It’s Shade’s junior year at Ocean View College and I am excited to begin another adventure with her and her magical friends. On the way to school, the go on a cruise. Shade had never been anywhere, so this was quite an adventure, and how fortunate that her BFF Kai is with her.
Shade is a Ghost Whisperer and I still watch The Ghost Whisperer TV show reruns in the mornings. I wonder how she will fare with vampires. She opened the pamphlet she was given, thinking it would be full of pretty pictures and ghosts. Not so. Instead she saw it was about vampires, strigori, troubled spirits that rise from the dead, causing her to have a panic attack.
The gang: Shade, Kai, Apple and Annie are together again and more excited about life than ever. They would be separated when they headed off on their student exchange adventure. She draws people to her, though if you asked her about it, she wouldn’t know what to say.
Dakota, Trinity, Summer, Maeve, Li…from ghosts whisperers to selkies…Whew…we dodged a bullet, along with Carrie and Selene. Ya know, the one where they go into the forest, into the cave, down in the basement…I couldn’t help but smile. I can see them in her cabin, scared…
WOW. Marilyn Peake created an amazing world filled with magic and wonder, danger and evil. I was so lost it was hard to come up for air. The characters may be young and inexperienced, but they are brave, courageous, loving and loyal.
How Marilyn merged ghosts and vampires together was creatively done, flowing seamlessly to the conclusion.
I love that I can get so wrapped up in a young woman’s life. Where there is no romance, no sex, but plenty of action and danger. I am finding it hard to express how wonderfully sweet it is. So much more than I expected.
I am so excited to head off to Scotland next.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
The undead cannot be saved. Once bitten, you walk among them.
As
a foreign exchange student in Romania, Shade must deal not only with
ghosts, but also with the undead. Her first semester trains her to deal
with the in-between worlds, including that space between the dead and
the undead. No amount of training can prepare her, however, for stepping
into a world where vampires and other undead such as the strigoi and
moroi are so much more than legend.
SHADE AND THE VAMPIRES OF ROMANIA is Book #5 in a YA Paranormal Mystery / YA Urban Fantasy series.
ABOUT MARILYN PEAKE
Marilyn Peake is the author
of both novels and short stories. Her publications have received
excellent reviews. Marilyn’s one of the contributing authors in BOOK:
THE SEQUEL, published by The Perseus Books Group, with one of her
entries included in serialization at THE DAILY BEAST. In addition,
Marilyn has served as Editor of a number of anthologies. Her short
stories have been published in seven anthologies and on the literary
blog, GLASS CASES.
Awards: Silver Award, two Honorable Mentions and eight Finalist
placements in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, two Winner
and two Finalist placements in the EPPIE Awards, Winner of the Dream
Realm Awards, and eight Top Ten Finisher Awards in the Preditors and
Editors Readers Poll.
Everything about The 5: A Parnormal Thriller by Richard Freeland spoke to me and spoke loudly. With the horror season upon us, this seemed like a perfect read to share.
Richard Freeland enjoys a good margarita around a warm fire and so do I, so let’s get comfortable…for now.
Look at the creepy cover and tell me what you think the young lady has on her mind.
Everything about The 5: A Paranormal Thriller by Richard Freeland has everything it takes to stop me in my tracks and check it out further. The fantastic cover is creepy and drew me in and I love paranormal thrillers, and the title finished me off. THEN, OMG, we have a serial killer. I know that may sound bad, but I LOVE serial killers. 😈
Ben is a young boy with a vivid imagination and a penchant for writing. When Sarah comes to visit him from the spectral world, no one will believe him, but she keeps asking him to…
“Find me.”
He is a brave, young man whose investigation takes him down a dangerous path that could cost him his life.
Yes, there is a cellar, and…well, we are going down, no matter how afraid we are.
The 5: A Paranormal thriller by Richard Freeland started out like any ghostly tale and I thought this would be a normal, fun paranormal read. I had no idea where Richard would take me, but the twisty, turny, windy trail into the hidey-hole and the pit of hell had me on the edge of my seat. Each time I thought the story was over, he took me to another horrid and terrifying place.
