Genevieve Cogman

Genevieve Cogman is a freelance author who has written for several role-playing game companies. She currently works for the National Health Service in England as a clinical classifications specialist. She is the author of the Invisible Library series, including The Mortal World, The Lost Plot, The Burning Page, The Masked City, The Invisible Library, and The Secret Chapter.

Recently I asked Cogman about what she was reading. Her reply:

I'm currently reading the new Penguin Classics edition of Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn. I've read some of them before, in different collections, but this particular edition has multiple stories which I hadn't previously encountered. Hearn is an interesting figure, who besides working as a journalist, made his way through traditional Irish ghost stories and Creole ghost stories to Japanese supernatural myths and folklore. He loved ghost stories, and he collected and translated them generously and with relish. While any translation is to some extent shaped by its translator, these writings have the genuine feeling of stories told in candle-lit darkness, shared in a whisper with friends, or in summer to raise a shiver down the spine. People who like the classic movie Kwaidan would also particularly love these stories, as they can read the origins of the episodes featured in the movie.

(And if anyone would like a sample Japanese supernatural story from Lafcadio Hearn, "The Mujina," click here).

Visit Genevieve Cogman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue