Train, That is a Lot of Ways to Die

Thursday Blog Mash-Up

This Is The End...Or Is It?

A Review of Wrath, by Kirkus MacGowan

A Review of "A Prescription for Delirium" by Noree Cosper (Available December 1, 2012)

A Prescription for Delirium Stops on my Blog Today

Thankfully, I have met so many cool people while I have been doing this blog...Noree Cosper has been one of those people. I love interacting with her on Twitter and she is very, very cool! Fortunately for me and for you, her blog tour is stopping here. I have read most of "A Prescription for Delirium" (TBR list is pretty big right now) and I will be reviewing it here soon. You should definitely give it a try. Noree is really gifted! I am loving this book!
Today, you get a unique pleasure of looking into the journals of one of the main characters. Adrian Van Helsing is definitely a unique character! 

The Treason Blog Tour with S.M. Boyce has Stopped Here!

 http://blog.smboyce.com/the-grimoire-trilogy-blog-tour/

When I finally decided that I wanted to do something with my desire to write, I met a lot of very cool people. However, no one has been more giving and supportive than S. M. Boyce. She is a dynamo and I am blessed to know her.

Cover Reveal for "From Where I Stand" by Robert Zimmerman

Hey, my lovelies, more interesting people from the Twitterverse! Rob Zimmerman (@miztrebor) is a very talented poet and a great guy! He is getting ready to release a collection of poetry. Take a look! You should definitely hook up with him on Facebook or Twitter and check out his blog. His blog is fantastic!

What Kills Me....kills some trees!

Again I bring you more coolness from the cool people I keep meeting. Wynne Channing is a compelling author and you would do yourselves a disservice if you didn't check her book out! As an added bonus, you can order it as a physical book right now! 

A guest post by Sean Farley of Boulder Uphill

It is always my pleasure to bring you the truly great people that I have met on Twitter, Facebook, or through other methods. Sean Farley is one of those people. He is like a brother to me. We have been writer friends for a while, and though we have never met, I believe that we would cary on like we had known each other forever. Sometimes you run into people like that. He is also a great blogger. I love his blog! You should check it out! You will love it too! So.....without further ado...Here's Sean!

Treason (Grimoire Trilogy #2) releases today!

Exciting news! Today, Treason (Grimoire Trilogy #2) releases. Treason, the sequel to Lichgates, is part of the Grimoire Trilogy by S. M. Boyce. The series is a paranormal fantasy with a bit of romance and a lot of action, all of which takes place in Ourea: a beautiful world full of terrifying things. Check out Lichgates today and get hooked on this trilogy.

Vaempires: Zombie Rising releases today!

Book Trailer for A Prescription for Delirium by Noree Cosper

A review of Death Match by Jason Ridler

(note: I was given this book by the author for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book)

Just a little something...for Halloween

It's almost Halloween and I have been working on a project for a little bit, something I think is a little creepy. So, just for the fun of it, I thought I would post a part of the story here, just an excerpt, on my blog. It's still rough...so don't hold it against me...I just thought that I would post it and see what you think. I am always attract to those things that go bump in the night...right when you think it's safe...It's a little story about a rookie detective named Rachel McDavies and a close encounter with something murderous...maybe even monstrously evil....

A Cover Reveal for "A Prescription for Delirium" by Noree Cosper

A Prescription for Delirium

Blurb:

Ninety years ago, Gabriella di Luca promised to protect the family of her dying lover. She failed to keep that promise.  She was too far away to stop the devil that murdered the eldest Van Helsing son. Years later, Gabby learns the devil has resurfaced. She arrives in Hampton, TX, determined to stop the devil before it can lay a bloody hand on the remaining three brothers. 

However, madness is spreading through Hampton. She suspects the devil is using this madness to test a drug which has a side effect of demonic possession.  Gabby rushes to end the source of the madness only to fall victim to it. For a woman cursed with eternal life, dying is no threat. However, Gabby must stop the devil's plot or risk losing her most precious possession: her mind.

A Prescription for Delirium is released on December 1^st, 2012.