Richard lulled me into a sense of complacency, then jerked me awake. The 5 was written in such a way that the surprises burst forth like a rose opening its bloom, unfolding each petal slowly, showing me its thorns as I grabbed ahold of the story. The horror kept coming and the ugliness of the killers made me sick as they laughed with glee. They are written perfectly. Camouflaged as ordinary people, the evil is hidden right in front of me.
I never suspected the killers, but I don’t think there were enough clues for me to find out ahead of time. Normally, I don’t like surprises, but Richard, I’ll take these kind of surprises any day of the week. I WANT MORE!
I received a copy of The 5: A Paranormal Thriller from Richard Freeland in return for an honest review.
5 Stars
AMAZON SYNOPSIS & INTERVIEW
Gone Without a Trace
Between 2011 and 2014, five young girls living within a 40 mile radius of Sutton, Tennessee, disappeared. They were never seen again.
Until Now
Sarah Nordstrom has returned. With an anguished request for twelve year old Ben Hilary.
“Find Me…”
These words will send Ben on a terrifying quest to uncover the truth about what really happened to five lost girls. A journey that will cause him to question everything he believes in. And everyone he trusts.
Trust No One
Because there’s someone in the shadows. Watching Ben’s progress. Someone who has everything to lose. Someone who will kill to make sure that the past remains buried.
The 5 – a novel by Richard Freeland
*****
Interview with Thriller Writer Richard Freeland
Q – Your latest book is The 5, a paranormal thriller. What’s the story behind the book?
RF – They say write what you know, and The 5, while fiction, has it’s birthplace in my own youth, visiting my grandparents in a small Tennessee town that became Sutton in the book. Ben’s grandparents’ house closely mirrors my grandparents’ home, right down to the spooky cellar.
Q – Are the issues you touch on in the book, like trying to win a parent’s love, coming of age, burgeoning sexuality, and the uncertainty of growing up, issues that you dealt with as a child?
RF – I think we all go through some of the things Ben experiences. The emotions, I mean. My Dad was a stepdad and I loved him a lot, but sometimes he was hard to relate to. He could be kind of aloof. And all guys, and girls probably, experience that unsettled sexual awakening period. I know that if a girl even looked at me at that age I’d lose my capacity for intelligent thought! Girls were the great mystery when we were in our early teens. So a lot of those feelings crept into the story.
Q – What motivated you to become a writer of occult thrillers?
RF – Riches! Fame! Fortune! No, really, I like to write, to explore ideas and situations and try to come to terms with things. But what’s a writer without a reader? I knew I wanted to reach more people than just my friends and family. Then there’s that whole fame and fortune thing…
Q – What do you want your fans to experience when reading your work?
RF – I want to write stories that resonate. Tales that make my readers care for what’s happening to the characters. That scare and entertain and keep them on the edge of their seats. And maybe learn a little about themselves and others.
Q – What authors have most inspired you?
RF – I think I should have been born in the pulp era. My Dad turned me on to reading at an early age. He loved Edgar Rice Burroughs, Zane Grey, Luke Short, and a host of others. He had all the Tarzan and John Carter of Mars books, and some really old dime paperbacks from before WWII, and I read most of them as a boy, and they all influenced me. A co-worker once gave me a copy of The Key-Lock Man, by Louis L’Amour, and I was hooked. He’s my huge western influence, and I think of him as a mentor. Then there’s King, Koontz, McCammon, Preston & Child…the list goes on.
Q – What do you have in the works?
RF – My main goal right now is finishing an epic historical paranormal thriller (how’s that for cross genre?). It’s called Seed, and will be released as a trilogy. The first book in the set is being edited as we speak. I’m also in the planning stages of a paranormal thriller series featuring Macon Grant, a really bad ass character with certain Abilities, but also towing along a lot of serious baggage. Mac and his motley crew will be thrown in to some pulse-pounding situations, I think. The first book in the series is tentatively titled Ravager.
Q – Sounds like quite a ride.
RF – Fing
ABOUT RICHARD FREELAND (from Amazon)
Hey there! I’m Richard Freeland, and I write thrillers “with a bite”. Most of my stories are set within the horror, suspense, thriller, and fantasy genres, although I aspire to a more literary flavor. Many of my short stories appear in the compilation “Equinox – Six Declinations”, my first published book.
