What's on My Bookshelf?

This section is two-fold. I love to read about faeries. I also love to write about faeries. The books listed here can help you with both. Great reference books for anyone interested in studying the history of faerie myths, great stories for those who just want to read about faeries, and great guide books for those who want to write about faeries.

Wonderful, wonderful books.

Every writer has a few writing-how-to books that they would recommend every writer should have. The five books shown in this section are the ones I put in that category.

The Self-Publishing Manual is the best-ultimate guide that no self-publisher should be without.

The Writers Book of Matches is a powerful brainstormer, filled with 1,001 weird and quirky one sentence story starters. Simple pick an idea and write a story based on it.

The Writer's Little Helper, is your basic writing how-to which covers all the basics of grammar in a simple and easy to read format. Great for quick reference.

On Writing Horror is by far my favorite writing-how-to book. Written by over 50 different horror authors (including Stephen King), it covers everything you ever wanted to know about writing horror books.

Writers on Comics Scriptwriting is a 2 volume set. Written in interview/question & answer format, each chapter details the daily life of a different comic-book author and the secrets to writing for comic books.

The editors of Edgmont recommend that all writers should read the books on writing by Linda Seger. Normally I steer clear of traditional publishing houses, as I prefer to have full and complete control over every aspect of my books. In other words I self-publish. I do make one exception to that rule. I just love the books put out by Edgmont, which results in them being the only traditional publisher I ever work with.

Of course, since Edgmont is the only traditional publishing house I send my manuscripts to, that means I went out and bought every single book written by Linda Seger. After reading her books, I can see why they come so highly recommended. They are by far the best books written on the art of writing and no writer should be without them.

I know it's cliche by now, but it just can't be said often enough that the Harry Potter books really are the best fantasy books ever written. If you haven't read them yet, I recommend you start today.

I love these books. These are not stories based on the Star Trek series, these ARE the stories of the Star Trek series. Every episode from the original Star Trek series was retold as a novel in the mid 1970's and released under the simple title "Star Trek by James Blish Vol. _".

Children especially love this series as they get to read the same stories they can later watch on DVD. Sadly these old books are nearly all out-of-print now, except for a handful of the more popular volumes, which have been reprinted as anniversary editions. Finding copies of every volume in this series could prove a challenge as they can be quite hard to find now. Mine are all first editions, I'm only missing 3 or 4 volumes.

As a child I loved these books and read them and re-read them as though they were breakfast, lunch, and dinner! They were among the very first "real" books I read, after upgrading from Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak. (I was 6 years old at the time.)

I loved Pippi's complete and total rebellion against the adults in her world. I loved the way she did just as she pleased. I loved that she was a pirate with her own ship. I loved the fact that she, like myself at that time, drove an orange 3-wheeled ATV. But most of all I feel totally head over heals in love with her house: The Villa Villekulla. I dreamed than, (and still do now) of recreating that wonderful old Gothic Victorian house. Of all fictional places to live, this would be my house of choice: The Villa Villekulla.

Of all the books I've read in my life time, I think these are the ones that I have read and re-read the most times.

NOTE: The covers shown here are different from the ones I own, as mine are from the 1960's and 1970's and no longer in print, and these are the new editions which are currently being sold from Amazon.

Donald Duck Adventures Volume 20
(Donald Duck Adventures)

Not what you usually see in America, these are reproductions of the French and Danish stories about Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, translated into English.

The traditional Disney comic books of America's Golden and Silver Age (1930's - 1970's) as written by Carl Barks and the Modern Age (1980's - today) as written by Don Rosa are aimed for an older reading level, with their long and wordy dialog and their highly detailed illustrations. These are not your traditional Carl Barks and Don Rosa American Disney comic books, however. Unlike traditional American Disney comics these are much more cartoonish, less wordy, less detailed illustrations, brighter colored, with a more "cute" feel to them, and certainly targeted for much younger children.

Some die hard Barks/Rosa fans may not like these stories. They do not follow the 50+ year chronological series that has been so strictly adhered to in America. These stories do not continue from one issue to the next, and instead, they run a muck with no continuity. For those of you used to Carl Barks and Don Rosa, this will be a big change of scenery for you. These stories rarely follow the Carl Barks/Don Rosa story lines and tend to be an anything goes format when it comes to including fantasy, ufo's, and magic.

Each book is 6"x4" paperback-digest editions, approx. 190 pages long, and features 3 different stories in them, all with super bright eye popping art work that is unlike anything seen in traditional American Disney comics.

Instead of telling one long story that continues from one issue to the next for a period of 50+ years (as the American series does), this series is just a bunch of random stories for the pure and simple fun of telling fun and adventurous stories.

It was a dark and stormy night when you started reading this book. You heard a noise. If you think it was a ghost in your attic, than grab your flashlight and turn to page 22. If you think it was a burglar coming in the window, get your baseball bat and turn to page 34. If you think it was just a car in the street and of no concern of yours than do nothing and read on to the next page.

And so starts your adventure. Every book in the long running award winning series starts out with YOU as the main character. You start out as an ordinary kid doing your home work and minding your own business, when suddenly something happens and it's up to you to decide how to deal with it. The chooses you make determine the story you read, as each choose takes to a different page throughout the book.

WARNING! Do not read these books straight through. These are Role Playing Game books and you have to follow the instructions answer the questions and make chooses to determine which page you should go too next.

This wildly popular long running series started in the early 1970's and continues to release new volumes today. At last count there where more than 300 volumes in the series written by nearly a dozen different authors, in genres varying from fantasy to sci-fi to murder mystery to adventure and all things in between.

