Author: mel

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Horrorfest Post…Talking Horror

witch1Back by popular demand, our guest today is author Georgina Morales 🙂

Georgina has featured several times on our blog before, sharing her own horror genre writing, as well as her love for all things spooky. You can take a look at two of her previous features here, if you’d like to see her book Perpetual Night or her popular guest post My Letter to Stephen King. 

With Halloween fast approaching Georgina has joined us today to talk about – what else – horror!

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TALKING HORROR

By Georgina Morales

Come October and 70% of the world’s population is starving for horror consume. During this month, ranks of everything-scary lovers swell with seasonal fans joining in the adoration. Black and orange splash every window display and while stuffing our face with themed candy, we scour the surface of the earth for more horror. More books, more blogs, more movies, more stories…

But the field is growing beyond the bounds of a month. If the amount of shows sprouting on TV were to serve as a measure of the public’s interest in a subject, I’d say it’s fair to assume the spooky genre is en vogue. Maybe even entering a golden age. But really, how far back goes our fascination with the dark side?

These days we think of Horror as a genre that encompasses a wide range of nightmarish scenarios. From the classic haunted house, to the very real human monster that is a serial killer. However, as recently as the 19th century, humanity found the most reason to be scared in death and the deep darkness where demons dwell. And while ghost stories were part of oral tradition centuries before Guttenberg was even born, it was Romance and Drama that held a stronghold on literature.

Then, in 1764 Horace Walpole used the romantic elements of the time to write the story of a haunted castle. Oh, innovation! But he was no fool and fearing the rejection of the literary community—ever the snobs—he published the story in anonymity. Buyers were told THE CASTLE OF ORANTO was an old manuscript found in an abandoned monastery where a man of vision found it and decided to publish it.

And here you thought The Blair Witch Project had been the first.

Three things happened immediately after: 1. The book became a success among critics and readers alike. 2. Walpole could not stand to watch fame and money scape through his fingers and published the second edition with his name attached. 3. Critics realized they’ve been duped and held the story as literary garbage.

One would think that after two centuries the elite would’ve gotten over their spite, but no. Horror is still considered barely above picture books. Talk about holding a grudge.

But no matter what pundits said, the public demanded more and publishers were more that happy to supply. But what do you call these books that don’t fit on the known genres? Walpole offered an answer once more. He had subtitled his first book A GOTHIC STORY and the name caught up. For a century, Gothic literature rocked the world, and when it seemed about to die, Poe appeared and perfected it for our delight.

These are stories of abandoned castles, cemeteries, or monasteries infested with vengeful ghosts where the characters never question the plausibility of the supernatural, they simply know. Heroes have a tendency to madness, damsels faint a lot, and an overcast sky or raging storm betrays the dubious nature of the villain.

Gothic literature is a staple that every Halloween lover should try, even the young ones since, given the Victorian moral standards, most of the classic works could be considered PG13 at most. But, if you like a more modern approach and simply can’t stand fainting women, there’s plenty of modern gothic for you. These stories will feature contemporary characters in traditional settings. The poor souls… After all, how would you react to a haunted castle or a family curse?

So, this Halloween when you are looking for a moody read to set your spirit right, why not turn to Gothic lit, either modern or classic. Just beware of stormy weather and the dark.

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Georgina Morales - Profile Image About the Author

From early on Georgina Morales felt fascinated by the horror genre. The stunning covers tantalized her with promises of endless darkness and obscure tales. While other girls dreamed of becoming princesses, her young mind weaved stories of madness to fit those covers. Years later, after settling in New England, she felt perfectly at home surrounded by dark woods and abandoned buildings. It is from those places and memories that she writes, spinning stories from inside the obscure corridors of the mind where not many venture and very few come out alive.

Her debut novel, PERPETUAL NIGHT, was published in 2011 alongside other stories. On Halloween 2013 the anthology GOTHIC BLUE BOOK III: THE GRAVEYARD EDITION by Burial day Books will include her most recent tale, A DIARY OF MADNESS. For more information about her shenanigans, stalk her here:

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perpetual-Night-by-Georgina-Morales/159894374059399?ref=hl

 Blog- www.diaryofawriterinprogress.blogspot.com

Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard

Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/Georgina-Morales/e/B004L93XQE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

 

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Horrorfest Post…Witches and Halloween

witchcraftbookFor our opening feature in Horrorfest 2013, we’re welcoming author Mari Wells to the blog, to share with us some of the history of Halloween and how it all began with witches. Mari has some great posts on her blog on everything from witches to vampires and so if this post gets you in the mood for something else, we definitely recommend you head over there to take a look. 

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Witches and Samhain

The witch’s “High Holiday” or “Great Sabbat” Samhain is what non-witches call All Hallows Eve or Halloween. Samhain is pronounced Sow-n (like Cow-in) in the U.S. the pronunciation is Sam-hane and means summer’s end. This holiday is the witches’ New Year. 

