Thursday, October 29, 2015

Paranormal October: Looking Across the Veil with Angela Scavone

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What a fun ghost story today by Angela Scavone! What's better in October than an old village, dressed for the season and a ghostly appearance on Halloween? Angela shares a story about her experience one time on the day the veil between worlds is at its thinnest. Have you had any experiences like this?

I hope you enjoy her spooky story and make sure to enter the Giveaway at the end of the post :-)

When the Veil is Thinnest

by Angela Scavone

Halloween is said to be the night when the veil is lifted between the living and the dead worlds yet most believe it is just a celebration for children and adults alike to dress as their favourite characters and eat as much candy as possible.

Whatever the tradition or the folklore, I believe the veil is lifted on Halloween that only some can see or feel.

Let me tell you a story…

On Halloween day in 199-something, a friend of mine and I decided to start Christmas shopping. We were both off of work that day and decided it was the perfect time to start. We travelled out of town to a small village that boasted great little shops that were full of unique gift ideas. All the shops are set in old houses along a main street, each of the houses were easily a hundred years old and was fully decorated for Halloween.

 We moved along main street from shop to shop until we came upon one of the last houses on the block, it was set back off the street and had an eerie feeling to the outside of it. We chalked it up to the age of the house and the spooky decorations. Not wanting to miss a unique gift idea we entered despite our feelings, once inside the eerie feeling persisted and became stronger.

The woman that owned the shop pointed us to the upstairs saying that there were Christmas treasures to be had up there.

At the top of the stairs was a long hallway with two doors on either side, each door was a room that held items for different seasons. The Christmas room was at the end of the hallway, it was a bright room because of the two windows on either side. We entered and began to look at the items on each of the display cases, I went to one side of the room and my friend went to the opposite side. I looked down at one of the little Christmas items and suddenly the room became very dark, like someone had closed heavy curtains over the windows, the air became very heavy and I could feel a presence in the room watching us. I turned quickly to my friend across the room and she was staring at me with the same frightened expression that I’m sure I had. We didn’t say a word to each other but literally ran from the room, almost knocking down two older ladies chatting in the hallway. I ran down the stairs and I was met with the owner at the bottom of the stairs.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Someone was murdered here many years ago, however the ghost only visits on Halloween and only to certain lucky people, who always come running down the stairs.”

I’m not sure what was in that room or what would have happened had we stayed but I’m pretty sure that ghost was not happy we were shopping for Christmas during their Halloween visit J


Angela lives in Ontario, Canada sharing her home with her father and her two much-loved pups (and one evil cat).  She currently works for the Board of Education behind the scenes supporting and analyzing student data, however, in her spare time, apart from her avid love of storytelling, she likes to read, spend time with family and friends and concoct dairy free recipes from scratch. Sometimes she wins some and sometimes she loses some – tofu, banana and peanut butter pudding we are looking at you.

Links:

Website: www.angelascavone.com    
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/angela.scavone.52
Twitter https://twitter.com/busterwhyte
Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6683076-angela-scavone
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/busterwhyte/

Angela’s latest release A Journey Home is about Stephanie Tyler, an air force captain, whose sole job is to fly overseas to war torn areas to retrieve bodies of fallen soldiers. While executing this difficult duty, a myriad of conflicting emotions makes Stephanie ponder how short life really is and to question her own ability to forgive. 
  
Buy Link:
Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00W3UK05A/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d16_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=1ECR1S1MKJY50BF4CEC5&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop 




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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

October 99 Cent Read Excerpt: Devdan Manor by Auden Johnson




Paranormal October is nearly over ;-( The month of October has flown by for me and Halloween is almost upon us. I don't even have a costume picked for this year. Time to punt on that one and pull out pieces of this and that from costumes past, add some makeup and hope for the best!

I'm pleased to have author Auden Johnson as a guest today with an excerpt of her story Devdan Manor. If this little morsel is any indication, Auden knows a thing or two about crafting dark and spooky scenes. 

And don't forget that the October Mega giveaway continues - make sure you comment, tweet, etc. to enter for a chance to win books from several of the awesome authors who have guest posted this month!

