Thinking about Megan Crewe's upcoming release Give Up the Ghost has me thinking about my favourite ghost stories. This isn't a comprehensive list, but ones that I've read and adored for one reason or another. Oh, and a bonus? The authors are all Canadian, just like Megan!


Margaret Buffie has written many of my favourite books, such as Angels Turn Their Backs and The Watcher, but Who Is Frances Rain? has a certain charm for me when it comes to ghost stories because it takes place during a family's summer trip to the cottage, complete with squabbling and a new stepfather. When 15-year-old Lizzie finds an old pair of spectacles in an abandoned cottage, she's determined to solve the mystery of the lives from the past she sees when she slips the spectacles on her nose, and it might just help knit her family together again, too.



Awake and Dreaming, by Kit Pearson, is more of a make-your-skin-tingle ghost story than a scary one. Set in Victoria, B.C., this story about a girl who yearns to belong to The Perfect Family is sweet and mysterious in turns, with gentle twists in the tale that make your breath hitch and encourage you, by its end, to read it all over again. Every year, Kit Pearson does a guided walk through Ross Bay Cemetery, a key location in the story, and I attended a year or so back with 2skippingstones. It felt totally eerie to walk among the graves and monuments where so much of the story took place, especially a story I'd read long before I ever imagined living in Victoria myself.




Kit Pearson in Ross Bay Cemetery



Waiting for Sarah, by Bruce McBay and James Heneghan, is also set in B.C., but the characters walk/wheel along the Vancouver seawall rather than traipse through a cemetery in Victoria. The story of a young man struggling with the aftermath of an accident that landed him in a wheelchair and a girl with a secret she needs his help to expose, Waiting for Sarah still gives me shivers no matter how many times I read it. Poetry lovers will also appreciate the significance of the haunting John Magee poem 'High Flight'.



What are your favourite ghost stories? Do they tend towards the scary or the mysterious? Maybe both?

A lesson in how two characters will take different approaches in the same situation:

'A' asks for help figuring out a restaurant's dress code.
'B' spends fifteen minutes looking at reviews online.
'C' spends fifteen seconds calling the restaurant.
'B' and 'C' come to the same conclusion (business casual, shorts, jeans, anything goes).

Did this just happen in reality? Um, maybe ...

I just finished reading Sarah Dessen's latest novel, Along for the Ride, and I think it's definitely my favourite next to The Truth About Forever. As I was reading it, there were a couple of things mentioned that struck me as a writer as well as a human being:

"Failing sucks. But it's better than the alternative."
"Which is?"
"Not even trying."

- exchange between Eli and Auden

Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth.

- Auden's narrative

Those things should be obvious but they aren't always, at least not to me. And now that I'm all inspired again, I'm going to spend some time with my legal pad and index cards, figuring out the plot of Winter's World. I'm determined to have it done by the end of the weekend! (With periodic breaks to, yanno, get some sunshine and watch Robin Hood and Doctor Who)

What are your weekend plans?

I'm coming to the end of another course through Athabasca University, a literature course, and I just finished reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. It seems like a perfect example of how some people love a book and others want to toss it into a rubbish heap for werewolves and vampires and wee folk to dismantle. I'm in the former group, although the latter would make an interesting addition to the urban fantasy wave.

Hemingway's writing is spare, it's true, but the more I read, the more I felt I was partying alongside Jake in Paris, enjoying the simple, yet profound rituals of fishing with Bill, and marveling at Romero's passion. Something about this story sucked me in and made me feel. Reading about these expatriates who aren't terribly moral but awfully entertaining inspired me, both as a writer and as a person. I'm not saying I want to emulate them, far from it, but there was just something about it, about them ... and it reminds me of when agents and editors say that something beyond good writing, good plot, good characterisation makes them take a novel on, but they can't name it, they just know it when they see it.

If I were an agent, and Hemingway had queried me for The Sun Also Rises, I would have snapped it up and fought for it, hard.

What about you? What classics would you fight for?

Gosh golly gee, where have I been?

Crawling out from under the stack of papers and books and paper clips that made up my course, that's where!

Well, consider me sufficiently emerged, for I have finished the essays (82 and 87 percent respectively), written the exam, and I am done done done.

w00t!

