Cordelia Kelly's Blog: Curl Up With a Good Blog, page 2

January 8, 2024

Indie Books: The Future of Publishing

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When I was a child, I adored my library. Going there was a weekly joy, to wander the stacks, pulling out titles at random when a spine caught my eye and reading the blurbs of an ever-growing pile of books. With this came a delicious sense of anticipation as I try to imagine which of these books was going to capture my imagination, pull me into new adventures and transport me to far-off places.

Now? My experience finding and reading books couldn’t be more different. I click “hold” on my library app for all the books I keep seeing popping up on Instagram. All of these books are published by The Big Five corporate publishers. I’m drowning in a never-ending pile of tbrs that I couldn’t get through in several lifetimes, all to keep up with the absolute must-reads that everyone else has already read. Reading has become less fun, and more of a chore.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I’ve decided to make some changes to my reading habits this year. The answer … indie books.

My 2024 resolution is I am going to find and support more indie authors. Because, as it turns out, it actually really matters, both on a small-scale, personal level, as well as a big-scale level when it comes to society as a whole.

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The rise of indie authors goes right to the heart of the publishing industry, which has been, er, flagging over the past decade or so. Instead of dozens of different book publishers as there used to be in the past, there are now five major book publishers in the world (although word on the street is that could soon go down to four). When you hear an author or editor refer to “The Big 5” they mean Hachette, Harper Collins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. While there are many imprints under these parent companies, all the big book-purchasing decisions are being made by very few people at the top.

Publishing under these five publishing companies has often been referred to as “traditional publishing,” but it is beginning to now be called “corporate publishing.” When you call it traditional, it sounds sweet and vaguely archaic, harkening to dusty bookshops and quaint booksellers and curling up in front of the fire with some amazing stories.

However, corporate publishing might be more accurate, for better or worse. The idea that the big five are trying to bring you the best and brightest of a generation is not the real picture. Because these publishers are in the business of making money. New ideas and debut authors don’t sell money immediately – it takes time and investing to build up an author’s reputation. What does sell is established authors, as well as celebrities. This is what is being pushed out by the publishing companies right now.

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And yet, the publishing industry is floundering with the advent of independent publishing – the ability for authors to bring their work directly to the public, or through small, non-profit publishers. Because while the big five have a stranglehold on what is being given to the public, it turns out the public doesn’t always like to be told what to do.

For the longest time, the big publishers have been the “gatekeepers” of what books get an audience in the world at large. But in this day and age, the odds of an unknown author receiving a book deal are vanishingly small, if they don’t have built-in followers or celebrity.

But it wouldn’t be fair to assume that a book “wasn’t good enough” to make it with the Big 5 because an author went the indie route. That stigma belongs in the past. Most readers don’t actually look at the publisher before buying – they just want a quality story that looks good and reads well.

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The truth is, while indie authors do not have the same support financially as those published by the big five, it doesn’t mean the quality of their books suffers. The author simply has to pay out of pocket to get the same level of editing, meaning they invest far more in their work than established authors. For example, one of my books has been developmentally edited by the same editor of The Hunger Games, which was an amazing experience for me. Authors can access excellent editing, it just costs them.

Some famous indie books that I absolutely loved include:

Hugh Howey, with WoolLisa Genova, with Still AliveAndy Weir, with The MartianRupi Kaur, with milk and honeyMargaret Atwood, with Double Persephone

There are so many more, so many untapped sources of incredible stories if you’re willing to look! So if you’re interested in finding the gems that nobody has seen before, the answer is indie authors. They are bringing fresh, new work, allowing us to go back to the days when we could discover something new. And it can make a big difference to an author’s life on a personal level.

Indie authors adore their fanbase, and they love it when readers engage with them. And you know that when you support an indie author, your dollars are going (partly) to support a real person (don’t punish indie authors because you hate a certain global conglomerate that has a stranglehold on the indie publishing space – indie authors don’t really have other choices).

By supporting indie authors, you get to decide what you read, you rebel you. And you might find your next favourite author and get to be the one to introduce them to the world.

How to Support Indie Authors

So what are the best ways to support indie authors?

Interact on their social media accounts! Indie authors will likely respond because they are sincerely invested in their fanbase. And hearing that someone liked their book is an easy way to make someone feel wonderful.Buy their books! I know this sounds obvious, but that financial support means everything to a struggling author. Sometimes you find an indie book through the library or second hand bookstores. This is how I find 99% of the books I read. If the author is indie, though, I make a point of either supporting their Patreon if they have one, or purchase an ebook of theirs to ensure they are seeing some support come in. I could mean the difference of them being able to write their next book!Review their book – reviews are gold for authors. This is a way for people to find books out of the millions available. Seeing people’s true comments about what they enjoyed (or didn’t) is going to help like-minded readers make up their minds on whether to read or not. Even if it’s only a few lines, it makes a huge difference.Share your love of the book, on social media or just with your friends. Crazy as it sounds in our tech-savvy world, word of mouth is still one of the top ways that people find out about their next favourite read.

Obviously, I have a bias here. I have two novels coming out this year. They are being published under a small press label, Brown Cat Press. While I am delighted to have this support, the financial and marketing burden is nearly entirely my own. So if you’re interested in supporting this new author, consider preordering my debut novel The Well of Souls, a young adult fantasy that combines the paranormal elements of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the action and adventure of Indiana Jones.

I will be actively seeking new indie books, so you can check out what I find on my Instagram (@bookoracle1). I will also be showcasing my favourites on my newsletter, so sign up here: Cordelia Kelly newsletter.

Indie Authors! I’d love to hear from you. Reach out and let me know about your book. I read fiction only, and have a preference for genre books over literary. But I’m always interested in what’s going on in the indie scene so get in touch.

Coming April 2, 2024

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Published on January 08, 2024 08:59

December 1, 2023

Christmas Notebooks

I am so happy to announce these holiday-themed notebooks I’ve designed for 2023! I have to tell you, kids LOVE a notebook full of blank pages to scribble on, and these designs are made for les chausettes de Noël! The francophile in me has gone with a French theme, whether it’s Noël and Christmas trains; Vive le Vent and one-horse open sleighs, or Pain d’Épice and gingerbread men.

Each of these notebooks is 120 pages of blank pages and 5.5” x 8.5”: the right size to stuff your stockings and are excellent little gifts for the creative kid who loves to fill these pages with doodles, poems, songs and stickers. Each of these designs is available for sale – just click on the image for the link. Support an indie artist this Christmas!

And for a grown-up stocking stuffer, I designed a gratitude journal, also available online! This beautifully designed lined notebook contains illustrations and inspirational quotes. I’ve also included some of my best recipes – we’re talking about the ones people stalk me at parties to get a copy. Perfect for the upcoming holiday season, this journal will help you in more ways than one!

The background to this journal is I began a workout program in September (Kerry Maher Golf and Fitness). Not only am I working out everyday, but she is also really big about how keeping track of your gratitude is good for your mind and body. I’ve started to use a gratitude journal and I’ve discovered that my anxiety and insomnia have been really reduced. So I made my own journal. I included my favourite recipes so I have them on hand I was about to print for myself, when I thought that maybe someone else would like the chance to keep track of their gratitudes, too (not to mention get their hands on some of my more celebrated recipes). So I’ve made the journal available on Amazon. It is also the perfect size for a stocking stuffer, so grab it now for the recipes or share it with a friend.

As you enter into this holly jolly season, I hope you’re able to keep your calm and find the little joys. It can be so overwhelming to try to make everything perfect, when I think the best thing we can do is be kind to ourselves and others by letting go of that impulse.

After a pretty rough fall this year, my family’s going to be focusing on the small things – family board games, making cookies and reading in front of the fire. I’m hoping to fill my cup with blessings big and small, and I hope you can find the same. As we approach mid-winter, it’s important to take the time to rest and reconnect with our spirit. So keep things merry and bright, but get a good night’s sleep too!

