Today, on this last day of Halloween Week, I have another anthology in the spotlight with the new release, Ghostly Writes Anthology 2018 (Plaisted Publishing House Presents Book 3). Enjoy.
Ghostly Writes Anthology 2018 (Plaisted Publishing House Presents Book 3)
Plaisted Publishing House and The Ghostly Writes Crew have done it again, bringing us yet another collection of haunted tales and spooky poems. From ghostly encounters to haunted carnival rides, wicked forests and ghoulish manors, there is something inside for everyone. So curl up beneath your blanket and get ready to experience all the spine-tingling encounters hidden inside...
Your Authors for 2018 are:
C L Williams, Karen Mossman, Adam Mitchell, Dan McAteer, M E Hembroff, Chandra Trulove Fry, Kyrena Lynch, Wendy Steele, Michael Lynes, Eve Merrick-Williams, Adele Marie Park, Jane Risdon, Mary Woldering, K M McFarland, R M Demeester, C A Keith, Marjorie Mallon, Claire Plaisted, Pamela Silva, J G Clay, Michelle Hughes & Mara Ritsma
Welcome to Halloween Week! This year I'm doing a monster theme, and to kick things off, I'm showcasing a new freebie I have, my short story The Weeping Lady. This is a ghost tale loosely based of the White Lady and La Lloronafolklore. It was previously published by Xchyler Publishing as part of the Beyond the Wail: 12 Grave Stories of Love and Loss anthology. So prepare to be haunted...
The Weeping Lady by A. F. Stewart
Eva has mother issues.
And now she has a missing sister.
Rushing home to help with the search, she tumbles into family secrets, local legends, and worst of all, a ghost that haunts the nearby river. What connection does she have to the lingering spirit? Is the ghost really responsible for her sister disappearance? What horrible mystery surrounds the truth about her birth mother? Can Eva confront her tragic past and save her sister? Or will the ghost finally claim its own?
As she neared the town limits, Eva manoeuvred her car off the road and parked in the shadow of the forest. Over the purr of the still-running engine, she debated with herself, hesitated, and stared at the outlying reaches of her childhood. Through the early morning sun glinting past the windshield, she could see the edges of Ashford, her quaint, picturesque hometown, that perfect hamlet she thought she left behind. Instinct urged her to flee, to turn around and drive back to university, back to her newfound sanctuary.
Today I revisit an epic fantasy book, Anaerfell, by Joshua Robertson and J.C. Boyd (now available for free) as well as spotlight the authors' entire Thrice Nine Legends book series (now in a digital box set). Enjoy.
And now a word from the author...
After nearly twenty years since its
conception, the first volume of the Thrice Nine Legends Saga is finally
complete. Delve into NINE epic tales, spanning over 1000 years of history and
2000 pages, with death-defying characters and grimdark schemes, which
frequently explore the darker side of humanity. Based on Slavic folklore and
legend, Thrice Nine Legends will stay with you long after the last page is
turned.
In celebration, the internationally award-winning story and the first book in the saga, Anaerfell, is free wherever
books are sold.
Anaerfell (The Blood of Dragons: Book 1)
2017 International
Award-Winning Novel in Epic Fantasy
Drast and Tyran might be considered a bit black-hearted, or even immoral.
Drast is cunning but reckless, hunting for admiration. Tyran is calculating but
tactless, searching for affection. When the two brothers set aside their
ambitions to fulfill their father's desire for immortality, they readily
discover many opportunities for redemption. Now, while wielding a powerful
magic that drains their life, Drast and Tyran will embark on a maddening quest,
facing skin-switchers, dragons, and the God of the Dead.
While the first ennead of books in Thrice Nine
Legends can be read separate of one another, the following is the chronological
reading order for full enjoyment. You can search for any of the books anywhere
books are sold.
Anaerfell, The Blood
of Dragons, Book 1
Warden of the Ash
Tree
The Highborn
Longwalker
Melkorka, The
Kaelandur Series, Book 1
When Blood Falls
Dyndaer, The
Kaelandur Series, Book 2
The Name of Death
Maharia, The
Kaelandur Series, Book 3
Heshayol, The Blood
of Dragons, Book 2
Readers may also choose to purchase the first volume set,
adding this awesome collection to their digital bookshelf.
Thrice Nine
Legends Saga: Volume I
Despite
the risk of destroying the Ash Tree and the world along with it, two brothers
are sent by their scheming father to slaughter the god of death with hopes of
living forever.
The first
ennead of books in the Thrice Nine Legends Saga has been brought together into
one awesome collection.
