Books That Go Bump in the Night

What is our fascination with ghosts? We both fear them and also secretly hope our loved ones become one. I suppose the fear of death drives our obsession. We hate the idea of leaving this world behind after death, but we also fear those who haven’t “moved on.”

And of course, now that I’ve noticed ghosts, I seem to be seeing ghosts all around me – at least in fiction.

I have recently found myself reading a series of ghost books. There was the YA,  Lockwood & Co, and a milder, younger version of a ghost mystery, Constable & Toop. And then if that wasn’t enough, I read the thirteen stories of Spirited.

Spirited represents a wide variety of ghost stories, from those that border on horror, to those that are sweet. I liked that there were stories that could be considered contemporary, stories that could be fantasies, and everything in between.

Most ghost stories can be roughly divided into two types: those with “good” (non-threatening) ghosts and those with “bad” (threatening) ones. Of course there are works that fall in between where the threatening ghost is the good one. Anna Dressed in Blood brings that particular type of ghost into play. What’s nice is to find an anthology where all of these different types of ghost stories read smoothly together. Personally, I think an anthology where all the stories are about one type of ghost could be a fairly dull read. I like books like Spirited that mix things up.

If you are like me, then I must warn you that Spirited isn’t the kind of book to read just before bed. Threatening or not, ghost stories are still ghost stories and are best read on a beautiful, sunny day. At noon. When there are clearly no ghosts around.

ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Madeline Smoot is the publisher of Children's Brains Are Yummy Books, a micro publisher of fantasy and science fiction for children and teens.

Meet Monster-Hunting Author: Judith Graves

Calling all scary story lovers... Killer's Instinct by Dawn Dalton and Judith Gravess is releasing this month. If you love monsters, monster hunters, and non-stop action, you'll love this novel about Hope, who's hunting her Mommy-dearest, now turned into a zombie.

Today we're talking to one of the authors, Judith Graves. Find out more about her, how she writes her compelling novels, and connect with her online to learn more about her other forthcoming books.
When did you start writing?

I began writing in a lock-and-key diary my parents gave me while I was in elementary school. After the first few pages of diligently tracking daily events: what I’d had to eat, who ticked me off at school, or what exam I was dreading – I abandoned the diary format and began filling pages with: doodles, cools phrases or bits of conversations I’d overheard, bits of poetry, lines from movies, random descriptions of things that caught my eye. I progressed to buying notebooks instead of diaries, and my jotted notes took on lives of their own. Bits of poetry became song lyrics (I played piano and guitar), then short stories…and finally each notebook became a rough draft of a novel.

In school what were your best and worst moments?

Best moments: music, art, drama, and English classes – without them, I probably would have dropped out of school. I got by in other core subjects, but the arts were my focus.

Worst moments: I refused to memorize my schedule and didn’t believe in having a copy around to double check. I was always showing up late, or at the wrong class, or thinking I had a spare when I didn’t. Of course, I NEVER missed a music, art, drama, or English class. Go figure.

What advice do you wish you could give to your younger self?

Look, I know it’s the 80s, but avoid acid-wash jeans and those crazy banana hair clip thingies. And two years of braces will be so worth it. ;)

What hobbies and interests do you have?

I love all things artsy-fartsy. Music, film, photography, drawing, writing. I’m also drawn to things that challenge the more logical side of society, such as, superstitions, folklore, fear, and the unexplained.

What made you write Hope’s story?

Hope was a fun character to develop with Dawn Dalton, co-writer of KILLER’S INSTINCT. I think we both wanted a lead female character who could be kickass, but also demonstrated her vulnerability. Hope is “hopefully” someone readers can relate to. She’s driven to get to the heart of the mystery surround her mother’s death, but she also fears knowing the truth.


Do the characters in the book have any connection with your real life?
Maybe not the supernatural elements to them. There are no zombies, mermaids, werewolves, or cryptids lurking around my family tree – well, not that I know of – but the four members of Unit Wild: Hope, Caddoc, Hyde, and Kain all have their own demons to face. And when these are narrowed down to themes like self-doubt, duality, wanting to belong, finding your place in the world – I can easily find many connections to their individual challenges.

What is one thing you hope readers will take away from your book?

That no matter what the battle, or monster you face – there’s always HOPE on your side.

Can you give us an idea of your writing process?

I’m a very regimented writer. I treat it like a job, writing at least 5 days a week (usually more). I find that between 5 am to 2 pm is when I get the best work done. I do extensive plotting and character development before starting a project, but still take completed first drafts through many revisions. My beta readers and critique partners are more precious than gold. I KNOW my writing wouldn’t be up to snuff without them.