I've taken to calling myself a Lady of Leisure, because I'm taking the month of May to butter myself up: read, write, cook, bake, watch movies ... and let me tell you, it is a delightful state to be in.

First things first: drop by on May 5 for an interview with Sarah Dessen, author of fabulous YA books like This Lullaby and The Truth About Forever.

Speaking of books, ( what have I been reading lately? )

(And did I mention that I made muffins? Cranberry orange muffins?)

Oh, you guys, I've MISSED you!

Inspired by sachaw, I joined Librarything.com and poured in the books I read over the course of 2007. My goal was 50 books. Did I make it?

Click and see! Slightly image heavy ...

Those are all the books I finished this year. I began many, many more:

Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman
Ballet Companion, by Elizabeth Gaynor Minden
The Gunslinger, by Stephen King
Julie and Julia: My year of cooking dangerously, by Julie Powell
Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, by Deb Caletti
Planet Janet, by Dyan Sheldon
P.S. Longer letter later, by Paula Danziger & Ann M. Martin
The Endless Steppe : growing up in Siberia, by Esther Hautzig
Broken song, by Kathryn Lasky
The book of Mordred, by Vivian Vande Velde
A wrinkle in time, by Madeleine L'Engle
Trouble on Tarragon Island, by Nikki Tate
Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
Spinners, by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen
Which brings me to you : a novel in confessions, by Steve Almond and Julianna Baggott
The witches of Willowmere, by Alison Baird
Remembrance, by Theresa Breslin
Theories of relativity, by Barbara Haworth-Attard
The guests of war trilogy, by Kit Pearson
The edge on the sword, by Rebecca Tingle
Three songs for courage, by Maxine Trottier
Ironside : a modern faery's tale, by Holly Black

I'm working on my list of books I hope to read in 2008. What were your favourite books this year, and which ones are you looking forward to next year?

( May/June Reading List )

I feel like there's something missing from that list. Oh well. If I think of it, I'll post it later.

( April Reading List )

My only bit of non-historical YA was Hana-Kimi. Sort of. This may explain why, when I wandered over to the YA section of the library (they finally moved it closer to the adult section rather than mixing it with the kiddy section), I salivated over and checked out four YA novels: Honey, baby, sweetheart by Deb Caletti, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Stay with me by Garret Freymann-Weyr, and Ascension by Kara Dalkey. I read Ascension several times over two years ago and loved it. I can't wait to dive into the trilogy again. The trilogy has a beautiful and fittingly tragic end that makes the epilogue all the more poignant.

I was looking at my list of agents last night. Three out of the fourteen in round one only accept snail queries, so as long I am otherwise on schedule I'm going to query them a week early. After all, they have to wing their way over the border, so it'll take a little while in the best case. That means that instead of working on my query letter and synopsis from the 29th to the 31st, I'll start working on it in week two or three. I'm very excited about this. :-)

I'm also excited about the question I summed up the courage to ask Stephen Barbara:

I was just wondering about what a new client can expect in the weeks following their acceptance of an offer of representation. What's going on on your side, what will be asked of the writer, etc.

This was his response:

Once I've agreed to terms (either on a handshake or through the signing of an agency agreement), I generally give my new client an editorial letter with suggestions for revising her novel. While she's off fine-tuning or overhauling her manuscript, I prepare a detailed marketing plan (fancy phrase for 'submissions list') which I send to the client so that she can have a look and come back to me with any relevant thoughts.

Now that we have a marketing plan and my client is tweaking her story, I either wait for the ms. to come back, at which point I perform various dark rituals in preparation for sending the ms. out, or, if I'm feeling especially evil, set up coffees or phone calls where I pre-pitch (read: mercilessly tease) the editors on my list so that by the time the project is really set for submission, they'll give me the priority read that I crave.

Other than that, keep in mind that the first months of the agent-client relationship set a certain precedent for what comes later - so you both want to establish open lines of communication and be the reliable, good-natured, professional people you'll be in months to come . . . .

Phew. I'm so glad I asked that question ... I've been wondering, and it was an awesome answer. There are some great questions being asked over there and some even better answers, so sneak a peek if you are so inclined.

That's all for now. I'm off to crunch some numbers.

