June 2020 IWSG: A Giant Chicken

This month, the IWSG wants to know: "Writers have secrets! What are one or two of yours, something readers would never know from your work?" 

I'm not sure how much of a secret this actually is, especially to anyone who knows me, but here goes: I am a Giant Chicken. 

Yes, I read, watch and write horror, but I do it all with many, many nervous glances over my shoulder. 

Yes, I am a grown woman, but I still cower under the covers. (Mostly because I'm not sure I can fit under the bed.) 

Yes, logic and reason tell me - logically and reasonably - that most of what I create, read and watch couldn't or wouldn't happen. But, as a Giant Chicken, I must point out that's exactly what every Doomed Character says right before they go into the pitch-black basement where the light bulb has, of course, burned out but it's too much trouble to go back for a flashlight, so they keep going until they die a horrible death by way of teeth and tentacles. 

I'm a worrier from waaaay back. The anxieties and fears are worse now, and some days are extremely hard. Some days I wish I were different – braver, stronger, more normal. 

But I'm learning not only to manage my issues the best I can but also to accept how my mind works, even embrace it. So, I will continue to wring the fear from my terror-soaked imagination and splatter it on the page for you all to read and - hopefully! - enjoy. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to evict some dust bunnies from under the bed. Just in case. 

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The Off The Shelf Challenge: June Progress and Recommendations

Well, here we are, moving right along with The Off The Shelf Challenge. I've buckled down - somewhat - and I'm tackling the piles of books waiting patiently to be read. Since summer seems to be the season of reading for so many, here's a question for you - how's your summer reading going? Tackling any big reading projects? Waiting anxiously for a new title to come out?

Challenge Books read in: 
January:  4
February:  5
March:  1
April:  2
May: 2

*****

Challenge Books read in June:  3
Non Challenge Books read in June: 3
Total Books read in June: 6 

*****

Total Challenge Books read so far in 2012:  17
Total Non-Challenge Books read so far in 2012:  16
Total Books read so far in 2012:  33


Standouts in June include:


Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - I've already raved about it in this post but I just wanted to add a side note here. One of the things I liked about this book was the fact that the protagonists were not the, um, most likable people in the world. And yet I still wanted to know what happened in the end. My husband, on the other hand, couldn't get past his distaste for the characters and couldn't care less what happened to them. (They didn't pass his "elevator shaft test" = would he care if the characters fell down an elevator shaft? In this case, no, he would not.) He did agree with me regarding the writing and the plotting (though he missed out on some great twists!)


The Last Bridge by Teri Coyne - this dark novel has a rawness to it, and a desperate, ragged edge to the protagonist that makes you want to shake her and save her at the same time. I'm not giving you a spoiler here when I say there's hope in this novel - I'm offering you a lifeline; hold onto it as you wind your way through this heartbreaking, complex, layered story. Believe me, you'll need it.


Left Neglected by Lisa Genova - I wish I knew what took me so long to read this book. It's a wake-up call, a how-to on survival and being positive and forgiveness, with a few laugh out loud lessons about living and thriving when everything, and I mean, everything, changes. I've already put this author's other book, Still Alice, on my TBR list.