<![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @missyprissy:
I believe the "book from the '70's about a red haired teen aged girl who wanted to be a witch and spied on her neighbors, convinced they were up to evil deeds? i think her witch name was Ariane." was The Active Enzyme Lemon-Freshened Junior High School Witch by Wallace Hildick. Stance

QuennellCassowary

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: You're thinking of "Locked in Time" I think, which also happened to be one of my favorites, and I remember it vividly.

youwantedahero

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @somethingvague: I absolutely remember the antique mirror book you are talking about--I had to break out my librarian skillz to find it but I think it was Stranger in the Mirror by Lynn Beach. It was part of the "Phantom Valley" series. I must have read that book a dozen times!

Librarietta

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Which is the book with the twins that were adopted....and one like projects her image through ancient native-american-alburqueian trickery and locks the other twin out of her body? Is that stranger with my face?

That shit effed me up for a long time.

Gingerbelle

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @THEGINTHECITY: Doesn't the kid in the wheelchair get pushed in the acid? Christopher Pike wrote the sexiest, most romantic vampire/ancient alien/witch/future-travel novels my 12 year old brain could handle.

Now, someone please help me remember the book where there is an antique mirror that sucked a girl into the past, and her twin had to pretend to be her and take her tests for her. I still get scared to look in old-looking mirrors and I had totally forgotten why until this post made me remember that book!

somethingvague

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @sunny_lematina: I haven't read the Dark is Rising books in ages, but a month or so ago when friends of mine were all talking about books we loved as kids, one girl started reciting the poem and I automatically chimed in--if you'd asked me if I'd remember it, I would have said no, but apparently my reptilian brain is all up ins. When I was a kid I could also fake a pretty decent pronunciation of Welsh (no idea what I was saying, though) because of those books. *loving sigh*

Snaffles

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @jenndavo: Me too me too!

Kataluna

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Oops. Finish reading comments first, then post...haha.

Avi

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> That's Double Trouble, Barthe de Clements...the astral projection book.

Avi

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @calloo_callay: It's quite possible you're one of my co-workers. ::cough::

howdybeep (runs with monkey wrenches)

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Fatdogsmells: You are my hero. Seriously. You have NO FUCKING IDEA how much this bothered me all weekend. :)

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> yes! i read all of those books when i was 5th grade (those kids who read goosebumps looked at me like i had 2 heads - CLEARLY Lois Duncan was far better.)but i had completely forgotten her name/the titles of all of those books until reading this post. thanks!

nattiebo

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I read just about everything she ever wrote as a kid. If you're taking requests for this column, I vote for Robert Cormier and Paul Zindel.

Hooplehead

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: That makes sense to me too, that kids go through a "dark" period because I definitely remember passing around copies of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" with my 4th-grade friends. :)

I particularly remembered this one story in Scary Stories about girls who kept trying to run away from home and be gypsies or something. Their mother kept threatening they would get a nanny with a wooden tail and a glass eye. The last time they tried to run away they came back to the house and there she was, her glass eye glinting in the hearthlight and wooden tail thumping on the floor... so weird and creepy! I never really "got" the moral of that when I was a kid (besides that it's bad to try and runaway). Anyway, I found out years later that a current friend of mine's MOTHER WROTE that frickin' exact story!!! How cool is that? I should ask her about the parts I didn't get sometime (and I'm sure my memory is mangling the details).

@TheGintheCity: OMG, I LOVED that book where the kids were channeling artists and musicians of the past! Was that "Down a Dark Hall"? I remember the cover had skeleton hands playing a piano... muhuhahahaha!!

JRae

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> AHMAGAAAH! I looooved the tv movie of this! It used to be a TBS staple, but its been a while since I've seen it. Rachel was played by... wait for it... Linda freakin' Blair. Loved. This. Movie. Wes freakin' Craven directed it. Julia was played by Lee Purcell, the actress who played Suzi's mom in ValleyGirl. Same hairdo and everything. I remembered the boyfriend being played by one of the VanPattens, but alas a quick IMDB check says it was some non-VanPatten.
Please please please re-visit Blubber? The Cate Ate My Gymsuit? Scruples? (That was too YA reading!)


mariamariamaria

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @faggylittlesandwich: Susan Cooper is brilliant. I was just trying to remember the rhyme from "The Dark is Rising" this morning.