( March Reading List time! )

I realized last night that a scene I was stressing over actually isn't a scene at all. All it should be is a paragraph of summary. Don't you love late night revelations? So once that's done, I really don't have that much left at all. I'd love to finish the rewrites this month and get to editing it in May.

However, in order to do this, I bid you adieu, for I have had another revelation of late. My blogging is keeping me from writing as much as I would like, and it seems like all my creative juices are easier spent on my blog than my novel. So as of today, I have decided to cease blogging. I will still drop in now and again to check up on you all and make sure that you're not getting into mischief! It's been such a delight getting to know you.

And if you believe any of that, you're more gullible than I thought.

( February Reading List )

I enjoyed doing that so much last month, that I couldn't help doing it again. I like this tradition. So once again, I ask you what you've read lately! Anything interesting? Any recommendations? I'm open to pretty much anything except for horror (I know, I know -- The Gunslinger is an exception, though).

My desk is actually clean for once, as in I can see the wood through the mess. Lessee, what's on my desk right now ... smiley face stickers, a copper-and-gold beaded bracelet, Patrick II (our digital camera), a thesaurus, and the DVD Sharpe's Rifles. Even though I loved Sean Bean's performance in Lord of the Rings, I was iffy about anything that had him in the lead role after seeing clips of his performances elsewhere, but I'm so glad I took a chance on the Sharpe series.

Okay, so I'm not that gracious. Maybe I couldn't sleep one night, and so maybe I flipped on the TV, and then maybe I flipped to the history channel to watch the Sharpe mini-movie to see whether his performance was laughable ... and then maybe I spent the next hour and a half riveted. Geez, like I didn't already have enough to watch and catch up on (Felicity or Party of Five, anyone?) Thanks, Sean. Really. Thanks a lot.

I rewrote another two pages last night, and Sam said something that he wasn't supposed to say until fifteen pages or so later in the ultimate climactic scene. And so now I have to rewrite THAT scene on top of everything else. Sigh ... boys. (All right, so I was going to have to rewrite it anyway, based on other major things I've changed in these rewrites, but don't tell him that!)

I really should be reading Jude the Obscure right now, but Sam and Gina have activated the tractor beam. I must ... resist ... can't ... oh ... resistance is ... futile ... must write!

( January Reading List )

Despite the fact that I've been enjoying my writing again, there was still a weight pressing down on me. It was like I was doing that posture exercise where you balance books on top of your head, but there was a pebble between the books and my head, so it made it painful rather than something that required concentration. So I was lying in bed last night, agonizing over the scenes I still have to rewrite, as I am wont to do, and an idea suddenly struck me, an idea that would spice up the lead-up to the climax. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, as it's a subplot I introduced but kind of left hanging. Now, not only does it add variety to this part of the story, but it won't look like I just forgot that subplot like a lazy sheep. :) That being said, I'm off to write it.

Edited at 5:53 PM to add: Navy is the colour of mourning in my fantasy world. Is it crazy that, while writing a scene where they're thinking of a friend that passed, I thought of grabbing my navy bandana from my room? Is it even crazier that I fetched it and tied it around my arm for inspiration?

You know those lists of books where you put them in your journal and bold/underline the ones that you have read? I did a couple in a row back a couple of months or so. Anyways, here's another cool list that I just found, thanks to 0bsessed_reader. I have my goal to read at least 75 books this year, and there are still many slots to be filled for that list. Maybe I can pick up a few tips from this list.

Okay, so maybe this is just an excuse to scrawl comments on another book list. Still. It's books. Lots of pretty titles and authors. Enjoy. Bolded titles have been read, underlined have been started and not finished for lack of interest, lack of time, or lack of guts.

( BBC Top 200 Reads )

Cool list, ain't it? I'll have to go through and prioritize. I love books. Speaking of which, I just finished H.G. Wells' Time Machine. I thought the format was fascinating, how the book was almost entirely told in narrative through the mouth of the Time Traveller, and yet it never dragged or got dull. Anyone else care to chip in?

We live in an apartment building with reasonable managers and laundry on the first floor. It's clean, most of the people are decent, if not lively characters, and the managers have decorated the lobby with teddy bears, penguins, and various animals riding sleighs and toboggans, as well as a flashy -- yet adorable -- little Christmas tree. I grin every time I go down to check the mail. It's a nice apartment in a nice neighbourhood.