What was it like collaborating with Dawn Dalton?

Dawn and I live about 3.5 hours away from each other. However, with the Internet, Skype, and Google Docs, distance wasn’t much of a factor. We were both keen to tell this story and made the commitment to getting the project done. Our voices fit quite naturally in this project, and once the story was plotted, we were able to each claim scenes we wanted to tackle and write. Then we’d share what we’d written and take passes at tweaking each other’s scenes, fleshing spots out, adding description, tweaking dialogue, or finding little plot holes to fix. With beta readers or critique partners, I'd polish a piece, send it out, and wait on tenterhooks for their comments. But Dawn and I wrote via Google Docs and were able to work in the same document, in real time, so the feedback was almost instantaneous. It was like sharing a brain…lol…a fun process that made writing KILLER’S INSTINCT a real treat.

If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?

1.    A world without monsters – the very real, human kind.
2.    The ability to not burn stuff in the kitchen.
3.    More chocolate.

What is something most people don't know about you?

I’m terrified of bees and wasps. I will make an absolute ass of myself running from them. Very not cool.

What super power do you wish you had?

The power of flight. I have flying dreams and adore the weightless feeling, the power of surging up into the air, and the serenity of watching the world below.

Where did you go on your last vacation?

I would call it more of a working vacation. My husband is a high school social studies teacher, and every few years he takes students on a trip to Europe. Of course, I pay my way and tag along! It’s a great opportunity to be immersed in other cultures as well as to be surround by my target reading audience. This summer, along with 28 grade 10-12 students, and several teacher supervisors, we toured Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Austria. Berlin, Munich, Krakow, Prague, Nuremberg, Salzburg – the history of these grand cities and castles, the horror of Auschwitz, and beauty of the Austrian Alps. It really was the trip of a lifetime.

Where can readers find out more about you?

I’m all over the place and love connecting with readers, authors, and reviewers. You can find me here:

Facebook 
Twitter
Website

What Scares You?

So, what makes you shiver in the dark? What haunts your worst nightmares? Ghosts, zombies, serial killers, monsters, the undead? Or something worse?

Do you wake up in the middle of the night gasping for breath after reading scary stories? Huddle under the covers afraid to peek closely into the shadows? Do you keep the light on all night?

Leap Books introduces guest blogger, Courtney Warren, who tells about the scary stories that kept her awake as a child as well what scares her now. And she offers tips on how to write your own scary stories. We look forward to hearing more from Courtney, who will blog regularly with us.

So, What Scares Me?

As a kid I used to love reading scary stories late at night. I remember walking into my mom’s room and telling her I couldn’t sleep.

“Stop reading the book, Courtney,” she would say every night.

“I can’t! It’s so good!”

When I read that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz would be made into a movie, I was so excited. Even though it’s Christmas time, I still love a good scary story, so this news article was definitely welcomed. This also got me thinking—I’ve never tried to write a scary story before, so why are these stories so great? Can I do this?

Last summer I reread as many Goosebumps books as I could get my hands on and then watched the movies. I was at Hollins University for my very first summer in their graduate program and my interest level in all things YA (young adult) was through the roof.

Even as a 23-year-old adult, I still became terrified when Carly Beth couldn’t get the mask off on Halloween, and wanted to cry when the kids were locked in the medieval tower. I was terrified! More so while reading the books than while watching the movies.

So, after my Goosebumps obsession, when I saw that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark would be made into a movie, I immediately went to the library to get the book. However, I was a little disappointed. This was the book that left me so scared I had to sleep with my younger brothers, and yet when I read it….it seemed a little stupid.

In the beginning of the book, a story is written with cues for the storyteller like (now scream) or (now jump at one of your friends). The stories are pretty cut and dried with your basic witches, ghosts, ghouls, and axe murderers. As I read on, I really couldn’t understand what had scared me so badly as a child.

Then I turned the page and immediately figured it out. It was the illustrations, which were done by Stephen Gammell.

The stories are basic, run-of-the-mill scary stories that attack basic childhood fears, but it’s the illustrations that make you want to cry in the middle of the night for you mom.

So why is this series by Schwartz successful and just as memorable as Goosebumps by R.L. Stine?

I will definitely say hands down that Goosebumps was more popular and more successful in the long run, however, at the house of Stevens, Schwartz and Stine were my main obsessions.

So, let’s break it down.

So, What about Goosebumps?