Excerpt of Devdan Manor

 by Auden Johnson

Devdan Manor by Auden Johnson
Black mold erupted on stage. It devoured the curtains. It crawled out the ceiling—rotting anything it touched. The rusted banister dropped to a pile of ash. Cyl pulled back from the balcony banister. Pieces of it dropped into the seat below. Black dust from the aging chandeliers rained down on them.
“Time to go.” Uryl backed away.

Cyl picked up Ryse and followed.

The floor dropped from under Nuall. She fell. She managed to slow her decent and land without making more holes.

“There’s another way out,” she called.

Burned holes opened in the seats and stairs. Cyl didn’t trust them.

He jumped through the hole Nuall fell through. Uryl and Ozais followed.

They raced from the theatre into what looked like an enclosed courtyard. The door slammed behind them. Cyl needed to see. He opened the door. Instead of a dying theatre, thick fog and a forest full of dark twisted trees spread out before them. Shadows bloomed like tall weeds. Each shaped like a demon—the ones that couldn’t pass as human. Some stood as tall as the trees. Others were no taller than his knee. They dominated this dark forest. White fog weaved between them. The trees’ twisted limbs swayed. They reached for the shadows. A figure appeared before Cyl. Too close. Tortured faces and arms reached through the shadowy body. Trapped souls. The mouths hung open in agony. The eye sockets were curled with glee.

Cyl slammed the door closed.

“Damn, I hate this house,” he said.


Book Description of Devdan Manor


What haunts demons?

Expelled from his birthplace for a power he couldn't control, Cyl Antun searches for a real home with his two siblings and longtime friend. 
Darkness falls. Vicious nocturnal demons close in on them. A mansion appears. They rush inside to escape the night terrors. Strange marking cover the walls. A black void now surrounds this house. They’re trapped. The mansion is empty. Yet, they are not alone.


99 Cent Alert!!! 

Devdan Manor is on sale for only 99 cents but hurry, sales ends 10/31/15!






As a kid, Auden created her own books by folding several construction papers in half and stapling them down the middle, adding her own illustrations. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get away from writing. She holds a B.A. in English, a M.S. in Library and Information Science and she studied Creative Writing in England. She’s an Author/Research Assistant for Aubey LLC and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY- working towards her Masters in Publishing at NYU. Her short stories and novellas are on Amazon. Book 1, The Sciell, and Book 2, Chains of the Sciell of The Merging Worlds series is now available. Her first non-fiction book, Building Dark Worlds: A World Building Guide, is also available.

Links

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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Paranormal October: The Most Terrifying Thing by Val Muller


I've enjoyed all of the October guest posts, but today's post by Val Muller is my favorite so far. Val's post tackles a subject that I face a lot in my writing: Fear. And as Val's post shows, there are some things we really should be afraid of.

I hope you enjoy the poem and guest post written about a brave little girl facing the worst kind of fear. And don't forget to enter the giveaway after the post :-)

The Most Terrifying Thing

By Val Muller

A prickling on the skin—
A directionless wind against dry leaves—
More terrifying still!

A full moon in a ring of mist
Against the owl’s lonely call—
                  Are but a mild thrill.

A lonely voice upon the air
Crying across the field
                  May cause a chill—

A creaking door when home alone,
A footstep on the floor above
                  Will brain with nightmares fill.

But the most terrifying things
To haunt your dreams
                  Are the mistakes caused by your free will.

When I was eight, a white van pulled up to me and the group with whom I was Trick-or-Treating, and a scary voice yelled, “Get in!”

The night left several impressions in my memory: the sinister way the red brake lights glowed against the street, the raspiness of the perpetrator’s voice, the lonely way the leaves rustled as we rushed across the nearest lawn to escape our kidnapper, the way the scary Jack-o-Lanterns and spooky music on the nearest porch seemed benign compared to the very real threat.

Trick-or-Treating that year ended early, in someone’s living room, as we waited for our frightened parents to arrive, and a police officer asked us the same questions over and over.

I’d always thought one day I’d be a hero. As many in our group squealed and ran up to the nearest porch to escape the van, I hid behind a thick oak tree and tried to peer at the license plate. I wanted to be the hero, the one brave enough to have seen and memorized the license plate. I imagined they would write a front-page story about me in the newspaper: Girl Dressed As Reaper Catches Kidnapper.

But all I saw was a glowing blue block with some foggy characters hovering in white. It would be five more years until my parents or I realized I needed glasses to see into the distance. Not only had I failed to read the plate, but when questioned multiple times by the police, I had to admit: I’d been brave enough to try to read the plate, but I had failed.

