Month: January 2020

The Shop on Peculiar Hill Quiz

Have you read The Shop on Peculiar Hill? How much did you learn from it about life on the edge of the Vale of Strange? Now there’s a chance to test your knowledge in the brand new Goodreads ‘Shop on Peculiar Hill’ Quiz. Here’s a sample question to get you started:

Where do bogeys live?

a) In Boggy Hollows

b) At the Strange Hotel

c) Underneath your bed

An ideas? If you knew the answer to that one (or even if you didn’t) you can take the whole quiz here at Goodreads. It’s fun to do and it’s a very sensible idea to check your knowledge to make sure you’re taking the right precautions against all the various monsters. Otherwise you can end up trying to fend off a heeble-greeb with a bowl of glop.

And if you haven’t been to Goodreads before, you might like to take a look around while you’re there. It’s a good place to go to get recommendations for books, chat about what you’ve been reading with friends, and even to write reviews so you can share your thoughts about what you’ve been reading more widely. Rather annoyingly, though no doubt for very good reasons, you have to be 13 or over to be a member at Goodreads, but if you’re too young at the moment, this may be one of those times when a parent comes in useful.  They might be able to ask for book recommendations on your behalf and it might be a really worthwhile project for you to help them write a review of The Shop on Peculiar Hill or even Stranger Days – if only to keep them out of mischief for a day or so.

You can also help them to answer that quiz of course. Here’s another sample question before I go:

What is Aunt Maggie’s lucky day?

a) Wednesday

b) Thursday

c) Every other Friday

You’ll find more questions – and all the answers – over at Goodreads...

And don’t forget to wear that hat!

(The Good Reads links above take you to the quiz. The main Good Reads page for The Shop on Peculiar Hill is here.)

Happy New Year!

Best Wishes to you all for a Strangely Happy New Year in 2020 from us all here at Grimly HQ!

Here’s your checklist of Really Important Things for the New Year:

1) Are you new to The Vale of Strange? Then make sure you get your copy of ‘The Shop on Peculiar Hill’ the first book in this remarkable series, on Kindle for the bargain price of only 99p (UK) or 99c (US) or for a similarly small amount if you live elsewhere in the world. Note: if you’re on Kindle Direct you can read it for free!!

Ian Eagleton, Creator of The Reading Realm app, said: “Thrilling, dark, utterly barmy, funny and surprisingly moving… if you haven’t read it already, please do. What a hidden gem!”

Joanne Owen, Reviewer at lovereading4kids, said: “A riotously imaginative feast of fantastical adventure with lashings of larger-than-life characters and curious goings-on.… Brilliantly bonkers.”

2) If you’ve already read the first book, have you got your copy of the newly published sequel, ‘Stranger Days on Peculiar Hill’, available in paperback or Kindle from Amazon UK, Amazon.com and other Amazon sites worldwide.

John Guy Collick, author of the Book of the Colossus series said: “Stranger, more peculiar, and utterly delightful, Grimly Darkwood’s sequel to ‘The Shop on Peculiar Hill’ perfectly combines outlandish scares with adventure and wild imagination”

Radzy Writes and Reviews said: “In honesty, as soon as I’d finished ‘Shop on Peculiar Hill’, I was desperate to get my hands on ‘Stranger Days’ – this is a world with absolutely no finite end point, and I hope this series just keeps going.”

3) Having bought your book, don’t forget to read it!

4) Having read it, please let us (or someone else) know what you think about it! We’ve had almost entirely good feedback on the books so far but it takes a lot of banging and shouting to get the message about them out there. So please do a favour to all those who haven’t yet heard about the Vale of Strange books by helping to spread the word.

5) Most important of all: there are bogeys about – please don’t forget your hat!