Currently, I’ve just finished “The 5”, a paranormal thriller. You can find it here at Amazon.
I enjoy writing, reading, fly fishing Georgia’s freestone trout streams, gardening, boating, hiking, playing tennis (bum knees and all) and – after all that – settling down with my lady in front of a warm fire and enjoying a fine margarita.
I live in Gainesville, Georgia with my wife Martha and cat Henry (widely regarded as the “King of the Known Universe). I’m a registered landscape architect and a certified master gardener. I’m currently working on a second collection of short stories and and my second novel, an epic historical paranormal thriller called “Seed”, coming soon from DragonLyre Publishing. You can find all my fiction at RichardFreeland.com
Oubliette by Vanta M Black has a simple, yet awesome cover for a novel that was inspired by true events. Check it out closely and, if you see what I see, you will be eager to open the pages and learn what’s inside.
Be sure and scroll to the bottom of the post for the giveaway!
.
Oubliette: A Forgotten Little Place by Vanta M. Black
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Paranormal, Historical Fiction, Genre-Fiction, New Adult, Horror
Veronica knows the monsters aren’t “just in her head”, but no one listens to the headstrong ten-year-old as they tie her to a hospital bed every night.
Years later, after being dumped by her business-partner/boyfriend, Veronica finds herself on the verge of bankruptcy. Then a late-night call promises the perfect solution — a job opportunity decorating a castle in France.
Will Veronica risk what little she has left to chase a fairytale?
When the shadowy things that once terrorized her come back, Veronica must decide how much she’ll sacrifice for them, for her sanity, and for her life.
This epic book consists of interwoven stories with paranormal twists. A horror-filled historical fiction adventure, it spans nearly two millennia.
You’ll be transported to an ancient Pagan ritual, Roman-ruled Gaul, the bloody Inquisition of the Knights Templar, France as it’s ravaged by the Black Death, the duplicitous Reformation, the Paris Catacombs, and the gory French Revolution, while you unravel Oubliette’s cryptic layers.
Veronica didn’t understand why they looked for the monsters in her head, that’s obviously not where they were. Instead of listening, the doctors stuck pads with wires to her temples and increased the dosage of an IV that dripped into her veins.
They also told the nurses to tie her down with thick, leather belts every night.
The tethers didn’t matter though, because when the monsters came, she wouldn’t be able to move anyway. The only thing Veronica could ever do was scream.
The doctors called them “night terrors”. The pudgy lady who talked funny –– she told Veronica it was her accent –– said they were “spirits”. Mommy used the term “shadow people”. Veronica just called them “monsters”, and wished they’d stop scaring her when she slept.
They wanted her. Deep inside, on a primal level, Veronica knew the monsters –– or whatever they were –– craved her, and if given the chance, they would do something very, very bad to her.
The little girl tried to explain this to the doctors, the nurses, the accent-talking lady, and her mother, but none of the adults really listened. Instead they argued and shouted at each other, and huffed in and out of the room –– but the thing that frightened Veronica the most, is when the adults would simply shrug their shoulders, and admit that they really didn’t have any idea what the monsters were at all.
It was almost ten o’clock –– shift-change time. The night staff would come now. The nurse on duty was a plodding and lazy lady who would only check on Veronica at the beginning of the shift, and then abandon her in favor of the nurses’ station and a VHS tape of the day’s soap operas. Veronica didn’t like her. Sometimes it would take “Nurse Lazy” a full five minutes before she’d respond. She never came fast enough.
Veronica tried to tell the doctors that the nurse was too slow, but the complaints of a ten-year-old weren’t taken seriously against the word of the lazy nurse who smiled sweetly and said, “Poor dear and those dreadful night terrors. I always come running as fast as I can!”
Veronica cringed as the television automatically turned itself off. It always happened at ten o’clock; it was on a timer. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt it protected her and wished more than anything it could stay on. The noise, the pictures, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, there was something inexplicable about the TV that kept the monsters away.
Veronica’s pleas to leave the television on all night were never honored by the adults. Nurse Lazy actually once told her, “Oh, we can’t leave the TV on, it’ll give you bad dreams.”
Ha! Little did she know the TV prevented the bad dreams.