According to the Old Celtic calendar, Samhain was the beginning of the year. Some witches still celebrate it as the New Year – it’s been called “The Witch’s New Year”.

It’s an important celebration among witches as it marks the change of summer (the end of summer and the growing season) to winter; also, it’s time to shift from the Goddess to the God.

The Celts remembered the creations of the world, when chaos became order on Samhain. On this night, the spirits of the dead were allowed to roam the earth and visit with loved ones. They also believed that the veil between the dead and living was thinner than any other time during the year.

Other ancient cultures who also held this belief and celebrated their dead on October 31 eve and November 1st were the Egyptians and Pre-Colombian Mexico. It was easier to communicate with the spirits of loved ones who died during the year. This is part of the story behind ghosts at Halloween.

It’s commonly believed that dead could predict the future. Tarot, crystal ball, and tealeaf readings are preformed more on Samhain than any other night, because it’s easier to reach the dead to assist in the readings.

Samhain was also the time livestock was reduced to numbers needed to survive the winter. Freshly slaughtered sheep and cattle where roasted on Samhain bonfires called Balefires for the holiday feast. A part of the meat was salted and stored for the winter. These fires burned atop mountains along the length and breadth of Britain and much of Western Europe –a visual line of Pagan associates. 

Witches spend this day and evening with their passed ancestors. These ancient cultures believed in leaving plates of food outside for friendly spirits (the candy part of Trick-or-Treating), taking their ancestors’ favorite foods to their burial grounds, or setting extra places at the dinner table.

The Celts believed any clothing that stayed outside on Samhain would take on bewitching abilities for anyone who wears them.

A well-known Halloween game of bobbing for apples has roots in the Roman festival of Pomona, which was celebrated on November 1st. Apples were peeled in one long strip. The peel was tossed over the left shoulder. The peel would land on the ground outlining your future spouse’s face.

We also shouldn’t forget the Jack o’ Lantern.  Ancient pagans would carry a candle with them on their travels on Samhain to symbolize the spirits leaving this world into the next. They often placed their candles in carved hallowed turnips. Years later Americans began using pumpkins; maybe because they were easier to carve.

The Church allowed the pagans to keep their holiday, but saw it as a way of converting them to Christianity. They began celebrating the dead, but only those who believed in God. The Samhain holiday became All Saints and All Souls day in order to remember the blessed dead.    

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Our guest post today comes from author Mari Wells, here you can find out more about her. 

Mari’s love of the paranormal goes back to her tween years with origins in vampirology. In recent years, she has increased her vampire knowledge, and expanded it to other paranormal beings.

Mari lives in the Northwest Pacific with her husband, and four children. Her writing is balanced around homeschooling all four children and keeping house. She burns the candle at both ends in order to write, adding to the ambience of her paranormal stories.

 Her paranormal pieces have been included in supernatural magazines, websites and blogs. Other stories appear online and in print.

Want to know more? Check out the links!

Blog – www.mariwells.wordpress.com

Author Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mari-Wells-Author/281939828573987?ref=hl

Twitter – @Mari_Wells4

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/15866377-mari-wells

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Horrorfest…It’s Here!

Trick or Treat

Sc-r-ee-c-h *huge wooden door swings open*

 “Welcome, welcome! The day has finally arrived and our first ever Horrorfest is here!” 

 To get myself in the mood, I’m typing this post as I watch the end of The Walking Dead series 2…I don’t fancy the sheriff’s chances right now 😦   Anyway – I’m sure he’ll find some way to elude the multitude of zombies beating down the barn door and so let’s get on with our own show… our opening feature on Halloween comes up next.

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Happy Thursday!

Woo Hoo!Just a random observation that brightened up my Thursday morning… We currently have 899 lovely people following the blog! This seems like quite a few for being around just about 18months. So thanks for taking notice of our little piece of the blogosphere – here’s to person 900

Something else that made be smile was this happy little bear, showing off how limber he is. My caption for this picture? “Woo hoo!” 🙂

Have you discovered anything random today?

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Horrorfest…Not long now

Spooky House The nights are getting darker, shadows grow longer and what is that on the horizon? Pumpkins, witches hats and fake blood…? Oh yes! It’s Horrorfest time!

If you’ve not already secured your spooky space on the event, with a short story, interview, guest post or review of a horror book, then time is running out. Drop us a line at bonniesyorkie at gmail dot com and find out how you can take part!

And if you’re too much of a chicken to take part – just tune in from 21st October when our first features will appear.

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Cover Reveal…WitchHunt by Emma Mills

Today we’re hosting a cover reveal for author Emma Mills and her latest book, Witch Hunt. 