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Published on December 01, 2023 06:50

October 28, 2023

Scary Stories: Death Flash

If you love scary stories as much as I do, then you must check out Jezebel’s Scary Story contest. People write in about the creepiest things that have ever happened to them. The catch is, they must be true. So share your spookiest experience there, or just read and be thankful it didn’t happen to you!

To join in the fun, every year I share a spooky story. This year the theme was cryogenics, a concept I find deeply disturbing. Whether or not you want to live forever, there are always consequences for trying to outwit death.

Story is below, or download it here.

Cordelia Kelly

“You understand how the process works?”

Nora jerked her head in acknowledgment at the doctor towering over her. The fluorescent lights behind him made her squint, giving him an otherworldly halo.

She lay in the pod, shivering. Whether from the cold now or the cold that would soon engulf her, she wasn’t sure. Countless technicians milled beyond him. She sensed them beyond the lip of her pod.

“She understands the process.” Peter came into view, taking her glacial hand in his, careful of the tentacles of tubes attached to her arm. His hands were warm, his eyes watery. Tears leaked over her own face, but she couldn’t say a word because of the tube down her throat.

They had been at each other’s sides for so long. They had already said goodbye, but of course, Peter said it wasn’t goodbye, not really.

“The first injection is a strong painkiller. You’re not going to feel a thing. Next, we will put you to sleep, the first of your sleeps.” The doctor’s lips thinned, in what might have been a smile. “You will be unaware of the freezing process, and we will monitor you the entire time. The respiratory tube will be removed after the freezing is established. You won’t need it anymore. For you, you will slowly fade to sleep. When you wake up …”

“I will have found a cure for you, my love.”

Nora squeezed Peter’s hand. Her body convulsed with cold, with fear, but they had already discussed her options. This was her only chance.

“We will begin.” The doctor lifted his hand. On cue, Nora’s pod was swarmed with technicians. She didn’t look away from Peter’s eyes, even as the world became fuzzy at the edges. As Peter smudged out of existence.

***

Nora was so cold. Ice flowed through her veins, sharper than glass. She thrashed against the pain. This couldn’t be right; she wasn’t supposed to feel anything. That was the whole point of the sleep. Peter would find a way to heal her body riddled with tumours, and she would wake up free from the pain and disability she had suffered these last months.

She was underwater. She knew she was supposed to lie still, let the technicians do their work, but she couldn’t breathe. Survival instinct overwhelmed all senses and she fought. Thrusting her arms out of the freezing liquid that gripped them, she grabbed the edges of her pod and forced her way up and out. The ragged gasp of her breath filled the silence.

The room, just moments before rife with people, was empty. Nora pushed her sopping hair out of her face and let out a sob of terror. Her breathing tube was gone.

The only sound was a beeping, the rhythm speeding up as she whirled around. The beeping came from her, her pulse increasing. Her heart was going to explode if nothing was done.

“Hello?” Her voice was a choked gasp. Nobody responded; she was alone.

The beeping was driving her insane. Nora ripped the monitor off her chest, and the sudden stillness was calming. It felt so good, she continued ripping away the suction cups and tubes.

The intravenous needles hurt as they came out, but Nora didn’t care. She had to get out. Hissing with each release, she stared at the blood trickling down her arms.

She stood on shaky legs. The first thing she realized was she didn’t feel the pain that had been crippling her for months. Over the last weeks, she’d been unable to walk, wasted with pain and weakness. But now she straightened to her full height.

She drew her hands down her emaciated torso. Her same body, whip-thin after cancerous ruin. But now, Nora felt strong. Had the treatment worked? Had a cure been found?

“Peter?” She stepped over the lip of the pod, striding across the room. Despite her panic and confusion, a laugh bubbled to the surface.

She was entirely naked. Before that would have bothered her, when she was crippled and twisted, an old lady far earlier than her years should have allowed. It didn’t matter now. But how long ago was before? It felt like seconds. The thought brought her to a sudden halt, shuddering. It could be thousands of years in the future. Was she being observed?

The room was stark, lit in blue lights with that otherworldly glow. A line of cabinets stood along the wall and Nora rummaged through them. She found basic medical equipment, nothing drastically futuristic. Finally, she came across stacks of clean scrubs and hastened to put some on. They fell loose over her skeletal frame, but she now felt equipped to deal with what was on the other side of the door leading out of this preservation chamber.

Afraid she was locked in, she twisted the doorknob with all her force, but it turned easily under her grip.

She entered another hospital room, so different from the one she had just exited. There was a sense of acute wrongness, as though the world had just tilted sideways. It was warm and sun-filled; the bed was draped with a quilt. And it was occupied.

“Sorry,” Nora stammered. The woman in the bed didn’t notice her. She stared into the face of the baby snuggled in her arms.

Nora turned to sneak back out of the room when the woman spoke. “Hello, you.” Her voice was filled with love, with amazement. “Nora.”

Nora stilled and wheeled back to the woman. “Mom?” she said in a strangled whisper. It was her, her hair glossy brown before the grey crept in. Her face was flushed and swollen.

Nora’s mind tried to bend around the facts. Her mom had passed three years ago, after a decade of devastating dementia. Even before her heart failed, it had been long years since she’d looked at her daughter with a spark of recognition.

But she still wasn’t looking at her. Nora knelt at the side of the bed. “Mom! Mom!” Nora was shouting but like always, there was no hint of recognition. Tears streamed down her face. “Mom?”

“Nora,” her mom said in adulation. Her face was glowing.

“I don’t understand.” Nora’s shoulders shook and she reached out to shake her mother’s arm, to get her to look at her.

Her hand pushed right through. Nora fell back with a horrified gasp.

“Is this a dream?” She looked around the room with a new perspective. Had the cryogenic treatment worked, and now she was dreaming in her frozen sleep? She had never heard of cryo patients dreaming. The thought was unnerving. Would she sleep for hundreds of years, dreaming the entire time? It was a long time to be trapped in your own head.

At the window, the sunshine warmed her face. The room was filled with powdery-fresh baby scent and the underlying primeval smell of blood that always precedes life. If this was a dream, it was the most lucid she’d ever experienced.

“Nora, you are so loved.”

Nora blinked back tears. “I know.” She wished she could have a real conversation with her again. She came to peek over her mom’s shoulder. The baby, hours old, blinking bleary eyes. Herself. Nora had no memory of this moment, but something ancient stirred in her chest. It spoke of having found a safe harbour.

“I will always be here for you,” her mom continued. “We will never be apart.”

Her mother broke off her cooing on a choke, gripped with horror. She stared at the opposite side of the room. Nora couldn’t see anything, but she had the impression someone else was in the room. Something.

The shadows made by the bright sunlight flickered and shifted, peeling away from the wall. Tarlike ooze melded together in sticky bunches, stretching like taffy. The shadow grew until it formed a long, slim figure, arms extending up and over the ceiling, reaching toward mother and child.

“No.” Nora threw herself in front of them. Her mother didn’t notice, eyes wide on the shadow figure. Baby Nora started bawling, thin reedy wails.

The sunlight grew brighter, making the shadow starker in contrast. It was blinding, and Nora shut her eyes.

When she opened them, she was no longer in a hospital room. Still in sunlight, she was outside in her childhood backyard. She sat on a hill. Grass prickled through her scrubs and a spattering of cool drops fell on her overheated skin. Nora glanced up. The sprinkler was on, creating summertime rain. Nora stood and moved to the back porch, where her mother stood.

She wore glasses now, the ones Nora would always remember her wearing though logically she knew the frames would have changed throughout her life. She watched her mother fondly as she opened the crinkly package of a popsicle.