The door opened and in walked Nurse Lazy. Her metal nameplate actually read “Lucy”. She handed Veronica a little paper cup with a green pill inside and waited with a thin, forced smile. The longer Veronica took to take her medicine, the longer Nurse Lazy would have to wait until she could watch her soaps.
Veronica plucked the pill out of the cup. “Aren’t they ’sposed to be yellow?”
Lucy flared her nostrils ever so slightly as she replied, “No, your new doctor prescribed the green ones. Hurry up and take it.”
Veronica studied the pill closely, holding it inches from her nose. She looked at it slightly cross-eyed. “I don’t think I like the green ones though. Yellows are better.”
Lucy’s trembling hand clutched a Dixie cup of water. “That’s for the doctors to decide. Now eat it up! Time for sleep.”
Veronica painstakingly laid the pill on her tongue and grunted for the nurse to hand her the water.
Lucy thrust it forward. “Here, drink!”
Veronica pouted, though she knew the cute face wouldn’t work on ol’ Lazy.
“Thanks,” she muttered as the nurse buckled down Veronica’s arms and legs and pulled the covers up to her chest.
“Goodnight,” Lucy grumbled. She snatched the mermaid doll that sat by Veronica’s side, and tossed it on the nightstand before careening out the door.
Random acts of meanness like that weren’t uncommon for Lucy. Veronica sniffed as the silence left in the nurse’s wake permeated the room.
Then familiar, tinny tunes from a transistor radio wafted through the air. It hung from the janitor’s cleaning cart. He always blared it while mopping the halls. There was that song again. Some stupid radio station played it almost every night right around this time. Veronica stared at her doll on the nightstand, just out of reach, as the lyrics began:
Dream the dream that only you can dream
Sing the song that only you can sing
Dance with me, we’ll start slow
Clasp my hand, now lose control
Bite the monster only you can see
And dream the dream you only dream for me
Veronica tried to squish her head into the stiff pillow so her ears were covered, but it didn’t work. The heavy metal song’s pounding chorus kicked in.
Spirits in the maze
Burning brighter
Like a dream within the haze
Dancing fire
Deep inside malaise
Hungry spider
Force your screams to blaze
Spinning spiral
The song frightened her. It seemed to always precede a particularly bad episode. She really wished she had the yellow pills. She felt defenseless as sleep consumed her. The green pills would be no help if one of the bad ones came…the real Bad Ones, that is.
She twisted her head and glared into the large mirror on the wall across the room. People watched her from inside there. Veronica wasn’t sure if they were the doctors, the accent lady, or maybe even her mother, but every now and then someone would move, the light would catch just right, and she would see a figure behind the glass. Dimly, she watched them watch her. They studied her and talked about her and wrote notes about her on clipboards. Knowing they were there gave Veronica little comfort because they weren’t there to help; they were only there to watch.
Her sleepy eyes narrowed at the watchers and she whispered with dopey lips, “What, no popcorn? You gonna stare at me all night and you got no stinking popcorn? You’re all a bunch of stupid heads, ya’ know that? Stooopid heads…”
Sleep quietly took over while Veronica cursed the stupid heads behind the glass. She jerked her droopy neck to force herself awake, but the green pill was powerful. It pushed her into the darkness where the shadow people waited.
Veronica, here we are!
Veronica, time to steal your dreams.
Time to let us steal your dreams and break your bones and slip your soul right out of your slimy sack of skin…Veronica!
She fought to wake up. With all her might she tried to scream, but the green pill seized her motor functions and paralyzed her. She was like a petrified slab of meat laid out on a table –– unable to move, unable to cry out, unable to defend herself.
Do you know the evil that you dream, Veronica?
Do you know the song that only you can sing?
Veronica!
In the limbo between sleep and lucidity Veronica sensed their heinous presence with crystal-clarity. She was hyper-alert and instinctively knew these were the real Bad Ones. Without looking she saw one crouching in the far corner of the room. It glared at her intently and oozed animosity. It waited patiently, almost casually, for Veronica to succumb.
With a sudden surge of intense willpower she cried out — just a little — it was a tiny whimper that was barely audible. It wasn’t loud enough to scare the shadow people away though, and it definitely wasn’t loud enough for anyone living to hear.
