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Broad Street is a novel that focuses around the life of Kit Greene and her new-found best friend, Margo Bevilacqua. This novel opens up by telling the story of how Kit recently broke up with her cheating boyfriend, Dale. Dale has always been a musician and Kit has always been in the background. Through Dale, Kit has gained valuable experience regarding the ins and outs of the Philadelphia music scene. On the downside, through Dale, Kit seems to have lost two very valuable things: 1. Her sense of identity and 2. Her voice.
Breakups are hard for everyone, especially when the relationship was long-term, and Kit is no exception. Weiser does an excellent job setting the mood and showing the emotional side of Kit's breakup in a way that is not self-depreciating or self-pitying. Sure, Kit has a broken heart and is making some stupid decisions as she tries to pick up the pieces, but the last thing in the world Kit wants is your sympathy or worst yet – your pity. Instead, Kit is determined to move on with her life and recreate her new Dale-free identity.
In order to help Kit out of her slump her friend Noelle invites her to a party at her friend Pete and his girlfriend, Margo's house. Kit and Margo immediately bond over their shared interest in music and their love for female musicians. The solution to all of Kit's problem seems to rest in the creation of a new all-girl band, one that includes her as the bass player and backing vocals and Margo as the lead singer.
But starting an all-girl band is not as easy or as simple as it sounds. It involves constantly going through drummer after drummer, a fierce cat fight with another competing band, the Pussy Willows, endless dates and night of regret, friendships and love and heartbreaks and fights. The music never stops, but neither does the drama.
At it's surface, Broad Street was exactly the kind of novel that I should have loved. It was set in Philadelphia, the same city I live twenty minutes away from and travel to each day for work. I saw much of myself in Kit – she worked in Philadelphia as a copywriter and loved music. I work in Philadelphia as a Web Content Writer and love music as well. We've both made out fair amount of mistakes with dating and relationships in the past and seem to be searching for something more in life.
Also, the book was published by Philadelphia Stories and dedicated to Carla Spataro. Many of my professors at Rowan University worked for or were somehow involved with this publisher and Carla Spataro used to be a professor in my department. Although I don't know Christine Weiser and am not familiar with any of her other works, I am very familiar with the publisher and Carla Spataro.
However, the book ended up falling flat and being a bit on the disappointing side. It wasn't completely terrible, but it did seem a bit long-winded and pointless at time. I kept waiting for something big to happen, but nothing too interesting ever really did happen. The band practiced and had drama. They got a show and their was drama but they still played. Kit got drunk and had sex with someone from one of the bands and woke up with a lot of regret the next day if she remembered it at all. Charlie is some guy who is sweet that she never gives a fair chance to who is always kind of in the background. Margo always has a big mouth and is kind of bad ass but not the main character. The end.
I really wanted to see Kit make a name for herself or find herself but I'm not sure she ever really did. It seems like the band is close to getting a record deal at the end of the novel, but you're not entirely sure if they do or not. It kind of seems like the end of the band may be within hindsight since Margo wants to go back to school to study agriculture. Margo seems to find herself more than Kit ever does. Margo is also in many ways a much more interesting character and I almost wonder why she wasn't the main character to begin with. I would definitely be interested in reading a sequel if it was told from her point of view.
Another thing that turned me off with this novel is the writing itself. The writing was very clumsy at times, especially towards the end. There were many typos especially in regards to having some missing words. I liked the first person point of view, but I think it could have been stronger. Despite being in Kit's head through the entire novel I still felt like I didn't really know her or what she was thinking or feeling. She still felt really distant to me and again I'm not sure this was the right character to use as the narrator; the novel probably would've benefited from having Margo as the main character and narrator.
I don't regret reading Broad Street, but it's not something I'd recommend running to the book store or going out of your way to read, either. 3 out of 5 stars.
DISCLAIMER: I am a MA in Writing Student at Rowan University who has recently had the opportunity to study under Professor Atwood. The following review may be biased.
When I saw that I would be required to read MC Atwood's debut young adult novel, The Devils You Know for my Seminar II class this semester as part of my MA in Writing program at Rowan University, I was very excited. Last fall I had a wonderful experience studying under Professor Atwood by taking her Writing Genre Fiction course. Atwood is hilarious and one of the kindest individuals I've ever met. She is also seriously talented as both a writer and an editor.
The Devils You Know was a real pleasure to read. I love that while the book is Atwood's favorite genre – horror – it is also still young adult. While terrifying, it was also extremely relatable. This novel is about more than a creepy haunted house with scary clowns and dolls (seriously…so many dolls…). It's a story about friendship and finding yourself in the midst of the terror known as high school.
In the beginning of the novel, Paul, Violet, Dylan, Ashley, and Gretchen don't know each other very well for the most part. Paul is seen as being the cool black guy that everyone loves. Violet is the quiet "nice" girl that no one knows very well, but Paul has a crush on, and she is beginning to develop feelings for as well. Dylan tries a little too hard to be a bad ass and I can really see him as being a bit of a punk rocker/skater kid. Ashley is the stuck up, rich, right-winged Republican princess that owns the school and absolutely HATES Gretchen (the feeling appears to be mutual), and Gretchen is Dylan's partner whom is every bit as weird and tough as he is.
The quintent rarely ever crosses paths and most certainly wouldn't call each other friends. However, when the opportunity to visit the legendary Boulder House on a class field trip presents itself, all five members of the group sign up and find themselves forced to not only share in the same space and experiences, but to also work together as a team and get to REALLY know the truth about each other. Sometimes the truth can be completely alarming and sometimes you think you know someone (as is the case of Dylan and Gretchen), but later realize you don't know that person at all.
For instance – who would've guessed that Paul likes to wear tights and role play during medieval events? Nice girls finish last…and get taken advantage of as seen by the way Mr. Rhinehart takes advantage of Violet by having an affair with her the day she turns 18. Dylan is not actually Dylan at all…he's John Michael…and despite his foul mouth and constant use of the word "yo", he's not as tough as he wants people to think he is. He's actually a very conservative Christian who attends church every week with his rich parents. On the other end of the spectrum, Ashley isn't the conservative Christian she wants everyone to believe she is. In fact, she's gay and she's trying everything to hide her true identity from everyone, especially her Republican parents. After all, her father IS a well-known senator who HATES anyone that's not straight. If he knew the truth about her it would destroy him and the rest of her family. What's worst – she doesn't hate Gretchen at all. In fact, she's in love with her. As for Gretchen? She's tough because she has to be, not because she wants to be. Her family is on food stamps and she makes her own clothes because she has no choice. Her mother is ill and the family constantly struggles with money.
In order to survive the house and everything in it – from demonic angels to creepy evil dolls to scary clowns to even whales and everything in between, the quintent must work together. However, when the quintent's secrets are revealed to one another, they all feel such a strong sense of shame that they want to go through the house alone. However, they later learn that while they each have their own secrets, it doesn't make them less and if anything, knowing the truth about who they are is what will not only bring them closer together, but also force them to want to stick together to support each other and to make it out of the house alive and beyond the house, to make it through high school alive, too.
Some of the novel's strengths lie in the extreme attention to details, particularly with the imagery and descriptions of the house. It's a very unique and clever book that while sticking to the main conventions of the horror genre, doesn't fall into the trap of cliches. For example: there's an entire room dedicated to whales and aquatic lives. I've never been afraid of whales and squids/octapuses, but I am now! I also really appreciated the way the novel took the very successful risk of having multiple narrators/points of views. Each chapter was told by a different character – Ashley, Gretchen, Dylan, Violet, and/or Paul. This allowed the reader to get up close and personal with all of the characters. Atwood did a great job of breaking them all down and creating an equal balance between each character's voice so it never felt like you had too much of one character and not enough of another character. It also never got too confusing or overwhelming; five seemed like the perfect number.
So why four stars and not five? While I really enjoyed this book and struggled to put it down, it wasn't perfect. There were still some things that bothered me with this book. One of the main things I didn't like was Dylan's character. He really annoyed me. I didn't like his dialogue and I had trouble believing that's how he would actually talk. I think there was an instance in the beginning where he said something along the lines of "I remembered to turn my swag on" which made me cringe. Do people even use the term "swag" anymore? I thought that died around 2008. "Fuck-a-doodle-doo" also sounded really awkward to me. I could believe him saying it once or twice, but constantly throughout the book? And no one ever comments on how weird it sounds? I had trouble buying it. Lastly, by the end of the book I was really annoyed by his constant use of the word "yo". I think he said it but I feel like that would be something he'd say in the beginning of a sentence, not the end and reading it vs. hearing it – it reads kind of awkwardly and annoyed me as a reader. Lastly – his name is something completely different than what everyone calls him and no one knew this? I feel like the school would at least have his legal name down and probably call him by it on the first day of class. I just didn't buy that as being his secret.
Also, reading this as a conservative Christian, I realize I'm a little biased but I did take some issues with the content of the novel. At times I felt like I was being attacked based on my views and like I was supposed to apologize or feel bad about being a conservative, Republican, Christian. I go to church every week the way Dylan/John Michael did – I don't think that's a "bad" thing in itself.
Lastly, demonic/fallen angels? The angels which are typically symbols for good, were made into symbols for evil. I wasn't really okay with that imagery. I felt like the idea of Christianity throughout the novel was being shown in a negative light. Some of the jabs against Christianity/Republicans (such as the subtle George Bush reference…) felt a little over-done/cheap. I also thought of the impact/influence they may have on the novel's target teenage audience which made me a little uncomfortable.
But overall I did really like this novel. It was very well researched, well written, and engaging. 4 out of 5 stars.
