Suzanne Beecher: Living in Mayberry

Since writing my New Year's post and embarking on the "What If...?" challenge--to find at least one thing each day for which to be thankful, and trying to focus on the positive this year--it seems I keep coming across articles, blog posts, and quotes by others who are sharing the same or a similar message. Suzanne Beecher's "Dear Reader" column for January 6, 2010, is just one example and, with her permission, I'm reprinting it below. First, however, I'd like to take a minute to introduce you to Suzanne and the book clubs.

Suzanne has owned a restaurant, founded and published a business magazine, founded a non-profit program to feed the homeless, and home-schooled her youngest son. In addition to writing her daily column at DearReader.com, she designs book clubs for publishers, book sellers, and libraries across the country. Her book Muffins and Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy--if disorderly---Life debuts in June of 2010 (Touchstone).

When you sign up for one of her various genre book clubs, you will receive an e-mail on Monday through Friday with a portion from a book that will take about five minutes to read--just the thing to go with a cup of coffee to start your day, or as a mid-day break. By the end of the week, you'll know whether or not you want to add that book to your "To Read" list. Suzanne also has many contests and give-aways for her readers. Reading her column is like receiving a note from a dear friend, and her sense of humor will have you smiling even if you've been having a bad day. So, I'd like to invite you to sign up and read along with her and 375,000 other people (including me) every day at her online book clubs at www.DearReader.com And now, Suzanne...

Dear Reader,

I do my best writing when I'm living in Mayberry. Yes, I live in Sarasota, Florida, but in my mind I spend a lot of time sitting on the front porch of my house in Mayberry, three streets over from the courthouse where Andy and Barney are keeping the peace. I make different choices since I've taken up residence in Mayberry. Life is more fun in the slow lane and I rarely watch anything violent, which includes the evening news. Murders, children being abducted, cruelty to animals, folks just being downright nasty to each other, I realize these things go on every day; but watching them being replayed hundreds of times on television, or reading about them day after day, wouldn't help the victims or do anything good for my life, either.

The folks in Mayberry have problems, but they try to find gracious ways of solving them and they're polite even when someone deserves less. Not being born and raised in Mayberry, I'm far from being a model citizen. I try my best, but sometimes I still lose my temper and have to chase nasty thoughts out of my mind. But I've discovered that spending time in Mayberry, surrounded by people who try their best to live a good life, it's rubbing off on me and I like how I feel.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher

Suzanne@DearReader.com

My blog: http://dearreader.typepad.com/

Book clubs: www.DearReader.com

"A Friend to Readers and Libraries"

If you'd like to help promote the book clubs, here is a link to flyers Suzanne has put together. If you could print off a few and hand them out, she would appreciate it.

http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/users/test/mweb/path23-5.html

["Dear Reader" column reprinted by permission.]

Day Three: Do Horror/Thriller Writers Ever Scare Themselves?

A few days ago we celebrated Halloween which is rooted in Celtic traditions having to do with dead spirits returning to the land of the living, causing mischief, and scaring people. The Celts used sacred bonfires and sacrifices to try to keep these spirits at bay, and disguised themselves by dressing in animal costumes. Another tradition, the jack-o-lantern, came from Ireland and was originally a carved out turnip, not a pumpkin. Over the years, costumes and traditions evolved, but the "scare factor" remained an integral part of the celebration--especially when featured in films and books. Today, many people throw Halloween parties, like the one in my novel, turn off the lights, and sit around telling ghost stories to scare their friends.

Even apart from Halloween, we seem to like to scare ourselves -- as long as we know we're really safe. Whether the old Dracula, Mummy, and Wolfman movies of the early 1900s, or more recent offerings such as "The Blair Witch Project," the "Friday the 13th" series, "Paranormal Activity," and many others, people like to experience the fight or flight response without actually having to do either. And then there are the scary novels by master horror/thriller writers Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jeffrey Deaver, and Nate Kenyon.

As I was working on my novel last night, a scene in which ghost stories were being shared, I found myself becoming slightly uneasy and it made me wonder: Do horror or thriller writers ever scare themselves? Did Stephen King lie awake nights because he felt like he'd made one of his characters too real -- like his protagonist, writer Thad Beaumont, in The Dark Half? Did he have nightmares about Ronald McDonald after he wrote It? Did he hesitate, if only for a moment, before taking a bite of pie after he wrote Thinner? Was Dean Koontz afraid to fall asleep, while writing The Bad Place, like his main character Frank Pollard? And how well did Nate Kenyon sleep after a decomposed corpse attacked one of his characters in his newest work, Sparrow Rock?

I didn't have the opportunity to ask Mr. King or Mr. Koontz, but I met Mr. Kenyon a few months ago online through Suzanne Beecher's Dear Reader online book clubs; so I sent him an e-mail, and he was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to respond.

Donna: Nate, have you ever given yourself nightmares from something you've written?

Nate*: Sure. I've had nightmares from something I've written--and I've written about my nightmares, too. In fact, my most recent thriller, THE BONE FACTORY, was sparked by a particularly creepy dream about a man totally alone in the deep woods at night, wading through thigh-deep drifts of snow and looking for a dead body. It was so vivid and unsettling, I woke up at about 3 a.m.,

got right up out of bed and wrote that scene. The entire novel sprouted from there.

My upcoming novel, SPARROW ROCK (May 2010) gave me nightmares one night. I wrote a scene where the resurrected body of a long-dead friend returns to the bomb shelter where a group of teens are holed up to pay them a visit. That scene really creeped me out, and that night after I'd finished it, I had a dream about a high school friend of mine who died and then came back to life. Didn't sleep much for the rest of the night!

So, apparently it works both ways: nightmares can generate stories, and stories can generate nightmares--even when you're the author. Now I don't feel so bad about not being able to sleep last night after I finished the ghost story scene. It seems I'm in good company.

*My thanks to Nate Kenyon for answering my blog question. To find out more about him and his novels, visit his website: http://natekenyon.com/