Inside
you will find The Blood of Dragons Series, The Kaelandur Series, and the
short stories in between that follow evil brothers, courageous slaves, and
unique heroes in a unique fantasy world. Spanning thousands of years and
thousands of pages, this dark tale will leave you breathless.
Joshua Robertson was
born in Kingman, Kansas on May 23, 1984. A graduate of Norwich High School,
Robertson attended Wichita State University where he received his master’s in
social work with minors in psychology and sociology. His bestselling novel, Melkorka, the first in The Kaelandur
Series, was released in 2015. Known most for his Thrice Nine Legends Saga,
Robertson enjoys an ever-expanding and extremely loyal following of readers. He
counts R.A. Salvatore and J.R.R. Tolkien among his literary influences.
J.C. lives in the Midwest with his wife and two dogs and has an
M.A. in English Literature. The first novel in his world, Blood and Bile, was released in 2017. Before completing junior
high, J.C. had received his first box set of Dungeons & Dragons and devoured J.R.R. Tolkien’s TheLord
of the Rings. Since, he has been heavily influenced by a myriad of fantasy
authors, such as Weis and Hickman, Robert Jordan, and Ed Greenwood.
If that phrase conjures up image of Disney Princesses and
happy endings then you’re missing out on the delightfully dark aspects of fairy
tales. The ones that come with the original versions of the stories, where
sinister woodlands held wicked witches, vengeful spirits, cannibalistic queens,
murderous ogres and all manner of things out to kill you. Even the princes had
a sinister edge, with not-so-charming intentions.
Now I love the Disney animated films, but my childhood
involved reading more nasty versions, namely Grimm’s Fairy Tales. These are the
stories that bite, where menacing things prowl in the darkness, behind the
trees and even invade your home. In these stories bad things happened, and even
the happy endings could seem rather imperfect.
These stories had a spooky ambience and a lurid nature, dark
and dripping in blood and terror, but being a main character in one of these
fairy tales wasn't easy. A walk in the woods could get you eaten by wolves,
captured by witches (who wanted to cook and eat you) or turned into some kind
of animal. Even family wasn't safe. Step-mothers, mothers-in-law, fathers and
siblings could all conspire to kill you. They could be hungry for your flesh,
jealous of your beauty, or just greedy for your gold.
And those Not-So-Charming Princes I mentioned? Well, they
tended to scoop up their Princesses without so much as a by-your-leave (I mean
who whisks off girls they've just met in a forest?) and marched them to the altar
as quick as they could (or do even worse, as in the original Sleeping Beauty
tale). Happily ever after for these heroines often meant being forcibly snatched
from the life you knew and wedded to a stranger (and sometimes being persecuted
by his crazy witch mother).
So the next time you think of fairy tales, don't imagine
pretty princesses, shiver in horror. And
remember: death (and a witch) lurks
around every corner, family can't be trusted, and stay away from princes.
I hope you'll visit some of the other
hoppers (scroll down, way down, to find
the list) and don't forget to enter my Rafflecopter Contest.
Yes, Dear Readers, it’s that time of year again. When all
the naughty and nasty things crawl out the ground (or the woods) to play…
Welcome to Coffin Hop 2013!
Every October a Halloweeny hoard of horror writers get together and turn the last week of the month into a scarefest, with the blood dripping Coffin Hop. This blog hop runs from Oct. 24th until the 31st,
Halloween, and is always tons of fun, with contests, stories and ghoulish delights from all the participating writers. Plus, this year Coffin Hop is proud to present its first anthology, Death by Drive –In. All profits from the COFFIN HOP: DEATH BY DRIVE-IN anthology will be donated to LitWorld.org to help encourage children’s literacy throughout the world.
So on with the creep show...
This year I'm doing a Dark Fairy Tale
Theme, in honour of my just released book Fairy Tale Fusion. For the next week this blog (mostly) belongs to the darker side of Fairyland; there will be a book excerpt and fairy tale poems, some stories and a guest post from writer R. M. Ridley.
There will also be contests.
One mega Rafflecopter Contest running all week long, with three chances
to win, plus a couple of mini contests for free books, including the Coffin Hop
anthology, Death by Drive –In (where I have a story, yay!).
To kick things off I'll be introducing my new book, Fairy
Tale Fusion:
Welcome to Fairy Tale
Fusion.
Where things get messy
in the Riding Hood.
What if the characters in Fairy Tales existed? What if they
lived and breathed in a place called Fairyland, a setting not too divergent
from our world, situated next to Wonderland and down the lane from Camelot?
Meet Detective Piper, member of the Fairyland Metro Police.