Except for the Bozos.

The Bozos are our next-door neighbours. We've seen them once, and even then it was just a passing glance. At all hours of the day, they have music on, and not gentle, melodic music either: thumping, head-pounding music with the bass turned up so far you can literally feel it. It wakes us up in the morning, it serenades us to sleep at night. We've tried tapping on the wall whenever it gets too loud. When they didn't get the point, we rapped a little louder, to no avail.

Now the music is louder, the bass is at an all-time high, and they're thumping back.

We've talked to the managers about the Bozos, but apparently from 9 A.M. to 10 P.M., they can't do anything. However, anything you can find on the tenant's rights clearly state that we are entitled to enjoy peace and quiet. We're not music haters. We would blast our music too, if we could. There's nothing like Josh Groban taking over your senses to get your spring cleaning done. We're not even asking them to turn it off completely. It would just be nice if they could have a little courtesy.

*sigh*

They've got some friends over tonight, which probably explains why they thumped back. Oh, for one day of peace ...

To anyone who got this far, thank you for your patience. I will now move on to the entertainment portion of this program.

At the corner store the other day, there was a teenaged boy ahead of us in line. He was about 5'10, 5'11, with broad shoulders and dark glasses. The thing that got me was the dreamy smile on his face. Even as he was punching in his PIN number, there it was ... a smile that told me there was something sweet on his mind. Something to do with the holidays, perhaps? Just the right gift found for someone special? He was about my age, maybe a bit younger, and I was glad to see another dreamer. They're rare these days, and the more beautiful for it. Oh, and he was reading Eragon.

I finished Sense and Sensibility. From the movie, I knew that Marianne would live, but I couldn't help nibbling my nails and crying when nobody thought she would make it, and crying some more when they realized that she would. I loved the book. I think it may have usurped Truth About Forever, or it's at least right up there. The one thing I don't enjoy about Austen's books (now that I've read two) is that you don't get to see much of the aftermath with the couples together by story's end, like Marianne and Colonel Brandon or Emma and Mr. Knightley. After investing so much time and emotional turmoil in hoping for their eventual togetherness, I was left with a few paragraphs of narrative. *sigh* Oh well. That's what imagination is for, I suppose.

My Christmas shopping is halfway done. ( For Mum I got ... )

I got in touch with one of my friends from the 'old days', who now owns her own house and has weathered the Canadian Army's medical training. It's been a while, so it was great to hear from her again. Another one of my friends (from the same group of the 'old days', incidentally) recently took part in an important conference and had one of his important quotes published in an important Francophone newspaper. Did I mention that he speaks French and two (or is it three?) dialects of Chinese as well as English, and is attempting to learn German?

There are all sorts of movies I want to see over the holidays, but one that I really wish I could see, I don't remember the name of. It was on TV three or four years ago, maybe on YTV, I don't remember which channel. But it was animated. It had talking animals in it, as well as people. I remember a mouse or some other small creature got caught in a blizzard and temporarily stayed with an underground creature. This may be the same one that ... oh, this is more than I've remembered in a long time! There was a toy factory, too, and the toys came alive, and little toy airplanes and toy soldiers marched against ... something. Or someone. And then there was also a sage little mouse with glasses, I think. And the scene I remember from near the end, a little boy is on a porch, and Santa comes. And it's night time.

Does this strike any bells? Virtual brownies (gooey fudgey goodness) to anyone who can enlighten me.

Edit: Good gosh, I figured it out. Mum's lists that she sent me upon reading this set me off in the right direction, and after much muttering, I found it. More and more things started to ring bells. It's about a little orphan boy named Jeffrey, and he has a loyal pet cat, and he repairs broken toys from the closed down factory to take to the other orphans. It's called The Night Before Christmas, made in 1994. And it's a UK DVD.

Is it the same deal with DVDs that it is for VHS, as in British ones won't play in Canada?

...

Anybody? Please?!