“Nora,” she called. “I found grape, your favourite.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Nora’s younger self bounced out of the house, in a neon pink bathing suit with a candy print. Nora nearly cried out. She loved that bathing suit. She was eight, with her long hair tied back in braids. She remembered this day, and as the child reached out for the offered treat, Nora both watched and was the child once more. Her body felt light, joyful, and her thoughts were bright as the sunshine. She pulled a stray strand of hair away from her mouth. Her skin was tacky with sweat from a day outside in the sun. The sweetness of the ice mingled with the salt on her lips and nothing had ever tasted better before or since.

As she gazed at her mother, she felt nothing but love. “I love you, my darling,” her mom said, as if in reply.

Movement in the yard caught her gaze. There, within a copse of trees, darker shadows emerged. Nora dropped the popsicle and stumbled back. The stretched-out shadow man intruded on her memory and she turned to run.

Only she wasn’t in her backyard anymore. She ran along a beach boardwalk at sunset, slowing as she recognized where she was. Her first date with Peter. The shadow man hadn’t come with her.

Bracing her hands against her knees, she groaned. “Am I dead?” she asked out loud. “Am I reliving my life?”

A man approached, eyes serious behind his glasses. She knew what he was going to say. “I didn’t know what was your favourite, so I got them all.” He held out an enormous ice cream cone for her.

The feeling of certainty flooded back, that she had found her person. She knew what she was supposed to say: Caramel is my favourite, but I’ll take them all. Instead, she let out a gasp and threw herself into his arms. “Peter, I don’t think it worked.”

Peter wasn’t shaken by her erratic behaviour. He wrapped her in his arms, ice cream forgotten. “I’ve always loved you.”

And he kissed her and once again she fell headlong into the whirlwind of love. When the world finished spinning, she caught sight of a figure over Peter’s shoulder.

The thin shadow-man, stretched impossibly long. He was far down the boardwalk, approaching in jerky spurts. Though she never saw him move, every time she blinked, he was closer.

“I can’t let him catch me.” As she spoke the words, she realized their truth.

She ripped herself out of Peter’s grasp and sprinted down the boardwalk. One of the planks collapsed under her weight and Nora went tumbling into chaos. Every part of her body was on fire, pinned in place by metal. Her skin burned, the pain so great she couldn’t hold on to consciousness. She had been here before. After the car accident. Right before it happened, when she had seen what was waiting for her.

She howled and tried to hold on to consciousness, even as she knew what was coming, where she was going.

And then she was in a void. The only sound was her ragged pants, the darkness absolute.

Tears of horror streamed down her face. She always knew she would end up here. She had been legally dead at the site of the accident when the paramedics arrived, but they restarted her heart. She had never forgotten this place of emptiness where she had gone for that time. The nothingness of death. It was cold here. Oblivion would be better than this. But to be so utterly alone, forever, it was unbearable.

Something flickered in that eternal darkness, a black darker than nothingness. The shadow man had found her, even here. Her heart must continue to beat because it squeezed painfully. There was nowhere to escape him. Where could she go from here? His sticky fingers reached out.

She flung herself backwards and landed in a chair. She let out a long breath, exhausted by the fear, by the running. She was in another hospital room.

A figure lay still in the bed next to her. Her grandfather, surrounded by machines. The beeping was all too familiar and made her skin crawl.

In her hands was a book of poetry. She’d been reading to her grandfather, but he’d asked her to stop. “I don’t need to hear all that doom and gloom crap, I’ve had enough of that for a lifetime.” His eyes twinkled. “Next time, bring me one of those romances you like.”

“Okay, Pops.” She never would. Her Pops died two days after this moment.

“What is it, sweetheart?”

“I don’t want you to go.” She curled onto the hospital chair, wiping snotty tears with a sodden tissue. She knew what she was going to say, knew how unfair it was, but couldn’t stop herself. As she sat with her beloved grandfather, all she could think of was that cold dark place. Her words have haunted her since she spoke them the first time. “I don’t think it’s a good place we go to.”

It was so unfair, but she thought if he knew, maybe he would fight this end. She grabbed his hand, clinging to the fragile bones. So different from the strong man he had been in her childhood. “Stay here, with me.”

He stilled. “Ah, sweetheart.” He squeezed her hand back, a faint pressure. “This is my time. I know it, deep in my bones. I survived two wars, you know? And never before did I think, this is the end. But now I am here. And my bones are tired, you understand?”

Now she did. She knew what it was to live a half-life in a failing body.

“There are worse things than death. If you trust in nothing else, trust in that. I will go to be with my Miriam, wherever she may be. And to see my Mam again.” His dim eyes still held a sparkle, a far cry from their former light. “That would be a good thing.”

“I miss you,” Nora whispered. Her fingers slipped away as the room was overwhelmed with shadow. Her Pops saw it too, his eyes filled with awe. As the shadow consumed them both, Nora closed her eyes. She didn’t have the strength to run anymore.

The call of a gull echoed, lonesome. A stiff salty wind dried her tears. She opened her eyes and found herself on a bench at the edge of a cliff, looking out over the ocean. The sun was setting, creating spectacular colours in the clouds. It was peaceful.

A path wound away, down the ridge of the cliff to the beach. At the bottom of the trail, a smudge of shadow appeared, distorting the world around it.

Nora tensed. She glanced to the other side of the path, which continued on to somewhere else. She could keep on running, but as a wise man had said, her bones were tired.

She concentrated on the sunset for as long as she could, but nothing could extinguish the shadow that grew as it approached, stretching to an obscene height. Nora stilled her trembling limbs, and waited.

As it reached her, the shadow condensed, pulling together to become the silhouette of a man. As the light from the sunset hit the shadow, colour bloomed on its form, until it solidified into her Pops.

She leapt to her feet with a cry. He waited, quiet, with a sad smile, as she stumbled to a stop. It looked like her Pops, but for his eyes, which were full of stormy shadows.

“You’re not him.”

He shook his head. He bore two steaming mugs. “Alas, I am not, though it is not a sufferance to bear his face. He was a good man.”

He sat next to her on the bench with her Pops’ same sigh and extended a mug to Nora. “I made you some tea, the way you like it.”

Tentative, Nora took the mug, ensuring their fingers didn’t touch. She breathed in the fragrant steam. “You always did make a good cuppa.”

“That he did.”

“Who are you?”

“I’ve gone by many names, but I think you already know.”

She nodded to the ocean. “Where are we?”

“One of my favourite places. I’ve been everywhere, but this is the prettiest sunset I’ve ever seen.”

Nora watched the pretty sunset. “Am I dying?”

“Everyone is dying. It’s part of the deal.” He paused. “You can’t keep on running from me.”

“Is this my life flashing before my eyes?”

He shifted and stroked his whiskers. “You might want to think of it more like your death flashing before your eyes.”

Nora waited for the horror to kick in but found it had run out. She met the storm in his eyes. “I’m scared.”

“Because of what you saw?” She knew he meant the void.

“That was death, wasn’t it? I already escaped you once.”

“You were very close then, but it wasn’t your time.”

“I don’t want to be alone.”

“Ah, Nora.” He sounded so like her Pops that when he stretched out his hand, she took it. It was warm and real under her touch. “You were never alone. You just didn’t look far enough.”

The sun set entirely, and they were left in the blackness. Nora whimpered, but she held the hand and he anchored her.

Overhead, pinpricks of light began to glow, more and more until they filled the dark. Nora felt as though the galaxy extended before her. In the distance, thin streams of light emerged, a new sun rising over a new horizon.

“What is that?”

“It is what’s next.”

“What’s it like?”

“I can’t tell you.” But Nora felt a longing to know, stronger than anything. When she tried to step forward, she found she couldn’t move.

“Are you not here to take me?” she asked. She could just make out his silhouette in the glow.

“I can’t. You are stuck.”

“You mean the sleep.”

