Kids Draw the Darnedest Things: Inside the Creepy Art in Hidden Pictures, An Exclusive Guest Post from Jason Rekulak
Hardcover $29.99
Hidden Pictures: A Novel
Hidden Pictures: A Novel
In Stock Online
Hardcover $29.99
Jason Rekulak lives to dream up stories. From publishing and editing to writing, there is not a single second where Rekulak isn’t thinking of ways to get YOU reading and imagining. Follow the story that he conjures up and you are guaranteed to lose yourself in the day and specifically, Hidden Pictures. Below, you’ll find an inside look at the creepy art in Hidden Pictures as well as Jason Rekulak’s top five favorite horror books!
Jason Rekulak lives to dream up stories. From publishing and editing to writing, there is not a single second where Rekulak isn’t thinking of ways to get YOU reading and imagining. Follow the story that he conjures up and you are guaranteed to lose yourself in the day and specifically, Hidden Pictures. Below, you’ll find an inside look at the creepy art in Hidden Pictures as well as Jason Rekulak’s top five favorite horror books!
I love a good haunted house movie, and my favorites always have a variation on the following scene: Mommy and Daddy are fighting in the kitchen while little Sally draws at the table with a box of crayons. Mommy’s been hearing strange sounds at night, and she’s concerned. Daddy insists it’s just the wind (or tree branches, or raccoons). Then Sally exits the kitchen with a mysterious smile, and the camera glides over to the table, revealing her artwork: a stick-figure family portrait awash in blood-red crayon. The word MURDER is misspelled with backward-facing letters. And the heads of Mommy and Daddy have been decapitated! (Cue the ominous music!)
Every time I see this scene in a movie, I’ll reach for my remote control to pause the film, so I can study the art more carefully. I love weird art drawn by little kids! There’s something so incredibly creepy about it. And I suppose this interest led me to develop Hidden Pictures – my new novel about a child prone to drawing strange and gruesome illustrations.
I’d realized that a novel was the perfect vehicle for my story, because I could include the actual drawings in my book, and readers could linger over the pictures for as long as they wanted – no remote control required! And if the story had a mystery, the pictures could offer subtle clues to its solution. This seemed like a really fun challenge and right in my wheelhouse. I’d already been exploring the possibilities of illustrated fiction for many years. I used to be the publisher of an indie press called Quirk Books, where I edited novels like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (illustrated with faux-19th century engravings) and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (illustrated with found black-and-white photographs). But with Hidden Pictures, I could finally write an illustrated novel of my own.
I suppose some readers still think of illustrated novels as childish or (even worse!) gimmicky, but I believe they’re an interesting way to engage 21st century attention spans. After all, you’re reading this blog post on the Internet. My text is probably bracketed by all kinds of colorful and captivating graphics. Why can’t contemporary fiction have some of the same eye candy?
So without further ado, here are a few of the 50+ drawings that appear in my new thriller Hidden Pictures – with a big tip of the hat to my amazing illustrators, Will Staehle and Doogie Horner.
Jason Rekulak’s 5 Favorite Horror Books
eBook $11.99
Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby
By Ira Levin
eBook $11.99
A perfect thriller, masterfully constructed. Every detail counts, every conversation matters, every scene ratchets up tension and dread. There’s not a single wasted word in any of its 245 pages. And if you compare the book to the famous film adaptation, you’ll find the filmmakers hardly changed a thing.
A perfect thriller, masterfully constructed. Every detail counts, every conversation matters, every scene ratchets up tension and dread. There’s not a single wasted word in any of its 245 pages. And if you compare the book to the famous film adaptation, you’ll find the filmmakers hardly changed a thing.
Paperback $17.95
Don't Look Now: Selected Stories of Daphne du Maurier
Don't Look Now: Selected Stories of Daphne du Maurier
By
Daphne du Maurier
Introduction
Patrick McGrath
In Stock Online
Paperback $17.95
The author is best remembered for her gothic romance Rebecca, but this collection is the perfect intro to her wonderfully creepy short fiction. It includes two long stories that were adapted into classic horror films (Don’t Look Now and The Birds) plus a fine introduction by Patrick McGrath.
The author is best remembered for her gothic romance Rebecca, but this collection is the perfect intro to her wonderfully creepy short fiction. It includes two long stories that were adapted into classic horror films (Don’t Look Now and The Birds) plus a fine introduction by Patrick McGrath.
Paperback
$16.99
$19.99
Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary
By Stephen King
In Stock Online
Paperback
$16.99
$19.99
I had to put something by Stephen King on this list, but how could I pick just one book? The Dead Zone? Bag of Bones? Night Shift? I love them all. But if you put a gun to my head and forced me choose, I guess I’d say The Shining. Or maybe Different Seasons. Unless you wanted something reallllly dark, in which case it’s gotta be—
I had to put something by Stephen King on this list, but how could I pick just one book? The Dead Zone? Bag of Bones? Night Shift? I love them all. But if you put a gun to my head and forced me choose, I guess I’d say The Shining. Or maybe Different Seasons. Unless you wanted something reallllly dark, in which case it’s gotta be—
Paperback $17.00
The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House
By
Shirley Jackson
Introduction
Laura Miller
In Stock Online
Paperback $17.00
A.K.A. The Great American Horror Novel. Like The Great Gatsby, Hill House is less than 200 pages and you can read the entire book in a sitting or two. But it’s deeper and richer than a lot of 900-page doorstops, and its scenes have a way of expanding in your memory. I find myself returning to its gloomy corridors again and again.
A.K.A. The Great American Horror Novel. Like The Great Gatsby, Hill House is less than 200 pages and you can read the entire book in a sitting or two. But it’s deeper and richer than a lot of 900-page doorstops, and its scenes have a way of expanding in your memory. I find myself returning to its gloomy corridors again and again.
Paperback $17.00
Deliverance
Deliverance
By James Dickey
Paperback $17.00
There’s nothing supernatural in this novel, but it scared the hell out of me, anyway. It’s a beautifully written (Dickey was a U.S. Poet Laureate) with an exquisite five-act structure; the novel’s most infamous scene occurs exactly halfway through. And Deliverance has one of my all-time favorite first lines, a brilliant image that sneakily foreshadows the entire awful adventure.
There’s nothing supernatural in this novel, but it scared the hell out of me, anyway. It’s a beautifully written (Dickey was a U.S. Poet Laureate) with an exquisite five-act structure; the novel’s most infamous scene occurs exactly halfway through. And Deliverance has one of my all-time favorite first lines, a brilliant image that sneakily foreshadows the entire awful adventure.