This is based on my upcoming review in First Draft Magazine:

HAUNTED PLACES IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH by Alan Brown.
University Press of Mississippi Jackson. 2002. ISBN
1-57806-477-5.

This must have been one fun book to write, since it is based
wholly on things you can't prove and stories largely made up by
imaginative people. Kind of like a book on Flying Saucer
sightings: the stories may be true, but how is anybody ever going
to be able to prove it?

Reality aside, the reader can romp through the South,
reading tales of things that go scary in the night, safe in the
knowledge that it's only a book.

Alan Brown takes us from Carrollton, Alabama's famous Face
in the Pickens County Courthouse Window to Birmingham's Downtown
Library ghost.

Since just about everybody who is alert and bristling with
caffeine has seen things out of the corner of the eye, movements
in peripheral vision that can't be viewed head-on, this book can
compel and entertain. Since everybody's been frightened at one
time or another by a nightmare after a turbulent night trying to
digest a spicy taco dinner, everybody can identify with the
implications of these ghost stories. You just have to be in the
mood. If this is your Day of Pragmatism and Reality Check, you'll
be bored. If this is a dark and stormy night with the power out
and a candle illuminating an H.P. Lovecraft book, you just may
want to pull that copy of HAUNTED PLACES off the shelf and dive
in.

If you're going to scare yourself, why not learn a little
history at the same time?

--Jim Reed, author of DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS, HIDDEN COMFORTS, UNEXPECTED JOYS Learn more: jimreedbooks.com

The title of this book should probably be 'Leonardo Da Vinci Origins Of An ARTISTIC Genius'. It was the title that intrigued me and made me want to read this book. Leonardo's education and maturation process in relation to painting is really not that unusual.

This book does demonstrate with a lot of precise details how Leonardo's involvement and association with paintings from his early period can be proven or disproven. In some cases advanced scientific techniques such as x-ray analysis are cited to disprove or clarify statements made by previous authors about Leonardo's supposed involvement in various paintings. This book would be very helpful if someone was, for example, writing a paper about Leonardo's early career as far as exactly what paintings he worked on.

However the mysterious aspect about Leonardo da Vinci is not his painting which he eventually grew tired of and he sometimes didn't even bother to finish his own paintings. The mysterious thing about Leonardo is how did he all of a sudden become (at least in his own mind) an engineer, architect, scientist, etc., when he was never trained in any of these things ? How did someone who was trained as a painter and artist make that transition ? That's where the mystery deepens about Leonardo da Vinci.

As far as the books I've read so far that mystery has never been fully explained other than he was self taught. His art was very important for this transition because it allowed him to record his basically limitless ideas at a time when photography didn't exist yet.

But a good follow on to this book would be called 'Leonardo Da Vinci Origins Of A RENAISSANCE Genius' or 'Scientific Genius' or something like that.

Whether some or most of Leonardo's scientific ideas were valid is I think open to debate. But he did have some of the characteristics required for true genius which are intense curiosity, being very observant, and having almost unlimited energy. And he was a good painter, that much can be stated positively.

The novel moves at brisk pace and the timeline format always gives a sense of urgency to the situation. Diana's personality shines through during her kidnapping ordeal; inner strength and her ability to reason with her captors. I read an excerpt in the April 1990 issue of Redbook magazine, and although some of the phrases are worded differently, it was still a suspenseful read! The library copy I read, was the first print in the U.S., and there are few typos. It is interesting to note that Charles shows far more sensitivity to Diana than he probably did in real life. Of course it was written before their marital problems came to light. In one poignant scene, Diana wonders about her children's future and her funeral if she's killed. The description is hard to read.

I'd rate it with 1/2 star if I could! If you read the Booknews Inc. review above, you'll think that the book shows you "how to" do anything you want, but that's not what the book is about. Very limited! It shows you "how to" waste your time and money in extensive so-called "explanations" of few and uncreative shots. It is NOT a step by step book, and it is NOT meant to teach you anything. Everything you could eventually learn from this book, you would learn better if you read Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Studio Manual. Period.

I disagree with the review below titled "Limited book." As an intermediate amateur photographer, I learned a lot from "Lighting Secrets..." Virtually all the 31 shoots are indeed creative. I have not seen multiple Polaroids showing the effects of changes in lighting (pp. 46-133) in any other book. Freeman's "...Studio Manual" has only a few pages devoted to lighting. My only complaints about "Lighting Secrets..." are: (A) The title should have the word "studio," since the book does not cover natural lighting. (B) Chapter Two (pp.17-43) on the "Whys of Lighting" shows only a single lighting diagram and a single photo from each shoot. (C) The images on pages 109 and 125, manipulated using 1990 computer technology, are not very attractive. (D) The photo on p. 113 (identical to the cover) should be swapped with the photos on p. 115. (E) It would have been nice to know the film, camera, and lens for each shoot.

I own many lighting books. Although not a beginners how to book, it does show the shots that were taken before the final shot. This is unique! The reader is able to see and read about the small changes that are made in working towards perfection. Most other books show the final shot with minimal verbage. This book discuses very detailed lighting adjustments that are made and the sequences of shots relating to them

Dead Tour is one of the first GD related fiction books to be published. I know of three others, but Dead Tour set the tone. If you like a good mystrey, then you'll like Dead Tour