Edgar Allen Poe.....OOOH Spooky!!!! A Guest Post by HilyBee!

So...I love Halloween...and I love Edgar Allen Poe...and I love HilyBee and the blog Novel d'tales....so why not combine them all into one great, big, huge, super-interesting guest post by HilyBee about Edgar Allen Poe for Halloween! Okay, so here it is for your enjoyment...Thanks HilyBee...A post after my own twisted little heart...Bwahahahahaha *cough cough* hahahaha! 

IT'S THE RE-RELEASE OF "LICHGATES" BY S.M.BOYCE!

It’s here! Boyce has re-released Lichgates, the bestselling first book in the Grimoire Trilogy, with Immortal Ink Publishing. This new edition has a great cover, re-edited narrative, and fun bonus content hosted on the series’ bonus site—The Grimoire Online. Go grab your copy now!

Lichgates

The Best Laid Plans, A Guest Post by Thomas Winship

I have hated vampires for a while. Vampires are supposed to be scary, at least for me. Since Dracula, vampires have been  a scary undead creature. I loved vampires. And then came Twilight, and True Blood, and everything else in the world that has effectively emasculated the vampire, at least for me. Vampires aren't scary anymore, at least they haven't been for a while until I read books by a great writer, Thomas Winship. Fortunately, he has agreed to do a guest post for you all. So, sit back, relax, and meet my friend, Thomas Winship!

A Guest Post by Nikki Jefford, Author of Entangled

Review: The Sin Collector: Thomas by Jessica Fortunato

Releasing July 20th, 2012!

Words Can Never Be Unsaid

As a writer, I understand the power of words that are put down on paper or on one's favorite word processing software. Words have the power to generate powerful emotions that can make one afraid, sad, happy, elated or any number of other emotions. Words are conduits to power. Ask any politician's speech writer and they will tell you. A well-chosen word is more important than any campaign contribution. An ill-chosen word could end a campaign. It could start a war. Someone might even die.

I've Been Interviewed for Novel d'Tales Authors-Not-So Anonymous

I have been given the pleasure to be interviewed for and be a part of Authors-Not-So-Anonymous. Hilary is a fantastic person and a great friend. I just wanted to thank her for this opportunity and to encourage you all to come and join us by clicking the Novel d'Tales emblem at the top of this post.

The Time Will Pass Anyway

As we all go through our lives, whether you're a writer like me, or a musician, or an accountant, or a high school principal, or a customer service rep, or whatever, we all seem to be oblivious to the way that time keeps on ticking away. So what does that mean to us all? In the end, it means that we all only get so much and time is an unforgiving resource in our lives. It cannot.not be saved. There is only so much for everyone.

What's in a Name? A guest post by Julie Frayn

Thanks to my friend, J. Scott Sharp for inviting me to guest post. I  couldn't be more pleased that my words are appearing on his blog.  But it is my first time guest-blogging so please, be gentle.

Sometimes a story is ignited by inspiration found in the perfect name.  One of my shorts is titled The Sun is Setting on Geneva Early.  No need to correct my grammar, it isn’t about an evening in Switzerland.  Geneva Early is a character’s name.  A dying old lady in the final stages of Alzheimer’s.  The entire story flowed from that name, from that title. 

Meet Calamityville Horror's Cat, Lynx, and Ryan

You all know me...I am always trying to find people in the world that are doing cool things. I love writers. Writers are my heroes. Always have been. So today, I want to introduce you to some people that it has been my pleasure to get to know, even a little bit. Two of them are writers (big surprise) but all three make up the ghost-hunting team responsible for a new YouTube show called "Calamityville Horror." 
There show is a lot of fun to watch, mostly because all three of them are a lot of fun! 
So without a further ado, I want to introduce you to Cat, Lynx, and Ryan, ghost-hunters! 

What got all of you started in ghost hunting?

Cat - Lynx and I started visiting haunted locations a few years ago when writing a novel with characters who did ghost hunting for a living.

Lynx - our mate, Dave, told us about this abandoned summer camp, called Boys Village, which he'd gone to and found it terrifying. We had to go there, so dragged our mum along to be our lookout. It was more urban exploring than ghost hunting, but that became the first episode of our show - Calamityville Horror.