There is a huge giveaway for her Facebook page getting 1000 likes, so if you’re interested in taking part – check out the link. 

So…what about the book? This is the third book in the Witch Blood series – you can read Mel’s review of the first book – WitchBlood – on Goodreads here. The second book – WitchLove – was featured in our May Indie Author event this year, and now you can get a sneak peek at the latest addition to the series!

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‘WitchHunt’ – Release Date: 4th November, 2013

WitchHunt

     ‘I know it’s selfish, but I don’t want you to go,’ Daniel said, a couple of minutes later.

   I looked at him and smiled. ‘I’ll be fine, I will.’ 

   ‘You’d better be. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Those months I stupidly spent apart from you… they were torment for me,’ he said.

   ‘They were torment for me too.’

As the Christmas season is ripped apart by the news that Jess’ old friend Alex has been turned into a vicious killer, festivities are dropped, Jess returns to England and the hunt begins. But Alex isn’t the only one being hunted, for Mary has found a way to extinguish the entire bloodline of Malden witches, and it is Jess’s book of shadows that’s the key. As things hot up, Jess finds she must leave Daniel and the safety of Manchester in a final hunt for her nemesis, Mary. In a fight-off that only one of them can survive, loved ones will fall… daemons will rise… but who will survive?

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Hosting…Dianna Hardy’s Flash Blog Tour

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Today we’re excited to be hosting a guest post by author Dianna Hardy, as part of The Witching Pen flash blog tour. If you have not yet read The Witching Pen series, these posts may contain spoilers, as it is now on the last book!

Dianna combines a titillating mix of paranormal romance and urban fantasy into her writing to bring you stories that are action-packed, fast-paced and not short of heat, with the focus on both character development and the plot. She writes both full-length novels and short fiction. All further info can be found at diannahardy.com

 See here for all blog tour dates and posts: http://www.thewitchingpen.co.uk/1/post/2013/08/not-long-to-go-now.html

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The Last Dragon cover front smallWith The Last Dragon being released on 4th October, we’ve been having a little recap at everything that’s happened in this paranormal fantasy romance series so far. Today I’m talking about the music of darkness, sorrow, hope and love.

In short, these are the tracks I listened to the most when writing the series, the first being Fix You, by Coldplay. It’s a gorgeous song that came to me while I was writing book two, The Sands Of Time. It captured everything that was happening in that book, from both Amy/Pueblo/Paul’s point of view, as well as Mary and Gwain’s point of view, and it brought to life the deeper layer of sorrow that underlies the series. To this day, I think that Fix You can symbolise every single character in the series, including those in The Last Dragon.

Link to YouTube: http://youtu.be/k4V3Mo61fJM

The second song that got under my skin and didn’t let go was Halo, by Beyonce. Without a doubt it’s Gwain and Mary’s song (although we can also hear Karl and Elena in it) and for me, it’s always symbolised hope. There’s something about the song that has always made me think of Mary’s exuberance and her larger-than-life personality. This song is hope and faith.

Link to YouTube: http://youtu.be/bnVUHWCynig

Now, let’s talk about the darkness. Although there are dark elements throughout the series, in terms of music it didn’t seep into me until a reader suggested the song Closer, by Nine Inch Nails to represent the series. Wow. At the time of listening to it, I was writing Lucifer, and … yeah. Let’s just say that that song brought him to life for me more than a little. In many ways, I found The Last Dragon the darkest book out of all of them for me to write (and not just because of Lucifer).

Link to YouTube: http://youtu.be/PTFwQP86BRs

Lastly, I’m going to talk about love. And the song that represents the love in this series came via another reader who suggested A Thousand Years, by Christina Perri. At first, I didn’t think anything of it, and then I was in a coffee shop a few months back, writing a very poignant Last Dragon scene and this song came on the system, and everything fell into place. The entire scene came alive under my fingers as I typed it up listening to this song; the entire series also played out in my head. So here it is – true, unconditional love; acceptance; forgiveness.

Link to YouTube: http://youtu.be/rtOvBOTyX00

Of course there were other songs I listened to as well – and you can see the readers’ choices for the series theme song here http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_BA0pQ9LrZKg_vta0koHkz-DDXCAY-lm – but those were the main ones that I hit repeat on, over and over again, to help capture certain parts of the books 🙂

Before The Last Dragon explodes into publication, read book one of the series, The Witching Pen, currently FREE to download across most retailers! See here for download links: http://www.diannahardy.com/the-witching-pen.html

The Witching Pen eBook Cover Small  It’s hard being the most powerful witch on the planet. It’s even harder when you’re a twenty-five year old virgin who’ll lose all of that power the moment you sleep with someone … that’s why Elena’s never slept with her best friend and flatmate, Karl, despite the true feelings they harbour for each other.