Another Bad One pulled itself onto the foot of her bed. This one was small and hairy like an animal. Scrooching under the blanket, it crept slowly along the side of her bare leg. It felt for a nook to burrow — a soft place like her stomach or side so it could squirm and writhe itself into her flesh — where it could rip her apart from the inside out.
“Help,” Veronica whispered one last time before falling into the dark depths of sleep –– deep, down, spinning ‘round, until the darkness took a hold…
About the Author:
Vanta M. Black, author of Oubliette—A Forgotten Little Place, enjoys uncovering the dark mysteries of our Universe. In addition to writing, she enjoys traveling to provocative places and studying all things esoteric.
Black has degrees in English, communication and art. She resides in Southern California with her husband and two pug-mix dogs, and spends her time in support of causes that empower women and advance science and technology.
Halfway Hunted Terry Maggert
(Halfway Witchy Series, #3)
Publication date: June 2nd 2016
Genres: Adult, Paranormal
Some Prey Bites Back.
Welcome to Halfway; where the waffles are golden, the moon is silver, and magic is just around every corner.
A century old curse is broken, releasing Exit Wainwright, an innocent man trapped alone in time.
Lost and in danger, he enlists Carlie, Gran, and their magic to find the warlock who sentenced him to a hundred years of darkness. The hunter becomes the hunted when Carlie’s spells awaken a cold-blooded killer intent on adding another pelt to their gruesome collection: hers.
But the killer has never been to Halfway before, where there are three unbreakable rules:
1. Don’t complain about the diner’s waffles.
2. Don’t break the laws of magic.
3. Never threaten a witch on her home turf.
Can Carlie solve an ancient crime, defeat a ruthless killer and save the love of her life from a vampire’s curse without burning the waffles?
Come hunt with Carlie, and answer the call of the wild.
There were only two reasons for me to be awake on my couch, staring up into the gloom of the pre-dawn hours. The first is my house itself, which complained against the deep cold with creaking pops like the knees of a guy who played sports a long time ago when he was younger and had more hair.
The second was Wulfric. My lover was out there in the Adirondack winter somewhere, his vampire skin now as cold as the deep snows that settled on Halfway with a heavy hand. I missed him every second of every day with an ache that started in my heart and ended in the emptiness of my arms. Living without him was like swimming through wool that took my breath and will at every turn.
Everything was hard. Little things made me sad.
Smiles died on my face and I knew if I didn’t find the magic to save him, moving on was going to take the rest of my life and all of my tears. In the midst of my somber reverie, my giant familiar Gus put one of his Maine Coon cat paws on my shoulder. His rumbling purr calmed my mind enough that I sighed and began absently rubbing the magnificent fur of his Tabby neck.
“Brrrrtt?” He asked me, his bronze eyes fixed on me like two coals floating in the dark.
“I miss him. Sorry. I know I should sleep. Or listen for spell requests . . . or do anything except lay here having a pity party.”
Gus answered with a head butt and an even deeper bumble of contented reassurance. He stretched along me from hip to head and I was reminded again that my cat is nearly as tall as I am. Or he would be, if cats could walk upright, but he doesn’t because that would be weird. I felt a small grin touch my cheeks and let it bloom, then looked across the room to the kitchen. There, I saw another friend who was always near.
Even in the heart of a mountain winter, the moon always finds a way to touch me. Laying on my couch in the middle of a frigid night, I watch the square of moonlight light dance across my kitchen floor like the slowest ballet possible. The brilliant smudge of light comforts me, telling me that no matter how short the days and how deep the snows, sunshine will use the face of sister moon to reach across the dark and set my spirits to right.
So I watch, and I wait.
I listen for the telltale creak of my mail slot, an old brass hinge that swings inward when someone needs me. Or, to be more accurate, they need my magic. When the moon is high, I spend my nights listening for the telltale footsteps on my porch. Those are followed by a hesitation as the person decides if they can go through with their request—they always do—and then I wait a bit longer. It’s understood that to ask for my family magic, you must write a note in natural ink, then fold the note within an envelope that is hand made. Hand crafting invests meaning into something as simple as a note, and the poignant pleas I get range from simple to impossible.
But I always try.
