RA FOR ALL...THE ROAD SHOW!

I can come to your library, book club meeting, or conference to talk about how to help your readers find their next good read. Click here for more information including RA for All's EDI Statement.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Me Talking About Helping Horror Readers and A Horror Genre Overview Featuring Other Voices Telling You What's What

The Haunting Season is creeping up on us. You know what that means, lots of resources to get you up to speed on horror.

First, a few weeks ago I ventured to ALA HQ to record a conversation with my Booklist editor, Susan Maguire about helping horror readers. You can listen to our conversation in the current episode of Susan's fantastic podcast, Shelf Care right here. 

I do need to make 2 small corrections to Susan's intro though. 1., the HWA stands for the Horror Writers Association, not Horror Writers of America. We are international. But Susan being a Romance person, is used to RWA. 2., the third edition of my book, which Susan refers to, is due to ALA Editions in late 2020, but it will not be available for purchase until Spring 2021. 

Listen to the entire podcast here, but full disclosure, my part is at the beginning. 

This leads me to the next opportunity you have to learn about horror and helping horror readers, and this one does not involve me AT ALL.

As part of NoveList and LibraryReads on going series of FREE, "Crash Course" presentation in all the genres [click here for access to the full series], Horror is up next.

You can click here to sign up or see below.

Many people have reached out to me to ask if I am involved in this webinar and the answer is, "No," and that is a good thing. Let me explain. 

First, this series is about LibraryReads Board Members and the full time staff of NoveList coming together to help library workers help every kind of reader. I am not either of those two categories of people, so I have no place being a part of this. 

Two, I should not be the only person out there telling you how to help horror readers for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I am only 1 person and I don't have that much time and enegery. But more importantly, just like I preach that "Every person reads a different version of the same book," well, that holds true for genres and training sessions too. My version of horror and my version of how to help horror readers is NOT the only version. We need multiple voices and opinions, more options and ideas in order to help every type of horror reader. I am so very glad for once to be in the audience and learn from others. I know something will come up that I haven't considered or thought of and I can't wait.

Which leads me to the webinar itself. Many people have also asked if I will be viewing it live, and I have decided not to. I am signed up and will watch the recording. I don't want to be in the virtual room, where participants will see my name and then try to interact with me. I don't want people in the chat to be asking me what I think of what is being said. I know Gregg and Autumn and Kaitlin will do a great job. I don't want to cause any distractions- for them or me. I need to learn from them just as much as you do. I know what I think. I need to hear from others. It's how we learn, but encountering new ideas from a fresh perspective. I for one, cannot wait.

Sign up for Crash Course in Horror here or use the links below.


Click here to sign up for FREE
Does the thought of helping horror readers terrify you? Whether your readers are fans of ghost stories or horror classics, let NoveList and LibraryReads break down the best horror has to offer your readers — from found footage to final girls.
Join us as they cover:
  • Why horror is so popular and how libraries can ramp up the thrills and chills in their collections
  • How horror developed, including classics, newcomers, and awards to know
  • Subgenres and trends
  • NoveList insider information on genre headings, themes, appeal terms, and more
We welcome anyone interested to stay for an additional 15-minute training to share search strategy tips and learn where to access genre-related information in NoveList.
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
2-3pm Eastern (optional training from 3-3:15pm)


Panelists
    

Gregg Winsor is a member of the LibraryReads Board of Directors and works as a Reference Librarian and Readers' Advisory Specialist at the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, Kansas. He’s presented at several regional library associations and comic book conventions, including WorldCon and BookExpo America. He’s been a horror fan ever since he stumbled across Stephen King's short story collection Night Shift at his library at a far too young and impressionable age. You can usually find him dodging a teetering pile of unread books at his desk. 

Autumn Winters is Recommendations Lead at NoveList. When she's not busy ensuring that NoveList's handwritten recommendations are stellar, she maintains the Recommended Reads lists for children and teens and the Diverse Reading BookSquad email. In 1986, Autumn couldn't sleep for a year due to the combined influences of V.C. Andrews and Freddy Krueger. She ran a public library haunted house before coming to NoveList, and can vouch for the power of a fog machine and a few well-placed teen volunteers wearing masks to make people of all ages very uneasy.

Kaitlin Conner is a Readers’ Advisory Librarian at NoveList, where she selects and annotates horror and nonfiction titles for NextReads newsletters, creates recommendations content, and spearheads the Navigating Nonfiction Book Squad email.  She wasn’t always a horror fan (thanks to some traumatic playacting her sister insisted upon in childhood), but now she takes to the genre with gusto like Leatherface firing up the ol’ chainsaw. She loves social commentary in her horror, final girls, and Brad Dourif’s Chucky voice. She met Grady Hendrix once and it was pretty much the highlight of her year.

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