Cthulhah Bankhead

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Does anyone else remember an R. L. Stine book about these two popular girls who sold cookies at school, and it turned out that the cookies had *gasp* COCAINE in them, and in one scene, they had someone tied to a wall and put duct tape over his mouth to make him snort their evil, evil coke, which of course killed him instantly?

Cthulhah Bankhead

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @TruculentandUnreliable: Susan Cooper is the best thing ever, and I pretty much throw her books at the benighted things that won't shut up about Harry Potter.

faggylittlesandwich

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: Locked in Time, I think.

IvyLeagueMetalhead

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @howdybeep: @zelle999: Hollah from the Ghetto, y'all.

calloo_callay

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @howdybeep: @calloo_callay: Woohoo, NE Heights represent!

Anyway, I didn't realize until someone's comment earlier that Killing Mr. Griffin is set at Del Norte! Were all her books set in ABQ? I can't believe I never noticed that before!

Zelle999

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Oh sweet baby Jesus. I devoured Lois Duncan like a coke fiend when I was younger. And I'm pissed because I never got past the breast bud stage, wtf.

I used to love all manner of crazy morbid shit when I was younger--I once saved one of my Dad's Smithsonians when I was 10 or 11 because it had an 11-page article on the Salem Witch Trials that I reread about 20 times. Then I promptly went out and found every young adult book on the Salem Witch trials that I could get my hands on. I remember being REALLY peeved that Arthur Miller was just SO SLOPPY with his historical facts in The Crucible. God, I was such a weird kid!

Speaking of young adult books on the Salem Witch Trials (and there's so many of them, it's like authors KNOW that kids love that shit), I devoured Patricia Clapp when I was younger. Her books were always full of strapping manly colonial men, yum. I'm still looking for mine...

The next one of these posts HAS to be on Robert Cormier. I actually recall my teenage self thinking that he did a really good job of writing teenage girls in a non-creepy, they're-people-too way.

vivresavie17

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Anyone else read L.J. Smith? The NightWorld Series, the vampires, witches, etc etc...oh man, she never finished NightWorld, I'd still buy it if it came out!

and Christopher Pike...he actually started writing adult novels. Don't think he's as successful doing that though.

elisa

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Meh. First poster, trying to come up with something frothy yet succinct, and all I can come up with is "Witchboard".

Twaddle

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @lfw1031: Girl, get on BookMooch, you don't need to pay for your guilty pleasures.

I ain't your... Masokist

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @hatepaperdoll: Also, for the record, I have plans for tomorrow, which is why I'm not ashamed to be posting at 11:40pm on a Friday...BIG PLANS...I swear.

hatepaperdoll

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @TruculentandUnreliable: Is there any chance you mean "Children of Morrow"?

hatepaperdoll

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @elusya: @J.D.Regent: @westcoastsally:
The book you're talking about is called Double Trouble by Barthe Declements & Christopher Greimes. I have it in my parent's basement still. You can find it on Amazon, but it's out of print.

LibidinousSlut

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I looked at the cover and thought that I hadn't read this, until I saw the skull and gasped out loud. I've read it twice and for the life of me and can not remember the plot. I think this is a good thing as I'm so much of a chicken that even scary novels must be read during the day (before 6pm), anything after is hearts and rainbows.

Christopher Pike wrote a book where the kids took a senior trip and that's all I remember of the plot, but there was a sex scene in the shower that gets me hot to this day. I don't even think they boned, they were interrupted but there was definite bonage.

Killing Mr. Griffin I definitely remember. I'm going to have to avoid this feature because I spend too much time in the YA section as it is.

I.Can. Haz.Black.Editors?

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Anyone remember one where this new girl in town participates in this fortune-telling hoax, where she gets fed information...and then her classmates try to hang her on Gallows Hill? It turns out that she's a reincarnation of one of the girls that began the Salem With hysteria- and her fat friend is the reincarnation of Giles Corey, who was pressed to death. He loses weight when the spirits are purged or something.
This THRILLED my eleven year-old historical geek self.

Mikey375

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @calloo_callay: Self-loathing West Sider over here!

howdybeep (runs with monkey wrenches)

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Christopher Pike. Toatl Nostalgia. Nice.

pizza

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Next one should be the other Lois: Lowry. A Summer to Die. Man I loved that book.