I recently enrolled in Professor Julia Chang's Writing the Memoir class at Rowan University. One of the first books she assigned for us to read is Nick Flynn's now out of print memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. My first impression of this book was 1. There must be a reason why this out of print followed by 2. I trust my professor's judgement, despite this book being out of print, it must be good.
However, I found this memoir to be pretty "meh" overall.
The main overarching theme in this memoir is the art of telling stories or searching for stories throughout life. I love that the book works towards this theme and that the theme is supposed to be the glue that holds the book together, however, I didn't really realize this was the book's theme until the very end. We get hints at this theme, but it's not made quite as clear as I would have liked it to have been.
Nick Flynn is a twenty-something year old man living in Boston. Growing up, he never had the opportunity to really know his father. Everything that Nick knows about his father is through stories – those told by others like his mother and those from the occasional letters that he receives from his father.
Individuals like Nick's mother paint a pretty depressing picture of what Nick's father is really like. Nick learns that his father is an alcoholic, that he's a conman with a number of scams and schemes over the years including robbing banks, and that the police are constantly looking for him due to his failure to pay child support.
Nick also learns through letters that his father writes to him while in prison that his father is a writer. Nick's father often writes him to tell him that his novel is going well and is on its way to being the next great American novel — earning the same ranks and acclaim as classics like The Catcher in the Rye. However, Nick never actually gets to see the story and has no way of knowing whether or not this story actually exists or if it's merely another one of his father's famous stories.
Nick's own story is very similar to that of his father's. He too, becomes an alcoholic and gets himself involved in drugs, namely cocaine. Nick also becomes involved in a life of crime while working on the boat smuggling drugs in and out. Is he destined to become his father?
It isn't until Nick starts working for a homeless shelter, Pine Street, one of the largest homeless shelters in the country, that he meets his father. His homeless father becomes one of the residents. However, Nick shows no sympathy to his father. There are often times places when he doesn't even seem to want to be around his father. It's as if he'd rather hear about his father through the grapevine. Nick wants to know who his father really is, but he seems to be afraid to do so because he is so afraid of becoming his father, something that he seems to be on track to do.
At the very end of the book, Nick finally does interview his father along with other father-like figures who were involved with his mother before her suicide. He finds that his father's book does in fact exist, but it's actually a musical, much of which seems to focus on his alcoholism and how it lead him to prison. While Nick admits that about thirty pages of it are pretty good, he admits that it's definitely not the masterpiece that his father made it out to be. He reflects on what this means by saying:
What would I do if it was a masterpiece, an overlooked classic? What then? Would our blood be redeemed? Would time be made whole? Would I still have such ambivalence about calling myself a poet? Would I have more? Would I have some idea of what it means to be a father, would I still be terrified of becoming one? He cannot die, he tells me, until his work is complete. Perhaps I am digging his grave, perhaps the book you have in your hands is the coin for his eyes. Perhaps the story of his masterpiece is his life raft, what he's invented to keep himself afloat.
This is really the highlight of the book and where all of the little stories weaved throughout begin to make sense. However, After trudging through over 300 pages to get to this point, I was a little exhausted as a reader. The book felt as though it dragged on a bit and could have easily been told in only 200 or so pages. Once the book got to the point and began to make sense, it was over.
Still, as a whole it is obvious that Nick Flynn had an interesting story to tell and it made for an interesting read, even if it was a bit cluttered, confusing, and long-winded at times.
Hey guys! I know I've been talking about my MA project/untitled memoir a lot lately, but today I want to talk about something completely different. For those of you who may not know, I took a genre writing course this semester. I'll be honest and admit that I initially only took it for the credits. I was going to take an American Sign Language course as an independent study originally, but because the course was an undergraduate level course and I'm a graduate student I'd have to conduct some kind of research study around it which calls for IRB approval and a whole complicated string of events. Between teaching two classes, working full time, and taking two graduate courses, it was just way too much so I backed out. There were not any non-fiction writing courses being offered this semester, so that's where writing genre fiction came into play.
It's been quite an interesting experience. Not only do I have little to no experience in genre writing, but I also never read any kind of genre fiction. I love classic literature, young adult/literary fiction, and non-fiction. Throughout the semester I have had to read and write mystery, horror, and most recently, fantasy/sci-fi. Although I did not like writing a mystery and reading House of Leaves or Mama Day, I found my overall experience in genre writing to be pretty enjoyable. Professor Atwood is a sweetheart and one of the most fun and kind-hearted professors I have ever had. I really wish I could take her publishing course next semester! If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend taking any of her courses. It is guaranteed to be a good time with many cat videos and references. 😉
The last project I completed for this course was an extension/revision of my fantasy short story, now titled "Moore Magical Garden". This story was inspired by the very few fantasy novels I don't hate like Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells and Jodi Lynn Anderson's Tiger Lily.
I also drew some inspiration from my own personal life. Lenny the Leprechaun and all of his sarcasm was largely inspired by my dad who is the most sarcastic person I've ever met. He also gave me the idea to have Lenny show up to the well with a beer bottle and to make him drunk.
As a Christian, I don't believe in magic. The bible warns in multiple places against following magic, witchcraft, and any kind of sorcery, which also had some influence on this story.
This story is not by any means perfect, but coming from someone who's main writing focus is non-fiction, I was pretty proud of how this revision came out and I wanted to share it. Feel free to read below and leave a comment on what you think!
Moore Magical Garden
Magnolia was born in her family's famous magical garden, known as the Moore Magical Garden. She was tall and tender with strong, light pink wings and a full head of silky blonde hair. According to her parents, she was born right under a bed of freshly blossomed magnolia buds. "She'll be beautiful and strong, just like the flowers are," he father said. Her parents both agreed that there was no better name for her than that of the flower, so they decided to call her Magnolia, or Maggie for short.
As a child, Maggie loved growing up in the Moore Magical Garden. Her family was extremely wealthy as they made a living off of their magical flowers. No one knew for sure how the magic worked, but Maggie's mother, Gloria, would use unique blends of all different kinds of flowers and plants within the garden to cure all of the villagers of their ailments or to bring them whatever their hearts desired whether it be love, wisdom, strength, confidence, healing, happiness, or even just some good old sex. The Moore Magical Garden operated under one motto, "Flower power in one hour." Meaning they could choose the right flower for any condition and after baking it in just 1 hour or less, have the perfect recipe for whatever you needed.
The Moore Magical Garden was located in the far end of the village away from the ocean where the mermaids resided and the woods where Sasquatch was rumored to roam. Sometimes they received visits from other tribes who liked to roam the forest like the dwarfs, elves, and goblins. Maggie loved it when the unicorns visited. She'd often spend time brushing their long, rainbow manes and riding them through the rows of flowers, being careful as to not crush any of the budding plants. She was often frightened by the goblins, and horrified by how hideously ugly the elves were with their long, pointy ears, big noses, and short statues. However, her parents told her that all of those tribes were harmless and worthy of her honor, respect, and attention. It was the foreigners she had to fear, they warned.
The gnomes, her parents said, were the most trustworthy of all of the tribes, other than the fairies of course. They weren't always the prettiest creatures in the world, or even the strongest, but her parents said they were the most loyal. "Find yourself a good gnome and you've got a friend for life," her father would say. They were generally always agreeable and extremely hard workers, especially when placed in their natural habitat – the garden.
Maggie's parents decided to hire a gnome to help them to tend the garden. His name was Gunter and he was 34 years old, meaning he was only a few years away from ripening to the age of 40, which everyone knows means "time to settle down" in gnome world. He worked hard and vowed to always protect the Moore Magical Garden and to ensure that the secrets of the magic always remained secrets. For these reasons Mr. and Mrs. Moore promised Gunter that on his 40th birthday they would reward him with their prized possession – their daughter Maggie's hand in marriage. This would ensure that the garden always remained within the family, that their daughter was well taken care of, and that the garden remained in pristine condition with the magic not only intact, but a mystery throughout all of the village for many years to come. Mr. and Mrs. Moore and Gunter the garden gnome kept this their secret for many years to come.
As a child, Maggie came to grow to appreciate the freedom she had to roam around the magical garden and smell the sweet aroma of all of the budding flowers and plants. Her mother, Gloria, named after the famous morning glories, would often take her through each of the aisles of the garden to teach her about the different magical powers each flower or plant brought.
"Roses." Gloria said, "Just a sprinkle of petals and you'll be well on your way to a beautiful new beginning."
"What kind of new beginning?" Maggie asked.
"It depends on the color," Gloria explained as she pointed to each of the varieties. "Red will bring you love. Pink will help you to feel more appreciated. White is for marriage – not to be confused with love. Orange will bring you passion, which you'll need after marriage. Yellow will give you new friends, for those not quite ready for marriage. In your case, stick to the yellow ones for now, please," she smiled.
Maggie looked up a Gloria and smiled. "Yellow it is then," she said.
"Give me your hand, Maggie. I want to show you something else."
Maggie held out her hand and Gloria pricked it with the thorn of a rose.
"Ouch! What did you do that for?" Maggie said as she clenched her finger in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
"You'll see. Follow me."
Maggie followed Gloria back to a row of aloe plants. Even though she's walked by them dozens of times she never quite understood what they were for. They looked strange and kind of ugly after seeing the beauty in the roses.
"Put your hand out again," Gloria said as she broke off a piece of the aloe plant.
Maggie put her hand with her bloody finger out in front of her. Gloria took it and squeezed the aloe plant over top of it until a gel-like substance poured over it. She rubbed it into the wound until it stopped bleeding.
"Aloe. For when you get a little too close to the roses. Roses while beautiful, still have their thorns and dangers about them. Much like the love and relationships many of them promise," she explained. Maggie nodded. She understood now that aloe brought healing, but she wasn't sure if she understood anything about the love part. At only 11 years old, love was still a mystery to her.
