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On This Mother's Day, I'm Thinking About ... Ghost Stories

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My father was an avid reader and gave me my love for reading, but it was my mother who told me ghost stories. She came from a family and a culture that believed wholeheartedly in ghosts, so she believed in ghosts too. That weird creak from the stairs? Must be a ghost. The strange shadow on the wall when nothing is near? Definitely a ghost. The noise in the middle of the night that almost sounds like someone calling your name? Don’t answer because it is most assuredly a ghost! I will always treasure the memories of me and my mother watching horror movies together on TV. She was of a time that didn’t believe in childhood trauma, so she had no problem letting her five-year-old watch the scariest programs. I will also treasure every ghost story that she told me. All of them were true, she said, and some were so frightening they made my hair stand. I myself am mostly skeptical, but I continue to love ghost stories, so much so that I’m now writing my own. I’ve tried to capture the flavor of ...

Celebrating the Amazing Mothers in Urban Fantasy ...

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Happy Mother's Day! Today’s the day to celebrate all the incredible mothers in our lives, including the fictional ones! My author friends and I have come together to share some of the amazing urban fantasy mothers in our series and why you should discover their worlds.  One thing is clear, it takes all kinds of mothers to handle the urban fantasy world, from demons to witches to rogue Greek goddesses, there’s something for everyone 💗 Dive in now! The Briarmoor Chronicles by Victoria Vassallo:  https://geni.us/TheBriarmoorChronicles The Geomancer's Apprentice series by Yin Leong:  https://books2read.com/u/mZqEPe   The Magic & Motherhood series by A.L. Tippett:   https://altippett.com/rl/3608501   The Ashuan Lust series by Janna Ruth:   https://books2read.com/ashuanlust   The Valkyrie Bestiary series by Kim McDougall:   https://kimmcdougall.com/valkyrie-bestiary   The Bearsden Witches series by J.C. Yeamens:   https:/...

Well, This Sure Made My Day ...

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It's always lovely to find a new reader review. It's even more wonderful when the reviewer loved all five books in your series! Thank you so much, kind reader! I'm glad you enjoyed the monster-slaying adventures of Joe and Junie, my underdog feng shui consultants. If you haven't read The Geomancer's Apprentice series, check it out here .  Why you should leave a review if you love an author’s work It’s one way to make an author’s day, maybe even her week! It encourages your favorite authors to keep writing. You’re giving your favorite authors more visibility. You’re sharing good books with other readers. You’re helping your favorite authors to reach new readers. The more, and better, reviews a book has, the higher Amazon’s algorithms will rank it in search results. Even a rating helps! Make an author happy. 😄

Today, April 4, is the Chinese Qingming Festival

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This traditional festival is also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day. It occurs annually on the 15th day after the spring equinox.  Qingming is a time for Chinese people all over the world to honor and thank their ancestors. They observe the festival by tidying, sweeping and/or weeding the graves of their forefathers. They also burn joss paper and incense, and make food offerings at the gravesite (or columbarium, depending on where their deceased relatives reside). According to the Chinese concept of ancestor worship, it’s important to keep your ancestors happy. The ancestors will reward you by blessing your life.  The festival is referenced in my novella Offerings for the Dead .  Read the book for free by subscribing to my newsletter!

You Want To Know How the Story Finally Ends?

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Are you tired of waiting for that sequel, or the third or fourth installment of your favorite book series?  Why wait? The Geomancer’s Apprentice is one of the books in this month-long BookFunnel event that showcases completed urban fantasy series. It’s hours and hours of magical reads and adventures.  Click here to check it out. You may just discover your next favorite author or books!

Like Folklore AND Horror? Then Folk Horror Is the Genre for You

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I love folklore, and I’ve always been fascinated by folk horror. It’s a subgenre of horror that uses folklore, folk beliefs, urban legends and/or paganism to evoke fear and dread. The stories are usually set in rural or isolated areas, and themes include the clash between the old and the modern, and man versus nature.  In terms of fiction, Thomas Tryon’s 1973 novel Harvest Home is a classic. Other examples include Stephen King’s short story “Children of the Corn,” and his novel Pet Sematary . More recent gems are Adam Nevill’s The Ritual , and Andrew Michael Hurley’s Starve Acre .    As to movies, The Wicker Man springs immediately to mind. In the 1973 film (there is a 2006 remake but I prefer the creepier original), a police officer travels to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle to find a missing girl. He discovers, to his mounting horror, that the island residents practice a particular form of Celtic paganism.  More recent folk horror movies include Midsomm...

Book Review: 'The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror' Edited by Stephen Jones

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Five stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I enjoyed reading this, which I picked up because I’m curious about folk horror. The anthology is a nice mix of the old and new. The stories include those written by the old horror masters such as M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft and Algernon Blackwood. It also features more modern writers such as Ramsey Campbell and Dennis Etchison.   It’s a good introduction to folk horror. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something in this horror subgenre. My favorite stories in the anthology are “The Gypsies in the Wood,” “Porson’s Piece,” and “Ancient Lights.”