Cat - We called ourselves C.A.T.S. as a joke - Cardiff's Answer to Supernatural - because Supernatural has 2 brothers who hunt ghosts and we're 2 sisters. We joke that our mum's Bobby, 'cos she's always on the end of the phone to bail us out. Then we met Ryan. Except he's not from Cardiff but we refuse to change the name.

Lynx - We've always been interested in the paranormal and one of our Facebook friends posted us a link to an overnight ghost hunting event so we booked Ruthin Gaol.

Ryan - Ruthin Gaol was the start of it. It showed us what we could do and we had fun doing it.

Do you spend more time reading, writing, or ghosthunting? Tell us about your writing projects.

Cat/Lynx - Writing, definitely. We write pretty much all day every day, except when we're looking after our animal army or exercising. We go ghost hunting every other weekend so the rest of our time is spent editing the footage, researching the history and ghosts of new places and writing. At the moment we're working on releasing a collection of ten twisted fairytales. That's very nearly ready. Our debut novel, Soul Asylum, which is set in a haunted asylum, will hopefully be released later this year. We visited the asylum where we set the book but only made it as far as the door before being thrown out for trespassing. As we left, the notorious caretaker arrived with his Alsatian. We got out there sharpish! Perhaps walking through the front gate wasn't the smartest move. We've should've snuck in like stealthy ninjas.

What made you decide to take your ghosthunting adventures to YouTube?

Ryan - I have no idea how it ended up on YouTube. I only really twigged it was an actual show round about episode 4.

Lynx - it was another Facebook friend's idea. She thought our style of dress and personalities would be great on YouTube and would help promote our writing so she suggested we do something.

Cat - We filmed Ruthin Gaol just because it was part of our trip up there then I remember saying we should make our own ghost hunting show on YouTube, just for fun. Episode 3, Margam, is the first episode where we're consciously making a show.

Do you really believe in ghosts?  Tell us more about what you believe.

Ryan - yes and no. I've had a lot of experiences I can't explain. I believe in the paranormal but not necessarily ghosts as such. I have to admit, when the K2 goes off inexplicably, I do freak out a little bit.

Lynx - we're more of the opinion we don't believe anything until we see it. But we absolutely love all things paranormal so doing this we can go to really cool places that have great stories behind them.

Cat - no. But we really want to see a ghost. Absolutely desperate to see one. We'd be so excited.

Tell my readers a story about hunting for ghosts? You said you stayed the night in an old prison?

Cat/Lynx - Ruthin Gaol was really cool. We were locked in the punishment cell with a K2 meter, which was on. The event organizers warned everyone to take it seriously but we can't take anything seriously. We were messing around in the pitch black cell, telling the ghosts to touch Ryan inappropriately then decided to ask some questions. We asked if there was anyone with us and got no response to that or other questions. When we asked "were you executed here?" The machine lit up and bleeped. We were so excited. We repeated it and again got the same response. We asked "did you murder someone?" Again it responded. It also reacted to "were you hanged?" and "are you standing by us right now?" We were more thrilled about that than we probably should've been, considering if there was a ghost there, it would've been a prisoner! We got nothing anywhere else in the jail. Later we discovered the only person executed there murdered his wife and he was executed on our birthday, but 80 years before we were born.

Have you ever encountered anything in your ghost hunting? A ghost? Tell us about that.

Ryan - The K2 went crazy in the basement of Newton House. Later we learned one of the guides thought he saw a ghost down there. They call him Walter. When we went back to the basement and said this name, the machine went nuts. It also bleeped outside the billiards room, where a smoke entity has been seen. When we returned to that spot on the hidden house tour, the K2 was silent.

Cat - in Woodchester Mansion I thought I saw someone walk past a window and mentioned it to Lynx and Ryan, hoping to frighten Ryan. He's not as enthusiastic about seeing a ghost as we are. When we got inside we discovered the mansion had no floors. Now I think I hallucinated.

What do all of you do for a living?

Ryan - Service Desk Technical Analyst. 

