the dread crew - stories that stick

Kate is a local(ish) blogger that I am thrilled to read (chuffed, as my old roommate would say) every time her name pops up on my reader. And like most born storytellers, Kate is an author too - of a swashbuckling tale of pirates, deep woods, the maritimes and childhood wonder. Her new book is coming out in November, and I can't wait to sit down with her pirate crew and read of their hijinks.

Today she posted this wonderful meme. By doing this and leaving her a comment here, (complete directions here) you can be put in a drawing for a signed and hot off the presses copy of:

Besides. It's an awesome meme. Here we go!




1) You are facing an epic journey. You may choose one companion, one tool and one vehicle from any book or film to accompany you. Or just one of the three. It's up to you. What do you choose? Companion: Lucy, from the Narnia books. Clever girl. Tool: A hammer, because it's both useful and a weapon. Vehicle: The car from Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. Well, wouldn't you fly if you could?

2) You can escape to the insides of any book. Where do you go, and why? Probably a Karen White novel. Her stories make me feel the salty breezes and hear the foghorns of the Cape - and send shivers up my back with her eerie twists and turns.

3) You can bring one literary character into your current life. Who do you choose, and why?
Good days: Huckleberry Finn, for that dash of bad boy and free-spirit.
Bad days: Mary Poppins. Because some days, Mommy needs help. (And a bartender.)

4) Latitudes of Melt is my go-to book. I could read that book fifty-seven times in a row without a break for food or a pee and not be remotely bored. In fact I’ve already done that but it wasn’t fifty-seven times. It was sixty-four.

5) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most enviable? I loved Meg from A Wrinkle In Time. She was real and a lot like me (glasses, messy hair, a tendency to shoot off at the mouth without thinking) but she used those qualities to do wonderful things.

6) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most frightening? Gollum from the Rings Trilogy. It took me yeeears to me to get his imagined 'precioussssssssssssss' out of my head.

7) Every time I read Coming Home, I see something in it that I haven’t seen before.

8) It is imperative that _________________ be made into a movie. Now. I am already picketing Hollywood for this—but if they cast _________________ as _________________, I will not be happy. I will, however, be appeased if they cast _________________. Honestly, I have no idea how to answer this one. I HATE it when a book I love gets made into a movie. With the heat and passion of a thousand suns.

9) Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse is a book that should never be made (or should have never been made) into a film. I just.....don't.....GET THE APPEAL. (And this isn't Labyrinth with David Bowie.)

10) After all these years, the poison apple-making scene in the book/movie Snow White still manages to give me the queebs.

11) After all these years, the race scene in the book/movie The Black Stallion still manages to give me a thrill.

12) If I could corner the author Joshilyn Jackson, here’s what I’d say to them one minute or less about their book, Gods In Alabama: Mah LORD, how did you manage to write this without freaking yourself out? Your characters are really believable - I swear I know some of them from some far dark corner of a family reunion - and your situations made me gasp and sit up all night to finish. I sighed when I reached the last page.

13) The coolest non-fiction book I’ve ever read is Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World, by Helen and Scott Nearing. Every time I flip through it, it makes me want to buy some land and homestead - to go back to a simpler time and be more self-sufficient.