As Maggie grew older, she became more and more beautiful over time. By the time she was 16 and only 1 year away from her secret marriage to Gunter, her platinum blonde locks began to darken and change to a reddish tone and her wings grew larger and an even deeper shade of pink. Sometimes, Mr. and Mrs. Moore could swear they saw a twinkle in her eye, too. She was becoming even more beautiful than all of the roses within the garden, and when the other tribes from the village came to pick up their magical baked goods, they took noticed.
"My, oh my, that Maggie girl of yours sure is a beauty," a lonely dwarf commented one day. "I only ordered a special helping of your slumber loaf bread to help me to fall asleep at night, but now I'm wishing I would've ordered a slice of lustful loving pie. Maybe I'd get lucky and end up falling asleep with her tonight," he said. Dwarves were never very good with social skills, it's why they had so much trouble making friends.
"Take a bottle of water lily juice on your way out." Gloria said, "It's on the house."
"Sweet! Thanks, ma'am!" the lonely dwarf replied.
"Water lily juice?" Mr. Moore asked.
"Yes, to cool his passions and purify his heart to ensure he keeps it in his pants and away from our daughter," she said.
"I can fix this problem tonight," Mr. Moore said. He knew that as Maggie grew older and more beautiful, she'd have more than just lonely dwarves to worry about, especially if Mr. and Mrs. Moore were to keep their promise of marriage of their daughter to Gunter.
That night Mr. Moore went deep into his garden making sure to pick up as many garden stones as he could along the way. He carried them all into the garden shed located at the end of the garden and pulled out some supplies from the shed like his trusty hammer, a bucket of concrete, a trowel for smoothing over the concrete, and some wood. From there he set to work.
Mr. Moore spent hours in the garden shed. When his wife, Gloria tried to call him for dinner he responded in a muffled voice, "Can't. Sorry. Busy," and continued working straight through supper. An empty stomach was no big deal to him, he knew how important his work was. Finally after hours of tedious labor, his work was finally complete: it was a well made out of garden stones and concrete with a little wooden roof over top and a bucket hanging over it. The well was ten feet deep and only three feet wide. Mr. Moore stood back and admired his work. "Ah, she's a beauty. A beautiful well to protect my beautiful daughter," he said before calling Maggie out to further admire his work.
"What do you think?" he asked her.
"It's beautiful, but I don't understand what we need a well for. The pond is only a few minutes away," she said. She had grown accustomed to fetching water from the pond outside of the garden. She loved visiting the pond because her beloved unicorns were known to frolic there at all hours of the day.
Mr. Moore let out a sigh. "This well isn't for water…" he began.
"Really? Then what is it for?" she asked.
Mr. Moore hesitated before explaining, "Maggie, this is your new home. You must live deep inside this well and you must not come out for any reason within the next year."
"What? A WHOLE YEAR? INSIDE THIS DEEP WELL? WHY? WON'T I DROWN?" She asked. The idea of being trapped in such a tiny space unable to view the beauty of the garden or mingle with the other tribes horrified her.
"No. There well will be completely hallowed with no water inside. You're getting older now, Mags, and you are too beautiful. The dwarves tried to pick you up the other day," he said.
"Well…was he a nice dwarf?" she asked, hopefully.
"Mags, you know what the dwarves are like…" he said.
Maggie sighed. "Okay, but what happens after a year?" she asked, afraid of what the answer must be.
"After one year you will be married to Gunter the garden gnome. Then you will be free to roam the garden again, unless he tells you not to. You will belong to him and you must obey everything he tells you to do."
"But I don't love him!" Maggie contested.
"Tough luck, sweet heart. He will be good for you and better yet for our garden. Now, climb in this well. For the next year, you can think about all of the ways in which you may grow to love Gunter. We'll send you your food and water through the bucket twice a day, once in the morning and once at night.
Maggie sighed. She knew it was no use arguing it, her parents had the final word. Always. After all, they were the owners of the Moore Magic Garden. Without the garden, Maggie might as well be a fly, rather than the radiant, beautiful fairy she's blossomed into over the years.
Mr. and Mrs. Moore's plans to protect Maggie from other tribes and potential suitors through the village sounded great in theory. The well was far too deep for most of the village tribes to even consider climbing down, and no one would ever guess that Maggie would be hiding down below the bottom of the well. Since the fairies were the only tribes with wings, they didn't have to worry much about anyone flying down in the well, either. Even the fairies weren't a threat; everyone knew that all fairies, except for Maggie who was known for her unconventional ways and overall fearlessness, were afraid of the dark and what could possibly be darker than the inside of a deep and narrow well? However, there was one tribe they failed to consider; a foreign tribe residing outside of their village but beginning to make their pilgrimage throughout Germany in hopes of finding buried treasure, or gold, more specifically: the leprechauns.
Maggie was sitting deep against the side of the well braiding her hair to past the time as she waited for her mother and father to send down her daily food rations in the well's bucket when she heard a loud noise.
Maggie moved towards the front of the well and looked up at the opening. Could this be her daily food rations? Maybe her mother was sending down her famous rose petal jam spread across a French baguette or Maggie's favorite lilac blossom almond scones. She imagined they must've fallen out of the bucket causing the loud noise.
However, when Maggie looked up she didn't see any of her mother's magical food creations. Instead, she saw an ugly leprechaun. He stood approximately 3 feet tall; very short compared to Maggie's height of 5'7". His skin was dry and wrinkly and had a pale green tint to it. Maggie couldn't get a good glimpse of what his hair looked like since it was hidden underneath of an over-sized top hat with a four leaf clover in the middle, but she did notice he had strands of bright red hair poking from the sides that matched his red neatly trimmed beard. He was wearing a tiny green tuxedo with pants that were a little too short and that revealed knee-high green and white socks. He carried a bottle of Guinness in his hand.
"Greetings from Ireland! My name is Lennnnnn……" he began to say before Maggie started screaming.
"WHAT ON THE EARTH ARE YOU??????" She screamed.
"That's no way to greet a foreigner," he said.
"Sorry." Maggie said, "But really, who ARE you?"
"It is I, Lenny the Leprechaun," the leprechaun replied.
"What are you doing here?" Maggie asked.
"What do you think kid? I'm a leprechaun…" he said.
"I don't know…don't you have a rainbow with a pot of gold to look for?" Maggie replied.
"Have you seen any rain lately?" he asked.
"Come to think of it, no I can't remember the last time it rained," she said.
"Bingo. But that don't mean that a leprechaun can't still search for gold," he said.
"Oh okay. Sorry but there isn't any in the well." Maggie replied, "There isn't much of anything down here," she said sadly.
"Maybe not, but I bet I could make a few bucks off this here garden of yours," he said. "I heard it was worth a fortune," he said.
"You want to sell my family's garden?" Maggie asked.
"No. No. Not at all. I mean profit off of it. Aren't the flowers magical or something?" Lenny asked.
"I can't tell you that," Maggie replied.
"Hmmm. Okay. How about this…you tell me which flowers are magical and I'll grant you three wishes," he said.
"You got yourself a deal…if I can get the wishes first," she said.
"No, then I'll give you the wishes and still won't know a damn thing about these magical flowers." Lenny said, "How about a compromise? For every wish I give you you'll show me a magical flower," he suggested.
"You got yourself a deal!" Maggie exclaimed.
"Okay pretty lady, what's your first wish?" Lenny asked.
"I wish I could get out of this well!" Maggie said without hesitation.
"Works for me. I imagine you'll need to be out of this well to show me the magical flowers." Lenny said, "Now close your eyes."
Maggie closed her eyes while Lenny threw a handful of green glitter over her face and chanted, "Glitter green, nice and mean, come heaven or hell, allow Maggie to escape from this well."
When Maggie opened her eyes, she was outside of the well and free to roam around the garden.
"Okay, now you owe me a magical flower," Lenny said.
Maggie took her time walking around the garden. She knew that Lenny and the other outsiders didn't know this, but the truth was EVERY flower and growing thing in the garden was magical. The question for her now was, which forms of magic did she want Lenny to know about?
Maggie stopped in front of a long row of tall, fully blossomed sunflowers. Perfect, she thought.
"We're here," Maggie said.
"The sunflowers are magical?" Lenny asked.
"Yes," Maggie said.
"How so?" he asked.
Maggie bent down one of the tall stems and ripped off a fully blossomed sunflower. She pulled off each of the golden yellow petals and crumbled them in her hands. After all of petals were crumbled together she rubbed them on Lenny's cheek.
"Hey! What in the hell are you doing?" Lenny screamed as he backed away and swatted Maggie's hand away.
"Showing you your first magical flower," Maggie replied.
"How is rubbing crushed sunflowers on my face magic?" Lenny asked.
"Sunflowers contain a special oil that when applied to the skin can act as a moisturizer, reduce wrinkles, and also serve as an anti-aging formula," Maggie stated matter-of-factly. Her skin was perfectly flawless and had a natural glow to it that made it look like the sun was constantly shinning down on her and kissing her face. It was obvious that she had used the magical sunflowers on her own skin.
"Are you trying to say that I'm ugly?" Lenny asked.
"No, no, no. Not at all!" Maggie lied, "I'm just uhhh suggesting it because it will help to highlight your uhhh wonderful cheekbones."
"I always did have some pretty bitchin' cheek bones," Lenny said as he took another swig of his Guinness. Maggie thought about correcting his language; she never liked cursing, but she decided it would be best to just let it go. After all, Lenny had been drinking ever since he arrived. She wondered if he might be drunk and if so, what type of drunk he would turn out to be. So far, he didn't seem like an angry drunk. Sarcastic? Yes, but she could handle sarcasm. Violence is what scared her.
