Giving Away Halloween

Do you have your scary stories all loaded and ready for the holiday? If not, you're in luck. Here are a couple to get you in the spirit.

First, from me...

Read the rest HERE.

 

And now how about some giveaway action?

Last week Stephen Tremp shared with us SALEM'S DAUGHTERS, along with two truths and a lie. Those who guessed the lie correctly were entered into a random drawing for the chance to win a $25 gift card to Amazon!

Stephen's Game:

1.    Stephen once met Los Angeles Laker basketball player Kobe Bryant.
2.    He does not like meatloaf.
3.    He still likes to color with crayons.

THE LIE: #1. Stephen wishes. ;)

Way to guess everyone! And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Chrys Fey!!!

Congrats, Chrys! 

And now how about our giveaway for the day?

Faerie mischief starts the fun with ghosts, vampires, and zombies bringing in the scare. If you love Halloween, being scared or delighted, there’s a story for you in this flash fiction collection.

Get your copy HERE.

Or you might like this one if you're not so much in a Halloween mood...

Missie, an American flutist, is thrust through a portal into a medieval world where her music is the key to empowering The Treasures of Carmelidrium to defeat the evil tyrant, Renwyk, Lord of the Symberveen. Immediately, her life is in danger. The Symberveen hunt her, an assassin attempts to kill her, Renwyk's men plot to kidnap her. Will she survive to accomplish the prophecy regarding her or will Renwyk take over Gil-Lael and then America too?

Buy it HERE.

Ready to meet the author?

N. R. Williams is an American grandmother who decided never to grown up. What better way to celebrate than to write epic fantasy's, children's stories and flash fiction alive with faeries, vampires, zombies and ghost, along with a few other super natural creatures? She is delighted to share these stories with readers and hopes that everyone will find something to love. 

She adores Swiss cheese because of the holes and might be discovered eating it with turkey lunch meat and crackers. 

N.R. gave me two LIEs and ONE truth to test your "lie detector" skills. Those who figure out the lie will go into my magic hat for the chance to win an eBook of your choice. 

You have until Tuesday, October 27 at 1 p.m. EDT to guess. Be sure to come back for the answers on October 28.

TRUTH OR LIE

1. I have almost died eight times from childhood illness, a difficult pregnancy and delivery and more recently two illnesses. I'm planning to continue living and will ignore references to cat's having nine lives.
2. I was born in Canada.
3. I love coffee. I drink it while balancing on my head and use a special straw.

So sleuths, which are the lies, and which is the truth? What are you reading for Halloween? Are you a bigger fan of faeries, vampires or zombies? Have you ever read/written flash fiction?

How to NOT Write a Novel Beginning

As part of her new Word Master Challenge series, one of my genius blogging friends, Misha Gericke, has put together the January contest--to write an awful, yet entertaining beginning to a book. Her words specifically:

In less than 300 words, I want to see your idea of the WORST beginning you can possibly write. The funnier and more creative you are, the better. 

This was too fun to resist. I started with the "It was a dark and stormy night" angle, then transitioned to "The alarm jolted him out of bed", but ultimately, I had to go with my gut:

Para-Cliche 

Once there was a girl named Martha. But Martha wasn’t like other girls. Martha had a problem. See, Martha didn’t have two parents, or a pet cat, or a car named Dear John, or a house for that matter. Martha lived in the tumbleweeds of a triathlon training ground, and Martha was a fairy.

What kind of parents named a fairy “Martha”? Why, the kind who proscribed to Better Homes and Better Gardens, and then got themselves blown up in a car-jacking on their way to meet the infamous namesake of their one and only child, Martha Stewart.

But that’s not who our story is about.  

Cedric, the guardian angel and muse of a certain now-dead magazine writer, faced the greatest dilemma of his cherubic career. And what is that, you may ask? His charge was dead. No, worse than dead. He was undead—munched on by a mindless zombie while snoozing at the Chicago airport between interviews about the difference of western and eastern influenced garden gnomes.

Returning to heaven now was not an option. So Cedric packed his red and blue flowered knitting handbag, strolled on down the highway, and stuck out his thumb, hoping to find someone he could dress up and pass off as his dead…undead writer.

A sleek black car hissed to a stop on the ice-covered curb. The privacy-tinted window rolled down and a man wearing dark fifties shades grinned, flashing a set of sharp canines.

“Good evening,” he clucked through a thick Transylvanian accent. “Do you require a, uh, lift?”

Cedric thought there might be something strange about the driver.

“No, I am not a blood-sucking child of the night.” The driver lifted a hand and ruffle-laced sleeve. “You will be perfectly safe in my car.”

Cedric shrugged and climbed in.   

And there you have it--a rip on the Paranormal trend using true and tried techniques that send literary agents running for the hills. Given another hundred words we would have met a werewolf, and perhaps a ghost too. Another two hundred words, we probably would have waken up to an alarm clock on a dark and stormy night. Alas, you can only go so far in 300 words. Oh, and enjoy this Crystal Collier original, brought to you by my liberated inner cartoonist.

So, friends, what's the worst beginning you have ever read to a story?