what i'm reading now

Not long ago I read a magazine article about Pat Conroy, one of my favorite authors. Accompanying the article was a list of books that had influenced him the most.  Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll was on the list. I bought the book because I'm always curious as to how literature affects people. It was a good story. The narrator had issues regarding his relationship with his father and I think Mr. Conroy did too, and it shows in his fiction (The Great Santini).  In this story an English teacher takes a leave of absence to travel to Galen, MO to do research for a biography he plans to write about his favorite children's author, whose books  had helped him get through childhood. Strange things begin to happen in this tale that blends Alfred Hitchcock's suspense with Rod Serling's otherworldliness.