Christopher Pike and Lois Duncan were awesome. I still have so many of those books somewhere... there was a Christopher Pike one called "Whisper of Death" that I LOVED but now realize was kind of pro-life. I'm sorry to say I still find the story kind of awesome. He always included just enough sex to completely titillate my 11 to 13 year old self.

rocknrollunicorn

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I loved this book! One of the scariest moments for me was when it is revealed that witches can kill people by walking around their beds in a circle, and Julia is definitely out to kill someone in a hospital(who...?) and hospital beds are all helpfully rolly. Also, there is that passage where Rachel figures out Julia is a lot older because she has a great figure. My fat ass did not suddenly become non-fat when I turned 17.

noseriously

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @HowdyBeep: Homegirl!

calloo_callay

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> NO. I read this book. I TOTALLY read it. And I have no idea why. I also think I had no idea that anyone besides me ever bothered to read it. And no, I couldn't have come within one accurate word of naming it.

I'm feeling a wee bit creeped out.

jammiriffic

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @KidPresentable: I love me some "Don't Look Behind You."

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> My mother loathed Lois Duncan books, but she would let me read them because they were set in Albuquerque and reading about your hometown never. gets. old.

(Really, this is just a hope that there's another Jezzie in the Duke City, who'll chime in with an OMG, me too.)

howdybeep (runs with monkey wrenches)

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Just because it deserves it-- here's the linkback to that other monument to teen series lit: Elizabeth and Jessica are better than you / Sweet Valley re...!

Nell Speed

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> FYI: Lois Duncan's daughter was murdered, and she's written about that, too. "Who Killed My Daughter?" I think she has a sequel in the works about the ongoing investigation, police corruption, etc.

calloo_callay

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Did anyone read "Don't Look Behind You"? That was one of my Lois Duncan faves, despite not having any supernatural elements in it (it was the one where the heroine has to go into witness protection).

KidPresentable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @reach:

Yes!

It freaked me out, too. It was the first book I ever read that had an unhappy ending, and I was outraged. I remember inspecting the book closely because I fully believed someone had ripped out the last chapter where she was saved.

Westcoastsally

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> After a little Amazoning, I'm pretty sure the book with the psychic/astral-projecting twins and the creepy, Donner Party-obssessed teacher is Double Trouble, by Barthe DeClements and Christopher Greimes. In fourth grade, I was stunned and secretly thrilled by the kind of anti-churchgoing stance it took.

Also, hooray for snagging The Old Hag!

iamnotonmyspace

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> just found it on amazon..it doesn't look like the one i was thinking of

elusya

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Attempting astral projection is good practice for, like, the first 15 times you have sex.

Entonces is ironing your dumb ass

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent: yes he totally got stuck outside of his body.. and someone took his body over?? locked in time?? i have to look it up

elusya

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Awww, I loved Lois Duncan books and absolutely devoured them all except then, I was, 13 or so, one came out and I was really excited to read it and then turned out it was the true story about how her daughter had been murdered, and I was like, "Oh."

And then I felt bad. And I haven't read a Lois Duncan book since.

But I am SO glad to hear that other people tried astral projection besides me. Heh.

Zelle999

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Jasmine: Paula Danziger! I recently found a dual edition of The Cat Ate My Gymsuit and There's a Bat in Bunk Five at a garage sale, along with a couple of the "Maggie Adams, Dancer" series where all the girls are hella ballet-obsessive and have various eating disorders and their parents are all, "Fuck this dancing shit and go to college." Best garage sale ever.

yidvicious

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: I believe the basement/typewriter book was called 'The Girl in the Box'. Freaked me out, that one did.

reach

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Can someone help me remember a book from the '70's about a red haired teen aged girl who wanted to be a witch and spied on her neighbors, convinced they were up to evil deeds? i think her witch name was Ariane.

missyprissy

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Jerseylicious: OMG--I tried to do this too! I LURVED Lois Duncan. Daughters of Eve made me a feminist. And I read every book of hers released before I hit 6th grade.

AndYourLittleDogToo

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I still have "Daughters of Eve" fantasy. And when I lived in Abq, I wanted to meet Lois Duncan so bad.

