gory, Read more

  • I am currently working through Stephen King’s The Shining. It is a book I have started before but have never gotten very far into. I am giving it another try right now because I will be spending Thanksgiving this year in Estes Park and at the Stanley Hotel. The Stanley is the real-life inspiration for Read more

  • Gothic vs. Horror

    Trying to define the difference between Gothic and Horror is difficult. Ann Radcliffe once said, ‘Whereas terror is a feeling of dread that takes place before an event happens, horror is a feeling of revulsion or disgust after the event has happened.’ The usual way to look at the difference is that Horror seeks to provoke Read more

  • Like all genres, Horror runs the spectrum from great writing to less-than-great writing. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill falls squarely in the former category in every possible way. The novel is narrated by Arthur Kipps, who is recalling a terrifying experience from his past. Many years earlier, while working as a junior solicitor, Read more

  • The Mummy MegaPack

    Growing up I regularly watched Saturday matinee movies on television with my brother and my cousins on winter and rainy days. If it was summer, or the weather good, we were expected to be outside in the afternoons, out of the way of  my mom and my various aunts. But if the weather was bad, Read more

  • Dracula by Bram Stoker

    Dracula is one of those books that everyone knows but few probably actually read much anymore. The details of Castle Dracula, Transylvania, Count Dracula, bats, wolves, sleeping in a coffin, casting no reflection in a mirror, fear of garlic and crucifixes, stakes through the heart, and all the others vampire cliches are well known. They Read more

  • A classic of the genre, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is the story of a haunted mansion where a group of people gather to investigate the supernatural. Led by Dr. John Montague, they include Eleanor Vance, a shy woman, Theodora, a bohemian artist, and Luke Sanderson, the young heir. Despite the house’s Read more

  • Like London, Dublin is one of those cities that seems to be filled with literary history. Turn a corner and there you are at some building that some writer once lived in. I was not looking for Sheridan Le Fanu shrines in May of 2020 but by luck just stumbled across this one. It is Read more