Category Archives: Challenges

book news, Challenges

The 2013 Science Fiction Experience

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(image sans text property of Stephan Martiniere, used with permission)

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty,
but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

~Vincent Van Gogh

How about you?

When you look up at the night sky do you wonder? Do you imagine what is out there, get caught up in the unfathomable immensity of creation, do you dream? When you were a child did you gaze up longingly at the night sky dreaming that your adult years would bring with them routine trips to the moon and travel to other worlds? Does the sight of a full blazing moon or bright shining planets inspire a sense of wonder? If so, then you know exactly what it is like to be in my shoes, especially as the nights turn colder and the stars seem to shine that much brighter. (If not, please humor me through the rest of this post, 🙂 )

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Challenges

A Grave Matter

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(Image Credit: Simon Marsden)

Today’s post comes to you as part of the “A Grave Tale” event that we are doing in conjunction with the group read of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. The request is a simple one: just post something to do with graves or graveyards. The end of this post will have a place in which you can link to yours and on Friday night or Saturday morning I’ll be doing a random drawing for your choice of an image by our R.I.P. VII artist, Gothicrow.

Graveyards have been a source of fascination and fear, dread and delight, for as long as I can remember. My earliest recollections are of the scary kind: the grave of Lucy Westenra in an old version of a Dracula film I saw one Saturday afternoon as a kid, Edward Gorey illustrated scary stories brought home from the library, elaborate decorations adorning poorly lit yards on Halloween nights. It was later in life when graveyards also became a source of interest and then sadness.

It is that dichotomy that makes graveyards such an enduring part of stories and legends.

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Challenges

R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII

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(Images by Gothicrow, used with permission)

“Does something amuse you?’ asked Uncle Montague.
‘I was merely reminding myself, Uncle, that I am getting too old to be so easily frightened by stories.’
‘Really?’ said Uncle Montague with a worrying degree of doubt in his voice. ‘You think there is an age at which you might become immune to fear?”
― Chris Priestley, Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror

Fear is an interesting thing. When it comes from real danger or the weights and cares of this world then it is something to be despised, overcome, beaten. But when it comes to stories it can be quite delicious to embrace fear. In ‘real life’ we may shy away, or run screaming, from that creaking on the staircase or that dread evil settling upon the land. In the world of stories we will go into that darkened hallway; we will open that forbidden door; we will investigate things that go bump in the night; we will walk through the graveyard at the witching hour on the night of the full moon.

As Autumn arrives upon this hemisphere, a beautiful melancholy settles itself over the world. Daylight fades as the darkness descends earlier each night. Nature beds down to rest and the last flashes of gorgeous color give way to the monochrome shades of winter. There is a wistful scent upon the air and the mood generated by this time of year turns my thoughts toward the mysterious, towards stories with gothic undertones, towards darkened streets and death and the men and women sent to detect those who do these dastardly deeds. Stop the alliteration!!!

Seven years ago that mood birthed R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril, or R.I.P. for short, a participatory event wherein we the people spend however little, or much, time we want over the months of September and October imbibing all things ghastly and ghostly.

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book news, Challenges

And for a 6th time I wish you, farewell

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(Image by Melissa Nucera, used with permission)

If there were any doubts, the last few days here in the Midwest (Greater Kansas City area to be exact) have driven home the fact very clearly: Summer is upon us! When the sun sets today it does not only set on fair Spring 2012, it signals the official end of the 6th annual Once Upon a Time Challenge.

Nearly 100 of you wonderful readers signed up to take this journey with us and whether you read just one book or many, or partook of one film or many, I hope that the path you trod on led to all the magic and wonder that you hoped for. Reading really is a hopeful thing, isn’t it. We are seduced by a book’s cover, or title, its author or its subject matter–or a combination of these–and the turning of that first page really is like stepping out on a path into the woods that curves just up ahead. We are not sure where it will lead us but we hope that the journey is grand.

The presence of a wrap-up post is never required for any of the challenges that I host, but my curious nature certainly likes to peek through the proverbial curtains to see where the last three months have taken you. After the jump you will find my wrap up followed by a place for you to leave a link if you did a wrap up post.

I’ll repeat this again before the end, but:

Thank you for participating. Thank you for the posts, the book, film and television reviews, the tweets and the link sharing on Facebook. Thanks for taking the time to be a part of this community, thank you for treating each other well and for making new friends. Thank you for making my duty as host no real duty at all. You all are amazing.

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Challenges

Once Upon a Time VI

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“Come away, O human child: To the waters and the wild with a fairy, hand in hand, For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”

~William Butler Yeats

Today is “officially” the first day of Spring, but thanks to unseasonably beautiful temperatures these last few weeks I have been experiencing that gentle urging, “Come away…”, for some time now. It is that voice that beckons me to revisit Middle-earth and Newford, that calls me to the gap in the village of Wall and to the world of London Below. It is the voice that packs so much promise into four little words…

“Once upon a time…”

Perhaps you too have heard that voice whispering on the spring wind, or perhaps Old Man Winter continues to drown out the sound; either way that time has come: Once Upon a Time is here!

Wednesday, March 21st begins the sixth annual Once Upon a Time Challenge. This is a reading and viewing event that encompasses four broad categories: Fairy Tale, Folklore, Fantasy and Mythology, including the seemingly countless sub-genres and blending of genres that fall within this spectrum. The challenge continues through Tuesday, June 19th and allows for very minor (1 book only) participation as well as more immersion depending on your reading/viewing whims.

Come away, and I’ll tell you more…

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