Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion

This isn't really a discussion topic; it's more in the nature of a housekeeping announcement. Since several members of our group are writers, I recently created a shelf here for supernatural fiction written by group members. Right now, it has just three books on it, but more may come later. (The computer also posted these to our "Read" shelf, but that's okay --all of us authors had to read the proofs anyway. :-) )

I've also added a few titles to our "To- Read" shelf, and will try to add a few more later. According to the Goodreads management, the computer program will let any group member move books to other shelves. Since I might take quite a while to get around to reading some of these, if any of you read any of the books I post there before I do (or already have), feel free to move them to our "Read" shelf!

Thanks for the update!

Readers visiting our group's "written by group members" bookshelf may have recently noticed some story collections by 19th-century authors, and wondered if any of our members are ghosts. As far as I know, we're all flesh and blood! :-) But this shelf can also include books for which one of us served as editor, and/or contributed something such as an introduction. Our own Jim Rockhill --who doesn't toot his own horn, but is quite a scholar in this genre-- has done this for several books; so, check them out when you have time.

If any of you have contributed a story or stories to a collection that was published as a book, you can feel free to add that book as well. The only requirement is that it fit the group's focus, as you interpret it.

While doing some neglected "housekeeping" in the last few days, I cleared off our "currently reading" shelf, since none of the three books there were still being currently read (by anyone in the group, that I know of) at present. So, if you're currently reading anything in the supernatural field, don't hesitate to post the book on that shelf! The next time we do a common read, I'll try to remember to list that book there, as well.

I browsed around on some of your profiles to see what people are currently reading, and added a couple of books to our group "currently-reading" shelf, so it doesn't look so barren. I'll try to do a better job of keeping it more current, but any of you can edit it as well.

Don't overlook the idea of exploring each other's book shelves, BTW! That's part of the fun of being in a group, and you can pick up ideas for some great reads that way.

Thanks for the info! Good ideas.

Werner, try Blood Bar

Vampires don’t exist...yet, on the brownstone back alley side streets of New York, a vampire dies. Desperate, his lover turns to Kim Bennett, author Norm Applegate’s quintessential heroine whose passion for S&M led to celebrity status as a hell-and-back murder mystery sleuth who’s been there, done that, and then some. This time, Kim finds herself caught between a secret vampire society’s attempts to locate The Black Testament (a sacred document written by Jack the Ripper), the modern-day vampire hunters bent on their destruction, and a white knuckled journey of self-discovery that catapults her into the bowels of hell and the arms of the ultimate vampire.......courtesy of The Haven, New York’s ultimate BLOOD BAR.

Blood Bar on Amazon.com

www.normanapplegate.com

Norman, I saw that you'd posted this one to our group's read shelf, and I added it to our written-by-group-members shelf, as well. You should post your other supernatural novels there as well. Glad to have you in our group!

Werner, thanks for doing that, where do I find the written-by-group members shelf.

Blood Bar, is generating terrific reviews however, it's very difficult to market and reach a larger audience without a mainstream publisher behind you. Black Bed Sheet Books, is a small publisher of horror run by Nicholas Grabowsky of Halloween IV fame and slowly the word is getting out...Blood Bar is a hell of a vampire adventure story.

All the best
Norm
www.normanapplegate.com

Norman, at our group home page, just click on "bookshelves." That will take you automatically to the "read" shelf, but there are then links on the left to each of the other shelves, so you can browse any or all of them. When you add a book to the bookshelves, the program will give you a link to click on for designating the shelf or shelves you want to put it on. (Adding something to the "written-by-group-members" shelf automatically adds it to the "read" shelf, too.)

Thanks Werner, I added "Into the Basement," and "Into the Spell," my first two novels.

All the best
Norm

well, i'm an aspiring author and i need some help. can you guys look at my stories posted on here called burnout (last page of the search engine for burnout)this is about vamppires and teenage problems and darkening shades (last page of search engine for Darkening shades) this is about demons and a kid dealing with it.

Tyler, I have a question, and I couldn't message you because your profile is set to private. Where on Goodreads did you post "Burnout" and "Darkening Shades?" The main Goodreads search engine doesn't turn these up. Do you have a link, and do you know how to embed it in a post to make it clickable?

Darn! My book is not about vampires or ghost so I can not fit my book on the bookshelves. Good luck with your writings fellow writers! :)

Well, Patrick, it's true that we're a group focused on the literature of the supernatural. But I've visited your site and looked at the description of your book, and I'm sure there are quite a few members of this group who also enjoy horrific science fiction. So I'd say, go ahead and put your book on the written-by-group -members shelves; these days, authors need all the publicity they can get! Best of luck with your writing.

Thank you very much, Werner. I placed it there already. Look forward to the day you guys check out my first novel. gather the weeds

Right now, the only book on our group's "currently reading" shelf is our October common read, Haunted Lily. Some Goodreads groups, though not all of them, apparently reserve that shelf for their common reads (and some people have sometimes assumed that we do that as well :-)). Would the rest of you want to adopt that practice here? I don't have a strong opinion on it either way. I like to always have something on that shelf, since it adds visual appeal to the homepage; but now that we do a common read every month, those would keep the shelf occupied all the time. What's your opinion on this?

I think if we are going to do a common read, then that area should be reserved for said book.