"Time for my next wish?" Maggie asked.
"Sure," Lenny said.
"I wish for you to get rid of Gunter," Maggie said.
"Who the heck is Gunter?" Lenny asked.
"A garden gnome who works for us. My family hired him many years ago," Maggie explained.
"What did he ever do to you?" Lenny asked.
"See, that's just it: nothing. My family arranged for us to be married though." She said.
"You don't sound too happy about that," he said.
"I don't want to marry someone I don't love," she said.
"Then why don't you just tell your parents 'no'?" Lenny asked.
"It's not that simple. They want me to marry Gunter to ensure that the garden stays safe and that all of our secrets with the magic stay secret," she explained.
Lenny let out a laugh. "Don't you realize you're already broken all of those golden rules?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" Maggie asked.
"Hellllooooo. Beauty sunflowers? You already let me in on one secret and you owe me two more," Lenny said.
"Oh. Yeah. Right…" Maggie said unapologetically.
"Yeah so, I mean if you're trying to respect your parents wishes, there's no use you already messed that one up," Lenny said.
"But can you make Gunter go away, anyway?" Maggie asked.
"Sure. I'll see what I can do, close your eyes."
Maggie closed her eyes and this time Lenny grabbed for the black glitter and threw it over her face while reciting, "Gunter works day and night, but now it's time for him to take flight. I wish I may, I wish I might, give Maggie the strength she needs to fight."
"Now what?" Maggie asked as she opened her eyes, "Is he gone?"
"Not yet, but he will be," Lenny admitted. "I need a favor from you first."
"Hey no fair! You still owe me a wish!" Maggie said.
"I need your help for this one. Are there any flowers in your garden that aren't used for good? Anything that you give people that maybe you don't particularly like or aren't particularly happy with?"
"I think mama gave a dwarf some lilies the other day to purify his heart. She thought he was trying to pick me up or something," Maggie said.
"Okay, I need you to do better than that," Lenny said. Are any of the flowers dare I say…toxic?" he asked.
Maggie thought long and hard. It was as if she was manually searching each and every flower encyclopedia stored away in her mind, looking for the perfect flower. Finally, she said "follow me" before taking Lenny to the far left of the garden where there was a field of pale purple bell-shaped flowers surrounded by green leaves and black, perfectly rounded berries. The flowers were locked away behind a gated fence, away from all other plants.
"Black berries? This is your poison?" Lenny criticized.
"No. Belladonnas." Maggie explained, "One of the deadliest plants in the entire world. That's why we keep them locked away from everything else."
"Okay. I can work with this. Let me think," Lenny said. "How about we pick some of these berries and tell Gunter here we've got him some nice blackberries for lunch?"
Maggie shook her head. "Nope, won't work. He'll know as soon as he sees it it's not a blackberry."
"Okay. How about we crush it and make some tea then? Don't you have some chamomile around here we can mix it with?" Lenny asked.
"Excellent idea!" Maggie said, "I'll pull the chamomile plants and I can make up the tea mixture. Dad keeps hot water in the shed for when he's working late at night and wants coffee or tea, so I can just borrow some. He won't even notice it's gone."
"Sounds good, but how about you hand me the supplies to make the tea and then you can go off and find Gunter. I don't want to scare the guy."
"Sounds good" Maggie said as she picked off the flowers and berries and handed them to Lenny.
Lenny entered into the garden shed and found the water right away and began the process of making the tea mixture. He rubbed the chamomile plant in his hand until the petals began to crumble. Next, he crushed up the berries as much as he could until they were nearly liquified. He mixed it all together and poured the hot water over it into a teacup he found sitting on a table in the corner of the shed.
"That shall do," Lenny said as he admired his work. He left the shed and found Maggie standing with Gunter just a few rows back. He walked over towards them.
"Lenny! Meet Gunter. Gunter is our family's garden gnome that was hired to help out with our garden. Gunter, meet Lenny."
"Hi, nice to meet you. Which tribe are you from?" Gunter asked.
"Uhm. I'm a uhhh…Elf," Lenny lied. He knew if he said he was a leprechaun he would risk being thrown out of the garden. Gnomes and leprechauns have always been mortal enemies, especially when it came between the Irish leprechauns like Lenny and German gnomes like Gunter.
"Oh cool. Where are you from?" Gunter asked.
"Where all of the elves are from, the North Pole, silly!" Lenny said.
"Actually we have some elves that are local to our forest here in Germany, but they sure look a lot different from you," Gunter said. The North Pole sounds pretty far from Germany. What brings you here?" Gunter asked.
"I uh invited him over for tea," Maggie said.
"Young lady you shouldn't be inviting anyone over without your parents' permission. And hey, what are you doing outside of your well?" Gunter asked.
Maggie rolled her eyes and began to answer before Lenny interrupted her. "Enough of the chit-chat. Do you want some of my famous Christmas tea fresh from the North Pole or not?" Lenny asked.
"Imported Christmas tea? Count me in!" Gunter said as he took a big gulp.
Within seconds, Gunter dropped dead to the ground.
"GUNTER? ARE YOU OKAY?" Maggie screamed.
"What do you think? He just drank belladonna tea," Lenny said.
"You killed him!" she said.
"Well, yeah. You said you wanted him gone," Lenny said.
"Yeah GONE. Not dead!"
"Sweetheart, we all have to die someday. Pick your poison. Would you rather die alone in a tower, with Gunter, a man you don't love, or another method of your own choosing?
"Another method of my own choosing," Maggie answered with hesitation.
"Okay, glad we got that taken care of. Now honey, can I grant you another wish?" Lenny asked.
"Can we get rid of this body first? It stinks and I don't think my parents would be happy to find it like this," Maggie said.
"Is that your wish?" he asked.
"Yes," Maggie replied.
"Sure thing." Lenny said. "You know the drill."
Maggie closed her eyes as Lenny poured black glitter over her before chanting, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Get rid of Gunter's smelly dead body is a MUST!"
Maggie began to open her eyes before Lenny screamed out, "Keep them closed! Wish in progress!"
"Okay I will!" Maggie said, "But is something burning?"
Lenny was rubbing two sticks together that he pulled off from the nearby apple tree. It was beginning to spark and form a fire. Just as the flames began to rise and inch closer to his hands he threw the burning sticks over to where Gunter's dead body laid.
"Okay you can open them now. And yes, it's burning baby. Burn, baby, burn."
"You lite Gunter on fire???" Maggie exclaimed.
"Sweetheart, he's already dead. You wanted me to get rid of the body. I figured cremation was the easiest method."
"You are cruel and unbelievable!" Maggie said.
"You say that, and yet here I am making all of your wishes come true," Lenny smirked.
"Why do you have to be so evil? Can't you just use some of your leprechaun magic instead? Kind of like how my family and I use our fairy magic?" Maggie asked.
"Sweetheart, I hate to break it to you like this, but someone's got to tell you someday. Magic ain't real," Lenny explained.
"What do you mean magic isn't real?" Maggie asked. "My parents having been using it in their recipes and making a fortune off of it for ages. And what about you? You got me out of this well and you got rid of Gunter and you still owe me one more wish," she said.
"Honey, your parents are better con artists than even I am, and I never thought that could even be possible," Lenny admitted. "They use ingredients in their recipes that have healing benefits or are good for you in some way, shape, or form. But that ain't magic. It's all in everyone's head. For example, if I want to fall in love I'm going to buy one of those love pies or whatever it is your mother makes and then I'm going go out and claim to be in love because it's what I think will happen, what I want to happen. But I don't need no damn pie to make me fall in love. I just need to have that idea planted in my head. And I didn't get you out of the well, you flew out. You were just so focused on the magic you didn't even realize it was you all along. And I poisoned and killed Gunter. What's so magical about poison, Maggie? Poison is poison as murder is murder. I'm not too proud to admit now that I'm a murderer."
"So, if none of this magic is real, then my entire life, this entire Moore Magical garden -it's all a lie?" she asked.
"Yes," Lenny said.
"What happens now?" Maggie asked.
"You're free. When's the last time you were free?" Lenny asked.
Maggie thought long and hard. "I have never been free," she replied.
"The gate is open. Write your own story," he said.
"What about you?" Maggie asked.
"I can take care of myself," Lenny said.
Hey guys! For those of you who don't already know I am currently enrolled in a Writing Genre Fiction course at Rowan University as I work towards completing my MA in Writing. I took this class because I had to take something. I've never really been into genre fiction (although I do like horror) and I am actually more of a non-fiction writer which is completely different from genre fiction. This class has definitely taken me out of my comfort zone as a writer on more than one occasion.
I actually really enjoyed writing my horror story though. Initially I had planned to write about something related to trypophobia, the fear of holes, because I think the whole concept is so strange but fascinating. However, I quickly changed my idea once I read about one of my Facebook friend's nightmares. Here's how they described it in their Facebook post:
And with that, the beginning of my story was born. I was going to write a story about a creepy doll that wanted to suck the breath out of people. But first I had to answer, why would she do that?
I pulled a lot from my Christian beliefs about life and death and good and evil and somehow came up with a story in which everything starts off dark, gloomy, and depressing. The horror is portrayed as being normal or even good, whereas normalcy and goodness is portrayed as being evil. I will allow you as a reader to draw your own conclusions about why I took this path.
The story is below. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 🙂
A Breath Of Life
When Lillian was born, her parents had every intention to call her Lily.
"She's beautiful, just like a field of fresh lilies," her father said.
However, Lillian wanted no parts in lilies, or any flowers for that matter. From the time Lillian was three, she demanded to be called "Lilith".
Lillian, or shall we say "Lilith's stubborn, eccentric side showed in ways far beyond her name. When her mother, Rose, wanted to dress her up in frilly dresses with bows in her hair, Lilith refused.
