The last month has been a mess of me focusing on the wrong things and my mental illness kicking my ass (See: Going All In and The Fight). And I just wanted to thank those of you who have stuck with me through the long pauses, and say that I think I can officially say that I am back. I let life sweep me along and I wasn’t writing, and I was worse for it. I need to stay focused, and this is what has given me that, more than anything else in the past. So, consider me back, and the next time I tell you that I am too busy to write, smack me upside the head and make me read this again. I’m never too busy to write, because writing sustains my soul like nothing else.
Sometimes I guess we all just need a reminder.
ananonymousoutsider 
Glad you are back!!!!!! P.S. Read some Dean Koontz this weekend. I finished Intensity and it was sooooooo freaking good. I may have found a new favorite author! 🙂
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Welcome to a wider world! Intensity is one of my favorites of Koontz’s works (though it’s a long list of favorites lol), and Dean Koontz once referred to it as the book he considered the scariest he had written. That was at least ten years ago though, so who knows if he still thinks that. I still thought it was interesting though.
If you want mind expanding, I would recommend From The Corner of His Eye. If you’re in the mood for scary, check out The Taking.
It’s great to be back. 🙂
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Oh it was soooo good! I honestly read it in two nights and could NOT put it down! So many things with the killer were fascinating! The way he lived for sensation. They way he ate things to have attributes of the thing he ate in them. And Chyna. I felt like she related to the killer in so many ways. It was just so good! I bought The Corner of His Eye and that is the next read. I will have to get The Taking. I am hooked!!!!!!
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I’m not a serial killer, but I found myself relating to Edgler Foreman Vess when it came to seeking intensity as opposed to just seeking what other’s view as “positive”. The fact that I’m not a serial killer made that sort of relatability a very creepy quality of the character. He was a great villain.
I’m so excited to have passed on the awesomeness that is Koontz to at least one person. 🙂
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I related to Chyna a lot. Trying to do what is right and be a hero, but fighting the urge to run away and forget the past that keeps haunting.
As I read the book, I kept thinking how his victims were often the “beautiful,” “perfect,” and “unstained.” The ones with the perfect pasts. I also thought about how Vess and Chyna had “stained” pasts (although Vess’s was mainly because he knew he was psychologically different…I sorta secretly diagnosed him with a high case of Autism). I think that maybe Vess was intrigued with Chyna because he knew there was something different about her. I can’t help and think that he didn’t kill her right away because he may have noticed that she had similar stains, but unlike him she didn’t embrace it to live with “intensity.” In a way, those two were very similar.
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Yes, he is great at diving into the parallels within Good and Evil in such a way that diminishes neither. I think those two characters kind of embody that nuanced view.
I related to Chyna far more than I wanted to in other ways, and I think those scared me more than the things I related to in Edgler, weirdly enough.
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You have me hooked!!!!! 🙂
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Trust me, it’s all him, I just pointed you in the right direction. I read From The Corner of His Eye for the first time when I was 15, and it was the first of his books I ever picked up. It changed my outlook on life fundamentally. And I have enjoyed every single other book of his that I have read (which was all of them, except for some that have been published in the last 2 years or so that I haven’t caught up on, and one older one that I read that sucked called Icebound lol).
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I can’t wait to read more of him! The used book store that I go to has a whole shelf of his work! I might just get them all! 🙂
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Skip Icebound, the rest all have redemptive qualities, no matter how dark they go. Trigger warnings galore, just so ya know.
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Never leave!
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Deal! 😀
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I must have read most of them but memory loss means I could always read them all again. – Once I get through all the research papers I am reading
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I’ve only just read your recent posts and have replied rather belatedly. I’m so glad you’re back ‘with us’ and do intend to reply to your email as soon as I can. I have some ‘head sorting’ going on at the moment too so I appreciate the fact you’re writing again. I have missed your posts. Never give up – you’re worth more than that xxx 🙂
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No giving up for me; this ride is too damn interesting. 🙂 hang in there, my friend.
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