Prelude to a Workshop Slaying

[dotinthesky]

I'm reading my story tomorrow at the writing workshop! Hiccups!

Ding Dong, the week is dead.

No longer going out tonight to hear Kevin read from his story. Just came back from the swimming pool and I'm beat. Sissy Jennifer is sitting on my bed right now, texting her boyfriend Tim. She's cooking for us tonight cannelloni with eggs (will that work?!) She wants Tim to buy some eggs before he comes over. My hair is still wet, though parts of it feel silky and smooth. My body aches, but in a good way. I'm drinking a glass of orange/banana juice mixed with water.

Full Circle, by Peter Straub, is a horror masterpiece. It's up there with Shirley Jackson's The Haunt of Hill House. I can't believe it took me 29 years to read it. I've only read two chapters but I'm already banging the hammer on the table and pronouncing its majesty amongst the scary genre. If you appreciate ghost stories, you must find this book. Good luck, mes phantomes.

Comments

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

Ooh good luck with your story! Can't wait to read it! :D I'm working on a longer story than usual myself right now... Sort of started off as something from my class but I'm extending it now, might turn out well if I can keep the momentum going...

Glad you enjoyed "Mania" (huge fun, huh?) and yeah, "Full Circle" (or "Julia") is, like I warned you, hugely atmospheric. I think it's even creepier when you're a Londoner and you recognise the surroundings in it more! But Straub's early work is as good as horror's even going to get, as far as I'm concerned. He has such a wonderful way with prose. There are passages in that, and his other books, which are so lyrical and beautiful it makes your heart burst and then the next minute you're clinging to the walls with fear.

I went to great lengths to track down an old pre-cert VHS copy of "The Haunting of Julia" a movie made a couple of years after the book, with Mia Farrow as Julia. I can't believe they could take such a straightforward story that lends itself so well to the cinematic medium and totally screw it up but somehow they did. They messed around with all the characters, miscast some of them horribly and made one turkey of a film - no wonder it's never been re-released!!

As a Straub completist, I'm proud to have it in my collection, but I wouldn't recommend you do the same.

I *must* lend you "If You Could See Me Now" - that's my favourite Straub book. One of my favourite books by anyone actually...

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Any Straub you can lend me would be much appreciated! I don't want to see that movie though, it would ruin the images in my head. Maybe it's time someone wrote a new screenplay for it...

Good luck with your new piece!

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

No worries, I'll hook you up with more Straub... stat!

But yeah, the movie is crap... After you've finished the book I'll tell you more about it and how they screwed it up, but not before then as it might ruin the book.

Thanks for the luck... we'll see how it goes - how did your horror reading go?

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I ended up not reading from my horror novel (which I'm having issues with at the moment) but from an old story which needed revision. It wasn't a horror novel, but nevertheless contained some gross scenes (which elicited a much amusing gagging sound from the girl sitting next to me!) :-)

You know... I think you should join my class next term! I know you started yours before mine, so I'm assuming it will end before too. We were talking in class about how we would like to have it continued for the next term, so it would work well for you to move to our group. ;-)