"But you'll look so pretty!" Rose said.
"I don't want to look pretty!" Lilith said. "Black. I want to wear black," she said as she pointed to her beloved black sweater with her black pants and black shoes. Rose never knew of another five year with half as many black clothes as Lilith had, but she also knew it wasn't worth arguing with Lilith; Lilith never lost an argument.
Lilith's dark side took some getting used to. Sure, adults expected some edginess and darkness from a moody teenager, but no one ever expected it from a "sweet" seven-year-old girl. Still, as everyone got to know Lilith, they became more and more familiar with her unusual sense of style and life perspective.
When Lilith requested to have her eighth birthday part on Friday, October 13th, no one was surprised, even if it was three weeks before her actual birthday.
Lilith's birthday party was different from those of most eight year olds (or seven year olds, if you want to be technical). All of the balloons were black. There were no pony rides or petting zoos or even a walk around character. Instead, Lilith surrounded herself with her beloved black cat, Bones. She replaced the cliched piñata with a series of sugar skulls and for entertainment she played the saddest songs she could find while guests had the opportunity to build their own personal graveyards.
Lilith didn't have any friends. Her parents enrolled her in a local public school, but all of the other kids thought she was weird. The parents didn't help; they couldn't understand why a child of Lilith's age would choose to be so dark. They most certainly didn't want their normal children hanging around someone of Lilith's kind.
Still, Lilith's party wasn't a total bust. She had her parents, her brother, Ryan, and several aunts, uncles, and cousins in attendance, mainly because they all either felt obligated to come or they were sorry for her. Her parents guessed it was a combination of the two emotions.
Other than her parents, Lilith's family never quite got her. Her parents tried endlessly to tell her other relatives that Lilith liked dark things. Still, year after year after year Lilith would end up with frilly pink and purple dresses, my little pony figures, and cute "girly" things that she'd promptly throw in the trash immediately after all of her guests have left. When Lilith's Aunt Violet gifted her with a new, custom-made American Girl doll, she realized that this year was no different. However, her mother was determined to put a stop to it.
"Look Lilith! She looks just like you!" Rose exclaimed.
"I DO NOT LOOK LIKE THIS!" Lilith corrected her mother.
"Sure you do. See, she had beautiful black hair just like you. And isn't her dress gorgeous?"
"My hair covers my face and I don't wear dresses," Lilith corrected.
"I tried to get one that looked like you…this is the closest they could do…I even brought your picture in with me to the American Girl store…" Aunt Violet said, apologetically.
"It's fine. Lilith loves it. It will do her good to have a new friend." Rose said, you can even give her a nice new name. How about Eve? She suggested.
"Sure, whatever," Lilith said.
The guests were invited to stay until dinner to enjoy Lilith's favorite meal, spaghetti tacos. Many of the guests asked why they couldn't have tacos OR spaghetti. Apparently, Lilith's family didn't understand the art of combining the two favorites into one, but Lilith didn't mind.
When the last guest left shortly after 8, Lilith's mother had a firm discussion with her daughter.
"I don't understand why you found it necessary to be so rude to your guests today," she said.
"I wasn't rude!" Lilith said.
"Yes you were! You didn't thank anyone for coming or for bringing your gifts. Your dear Aunt Violet went out of her way to visit NYC to get a custom American Girl doll made to look like you and your way of thanking her is by complaining!" Rose said.
"IT. DOES. NOT. LOOK. LIKE. ME," Lilith argued.
"Whatever. Here's what you're going to do. You are going to learn to appreciate when people give you a gift. Remember, there are plenty of people on this planet that don't even know what it is to be given a gift. Now I want you to take your doll up to bed with you to sleep with tonight. When you wake up in the morning I'll help you to write a thank you letter to Aunt Violet explaining how much you love your new doll."
"Yes, mama," Lilith said. She knew it was no use arguing anymore, she had been clearly defeated this time around.
Lilith had no trouble falling asleep that night. A terrible thunderstorm has come in off the coast and threatened the area. Lilith was able to fall asleep to the sounds of heavy rain, and thunder with what she thought sounded like the occasional pang of hail. The surges of lightening gave way to just the right amount of light in her otherwise pitch-dark room to allow her to sleep comfortably and dream of all of her favorite monsters.
Shortly after Lilith entered a deep stage of REM sleep, the dreaming began. She saw the image of her favorite monster and only friend, Mr. Olga. Mr. Olga was tall, fat, and full of hair. He had a snaggle tooth, big mean claws, horns, and often wore a spike collar. In her art class at school, Lilith often drew pictures of Mr. Olga. Her classmates and her teacher, Miss Lana often said that Mr. Olga looked like a darker version of Sully from the Monsters, Inc. films, but Lilith knew he was far more unique than that.
Lilith's dreams were always the same. She'd enter in to Mr. Olga's home in the world of Sorrowville, a town of only two: her and Mr. Olga. This was the only place where they could truly be themselves and live freely among each other. They would plant cemeteries together (even though they never had any people to bury) and play with Mr. Olga's black cats, Mischief and Despair. When they grew tired of that they'd put the radio on and play all of their favorite songs from My Chemical Romance, Black Veil Brides, and the occasional piece from Sleeping With Sirens. Then they would depart and count down the hours until the next day when they could do it all over again.
But tonight was different. Lilith knew that from the minute she stepped foot in Mr. Olga's small cave in Sorrowville. The temperature wasn't its breezy temperature of 66.6 degrees Fahrenheit the way her and Mr. Olga always set it. It was 34.14 degrees and set on Celsius. She felt warm and clammy and was even beginning to sweat a little, something she never thought was even possible in Sorrowville. What's more, the town wasn't its usual shades of black and grey with clouds and thunderstorms. The sky was bright blue without a single cloud in the atmosphere. The sun was bright and blazing hot, which explained why she was so warm. Her family would say it looked nice and she worried that if they ever seen this version of Sorrowville, they'd even want to join her and Mr. Olga. The very idea of that happening horrified Lilith.
Lilith and Mr. Olga weren't the only ones in Sorrowville tonight. Instead, they were surrounded by the presence of a doll who looked like a prettier version of Lilith; it was her brand new custom-made American Girl doll from her Aunt Violet, Eve.
"What on earth do you think you're doing?!?" Lilith said.
"I came here to play, Lillian. Don't you want to be friends?" Eve said.
"My name is LILITH, NOT LILLIAN. AND NO! NO ONE IS ALLOWED HERE BUT ME AND MR. OLGA!" she screamed.
"Silly Lillian. Don't you know that I am you?" she said.
Mr. Olga glanced at Lilith. "She does have your hair," he admitted.
"YOU ARE NOTHING LIKE ME!" Lilith screamed, "I NEVER WEAR MY HAIR LIKE THAT AND I HATE DRESSES!"
"We can fix that, Lillian," she said.
"I am perfectly fine the way I am. I don't need to be fixed."
"That's too bad. You see, your Aunt Violet sent me here to fix you. She said it's not normal for a girl your age to be so… dark. And depressing.
"Psh. What does she know. She can't change me," Lilith said.
"No she can't. That's what I'm here for," Eve said. I came to suck the breath right from you."
Mr. Olga started to laugh.
"Stop it!" Lilith said. "Why would you laugh at that?"
"Because she thinks she can suck the breath out of you. Did she forget that I'm a monster?" he said.
"Good point," Lilith said.
Mr. Olga inched closer to the Eve's face and placed his hands up high above his head to show off his freshly sharpened claws. He then let out a huge growl. "RAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" he said.
Eve flew over top of Mr. Olga and made her way through to Lilith.
"Just one little bite. A little something soft, trying to be polite. Nothing too hard, it wouldn't be nice," the doll chanted as it took a bite out of Lilith's neck.
"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU? ARE YOU A FRIGGEN VAMPIRE?!? Lilith screamed as Mr. Olga rushed over to her pry the doll off of her neck.
Mr. Olga clenched the doll tightly in his claws. He walked outside of his cave, towards the lake of misery and cast the doll threw the doll deep into the lake.
"Well done!" Lilith exclaimed, "Thank you for always taking such good care of me." She gave Mr. Olga a big hug.
"You're welcome," he grunted.
Mr. Olga and Lilith began their walk back to Mr. Olga's cave to resume their daily adventures. When Mr. Olga went to turn the knob on the cave door, the entire door knob fell off and the door flung open on its own.
Eve was standing there, glaring at both Lilith and Mr. Olga.
"You can't get rid of me that easily, but it was cute for you to try," she said.
"Not again! What do you want?" Lilith said.
"I already told you, Lillian. I want to suck the breath right out of you."
"Okay, but why?"
"You need to change Lillian. It is not good to be so dark. Dark is a form of evil, and there is no place for evil in our world.
"Which is why Lilith comes with me to Sorrowville," Mr. Olga explained.
"Yeah…about that. Sorrowville's got to go, too." Eve said.
"Go? Where?" Lilith asked.
"Bye bye. Sorrowville go bye bye," the doll said as she struck a match and tossed it towards Mr. Olga. "Lilith, run! REMEMBER: 1 Peter 3:11!"
Lilith woke up covered in sweat and out of breath. Nightmares usually excited Lilith. She found them to be fascinating and entertaining, never scary the way her family and classmates described them. But even Lilith had to admit that the nightmare she just had was absolutely horrifying.
Lilith climbed out of bed and walked towards her window, hoping to find solace. She didn't think it was still raining, but she always felt at peace with the passing of a storm. She pushed back her black curtains and opened the window by an inch and looked outside.
The sun was beginning to rise. The sky was bright and by society's definition (though never Lilith's), it was a beautiful shade of pinks, purples, and a hint of blue. There was no sign of the storm.