His job, to ferret out the suspects and investigate crime on the streets and in
the lanes of Fairyland. Along with Officer Simon, he’s hard at work, searching
for a missing pumpkin, hunting for an arsonist, wondering what the future holds
in a series of crystal ball robberies, and dealing with spells, curses and
other strange happenings.
His cases, and others like them, are the headlines of the
day, brought to you by FTN news anchors Spider Bramble and Aurora Gossamer,
with entertainment correspondent Lucinda Lovedust and reporter Chip Charming.
Keep up-to-date on the latest information out of Fairyland and its adjacent
suburbs, and the recent hubbub with trolls, princesses, fairies and their
ilk.
And after leaving Fairyland, you'll journey to a place where
toys are born… to be bad. When spells go
wrong and playthings turn mean, where clown dolls would kill to meet you and a
Rubik’s cube holds a cosmic secret.
If you survive the toy box, then head out to party with some
elves (if you can outlast the celebration), battle in a far, far away galaxy,
play “find the dragon”, and discover how they do crime and punishment in Oz.
And remember, always
be nice to your Fairy Godmother.
Now for the Rafflecopter
Contest. You enter via the widget below, and there’s no mandatory entry, just click the ones you want.
Here's what the prize packs consist of:
1st
Free Fairy Tale Fusion ebook
Autographed paperback copy of Mechanized Masterpieces: A Steampunk Anthology
That’s it for today, but come back tomorrow for a trip into the dark woods. And visit the other Coffin Hoppers (scroll down, way down, to find the list).
The Coffin Hop is through and we little monsters have crawled back to our writing holes. But there are still a few orders of business, namely the contest winners:
Winner of the signed copy of The Cult of Me by Michael Brookes: Katy S.
Winner of the Death by Drive-In sampler: wwe11
Winner of my three ebook package of Gothic Cavalcade, Ruined City and Killers and Demons (via free Smashwords coupon codes): K. N. Porter
And if you entered The Karen Dales contest be sure to check in with her Facebook page.
Congratulations to all the winners!
I'll be passing the the winner's names along to Michael Brookes and to Axel Howerton (who's in charge of the Death by Drive-In sampler) and contacting the winner of my contest. So keep a eye on your email.
And thanks to all the visitors, and participants it was a great Hop. Don’t forget to return tomorrow for an All Soul’s Day post, when A. M. Harte brings you an excerpt from her new book, Above Ground.
Welcome, Dear Readers, author D.W. Hawkins as he stops by for an interview as part of his blog tour. He talks about his book The Sentient Fire (the first novel in his series, The Seven Signs), fantasy and writing. And for three lucky people who leave comments, he is giving away one free Smashwords coupon for his book and two 50% discount Smashwords coupons.
Also you get the chance to win a 25$ Amazon gift card by using the Rafflecopter widget thingie found at the bottom of the post. Apparently (if I understand it correctly) you get entry points if you "like" D.W. Hawkins & this blog post (as well as the other blog stops) on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter. You also get 2 points for tweeting the blog posts on the tour, which you can do once per day. And the points leader at the end of the tour is the winner.
The winner of the Amazon gift card will be announced on April 12th atD.W. Hawkins' blog and website, so if you enter be certain to check those sites on that date to see if you are a winner.
Okay, now that explanation are done, on with the interview:
Interview with D. W. Hawkins
1. Why don’t you begin by sharing a little about yourself.
Well, I guess you could say that I’m one of those people that have treaded many different paths in life, trying to decide which was best for me. As a younger child, my first love was drawing, and for the longest time I wanted to be a comic book artist. As I got older, I tried guitar, and up until about four or five years ago I wanted to be a rock star. I even left computer networking school to go to music school. Then, because music didn’t pay the bills, I joined the Army. I’ve spent the last nine years or so of my life in the military, at home and in combat. I started writing in college to pass the time and because I found that I enjoyed it very much. It took me ten years to finish my first novel, and I wrote it through tumultuous times in my life, taking it with me on deployments and through major life changes. Finally, I polished it, had it edited, and decided that the writer’s path was for me. I haven’t looked back since.
2. Can you tell us about your book series, The Seven Signs and the first book, The Sentient Fire?
The Seven Signs is the story of a few people who are thrust together by chance, and end up having to discover the mystery of a secret artifact of great power. That sentence doesn’t sum it up completely, though – it is also a love story, a story of redemption, a story of revenge, and an adventure that will span the breadth of an entire world. The Sentient Fire sets up the series, and follows a young wizard named Dormael and his friends as they are hounded across two continents while trying to discover the purpose of an artifact, and what exactly it is. It is a heavily character-driven story, but is also packed with action, magic, and excitement. It is set in a world of my own creation, which I painstakingly built over the course of ten years. I even wrote over one thousand years of history for the setting to stand upon.