Elena’s about to discover that there are even more difficult things in life to deal with. One of them comes in the form of a pen she discovers one day, a pen that allows anything she writes to come to pass…

Suddenly, it’s not just her powers or her heart that’s at stake, but her very soul, as a dream demon with a seductive pull uses the pen to try and turn her away from her reality, and from Karl.

But the pen is just the beginning. Everything Elena has believed in is a lie, and her world is about to fall apart…

The entire series can be viewed here: http://www.diannahardy.com/the-witching-pen-novellas.html and mark 4th October on your calendar to know how it all ends with The Last Dragon.

Author of The Witching Pen and the international bestselling Eye Of The Storm series.

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Want to know more? Check out the links! 

Website: www.diannahardy.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/authordiannahardy

Twitter: www.twitter.com/thewitchingpen

The Witching Pen website: www.thewitchingpen.co.uk

TWP n Last Dragon Blog Tour List

Don’t forget! Anyone that comments on the blogs participating in the tour will be automatically entered to win one of 3 Swag packs. Dianna will pick the three winners once the Blog Tour has finished 🙂

 The Swag packs include each:
– 1 signed M’Angeal Fridge Magnet
– 1 Witching Pen Omnibus Keyring
– 1 Witching Pen Omnibus Bookmark
– 1 Witching Pen Omnibus Postcard

– 1 The Last Dragon Coming 4th October postcard

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Horrorfest – October 2013…Come Join Us!

After the success of our Indie Month at Aside from Writing in May, we really wanted to do another ‘feature month’ on the blog – and here it is!

We’ll be hosting our first ‘horror fest’ in October on the run up to Halloween. As this is the first time we’ve done it we’re looking for horror authors, or just creative types with spooky short stories up their sleeves, to take part. We’d also love to feature some reviews by bloggers of any ghost / horror books they’ve read and would like to share with us.

Our own group of authors who run the blog will be testing their skills writing in the genre and posting them for you to scream (or laugh) at. We’d really love to feature more short stories from the creepy side of life, so if you’ve got one you’d like to showcase – get in touch! We also have a range of other features to offer authors – if you would like to take part, with an interview, guest post or ‘book of the day’ feature, please contact us at bonniesyorkie at gmail dot com

(You know what to do with the email address, put the right symbols in to keep the spammers from our door!)

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All Author Blog Blitz!

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Today is the blog blitz, organised by author Y. Correa, mod of the Indie Author Support Group on Goodreads – you can find out more about the group and Y here. For our piece on the blitz we’re featuring young adult writer Stacey T. Hunt as our guest! Tony is a guesting at this blog, whilst Mel is appearing at author Stephanie Hurt’s blog.

Stacey Hunt Stacey T. Hunt is a life-long Canadian whose love of sci-fi and fantasy, videogames, reading, and techno music played heavily on her writing of the smash hit young adult books: The Cascade Adventures Saga.

The ProphecyThe Prophecy
In this thrilling new adventure, a deadly group of terrorists known as The Predatorials rise under the command of their leader, Zorgoth, who has a deadly goal and an enigmatic apprentice by the name of Zorren whom he is enrolling in King Casimir’s School, of which students who attend have a chance to become the next ruler of Planet Cascade. The world hangs in the balance as a torn Cascada must choose who to save — her best friend, Meldon, from falling into the darkness and joining the shadowy divison of the Predatorials, or Zorren, after he won her heart. He’s the mysterious new guy with a dark power and devious ties to Zorgoth.
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Just Finished…Jake by Michael Cargill

Jake

It’s a 4.5* for me.

Michael Cargill ‘gets’ people – now I’m not sure whether he gets everyone, or that he writes about people whose brains work very like mine, but with each book of his I’ve read (Jake being the third), regardless of the plot or setting, it is the characters and their realistic behaviour that stands out for me. Jake is the same, and perhaps the most realistic and relatable of all Cargill’s characters I’ve met so far.

For much of the book you follow Jake through his daily teenage life: daft ‘boy’ antics, school and home life, rolling along. Within the first few pages I was transported straight back to high school – from the noises and sounds, to the familiar mad behaviour of the lads in class (although, seeing it from Jake’s point of view it makes a lot more sense now!) As YA books go, it was very ‘real’ – with no random appearances by vampires, angels or other common supernatural types – and I found myself quite happy reading about the intricacies of Jake’s life.

His first romance is really cute – to the point some scenes had me smiling to myself at the clumsy sweetness, and I loved the development of Jake’s relationship with his little brother, and the way he began to see his mother differently through observing her parenting the new addition to the family.

Overall, Jake is a really well-observed book, Cargill writes great characters and works with the smallest of details to give realism to his writing – as I’m not in to giving away spoilers there is little more I can say about the book without ruining it, but definitely worth a read if you like normal books about normal people.