Literary Sewing Circle: Something Wicked This Way Comes

     Drumroll please....

        I'm pleased to announce the title of the first group read for our Literary Sewing Circle...

     Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

What if someone discovers your secret dream, that one great wish you would give anything for? And what if that person makes your dream come true—before you learn the price you have to pay? Something Wicked This Way Comes is the story of two boys who encounter the sinister wonders of Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show. They will soon discover the show's awful mystery—a mystery that will change the life of every person it touches—in this stunning masterwork of dark fantasy by Ray Bradbury

(from Goodreads)

Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than five hundred published works -- short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse -- exemplify the American imagination at its most creative......

READ MORE AT RAYBRADBURY.COM

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I'm a huge Ray Bradbury fan. His short stories are as numerous as the stars, and as brilliant. I first read his story "All Summer in a Day" in junior high school, and have never forgotten it...every time it rains I think of Ray. Then I discovered "The Pedestrian", and "There Will Come Soft Rains", and "A Sound of Thunder", and "Zero Hour"... well, those are just a few of my favourites.

I'm excited about sharing this longer book with you all as our first group read. Bradbury's style, if you haven't read him before, is elaborate, with multiple metaphors and images tumbling over each other, with characters larger than life, with stories of great imagination, swimming in a nostalgic vision of a lost childhood. This book explores what happens to Jim Nightshade & Will Holloway, who are just reaching toward 14, the year that Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show rolls into town under cover of darkness.

I enjoyed my reread of this novel in preparation for this book club, and I hope you'll also enjoy whether it's also a reread for you or you are encountering it for the first time. It is a perfect book for this time of year, as autumn approaches. I'm looking forward to talking about it with everyone who jumps in on this readalong/sewalong.

There is so much density of detail in this book; visual, almost tactile. I think it will give us lots to tackle in both conversation, and in inspiration to sew! Or to knit, or embroider, or whichever way you decide to go in your inspired making.

This book is still in print, and is also available in ebook format. Don't forget to check your local library for a copy. Since it was originally published in 1962, and has had many editions, you might also be lucky at a secondhand bookshop.

Please share any preliminary thoughts about the choice of this book or Ray Bradbury in the comments!


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Literary Sewing Circle Schedule 

Today, Friday, September 1st, is our introduction to our title. I hope you will be excited about getting a copy and finding out more about it.

Every Friday for the next six weeks, there will be a Literary Sewing Circle post - inspiration, informative articles, book talk, and more.

Next Friday, September 8, look for a post sharing designers and/or patterns to get you thinking about what you might sew.

September 15 will bring some information and inspiration from a different angle...

September 22, our halfway point, will be the time to start our book club discussion proper. By this week I hope that most of you will be at least halfway through the book. We'll talk about our first impressions, any ideas we might want to share, and general thoughts about the book so far, without any major spoilers by those of us who may have already finished reading! This discussion will be held here, in the comments, for now and we'll see how that works out for everyone. But if you do want to share on IG or Twitter we can use the following hashtags:  #LiterarySewingCircle #LSC

September 29 will be more idea sharing -- if you've created an inspiration post of your own, on your blog or Insta or Twitter, send me a link before this date and I'll share everyone's plans and ideas (including my own) in this post

October 6 will look at Ray Bradbury more deeply, and some of the themes in his work

Friday October 13 is our final book discussion, suitably enough for this book! By this time I hope you will all be bursting with the need to talk about the book and the meaning of everything that happens to our characters

The following day I'll post a linkup so that we can start sharing our makes inspired by our reading. The link up will be live for about 3 weeks, to give you time to finish your project and share it. I'll finish up this edition of the Literary Sewing Circle with a roundup post after the link up closes.

The Literary Sewing Circle will run about 10 weeks for every book we choose, to give us time to read and ponder, and start to make. I'd like to encourage everyone to join in and to share this event with others -- it's open to anyone interested in reading and making, and I'd like to restate that it is not a competition, but a relaxed community book club & sewing circle. If you're an expert sewist who wants to make a stunning bit of costume, go ahead! If you're a beginner and you want to try a new technique out for the first time, do it! We'll all be glad to help.

Whatever you choose to make is perfect. As long as you can share what it was about the read that inspired your project, no matter how small the detail, add it to the link-up.

I've been surprised and pleased by the interest in this new project, and I hope that all my readers will feel comfortable sharing their ideas for this sewing circle too. Let the reading begin!