William Peter Blatty, best known for his 1971 book THE EXORCIST, is now 82, but that hasn’t slowed him down any.  He just published a new thriller book, DIMITER, set in the Holy Land in the 1970s, just in time for the Easter holiday.

Blatty, originally a comedy writer and screenplay author of such fun fare as A SHOT IN THE DARK, never figured to get famous from THE EXORCIST.  He thought it would be a one-shot wonder, a thriller to explore his own beliefs in good and evil, but after it was published, it seemed he was now known as the eminent horror writer of all time, and couldn’t get work anymore in comedy. Winning an Oscar for his screenplay of THE EXORCIST seemed to put a nail in that coffin. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself…)

continue reading "You’re Never Too Old…"

I just got done re-reading the entire DRESDEN FILES series again, only to realize that the new book, CHANGES (Dresden Files, Book 12), won’t be out until April 2010. AAAAAAGH.

I don’t know if I can wait that long. Seems Jim Butcher will finally be bringing back Susan Rodriguez, along with the Red Court vampires this time around and she has one heck of a secret.

Guess this means back to HULU in the meantime to at least re-watch the whole TV series before I go into withdrawal…  ;)

Jim Butcher has a written a series of books called THE DRESDEN FILES that has become one of my all-time favorites.

I originally got hooked on the SCI FI Channel TV series THE DRESDEN FILES starring Paul Blackthorne as Harry Dresden, watching every episode until they (stupidly) canceled it. Then I went on a book hunt to find the source material (original books) and have been adding each title to my collection as soon as I can get my hands on them.
continue reading "THE DRESDEN FILES: Jim Butcher Books"

Bummer – one of my favorite horror authors passed away two weeks ago: Ira Levin, author of ROSEMARY’S BABY, THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, and THE STEPFORD WIVES, among other things, died Nov 12 at the age of 78 from a heart attack according to the New York Times.

Something I didn’t realize is that he only published 7 books over the course of a 40+ year career, with most of what I think of as his best work being written in the 1970′s. I guess when you produce such quality work, you don’t need to create a lot of it to make your mark! (I always prefer to reread books over and over again that I thoroughly enjoyed rather than to take a chance on something unknown when I want to be entertained – maybe that’s why I’d thought he’d written more than just 7. LOL)

I think my favorite of his books is BOYS – even if the technology that was used as part of the twist has become almost mainstream nowadays, when that book first came out it was cutting edge, touched on subjects I was fascinated with and a definite page-turner. Even today, the book’s quality shines through in its suspense and intelligence and handling of palpably horrific plot points. I never really liked ROSEMARY’S BABY as much or its sequel (probably seeing the movie first was part of the problem), but STEPFORD WIVES was also quite an original I thoroughly enjoyed that has been much parodied ever since it entered the vernacular so it’s lost quite a bit of its original edginess for anyone wanting to read it for the first time at this late date.

Something else I had forgotten about him was he was not only a novelist and playwright, but also a lyricist for a musical (DRAT! THE CAT! – 1965) I don’t know about you, but if it was anything like his books, I fear it would definitely make for quite an interesting, but probably quite twisted, evening. I’ll have to go surf the net to see if I can find more info on it.

Goodbye to yet another author who gave me quite a few hours of edge-of-the-seat, don’t-set-it-down-til-the-end reading…

My mother got me hooked at a very early age on reading just about anything and everything (except for romance books which she considers to this day to be beneath her notice.) She, herself, was taught to read by age 3 such novels as JANE EYRE and THE GRAPES OF WRATH by her mother (possibly to get her out of grandma’s hair, but who am I to guess at grandma’s motives…? LOL)

I, myself, however, wasn’t able to read such lofty books until I was about 6 – guess that makes me a bit of a late bloomer, eh? (Seems I tested out at 12th grade reading level in 2nd grade – was it all the reading Mom got me hooked on at such an early age that made me that smart or was I smart to begin with. Hummmm.)

Now I mostly read for pleasure with my favorites being SCI FI, Mysteries/Thrillers, Biography, Star Wars related, Star Trek related, some Fantasy and even a few Romance books to mix it up. (So there, Mom!) Because she and I don’t overlap much (if at all) on our books of choice, the house is now threatening to buckle from the books bulging out the back. (At least it seems that way when you have as many books as we do between just the two of us and not enough shelves or closet space or floor space, in our case.)

The remedy? Sell a few of them off! At least, the duplicates to begin with. Then you sell the ones you only felt like reading once, but just couldn’t justify enough space for (without having to buy another home to house them all in, that is). Then you start hunting for books to sell. Which seems to only increase, not decrease, the numbers of books around you. Ummm – oooops. And the madness continues!!! (Anyone know a good 12-step biblioholics program you can recommend?)

The neat thing about selling books is that I’ve been exposing myself – no, not that kind! – to authors and genres I might not have read before, such as paranormal romance books, something I didn’t even know existed until researching who’s popular (and who’s not), and what other people are reading. I’ve expanded my biblio horizons which can only be for the good. (Unless you ask Mom, who’s competing for the same book storing space as I.)

So here’s just an idea of the things I read (and sell):