Fortnight of Fright: “Beyond the Wall” by Danielle E. Shipley

October 20, 2015 by Alyssa

As of October 10th my latest project with Xchyler Publishing has launched: “Beyond the Wail: 12 Grave Tales of Love and Loss”. My short story, “Date Due”, has the honored grand finale spot at book’s end. In brief summary:

For an eccentric bibliophile, any and every book is magic. Even more so when the book’s home is a hidden library with an impossible secret: Every story on its shelves has yet to be written. And the library’s self-appointed guardian means to ensure they never are, no matter whether the future authors elect to do things the easy way … or the fatal one.

You read that aright – a library full of books unwritten! Say… I’ll bet that means even “Beyond the Wail” will have sat upon one of its shelves, once upon a time. What would its librarian have made of the anthology, I wonder?…

All right, my lovelies. Which new friend should I meet today? Someone from right here in the Red Fireplace Room, I think. I’m feeling a bit tired to go roaming through our Library’s unexplored spaces; I just want a nice new read today.

Hmm, what have we on this shelf? Beyond the Wail: 12 Grave Tales of Love and Loss. A paranormal anthology? Perfect! Let’s see what chills and thrills are in store.

Of Mice and Monsters by Tirzah Duncan. “There is a man who twists the necks of caged mice…” Oh, Benjamin, what a beastly creature you are. A fine conversationalist, though, I must give you that. But that phantom wind will do for you if Tina comes to harm – any harm that she’s not already inflicting on herself, the poor, sick thing. Some lovely writing, here. Passionate. Unflinching. Continue reading →

Fortnight of Fright: A “Must” List for October by Morgan of Gone With the Words

October 19, 2015 by Alyssa

Hello my dears!! Welcome to the first day of Fortnight of Fright!! Today I am lucky enough to have Morgan from Gone With the Words on the blog and she is chatting all about the awesomeness of Autumn, October, and Halloween!! As you guys know these are my favorite things too, so I can’t wait to hear what Morgan has to say! Take it away, girl!

My October MUST List

I am definitely a fall kind of girl. As much as I love summer (the beach! my birthday! bonfires and hot dogs!), fall has always been my favorite. I love how cozy it is, the rich colors, the cool weather (in theory. Oy.), and most of all Halloween! I’m not big on gore or being truly scared but I love all the cute/creepy aspects of the holiday. And the candy. Here is my must list for the month of October, in no particular order.

mini pumpkins: one of the first things I look for when October hits! They are so cute and I love putting them around my house and on my desk at work. I incorporated gold pumpkins into my October beach wedding decor too.

apple orchards/pumpkin patch: I have yet to find a good orchard close to me which is sad because I want to go apple picking!!! Yeah yeah, basic white girl, whatever. I LOVE APPLES. And it’s soooo fall. Plus fresh apple cider, hot or cold, is basically the best thing ever. Also apple pie. And apple cider donuts. So if you can find an orchard or farm or pumpkin patch near you, you should go!

colored leaves: I grew up in a really leafy, green part of New Jersey which meant that every fall it burst into a riot of beautiful fall colors. Luckily where I live now in California has a surprising amount of fall, which makes me happy! I love watching the trees turn red and gold and orange. I also spend way too much time looking at pictures of leaves and pumpkins and cups of cocoa and sweaters on tumblr. So there’s a way to get your fill whether you live somewhere with seasons or not.

football and tv: I’ve been waiting all day for Sunday night! And football season in general, I loooove football! This year I’m in a fantasy football league with 11 other bloggers so it’s been even more fun. And if you’re not a sports fan, there’s always new episodes of your favorite tv shows to look forward to! I’m behind on almost everything but back in the day I used to count down to the season premieres of my faves. Especially CW faves. I’ve heard Sleepy Hollow is getting better again so I want to hop back on that train- what could be more perfect for Halloween?!

Continue reading →

Fortnight of Fright (4)

September 9, 2015 by Alyssa

Wow. We are back here for a FOURTH year for Fortnight of Fright and I can hardly believe it!! As many of you know, September – January is my very favorite time of year and Halloween is my one true love! Therefore, it is no question that Fortnight of Fright is something that I love hosting along with Brittany (The Book Addicts Guide) and Amy (Tripping Over Books)!

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about (hello, and welcome!) Fortnight of Fright is a time in which we host and share different posts related to fall and Halloween! We work with you guys and some amazing authors to showcase some creepy books, interviews, movies, and SO MUCH MOAR! There is no limit on what you can post about! Do you have a signature Halloween or Autumn cocktail recipe? Pinterest board filled with DIY decorations? A book recommendation for those of us who love to be scared? We want it all!! JOIN US!!