He nodded. “You could be suspended for thousands of years, never able to move on. In your frozen tomb, you will be cold and alone, maybe forever. Is that what you want?”

She swallowed over a lump in her throat. “I want to be with Peter, for the end. But it’s too late.”

“It’s not too late.” He reached out and touched the point between her brows.

The peace and the dark melted away. Agony overwhelmed her, and she came to, thrashing and choking for air. Surrounded by techs in hospital scrubs, blue flashing lights beeped everywhere. She couldn’t breathe, and she reached for the tube down her throat, fighting the arms that tried to hold her in place.

“Her body is rejecting the treatment.” She heard the pronouncement. Then a needle slid into her neck, and the darkness mercifully overwhelmed her.

***

When she came to, she was in a hospital bed, covered with blankets. The pain that had been her companion these past months was back, eating away at her body. This was the real her.

Peter dozed in a chair next to her, his head crooked at an uncomfortable angle. It was an effort, but she reached out to stroke his arm.

He woke with a start. “There you are.” He leaned forward, wrapping his hands around hers. “I thought we’d lost you.”

“What happened?”

“Your body responded negatively to the anesthetic. Don’t you remember?”

“So I didn’t freeze?”

“No, it was instantaneous.” He frowned. “But it doesn’t mean this is over. We’ll keep on fighting. I’ll advocate for your right to try again.”

“No.” Her voice was quiet but final. “That’s not what I want.”

He stared, a funny smile playing over his lips. “What is it you want?”

“How about we share a cup of tea together?”

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Published on October 28, 2023 11:21

September 22, 2023

Gothic Books

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is full of leaves,

We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”
Humbert Wolfe

My adoration of this season is well documented. The leaves, the crisp air – sweater weather! All the amazing baking that’s going on right now. Yes, pumpkin spice, it was invented to make the world a better place. And what better way to get into the seasonal mood than curling up in front of the crackling fire with a warm cup of tea and break into one of these gothic reads?

Gothic books focus on an eerie atmosphere, a haunted place or a person haunted by their past, and often supernatural events or hints of the otherworldly. Is there a better season to dive into a book that gives you the chills, but gently? Most of these books wouldn’t be categorized classically as horror, and they probably won’t keep you up at night. Will they make you dreamy, though, and convince you to dress up in many layers, perhaps to go for a long walk in the stiff wind as you contemplate the end of summer? Beware, they probably will.

Book Jane Eyre surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

I unabashedly love Jane Eyre. I reread this often, getting swept up into that moody Gothic romance like nobody’s business. Poor orphaned Jane Eyre had a troubled childhood, but maintains a spirit of independence that allows her to seek her fortune in the world. She finds employment as a governess to the ward of a brooding Mr. Rochester. Even back in the 19th century, we were a fan of dark brooding men, because Jane falls rather hopelessly for her employer. But the estate they live in, Thornfield Hall, is just as brooding as her master and contains terrible secrets. Upon discovering them, Jane is forced to make a decision about what her life will be.

Would I have made the same decision Jane eventually does? Hella no, dear reader, but I get the appeal of dark and stormy love. And I come back to this timeless book again and again.

Book The Death of Jane Lawrence surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlyn Starling

I will admit that the uber-creepy cover of The Death of Jane Lawrence pulled me into this book. A Gothic tale, set in a familiar yet fictional world, close to turn-of-the-20th-century, after a horrific war that involved gassing of populations (and harkens to WWI).

Jane is a practical creature who loves mathematics and accounting. An orphan, though well-cared for throughout her childhood, she now wants to get out of her guardian’s hair and therefore proposes marriage to the town doctor. He never seems incline to court the women of the town, so she figures he’s looking for an alternative arrangement to the typical one men and women choose.

Reluctantly the good doctor agrees, on one condition – she never come to his familial manor Lindridge Hall, but instead live at his clinic and do the books.

Jane swiftly discovers how alternative her new husband’s life is when she helps him in his surgery, and whispers of magic and horror linger in the air. Then she is forced by an accident to spend the night at Lindridge Hall, and she begins to uncover the secrets of her husband’s darkness.

I loved the dread and foretelling of this story, as well as the magic and occult ritual. This by all means should have been my kind of book. However, I found near the end the book descended into long, drawn-out madness that had me flipping pages to the end. It kept on going. I started to worry that Jane had gone insane and we’d end up at a sanatorium in the end, the ultimate let-down.

There were so many great elements here – an independent woman taking charge of her own destiny, the creepy dread, and there are shades of Rebecca here which I adore. But the fever-dream madness continues on far too long, and I’m afraid it lost me, unravelling the careful build-up.

Book Wuthering Heights surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë

One of the best know gothic novels from the 19th century, Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine’s father.

I read Wuthering Heights many years ago, and I suspect it’s due for a reread. I believe I was heavily pregnant at the time, and hormones may have skewed my perception, but my review was hardly complimentary. I have decided to leave it intact for full effect. Also, because it made me laugh. I want to hear from those who adored Wuthering Heights. Convince me to give it another chance?

My review from eight years ago:

I know this is one of the English greats in literature, but, ugh, I just couldn’t with Wuthering Heights. Everyone was just insane and nobody behaved rationally. I suppose that’s part of the point (what’s “passion” with rationality?) but it was just so horrible. Everyone was horrible and behaved horribly to each other. They all deserved each other. I did not enjoy reading this book at all.

And what is with all the random deaths? I suppose that back in those days people died a lot more randomly, but it seemed almost like people just got fed up and decided to die. Is that possible? Catherine seems to die out of sheer spite. Maybe she did. Maybe it’s possible. It just seems really implausible. It must have been really depressing to be a doctor back then.

Book The Turn of the Key surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

The Turn of the Key, by Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware is always going to give you a thrilling read, with twists, turns and maybe a ghost or two. I’m always into what she’s putting out there, and the settings throughout rural England and Scotland add to the sense of creeping decay.

This book is set in the Highlands, in a remote house that is half Victorian monstrosity, half glassed-in high-tech monstrosity, and all monster. New nanny Rowan Caine arrives to take care of four girls, ranging from 2 to 14 and quickly finds herself isolated and overwhelmed. Not just by the children, who range from tantrumy to hostile, but the smart house itself that seems out to get her. Not to mention the weird sounds coming from an attic that shouldn’t exist.

The story is told from Rowan’s perspective after a horrible incident happened, begging a lawyer to take on her case because she swears she wasn’t guilty – and the twists begin from there. There is one twist at the end that I wish had been a bit better developed. But, let me tell you, the very last twist, the one that ends the entire story, is a doozy. I actually squealed because it was so good. Highly recommended for a quick page-turner.

Book Rebecca surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca was a long overdue reread for me. This haunting thriller is one of the best, ever. So gothic and atmospheric, the build up is intense, as we all enter into the eyes of the nameless protagonist, every aspect of her life dominated by the ghost of Rebecca.

Since the book was written more than 80 years ago, there are some major differences from books nowadays. Rebecca takes its time; it’s not in any rush to get somewhere fast. At first, it irked me. I could read three new books at this rate! But after a deep breath, I settled into it, and it was glorious to really let a book expand. As a writer and reader, I know it is the style to grab a reader by the throat and not let them go until the last word. But I think there’s something to be said for letting the reader come to the book. Rebecca is coy that way, and I think we as readers could use more of this. Like, reading for mental health!

Book House of Hollow surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

House of Hollow, by Krystal Sutherland

This horror is spine-tingling and dark, the kind of story that gets under your skin. Iris Hollow would like to pretend she has nothing to do with her older sisters, Vivi and Grey, though the three of them are bound by threads she doesn’t understand. When they were young children, the three of them went missing, only to be found months later in the alley where they went missing. Only subtle changes about the girls gave rise to suspicion in her family, that perhaps the girls were no longer the same.