Lilith looked down towards the ground and then she saw it. Eve. Her custom-made American Girl Doll. It was holding a sign that read:
"Hi Lillian. I didn't forget last night. Don't forget 1 Peter 3:11. Also, remember Proverbs 16:17. Allow me to suck the breath right out of you. Or else. Love, your favorite doll."
Lilith shut the window and pulled the curtains tight again. She ran into her bed and pulled the covers overhead, hoping to fall back asleep again. Her dreams were bad but reality was somehow even worse. She needed to get back to Sorrowville, back to Mr. Olga. She hoped he had survived the fire, that this dream would bring forth a new adventure, one without that stupid evil doll.
- 2. 1. And she was back into her deep REM Sleep, back in the darkness of Sorrowville.
Only there was no Mr. Olga this time. There was no darkness. The cave was even gone. She was greeted by the doll and a beautiful mansion on a bright and sunny day.
"Are you ready to follow Proverbs 16:17 yet?" she asked. "Will you allow me to suck the breath right out of you? Do you want to live?" she asked.
Lilith could not speak, she had no answers.
Wow, long time, no post. Am I right? I apologize for being so quiet on here lately. My initial plan was to dedicate much of my summer to get back into blogging and updating my marketing and deaf awareness social accounts, but then I ended up going all over Pennsylvania and spending a lot of time in Chicago and investing more time into studying and before I knew it summer was over and none of those goals got accomplished. But hey, I'm here now and that's something, right?
Anyways, guys – we need to talk about Coraline.
For those of you who may not be familiar with Coraline it is a really creepy and really really really freaking weird children's novel written by Neil Gaiman. This book was published in 2002 and became a movie a few years later (I'm not sure when exactly but I want to say the movie came out around 2007…does that sound about right?)
I was assigned to read this book for my Seminar I course this semester. When I found out it was going to be my required reading I went and watched the movie on Netflix right away. I have heard a lot about the movie and have been meaning to watch it for some time. On the surface, Coraline reminded me a lot of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, two movies I always really loved. Now that I know that Coraline had many of the same producers and masterminds that those other movies had, it makes a lot of sense.
I thought the movie was interested. I liked it and couldn't stop watching it, but I also thought it was one of the weirdest, creepiest movies I've ever seen in my life. I love horror movies but the only ones that ever really did a good job of scaring me are the Saw movies. I found most other horror movies to be completely comical.
Coraline was scarier to me than any of the Saw movies were.
…And the book was better than the movie but still somehow even more horrifying to me. I don't know if I loved it or hated it. I thought it was super freaking weird, but at the same time I couldn't put it down. I didn't have to have the book read for class until September 20th. Last night was probably the worst time I could've read it since I was running on about 3 or 4 hours of sleep total (isn't grad school fun?) but I started reading it during my commute to work earlier in the day and I couldn't put it down. Despite how tired I was, I couldn't sleep not knowing what was going to happen to Coraline next. It's been awhile since a book captivated me as much as this one did, so there's no denying that despite my concerns about the book's weirdness, it was extremely well written.
But, Mr. Gaiman, I have a few questions for you now, none of which were included in your little Q&A session for the book's 10 year anniversary edition. Here are my questions:
1. Why in the world is this book considered a children's book?
I have friends that have young kids who have seen the movie version of Coraline and love it. If you're three or even five years old and can handle Coraline, more power to you because despite your young age, you are stronger than I am apparently. I would never tell my friends or anyone not to let their kids read or watch this movie. It's so well crafted that I don't think you should deny a child the right to watch the movie or read the book if they want to.
But, at the same time when I have kids of my own I don't think this is ever going to exactly be one of my reading recommendations for them. I might even be the kind of mom who keeps her copy of it under lock and key and tries to shelter their kids from discovering it.
My reasoning has nothing at all to do with the book's craft, but everything to do with the creepiness of this book. I was afraid this book would give me nightmares last night and I'm 27 years old. The book literally talks about an "other mother" and an "other father" and the mother is really evil and literally plucks kids' eyeballs out and replaces them with buttons. Is it me or is this not horrifying? How many kids saw this movie or read the book and were suddenly petrified of their dolls afterwards? I mean I'm always kind of petrified of dolls – they are creepy to begin with, but after seeing Coraline I think I'd kill anyone who handed me a doll…
2. What kind of a relationship does Neil Gaiman have with his own parents?
I'm not trying to sound like Sigmund Freud or anything, but Neil Gaiman must have some serious mommy issues to write a book that is this messed up.
But while I think the other mother is much more evil and disturbing, I wouldn't say the father is off the hook exactly.
What was Gaiman's inspiration for making his characters like this and is it a positive or a negative portrayal? In the book's reading guide it seems as though Gaiman wants his readers to connect with the idea of their parents not having time to play with them as kids. I think that is a common theme in children's books, but Gaiman is going much deeper than that with his portrayal of Coraline's parents here.
The other mother is completely evil and creepy. Did Gaiman have a rough childhood with his mother? Would his mother or has his mother ever caused harm to him perhaps in a way that she believed would be to his benefit (like how the other mother wants to love Coraline and give her a happy life, but at the expense of her eyeballs?).
Were Gaiman's parents divorced? Did his mother steal him away from his father as a child (kind of like the idea of kidnapping presented throughout the text?) Did it break his spirit (kind of like the idea of how the other mother stole the children's souls)? Was Gaiman's mother evil and manipulative and abusive not only towards Gaiman, but towards his father as well? Was his father simply "whipped" and living in a "whatever your mother says goes" kind of world when Gaiman was a child? Coraline's other father just seems way too absent and nonchalant and a stark contrast of the other mother in this novel. Even Coraline's real parents seem to have some issues and tension between them where the mother seems to play a dominating role and her real father is just kind of there.
Or – did Gaiman have a great family life with very loving, perfect parents and perhaps he used that as the inspiration to show children that even though their parents might be busy they still love them and their real parents are better than any kind of substitute they could ever dream of, no matter how mice or similar other people may seem?
Either way, it definitely seems as though Gaiman's own experiences with his parents could have influenced this book.
3. What is with all of the mice?
Just when you think Coraline couldn't get any weirder – there is a freaking mouse circus. You can't make this kind of stuff up. What kind of drugs was Gaiman on when he wrote this book? No, seriously.
It's really weird, but at the same time this could potentially be brilliant.
Circuses have been in the news a lot over the past decade or so – the time of Coraline's peak. One of the main reasons why people are so angry about circuses is due to the treatment of animals used. We all care about animals like elephants and tigers and seals and horses and lions which are often used in these circus shows – but what about mice and rats? Do they even count as being animals?
We slaughter these animals in mass quantities because we don't think they matter. We seem them as being dirty, disgusting, diseased, evil, and not worthy of life. We perform clinical trials on them. We do all kinds of tests on them. If the rat or mouse dies in the process we don't even grieve for them, we just simply take out the trash and go on with our lives.
This is where Gaiman is doing something really unique. Gaiman does what he does best and brings in the really freaking weird character of Mr. Bobo – most frequently referred to as "the man upstairs". The man upstairs is training his mice and he seems them as being talented and kind of brilliant for their ability to perform music and hundreds or thousands of tricks. I don't think anyone would argue that Mr. Bobo takes great care of his mice; he even talks about buying them new cheese to help them out a bit. How many other people would do this for mice or rats? I don't know of anyone who would go through all of that for a rat. I know me personally if I see a mouse or a rat first off I'm grabbing my cat, Picasso, and making him kill the little menace, and that's only if I feel like being nice that day.
I'm wondering if Gaiman chose to perhaps include the mice/rats in his book in this way to make a political statement on how we view animals and animals rights.
Or – is this something larger. Is it a political statement on how prejudice we are? How we view good and evil?
The latter statement seems like it may be a bit more accurate.
Because think of this. Most of us will look at a rat or a mouse as being evil, whether it does or does not actually bother us. Sure, a rat in the subway is probably filled with disease and if it bites us we're probably going to get infected and die and that's evil. But then there are still domesticated rats and mice that people actually keep as nice little house pets. Are those still evil?
And why is our first human instinct always to kill the rats and mice we found walking the streets? Why don't we ever think to stop and pick up the animal or call animal control and to get them help and see if we can cure them of their diseases? We would do that for a dog or a chicken or any other animal. Why are rats and mice different?
And to further drag this point along. Let's compare the mice to the other parents.
The mice – whom on normal non-Gaiman terms would be considered evil, filthy things, seem to represent something good, perhaps one of the only things that are good in this novel.
The other parents start off in the book as being good. We normally think of our mother and father as being loving, kind, and supportive of us. They are meant to protect us from all harm. Originally the other parents were supposed to be better versions of Coraline's own real parents, but we soon found out that they actually weren't as kind and loving and supportive as they seemed to be. They wouldn't have protected Coraline or kept her safe. In fact, these two individuals we automatically assume are going to be a positive force in Coraline's life are actually EVIL and a source of harm to Coraline and all whom they come into contact with.
That's kind of an interesting little juxtaposition there, isn't it?
4. Is Neil Gaiman wiccan or a witch or something?
Of all of the parts of the book, these were the elements that bothered me the most as a Christian. Gaiman seems to want to chalk it up as being just magic based on the reading guide and his answers to the questions in the Q&A for the 10th anniversary edition of Coraline but this is more than just Hansel and Gretel era-magic. I mean – tea leaves? Really? Miss Spink and Miss Forcible seem like true witches.
But are they evil? I think it's debatable honestly. I don't usually see them as being evil or bad the way you'd normally view a witch. This kind of goes back to the idea with the mice – something often seen as being evil is actually good.