Sign ups will be open from 9/9-9/20 and you will be notified the following week to confirm your post topic, and so on. We are going to ask that all posts get to us the week of 10/12 as we will be hosting you during the event which runs from 10/19-10/31! As always, the more the merrier, so scroll on down to our Google Doc and sign up to help us out!

Also don’t forget about All Hallow’s Read and the giving of books in lieu of candy!

Wondering what we had going on from years past? Check it out:

Guest Post: Cat Winters on A Vampire Novel That Isn’t a Vampire Novel

October 29, 2014 by Alyssa

Hello friends!! I am insanely excited to share a guest post with you by one of my favorite authors, Cat Winters!! I am sure that you all remember how much I loved In the Shadow of Blackbirds. You will also be lucky enough to read my rave review of The Cure for Dreaming tomorrow! For now, take a glimpse at Cat’s musings on how The Cure for Dreaming came about, and what it was like for her to write a vampire novel that wasn’t really a vampire novel.

A Vampire Novel That Isn’t a Vampire Novel

by Cat Winters

Back in 2007, I signed with my current literary agent because of a manuscript I wrote called The Vampire’s Wife, a suburban satire/love story for adult readers. Twilight was a brand-new book at the time, but I hadn’t yet heard of it. My kids were both under ten and a long way off from reading YA, and my attention was directed toward reading and writing adult fiction.

As most readers know, an epic vampire craze quickly took off around that same time, especially once the Twilight movie debuted in 2008. My vampire novel was making the rounds to publishers during all of the hubbub, but it was a book that fell somewhere in the middle of literary fiction and chick lit, so no one knew quite what to do with it. Despite the thirst for vampire entertainment, the novel, sadly, never found a publisher.

By the time I started writing my first YA novel (and ultimately my first published novel), In the Shadow of Blackbirds, the vampire fiction market was already becoming oversaturated. Readers tired of their fanged heroes and heroines, and I put the idea of ever writing another vampire novel aside. My focus became my shiny new WWI-era ghost story.

However, the Twilight craze, with all of its Team Edward/Team Jacob merchandise, the fan fiction, and even the astounding number of Twi-Rock bands, still intrigued me. I tucked an idea into the back of my head: Wouldn’t it be interesting to one day write a novel about Victorian teens who fall in love with Bram Stoker’s newly published novel, Dracula? How would young women at the turn of the twentieth century have reacted to that classic, sensuous tale of a seductive “gentleman” vampire? What would the boys think when reading about a man who overcomes women by biting into their bare necks and sucking the life straight out of them? Continue reading →

Fortnight of Fright: Asylum Review by Sarah (Friends with Characters)

October 28, 2014 by Alyssa

Heyy friends!! Carrying on with the reviews of creepy books, we have Sarah from Friends With Characters reviewing Asylum by Madeline Roux, a book that sounds like it would be right up my alley! Take it away, Sarah!

Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. It’s so much fun dressing up and I love scary stories. I read Asylum by Madeleine Roux and it definitely is a creepy story perfect for Halloween.

Asylum (Asylum #1)

by Madeleine Roux

Asylum is a thrilling and creepy photo-novel perfect for fans of the New York Times bestseller Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

For sixteen-year-old Dan Crawford, New Hampshire College Prep is more than a summer program—it’s a lifeline. An outcast at his high school, Dan is excited to finally make some friends in his last summer before college. But when he arrives at the program, Dan learns that his dorm for the summer used to be a sanatorium, more commonly known as an asylum. And not just any asylum—a last resort for the criminally insane.

As Dan and his new friends, Abby and Jordan, explore the hidden recesses of their creepy summer home, they soon discover it’s no coincidence that the three of them ended up here. Because the asylum holds the key to a terrifying past. And there are some secrets that refuse to stay buried.

Featuring found photos of unsettling history and real abandoned asylums and filled with chilling mystery and page-turning suspense, Madeleine Roux’s teen debut, Asylum, is a horror story that treads the line between genius and insanity.

My Review:

Dan is an extremely awkward person. He goes to the New Hampshire College Prep program to meet people with interests similar to his. At the NHCP he meets Abby, an artistic girl, and Jordan, a math genius. Dan and his new friends find some creepy pictures at their dorm rooms. The dorm room used to be an asylum for the criminally insane. It looks like the criminally insane haven’t exactly left.

