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A Cauldron of Spooky Words for Your Halloween

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Originally posted on Writers In The Storm Blog:
By Sharla Rae You gotta love Halloween. After all, it’s why I’m giving you my Spooky Word List this month. The truth is, writers enjoy Halloween every time they write. It’s the fun part of our jobs. We don the temporary skins/costumes of our characters, and from the safety of our computer desks, we might also jump into unpleasant or scary situations. Whether or not we’re writing a scary scene or just describing a yucky situation, we need to paint pictures of the scene and show our characters’ reactions without sounding like a clichéd grade B movie. That’s the hard part, especially when it comes to scary scenes. In Margie Lawson’s recent blog, Ax Your Cliches: How and Why, she gives examples of how to do this. I love her solution of playing off the cliché to devise your own creative expressions. That’s where word lists are often helpful. After reading this list I can almost guarantee that creepy-crawlers will make you want to claw at your…

paranormal romance

Tall, Dark, Apocalyptic: Book Spotlight

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Apart they are pain and death…apocalyptic. Together they are fire and magic…destiny. He’s a warrior, a bounty hunter in a world turned upside down. She’s his latest bounty…a creature of dark power. As everything in their world implodes, they must work together to set it right, while the fire burning between them threatens to consume everything in its path. 5 Shooting Stars! Redz World Reviews: “…reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet with a post world war feel. Even the secondary characters were unforgettable… Tall, Dark and Apocalyptic by Sam Cheever will engage you on multiple levels; many you won’t even realize until long after you finish the tale.” Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L5OIT0I Amazon.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tall-Dark-Apocalyptic-Sam-Cheever-ebook/dp/B00L5OIT0I Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Tall-Dark-Apocalyptic-Sam-Cheever-ebook/dp/B00L5OIT0I Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Tall-Dark-Apocalyptic-Sam-Cheever/dp/149950697X All Romance eBooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-talldarkapocalyptic-1554223-140.html Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tall-dark-apocalyptic-sam-cheever/1119583053?ean=2940045959100 Kobo Books: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/tall-dark-apocalyptic Author bio: USA Today Bestselling Author Sam Cheever writes romantic paranormal/fantasy and mystery/suspense, creating stories that celebrate the joy of love in all its forms. Known for writing great characters, snappy dialogue, and unique and exhilarating stories, Sam is the award-winning author of 50+ books and has been writing for over a decade under several noms …

Summoned!

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Today we interview Anne Pillsworth, author of Summoned. But first, here’s a bit about her book. When the Elder Gods extend an invitation, be wary of the strings attached While browsing in a rare book store in Arkham, Sean finds an occult book with an ad seeking an apprentice sorcerer, from a newspaper dated March 21, 1895. Even more intriguing, the ad specifically requests applicants reply by email. Sean’s always been interested in magic, particularly the Lovecraftian dark mythology. Against his best friend Edna’s (“call-me-Eddy-or-else”) advice, he decides to answer the ad, figuring it’s a clever hoax, but hoping that it won’t be. The advertiser, Reverend Redemption Orne, claims to be a master of the occult born more than 300 years ago. To prove his legitimacy, Orne gives Sean instructions to summon a harmless but useful familiar—but Sean’s ceremony takes a dark turn, and he instead accidentally beckons a bloodthirsty servant to the Cthulhu Mythos god Nyarlathotep. The ritual is preemptively broken, and now Sean must find and bind the servitor, before it grows too …

Genre Talk – The Resurrection of Lestat

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Originally posted on Paranormal Unbound:
I’m sure everyone’s heard by now, but if this announcement isn’t tailor-made for Paranormal Unbound like your very own fake fangs, I don’t know what is. Last Sunday a week ago, Ann Rice announced that she will be publishing the next installment of the Vampire Chronicles with Prince Lestat, due out October 28! I’m sorry, I feel like I have to repeat that again! Ann Rice is bringing back Lestat! Anyone else here a huge fan? I vividly remember the days when new Ann Rice novels came out and I had, just had, to shell out the big bucks on release day to get the hardcover and then I knew that for the next 2-3 days I would be unreachable. I’d clear my calendar of anything but minimal sleep and food until I’d devoured it. Her rich story-telling style and appreciation of history always had me in awe. I missed her books during her religious faze, and I confess I haven’t read her return into the foray of paranormal with her werewolf…

Museums: A Matter of Curiosity

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Originally posted on Monsters and Magic:
I have been reading Josephine McCarthy’s excellent book Magical Knowledge 1: Foundations slowly and deliberately over the past weeks. I am finding the book to be an excellent primer on visionary magic and, as always happens when I read some new text on magic, I think of you, my readers. Here is a quote from the book, where the author is discussing the process of enlivening a statue with the consciousness of a deity: Therefore, an ancient statue of say, Sekhmet, is very likely to retain echoes of her power. If a magician, who is adept at inner communication, visits a museum, he is very likely to pick up on the calls and demands of this deities as they try to communicate through the images. It is important to note that the power is within the original statue that was ritually enlivened, not the generic image. So, a copy of the image will be just an image and nothing more. Now, oddly enough, I can attest to this experience…

paranormal

Attn: Paranormal Writers! 3 Important Steps in Finding an Agent

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A lot of ParaYourNormal readers are also writers. So when Grammarly’s Nikolas Baron asked if he could do a guest post on finding an agent, a process which seems quasi-paranormal to me, I gave him an enthusiastic “yes!” Here it is… First impressions, especially through emails, are crucial to setting the stage to getting an agent’s attention. Not only does the first line of your email need to grab the reader, but also it must excite him and compel him to read more. Even more importantly, the letter must be error free. If an agent receives a letter riddled with errors, they can almost certainly assume that the sample, chapter, or novel you’ve sent them is exactly the same. Nobody wants to spend his time wading his way through the errors you should have cleaned up in the first place. It also is extremely unprofessional to send an error-laden email asking for someone to represent you and help your work succeed when it seems as if you don’t take proofreading seriously. When contacting and searching …