But what is going on with those dogs? The images didn't seem as strong in the book as they were in the movie, but they were equally as disturbing. They literally have a collection of dead dogs in their home. When their dogs get sick they don't seem to really jump on helping them. I mean I know they take the dog to the vet and everything but I still couldn't shake the feeling that they kind of WANTED the dogs to die so they could stuff them and grow their collection.
And doesn't this kind of fit in with the theme of the dolls? Stuffed animals are like dolls right? It's better to kill real, living things, to substitute them for stuffed items that can be whatever you want them to be or something along those lines? Creeeeeeeeeeeeepy, but it is what it is, right?
Also, who can forget that weird little song Coraline sings about be a "twitchy, witchy girl?"
Is Coraline the witch? Hmm…it's possible.
5. Does Gaiman believe in God? How does Gaiman view God?
The whole magic and witchcraft stuff is only a small part of a larger whole in Coraline. He seems to be really commenting on bigger issues connecting back to religion and his views on God. I don't think it's any wonder that my Baptist friends aren't all a big fan of this novel because these parts made me a little uncomfortable and these are some reasons why I may hesitate in recommending this book or movie to my future children one day.
First off, let's talk about the other mother again. Who is she really? She is very evil almost like Satan, but I guess not that evil. Is she playing God? The novel does talk quite a bit about how the other mother created a world for the children and she'd create a world for Coraline if she'll only agree to live with her. It explains how she could create something new every day so that Coraline would never be bored, but there is no outside because she hasn't created that yet.
Christians believe that God created all things. We can have paradise in heaven if we only follow Christ and accept him in our heart. Coraline can have all things if she only allows her mother to sew buttons in her eyes and stay there forever. It's different, but similiar, no?
Also let's talk about those souls that the other mother is collecting from the children. This seems really really satanic to me. You always here of those sayings of "I sold my soul to the devil", isn't that exactly what these kids here have done? Are they in hell? It sure as heck doesn't seem like they're in heaven, that's for sure.
I also want to mention that this doesn't seem to be the first instance where Gaiman has commented about religion and God, for better or for worst. He has another novel for adults called American Gods. Now, I haven't read it at all and have no idea what it's about so I can't really say anything other than this: it makes you wonder.
These are just five main questions I had after reading Coraline. Now that I've written them all out and analyzed this book in over 2600 words I can't say that I am anywhere closer to knowing the answer to my questions. In fact, I'd argue that I have even MORE questions and I don't even know if I liked the book or detested it.
To describe this book in just one word, only one word is needed to sum it all up:


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Pancakes or Prayer?
The International House of Pancakes has sued Kansas City based International House of Prayer over use of the acronym "IHOP":
IHOP (pancake), based in Glendale, Calif., has sued IHOP (prayer), based in Kansas City, for trademark dilution and infringement. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, essentially said there was room for only one IHOP and that would be the restaurant chain that has been using the initials since 1973.
The religious group drawing thousands from around the world to south Kansas City to prepare for "end times" was started just 10 years ago.
And I was amused at this:
Thus the question, why sue now? The church mission started calling itself IHOP a decade ago.
"They've expanded — and now some of the branches are serving food," [IHOPancake spokesman Patrick] Lenow said.
IHOP (the religious one) is based very near where I preach in Kansas City, and their future headquarters is set to be constructed pretty much across the highway from our building.
I don't know much about the IHOPrayer, but apparently they're, well, a little kooky:
The IHOP (prayer) on Red Bridge Road operates 24/7/365, sending a never-ending digital signal of prayers to Jerusalem, where it streams live on God TV for broadcast all over the world....
IHOP (prayer) was started by a man named Mike Bickle, who by his own admission grew up in a Waldo bar and claims to have traveled to heaven twice.
A friend of mine visited an IHOPrayer service with a young female he was interested in at the time. I asked him at the time if they gave little bottles of maple syrup to visitors. Apparently they don't.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Avengers: Age of Ultron snagged a new cast member. On Thursday (August 29), Marvel announced that James Spader joins the cast to portray Ultron.
The Emmy-winning actor plays the villain who battles the Avengers for ultimate control of the world.
Meanwhile, Chris Hemsworth, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner are expected to return for the action-packed sequel.
The Joss Whedeon-directed flick hits theaters on May 1, 2015.


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Cover Reveal Tease: Our Love Unhinged by Brighton Walsh
Hey guys! I'm SUPER excited to help reveal a puzzle piece for Brighton Walsh's OUR LOVE UNHINGED, which releases 8/20!!!
About the Book:
Once upon a time, two people fell in love. They overcame obstacles. Persevered through challenges. Came together despite the odds stacked against them.
Now forever and always is within their grasp—he asked, and she said yes. Just a trip down the aisle, an exchange of vows and rings, and they'll be bound together for the rest of their lives…
But even the greatest love can't silence fears.
Our Love Unhinged is the final novella in the Reluctant Hearts series, and is best enjoyed after reading books 1-3 in the series.
Mini Excerpt:
His lips part as he looks his fill of me, his gaze sliding down the length of my body encased in white silk before he meets my eyes, and then his lips lift in a smile. It's a smile that takes my breath away—one that says I'm his whole world. I can't break away from his gaze for a second, even to look at the guests who showed up for our special day.
He's all I see.
Preorder HERE
Ok, I've kept you waiting long enough! Here's your puzzle piece for today!!! Only one more piece left!!!!
The full cover can be seen tonight over at Heroes and Heartbreakers!
Woooooo! YOU CAN ALMOST SEE THE WHOLE THING AND IT'S GORGEOUS!!!!!!!
If you haven't started this series, what the hello kitty are you waiting for?! DO IT. DO IT NOW. You are welcome.


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A 33-year-old York County trucker was critically injured Tuesday afternoon when his rig rammed the rear of another in a construction area on I-78 in Greenwich Township, Berks County, two miles west of New Smithville.
Harold A. Leister of Hanover was transported to the Lehigh Valley Hospital Center in the MedEvac helicopter.
He was admitted to the center's shock trauma unit, and was listed in critical condition yesterday.
State police at Hamburg said Leister was traveling west on the highway in an area reduced to one lane for a PennDOT maintenance project when his rig rammed the rear of one driven by John Phillips, 58, of Sunbury, Northumberland County. Phillips escaped injury.


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The International Association Of Fire Chiefs and the U.S. Department Of Transportation have partnered together to create a new Electronic Learning Community for responders. The first course is called "hydrogen Response Considerations." It is approximately a two-hour online training course that is self-paced and focuses on hydrogen awareness and emergency response in four modules:
The course is free and when the user is finished, there will be a certificate of completion.
Go to: www.responder-elc.org and create an account, then select the course from the Courses page.


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Smoking marijuana regularly before the age of 16 causes changes in the brain that can impair a young person's ability to focus, learn from mistakes and think abstractly, according to a Harvard study.
On brain scans, the youngest pot smokers showed activation in regions of the brain that was not seen in those who started smoking after age 16, suggesting early exposure to marijuana causes neural changes, researchers at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital found. Early and habitual users performed more poorly on tests of cognitive functions, including mental flexibility.
Research on how marijuana changes a developing brain is important as it's the most frequently used illegal drug in the U.S., said study author Staci Gruber, the director of the cognitive and clinical neuroimaging core at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. Almost 16 percent of eighth graders have tried marijuana, and that number rises to 42 percent by 12th grade, a 2009 study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found.
Chronic, early users of marijuana "make repetitive incorrect responses despite the fact I'm telling them they're wrong," said Gruber, who is also an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University. "That's called 'cognitive inflexibility' and you see it in babies."
The research, presented today at the Society for Neuroscience's meeting in San Diego, also found that the group that started earlier smoked more pot more often than those who started later. People who began smoking before age 16 had 25.1 smokes a week, compared with 12.1 in those who began later, the study showed. The early-onset group smoked almost three times as many grams a week, Gruber said.
Cognitive Tests
The study compared 33 marijuana smokers to 26 healthy controls. Participants were given a battery of tests designed to measure executive function, a term for brain processes responsible for abilities and behaviors involving abstract thinking, decision making, cognitive flexibility and correcting mistakes.
The results showed those who started using marijuana before age 16 made twice as many mistakes on tests of executive function than those who began later. The research didn't examine those people who had started smoking early and stopped, although those people begin to look more like non-smokers in other studies, Gruber said.
"The developing brain is vulnerable," Gruber said. "If you were to legalize it, you need to keep in mind marijuana is not entirely benign. Regulations and guidelines are needed anyway given the sheer number of Americans using it."
Marijuana's active ingredient acts upon receptors in the brain that are densest in regions that influence memory, thinking and concentration, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
California voters earlier this month rejected a ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana for personal use.


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The Old Coach House Hotel
High Street
Tel: +44 (0)1542 836266
Fax: +44 (0)1542 836361
Welcome to the Old Coach House Hotel and Restaurant.
What better place to base yourself than the Old Coach House Hotel? We strive to make our bar, lounge and restaurant as welcoming as possible, with good food, fine ale and service to match (don't forget that this area supplies some spectacular single malts too!). For either a snack or a slap-up meal, this is the place.
The Hotel has 21 rooms, comprising single, double and family rooms. The rooms have all been refurbished to an extremely high standard, and every one has en suite facilities, direct dial telephone, colour TV, radio and full central heating. Cots are available on request.
Whatever your interests, there will be something in the vicinity to entice you from the comfortable surroundings of the Old Coach House Hotel.
Perhaps the world renowned fishing on the Spey, allied to the stunning scenery... perhaps walking the Speyside Way, which starts just a few miles from us... perhaps Speyside's other fame - malt whisky. You could spend weeks visiting distilleries on the Malt Whisky Trail, just to decide which whisky you want to concentrate on....
