Halloweenie in the Trailer Park

Happy Halloween, Snarkolytes!

Put down those delicious apples with razor blades in them, and ready yourself for this week’s spooky-dooky Trailer Park. In honor of All Hallow’s Eve, I’ve chosen three scary, supernatural titles to present.

The first is Ghost Radio by the fantastically-named Leopoldo Gout. This trailer is ultra-creepy, and even though the book isn’t my style, I’m tempted to read it. If for no other reason then to hopefully love it and implore all of you to run out and GET GOUT!

The next book, Viking Unchained by Sandra Hill, combines time travel, romance, and what promises to be some really hot sexy times. And the novel also seems to beg the eternal question: is there anything hotter than a Viking in S&M gear?

I had to pick this last book, Ghosts of Albion: Accursed, because it was written (with Christopher Golden) by Amber Benson…a.k.a. Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Snark loves him some Buffy, and Tara was primo lesbiano as Willow’s witchy lover. From what I can deduce, her book is a rather interesting-looking paranormal that definitely seems worth a peek.

Have a candy-filled Halloween! And don’t do what I do: turn off all the lights and hide as soon as those little brats start ringing the doorbell.

October 31, 2008 | Filed Under Trailer Park | Leave a Comment 

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Anne Rice.

In a perfect story for Halloween Eve, Yahoo News has published an interesting profile of famed author Anne Rice, who has gone from being the Queen of Vampire Fiction to — cue horror movie scream — an emerging voice in Christian literature. Yes, gone are the days of ravenous bloodsuckers Lestat and Louis, not to mention the sexual escapades of Sleeping Beauty humping her way through the castle, and in their place we have a decidedly different Anne Rice.

In Rice’s new book, a memoir entitled Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession, the 67-year-old writer recounts her journey from Catholic youth to Existentialist college student to adamant Athiest — and her eventual voyage back to Christianity. In the late 90s, after the death of her beloved husband, the poet and artist Stan Rice, and she herself facing health problems, Rice returned to Mass and found her spiritual home.

But remaining true to her mystical leanings, Rice also tells of the more supernatural elements of her religious transformation. In a string of epiphanies, mostly on pilgrimmages to European cathedrals, Israel, and Brazil, she remembers the dizzy euphoria of rediscovering Christ. In Brazil, when she visited Rio de Janeiro’s monolothic Jesus statue, Rice writes of her “delirium” and religious intoxication, recalling equally-blissful events in her Catholic childhood (as a girl, Rice wanted to be a saint).

Refreshingly, she doesn’t disown her series of wildly successful vampire novels. ”I do think that those dark books were always talking about religion in their own way,” Rice said. “They were talking about the grief for a lost faith.”

This time, though, her goals are a bit loftier than just entertaining the masses. ”My objective is simple: It’s to write books about our Lord living on Earth that make him real to people who don’t believe in him; or people who have never really tried to believe in him,” she said.

While I’m sure many of Rice’s die-hard fans are put off by her recent change of faith — or at least her decision to write about it so intimately — I myself am happy for Ms. Rice. Our religious views may be different, but I’m all for an artist exploring his/her world in whatever method he/she may choose. In an uncharacteristically UN-snarkish bit of commentary, I welcome Rice’s transformative journey and how it has enriched her life. When an artist does the same thing over and over again, there is a sense of static, a lack of evolution, if you will. When an artist grows and changes, in whatever ways, it shows us that a) he/she is human, and b) there is a constant supply of new and wondrous things to investigate. So even though the New York Times called her memoir “the literary equivalent of waterboarding”, I applaud Anne Rice.

Called Out of Darkness is available now. Two other Christian-themed works by Rice, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, the first novels of a four-part, first-person history of Jesus, were released earlier this year.

 

Story Source  Yahoo News

October 30, 2008 | Filed Under Authors, Newsies, Spirituality & Religion | Leave a Comment 

Share Your Hopes & Dreams With President Obama

OK, so the election is still six days away, but that’s not stopping Skyhorse Publishing from announcing its plans to release Letters to President Obama: Americans Share Our Hopes and Dreams with the First African-American President. Readers are encouraged to submit their own “words, thoughts, perspectives, and dreams in a letter for this new era.” The book aims to capture the country’s hope and optimism during this time of change and progression, memorializing how we, as a nation, come together at a pivotal moment in American history.

The editors of Letters to President Obama are professors at the University of Michigan and Cornell. Associate publisher Bill Wolfsthal said they will edit the submissions “to create a thought-provoking and poignant collection”, thereby ensuring the book’s place as an important literary and historical document — and not a platform for right-wing nutjobs.

But what if Obama doesn’t win on November 4? “We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Wolfsthal said. “The book might still be a poignant piece of history if Obama should lose.”

Letters to President Obama is scheduled to be released in April 2009.

To submit your own letter, visit the book’s website.

Story Source Publishers Weekly, Letters to President Obama | Image Source Obey Giant

October 29, 2008 | Filed Under Newsies, Politics | Leave a Comment 

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      WHAT IS A SNARK?




      The Snark is a creature created by Lewis Carroll in his poem "The Hunting of the Snark". To give a proper description of Snarks, one must look no further than Carroll himself, who summed them up in one word: Unimaginable.

      But this much we do know: some have feathers, some have whiskers. Snarks sleep a lot, yet they are an ambitious lot -- with very little sense of humor. They love bathing-machines and tend to bring them wherever they go; they are also handy for striking a light. Snarks live on a far-off island, a place filled with chasms and crags, and are constantly on the lookout for Snark-hunters. Their mortal enemies are hope, care, thimbles and forks.

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