Happy Halloween!

What's everyone doing on this spookiest of days? I love Halloween, but I'm too introverted to go out there in costume and party hard on the actual day, so my celebrations tend to be quiet and mellow. Last night my BFF and I went to see Frankenstein at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge - a performance made notable by huge amounts of Brit Pop, one audience member collapsing into the ice cream stand, and one couple disappearing during the interval. All credit to the actor playing the Creature though - he really sold it! Throw in liberal amounts of chocolate, and we had a great night.

Today I'm planning to work on Dark Days, but I'm throwing out a few spooky links for you to enjoy while we all eat our Halloween candy.

Looking for some dark and creepy music to listen to? Check out this Death and the Maiden playlist. Or if you're after something more witchy than macabre, there's this compilation. And as far as I'm concerned, we can't talk spooky music without mentioning The Misfits' Famous Monsters album:

Want some unsettling reading material? The Eight Most Intriguing Unsolved Crimes are right here. Or you can check out Cracked's list of creepy urban legends that just happen to be true...If you want something more monstrous, how about Ten Terrifying Canines From Around the World?

Halloween drinks? I've got you covered!

Of course that's just for starters - there's a ton more recipes here!

And naturally we can't have Halloween without some terrifying television. Obviously I'm always a sucker for the totally legit and utterly credible Ghost Adventures, which follows the trials and tribulations of three failed nu-metal singers as they shout at empty rooms and try to find a ghost to fight:

But if you want something genuinely scary, you can always try one of the Top 20 Scariest Asian Horror Films. Personally though, I don't think you can beat Jason Vorhees.

Whatever you do, have a fun and fearsome night and enjoy yourselves!

How about making today Fairy Tale Tuesday? Pumpkin Spice is here!

Fairy Tale Tuesday has a ring to it, right? I'm gonna make it a thing. Let's start with a brand new fairy tale from Pumpkin Spice!

SCARLETT HOOD & THE HUNTER – The Amāre Tales - an Editor’s Pick from Evernight!

In the merry village of Amāre, love isn’t just the town’s namesake—it’s a way of life. When Scarlett Hood discovers that her grandmother’s retirement fund has been targeted by the wolf of Wall Street, Bernie Wolfe, the photo journalist realizes she will need more than her telephoto lens to take him down. She’ll need help.

Help arrives in the unlikely Jack Hunter, the local bean farmer, who struck it rich only to lose his golden crop to Wolfe. Now working for the Security & Exchange Commission (SEC), Jack is on the hunt to bring down Wolfe and Giant Investment Services. Nothing—not even his unbridled attraction to Scarlett—will keep him from tackling the man who stole his grandmother’s land and put him out of business. Can Scarlett Hood and Jack Hunter team up together to bring down one of Amāre’s worst villains and find their own happily ever after?

 Read on for an excerpt and buy links!

Things That Are Happening Right Now

This probably isn't really happening

So I'm back to writing daily after my most recent bout with Probably Rotator Cuff Syndrome. Not quite back to 1k a day, but I'm no longer turning out 0k a day, so I'm happy. I don't know if I can still finish Oath Breaker Dark Days by the end of this month, but I'm really hopeful!

In the mean time, I'm waiting for edits on COLD NIGHT MOON, as well as a new Amber Morgan story, so despite not being able to write much, I seem to be busy on the writing front. At the same time, I don't have much to talk about, so I thought I'd share some things that are happening in lieu of actual content from me.

First! Attack of the 14 Nights of Halloween is happening! This is a blog hop organised by Laughing Vixen Lounge, with a prize jackpot ($225+) full of jewelry, perfume, clothing, accessories and more! One of the prizes has been donated by Deep Midnight Perfumes, one of my favourite indie perfumers, and I urge you to take part in the hop for that reason alone.

Second! My friend and fellow author/cat-lover, Olivia R Burton, has launched a podcast called I've Got No Beef With You, where she'll be talking to her fellow vegans about their journey to veganism. The first episode is up now, and features adorable guest appearances from her cats, and is really interesting to boot, even if you're not actually vegan. I'm currently in the process of phasing dairy out of my life, so it was good to hear some different perspectives on that. Check it out!

Third! Jeffrey Combs guests on Caustic Soda podcast. Who's Jeffrey Combs, you ask? Get out! It's this guy:

There aren't many good film adaptations of HP Lovecraft's work, and I'm not sure that Re-Animator is "good" in an objective sense, but it's a cult classic and it's totally amazing in a crazy, beautiful way, and I love it. Since it's Spoopy Season, why not treat yourself to both the podcast and the film?