I went to see the new James Bond flick today with a pack of friends, and I wiggled in my seat throughout the opening credits because I couldn't shake the feeling that here was the beginning of a new 'era', so to speak. Sort of the same feeling my MumPilot says she got when she went to see the first ever Star Wars. This is the first Bond movie I've been to where it's a new Bond, and in the theatre. Does that make any sense at all? Daniel Craig is just fine and dandy, and Eva Green wasn't half-bad either. In fact, I think they're my favourite Bond/BondGirl combo to date. Too bad about the ending, though ... I'll admit to a few tears.

However, I'll also admit to breaking into heinous giggles when Bond first wears his tux, produced by the ever-helpful Vesper, not because it was a funny scene but because one of my friends hissed, "Your bow tie is crooked!"

November was my biggest reading month since before July (which is when I began keeping track of what books I was reading in a handy list). I have no idea why, but I thought, just for fun, that for those of you who are the type (like me!) to be curious about what people read and why, that I would write a rundown of November's curiosities here.

( Read at your own risk. )

I have a couple of Linkin Park songs in my collection, ones that I am fond of, but I usually can't stand their songs. I realized that I had a song with both Josh Groban and Linkin Park. What the?! I thought. Biting my lip, I pressed play. I always love Josh Groban, but when the Linkin Park singer's voice began to soar into my ear, I literally swooned, and I don't swoon. Who knew such a voice lay beneath the grungy exterior?

It's on loop. Seventh time through. Who knew?

I can't remember where I found this, I just saved it to my computer a while ago ... it's another 'bold what you've read' list, though I'm not going to add four new reads this time.

1984, George Orwell
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
The BFG, Roald Dahl
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
Dune, Frank Herbert
Emma, Jane Austen
Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
The Godfather, Mario Puzo
Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian [BN: Does taping the TV movie count?]
Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
His Dark Materials trilogy, Philip Pullman
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
Holes, Louis Sachar
I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
Katherine, Anya Seton
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, CS Lewis
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
The Lord Of The Rings, JRR Tolkien
Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blighton
Magician, Raymond E Feist
The Magus, John Fowles
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Mort, Terry Pratchett
Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
On The Road, Jack Kerouac
One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Perfume, Patrick Suskind
Persuasion, Jane Austen
The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen
The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
The Ragged Trousered Philantrhopists, Robert Tressell
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
The Stand, Stephen King
The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Tess Of The D'urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Twits, Roald Dahl
Ulysses, James Joyce
Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Winnie-the-Pooh, AA Milne
The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

You can find the icon-maker here.

Snatched from Gillian Chan.

1. Copy and paste
2. Bold the ones you have read
3. Add four recent reads to the list

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ender’s Game (The Ender Saga) - Orson Scott Card
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Hey Nostradamus! - Douglas Coupland
The Nature of Blood - Caryl Phillips
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules -Ed. David Sedaris
Yarn Harlot by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Spook by Mary Roach
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Suzanne Clarke
Marley and Me -- John Grogan
State of Fear - Michael Crichton
The Speed of Dark -- Elizabeth Moon
Interview with the Vampire -- Anne Rice
The Vampire Lestat -- Anne Rice
The Snow Fox -- Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
Anansi Boys -- Neil Gaiman
The Princess Bride -- William Goldman
Luck in the Shadows -- Lynn Flewelling
Arthur & George -- Julian Barnes
The Seven Dials Mystery -- Agatha Christie
The Stupidest Angel -- Christopher Moore
Sabine's Notebook -- Nick Bantock
The Eyre Affair -- Jasper Fforde
The Canterbury Tales -- Geoffrey Chaucer
The Singer's Crown -- Elaine Isaak
Ombria in Shadow -- Patricia A. McKillip
She's Come Undone -- Wally Lamb
The Big Over Easy -- Jasper Fforde
The History of Danish Dreams -- Peter Hoeg
Capote by Gerald Clarke
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Answered Prayers by Truman Capote
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Prince Ombra by Roderick Macleish
Soldier In The Mist by Gene Wolfe
Figures of Earth by James Branch Cabell
The Wasp Factory by Iain M. Banks
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq by John Crawford
Pushing Ice by Alistair Reynolds
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Knights of Black and White by Jack Whyte
Coronado by Dennis Lehane
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Anne Frank remembered : the story of the woman who helped to hide the Frank family by Miep Gies and Alison Leslie Gold
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Darkhenge by Catherine Fisher

I have a lot of work to do.