KillMeNow

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> This is kind of cool...[loganberrybooks.com]

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena: i could def be wishful thinking. you're right it doesn't sound exactly right and also i don't think it was by lois duncan. but i do think they get stuck outside. reread and report, westcoastsally.

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent: Because I think the mom, the son and the daughter were stuck inside their bodies for 200 years?

I need to find that book and reread it, stat.

This Friday has suddenly seen an upturn for me! Thanks, Jezebel!

Westcoastsally

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent: @westcoastsally: I don't think that's the one with the twins, it doesn't sound right to me from the Amazon description [www.amazon.com]

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: I found that--it's called The Girl in the Box. You guys read some morbid crap when you were kids!

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Jasmine: Love Beverly Cleary!

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: I THINK THAT'S RIGHT! LOCKED IN TIME. bc didn't he get stuck outside his body????

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena:

Gininthecity found it! Locked in Time. Unless you mean the one about the girl in the basement with a typewriter?? That one I still can't remember.

Westcoastsally

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena: omg breast buds. please let me know if you remember. i'll ask my sister.

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena: I remember the cover of the book, the twins were back to back and I remember being jealous of the girl's breast buds. This is driving me CRAZY.

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Love the write-up, especially as I never actually read any Lois Duncan. If you ever get around to Ellen Conford, Paula Danziger, Daniel Pinkwater, or any of Beverly Cleary's YA novels, let me know.

jasmine

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Oh my god I Amazon-d Christopher Pike and can't stop reading all the summaries. Anyone remember "Master of Murder" -- where the high school kid is a bestselling thriller author writing under a pseudonym (um...gee, wonder where that I idea came from?). And he writes a story that predicts some girl's actual murder?
Oh, I'm having the best Friday afternoon now!

TheGintheCity

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: Okay, girls, we NEED to figure out the name of that damn book. Google is failing me.

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent:

(Secretly, me too)

Westcoastsally

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @TheGintheCity: Thank you! Yes!

@hatepaperdoll: Yes! Man, I loved that book, and also felt incredibly worried when I read it that, you know, what if I missed the boat at 17? What if my breasts weren't perfect?????

Ok, now this other book is popping into my head, but it was much, much darker, about a girl who gets kidnapped and is in a basement with no light and a typewriter...? DId anyone read that?

This thread is so addictive. And now I'm going to find Locked in Time in my library.

(Also, I distinctly remember a Jack Chick tract that was essentially the plot of Daughters of Eve, except for in the end, the main female character in the Jack Chick tract ends up being used as a human sacrifice/goes to heaven. Jack Chick and Lois Duncan were kind of like the polar extremes of my early adoloscence :( )

Westcoastsally

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: yeah maybe it's like subverted sexual power. but i'm still kind of into witchy things, secretly.

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> The girls in my 8th grade class spent an entire semester surreptitiously passing around the book version of "Hardcore" I nicked from my folk's library. We also all read "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon.

Thanks for this feature, you all just brought back a flood of awesome memories.

KimberleeJ

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Holler when we get to Jackie Collins (I'm partial to Hollywood Wives, thanks).

whoneedslight

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Ah, just Amazon-d. "Locked in Time" was the one with the creepy voodoo stepmother/brother. How I loved these. Wonder what my mom did with all of them...

TheGintheCity

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I totally remember this book (but not the title, of course)! I don't even know how old I was when I first read it, but I vividly recall one scene where Julia uses her powers to make Rachel buy a dress? material for a dress? in a pink that makes red-haired Rachel look terrible, but is totally flattering to Julia, so she can steal it for some big dance. This makes a statement about my moral compass, since I obviously didn't care enough about all the people/dogs dying to remember that.

My favorite teen witch book was The Changeover by Margaret Mahy. I read it over and over (actually, I still have my copy).

TOBERMORY

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Oh, dear. Lois Duncan is following me everywhere.

I work at a used bookstore and we always WAAAY too much Lois Duncan, Carolyn Cooney, Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine. I refuse to put it on the shelf unless it's on a reading list, haha. I used to read them when I was younger, like say... 10 years ago, but kids now don't like the book unless it involves talking animals, periods, mean girls and hot boys. :P

jessy ratfink

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: Yes, that the same one I was talking about! I remember a line where the main character says that 17 is the best age because your boobs are perfect and your skin clears up...I felt so ripped off when I was 17.

hatepaperdoll

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> so the astral projection book is that the gift of magic??

elusya

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent: Yeah, me too.

