Spooky Stories Haunt the Shelves of Winona Public Library

Ben McLeod wrote to us last decade to tell how Bellairsia finally helped him connect the dots between Hoosac and Winona:

I cannot describe to you the frisson of reading a book about a mysterious library and a treasure hidden within while sitting in the very library being described. As I read more of the Anthony Monday books certain particulars made it very, very clear that Hoosac was in fact Winona. When I tried to point out to parents and librarians that these books were about our town, I was met with disinterested disbelief. Adults simply assumed that I was projecting myself onto the characters of the books.

McLeod discovered through the site that Bellairs had taught at the now-defunct College of Saint Teresa in the early 1960s, prompting him to finally find his white whale.  Or his Winterborn.  Or Weatherend.  Whatever.   Now he's back (McLeod, that is), this time with an article in the Winona Post just in time for Halloween that further explains the connection and celebrates the four-book Anthony Monday series:

Haverhill’s Horror Movie Heritage

WHAV radio notes some of the people associated with Haverhill that have contributed to horror movies over the years just in time for Halloween. In addition to John Bellairs - noting his Johnny Dixon series (set in "a thinly-veiled 1950s Haverhill") and the impending movie adaptation of The House with a Clock in its Walls - Dave Goudsward passes along the following biographies:

A Prime Example of the Halloween Spirit

As the midnight hour gets closer to hand, James Basile writes this weekend in the Oklahoman about one of his favorite spooky and creepy reads:

Happy Birthday, #BradStrickland!

"Coming from the South, I grew up in a family of storytellers. My aunts, uncles, and grandparents told tales of enchantment and terror involving vanishing hitchhikers, spirits of the dead wandering graveyards in the form of flickering flames, buried Confederate gold, indelible bloodstains at the site of murders … topics to make a child’s flesh creep. However, I always wanted more and never failed to listen.

"The reading audience is very special and it’s always pleasant to discover these stores’ appeal to others. I hope the young people who read my work will enjoy it half as much as I enjoy writing it, and its good to hope that perhaps some of them will go on to become tellers of tales, masters of terror, workers of wonder."

Thanks for listening, Brad, and thanks for writing. Happy Birthday from your friends and fans at Bellairsia.

Quote from Something About the Author vol. 83. © 1996.

RecordedBooks: Lewis Barnavelt and Voices I Desire Aloud

While you're waiting to see The House with a Clock in its Walls, you can also listen to House - and soon, other titles from the Lewis Barnavelt series via RecordedBooks. RecordedBooks originally released House in the mid-1990s (along with four other titles) and now it is being re-released (with some great Gorey-esque artwork, too).

You'll be able to listen to the further adventures of Lewis and Rose Rita in the months ahead.  Listen up and mark your calendars.  (Or tell Siri to do it for you.)

Film News: A Journey, Sir, To Newnan

If this was the autumn season you finally decided you were going to visit Newnan, Georgia, then we have a few tips as far as getting around.  More so, the Newnan Times Herald reports on downtown traffic delays and detours that can be expected because of the filming of The House with a Clock in its Walls (and/or other projects).