Books turned into a television series and a few movies, the Goosebumps books are still around and going strong, with Stine writing the books that appear on the shelves. After rereading, I think a lot of this is because the stories are original, created by Stine himself and not something we have read before. Many of these stories deal with the supernatural – not something we can ever read about in a newspaper on a Sunday afternoon – and so these stories haunt our imaginations.

For more than twenty years, Stine has created new stories, taken his older stories and twisted them, and played with our imaginations in such a way that don't only draw in children. The classic Goosebumps do not have much blood and gore (from what I have read and remember), but they do have a lot of creepiness, jumping out, and detailed horror.

That’s what I realized about Goosebumps…the terror is in the details.

Stine shows us terrible things rather than tells us, so he is not only expanding the imaginations of youngsters, he’s also painting a horrifying picture. His books are for middle-grade and not YA, which is made clear through the interactions of the characters. Sometimes, as a writer, changing the way your characters react can change the level of your story.

For example, in The Haunted Mask, Carly Beth is picked on for being such a scaredy cat when her two friends at school play pranks on her. However, rather than scream and curse at them (YA), she cries and runs away (middle-grade). Also, when she vows revenge, her revenge isn’t to kill them—typical in a YA horror—but to SCARE them just like they have been doing to her.

Simple changes in writing can change the audience for your stories. The story is still scary, with a terrifying mask that attaches itself to the wearer and alters his or her personality, but remains appropriate for middle-grade readers because of the nature of the characters and the language.


So, What about Scary Stories?

Scary Stories seems to take a different angle. Schwartz plays on legends and folklore—stories that have been told for generations. However, he plays these stories down so the reading level is much different and appropriate for middle-grade.(Read some here.)

Rather than giving gruesome details about ripping a person’s guts out, Schwartz says they are dead. Simple and cut-to-the-chase (yet still terrifying) works here, especially when paired with Gammell’s illustrations. I stand by the fact that, although the stories were okay to me as an adult but terrifying when I was a child, it’s the illustrations that kept me from sleeping. The three books in this series written by Schwartz were banned and challenged often throughout the years, more so for the pictures rather than the stories.

I tutor a little girl every day and, when I checked this book out, I read her a story. She scares easily, so I stopped halfway through because I was pretty sure she couldn’t take anymore. I knew some of the pictures would have sent her over the edge.

The way these pictures are drawn, with long lines and a sketchy unfinished feel, makes them so creepy they are almost unbearable. With Gammell’s illustrations, the more you look, the more scared you become, because the more you see in his details. On the title page at first glance you see an abandoned house, then a rocking chair, then a moon above the rocking chair. So wait… Is the house suspended in the air? And is that the silhouette of a man who has hung himself?

You haven’t even gotten past the title of the book and already you want to crawl in a hole.

These stories, whether detailed or not, illustrated or not, still touch the middle-grade readers in such a way that they are excited for more and running back to the book shelves (in the light of day, of course). The stories may be incredibly different, but the concepts are the same—clean horror. The characters are simple, with easy-to-understand thoughts and ideas, while the language is basic, so it doesn’t confuse the readers. Children can understand it, they can relate, and they get scared—it works.


So, What Do I Do?

So, how can you create a story for a middle-grade reader that leaves them shaking in their Ugg boots?

Start off with a story you already know and add a twist.

Maybe it’s the story of the babysitter and the man upstairs, but your twist is that the babysitter has never babysat before, but luckily she takes karate. Or maybe the killer is her friend trying to spook her, and it turns out that when she catches her friend, they realize there’s a REAL killer upstairs.

Begin with a legend you already know and run with it. Perhaps in your run, you’ll create something entirely new!

Remember, a lot of the time parents are controlling what their kids read, and although the F-word might be used on the playground at school, parents and teachers won’t appreciate a fourth grader reading it on every single page. Drop the language, keep it basic at first—scary and to the point.

So, What about You?

What are some stories that have kept you up at night?

If you answer this question or comment on the blog, we'll put your name in a drawing for your choice of one of Leap's scary books. Drawing on January 13, 2014.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Courtney Warren is a writer for her local newspaper, as well as a graduate student at Hollins University where she is pursuing a degree in Children’s Literature. She has a bachelor’s degree from Delta State University, the home of the Fighting Okra (which she is incredibly proud of). She loves to read just about anything placed on the shelves but has a special place in her heart for the Harry Potter series.

When she is not writing about herself in third person, she loves to write stories about middle schoolers with spunky attitudes who intend to save the world, as well as drinking Earl Grey tea from a very prissy teacup.

Check out her blog, Tea, the Spirit, & a Pen.