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @hatepaperdoll: @westcoastsally: Oh that was one of my favorites! That was Duncan, right? The other fave was the one where the girl gets sent to a "special" school where it turns out the teachers are channeling the spirits of great artists and musicians of the past through the girls and then selling the works of art for millions. Gawd I loved these, and every Christopher Pike book in existence. The one with the black pool full of sulfuric acid haunts my dreams.

TheGintheCity

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena: i think i might still do this.

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Mego: I have been trying to remember the name of that book for years. Would you know it by any chance? It had some native american portion to it.. ???

I worshiped vc andrews.. the heaven series became so tattered from numerous readings.

elusya

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I've seriously thought about writing young adult fantasy/fiction because it was soooo important to me when I was young.

Has anyone here read "The Dark is Rising" series? Were they as upset about the "movie" that came out about it not too long ago as I was?

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Ooh, Lois Duncan! I don't remember this book but I absolutely loved "Don't Look Behind You" and "The Third Eye". I always thought it was kind of a travesty that RL Stine got more recognition than she did - although Fear Street was definitely a guilty pleasure of mine as a kid.

The Lonely Tourist

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> awww. my favorite were a gift of magic and the third eye. I loved the idea of looking at my future children. i gotta go to Borders and reread these again.

echoparkgal

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I didn't read her ... I read Christopher Pike a few times though.

Luxbot

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @DullSoullessDanceMusic: Thanks for the "Stranger with My Face" clarification. That one has been haunting me for years and years!

KimberleeJ

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent: I know! I don't think a single one of my friends read the books I read, it honestly never really occurred to me that ANYONE did. Of course, that's ridiculous, but I really thought I was alone with that psychic twins book. I used to sit next to a tree and count my breaths like they did to try and meditate.

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena:

That makes sense. My goddaughter is just turning 9, and she is very much starting to get into the whole "bloody mary" thing. I think in a way, when your whole body is changing and your brain is changing and your hormones are changing and it's all so powerful to experience, it makes sense to be interested in other dark/powerful/forbidden things?

Westcoastsally

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena: it affected me so much. this is ridiculous, it's like we're all trying to remember our dreams. i will say though, sharing so much of my subconscious childhood life with so many other people makes me feel like i like, belong to a generation or something. can't one of us fucking run for office or something?

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent: OMG, I remember the tree!

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: I read that book too, but can't remember the author or title. I think it was some kind of magic potion or something...the girl and her dad moved into her plantation house during the summer, as I recall.

KidPresentable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent: Tree! I remember the tree!

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @TruculentandUnreliable: I know! And I'm DYING to figure out which psychic twins book I'm thinking of because DAMN I loved it and it meant so much to me as a kid, when I thought maybe if I tried hard enough, I could astrally project myself into Devon Sawa's bedroom.

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena: i think we are thinking about the same book. those kids were def psychic and there was def a magical tree involved.

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @westcoastsally: There's some sort of psychological term for that, like the "Robinson Age" or something, where kids become obsessed with darkness and magic, like bloody mary and ghost stories and things.

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Stranger with My Face... is that the one with the one twin who was adopted by a really nice family, and one twin who "finds" the other one and sort of ruins her life? And something about Coca-cola?
I loved that book.


wednesdaywolf

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @mocena: No, but god, we must've read some really fucked up things as kids!

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @janna: OMG, I totally remember Caroline Cooney! Thanks for the nostalgia, Jezebellers!

KidPresentable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Oh, I love this feature!

Also, now I am going crazy, trying to remember this one book about a girl whose dad remarries this southern woman with two kids, and it turns out that (through voodoo witchcraft?) this woman and her kids have been alive for 200 years, frozen in the same age as when they took whatever potion or spell, and they live off of the mom seducing men into marrying them, and putting them in their will, and then she or they kill them off? And the heroine has to save her dad and herself?
Does any one know what I'm talking about at all?

