Happy New Year, 2020!
What is your passion? Mine is books, reading, writing, discovering new authors and new stories. And, to dive into the imagination of good fiction.
Author Charles Lamb said that “books think for me.”
If you are an avid reader, you’ll likely find books that prove this true.
Goethe believed that “every reader reads himself into the book and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.” Sometimes, yes, I can agree with that.
You might like what Emerson thought about reading:
“One must be an inventor to read well.”
This is absolutely true if you read fiction.
Fiction is not just amusement to disengage us from ourselves for a short escape. Reading fiction can illuminate life experiences. We all need to clarify the life’s mysteries and challenges in a dramatic way. Sometimes fiction can be transcendent. If you delight in the study of human nature and all the relationships, you will delight in the reading of novels, mysteries, literary, fantasy, and detective fiction at the top of your list.
This is one of the reasons I love to read and write about the supernatural—to enter that world beyond our mortal and earthly limits. There is a wisdom in the supernatural that is not sourced from human intelligence or science. The supernatural has magical realities, spiritual forces, and even mystical religion can bring us beyond our earthly limits. How is it that the presence of a vase of bright flowers can bring a moment of beauty in just a glance? Why does a sunset streaking gold and purple create a feelings of awe and warmth? At dawn, a hot pink sunrise is powerful to draw us to the window to encourage our day ahead. Conversely, have you ever seen a shapely fog arise to streak through the streets, and for some reason you can’t take your eyes off the path it’s making? Or a bird land at your feet and look at you for the longest moment as if it’s speaking to you. Little hauntings like these happen all the time. Why? Because we are instinctively drawn to the supernatural, to the language of the heart and soul, to the mysteries, secrets, and messages. So, let’s read the supernatural.
Here are a few classic supernatural novels you might want to read:
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Anne Radcliffe. The quintessential Gothic romance.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson. Split personalities, science gone wrong, an inquisitive friend, and a trampled young woman.
Frankenstein; Or, The ModernPrometheus (1818) by Mary Shelley. This is the standard for the Romantic genre in science fiction.
The Shining by Stephen King. A classic winter ghost story that chills us from the other side.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. This timeless haunted house story will bring you into the world of spirits and desire.
Ghost Stories by M.R. James. One of the best writers of ghost stories in our literature.
The Woman in Black, a Ghost Story by Susan Hill. A chilling tale about a menacing spectre haunting a small English town.
If I may, I’d like to remind readers and followers here at Reading Fiction Blog of my own supernatural mysteries:
The Dazzling Darkness. A haunted cemetery, a little boy missing, and the transcendentalism of Ralph Waldo Emerson in Concord, Massachusetts. Discover the dazzling faces inside the darkened air of Old Willow Cemetery. BRONZE MEDAL WINNER, Readers’ Favorite International Book Award, 2014.
Night Sea Journey, A Tale of the Supernatural. A firehawk invades the dreams of artist Kip Livingston on Horn Island, where she finds romance with a priest struggling with his own demons. An Eric Hoffer Book Award Winner, 2015.
Greylock. Do you believe in music phantoms? Composer Alexei Georg is haunted by a music phantom who pursues him from Boston, to Russia, to Mt. Greylock, Massachusetts. Classical music, whale songs, and the mysterious power of nature make this a “romance-laced mystery with unexpected twists and turns.” U.S. Review of Books. Chanticleer Book Award Winner 2015 and a Best Book Award Finalist 2017, American Book Fest.
You can click on the tabs above for more information on each title (reviews too) or click the book covers in the right column on this page to link to Amazon.com.
Many here know I have had several short stories published in literary magazines and journals over the years. These shorts are also available in the right column book covers, on this page, linked to Amazon.com. I will have four more short stories to come on Amazon in 2020.
Meantime, thank you all for reading my blog, commenting, and clicking LIKE. I hope you will continue to be a friend here at Reading Fiction Blog and keep this page as one of your literary hubs.
I will leave you with the thoughts of poet Rainer Maria Rilke (who is the subject in my next supernatural mystery that I am writing now. More on this in 2020!)
“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
I wish you all a happy and successful 2020 and many reading adventures.
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Paula Cappa 
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