‘The Haunting of Hill House’: Skellie’s 1st Boo-k Club Pick

Did you know Haunt Jaunts has a few different Facebook Groups and that one of them is devoted to books? It’s called Skellie’s Boo-k Club, and we’re about to start making it live up to its name and be an actual book club.

That’s right. Every month we’re going to choose a book to discuss –and by “we,” I mean anyone who’s joined Skellie’s Boo-k Club.

I’ll get to the specifics of how we plan to hold an online book club in the “How It Will Work” section below.

But for now let’s start where any story starts: at the beginning…

The First Book 

When I originally created Skellie’s Boo-k Club, it was with the intention to turn it into an actual book club. You know, the kind where members choose books to read and then discuss them?

But until now all I’ve done is share links to stories about books that I’ve come across.

I’ve been excited about the Netflix series based on The Haunting of Hill House ever since I first heard about it.

The other day while curating Haunted Headlines links, I came across one about the series’ new trailer, which I shared in another HJ Facebook group: Haunt Jaunts Hangout.

However, the story line laid out in the trailer was nothing like I remember the book being.

Although, it’s been years since I read the book.

That’s when it dawned on me: Here’s your perfect opportunity to turn Skellie’s Boo-k Club into the actual club you originally envisioned!

And that’s the origin story for how Skellie’s first month’s pick came to be Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. (That won’t always be the case. From here on out we’ll have a suggestion and voting process to pick future book club reads.)

How It Will Work

Will it work? #Dunno

Maybe this is a dumb idea and ol’ Skell and me will be the only ones joining in.

Won’t know if we don’t try though.

We’ve actually never belonged to a book club so we anticipate a few hiccups. (Well, we always do, because this is us we’re talking about.)

However, here’s the basic plan, which can be changed as need be and if other members chime in with ideas:

1. Each month we’ll ask for suggestions.
2. We’ll vote on any titles suggested. (If no one has suggested any, we’ll select a few titles.)
3. We’ll use both the group’s Events feature and Facebook Live and to announce and host a book club meeting (or two, to try and accommodate different schedules and time zones).

Author Participation Encouraged

The other reason I wanted to create a book club is because I’m an author myself. I haven’t published any new books lately. I may even suggest one of the ones I’m working on once some of the ones I’m working on are published.

However, I want to support fellow authors. Popular ones are welcome to participate too, but it’s the indies and small press ones I’m most sympathetic too. There are often gems in the lesser known publications and it’d be fun to discover some of those.

So if you are an author or know one, check out Skellie’s Boo-k Club. Who knows, we may be interested in picking one of your books to read. (If nothing else, it’s somewhere else to promote it, right?)

Skellie’s Boo-k Club on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2037755399835850/

Trailer

And if none of the above has gotten you excited, maybe this Skellie’s Boo-k Club trailer will?