(also, man, witchcraft seemed like the biggest threat to the world, when I was 11, and also the sexiest thing possible)

Westcoastsally

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> This post prompted me to look up Caroline Cooney on Amazon.com and OH MY GOD THERE WAS A FOURTH FACE ON THE MILK CARTON BOOK RELEASED IN 2002! I was all about those books, as well as her books about disasters. Also, anything by any author about teenage runaways and/or heroin addicts.

janna

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @TruculentandUnreliable: Were the kids twins? And vegetarian? Did a teacher come in and teach them about the Donner Party and it was all creepy?

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Oh my god. This is my new favorite column, and, um, you guys just single handedly, and totally artificially, and randomly, inflated the sales of "Summer of Fear" on Amazon. Nice job. And, um, I'm buying it right now.

olivia2.0

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @hatepaperdoll: No, but I LOVED that book. This was set in normal reality, probably in the late 70s/early 80s. I wonder if it wasn't really that popular, because I've tried to find it several times and can't. I remember it being really good, but it could've been terrible.

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Did anyone ever read anything by Willo Davis Roberts? Those books were ridiculous, from "The Girl with the Silver Eyes" to "Megan's Island." Love it!

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @TruculentandUnreliable: The Chrysalids?

hatepaperdoll

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @yidvicious: Yesss! Some feminist teacher becomes the ringleader for these girls...I think there was some witchcraft involved too. I remember one of the characters saying something like "everytime you have your monthly period, it's an abortion too"

KidPresentable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I think I've read every Lois Duncan book, but "Summer of Fear." "Daughters of Eve" was my favorite, followed closely by "Killing Mr. Griffin" and "Stranger with My Face." LOVED those books. And yes, I know, crappy writer, blah blah blah.

Also, I think it's time for a Christopher Pike retrospective as well.

ShanaElmsford

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @J.D.Regent: That doesn't really sound familiar...his psychic abilities were so strong that he never talked because he could communicate with his mind. And there's something about a ferris wheel or a carnival?

I read some crazy shit when I was a kid, too. I loved fantasy and science fiction.

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @yidvicious: Indeed. Isn't there something about a tractor accident, a fat girl with huge breasts, and a sweet, pure girl who's pregnant with some dead dudes kid at the end? And she's all "I'll never be feminist again"...

hatepaperdoll

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @TruculentandUnreliable: was the boy a vegetarian who thought humans were designed to only eat seeds and berries, and was there some sort of magical tree involved?

jesus no wonder i turned to hallucinogens at a young age.

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Hey, does anybody know about a book with two young kids, a boy and a girl, who start getting all these weird dreams and realize that they're psychic? And they find out that this little boy is sending them their dreams and they have to save him from the government or something? And there's a dog?

I have been trying to think of the name of that book for FOREVER.

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I read A Gift Of Magic about a thousand times. Also I Know... I remember when the movie came out in the middle of all those Scream-type things in the nineties, being roughly the only person I knew who knew it had once been a book. LL's universe in those books is kind of weird. And the weirdness has nothing to do with paranormal activity.

I loved Christopher Pike, too. Up until the paranormal ones, anyhow. And ::hanging head:: I just re-read Last Act and Remember Me this past week.

TheFormerJuneBronson

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Was Daughters of Eve the one where a bunch of girls have a sort of feminist teacher and subsequently get all vigilante on the various awful men in their lives?

yidvicious

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @lfw1031: Holy shit! "Down a Dark Hall" will be mine!!

DorothyZbornak

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> HOLY CRAP. I had forgetten about this book AND glory and goodness that was the movie they made based on the book! Starring one Miss Linda Blair as Rae!

[www.imdb.com]

RosemaryF

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> i am so excited about this feature i am unable to do anything except repeat other people's posts.

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Jerseylicious: it was Don't Look Behind You. And it was a /movie/ (see my previous post.)
And the girl who could astrally project, was that a set of twins who could do that? And they were vegetarian? Are we on the same page?

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Mego: TOTALLY!!! twice a year.

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> "Don't Look Behind You" is awesomer than any Lifetime Original Movie ever aired (except this one, of course: [www.imdb.com]). Witness protection program? Oh yeah. Hot boyfriend? Oh yeah. Annoying little brother? Mm hm. God DAMN, I love that book.

mocena

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I completely forgot all about reading these books until the moment I opened this post. They were the perfect gateway to V.C. Andrews.

And I've likely thought about that astral projection book at least twice a year in the past 25 years, no doubt.