Those with a taste for history are well served too, with the North East of Scotland dotted with castles and other places of historical interest, including Pictish settlements and monuments.
What is difficult to avoid, however, is the sea, and the magnificent local coastline bears tribute to the area's long reliance on fishing, with small sheltered harbours all along the coast. Whether you want to try some sea fishing, watch the local boats come and go, or just let the sea breeze hit you while you contemplate the meaning of (maritime) life, you will have ample opportunity to experience the mystique of the sea.
And we haven't even touched on golf.....


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Title: The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness
Writers : Steve Peters
Published: 2012
Genre: Non-Fiction, Self-Help
My Rating: 4 on 5
With so many self-help books on the market (on the library shelf, in this particular incident), I was wary of picking up this one which claimed to help me achieve 'success, confidence and happiness' all at once. I flipped through the pages right there in the library as I was curious to know how the author plans to do this. As I started reading the first chapter, I was hooked. And the book naturally came home with me.
Steve Peters is a well-known psychiatrist who is said to have helped many sportspeople in managing their minds which helped them win Olympic medals. Peters starts off with explaining that our mind is made up of two parts – Human (the logical part) and Chimp (the emotional, irrational part). He uses some real-life incidents to explain how we react and behave depending on whether Human or Chimp is in control. He also creates a 'Computer' which contains basic autopilots on how you will behave depending on your past experiences. Peters also introduces Gremlins and Goblins which are some undesired behaviors/autopilots which the Chimp has installed in the Computer. He also introduces some moons of confidence and whatnot, which to be honest was a bit too much for me.
There is nothing new in what Peters puts forth – we all know there is a rational and irrational part in us and we behave differently depending on which part is pulling the strings. But the way Peters creates two images – Human and Chimp – and explains when each one of these are in control is eye-opening. He suggests some exercises at the end of the chapters which really help. He goes on to explain the differences between Goblins and Gremlins and how we need the moon of confidence and happiness to balance the solar system. This is where I lost interest and I just flipped the pages to get it over with.
I have always had a problem with anger and I have tried quite a few things to manage it. With the help of exercises in the book, I realized my Chimp is much more in control than my Human (no surprises there) and I learnt how to handle my Chimp. I can feel the anger rising up in me but immediately my Human comes into picture and the Chimp goes to a corner and gets busy eating a banana. I have started feeling calmer and less angry ever since I started practicing this. I have taught a trick or two to my 8-year old son too and I see it working with him as well.
This book does not offer any groundbreaking theory or solution – there is nothing new which we don't know already. But the book works because it has laid out commonly known facts in simple terms and it offers practical solutions to handle situations. I have been going ga-ga over this book and 'Human', 'Chimp' and 'Banana' have become part of our common lingo at my family these days.


text:
In every mont's kit from Scrapbook Circle you can find some exclusives like stamps, cards, printables and cutfiles.
In november's kit ( which is still available in the shop), there were fantastic printable cards in grey shades and arrow stamp. I used them in my layout, as well as letters from Heidi Swapp and couple of embellishments from Basic Grey. It was fun to create this LO. take a look:


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Sniper Elite 4 Pre-Order Bonus Targets Hitler
Once again, Rebellion will reward sniper fans with the chance to assassinate Hitler in the third-person tactical shooter Sniper Elite 4, which is due next February on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Pre-order the game to get the TARGET FÜHRER DLC included for free. Oh, and here is the first gameplay trailer –
With many millions of views on YouTube and countless gameplay hours logged, the series' renowned Hitler-assassinating bonus missions have been a fan-pleasing tradition since Sniper Elite V2 and are back by popular demand. In TARGET FÜHRER, players will once again set their sights on history's most notorious tyrant in a forgotten corner of the Mediterranean where a secret Nazi U-boat facility threatens Allied shipping. When agent Karl Fairburne attempts to assassinate the base's Commander, he finds his target already dead, executed in person by a shadowy visitor. And with this, Karl's mission has changed: TARGET FÜHRER!
Sniper Elite 4 pre-orders will include:
- The full Sniper Elite 4 game;
- TARGET FÜHRER campaign mission: Destroy the imposing U-boat base and take down Hitler in as many ways as they can in this replayable campaign mission for 1-2 players;
- CAMO RIFLES SKIN PACK: Includes detailed camouflaged sleeves for the game's seven iconic WW2 rifles.
*Please note, pre-order availability may vary depending on region, platform and format.*
Sniper Elite 4 is a third-person tactical shooter combining genre-defining ballistics and emergent stealth tactics across the largest and most diverse environments ever seen in a Sniper Elite game. Set in the aftermath of its award-winning predecessor, Sniper Elite 4 continues the series' World War II heritage by transporting players across the beautiful Italian peninsula, from sun-drenched Mediterranean coastal towns, to colossal Nazi mega structures, to daunting forests and giddying mountain monasteries inspired by Monte Cassino.


text:
When My Splash Pad installs your commercial, light commercial, or residential spray park or splash pad, we will perform the first year's fall shut-down service to winterize your spray park or splash pad free of charge. For your fall shut-down service we will:
- Check all features.
- Apply UV protectant if needed.
My Splash Pad also offers continued fall shut-down service as part of our extended water park service and splash pad service agreement packages. For a free quote, contact us today.


text:
Multivalued logic
As noted by Jan Łukasiewicz and Emil Post in the early 1920s, it is possible to generalize ordinary logic to allow k values Range[0,1,1/(k-1)], say with 0 being False, and 1 being True. Standard operations in logic can be generalized as Not[a_]=1-a, And[a_,b_]=Min[a, b], Or[a_, b_]=Max[a, b], Xor[a_,b_]=Abs[a-b],Equal[a_,b_]=1-Abs[a-b], Implies[a_,b_]=1-UnitStep[a-b](a-b). An alternative generalization for Not is Not[a_]:=Mod[(k - 1)a + 1, k]/(k - 1). The function Nand[a_, b_]:=Not[And[a, b]] used in the main text turns out to be universal for any k. Axiom systems can be set up for multivalued logic, but they are presumably more complicated than for ordinary k=2 logic. (Compare page 1171.)
The idea of intermediate truth values has been discussed intermittently ever since antiquity. Often—as in the work of George Boole in 1847—a continuum of values between 0 and 1 are taken to represent probabilities of events, and this is the basis for the field of fuzzy logic popular since the 1980s.


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text: "Rain, rain go away..." so the old children's song goes. Unfortunately the rain was accompanied by gail force winds and very cool temperatures. The day started with a warm breakfast of sausages and pancakes with gallons of hot chocolate. We crowded into the common room for English lessons and play time, only venturing out for bathrooms (in another building) or a hot drink (also in another building). During the last devotion time Jonathan shared about the greatest hero of all: Jesus Christ. Then as is our tradition, we held a talent show, took a group picture, and finished up with S'mores. Who knew you could make S'mores in the oven?? The talent show was fun with lots of lively music and the students went wild when Glen and Clista sang an old bluegrass song. Tears flowed as we reminded the students they are loved by God, they are loved by us, and they can do ANYTHING they put their hearts, minds, and energies into. Gandhi students are the best!


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August 5, 2015
Escape from Old House is point and click game released by Theescapegames. This is another one of those house themed escape game. In this game your grandchildren decided to visit you in your old home. Not knowing they will come, you did not prepare and everything is topsy turvey. When they arrived they had no idea of the mess. One of your grandson started to play in your room while others on the living room, kitchen, and one in your comfort room. Angry and annoyed you decided to lock them in. You went out and relaxed while all of them are outside. The children must find a way to escape before they get hungry.


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Club Lyfestile and Vaudevillains
Hey, I'm a member of a DIY dance squad called Club Lyfestile. We've been together for ~4 years, and from very early on we've been making our own costumes. I'm the main costume designer, and yours was the first as well as the most helpful the most helpful site i've ever been to for making "catsuits", or onesies as we call them here. But I want to tell you about something else too... the onesie craze has really caught on here in Philadelphia, where we're based. There's a group of artists who, in fondness of our dance squad, created a brigade for the yearly Mummer's New Year Parade local to Philadelphia. They're called the Vaudevillains, and you can look them, and us, up on the interwebs. I taught them how to make these onesies based on the things I've learned from your website and my own experience... and now generally about 50+ people walk up the main drag of Philadelphia every New Year's Day in onesies, as well as the 10-15 people touring the country doing dance performances in clubs, parks, warehouses or wherever people can fit us.
All that winding info of goodness being said... THANKS, you're site rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheers, Dave Laverdure
Lem's made a PVC zipless zentai, and it looks snakey to me!
Pictures: 1 2
The more unusual requests are mostly arts-related: things like asking how to
make conjoined suits (where two people wear a two-person suit, joined at the
belly, say). This piece is entitled 'Birth', and is part of Arts3306: Birth: still (part one)
and Birth: still (part
AD Hunt
AD Hunt found inspiration in some of the images of my own catsuits, something I was particularly pleased with since one of my interests with the suits is the interplay of light on the shapes of the musculature, something he's particularly captured in 'Super-Naturalist'.
His site www.adhunt.ca features these pictures: Incommunicado, The Neighbourhood, Super-Naturalist, amongst others.
BooBoo's Victoria Costume
Julie turned her daughter into a cat for Hallowe'en with this single-panel back-zip unitard and fuzzy accessories. She seems like a happy cat, distinctly reminiscent of the eponymous musical. Next step: facepaints!
Thanks to Julie for letting me have a copy of this photo. Her site also
covers her son's Hulk costume.
Mark describes himself as a beginner sewer, but he managed to make these rather
snazzy red shiny leggings - the lower half of a one-panel suit. (I wish I was as thin as him. :)