I think that's everything that's happening right now. I'm heading back to the writing cave!

Attack of the 14 Nights of Halloween Giveaway! - With Laughing Vixen Lounge

Halloween is just around the corner and it's time for the 4th annual Attack of the 14 Nights of Halloween Giveaway from Laughing Vixen Lounge. 7 wickedly fun shops have come together to create one spooktalcular Prize Pack ($225+) full of Jewelry, Perfume, Clothing, Accessories and more! All shops are offering Gift Cards or your choice of item(s) so there will be something for everyone. Many of the shops have items perfect for any book lover along with lots of other unique, handcrafted and custom designs. You can enter via the Rafflecopter below or visit the Main Giveaway Page on the Laughing Vixen Lounge Blog HERE.

Join us daily on the Laughing Vixen Lounge Blog during the giveaway for our Halloween Movie Marathon featuring the Guess the Movie Game and our Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt. Each event will get you daily entries in the giveaway plus a special giveaway for the Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt. Find full details for these events HERE.

October is the perfect time for watching spooky movies. Along with the Halloween Movie Marathon each of our participating shops, and many of our blog sponsors, will be sharing some of their favorite movie choices with you.

For me, you can't beat the classics! My favourite Halloween watch is definitely Friday 13th - the original (I refuse to accept the existence of the remake).

Why? Well, first off it's one of the original slasher flicks, right up there with John Carpenter's Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street for kick-starting the genre! Secondly, I love the twist on who the villain is. And third, this is the franchise that (eventually) gave us the iconic Jason, hockey mask and all, and I love Jason. The silent, unstoppable killer. You can't reason with him. You can't fight him. You can only run - and hope. Now that's scary.

The giveaway runs October 18th - November 1st and is open worldwide. 1 winner will win the Prize Pack and 1 winner will win the Scavenger Hunt Prize Pack. Laughing Vixen Lounge is responsible for all giveaway details. Please visit the Laughing Vixen Lounge Blog HERE to see the full prize list, participating shops and daily giveaway events. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Blog - Frey Ortega And A Billionaire's Gamble

Usually I try to find a snippet of my own work for sharing on Wednesdays, but today I'm letting Frey Ortega take the reigns with his new release, A BILLIONAIRE'S GAMBLE. The bonus good news being that this is an actual book you can actually buy right now! Take it away, Frey...

Dylan Ferrara is an academic wunderkind whose life just got a whole lot messier. After his academic career comes to a staggering halt, his best friends give him a reality check: join the ‘real world’ and start working, or continue chasing an impossible dream. Reluctantly, he agrees.

Remington Whitley is a billionaire who’s sick of the monotony of his playboy life. One day, his company invites a geeky little data scientist over for an interview. The man piques him enough on a personal level that he decides to take a gamble and invite Dylan out for a date.

Dylan is conflicted. Remy is a gamble in and of himself, and Dylan’s inexperience makes him cautious. Dylan doesn’t know if he wants to take the bet with such high stakes on the line.


But what can he do, when throwing the dice and leaving his fate up to luck feels so, so right?

Read on for an excerpt!

I counted 27 birds up there today/I'm thinking that's why I still love it here

So I find myself being alone again, with just Fergus for company (not that he isn't marvellous company).

Look how fun he is!

It's a cold October evening. I have a cup of almond rooibos in hand, mellow music playing (my Sea Wife playlist, in case you're interested), and a manuscript open on my laptop. It's the first time in about a month that my wrists and arms don't really hurt and it feels like high time I cracked on with Oath Breaker Dark Days (I renamed it; I like this name better).

I'd planned to have the first draft wrapped up by the end of October so I could work on an Amber Morgan project in November. That still feels doable, but under the circumstances I need to be patient with myself and not force myself to write if the pain kicks in again. I think I've got it under control, thanks to a combination of support bandages, anti-inflammatories, and light weightlifting, but also because I've made myself stay off the laptop as much as possible. My day job is highly computer-orientated, and even though it kills me to "save myself" for the day job and cut back on writing, I didn't really have much choice (but can I just say, I've discovered that I truly loathe sitting around doing nothing but watching TV. Seriously. There were a few days when I couldn't even hold a book to read. I wanted to die).

Anyway, the past few days, I've felt pretty okay, and since I'll probably be alone three or four days a week for the next couple of months, it feels like a good time to try to finish Lola's second adventure. Wish me luck!

