Laurie Halse Anderson

Laurie Halse Anderson (born October 23, 1961) is an American writer best known for children's and young adult novels. She received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2009 for her contribution to young adult literature.

She was first recognized for her novel Speak, published in 1999.

Early life

Laurie Beth Halse was born to Rev. Frank A. Halse Jr. and Joyce Holcomb Halse in Potsdam, New York. She grew up there with her younger sister, Lisa. As a student, she showed an early interest in writing, specifically during the second grade. Anderson enjoyed reading—especially science fiction and fantasy—as a teenager, but never envisioned herself becoming a writer.

Anderson attended Fayetteville-Manlius High School, in Manlius, New York, a suburb of Syracuse.

During Anderson’s senior year, she moved out of her parents' house at the age of sixteen and lived as an exchange student for thirteen months on a pig farm in Denmark. After her experience in Denmark, Anderson moved back home to work at a clothing store, earning the minimum wage. This motivated her to attend college.

Twisted (1986 film)

Twisted is a 1986 horror and psychological thriller starring Christian Slater, Lois Smith, and Tandy Cronyn.

Plot

One evening, the Collins family discovers their maid, Mrs. Murdock, dead at the end of their steps; her neck is broken. Evidently, she had an accident; now they need a new babysitter for an upcoming party. The sensible Helen meets little Susan Collins at the discount market and likes her, so she offers to do the job. She does not know Susan's teenage brother Mark: technically skilled and good in school, but restive and cunning. Mark also listens regularly to German marching music from the Third Reich. As soon as the parents have left, he psychologically terrorizes Helen and his sister with electronic tricks. Williams (Karl Taylor), a school jock whom Mark burned earlier in science class, is out for revenge; Mark murders him with a fencing sword.

Ultimately, Mark himself is killed when Helen knocks him onto a spiked German helmet. Mark's parents come home to find the house in shambles; they blame Helen and have her arrested, unaware that Mark lies dead upstairs. Secretly, Susan dons her late brother's glasses and proceeds to listen to his Nazi music and the cycle begins anew.

Twisted (anthology)

Twisted is an anthology of horror short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in paperback by Belmont Books in May 1962 and reprinted in 1967. British paperback editions were issued by Horwitz in 1963 and Four Square Books in 1965. It has also been translated into Spanish.

The book collects fifteen novelettes and short stories by various authors, together with an introduction by the editor. The stories were previously published from 1843-1961 in various magazines.

Contents

Anecdote

An anecdote is a short and amusing but serious account, which may depict a real/fake incident or character. Anecdotes can be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based in a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place. However, over time, modification in reuse may convert a particular anecdote to a fictional piece, one that is retold but is "too good to be true". Sometimes humorous, anecdotes are not jokes, because their primary purpose is not simply to evoke laughter, but to reveal a truth more general than the brief tale itself, or to delineate a character trait in such a light that it strikes in a flash of insight to its very essence. Novalis observed "An anecdote is a historical element — a historical molecule or epigram". A brief monologue beginning "A man pops in a bar..." will be a joke. A brief monologue beginning "Once J. Edgar Hoover popped in a bar..." will be an anecdote. An anecdote thus is closer to the tradition of the parable than the patently invented fable with its animal characters and generic human figures— but it is distinct from the parable in the historical specificity which it claims.

Anecdote (film)

The Anecdote (Azerbaijani: Lətifə, Russian: Анекдот) is a full-length Azerbaijani film shot in Baku in 1989. Made in the tragic comedy genre, this film is about the dysfunctional Soviet management system in Azerbaijan SSR at the end of 1980s and about the decadence and corruption of the Soviet bureaucracy.

Reception

Cast