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The Unexpected Things You Discover When You Clean

So, the dust layer on my bookshelves has gotten thick and I decided for my Spring Break (yeah!) I'm cleaning the office.  Scrap by scrap, book by book, I'm dusting and purging. 

I'm a month shy of being 39 and I like to buy children's books, especially if they're about witches or have a horror element to them.  When I was a wee child, I had some really cool books (possibly from the Weekly Reader program?) and most of them now grace my bookshelves; yellowed, torn, stained, and written on. 

As I dusted them, I realized:  this is where it all began for me!  These books in the photo especially.  I've read and re-read so many times.  I've traced the amazing drawings on these pages.  My style is so similar to these books, it is making me wonder...is this the writing path I should follow?  Should some my short stories really be turned into childrens books?  I mean, I've been told I'm "horror lite" so maybe I should aim my work at helpless kids.


The Ghost of Windy Hill by Clyde Robert Bulla, Grandpa's Ghost Stories by James Flora, The Mixed-Up Witch by Wayne Carley, The Boy Who Turned Into a TV Set by Stephen Manes, Mummy Jokes and Puzzles by Heather Rosen, Zed and the Monsters by Peggy Parish, and The Mysterious Zetabet by Scott Corbett, and of course, The Monster at the End of This Book



Perhaps when I'm done cleaning The Pit of Despair (aka the office), I'll consult the Ouija board and it'll advise me what to do.



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