Okay, Natalee --our rule of thumb is, "silence is consent." So, unless anybody speaks up to the contrary, the way that you said is the way that we'll handle that shelf in the future!

Wow, I feel ALL POWERFUL. :-D

Wait a minute! Was that Norm Applegate that posted up there above me, of Black Bed Sheet Productions! *gasp*

NORM!! *Sue waves ferociously* How are you doing? And secondly how is Nick doing? I was at the 2007 World Horror Convention with Nick (Nicholas Grabowsky) along with three of his other invited guest. I miss talking to him but I know he's very busy. Hard to keep up with him these days. I just realized who you were and wanted to say hey. :)

In going back over these posts just now, I just discovered that we had decided, back in Oct. 2009 (that seems ancient now --even though I know it isn't!) to keep our group's "currently reading" shelf strictly for our common reads. Sorry I got out of that practice, and created confusion! (Slaps self on wrist. :-) ) I think I got out of the habit when we gave up doing our common reads every month. But in the future, I'll keep that shelf reserved for those!

Some of us have kicked around the idea of doing a common read (of City of Bones) in March. If we decide on doing that (I'll put a poll up later in the week), we'll have a book to put on that shelf; and I'm thinking it would be fine to keep it there until we replace it with another one.

I keep on trying to finish my book but
I have writers block--can't figure out how the book should end
and since i actually researched demons and watched demon flicks for this book, i keep getting nightmares :(
so i don't think my book's coming on Goodreads anytime soon

Hang in there, Ankit. A lot of writers have had similar kinds of problems, and taken quite a while to finish their books. Whenever you do get published, we'll be glad to add your book to our written-by-group-members shelf!

Hope I'm doing this right! Just joined your group which looks to be just my thing! Adding my book to your list! It's my first and I'm excited about it. A ghost story. Be Still, My Love

Welcome, Deborah.

Deborah has a wonderful blog/website! It details her experiences in a real live haunted farmhouse when she was growing up. I had a chance to explore the site at length today and it is awesome!

So glad you enjoyed my blog, Carole! It's always a good feeling to know people appreciate your efforts. Blessings!!

My name is Chris Robertson and I have a collection of my best short horror and science fiction available on Kindle. It features my best tales written between 2005-2012.~Cheers!

http://www.amazon.com/DREAMS-Deluxe-C...

Just now, I changed the name of our Group Members Who Write folder to Group Members Who Write/Publish. So, if you happen to own a publishing company or work for one, and you're interested in promoting supernatural-themed books that your company publishes, you can feel free to post a thread in that folder!

I'm just getting around to adding my books with supernatural elements to it to the bookshelves. Hope that is Ok.

Yes, Charles, that's absolutely okay! Be sure to add them to the "written-by-group-members" shelf as well as the read shelf.

While adding some books to the shelf today and yesterday evening, I noticed that some people who have added books have filled in the "date read" box. My understanding is that that box is only for books we've read as a group, for a common read. (For books we've read as individuals, it could be confusing, since any number of people in the group may have read the book at a different time!) So I'm going to delete the "read" dates for the books that weren't common reads, and request that in those cases, you all just leave that box blank. Thanks!

Hmmm! It turns out that once the date boxes (both the "started" and "finished" dates) and the "discussion folder" boxes have been filled out, the Goodreads program doesn't allow them to be returned to a blank state. :-( So what's done can't be undone. But those boxes are just for common reads, so let's be especially careful in the future not to fill them in other cases!

Recently, I've been creating some customized shelves in our group bookshelves. Every book there shows up on the "read" shelf, of course (except for the relatively rare "to-read" ones), and will continue to, but I'm also creating some subject-specific shelves that will be an aid in browsing for readers who want a particular kind of book --for instance, about vampires, or werewolves. Check it out, and see what you think of it so far!

Of course, many books remain unclassified, since I haven't had time to get to them; and in the case of books I haven't read, I may not know how to classify them (especially if the Goodreads description for the book is nonexistent, or not very detailed). If you've added a book to the shelves in the past, your help in classifying it would be greatly appreciated (from the book's listing on our bookshelf, just click the "edit" link, then "choose shelves"). Thanks!

What a wonderful idea! I just classified my book on the ghost shelf. This will make it easier for people (like myself) who love ghost novels but don't read, say, zombie books. Or werewolf readers who don't go in for wizards. Thanks for doing this!

Glad to do it, Deb. And thanks for your help!

Great idea, Werner. Thanks for putting in so much work for the group!

You're welcome, Charles --though I actually don't put in that much work; I have so many irons in the fire that this group often just gets the proverbial "lick and a promise." (But I do make myself useful once in awhile! :-) )

Yes, Adrian, absolutely; add away! My ambition is to build our bookshelf into the best bibliography of good-quality supernatural fiction on Goodreads, so contributions from everybody are much appreciated.

Adrian, when you click on the "bookshelf" link, and the main bookshelf page appears, you know where the "add books" function is, on the left hand side. A list of all the individual shelves appears right under it, with the standard shelves first and the group's customized shelves under those. "Ghosts" is the second one in the latter group, with 37 books listed.

I thought A Christmas Carol was already on our bookshelves. If it wasn't, it sure should have been, so thanks for adding it!

You mean I'm not the only one who has Attention Deficit moments? :-)

Werner, the bookshelf for this group is so beautifully organized. It's inspirational.

Thank you, Robert!