September: it was the most beautiful of words, he’d always felt, evoking orange-flowers, swallows, and regret.
~Alexander Theroux

Though shimmering heat, bright sun, and the sounds of summer laughter belie the fact, it is indeed that time of year, time to embrace melancholy, to seek out things that go bump in the night, to find beauty in darkness. Yes, it is OFFICIALLY the beginning of the R.eader’s I.mbibing P.eril Challenge, Part II. Though myself and others have gotten an early start on this year’s gothic goodness (as evidenced by the growing list of reviews), the actual dates for the R.I.P. II Challenge are September 1st through October 31st, 2007.

Continue reading R.I.P. II….It’s official!!! →

(Cover for Colleen Gleason’s forthcoming third novel in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles series, Feb. 2008)

Two days remain before the ‘official’ start of the R.I.P. II Challenge and here I am, raising the stakes, announcing the second giveaway opportunity for you dear Challenge readers (The first is mentioned in the R.I.P. II post, if you’ve forgotten).

As you may know, I have a special place in my heart for author Colleen Gleason. She is the first author I ‘met’ through the wonder of blogging and she has been a great supporter of my site ever since the first time she came for a visit. It has been a great pleasure watching her become a published author. It has been an even greater pleasure to be able to honestly say how much I have enjoyed her first two novels in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles series. That enjoyment, coupled with the fact that Colleen Gleason is just a wonderful person, means that I do my best to lead the cheer squad in promoting her work.

And so, the mini-skirt is on again, I am picking up my pom-poms, and awaaaaay we go…

Continue reading Raising the Stakes →

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
~Thomas Merton

The title of this post and the picture chosen are certainly not by accident. On the one year anniversary of her death, I reflected on a year without Jennifer with a tribute to just one of her many talents, her photography. It is one of the ways in which she lives on. That post along with others that have occurred since her death on June 22nd, 2006 have resulted in a great deal of thought on the nature of relationships, particularly regarding those formed through the medium of the internet.

Recently I had the unexpected pleasure to spend close to an hour on the phone with a journalist from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Amy Rosenberg, discussing Jennifer…Jenn See…and the power of connection. The article that came from this and many other interviews Ms. Rosenberg conducted was printed in yesterday’s edition.

Continue reading Reflections →

When the chairman introduced the guest speaker as a former illegal alien, I got up from my chair and yelled, “What’s the matter, no jobs on Mars?” When no one laughed, I was real embarrassed. I don’t think people should make you feel that way.

~Jack Handy

Continue reading They’re Baaack!!! →

The process of delving into the black abyss is to me the keenest form of fascination…
~H.P. Lovecraft (In a letter to Frank Belknap Long, February 27 1931)

As I sit pensively, fingers poised above the black keys of a dusty keyboard, it seems nature has pronounced its blessing on today’s venture. Grey skies pouring forth driving rains belie the fact that it remains the dead of summer. The chill of air conditioning set for much warmer temperatures and the overcast sky conspire to convince me that it is indeed that time of year again. Time for gothic tales and things that go bump in the night.

Continue reading Something R.I.P.ing This Way Comes →