Mego

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> YESSSSSSSSSS

J.D.Regent

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Sev: Yes! That was one of the only ones that had a sequel! I wish I still had my bookshelf full of Chris Pike paperbacks, I'd totally be hunkered down in my apartment and reading them while it snows this winter.

Puerco

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @hatepaperdoll: I think I remember that one! I have no idea what the title is though.
Shows you just how great that writing was, since none of us remember any titles, just random plot snippits.

CollegeBookworm

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> I think I read some Lois Duncan...I don't really remember. It does kind of all blend together for me.

TruculentandUnreliable

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> OMG i am so excited for this feature!

taylay

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @DullSoullessDanceMusic: Crap, now I'm up to a whole $3.00 in Lois Duncan purchases over at Half...

lfw1031

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> This book sounds awesome, I will be reading this very soon.
Was "Stranger With My Face" about a girl who was in a coma and she woke up and didn't know who she was, blah, blah? First line "My name is (girls name), I'm 14 years old, and I am in the wrong body?" Because if it is, that will be a mystery solved for me!

Does anyone remember a book about a girl who moves in with her mysterious stepmother in the deep south, turns out the step moms like, 200 years old and a witch/voodoo queen?


hatepaperdoll

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @MaMaMoose: I'm with you - how did I miss out here?

Hamsterpants

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @jenndavo: I was so all about Christopher Pike in my teenage years. That and anything that involved a vampire as the main evil character.

fizzyg

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Jerseylicious: Astral-Projection Girl = "Stranger With My Face." Someone else squats in her body while she's off astrally-projecting.
I HATE it when that happens...


DullSoullessDanceMusic

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @brookidy: Of course! That's where I get all of my guilty-pleasure, cheap-ass books!

It's great for moments like these.

lfw1031

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Jerseylicious: I remember those story lines! I'm sure I read plenty of Lois Duncan, but I think it just all blends together into this massive group of really hideous writing that I loved during my preteen years and wrote book reports on. I kind of miss that stuff, it's a lot easier to digest than the novels I have to read now and write papers on.

CollegeBookworm

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Now I have to go dig out my S.E Hinton and V.C Andrews books.

lfw1031

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @lfw1031: half.com! I didn't know it was still around! I love this book. Killing Mr. Griffin is still #1, though.

brookidy

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Jerseylicious: Oh, yeah....that was a good one.

lfw1031

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Daughters of Eve

OH SHIT SON! FRYING PAN MUCH?

JessicaLovejoy: Heart of Dykeness

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Gift of Magic was my all time fav growing up. She even put herself in the end.

"And they had a daughter Lois, who had a gift for storytelling."

Leiakat

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> WHo's reviewing "Frecklejuice" and "Superfudge"?

lfw1031

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @Sev: YEEEEEEES! And just a few weeks ago, during a desperate, hungover Sunday, I watched a Lifteime adaptation of "Fall Into Darkness" with Jonathan Brandis .. awesome!

jenndavo

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Which Lois Duncan book had the girl who could astrally project herself? Because I totally used to lie in my bed, trying to make my mind go blank so I could do it.

I also remember the one where the girl and her family entered the witness protection program. Or maybe those were the same book. It doesn't seem too far-fetched for Lois Duncan to have had a heroine in the witness protection program who did astral projection.

Jerseylicious

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Holy how did I never read this book???

MaMaMoose

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @jenndavo: OMG, Christopher Pike! Does anyone remember the book "Remember Me"? I read that book about 25 times one summer.

Sev

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Love. this. feature. Obviously that epic string of comments about Judy Blume a few weeks ago had an impact!

cocoesq

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> @jenndavo: I did a book report on "I Know what you did last summer" in 7th Grade. I remember feeling extra cool because the movie came out earlier that year...until I realized she was a terrible author.
I think I dug it at the time.
Standards be damned!

BeAgrestic

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Joan Lowery Nixon anyone??? Hello "The Seance"

DullSoullessDanceMusic

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> OMG! 75cents at Half.com, y'all! I know what I'm doing over Christmas break!

lfw1031

]]> <![CDATA[Are You There, Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan]]> Ohmyfuckinggod, Lois Ducan and Christopher Pike were my constant companions throughout middle school.

jenndavo

]]>