(Could You Ever Really Know Her, image by Jennifer Gordon, slight alterations by Carl V.)

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

Or at least I wish it was, rather than a warm, sunshiny day. Despite the weather refusing to cooperate with my gothic mood, the calendar does not lie, ladies and gentlemen. It is indeed that time of year where two short months are dedicated to reveling in all things creepy, eerie, mysterious, gothic, horrifying, suspenseful and strange.

It is time to celebrate things that go bump in the night; that favorite detective that always gets his man, or woman, in the end; that delicious chill of a creak on the stairs, of the rogue waiting in the dark, of the full moon and the flit of bats wings.

As I wrote last year:

“Some of my earliest reading memories were collections of Peanuts, borrowed from the local library. I would pour over them, finding humor in the strangest of places, laughing aloud. That early exposure to the work of Charles Schultz cultivated a deep and abiding passion for his creations.

And that phrase, “It was a dark and stormy night…” tickled my imagination with thoughts of moonlight and darkness and things that go bump in the night.

Perhaps that was also the beginning of my passion for I what I lump under a broad personal definition of gothic literature: dark nights; decaying, haunted castles; menacing forests; pervasive gloom; ancient prophecies; damsels in distress (or at least at the wrong place in the wrong time); blood-curdling screams…stories with atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife.

It was a desire to celebrate and share that love of the elements of gothic fiction that inspired me to create the first R.I.P. Challenge, five years ago.

Readers Imbibing Peril, that is what it is all about. I hope you’ll consider joining us on this more eerie road less traveled.

Walk this way.”

Continue reading R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge…V!!! →

“The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.”
~Anonymous

Could a quote be any more perfect for the wrap up post of the Once Upon a Time IV Challenge, an event that ended more than a week ago? I didn’t think so either. “Untidy”, when it comes to blog-related timeliness, is me to a “t”.

That being dispensed with, let me begin the wrap up for the 4th annual Once Upon a Time Challenge with the most important part of the proceedings: thanking all of you wonderful fellow bloggers for signing up, for spreading the word, and most importantly for taking journeys into fantastical, mythological, fairy tale places and sharing those journeys with the rest of us. I tip my hat to you and offer sincere thanks for being such an encouragement to me, and to each other, in your love of the literature which this challenge encompasses and in your willingness each year to allow me to be your host for a few months out of the year. It is a real pleasure.

Before summarizing my own personal experiences with this year’s challenge, I wanted to make an announcement. I quite literally had my head buried in a book throughout much of this challenge. When work wasn’t interfering with my reading (*wink*) I also did some science fiction journeying through Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2 on the XBox. Which means that this challenge was uncharacteristically devoid of regular giveaways and artist profiles. With apologies to our artist host, Melissa Nucera, I will be posting an interview and giveaway with her soon. To make up for this derth of challenge goodies, I have included some prizes at the end of this post.

Continue reading Au Revoir to Once Upon a Time IV (don’t cry, there are presents) →

(Ophelia’s Going Mad Again, by Jennifer Gordon, altered with permission by Carl V.)

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

Thus began seemingly every story that Snoopy ever wrote, perched atop his red doghouse, bent over the typewriter hoping to craft that one great masterpiece.

Some of my earliest reading memories were collections of Peanuts, borrowed from the local library. I would pour over them, finding humor in the strangest of places, laughing aloud. That early exposure to the work of Charles Schutlz cultivated a deep and abiding passion for his creations.

And that phrase, “It was a dark and stormy night…” tickled my imagination with thoughts of moonlight and darkness and things that go bump in the night.

Perhaps that was also the beginning of my passion for I what I lump under a broad personal definition of gothic literature: dark nights; decaying, haunted castles; menacing forests; pervasive gloom; ancient prophecies; damsels in distress (or at least at the wrong place in the wrong time); blood-curdling screams…stories with atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife.

It was a desire to celebrate and share that love of the elements of gothic fiction that inspired me to create the first R.I.P. Challenge, four years ago.

Readers Imbibing Peril, that is what it is all about. I hope you’ll consider joining us on this more eerie road less traveled.

Walk this way.

Continue reading R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril…IV!!! →