Speculation, Fact and Fiction

Many of you will doubtless already have read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. I haven't, not least because I don't do Horror. On account of waking up in the middle of the night wondering what that noise was but being unable to get out of bed to find out, because if I do, the thing under the bed will grab my ankle...

However, I've heard the book mentioned in a fascinating talk on the development of the psychological school of crime writing, heard Simon Green talking about it at last year's FantasyCon, and recently had it recommended to me by Stan Nicholls, when we were chatting about a contemparary fantasy-ish project that I'm developing.

I shall report back in due course

Like they say, three's the charm. I can take a cosmic hint. I've got hold of a copy and shall find a shady spot in the garden this afternoon. Once I've gone and posted some thoughts over at writefantastic about a talk I went to on Monday by Diana Birchall, who's worked for 30 years as a story analyst in Hollywood.

(and yey, I got the link in, thanks, Deannawol!)