R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril, VIII



Oh Good Grief, I can't believe I forgot to participate and start the R.I.P. VIII sooner. It was with luck I stumbled upon a friend participating and reminding my brain, which is admittably shy in the memory department.

I had such fun participating in the R.I.P. VII challenge last year that of course I will participate again!

In 2012,  I participated in three sections, and the post/details can be found here.

This year the graphic is especially stunning, is it not?  From artists Artists Jennifer Gordan and Roman Sirotin.

As with last year, this year, and EVERY year, the RIP Challenge is hosted and created by Stainless Steel Droppings. They have now been going on for eight years strong!

The Read-a-Thon, Challenge, Community Event lasts for two months, from September 1st to October 31st. See, I'm late. Ah, memory.

I especially liked the description used this year from Stainless Steel Droppings in describing the purpose:

Stories can make us look back over our shoulders and question every creak and groan on a dark, quiet night. Stories can cause our hearts to race with ever-increasing tension as we forgo sleep to rush towards a surprising conclusion. Stories can make us suspicious of every character as we challenge the protagonist to be the first to solve the crime. Stories can make us sleep with the lights on, make us pull the covers just a little bit tighter, and can make every shadow seem more menacing than they ever have before.

Be they our favorite cozy mysteries, exciting police procedurals, classic tales about things that go bump in the night or contemporary terrors that chill us to the bone, there is something delicious about the ability of the printed word to give us a fright. At no time of the year is this more of a delight than when Summer heat turns to Autumn chill as the days become ever darker.

Eight years ago I became aware of reading challenges and wanted to start one of my own, hoping to find others who shared my Autumnal predilection for the works of Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and other authors contemporary and classic who captured the spirit of gothic literature. All these years later we are still going strong, welcoming September with a time of coming together to share our favorite mysteries, detective stories, horror stories, dark fantasies, and everything in between.

  • Mystery.
  • Suspense.
  • Thriller.
  • Dark Fantasy.
  • Gothic.
  • Horror.
  • Supernatural.

Or anything sufficiently moody that shares a kinship with the above. That is what embodies the stories, written and visual, that we celebrate with the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril event.


Here are the ones I'm choosing to take part in this year


For the first tier of the Novel Challenge, read at least four books. With the wide expanse of genres available for this, should be easy enough to do in two months. 



I admit I have, quite frankly, reeked this year when it came to my original goals for reading short stories and anthologies. Maybe this will motivate me more.


For those paranormal, horror, or gothic movies and TV shows watched for the creepy Fall season.