3. What drew you to write in the fantasy genre?
I write fantasy because I love to read fantasy. I believe that many people discount a lot of speculative fiction as respectable literature because of its many otherworldly elements, but I heartily disagree. When I read, I love to escape the world we live in – to me, that is the entire point. I am currently writing projects in other genres, but The Seven Signs is my favorite, and would love for it to be considered my defining work. With The Seven Signs, I wanted to write a story that emphasized the things that I think make a good story, and change the things that I don’t enjoy.
There are a few, in my opinion. I hate the “black and white” morality that many books portray in their storytelling. There’s no such thing as pure evil and pure good, in my opinion, and so my writing reflects that. I’m also incredibly tired of the battle scenes where the hero cuts down hordes of useless enemies while laughing or doing something else completely ridiculous. Battles are hard. They’re bloody, adrenaline-drenched struggles to stay alive, and they should be reflected as such. To tell the truth, I’m also tired of elves, dwarves, dragons, and such things. That last is a simple matter of taste, but there have been so many stories out there that are based on the same template of races that were created years and years ago. Lately, if I pick up a book that has any of those races or creatures in them, I usually put it right back down. That isn’t to say that there are no good stories containing elves or dragons; it’s just my own taste.
5. Did anything surprise you about the process of writing your book?
Almost everything! When I sat down and typed the very first sentence of my novel, I had no idea what I was getting into. It has been a labor of love ever since and there is a new surprise around almost every corner in the publishing world, and I’m still learning. On the whole, I think the thing that surprised me the most, though, was how easy it is to self-publish these days, and how many writers are doing it. Until I did it myself, I had no idea. I’ve met and talked to some wonderful people since, and I hope to keep right on meeting them.
6. What do find the most challenging aspect of being a writer?
The mental discipline required to keep writing instead of spending all your time marketing on social media sites, and keeping your delusions of grandeur to a minimum. It takes time, patience, and perseverance to make it, especially for indie authors.
7. What sort of research did you do for your book series?
I researched many different things, from the movement of the earth and why we have solstices and equinoxes to ancient ships and how fast they actually sailed. I read about horses, and I read about swords. I even read a bit about quantum physics and the universe itself. There were many times that I came to a point in the book where I needed a better understanding of a subject before I could portray what I was trying to write as accurately as possible, and so I stopped and went into research mode.
8. Who has inspired you as an author?
There are many authors that I love and who have inspired me. I think the largest inspirations have been Jim Butcher, Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, and Robert Jordan. I could go on forever, but I’ll stop there.
9. What’s next for you?
Well, my first priority is to finish The Seven Signs. Book Two, The Awakening Storm, should be on the market this November. After I finish The Seven Signs, I’m going to publish a sci-fi novel I’ve been working on, and then work my way into the urban fantasy genre with a series that I’m tentatively calling The Outriders. It’s about a motorcycle club that hunts demons. I’m also working on something a bit tamer, called Lainey’s War, which is an alternate history set in a modern-day fascist America, and it’s a love story more than anything else. So, my plate is pretty full, as you can see. I just hope that I can continue to provide people with great books to read, and that everyone enjoys all my work. I can’t ask for anything more than that.
Author Bio:
D.W. Hawkins is a three time combat veteran, a guitar player, and a biker. He's a lover of all literature, but the Fantasy genre is his favorite. He has a son on the way, and Pit Bull who thinks she's a fifty-pound lapdog. He lives in Savannah, GA, and at any given time you can find him writing, riding his Harley, or spending time with friends and family.
In one short night, Dormael Harlun’s life was changed forever.
Tired and half drunk, Dormael stumbled upon Shawna Llewan, a beautiful young woman, wounded and near death. What he didn’t realize was that his decision to come to her aid would be only the beginning of his unwitting role in a labyrinthine and perilous game.
Suddenly, Dormael and Shawna find themselves surrounded by enemies bent on their destruction. All avenues to safety are closing rapidly, and their only hope is to find the key to a dangerous secret lost to antiquity. With every ally a potential foe, they can rely only on Dormael’s brother Allen and his cousin D’Jenn to escape the will of a tyrant, the designs of a traitor, and the attention of powers beyond their imagining. Dormael has never been much for games, but destiny has rolled the dice for him and irrevocably placed him in the middle of a deadly game he must desperately play for keeps. Should he lose, he will forfeit not only his own life, but the lives of the ones he loves.
