Like Mother Teresa, only better.
It’s Friday and that means it’s time to step into my office so I can show you the videos I’ve been saving for you. They will make you laugh and laughter is medicinal so it’s almost like I’m giving you free drugs. You’re welcome.
Do you love tales of things that go bump in the night? Do you celebrate Halloween all year long? Do you lean in to hear ghost stories and own your own EMF detector? Did you sneak Stephen King books under your covers when you were probably way too young and it may have damaged you a little but in a really good way? Are you currently getting threating letters from your HOA because they don’t agree that your 12-foot-skeleton counts as “year-round seasonal decor”? Do you listen to true crime podcasts for relaxation and have comfort horror movies the same way that other people watch comfort Hallmark movies? Are you thrilled to be living in this golden age of new-wave horror currently being devoured?
If the answer to any of the above is “yes” then you are hereby invited for membership in our newest book club, Nightmares from Nowhere.
As a member you will get a newly released, chilling hardcover horror mailed right to your door (or you can pick it up from Nowhere Bookshop if you’re local), weird emails from me, no reading deadlines or need to leave the house or talk to people, recommendations for other great books and invites to online art happy hours and other perks.
If you like ghosts, curses, smart supernatural tales, psychological thrillers, and uncanny stories to make you learn, think and wonder, then this is your book club. I’ve already picked a few for the year and they are both horror-tinged but also delve into important topics of race, beauty standards, misogyny, power, class and fear…because there is nothing scarier than the monsters we deal with in real life.
Our first book will come to you in February and will be The Spite House by Johnny Compton, which I loved and is getting amazing reviews already. A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief, death and trauma and the depths of a father’s love. Like The Babadook meets A Head Full of Ghosts, set in Texas Hill Country.
“The Spite House is an aching, heartbroken meditation on what haunts us and the sins we inherit from those who came before us.”
—Cassandra Khaw, author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth
And I plan on doing a zoom with Johnny in February so that all the Nightmares from Nowhere members can listen in live as we talk all things spooky.
Intrigued? Click here to become a member and come join us as we hide under the blankets with a flashlight and scare the hell out of each other.
PS. If horror is not your style, check out our other book clubs:
Fantastic Strangelings Book Club – Strange and lovely books for weirdos.
The Happy Endings Book Club – All things romance, y’all.
The Little Bitty Book Club – A gorgeous picture book a month for the sweet littles in your life
PPS. For all those who do love horror…what is your favorite horror tale?
So first off a giant welcome to new and old members of the Fantastic Strangeling Book Club kicking off our fourth (FOURTH?!) year of reading. Check your packages well because this month we’re slipping in this fabulous pin as a thank you for keeping us in business:
(It’s not too late to join this month. Click here to claim your spot and get your own pin!)
This month’s book club pick is…Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett.
In other book related news, this Saturday the always-insane-but-exactly-in-the-way-you-want-her-to-be Maureen Johnson is actually at Nowhere in San Antonio, and I’ll be there with her to talk about her newest book, Nine Liars, which I LOVED. It’s a Stevie Bell mystery (and literally laugh-out-loud funny and dark) so it’s one in a series but this mystery stands alone so you could easily read this one and enjoy it and then go backward and read all of the ones that come before like I always do because I am forever reading our of order. Click here for a ticket to join us in real life at the store and that includes a signed copy of the book. (We’re going to try to have her sign extras so check back with Nowhere after Saturday if you can’t make it and want a signed copy.)
Need more than one book to get you through the month? ME TOO, SWEETNESS.
Luckily there were several very good ones that came out this month, not including Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries and Nine Liars and they are:
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns – a young Cree woman’s dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discover that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home. If you liked White Horse you’ll love this.
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix – Once again, Grady knocks it out of the park. If you love horror you need this one.
All Hallows by Christopher Golden – A creepy trick-or-treat drama that I devoured.
A Thousand Miles to Graceland by Kristen Mei Chase – A sweet and charming novel about mothers, daughters, sequins and the surprising power of Elvis.
I’m going to open up discussion for last month’s book (Roses in the Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman) on the FS facebook page but if you don’t do Facebook I’ll leave my thoughts in the comments here.
Happy reading!
PS. Have you started your 2023 Nowhere Reading Bingo Card?
Once or twice a year I open up slots for anyone to advertise on my blog and today is that day! I don’t use ad networks or pop-ups any of that stuff because it’s confusing and annoying so instead I just offer flat-rate sidebar ads to anyone with something cool that needs attention. Text ads on my righthand sidebar are $100 a month, payable through paypal, and they are first come-first served and they fill up quickly so email me at advertising@thebloggess.com if you want in and I’ll walk you through the details. Also, I realize ad networks are reading this and will email me to tell me that I am vastly under-pricing myself and need to stop this but please don’t because I prefer that my sidebar is full of real people and their dreams and not a bunch of casinos and vaping ads. Go check out my current sidebar to see the amazing people currently advertising who are fabulous and who make it easier for me to keep this place running.
Graphic sidebar ads (like the one for Ghost Games on the right) are $300- $700 depending on size and placement. (In case you’re wondering…Instagram or sponsored posts are available but start at $5k and I am very lazy so I only do them for products I personally love.)
And if you happen to have something special that you want more eyes on but can’t afford $100 a month just leave your link to whatever you’re proud of in the comments so we can all see it. A blog, a substack, your art, a charity, whatever you think needs attention.
This year I read 120 books, which sounds like “too many” if you are my husband but sounds fine to a reader because THE LIMIT DOES NOT EXIST. Of course, I have several things on my side, including chronic insomnia, the ability to claim that I have to hide under a tree and read for professional reasons, a book club to pick for and a book shop filled with books that want to go home with me.
Picking my favorite book of the year is always hard because I might only mostly like it the first time I read it but then find that it becomes a comfort read I return to, or maybe there was a book I loved and now I look at the cover and go…”Did I read that?” My favorite books change over and over but I think the ones I read in 2022 that I go back to over and over are The Maid, Kaikeyi and What Moves the Dead.
What book did you love the most last year? What did I miss that I have to read?
MY YEAR IN BOOKS :
Today is my birthday. The first person to wish me happy birthday today was a robot who only knows me through my vagina and that’s how you know we live in the future. Also, I told Hailey that and they were like, “Ew. Like a vibrator?” and I was like, “No, an auto-voicemail from my gynocologist’s office. Who gets a birthday greeting from a vibrator?” and they were like, “THAT’S WHY I WAS CONCERNED”.
Then my friend R. Eric Thomas posted his list of things that are “in” for 2023 and it included “going ‘oop’ when someone bumps into you” and I commented “I’ve been ooping since before it was cool” but autocorrect was like, “That’s not a real word” and helpfully changed my comment so instead I proudly bragged that “I’ve been pooping since before it was cool”.
All this to say that age 49 me seems just as on track to fuck things up as ages 1-48 me so I will celebrate consistency if nothing else.
So here is what I want for my birthday: I want you to share my birthday with me and do something awesome for yourself. Take a bubble bath. Read a good book. Go outside and pet a dog. Eat some cheese. Buy that thing you’ve had on your wishlist but keep putting off because it’s silly. Make nachos. Have breakfast for dinner. Play THE-FLOOR-IS-LAVA with whoever is nearby. Explore a cave. Find the weirdest thing that exists in your town and go do that. Whatever you want.
Happy birthday to us. I super love you.
