Why am I passionate about this?
I’ve always been fascinated with the unseen hidden inside what is seen. In my life, I’ve tried to peer into dark corners and see reflections in lightless rooms. I’m captivated by ancient ways and alternate realities, and I love it when a new idea bends my mind and makes room for possibilities. I try to illuminate the subtle shadows many don’t notice or consider through my books, and I write Speculative and Literary Fiction to offer the potential of my imagination. I feel, in many ways, it’s the greatest contribution to humanity I can make.
Melodie's book list on bending our mind
Why did Melodie love this book?
This is another favorite short read I’ve read at least a hundred times. If Hughes had made The Deadfall any longer, it would have spoiled the vivid, hypnotic, poetic way he sucks me into the life of a boy camping with his brother.
He has me feeling the warmth of the fire on my face before casting me into the dreary countryside where my feet are cold and the wind nips my nose. The intense atmosphere of nature keeps me going back to this one. The absolute beauty of what happens when the ghost of a fox calls out to a sleeping boy suspends me in disbelief. I never want to let go.
1 author picked Difficulties of a Bridegroom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
'These nine pieces hang together, in my mind, as an accompaniment to my poems'. So wrote Ted Hughes in the foreword to this collection, taken from forty years of occasional story-telling. Of the nine items, six are from Wodwo, Hughes's 1967 collection of poems and other writings, while 'The Head' has appeared only in a magazine, and 'The Deadfall' in an anthology of ghost stories. 'O'Kelly's Angel', written when the author had just left university, is published for the first time.