Asylum was a creepy book. The scenes describing the old asylum were very realistic. I think that Madeleine Roux did her research. I bet the second book will be even better. Continue reading →

Fortnight of Fright: Review The Book of Bad Things by Dan Poblocki

October 27, 2014 by Alyssa

Hi friends! Welcome to week two of Fortnight of Fright! This week we will be sharing a few reviews of creeptastic books with you, and a guest post by Cat Winters!! Make sure you check out what we had last week, A guest post by Dan Poblocki, Eldritch Black, some awesome bloggers AND a giveaway! Also don’t forgot to check out what Amy and Brittany have for you on their blogs!

Title: The Book of Bad Things

Author: Dan Poblocki

Publishing Information: August 26, 2014 by Scholastic Press

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Mystery

Series Information: Standalone

Format: Hardcover, 256 pages

Source: Obtained an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley

Recommended For: Readers looking for a horror novel that is just the right amount of horrific, fans of Anna Dressed in Blood and Cat Winters

Related Posts: The Ghost of Graylock Review and The Bad Place Guest Post by Dan Poblocki

One kid’s trash is another kid’s terror in this spooky supernatural mystery.

When Cassidy Bean leaves New York to spend the summer upstate, she’s disappointed to find that Whitechapel is not the quiet, pleasant suburb she remembers. Ursula Chambers, the strange old hermit at the end of the cul-de-sac, has passed away under mysterious circumstances. And the townspeople are shocked to discover that Ursula was a hoarder: Her farmhouse is teeming with stacks of newspapers, piles of furniture, mounds of antique dolls and taxidermy animals.

Cassidy watches as the people of Whitechapel descend upon Ursula’s farmhouse, claiming her abandoned treasures for their own. She listens as rumors spread that Ursula’s vengeful ghost is stalking the town with a warning from beyond the grave. And when Cassidy resolves to uncover the truth behind the strangeness, she learns there are more bad things in the world than she ever suspected. . . .

Cassidy was a wonderful main character, it was easy to love her and I can’t tell you how much I adore how real Dan Poblocki’s characters feel. Cassidy certainly doesn’t have it easy in New York, and I really felt for her and the way that she needs this escape to Joey’s house and family. Joey is dealing with some issues of his own, most importantly the loss of his dog, and the belief that his neighbor Ursula Chambers isn’t all that she seems. Joey’s next door neighbor, Ping, was incredibly refreshing and fun, I loved the way these three interacted with one another and stood together to face down the “bad things” in the neighborhood. Probably my favorite part of the novel was the addition of Hal and his antics, I enjoyed his character thoroughly. Continue reading →

Fortnight of Fright: Coraline Review by Jessie Reads Everything

October 24, 2014 by Alyssa

Wow you guys, when I asked Jessie to guest post on my blog for Fortnight of Fright I didn’t know that she was a fellow Neil Gaiman fangirl. Needless to say, I am insanely excited for you guys to read her review of the movie adaptation of Coraline!

I absolutely adore Neil Gaiman’s books! His writing style tends to be equal parts whimsical and creepy. I’ve been a Gaiman fangirl ever since I read Coraline back when it released in 2002. I loved it! It was atmospheric and weird and just downright creepy! It didn’t take long to read and when I finished the only thought I had was how I wished they’d make the book into a movie.

While Coraline the Book and Coraline the Film are very similar, they have some notable differences that help bring the story to the screen. But they both tell the story of a bored girl’s journey into another world that is so much like our own yet so different.

The book portrays Coraline as a lonely, attention-seeking girl who is bored of the rusty and worn out house she lives in. Her parents pay no attention to her, and the neighbors are more than a bit eccentric. Some might refer to them as freaks. Things change when she finds a doorway into a parallel world that mirrors her life. Coraline, courageously embarks on a bizarre and frightening adventure to find just what she wants in life. The story is filled with frightening imagery, descriptions of the occult, and a darkness that is deepened by the simple yet powerful language Gaiman uses. The writing and the prose are part of why this book stands out from other children’s. Not to mention it contains one of my favorite quotes:

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” Continue reading →

Fortnight of Fright: The Bad Place by Dan Poblocki

October 22, 2014 by Alyssa

You guys may remember me reviewing The Ghost of Graylock by Dan Poblocki last year – you guys might not know that after finishing it I pretty much bought every title written by Dan and fangirled at him at the Children’s Author Carnival in May this year. To be frank, Dan Poblocki is fantastic. He is an impeccable writer, and an all around nice guy. Therefore, when I asked him to join us for Fortnight of Fright I had high hopes, and basically squealed in delight when he agreed. Read on to hear about some of Dan’s inspirations for The Book of Bad Things – which I will be reviewing during Fornight of Fright, and let us all simultaneously pray to the horror gods that he decides to write us some creepy adult novels very soon!