The Sentient Fire is available at the following places:
To start off the hauntingly good weekend leading into Halloween (and for another excuse to post for Coffin Hop) I'm sharing a few dark Halloween themed poems and a short excerpt from my Gothic horror mishmash WIP, Gothic Cavalcade.
All commenters will have a chance to win an free copy (via Smashwords) of my ebook, Once Upon a Dark and Eerie...
And don't forget to check out the rest of the hoppers by scrolling down to the List at the end of this blog or popping over to the Author List at the Coffin Hop main page.
The Poems:
Night of the Hunter’s Moon
They come by the moonlight off the mountain, from the mist, riding in the darkened night. They come by the moonlight, for their eve of haunting flight. Hear the horn, by Death be kissed They come by the moonlight off the mountain from the mist
Darkness, under a full moon
Once, under a full moon a shadow grew. Just a spot by the yew tree
where blood soiled the ground. Where anger ended a soul and bones still lie unmourned. The earth fed on flesh and fury, haunted screams and marrow, until unholy life was born.
Once, under a full moon a shadow hated. From its grave by the yew tree,
it waits, it seethes, it hungers.
Drawn from this earth too soon, it wants to come back, to roam. To spew its venom and revenge to shriek its pain and horror, until blood is spilled for blood.
Once, under a full moon Darkness,
Death,
clawed into the world.
Celestial Season
Blood Moon, Hunter’s Moon.
Ghosts wail to you in the night,
Queen of the Harvest.
The moon of white turns to red
with the coming of the frost.
Through the barren trees
voices beyond call to you,
Sovereign of the Wood.
Luminous fingers entwine
that first and last icy breath.
Halloween
Dark is the night of fear, still of all sound. This haunted eve, the silver Moon is queen; in the shadows, the undead ghouls come ’round. They dance, they play, with souls on Halloween.
You can hear them whisper behind your ear; shiver when the cold chills run down your spine. Aren’t you thankful it comes but once a year,
this time to hunt, to roam, so they can dine?
Close tight your doors when the goblins do creep
and the knocking shall echo through the dim hall.
Eerie ghosts stray, know there’s plunder to reap,
alarming chills, bats, howls and things that crawl.
So fill your bowls high with candy to eat
For those scary children that trick or treat.
Excerpt from Gothic Cavalcade:
Althea stood in the center of the circle. The family surrounded her, those strange denizens of the carnival she trusted in blind faith. The palpitating tin sound of the calliope electrified her skin and pushed through her pores to infest her flesh and bones. The notes snaked their way into her mind, twining around her will until the pulsing rhythm controlled her rational thought.
Her consciousness drifted, suspended in the melodic spell and her body swayed with the tune. She tumbled in mental freefall -a lingering pawn aimless in focus and influence- as her sanity danced with the song of the calliope and a feeling of euphoria engulfed her senses. But somewhere, locked away in a deep recess of her brain, fear crawled.
The music grew louder, more insistent, opposing other sound from reaching her ears. Every vibration of the melody shredded into her body unravelling her being. Althea cried out as the notes of the song coursed through her nerves and pain sang its way through her body to consume the essence of her inner self. She screamed, defiant, as she felt hands touch her, pull at her, the family’s voices mingling with the sound of the music...
For the entire month of January you can download a free PDF excerpt of Chronicles of the Undead from my website:
Family Secrets. Three generations of one family share their intimacies with the world of the vampire. Unveil the revelations and the horror of the Undead. Chronicles of the Undead is narrated as the personal journals of Samuel, Edmund, and Charlotte Harrington; this novella tells three stories of temptation, vengeance, and redemption.
There is also a free download of a short story available, as well as one of my poems.
My contest to choose the artwork for one of my upcoming novels is now closed. The winners will be announced on the site tomorrow, Feb. 4, 2008. I'm starting a new contest tomorrow as well, for all action movie fans. The prize is an e-book copy of my book, The Incomplete List of Action Movie Cliches.
I died in 1093, in England, but I still walk the earth. I am of the Undead, one of the condemned. We are the dead who attain no peace with the closing of our mortality, we are the souls who walk the shadows. Purgatory is not what you have accepted. Tonight I watch the moon, and the slivers of light that are dancing upon my night. I bathe in the moonlight, surrounded by the wood and the wind. It is silent and beautiful. I am waiting for Robert Sinclair, my sad, despairing soul. We have much in common, despite the fact he is yet alive. We are forlorn souls. For I am damned to walk among the living, to be invisible to those full of spirit. Only those such as Robert, the desperate ones, can see the Undead. So, sometimes, we reach out. To touch what we were, what has vanished. It is even whispered in the shadows, that to save a despondent soul is to find our redemption. I wonder, now and then, if that could be true.