These chapter books are written for children ages 8 to 15, but have been enjoyed by readers of all ages young and old.

Did you ever wonder what would happen if aliens invaded the planet, disguised themselves as school teachers, and than set out the teaching earth's children. What if you and your best friend knew the aliens had taken over earth's schools, but you couldn't get any adults to believe you? Why you'd take matters into your own hands and save the world all by yourself of course!

These books are great fun for sci-fi fans. I remember waiting for each volume to be written the same way children today wait for each new volume of Harry Potter.

There is nothing like a good scary Gothic story to read by flashlight after midnight. From Jane Eyre's brooding Mr. Rochester to Count Dracula himself, Gothic books just have the best leading men: dark, grim, creepy, morbid, and villains that just plain make good anti-heroes.

These five books are the best Gothic stories ever written, each filled with big old haunted houses, dark & mysterious leading men, and charming damsels in distress.

Life with Chester is far from ordinary. Chester is an orange tabby cat who loves to read horror books, suffers from an over-active imagination, and has the ability to tell ghost stories that send the rest of the family's pets running from the shadows.

The series starts one dark and stormy night. While Chester is reading Dracula, the family brings home a new pet: a baby rabbit named Bunnicula.

Chester warns the other pets that Bunnicula is really a vampire in disguise, but no one believes him. Soon strange events lead the other pets to wonder if maybe, just maybe, Chester was right about Bunnicula and before they know it one thing leads to another and the next thing they know, the family pets are thrown into some of the wildest and scariest adventures they could ever imagine.

Written for ages 8 to 12, these great children's chapter books books have everything from vampire bunnies to haunted doghouses to killer zombie vegetables. Loads of great fun for all ages.

The Bunnicula books should be read on chronological order, as they continue one into the other. This is an ongoing series which is still being written, so future books will be added to this series as the years go by.

The Celery Stalks At Midnight is my fave book in the series.

Yep, you guessed it: MORE COMIC BOOKS! Yay! OMG! I am soooo addicted to these books. Rumiko Takahashi both writes and illustrates these amazing books.

These are by far the best book to ever come out of Japan, and they are quickly moving up the ranks to becoming my all time fave books ever.

Kagome is your average high school girl, until the day a demon jumps out of a magic well and transports her 500 years into the past to Japan in 1568 when demons controlled the world and humans were in constant civil war.

Soon after arriving in the past she finds a half human/half dog-demon trapped by a priestess's spell and sets him free. Soon she and the dog demon InuYasha join forces in search of the shattered pieces of a sacred jewel, and it becomes a race against time to gather up the magic shards before they get into the hands of evil demon Naraku. As the series goes on, more and more character join Kagome and InuYasha on their travels.

My favorite character from this series is InuYasha's full demon older brother, the evil Lord Sesshomaru Dog Demon of Death and Destruction.

These are not your standard comic books, each beautifully illustrated 6"x4" paperback volume contains 200 - 275 pages and reads like a very fast paced novel. These books went on to become the second highest, best selling comic book series of all time, and later resulted in an equally popular, long running (8 season) TV series.

NOTE: These books are Rated T-16 by the publisher, which means they are not recommended for teens under 16. This is an action - adventure - comedy - romance series which includes intense scenes of graphic violence, adult dialog (swearing), and light romantic situations which may not be suitable for younger readers.

The animated TV series based on these books, however is rated M (for mature audiences only.) It should be noted that the version played in America on Saterday mornings on Cartoon Network during the late 1990's had been edited for American TV and is rated PG-LV. Adult Swim was the only American TV station to ever air the unedited M-rated version of this show. Note that if you plan to buy this series on DVD you would be buying the UNEDITED M-rated version as it was aired in Japan and not Cartoon Network's edited Saturday morning American version, which you may remember watching. There is a quite a big difference between the edited and unedited versions of the show, enough to make some viewers not like it, so be sure you know that before you buy the DVDs. If you've only ever seen the Cartoon Network's edited version, know that the unedited DVD version has A LOT of blood, gore, violence, swearing, and adult situations (romance) not suitable for younger viewers, which Cartoon Network cut out of the show before airing it on American television.

Watch out! I'm going to try to list every volume of this VERY long running series, which currently stands at 52 volumes! Unfortunately these books are not all translated into English, and only about the first 20 volumes are available in English translated editions. The rest of the series is still only available in their original Japanese language, so you'll have to buy them in Japanese and than do what I did, find English transcripts on the internet to read as you go.

Second series of InuYasha stories by Rumiko Takahashi.

These stories are retelling of the originals, but using the script-words and illustration-stills from the cult classic TV series based on the original books.

Note: Not all volumes in this series are still in print, so not all volumes are listed here as Amazon.com no longer sells the out-of-print volume numbers.

If you loved Scooby Doo, Nancy Drew, or The Hardy Boys, than you'll love The Three Investigators.

Three best friends form a detective agency, and the very first person to call them is none other than the horror movie director, Alfred Hitchcock, who gives the a chauffeured Rolls Royce and assigns them as his studio's personal detectives to solve all the many mysteries that turn up in Hollywood.

The first chapter in each of these books was written by Alfred Hitchcock himself, after that the rest of the story is written by one of the series' many authors.

This long running series out lived it's creator Alfred Hitchcock, and the volumes written after his death are different in that they are no longer called Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators, and instead called simply The Three Investigators. The later volumes do not contain the intro chapters written by Alfred Hitchcock, either of course.

These young adult mystery books are written for ages 12 - 18.