Ah, Halloween…my favorite holiday of the year. I love the costumes, the candy, and the horror stories. Curling up in a dark room with Freddie Kruger on the tube, or snuggling under the covers with Edgar Allen Poe, what could be finer?
The best scares, of course, are those that impact you personally. The unexplained shadow in the corner of the room when you are sleeping over at a friend’s house. The creaking attic overhead on a Girl Scout camp out. These are some of my scary memories.
What are your favorite real life ghost stories? I remember the night that I saw the witch standing outside my bedroom window when I was about 10. She just stood there, staring in at me. I am sure I was awake…though no one else is. You see, the witch in question was sitting in the front window of the living room — and there was no question of her getting up and standing there instead…she was constructed of paper mache, and had a previous incarnation as a mermaid. She didn’t even have any legs. To this day, I am still convinced she was really there.
Have you had a similar unexplained event in your life? Pull up a virtual camp stool to the fire circle here and share your ghost stories. It’s Halloween!
and his wonderful Adult Tres Navarre books, starting with 
.
because I like to start at the beginning of a series, and by the time I was four or five chapters in, I had the rest of the series downloaded into my Kindle. These are a great introduction to Mythology in my opinion. Mr. Riordan flirts with us, teasing with bits of myth that sound hauntingly familiar, and yet show us a fresh perspective on old friends. And, honestly, despite a lifelong love of mythology and folklore, some of the creatures he mentioned made me make a mental note to look them up later because I was unfamiliar with them. The ability to arouse a desire to research in a reader is a rare gift. His premise of the Greek Gods moving shop to America as the seat of Western Civilization drifted across the Atlantic was intriguing and innovative. In short, I loved the series and bought all his remaining juveniles as a result. They are waiting in my Kindle, but I took a break to make sure I had read at least one of the adult mysteries before the meeting.
. This isn’t the first in the series…it is actually number 6 of 7…but one of the beauties of the writing is that you can read them out of order, and when you read the next it fills in gaps. Perhaps because it was the first I read, this one is my favorite. The weaving of flashback and present action; the doling out of information that only later takes on full significance; the character sketches that can bring a person to life in a paragraph or two — all of these skills are what makes Rick Riordan such a fabulous writer.
, and dreading the end of it because it is the last of the Tres Navarre series. Last time my mother met Mr. Riordan at a Mystery Writer’s event, she scolded him soundly because he had abandoned Tres. I hope it isn’t for long. For now, I’ll have to settle for more mythology. Luckily I have the Roman and Egyptian series to go.
. What do you have in mind?
. There will be other prizes offered as well.
. Still crossing my fingers people will like 
, but no reviews yet. Want to be the first? 