Their hair went white, their eyes went black, and they seemed to hold unearthly power. Iris never understood why they were different, until her eldest sister Grey goes missing again. That’s when she realizes she was holding secrets back from them this entire time. There’s quite a bit of horror here, including body horror which isn’t my favourite, but the atmosphere created by this haunting book is pitch-perfect for the season.

Book The Witch of Willow Hall surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

The Witch of Willow Hall, by Hester Fox

The Witch of Willow Hall has all the trappings of a Gothic tale, with slow dread build-up and a healthy dose of the supernatural, as well as its fair share of romance.

It’s 1821, and the Montrose family has uprooted from Boston to a small settlement upriver, forced there by scandal. The well-to-do family is prepared to live out their shame away from the prying eyes of society, but tragedy follows them to Willow Hall. Lydia, along with her older sister Catherine and younger sister Emily, find themselves in a cold place with few male suitors (though Catherine does her best to throw herself at them all.)

Lydia feels like there is more to Willow Hall than what they can see, and so apparently does Emily because she begins to play with the ghosts on the property. We come to realize why Catherine is so desperate to find a man, while tragedy falls upon the family once again. Lydia, who is falling for her father’s business partner John, must choose what path her life will take – all depending on if she’s willing to follow the dangerous inheritance left her by her ancestors in Salem.

I enjoyed Willow Hall – with a caveat. I found that Lydia did a lot of wallowing alone in a spooky old hall, and not enough grabbing her destiny with two hands. This is pretty typical of your classic Gothic, but for a modern one I’d like to see her out there duelling for her future – not fainting away into strong arms, although I admit this is simply not done in 1821.

Book The Thirteenth Tale surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield

If ever there was a book meant to be read on a dark and stormy night, it was this one. This book has everything: ghosts, mysterious fires, reclusive wealthy people, incest, insane asylums, twins’ secrets and secret twins. Margaret Lea, a young reclusive memoirist, is asked to write the biography of the most famous authors of all time, Vida Winters, herself a recluse as well. Curiousity drags Margaret out of her introverted shell and she travels to Winters’ chilly, and chilling, estate, to hear the promised last tale in a book of thirteen tales in which only twelve were ever published. The world is thirsting for that last tale, while Vida Winters prepares to make her last confession.

As with any good gothic tale, I spent a great deal of the story feeling uneasy, with a sort of dread creeping along through the narrative. In part, this is because both of the narrators (Margaret in ‘real time’ and Vida in the story within a story) may or may not be mad. It made the reading interesting and at times made me as the reader a little bit jittery.

At the mid-way point in the book, I couldn’t help but think narrator Margaret Lea was in serious need of therapy. Her obsession with her sister was certainly unhealthy, all the more so as she keeps her anguish hidden. Happily, there is a handsome doctor hanging about who takes an interest in her. After she collapses from spending a night out in the moors, he looks in on her. I initially did not love his diagnosis of her, that basically she reads Wuthering Heights too much and was too romantic. This is way too akin to the Victorian diagnosis of “hysteria” in a woman. However, his prescription was funny and appreciated: one dose of Arthur Conan Doyle a night. Margaret eagerly dives into Sherlock Holmes in her downtime.

This book is not for everyone. But I recommend it with all my heart if you love Jane Eyre or similar gothic novels. Above all, The Thirteenth Tale is a book for readers. If you exclaim over a beautifully turned phrase, this is probably the book for you. Recommended to be read in the autumn, in front of a fire with a hot cup of tea next to you.

Book The Phantom's Apprentice surrounded by fall flowers and gothic potion bottles

Phantom’s Apprentice, by Heather Webb

Did I listen to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical version of The Phantom of the Opera while I read this Phantom retelling? You bet I did! There’s nothing like those first few chords to set you right there, so gothic yet so quintessentially ‘80s. I adored the play as a kid, but, as did the author of this retelling, found the portrayal of women to be decidedly lacking.

Whether it was the musical or the original book by Gaston Leroux, neither were feminist masterpieces. This is why I greatly enjoyed Webb’s take on the story from Christine Daée’s perspective.

A gothic story seems to always portray a helpless swooning heroine, and Daée is hemmed in by her position and societal expectations, does do a bit of swooning. But she is intelligent, curious and also helpfully a master illusionist.

She uses her skills and courage to escape from the obsessive attention of the opera ghost – who comes off as appropriately creepy here. One’s kidnapper should never be promoted to a sex symbol. She also manages to escape the constrictive norms of 19th-century France. Good for her, I thought, and an enjoyable retelling.

Mood reader? I’ve got all kinds of moods. Check out some of my other book lists:

Sweet Books for Spooky Season

Scary Stories

War Books

Books for the Holidays

Middle Grade Horror

Scariest Monsters in Lit

World History Non Fiction

Women in Horror Books

Immortality in Literature

Books I Still Think About Years Later

Books Set in Paris

Books That Made Me Ugly Cry

Romance Novels

Underrated Books

Books to Soothe the Soul

Summer Reads

Mind-Blowing Science Fiction

And don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter! With a new book on the horizon, there’s going to be lots of giveaways and sneak peeks coming up. You can still grab a free copy of my book of short stories when you sign up.

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Published on September 22, 2023 08:37

August 31, 2023

Circus Books

It’s like a circus in my head …

There is something about books set at the circus. Circuses are both fascinating and terrifying. I always feel I’m on the edge between consciousness and dreaming in a circus. Everything is a little loopy, and a little off-centre. I just had the pleasure of seeing Cirque de Soleil and it was, as always, breathtaking. I actually was screaming out loud while watching some of the acts! But there is a dreamlike magic there that takes you out of your regular existence.

Circus as a setting makes for such a perfect background for a book, especially because the author can juxtapose the glittering spectacle with the gritty reality of those working backstage that spectators do not see. My son asked me how some performers were able to do death-defying acts, and I told him it was years and years of extremely hard work. He found my answer disappointing because I think he wanted me to tell him it was all magic. But that’s why the circus is so fascinating.

I have a list of some of my favourite books set at the circus. Many take place during the very gritty days of the 1930s, the heyday of the travelling circus during the droughts and the Great Depression. People were all looking for a little bit of magic back then. Whether they found it or not, it’s not entirely certain. But everyone went to the circus looking for something. What do you look to find in a book set in the magic of the circus?

And if you’re feeling a little bit fall, a little bit spooky, don’t forget to grab a copy of my spooky short story collection Then She Said Hush!

Circus Train book on a red check background, surrounded by flowers

The Circus Train, by Amita Parikh

There is always something a little dark and mysterious about a circus – in particular the nomadic existence. Like gypsies from the old stories, a carnival is there one day and gone the next, packed up in a caravan that travels under the stars – or a train under the stars.

The Circus Train delves deep into the lives of those performers who live and work for The World of Wonders, Europe’s most magnificent circus experience, in the 1920s and 30s. The world is a tumultuous place, but World of Wonders does well. Everything stops when the circus comes to town. Watching death-defying acts perhaps helps to forget you might be defying death the next day.

Lena Papadopoulous is the one person on the train who feels out of place, as the daughter of the famous illusionist, she is carted to one city after the other, unable to walk due to illness that disabled her. But her life becomes unimaginably better when French runaway Alexandre stows away on their train, and she helps nurse him back to health. She thinks everything will be good now she has a friend, but the dark times ahead hold terrible danger for her, her illusionist father, and the boy who’s become his apprentice.

Breathtaking and romantic and moving, I loved getting lost in the sweeping drama of this circus train.

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus is my go-to recommendation when it comes to circus books, although in this case the book is entirely magical. It is about two characters, Celia and Marcus, who have been raised by magicians and have always known they would have to duel to the death at some point in their life. But sometimes love is stronger than anything … and a dream-like circus that transforms with their magic is the perfect backdrop for their fight.