Cat/Lynx - writing. And we set out chairs for community meetings. It pays much better than writing!

If each of you could do only one thing for the rest of your lives, what would it be?

Cat/Lynx - we're doing it.

Ryan - motorsport or film making. Or both. I could attach a camera to the car.

Tell us about your next ghost hunting excursion and the history behind the place?

We have a few lined up. Berkeley castle, where Edward II was tortured and murdered, the SS Great Britain, which is supposedly haunted by its missing captain and Shrewsbury castle, which has the ghost of a man who murdered 8 women and was hung, drawn and quartered. In September we're spending a few days ghost hunting in Cornwall, doing Jamaica Inn, Bodmin Jail and a ghost walk round Penzance. In October we're spending the night in the Skirrid Inn, Wales' oldest Inn. They hanged people above the stairs. We'll also be spending Halloween in Newton House. We're hoping we'll be able to sneak off from the tour and go back to the basement, see if anything happens in the dark. We speak to one of the guides, Scott, regularly, so maybe if we're really nice to him, he'll let us stay a while.

What makes our show different to other ghost hunting shows is we don't do it overnight to create a spooky atmosphere. Mainly because we wouldn't be allowed! We go during the day when there are tourists around. We think it makes it more believable as it's tourists and staff who usually report sightings in the day. We also don't freak out over every tiny noise. Most of the time we don't even notice stuff and only see it when we play the footage back. We're not exactly professionals! But we have a lot of fun and most of what would usually go in other shows' outtakes, we keep in the episode, things like us tripping over, going to the wrong location, getting lost. Some shows try to convince you there's something paranormal in each episode but we don't. If nothing happens or the K2 doesn't react, we release the episode anyway because having something spooky in every episode just wouldn't happen.

Follow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/CalamityHorror

Become a fan on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CatsTalesOfTerror

Check out an episode!

 

I just want to thank Cat, Lynx, and Ryan for agreeing to do this and for being some of the most fun people I have ever met on Twitter. You guys are great! 

If you want to have a compulsively good time watching a show, please check out "Calamityville Horror" on YouTube, or hook up with them on Twitter for links to their episodes.  I know I'll be watching! :)

Finding the Story by Sheila Pierson

Hello, my lovelies! In my quest to bring you the most quality people in the world, through guest posts, author interviews and book interviews, I have run into one of the coolest people in the world, Sheila Pierson! She is a blogger, a poet, and an author. And she is a good friend, so treat her well! Without further ado....Here's Sheila!

Review of "Hot Chocolate" by Dawn Greenfield Ireland

HilyBee is taking over!

Hey Everyone! 
I'm trying to expand your horizons, get you meeting new and exciting people in the world! Today, it is my extreme pleasure to hand the golden key for my little blog to a super cool lady whose blog I absolutely love, Hily Bee of Novel D'Tales! She's pretty great! I have so much fun talking to her and I think you will too! I'll just let her go ahead and take it away...It's all yours HilyBee!

The Grimoire Pendant Pre-Order Just Got Real People!

Two posts down...
Two posts down I told you about an amazing offer from S.M. Boyce. A replica of the pendant worn by Kara Magari in the book, "Lichgates." This offer was enough to make me salivate (of course then I slipped in it and that was a whole fiasco so...) but now S. M. Boyce has turned up the heat...that's right! She turned it on high and left the gas on! Allow me to let her tell you in words straight from her blog:

We Are Not Alone: A Guest Post by S. M. Boyce

We Are Not Alone....

No, this isn’t a post about aliens. I’m talking about gratitude.

Special Book Swag from "Lichgates" by S. M. Boyce! Sweet!

I love Book Swag! I love Book Swag! I Love Book Swag!
Okay...I said it. I loved it when I got a coffee cup with the cover of "It" on it.  I geeked out for a week. I collected bookmarks that represented different books including some very nice bookmarks that had the covers from one of my favorite fantasy series, "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, The Unbeliever." In my opinion, these covers were some of the very best and the bookmarks stayed with me for a long time. I don't know what happened to them, but I miss them.