The Bad Place

Dan Poblocki

I once heard film-director Guillermo Del Toro say in an interview that there are three horror-story tropes that are continuously retold: stories in which our homes are being attacked, stories in which our bodies are being invaded, and stories about bad places. When I think of horror classics, they pretty much all fit. Some work in more than one category. Dracula is a perfect example – the castle in Transylvania is a bad place, and later, the vampire invades characters’ homes and infect their bodies. More typically, certain subsets within the horror genre fill the tropes in more specific ways. Slasher or serial killer tales are about home invasion. Alien, zombie, and monster myths often explore body horror. Finally, haunted house and ghost stories are perfect examples of bad places.

When I consider my own work, I find that of these ideas, the one I’ve explored the most is this last one.

What exactly is a bad place? I believe it can be anywhere that fills you with an unexplainable feeling of dread. A house, an apartment, a hotel, a forest trail, a field, a park, a room, a closet! It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a typically scary spot; maybe it’s a landscape drenched in sunshine or a room filled with toys. The thing about the archetypal bad place is that it leaves you with a feeling that you’re trespassing, that something doesn’t want you there, or maybe it does want you there but for a terrible reason. Continue reading →

Fortnight of Fright: The Midnight Visitor (Valeria from A Touch of Book Madness)

October 21, 2014 by Alyssa

Hi friends! I hope that you have enjoyed the playlists, and special post from Eldritch Black (PLUS GIVEAWAY) so far and boy do I have a treat for you today! We have Valeria from A Touch of Book Madness sharing a true ghost story! I really can’t get enough of this stuff, and I know you guys are going to love it. Many thanks to Valeria, and happy reading!

The Midnight Visitor

You know how when we think of old, big or abandoned houses we tend to think of creepy ghosts lurking round? Maybe because they seem to have too much history, but whenever I encounter one of these I always get the feeling that if I stare too long at the darkened window I will see someone looking back. But in new modern places we tend to feel safe, at least from ghosts and such nightly creatures.

The problem is we forget that where those places are built used to be something else, and we could still find some things lurking around at nights. This is what happened to my friend at the beginning of the year. Continue reading →

Fortnight of Fright: Guest Post by Eldritch Black

October 20, 2014 by Alyssa

Hello, friends! I am incredibly excited because today I have Eldritch Black, the author of The Book of Kindly Deaths (reviewed – HERE & spoiler alert: I loved it) on the blog today. He is sharing a pretty fantastic post written by Horasmythe Spindleclef, the food critic for the Grimwytch Gazette, on some of the many places to frequent around Grimwytch – and which places you should avoid, as well. ALSO he has been so kind to sponsor a giveaway, so read on and after you’re finished, enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance to win a copy of The Book of Kindly Deaths, AND a gorgeous necklace featuring the lovely book. Happy reading!

Unearthly Delights

Greetings, my name is Horasmythe Spindlecleft, also known as the gourmet of gourmets. If you’ve ever dined in my modest little Inn “The Fat Cobblefoot”, situated on the side of the Foggypeake mountains, you’ll be well aware of my extensive knowledge of food. And the finer things in life.

You’ve no doubt heard of my infamous twice-fried bat wings and hair of Hackthin tart, creations of exquisite beauty, though I say so myself. Not to mention my highly regarded Doormouse eye on toadstool and very-berry-sherry sauce.

It’s with great pride that I can announce I’ve been appointed chief scribbler of food reviews for the Grimwytch Gazette.

Below are the very first of many pearls of wisdom concerning places where weary travelers may sip and gorge upon unearthly delights. Outside of The Fat Cobblefoot.

As well as places to avoid like Fungal-throat plague.

The Malady Inn

A Fairly good stock of Old Catwhist, shame about the clientele.

The Malady Inn is a worn old building on the side of the Eastern Blackwood Road. Inside is a cosy, dingy room and its fairly affable landlord, Mr. Barrow. His bar is well stocked for the most part, although not to the scale of The Fat Cobblefoot. I chose a dish of sainted duck, goat-foot soup and a pint of Old Bramble’s Tipsy. It was an adequate meal until a table of Babbleslithers sat beside me and ruined the meagre ambience. Upon finishing their food, one of the more portly among them threw up his entire course through his left eye.

An unpleasant, vulgar end to a mediocre, but serviceable evening. Continue reading →

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