Tonight, there was no slide of an envelope on the floor of my foyer. Perhaps it was too cold, although Adirondackers are tough people. A few feet of snow and subzero temperatures wouldn’t stop a local person from asking for help if they needed it, which meant that at least or tonight, my town was free of unusual heartache.
In witch parlance, the night was clean. Spirits were at rest, and after casting a final wish across the snowdrifts to Wulfric, so was I. Before dawn’s gray could pierce the low clouds covering the mountains, my eyes grew heavy, I let the sadness leave me, and then, when there was nothing else to fight, I slept.
Author Bio:
Left-handed. Father of an apparent nudist. Husband to a half-Norwegian. Herder of cats and dogs. Lover of pie. I write books. I’ve had an unhealthy fascination with dragons since the age of– well, for a while. Native Floridian. Current Tennessean. Location subject to change based on insurrection, upheaval, or availability of coffee. Nine books and counting, with no end in sight. You’ve been warned.
Welcome to this week’s Super Middle Grade Mondays Book Blitz
presented by Tantrum Books/Month9books!
Today, we get up close and personal with
Steve Bryant
author of Lucas Mackenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show
from Tantrum Books.
Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!
Steve Bryant is a new novelist, but a veteran author of books of card tricks. He founded a 40+ page monthly internet magazine for magicians containing news, reviews, magic tricks, humor, and fiction; and he frequently contributes biographical cover articles to the country’s two leading magic journals (his most recent article was about the séance at Hollywood’s Magic Castle).
My favorite memory from middle school days was spending time at Verble’s Café, a hangout run by a classmate’s mom. It had snacks and a juke box, and we learned to slow dance with the girls we had grown up with, to songs by Johnny Mathis and Jimmy Clanton.
What is something you know now that you wish you knew in middle school?
I know to have paid attention to everyone, especially the shy or quiet kids who often turned out to be special adults. The most important was that girl with the blond ponytail, a seventh grader when I was an eighth. I eventually married her, but I hate it that we wasted what might have been an amazing school year.
Tell us your favorite book when you were in middle school.
I loved all the so-called Robert A. Heinlein juveniles, such as Time for the Stars and Tunnel in the Sky. If you had asked me then, I would have said I liked them because I liked science fiction. Years later I realized that I liked them because Heinlein always pitted boys and girls together against formidable odds, and romance ensued. I have always remembered to make romance a key part of any stories I write.
What was your favorite subject in school?
I equally liked math, because I was good at it, and English, because I loved it. All those books and poems were written for our entertainment. My eighth-grade English teacher lived to be 103, and to the end she would admonish us for spelling or grammar errors.
Any advice for kids heading back to school?
Enjoy every day. Middle school was my favorite time ever. Keep a diary or journal, and write down each night what you appreciated about that day. Even better, use your iPhone and take lots of photos and videos. How I would love to have those from my school days!
Lucas Mackenzie has got the best job of any 10 year old boy. He travels from city-to-city as part of the London Midnight Ghost Show, scaring unsuspecting show-goers year round. Performing comes naturally to Lucas and the rest of the troupe, who’ve been doing it for as long as Lucas can remember.
But there’s something Lucas doesn’t know.
Like the rest of Luca’s friends, he’s dead. And for some reason, Lucas can’t remember his former life, his parents or friends. Did he go to school? Have a dog? Brothers and sisters?
If only he could recall his former life, maybe even reach out to his parents, haunt them.
When a ghost hunter determines to shut the show down, Lucas realizes the life he has might soon be over. And without a connection to his family, he will have nothing. There’s little time and Lucas has much to do. Can he win the love of Columbine, the show’s enchanting fifteen-year-old mystic? Can he outwit the forces of life and death that thwart his efforts to find his family?
Keep the lights on! Lucas Mackenzie’s coming to town.
5 Stars
Hey there! I’m Richard Freeland, and I write thrillers “with a bite”. Most of my stories are set within the horror, suspense, thriller, and fantasy genres, although I aspire to a more literary flavor. Many of my short stories appear in the compilation “Equinox – Six Declinations”, my first published book.
Vanta M. Black, author of Oubliette—A Forgotten Little Place, enjoys uncovering the dark mysteries of our Universe. In addition to writing, she enjoys traveling to provocative places and studying all things esoteric.