I Need to Be Braver

I always admire fiction writers that go all the way, that don't stop writing about things that may be a little uncomfortable.
I got a rare treat and exposed myself to some books that everyone else seems to have already seen, since they've been around since 2009 . I read the reviews. People either love these books or hate them.  They both caused me to evaluate the way I write as I read them.

Meet Jessica Fortunato, author of "The Sin Collector"

When you are a blogger and author, you get some rare treats. I have been fortunate to interview some of -what I consider to be- the great new minds of fiction. those authors that are blazing a new trail for authors. I was gifted a book, "The Sin Collector" , by the author, Jessica Fortunato. Once I started, it was so difficult to put down. It was wholly new, fascinating, and exciting, with characters that I wished I knew. That is the secret to all good fiction, and Ms. Fortunato nailed it. So, I am incredibly pleased that she gave me the time to interview her so you could get to know her. She is a fantastic writer...but is a completely fascinating person. So kick back, relax, and meet Jessica Fortunato, author of "The Sin Collector."

I've Been Tagged!

            I was tagged for the Lucky 7 meme twice! Once by the spectacular, and extremely snarky, S. M. Boyce and also by the incredible, and addictively hilarious Noree Cosper! That's what I said...Twice! Thanks Ladies! Of course, Now I have to count ( and I hate to count) because here are the rules:

....And now a guest post by Kirkus MacGowan! The Birth of a Muse!

Thanks to J. Scott Sharp for letting me borrow his blog for the day! What’s the big news? I joined KDP Select on Amazon. That’s right, I said KDP Select. What is March Musedness you ask? It’s what I’ve named this week’s KDP Select giveaway of The Fall of Billy Hitchings: A John Reeves Novel, on Amazon.

I won a Leibster award!!

So, I woke up this morning to a very nice award! I would like to thank one of my favorite people, S. M. Boyce who has given me this award. Every day, I watch her grow more fans who adore her and her writing. But not more than me. HAHA! Thanks so much, Boyce! You're a treasure!

Welcome The Hidden World Blog Tour with S. M. Boyce

Getting Ready to Welcome Kara Magari, from "Lichgates" by S. M. Boyce!

I am ridiculously excited to be interviewing Kara Magari from the epic fantasy novel, Lichgates, part one of the Grimoire Trilogy by S. M. Boyce! S.M. Boyce has been gracious enough to allow me an interview with my favorite character in the book! My blog will be one of the 2nd stops on S. M. Boyce's Hidden World blog tour. March 5th everyone! March 5th!

Meet Rebecca Hamilton author of The Forever Girl

About a month ago, I was offered a copy of "The Forever Girl' by the author herself, Rebecca Hamilton. Paranormal/Fantasy/Romance? I just didn't know if it was for me. I am truly not trying to be insulting, but everyone has their thing, ya know?

Meet Kirkus MacGowan author of The Fall of Billy Hitchings

Alright! I got an interview with Kirkus MacGowan. I read "The Fall of Billy Hitchings" several months ago and I walked away from it thinking that it was the most creative novel I had ever read. I had never encountered a plot and characters that had intrigued me as much. I think what I loved the most was that the tension was always unforeseeable. I just didn't know what direction Mr. MacGowan was going to take this story next. So, I am happy, brimming with pride to offer you a glimpse into Kirkus MacGowan, from Kirkus himself. Enjoy!

Meet S.M Boyce, author of "The Grimoire: Lichgates"

I am currently reading S.M Boyce's book "Lichgates" and I am blown away. She is a superb voice in dark fantasy and if "Lichgates" is her first of a trilogy then I can't wait for the further adventures of the Vagabond! She is also a superb person to know and it is my privilege to have met her, to know her, and to introduce her to you. So without further ado...

Meet Keith Houghton, Author of Killing Hope

Keith Houghton is bonafide! Currently #10 on Amazon's Police Procedurals bestseller list, he stands to continue to do well with his Gabriel Quinn series, beginning with Killing Hope. I have read it and it lives up to thrillers and serial killer novels. It is a great read. I am pleased and humbled to bring an interview with Keith to my blog.