I think the best way to describe this book is that it was beautiful. Visually, I mean. The details and the intricacies of the setting are so embroidered into the text that you can see it, hear it, taste it. I wish that Night Circus was a real thing, I think I’d be a devotee as well. I have stated before this book would be an amazing movie, and it looks like there is something in pre-productions works. I would see it in a heartbeat.

The plot wasn’t as well fleshed out as I thought it could be, but that wasn’t really the point. When you read this book, you enter into this dark world, entirely magical, and don’t want to leave.

Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants shows the grittier side of the circus, as orphaned Jacob finds his only option to survive in Depression-era Dustbowl is to join a second-rate circus. He is an almost-veterinarian, having not earned his degree, so he cares for the menagerie. There he meets Rosie the elephant, who seems to be absolutely untrainable until Jacob figures out how to communicate with her.

He also meets Marlena, the enchanting and disenchanted star of the equestrian show. Though she is married to the cruel animal trainer, the love that sparks between them is something that lives on against all odds.

The book deals with issues many people faced in the 1930s, including coming up against Prohibition and being red-lighted if they become inconvenient (thrown from the train in the middle of the night, usually resulting in death). Horrible, dark and intensely romantic, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

A dark and mysterious carnival rolls into town in the deep of the night. The calliope music from Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show trickles into the air, making dangerous promises.

One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known novels, the horror show of “autumn people” prey on those whose dreams outsize their lives, and the carousel that runs not through space but time is a heady temptation to many. Two boys and one aging man must face their darkest nightmares and leave some of their dreams behind.

The language is poetic and evocative, a perfect read for a fall day as the night edges out the day. Beautiful, gorgeous, haunting. Bradbury deals less in monsters than in our own fears of aging, dying and rotting. And he does a spectacular job of shaking you to your soul.

Book The Ladies of the Secret Circus on a check background surrounded by flowers

The Ladies of the Secret Circus, by Constance Sayers

A luscious magical tale that swings back and forth between 1920s Paris and the contemporary American South, and follows a line of women who have all been entangled with the Secret Circus, otherwise known as the Devil’s Circus.

A place as gruesome as it is enthralling, it comes and goes as it pleases, and if you don’t have a ticket, you’ll never find it. Not that Lara Barnes cares about any of this until her fiancé fails to show up to their wedding. Desperate to find him, she follows a trail of clues that leads back generations to her great-grandmother’s journals from another era. She realizes how her family is connected to such a diabolical place, and must battle to free her own soul.

Decadent and magical, I liked both the mystery and the paranormal world in this lush novel.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things book on a check background surrounded by flowers

The Museum of Extraordinary Things, by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman has always been one of my automatic to-read authors. She has this ability to create stories like dreamscapes, and you just want to explore them.

The Museum of Extraordinary Things takes place in turn of the 20th century New York, which I’ve written about before is one of my favourite time periods because it was such a transition time. On Coney Island, amusement parks are being built to excite the masses. Coralie the mermaid girl lives in a freak show, dreaming of a wider world, while Eddie the photographer has seen too much.

Hoffman’s romances always have an epic, do-or-die quality, and Extraordinary Things doesn’t fail to live up to this. I’ll confess it took me a while to fall into the lyrical flow of the language, but I will blame my distracted summer brain for that rather than the writing, which is superb as always.

Book Circus of Wonders on red check background surrounded by flowers

The Circus of Wonders, by Elizabeth MacNeil

Elizabeth Macneal’s Circus of Wonders offers a great deal of the gritty underbelly of the circus. Nell is a flower picker, set apart from others by birthmarks that speckle her skin. Her life is legit terrible, abused and forgotten and pretty much set out to be the help for her brother forever. But when Jasper Jupiter’s circus rolls into town, Nell finds herself sold and kidnapped. Though forced into a performer’s life, she soon begins to question if it wasn’t the best thing for her to begin with.

The language is lovely and the themes haunting. Set in 1860’s, it’s not a good time to be poor and different, and those who make the life of a performer work must come up through a wash of moral greys. Nell both embraces and is disgusted by what her life has become, even as she understands that there in the limelight might be the only place she ever belongs. More the depressing side than the glitter, Circus of Wonders doesn’t glamorize a performer’s life, but does show small moments of strength and humanity, very beautiful.

Book The Life She Was Given on a red check background surrounded by flowers

The Life She Was Given, by Ellen Marie Wiseman

I read this book for a book club, and had never heard of it before. Somebody let me know if you’ve read this one, as I think it’s pretty obscure. It follows Lilly, an albino girl sold to the circus by her ultra-religious mother, and Julia, a girl raised by the same mother twenty years ago who had no idea who Lilly was.

The two timelines were equally compelling. Lilly’s experience at first as a sideshow freak is horrifying and humiliating. However, as she meets the performers and workers at the circus, she begins to see how her life had been opened up. Her natural empathy with animals allows her to become the star of the show with the company’s elephants. She finds love and a place in the world.

Twenty years later, Julie, who had ran away from home years ago and lived on the streets rather than stay with her overbearing conservative mother, now finds herself the inheritor of the family manor. As she tries to figure out the family’s horse breeding business, she also discovers secrets behind every door of the manor she promised she’d never return to. And she learns about an albino girl …

I found the book riveting, but I am unsure whether the hopefulness in one of the timelines balances out the horror in the other. I was blown away by how horrifying things turned out for one of them. It was a gripping read and I’m still thinking about it now, though, so if you’re looking for something dark, this could be for you.

Mood reader? I’ve got all kinds of moods. Check out some of my other book lists:

Immortality in Literature

Books I Still Think About Years Later

Books Set in Paris

Books That Made Me Ugly Cry

Romance Novels

Underrated Books

Books to Soothe the Soul

Summer Reads

Mind-Blowing Science Fiction

Sweet Books for Spooky Season

Scary Stories

War Books

Books for the Holidays

Middle Grade Horror

Scariest Monsters in Lit

World History Non Fiction

Women in Horror Books

View more on Cordelia Kelly's website »

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Published on August 31, 2023 08:42

July 5, 2023

Summertime Bingo

Love these first few days of summer. The spring was exhausting, and finally, all sports and clubs and school year-end activities have also exhausted themselves. Now’s the time to collapse into a pile: sticky with sweat and sweet with ice cream. I always think of the beginning of July as a time for pastel colours.

Or maybe I’m just a little loopy: I’ve been on a mini writing retreat, and I just wrote 100 000 words over the past few days. Nanowrimo, eat your heart out; now I need a nap.

Whether you’re thinking: bring on the summer; or what the heck am I going to do this summer, I’ve got you covered with this summer cheat sheet: Summertime Bingo (Bingo d’été).

My kids love filling this out and we came up with a list of prizes for finishing different parts of the board. Our prize list goes something like this:

First line finished: A sticker
X finished: a slurpee or treat from the corner store
Outline finished: An ice cream
Board finished: A brand new book!

Feel free to follow our treats, or make up your own. Also, there’s no reason only kids can follow summertime bingo. Put in your own favourite rewards and get going: mine include new lip gloss and a massage, but also ice cream and a new book, because why should kids get all the fun? Click on the downloads below:

BingoSummer Download BingoD’ete Download

Now go enjoy your summer! And if you like this content, remember to sign up for my newsletter. I get content like this all the time, and so much more.

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Published on July 05, 2023 05:23

June 17, 2023

Welcome to Circus Farfelle

The Circus has Come to Town

Hello wonderful readers! I am delighted to announce the release of my latest project: Circus Farfelle and the Case of the Missing Monkey. This short chapter book is a choose-your-own-adventure and best for kids between the ages of 8-11. However, I have also incorporated a reading program within the book, so it’s a fun project for families to do together to keep up their reading over the summer (and beyond).