Guest Blog - LeTeisha Newton's bringing us Sin's Pleasure!

Title: Sin's Pleasure

Series: Happily Never Happened #1

Author: LeTeisha Newton

What if Happily Ever Afters were from a place called Elsia? What if they kept that world going and intact? And what if the Fairy Godmother, young and naive, got it wrong?

Welcome to Happily Never Happened, where fairy tales are real, sexier than sin, and sweeter than deliverance. Where Fantasy Ave is a place to see your pleasures satisfied, and the stakes raised - for a price. And then meet the ladies of Fantasy Ave, hidden gems in our world, who come from the world of Elsia, escaping the hell of their Happily Ever Afters, and offered the chance, with one last wish, to find love again.

SIN married her Prince Charming, escaping into the palace and becoming one of the four queens that ruled Elsia. That glass slipper seemed to fit on the right foot - that was until Charming showed her that she meant nothing to him, and even less to others after her story was over. Sin recreated herself, tossing aside her tiara and ballgown, for stilettos and a whip - because she calls the shots now. Never again is she going to be someone's sub who doesn't know the meaning of Dominance, and never again is she going to let someone open her heart again.

And she's right. Someone can't do it. She needs two: Tobias, her trusted bodyguard, and Zuriah, a wolf of Rose's pack, to claim her, and show her just how much she's missing. Show her how much Charming didn't know about love, and that being broken only means that she can be fixed.

Now available from Evernight Publishing Naughty Fairy Tales, be ready to delve into a hot read of desire, love, and redemption.

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All Romance Ebooks

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Evernight

Writing professionally since 2008, LeTeisha has spanned from Fantasy to Interracial Romance on her road to getting the jumping characters out of her head. Most days she’s pretty color blind, unless it’s a great shade of red (then she can’t ignore it). Other times she’s plotting her next twenty books and then remembering that the computer can’t read her thoughts and doesn’t type at lightning speed. Either way, she just can’t seem to get enough of quill to paper…or eh…keyboard strokes, apparently.

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Celebrate Evernight's 5th Birthday! Blog Hop! Prizes! Awesome Stuff!

Evernight Celebrates 5 Years of Publishing!

Thanks to readers like you, Evernight Publishing has grown by leaps and bounds in five years so they’re pulling out all the stops and throwing an extreme BIRTHDAYCELEBRATION BLOG HOP in your honor!

That’s right! It’s Evernight’s birthday but YOU get the presents…

Prizes include:

Apple Watch Sport

NEW Kindle Paperwhite

Fitbit Flex

Evernight, Amazon, and ARe Gift Certificates

Plus, each author on the hop will offer his/her own special prize!

I’m honored to celebrate this momentous occasion with Evernight. Here’s a look at my first Evernight title:

Released from Ottevar Asylum after eight hard years, Lady Emmeline returns to Nachtholm Manor to reclaim her birthright. But she has a battle on her hands - Rainart Eckhard refuses to give up his position as lord of manor, and whilst his cold attitude enrages Emmeline, his smouldering kisses leave her weak at the knees. Who is this dangerous, enticing stranger, and what secrets does he hide? Caught in a web of desire, curses, and self-doubt, Emmeline is not only fighting Rainart for Nachtholm Manor, but for her own heart as well.

Available from Evernight, All Romance Ebooks, Amazon US, and Amazon UK

And my latest release:

 

Charley and Nessa are from two different worlds. Nessa is a selkie and Charley is all too human. When selkies and humans fall in love, tragedy can follow. For Charley and Nessa, that never seems to matter when they're together. But when Nessa's seal skin is stolen, the lovers uncover all the reasons humans and selkies should stay in their separate worlds.

Available from Evernight, All Romance Ebooks, Amazon US, and Amazon UK

Huge happy birthday wishes to Evernight! A more wonderful publisher with a more supportive group of authors, you really could not wish for. Here's to the next five years - I hope we just get bigger and better!

To help Evernight celebrate, I'm giving away a prize of my own! A $10 Evernight giftcard, and a free ebook from my Evernight backlist! To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling me what your best ever birthday present was.

(And remember that you can also find me on Facebook and Twitter if you want to learn more about my forthcoming Evernight titles!).

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It’s a great time for an Evernight shopping spree because all Evernight titles are 25% off through October 9^th at AllRomance eBooks!

 

Find my titles here

Enter to win the Grand Prizes using Rafflecopter: 

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