That—failure—is what haunts me from the night we were almost kidnapped. Why couldn’t I have inched closer? Why couldn’t I have squinted a little harder? I failed.

It’s a theme that haunted Oedipus Rex and a theme I’ve played with in my writing. To me, the most frightening and haunting parts of life are the failures we’ve caused on our own. The mistakes we’ve made that we insist on playing over and over in our brains. The mistakes we may never let go.
Corgi Capers by Val Muller
The theme is apparent in my spookiest of works. Adam Hollinger, fifth-grade protagonist in my kidlit mystery series Corgi Capers, often succumbs to his own fear—and beats himself up afterwards. Lorei, the tragic hero of my supernatural chiller Faulkner’s Apprentice, learns that the devil is nothing compared to her own destructive tendencies.
Faulkner's Apprentice by Val Muller



Val Muller, Author
You can learn more about Val on her websites: www.ValMuller.com and www.CorgiCapers.com. 
Corgi Capers—only $2.99: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AD54E5O

Faulkner’s Apprentice—only $2.99: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CLD6JRC



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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Paranormal October: A Shadow in the Dark by Pippa Jay

I'm happy to welcome back to the blog today a fabulous writer, Pippa Jay. Pippa shares with us a truly cool ghost story (and reminds me why I don't live in an old house!). And Pippa is generously donating her story Hallow's Eve to the October giveaway so make sure you enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post ;-)

A Shadow in the Dark

Hi, I’m Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul. I’ve had a few ghostly encounters in my life, but probably the most memorable happened more to my husband than to me. When we were first married, we lived in a rented house set into the old Roman wall of our home town of Colchester, Britain’s oldest recorded market town and the scene of some of the bloodiest conflicts in British history. We’d had our stereo system switch itself on full blast several times, something it had never done in our previous house, nor ever did again after we’d moved. Not even changing plug sockets or turning the volume right down when not in use stopped it from happening. Our two kittens would regularly stop dead and stare at a certain point in our ceiling. Then one evening my husband walked to the top of the stairs and saw someone in a cloak standing in our back room (just about at the point our kittens used to stare). He thought it was me waiting to jump out on him, so he said “Don’t be stupid, I can see you hiding in the dark.” A moment later, I let myself out of the bathroom, nowhere near him. The look on his face was priceless! Of course, when he looked again the shadow, or whatever it was, had gone. Being of an extremely sceptical nature, it wasn’t like him to see or imagine things - that’s much more my department - but he swears someone was standing there, and that he was looking at whoever (or whatever) it was for some time before I came out. Suffice to say, we weren’t all that sorry to finally move out of that house a year later after buying our own!

Pippa has generously donated a copy of her short story, Hallow's Eve, to the giveaway. Enter for your chance to win - see the Rafflecopter at the end of the post.

Links for Pippa:

Looking for something spooky this Halloween? Meet Luke and Annabelle, a pair of lost zombie teenagers that my editor described as ‘adorable’. Restless In Peaceville - Warm Bodies meets Supernatural in a Louisiana that never was. http://mybook.to/RIP

Restless in Peaceville by Pippa Jay



After spending twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay is now a stay-at-home mum who writes scifi and the supernatural. Somewhere along the way a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she spends the odd free moment playing guitar very badly, punishing herself with freestyle street dance, and studying the Dark Side of the Force. Although happily settled in the historical town of Colchester in the UK with her husband of 22 years and three little monsters, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.

Pippa Jay is a dedicated member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, Broad Universe, and EPIC, blogging at Spacefreighters Lounge, Adventures in Scifi, and Romancing the Genres. Her works include YA and adult stories crossing a multitude of subgenres from scifi to the paranormal, often with romance, and she’s one of eight authors included in a science fiction romance anthology—Tales from the SFR Brigade. She’s also a double SFR Galaxy Award winner, been a finalist in the Heart of Denver RWA Aspen Gold Contest (3rd place), the 2015 EPIC eBook awards, the 2015 LERA Rebecca, and the GCC RWA Silken Sands Star Awards (2nd place).

You can stalk her at her website, or at her blog, but without doubt her favorite place to hang around and chat is on Twitter as @pippajaygreen.


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