It is with pleasure I can also offer this book/reading program in French: Le Cirque Farfelle et l’affaire du singe disparu. This is thanks to the time and talents of Cécile Magnan – thank you very much.

Children’s literacy is something I am passionate about. I believe reading makes people more open-minded and empathetic, and I dream of a world where all children love getting lost in a good story. For that reason, Circus Farfelle is available as a free ebook here on my blog.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner to receive free ebooks and a monthly newsletter. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

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Circus Farfelle is also available on Amazon, both as an ebook and a printed illustrated book (and in French here). There is a cost at Amazon, though I made the prices as low as allowed. All royalties from these books will be donated to the Canadian Children’s Literary Foundation.

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Published on June 17, 2023 08:43

June 9, 2023

Making Summertime Reading Fun

Summertime is finally here! Now’s the time for kids to run outside in the sprinkler, get messy outside at the park, and forget everything they learned at school the past year.

If that last one brought you to a record-scratch stop, you’re not alone. But summer reading loss is a real thing. Happily, there are easy ways not only to counteract it but to help your kids learn to love reading.

What is Summer Reading Loss?

Fun Summertime Reading Tips

Summer Reading Games

Summer Reading for Bilingual Families

Resources

Book Recommendations

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“Summer reading loss is also known as the summer slide,” says Sarah Fedoration, manager of EAL and language programming with Lumen Christi Catholic Education Center. “It refers to the decline in children’s reading development that can occur throughout the summer months when students are away from the classroom and not regularly participating in ongoing literacy instruction.”

A 2019 study published in Phi Delta Kappen and cited in Psychology Today (July 2020), shows that the typical student loses one to two months of learning in reading, states Kate Schutz, Service Design Lead at Calgary Public Library. Luckily for parents and caregivers, keeping up kids’ reading over the summer isn’t only easy, it’s tons of fun and can make for great family bonding time.

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An important part of maintaining summer reading in your family is to read yourself. “The greatest predictor of a child’s reading habits is the reading habits of their mother,” Schutz says. So get caught reading!

“I always recommend that caregivers make sure that their children catch them in the act of reading, and that they catch their children reading (and celebrate it!) If caregivers tend to read on the tablet or e-reader, that is OK, but children need to see adults flip pages to understand that reading is happening and how reading print materials works, whereas looking at a screen can be misinterpreted.”

One of the most important things I heard from educators when it comes to summer reading is that it must be fun. This isn’t homework. Now is the exact right time for kids to discover a genuine love of reading, and hopefully become lifelong readers. Enforced reading isn’t going to cut it. But there are so many ways to incorporate fun reading into your summer.

Freedom and choice are key to getting your kid interested in reading. All reading is good reading, including fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, comic books and magazines. “Encourage children to read books they find interesting and enjoyable,” says Carmen Vaugeois, French Immersion Consultant with Edmonton Catholic School Division. “Let them choose their own reading material based on their preferences. Supporting their reading choices helps foster a love for reading.”

Reading together is as beneficial as a child reading on their own. “Finding a series that you might enjoy together before bed is a great way to keep your child engaged in reading,” Fedoration says. And bring movie night into it. “Reading the novel and then watching the movie is a great way to ‘double’ enjoy a book. It also allows for discussion about similarities and differences between the novel and the movie.”

Reading comes up in many ways when travelling as a family. One tip many educators gave me was to listen to audiobooks in the car while on road trips. As Fedoration reminds us, listening to reading is still reading! Not only are kids learning without knowing it, but it’s a great way to bond together. Choose a funny book that will have you all laughing.

Travelling gives you a chance to incorporate practical reading as well.

“Parents can integrate learning into everyday activities by encouraging their child to read menus, follow recipes, measure ingredients or calculate expenses while shopping,” Vaugeois says. “This helps them apply academic skills in real-life situations and highlights the importance of making connections between school and home life.”

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Summer reading games are programs designed to encourage kids to read while away from school, in a way that is fun and stimulating. My own background in children’s literacy comes from designing and running the children’s reading program with St. Albert Public Library. (Psst: If you happen to live near St. Albert, this program is extraordinary).

I took what I’ve learned from reading programs, as well as games I designed for my own children during the covid pandemic to keep their reading up, and designed a reading program within a book. This choose-your-own-adventure, Circus Farfelle and the Case of the Missing Monkey, will get your kid reading…and also offers prompts for them to choose other books to read within. It’s written in both English and French: the paperback version is also available on Amazon English here and French here).

For those of you living here in Calgary with me, Calgary Public Library offers an excellent reading program, the Ultimate Summer Challenge. “Our summer reading program encourages every Calgarian to develop a reading habit and so we encourage every participant, ages 0-100!, to read or be read to everyday,” Schutz says.

Registration with the program automatically enters you into the grand prize draws throughout the summer. Participants can track their reading online or on a challenge map. “If you read every day in July and August, you can bring your map in for a prize too,” Schutz says.

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I am an anglophone mother raising francophone children, and our family is bilingual. Trying to keep up both languages over the summer can be a struggle, particularly in our case when the kids are out of school, and they are surrounded by the predominant language of the area. In our case, Calgary is very English-speaking, so maintaining French over the summer months is a challenge.

Happily, there are great ways to incorporate second language development into your summer reading. Vaugeois’ family encounters the same issue: “At times, children will struggle to stay motivated to use their additional language when school is over. My own children often say ‘Mom, can we have a break from French?’”

I think many bilingual parents have the same struggle. The important thing is to make language fun and not force it. Vaugeois has great suggestions. “When cooking, I often have a French music playlist on in the background. When driving, we listen to French audiobooks or podcasts and alternate with the English language. I also let them pick a French book and an English book when we visit the bookstore.”

There are so many great ways to keep up kids reading over the summer. Not only will they not lose their language skills over the summer, but hopefully jump into the next scholastic year with an even greater love of reading.

Kate Schutz has provided many resources you can find online to help (from the Calgary Public Library):

10 tips for reading with your family

Top tips for reading and learning all summer long

Summertime Reading Fun

Summertime is finally here! Now’s the time for kids to run outside in the sprinkler, get messy outside at the park, and forget everything they learned at school the past year.

What is Summer Reading Loss?

Fun Summertime Reading Tips

Summer Reading Games

Summer Reading for Bilingual Families

Resources

Book Recommendations

I know many moms who are planning to take their daughters to see the movie Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret this summer. What a fantastic opportunity to put this tip into practice!

Travelling gives you a chance to incorporate practical reading as well.

“Parents can integrate learning into every day activities by encouraging their child to read menus, follow recipes, measure ingredients or calculate expenses while shopping,” Vaugeois says. “This helps them apply academic skills in real-life situations and highlights the importance of making connections between school and home life.”

Summer reading games are programs designed to encourage kids to read while away from school, in a way that is fun and stimulating. My own background in children’s literacy comes from designing and running the children’s reading program with St. Albert Public Library. If you happen to live nearby, this program is extraordinary: St. Albert Public Library Reading Game.

I took what I’ve learned from reading programs, as well as games I designed for my own children during the covid pandemic to keep their reading up, and this year I’ve designed a reading program within a book. This choose-your-own-adventure, Circus Farfelle and the Case of the Missing Monkey, will get your kid reading … and also offers prompts for them to choose other books to read within. I will be giving the book away for free on my website, so be sure to sign up in order to receive it as soon as it is released.

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The book/reading program is also available in French, for my francophone friends.

For francophone families, don’t forget to sign up for my reading game in French: Le cirque Farfelle et l’affaire du singe disparu!

Kate Schutz has provided many resources you can find online to help (from the Calgary Public Library):

10 tips for reading with your family

Top tips for reading and learning all summer long

May 13, 2023

Happy Mother’s Day: Women in Horror

This weekend we’re celebrating mothers, and boy do they deserve to be celebrated. I know when we think of mothers, it’s often as a punchline: unfashionable, nagging, annoying. Always cleaning, always fretting. Any attempts to remove ourselves from this characterization earns us the label Cool Mom, which is even more cringey than mom jeans (which we’re not allowed to wear anymore since they came into style.)

