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My friend Howard got a great review in the New York Post today. This is his first novel (he’s ghost written books for others). Horror books are not really my thing, but of course I read it and it was SO CREEPY. I wish you could hide your eyes in books when it gets to the really scary parts, the way you can at movies. It’s too bad horror doesn’t get reviewed more (unless you’re Steven King or one of a small select group). I’d love to hear more reviewers opinions about it. It’s fun to read what people write about your friends.
I’m in a very good mood today, because my agent responded to the chapters I sent. She didn’t like one, but I knew she wasn’t going to, so I was already prepared for that, and aside from making some editing suggestions, she loved the rest. My biggest, biggest fear was that I hadn’t delivered what my editor wanted. My editor wanted me to weave in material outside Duke, more ghost-y stuff. I didn’t want to do what so many other writers have done when faced with writing about parapsychology — trying to make it more than it is, and trying to make it scary. Basically, exaggerating. The truth is actually more interesting.
So, I wove in lots of strange events they looked into, which are absolutely fascinating in and of themselves without trying to make them anything more than what they are, and in the process of trying to tell the truth about what did and did not happen I found some really compelling information about apparitions (and other things). I don’t want to give it away. But when I asked my agent if she thought I had delivered what my editor wanted, because she agreed with my editor that this was needed, she answered, “Totally.”
