Month: December 2024

Northanger Abbey watch-party

So, last night, I attended a virtual watch party for Northanger Abbey. It’s part of the course I’m taking called Trapped in a Gothic Novel (mentioned in last week’s comments) at the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic.

Y’all, how is it 2024, and I’ve never done one of these?

Between watching the movie and reading all the witty comments, I didn’t have a chance to make any of my own (witty or otherwise; I’m not sure how the others kept up). My favorite of the night, in reference to the hero’s brother, Captain Tilney:

He’s handsome in that I-eat-live-scorpions-for-breakfast kind of way.

Up next is A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand, the authorized follow-up to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Which would be fine, except …

I’ve never read The Haunting of Hill House because back in eighth grade, I read “The Lottery” and subsequently noped out on all things Shirley Jackson.

I’m not sure I can do this, but I’m going to dive into the reading this week … and hopefully not lose too much sleep.

Snow and solstice

I love how often we get one of those bright blue days after a snowstorm. It’s one of my favorite things about winter. And when it corresponds with the longest night of the year, making everything just a little bit brighter? Even better.

I can pretend I’m in a ski lodge, drinking hot chocolate and eating sugar cookies. Mind you, I haven’t been skiing in ages. The last time I remember was when I was living in Germany, and a group of us took a trip to Salzburg over a long weekend. And even then, I didn’t ski. My eyes were all wonky, so I spent the time lounging outside (it was warm enough in the sun), drinking that hot chocolate, and eating the Austrian version of sugar cookies.

So today, I’m going to pretend I’m at that ski lodge, although I’ll stay indoors. I have hot chocolate. I have sugar cookies. I have a good book.

I hope your Sunday is filled with such things as well.

On such a winter’s evening

Last week, my daughter and I headed to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for their Winter Lights display. Just a few photos, none of which really do the display justice.

And yes, there we are, drinking apple cider inside a large, electrified apple. In retrospect, this seems to be an unwise move on our part. We should have opted for the hot chocolate. Thankfully, the large, electrified apple is benevolent, and we emerged unscathed.

Sunday sunrise (with bonus mall nostalgia)

I was going to Photoshop all the wires and utility poles out of the photo but then thought better of it. This is how my sunrise looks, warts (or rather, wires) and all.

This week, a video about people living in malls popped into my feed—because I’m a little obsessed with abandoned spaces, malls in particular. I wish they’d spent more time showing us all the different apartments. But it was still interesting, and yeah, maybe there’s a story idea or two in there.

In fact, Coffee & Ghosts, Season 4 (The Ghosts You Left Behind) has an abandoned (and the same not-so-abandoned) mall as one of the main settings. I based that particular mall on the one in my hometown, which opened when I was in eighth grade (I think) and was a Very. Big. Deal. This part of the story was fun to research and write, although I probably spent more time looking at “vintage” Orange Julius storefronts than was strictly necessary.

I also had fun exploring the whole “what if you’re locked inside the mall overnight” scenario. 0/10 would not recommend, but it helps if you have some ghostly companions.

So that’s me this Sunday. I think I’ll quit now before I go completely off the rails with this questionable 80s mall nostalgia.

Sniffles and summit

I finished the author business summit videos, and they were a nice distraction because I’ve also been down with what I’m optimistically calling the sniffles for this long Thanksgiving weekend.

And don’t ask me why I believe I can think my way out of being sick. It never works, but I’m always convinced that maybe this time, it’s mind over matter.

Spoiler: it’s not.

So yesterday, my daughter and I decided to go with it. We pulled the shades against the afternoon sun, got the fireplace going, and then started on a rewatch of The Lord of the Rings series, extended edition. We took a break to cook dinner but managed to get all the way through The Fellowship of the Ring. This is a lot of movie. Not that they were short to begin with. But I like the extended versions; I can simply sink into the story and let everything go for a few (or several) hours.

Up today: The Two Towers. I don’t know if we’ll make it all the way through or not. But it will be a nice way to cap off the long, if somewhat sniffly, weekend.