Books I've Read: The Staircase in the Woods

 

I was excited when I found this one at the library last week.  I follow Chuck Wendig's blog and have been looking forward to reading this since he started talking about it.  

There are definite parallels to Stephen King's IT in this one in that it focuses on a misfit group of friends across two time periods, the first in childhood, the second when they reunite as adults to reckon with the terrifying event in their youth. 

As teenagers camping in the woods, this friend group discovered a staircase in the woods.  Just a staircase, no sign of a house or any other part of a structure.  One of their number went up the stairs and never came back.

Twenty years later, they gather at the behest of the one who stayed in town and find another staircase in the woods.  Determined to find out what happened to their missing friend, they all go up this time and find themselves in a strange, ever-morphing house where every room holds a new horror, some familiar, others strange.  With no windows and every door opening to only another horrific room, these four people must try to figure out the house's reason for existing if they are to find their friend or the way out.

While this was certainly a creepy horror story, it also had some interesting questions to ask about what makes a house a home, and whether a house can absorb the crimes and passions of its inhabitants.  It also plays out as kind of a puzzle as the characters, some of whom have been gaming since childhood, try to use gaming logic to figure out the way the house works.

The characters are for the most part well drawn and each has their own unique trauma, the thing that brought them together as friends in the first place and yet may be the thing that breaks them in this house of horrors.

I enjoyed it, even though some of the particularly gooshy things they saw in the house made my stomach turn.  I don't think I'm quite as good at dealing with truly horrific horror as I was when I was younger!

So, I'd recommend this one.  Unless you're particularly squeamish.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

A group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods.

While on a camping trip, five high-schoolers bound by an oath to always protect one another discover something in the middle of the forest: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend climbs up but does not come back down. Then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later it reappears, and the friends return to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase.

Weekly Goals 6-7-26

 I still have a bit of a cold, but I don't think it's bad enough to keep me from going to work.  I just feel like it's going to be a long day.  I also have a feeling my cat might be sick and I need to try and get a vet appointment for her.  I have no clue how I'll get her to the vet.  She's skittish at the best of times, and when she's feeling bad, she tends to hide, often under the house where I can't to her.  She is still coming in to eat, so I'll just have to try and get her into the cage when she comes for food.  Wish me luck!

I read through an earlier draft of Street Smarts over the weekend, one of the attempts I made at having Devon as the MC, and it wasn't as bad as I remembered it being.  I still think I like Arlo's POV more, but I think the structural things that are a bit of a problem in my Arlo version aren't such a big problem in my Devon version.  I'm waiting on another beta reader to comment on the Arlo version, but I feel like it might be worth spending some time finishing the Devon version too.  I wrote over 30K twice in her POV before switching entirely to Arlo's, so there's a lot of material there already.  Plus, she takes over his diary for a period in the middle of the book already, so it wouldn't be too hard to massage those sections into shape.  It's definitely something to think about...

I don't really have any other specific goals this week.  It's a long weekend for Matariki, so that will be nice, even if I don't have any real plans for it yet.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small things 3-7-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

Unfortunately I have a bit of a cold, so I think I'm going to have to put most of my plans on hold and just stay home to rest.  I have too much to do next week to be sick, so better to take the time to kick it over the weekend.

I was asked to beta read for a writer I beta'd for last year, so that ought to keep me busy, at least.  And I'm going to have to walk up to the pet store to get more cat food at some point, so that'll be some exercise since I don't think I'll go to the gym.

I got my anthology turned in on time, so we'll see what happens there.  The results aren't due until the end of August, so I have a while to wait.

No new rejections this week, which is always nice, but I'm not hopeful about a request coming in from any of the outstanding queries at this stage.  I think I'll just shelve that book for a while and see if I can get Street Smarts into any kind of shape to query.

What are you celebrating this week?

ISWG - July 2026

 It's the first Wednesday of the month, so it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group.

Our hosts for the July 1 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Cathrina Constantine, and Jacqui Murray. Thanks so much to them!

This month's question is a really good one, and something I've been thinking about a lot over the last little while:

Is there anything you'd like to see changed, added, and/or rearranged about the book publishing industry?

To be honest, I'm not even sure where to start with this one. There are so many things that frustrate me about publishing.

The main one, I guess, is how difficult it is to get a book published that doesn't fit within a very narrow set of parameters. I understand that books need to be marketable, but everyone seems to be looking for the same books to fill the same narrow market. Which makes it difficult for anyone who writes something different to get a chance to even have their book read by anyone who can get it in front of a mainstream publisher.

I know tastes and trends will change and what's popular today won't be in another five years, but that's five years of our careers we have to put on hold in the hope the trends swing in another direction. And even if they do, it's likely to be in another wildly specific direction that only a small number of writers can fulfill. Not that everyone won't try to jump on board whatever that next trend is, but I'm not someone who can or wants to write to a specific market. Especially when that market is likely to shift long before that book is finished.

One of the other frustrating things is how slowly publishing moves. Even if your book does get picked up by a publisher, it's likely to be two years or so before it hits shelves, which is another reason I'm wary about writing to a specific trend. A lot can happen in two years and the last thing you want is to have written a book to a trend that's on its way out. How well that book performs in stores is likely to define whether or not you get to have a writing career.