But here’s the actual truth about being a mother: mothers know more about horror than anyone else. It’s true. A lot of people laugh when I tell them I write horror. You’re like a stay-at-home mom! What are you doing writing horror?

But while I’ve always enjoyed a good horror read, I never truly understood fear before I became a mother.

Mothers know horror.

Body invasion? Try being pregnant, and suffering as your body is taken over by another entity, all of your resources going to feed them. Body horror? Try giving birth. There is nothing more painful, more visceral, more torturous, as your body is literally ripped open to bring life into the world. Loss of identity? Motherhood has got you covered.

With that in mind, it makes sense that horror writing is bursting at the seams with talented women. You might not think that horror and feminism go together, but the genre is in fact rich with feminism. Once you get over the stereotypical helpless girly girl, torture porn and idiot blondes (thankfully mainly written by men), you’re left with books that are full of complicated women that understand suffering and fear. I’m convinced our proximity to life and death that comes with having children is a solid reason for this.

Because here is the truest thing about being a mother nobody ever talks about: since bringing my children into this world, I have never lived a single moment without fear. I can barely go an hour without picturing the hideous ways they can be taken from me, their bodies shattered or spirits broken. My brain pieces together the most intricate, gruesome ways they might die. Daily. Hourly. I worry for them at all times, like a low-level hum, always at the back of my head where deepest fear resides. I know I will never truly know peace for the rest of my life, not while they exist outside my body.

That is the source and inspiration for all of my dark and twisty horror. It lies deep in the love and loss that comes from creating something as big as the universe.

What are you scared of, Mommy? my eldest often asks me.

Pull up a seat, my son, I want to say. Because this will take awhile.

The truth is, I am afraid of everything.

But I tell him: Spiders.

Because we take all that fear into ourselves, hoping somehow, impossibly, to avoid the inevitable and leave them untouched. So if you’re looking for a reason to hug your mom this weekend, this is it: your mother has taken on a world of horror for you.

In honour of Mother’s Day this year, I’d like to celebrate some excellent women in horror.

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

Let’s go back to the very beginning … well to 1818, at the very least. When the first horror novel was penned, on the banks of Lake Geneva, by a woman.

There are arguments for and against whether Mary Shelley’s classic monster novel was, in fact, the first horror ever written, but there can be no argument that what she created more than 200 years ago was monumental, with profound lasting impact deep in our collective psyche. The creation of man … by man, instead of God. We could also speak of how the creation happened without a mother, and the symbol of motherhood as that of nurturing and the ability to love. And see where that got everyone.

The fact that Mary Shelley wrote this novel at the age of 18, in a time when women were given little to no intellectual credence, is something incredible. At that time, Mary Shelley had already given birth twice, and had lost one of her babies after 11 days. It’s possible the grief and trauma she felt at waking up to find her baby dead influenced her dark and twisted tale of the creation of monsters.

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca is a seminal gothic novel, a tale of one man’s dead wife and how her ever-present ghost haunts their entire household. Despite the narrator of the tale being the new wife, she is never given a name, but is a nameless entity recounting her time trying to wedge her way into her husband’s life. It is the presence of Rebecca, dead but still more alive than the narrator herself, that overwhelms everything else.

Rebecca is about jealousy and murder, but also marriage and identity. Rebecca is a powerful feminist character, because she refuses to give up who she is for her husband and settle into married life. She refuses to be “Mrs. de Winter,” the only name given to our narrator now.

The pervasive dread that permeates the pages tips this novel into the realm of horror. And it is perhaps seen by the audience of the times, in the 1930s, that Rebecca’s refusal to become a mother leads her to her untimely fate.

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

I’m not convinced there is another horror writer out there with the same profound impact as Shirley Jackson. All of her stories terrify because they inhabit the mind. They follow you, popping up at inopportune moments, because not only do they grip our deepest fears, but often have no resolution.

The Haunting of Hill House creates its own darkness. While reading this book, I expected doors to slam behind me and disembodied whispers to follow me. Words are powerful, and if you believe that, then you can believe that books can cause madness. Jackson’s books always toe that line, where not just the narrator but the reader herself questions her sanity.

The theme of a place that causes madness is a common trope in horror, but rarely as well done as this. The house is a living, breathing character. The madness scares us because it happens gradually, insidiously, in a way that we believe it could happen to us too. We attach to Eleanor as the narrative voice, and are chilled when the house gloms on to her as its next victim. Poor little Eleanor, never loved, never loved, she is vulnerable and becomes prey.

I spent most of this book silently yelling: Get out now! Although the house didn’t actually harm anyone physically, it attacked the mind until everyone questioned their sanity. This trope frightens the crap out of me because it seems more present, more real, then say, zombies. We fear losing our minds or our control over our thoughts more than anything, because that could actually happen.

The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice

Anne Rice is a horror master, as seen by the enduring popularity of her vampire novels. But of course, she does equally well with witches. The Witching Hour is the first of her Witches of Mayfair series, a volume of her characteristic atmosphere-laden novels.

For those who love novels full of voluptuous descriptions and epic generational conflict, Anne Rice is the writer for you. While a lot of this type of writing has gone out of style, taken over by shorter novels that take us straight to the point, there is an argument to be made for taking your time. Immerse yourself in a book that will take you away to another age … one full of magic.

White is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi

Oyeyemi is a newer voice in modern horror, although with the amount of modern classics under her belt, it’s hard to really see her as a newcomer anymore. Her third novel, White is for Witching, is razor sharp and is also set in a gloomy manor in England. The gothic roots run deep in this tale of witchery and fear. There is something about the gothic manor that continuously draws our collective eye, the one on the lookout for terrifying things, and White is for Witching proves to be no different. It is the generations of mothers and grandmothers, this collective motherhood, that can prove to be as damaging as it is nurturing.

Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Morena-Garcia

Another deeply Gothic novel about a house? I suspect the ties that women have with homes, households and the foundations of households themselves are the reason behind their use in women’s horror novels. And Mexican Gothic is no different.

I’ll admit I’m just looking for another reason to post about this gorgeous book. I’ll never get over this cover.

Beyond that, Morena-Garcia’s creepy tale is both weird and wonderful, with a shot of magical horror. Noemí, is a complicated character who grows from socialite to rescuer, goes deep into the countryside to find her cousin, who had sent out a bizarre plea for help. There, at her cousin’s new husband’s manor, she finds a deeply creepy family where something is very very wrong, although she couldn’t say for sure what.

The dread builds with precision and mastery, until you absolutely must know what is lurking behind the walls of the haunted house, although you are sure you don’t want to know. An excellent, if disturbing, read. For all the horror fans.

Then She Said Hush, by Cordelia Kelly

I couldn’t help myself. Why not check out this collection of short stories by this author right here? For a limited time, you can get a copy of the ebook free.

Free copy of Then She Said Hush

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Mood reader? I’ve got all kinds of moods. Check out some of my other book lists:

Immortality in Literature

Books I Still Think About Years Later

Books Set in Paris

Books That Made Me Ugly Cry

Romance Novels

Underrated Books

Books to Soothe the Soul

Summer Reads

Mind-Blowing Science Fiction

Sweet Books for Spooky Season

Scary Stories

War Books

Books for the Holidays

Middle Grade Horror

Scariest Monsters in Lit

World History Non Fiction

View more on Cordelia Kelly's website »

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Published on May 13, 2023 07:46

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Curl Up With a Good Blog

Lots and lots of book recommendations, usually broken into interesting categories: women in horror, world history non-fiction, books set in the circus ...

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