Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories

Great cover art.

Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories is a collection of 14 ghost stories as chosen by acclaimed writer Roald Dahl. [From Wikipedia: Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter. Born in Llandaff, Cardiff, to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander.]

I read the first six stories: W.S. by L.P. Hartley, Harry by Rosemary Timperley, The Corner Shop by Cynthia Asquith, In the Tube by E.F. Benson, Christmas Meeting by Rosemary Timperly and Elias and the Draug by Jonas Lie.

The stories are solid as ghost stories go. My hang up is ghost stories don’t have pop! A third to half the story is concerned with how the ghost came to be a ghost, the other half sets up the main character to somehow get caught alone with the ghost. Most times the character doesn’t know the ghost is a ghost until the predictable “reveal”.

In The Corner Shop, no shit, the last paragraph reads:

“Oh, now I understand!” She exclaimed. “You mean Bessie’s father! But Bessie and I are only step-sisters. My poor father died years and years ago.” 

You mean the creepy old man in the antique shop, w-w-was … a-a-a … g-g-ghost! SHRIEK!

But as Dalh puts it in the introduction, I good ghost story should, “give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts.” The stories were vaguely tired, but as a read I couldn’t help imagining some interesting things.

Read the book if only for the intro. In 1958, Dahl was commissioned to collect 24 short ghost stories and write one of his own for a new television series called “Ghost Time”. Apparently this series was supposed to compete with the likes of The Twilight Zone, which was launched in 1959, but it was never made it past the pilot stage. Ghost Time was scrapped by producers because they felt the story the pilot was based on would offend Catholics—a target demographic.     

Whoops.

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Everyday vs. Every Day

While editing a customer's manuscript, we came across a common mistake. Often there's confusion between using the word "everyday" and the phrase "every day".

The phrase "every day" is an adverb that modifies or further describes a verb. For example:

He writes a short story every day.

"He" is the subject, "short story" is the object, "writes" is the action or verb, and "every day" is the adverb that modifies or adds specific detail to the action. In this example, "every day" could be replaced with "daily".

The word "everyday" is an adjective that modifies a noun. It means "ordinary" or "normal". For example:

It's okay to wear everyday clothes to the book launch.

Editing and writing coaching are just two of the many publishing services Sudden Publishing offers. Visit our website at http://www.suddenpublishing.com/ for more information.  

The Voice of the Night by Dean Koontz

The Voice of the Night is the second of Koontz's books I've read in the past couple weeks. The first was Brother Odd, part of the "Odd Thomas" series.

The Voice of the Night has a well-developed main character, Colin, though falls into some of the traps of the "shy, skinny, brainy and bespectacled 14-year-old", including the essential overactive imagination and sci-fi addiction.

Narration is third person.

Dialogue

Koontz uses rushes of alternating dialogue without attribution:

"Is she taking good care of you?"
"Sure."
"Are you eating well?"
"Yeah."
"You're still so skinny."
"I eat real well."
"She's not much of a cook."
"She does okay."

This technique keeps a fast pace and it's clear who's talking; however, it's a tennis match which may lead to a reader skimming rather than digesting the content. It's like eavesdropping on a conversation in fast forward.

Conjunctions

Koontz, also uses the conjunction "for" in a number of instances instead of "because".

"When the telephone rang, he had to run into his mother's room to answer it, for he had no extension of his own." 

The book was written in 1980 and is a modern theme. Using "for" as a conjunction gives the passage an older feel which doesn't fit with the overall language of the story.

Notable Descriptions

Describing the family of Roy, the villain:

"There was a peculiar stiffness in the way they talked among themselves, as if they were reciting lines from a script they hadn't learned very well. They were so formal. They almost seemed ... afraid of one another."

Describing the shooting of sea gulls with shotguns from the deck of the Erica Lynn fishing boat:

"The guns fired and the gulls burst apart in the sky. Thousands of tiny droplets of blood sprayed up like beads of molten copper ..."

Cheese ...

Describing Colin's first movie date with classmate Heather:

"Sitting in the cool theater, in the velveteen shadows, in the pale, flickering light cast back by the screen, holding his girl's hand, he thought he knew what heaven must be like."

Interesting Words (a.k.a. Say what?)

rictus 

rictuses, plural
Noun: A fixed grimace or grin: "Ned's smile had become a rictus of repulsion".

reconnoiter
Noun: An act of reconnoitering.
Verb: Make a military observation of (a region): "they reconnoitered the beach before the landing"; "the raiders were reconnoitering for further attacks".

References to Other Books

The narrator refers to the 1951 sci-fi novel The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein as "great". Also, refers to John Campbell's Who Goes There? and Theodore Sturgeon's The Professor's Teddy Bear as "pulsing with a rich vision of evil" [paraphrased].