Christine Rains is celebrating the release of her new book Fearless with a blog fest! I thought I’d join in, since a) I haven’t
posted in a while, and b) the topic sounded like fun!
From her blog:
I'll be hosting a blogfest that
will go from August 7th to the 9th. You can post on any one of those three
days. (I like it when blogfests give you an option of which day to post on!)
For this blogfest, all you need to do is write about your childhood monster.
Did you have a beast living under your bed? Or was the scary clown in your
closet?
My childhood monster?
My first instinct is to say witches—when I was really young,
I thought that witches lived under my bed and in my closet, and I could see their
shadows creeping up on me. But that
pretty soon switched to the Basilisk, in Harry Potter.
That thing terrified me.
It probably had something to do with the fact that I would
listen to Harry Potter with my sister, as we were going to sleep. We would put in the tape (we have all the
books on cassette tape, except for Deathly
Hallows, and I still listen to most of them on tape), and go to sleep as it
was playing.
The thing about Chamber
of Secrets, is when you read the book itself, it’s not actually all that
scary. At least, it wasn’t to me. But when you listen to it, especially as you’re
going to sleep, you can just imagine the basilisk coming to find you and paralyze
you. And in the tapes, past tape two or
three, I’m not actually able to listen to them anymore. Because once Harry starts hearing “Deaaath, deaaath!” being hissed from the
walls, I start to get thoroughly creeped out, and stop listening.
I don’t know why it was the basilisk in particular that
scared me—I didn’t have a problem with dementors, or even Lord Voldemort, but
it was the basilisk that terrified me.
I was also afraid of graveyards, and zombies/ghosts, until I was about seven, when I voiced this fear to my dad. He then took me into a graveyard near my house one evening, and showed me that there was nothing to be scared of. I was terrified and almost in tears, but once we were inside the graveyard, I realized there was nothing scary about it. Just sad, really.
I was also afraid of graveyards, and zombies/ghosts, until I was about seven, when I voiced this fear to my dad. He then took me into a graveyard near my house one evening, and showed me that there was nothing to be scared of. I was terrified and almost in tears, but once we were inside the graveyard, I realized there was nothing scary about it. Just sad, really.
~~~
About Fearless
Abby White was seven years old when she killed the monster under her bed. Now she slays creatures spawned by the fertile imaginations of children, and the number of these nightmares are on the rise. Neither she nor her guide - a stuffed hippo named Tawa - know why.
When she rescues Demetrius from an iron prison, he pledges his life to protect hers until he can return the favor. She doesn't want the help. And how can she concentrate on her job when the gorgeous wild fae throws himself in front of her during every fight? No matter how tempting, she can't take the time to lose herself to him.
To save the children and all she loves, Abby must be truly Fearless.
Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and Create Space.
So, my friends, are you doing the What Was Your Childhood Monster blogfest? If not, what was your childhood monster?
The Dandy Lioness
Abby White was seven years old when she killed the monster under her bed. Now she slays creatures spawned by the fertile imaginations of children, and the number of these nightmares are on the rise. Neither she nor her guide - a stuffed hippo named Tawa - know why.
When she rescues Demetrius from an iron prison, he pledges his life to protect hers until he can return the favor. She doesn't want the help. And how can she concentrate on her job when the gorgeous wild fae throws himself in front of her during every fight? No matter how tempting, she can't take the time to lose herself to him.
To save the children and all she loves, Abby must be truly Fearless.
Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and Create Space.
~~~
So, my friends, are you doing the What Was Your Childhood Monster blogfest? If not, what was your childhood monster?
The Dandy Lioness
Yup, I'm doing it. :) The Basilisk from HP scared me as well--especially the way he kept hearing it through the walls when no one else could.
ReplyDeleteI can totally see how that book would be scary to listen to before bed!
ReplyDeleteI bet you it was actually listening to a voice saying "deaaath! deaaath!" that produced the fears. Something more tangible about listening to a tale than reading it. I lived next to a cemetery growing up and I loved it. It was my playground. Thank you for sharing your monsters with us and for helping promote my novella. :)
ReplyDeleteWitches can be very scary! I dressed as a witch one Halloween as a kid.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...I was scared of the basilisk in Harry Potter, too. The second book was the only one that was scary to me. I had such bad nightmares from it. I don't think that was my real childhood monster, though. When I was little, my best friend and I had this huge, elaborate game. It was this pretend world--it's kind of hard to explain, but all the trees had powers. Mother Earth was the good guy, and we served her. We were witches, actually. We never thought witches were bad. But, anyway, different spirits resided in different trees. The scariest one was this tree that had a knot the shape of a bull on it. We called it the Red Bull tree (this was before we knew there was such a thing) and in it lived Pollution. Pollution, the evil. Pollution, the killer of fish. Pollution, the wiper-out-er of animals.
ReplyDelete...Yes, we were total dorks. But we cared about the environment, and I was TERRIFIED of Pollution. I thought he was going to track me down and kill me. Or something.
That was a long explanation. I probably should have typed up a post. Oh, well. That book looks really good--I really like the cover.
I read another book series that I can't remember right now and there was a basilisk that was terrifying. I remember it better than what the story was about.
ReplyDeleteThat basilisk is frightening for me in one important respect,: it's gigantic, yet it knows how to sneak around undetected. And it's an instrument that can be used by any evildoer who knows how to speak to it. I don't want anything that's already creepy looking and poisonous to have these other attributes.
ReplyDeleteYour dad and my parents shared child-rearing philosophies :) Great story, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI can see how the basilisk would be the most scary thing in HP. Also, it's snake-like, which is enough for me!
ReplyDeleteMy monster: http://thewarriormuse.blogspot.com/2012/08/childhood-monster-blog-fest.html