I'm not sure I have any helpful suggestions about how to improve the industry because I know how difficult it is, especially now that anyone with half an idea and Chat GTP can "write" a novel. But that said, I'd have to imagine that in a world where you're wading through acres of AI slop, something different that doesn't follow the rules, that doesn't fit neatly into today's "popular" list, might stand out in a good way as being wholly and defiantly human.

What are the things you'd like to see changed about publishing?

Weekly goals 29-6-26

 I got the anthology as ready as it's going to be over the weekend, so that's been made available for the judges.  Now it's just a matter of wait and see...

I guess I have to decide on a new writing project now, so I'll give myself a week or two to let my brain do its thing.  I have my little MG novel I can work on if I feel like it, and Street Smarts needs some editing.

It's going to be a super busy week at work, so it's probably a good thing I don't have any major creative projects to work on as well.

I tried to go to the movies yesterday, but the session I bought a ticket for was cancelled.  Maybe next weekend...

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 26-6-26

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

It's the weekend!

It has been a busy week, so I'm glad to have some time out.  I also have the house to myself for the whole weekend because my son has gone to Sydney for a few days and my partner is housesitting up the coast.  Luxury!

Unfortunately, we're in the throes of a winter storm and it's wet and windy and freezing cold.

I finished the last story in the anthology.  It needs a little work, I think, but all the stories probably need a little tweaking and changing to make them work.  I plan to get this work done over the weekend so the collection is ready to be judged from the end of the month.  I did have a quick peek at the other entries yesterday, just to see how many people are close to the finish line, and it looks like quite a few writers might have fallen by the wayside.

I was long listed in the Australian Writer's Centre Furious Fiction Showcase for the third time this year, which is nice.  I really enjoy this super-short flash fiction contest once a month.

I had a rejection on a partial for A Stranger to Kindness which is disappointing.  I think it's time to stop querying this one.  Clearly no one is interested in this story.  Which is a real shame.  I still think it's the best thing I've written.  And I really feel like Street Smarts is going to be an even tougher sell, if I ever get to the point of querying that one.  I think I need to restructure it a bit so Arlo and Devon meet sooner than they do now.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: Hood

 

I have to admit I found this one a bit of a slog to get through.  Maybe it was because I was on tour when I was reading it and consumed it in tiny bites, but I suspect I just didn't enjoy it much.

Set across a variety of different time periods, the book follows Pen through the week directly after her lover of 13 years is killed in a car crash.  Not that Pen has ever really admitted to anyone that Cara was anything more than a friend.  Still largely closeted, she teaches at the Catholic school she and Cara once attended, lives with Cara's father in the home she grew up in and hasn't even told her mother she's gay.

This makes grieving challenging.  How can you be a widow when you've never admitted to being in a relationship?  

Pen navigates the week as best she can, doing all the practical things she can to distract herself from the 
Cara-shaped hole in her life.  Yet, occasionally, memories bubble up and blindside her.

These flashbacks show the relationship through the 13 years the two women knew each other.  It becomes clear that Pen was actually obsessed with Cara's older sister, Kate, and only met Cara when Kate tossed a casual invitation Pen's way one afternoon.  Thid history makes things charged when Kate returns from America to attend Cara's funeral.

I know this book is set in a different time, and in Dublin where the influence of the Church is far-reaching, but even with that knowledge, I found it difficult to understand Pen's reluctance to admit she was in love with Cara, that they were a couple.  Or that everyone around them didn't see the truth, especially Cara's father who shared the house with them and surely knew they were sleeping in the same bed.

Pen is stoic to the point of obstinance and I think that's why I found it so difficult to get into this story.  Cara was clearly not a nice person, running out on Pen often to have affairs with men and other women.  Yet Pen remained a dependable presence, always there to take Cara back when she'd had her fun.

So, while I found many things about this book interesting, it wasn't an enjoyable read.  I didn't like Pen and the way she let herself be treated like a doormat, denying who she was and constantly putting herself down for being large.  Books about grief and dealing with it are hard enough even when the person grieving is someone you like.

I did find it interesting how the flashbacks were told in present tense though, while the rest of the book was in past.  Something to play with at some later point, I think...

I'm not recommending this one, I'm afraid.  It's well written and a definite picture of a place and time, but it's hard work to get through.

Don't just listen to me though.  Here's the blurb:

Penelope O’Grady and Cara Wall are risking disaster when, like teenagers in any intolerant time and place—here, a Dublin convent school in the late 1970s—they fall in love. Yet Cara, the free spirit, and Pen, the stoic, craft a bond so strong it seems as though nothing could sever it: not the bickering, not the secrets, not even Cara’s infidelities.

But thirteen years on, a car crash kills Cara and rips the lid off Pen’s world. Pen is still in the closet, teaching at her old school, living under the roof of Cara’s gentle father, who thinks of her as his daughter’s friend. How can she survive widowhood without even daring to claim the word? Over the course of one surreal week of bereavement, she is battered by memories that range from the humiliating, to the exalted, to the erotic, to the funny. It will take Pen all her intelligence and wit to sort through her tumultuous past with Cara, and all the nerve she can muster to start remaking her life.