Guest Post by Author Dr Tom Melvin

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting as much these last few weeks, I have been busy launching a my new novel. To those of you I have agreed to review books for I will get to them soon I promise and hopefully will be able to start accepting requests again.

In the Meantime though author Dr Tom Melvin has kindly written a guest post so everyone give a warm welcome to Tom!

Great writers are adept at capturing the essence of humanity in the trifles of life. Their skilled witness of human behavior allow them to reach the true soul of readers they may never meet. What better place to do that than in a tavern!




Bill Flynn was a bartender who had left behind boxes of stories about the humanity he witnessed at this neighborhood bar in a working class community. Upon his passing, his friend Muzzy edited the stories and published the book Danny's Tavern A Collection of Neighborhood Stories:1935-1975.

Tattoos from
Danny's
Tavern

One of the stories is about tattoos. Tattoos are a part of any tavern. I’ll bet you can walk into any city tavern and find three, four guys with a tattoo. And they’d tell the same story: Well, I was with a buddy in….and we were so drunk that…

Many of the regulars in Danny’s Tavern had at least one tattoo. Jack Walsh sports a ship on his forearm. Chico wears a large dragon tattooed near his shoulder – Shanghai, I think. Casey displays a crude self-inflicted needle and thread and ink L-O-V-E and H-A-T-E on his fingers.


My own obsession with tattoos started when, at 17, I joined the military and became a paratrooper. On my first week-end pass I went and got my first tattoo. I was so proud, and still am.

Tom's Bracelet 

Every tattoo has a personal story behind it though, and mine does too. Three years after I got my tattoo, I was in a major car accident. The doctors needed to insert a rod to secure the cracked bone in my arm - which meant cutting into part of my tattoo!

When it was time to remove the rod I asked the doctors if I could keep it for “good luck”. I then had part of it shaped into a bracelet and I’ve worn it everyday since. 

Is there a great story behind your tattoo?



Danny's Tavern A Collection of Neighborhood Stories:1935-1975 by Dr Tom Melvin P.E.

About the Author:

Dr Thomas Melvin P.E. graduated from the Doctoral Program at Nova Southeastern University in Boston, MA and received a Distinguished Research Award for his dissertation, in 1996. For over twenty years he worked as an Engineering Consultant for the Medcon Engineering Corporation. He has lectured throughout the U.S. on Construction and Facilities Management.

His career began at the age of ten having worked at everything from scraping barnacles off of tugboats, to shoveling coal on a steamship, jumping out of planes as a US Paratrooper, to teaching engineering, to project management consulting at Harvard University. He is also the author of Practical Psychology in Construction
Management published by Van Nostrand Reinhold and Danny’s Tavern – A Collection of Neighborhood Stories 1935-1975

His facebook page is: http://on.fb.me/GNLW5d

Readers can buy the book here: http://amzn.to/XcyCAn

Thank you Tom and good luck with you work!

My Swordhand is Singing – Marcus Sedgwick

Description

In a bitter winter, Tomas and his son, Peter, settle in a small village as woodcutters. Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut so that they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn't understand why his father has done this, or why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know.
But Tomas is a man with a past--a past that is tracking him with deadly intent. As surely as the snow falls softly in the forest of a hundred thousand silver birch trees, father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.
 

My Opinion

OK, so because it is Halloween I have decided to re-read one of my favourite horror books. I still remember the scared feelings I had as I lay in bed after finishing this book for the first time. Reading it at 2am with just a fire light was definitely not the best idea... I lay awake for hours after the last few pages but even though I was scaring myself with my over active imagination I just couldn't stop reading. I loved the title and this is originally what drew me to the book as I really enjoy gothic/horror books.

This was the first book of Sedgwick's I ever read and since reading this book I have read many other books he has released. His writing is truly amazing! Sedgwick takes old legends, myths and period of times and twists them into a dark interesting, horror story.

The plot of this novel was great! It was dark, different and shocking with all it's twists and turns.

The character's were interesting and engaging and I found myself being drawn deeper and deeper into the world Sedgwick created. The bit that effected me most was towards the ending but by that point I was finding it impossible to stop. As well as this, the short chapters kept me turning pages just to find out what happened next. The books was incredibly atmospheric and I loved the darker version of a vampire/zombie story.

Even though this is like the fifteenth time I have read this book it still scares me every time. I don't know if that is just because I'm spooked easily but it is probably down to my over active imagination that gets lost in the believable worlds created by Sedgwick. I have definitely learnt my lesson though after the first time and now only read his work during daylight.

I can not recommend this book highly enough. Sedgwick's novels are some of the best I have read and his writing is great! If you want something that you can lose yourself in to get scared on Halloween this book would be great!  

Other great reads by Marcus Sedgwick that I have loved!

          

Special Halloween Guest Post - by Author Stephanie Carroll

              Today I have author Stephanie Carroll posting on my blog. 

She has kindly written a post about putting the 'scary' into your scary stories. I found this a really enjoyable read (as I write dark paranormal romance myself) and it fits nicely seeing as Halloween is coming around the corner.

So everyone give a warm welcome to Stephanie! 

    

photo credit:
 Stephanie Massaro via photopin cc

How to Get the Scary in Your Scary Story 

By Stephanie Carroll 

The Origins of Horror 
Most people probably have the impression that horror is a genre that reflects the extreme side of scary stories, meaning there are other genres, but as I researched this, it turns out that’s not quite the case.

According to the Horror Writer’s Association,any story meant to frighten the reader is considered horror fiction. However, in the 1980s and 1990s the horror genre became stereotyped following formulas debuted by Stephen King. In order to avoid the hype, modern day writers who technically write horror fiction label their works under another genre. For example, by the horror definition, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is horror fiction.

The roots of horror fiction come from ancient and folklore tales mostly dealing with religious fears, including death, the afterlife, evil, demons, and the devil. The genre of horror fiction specialized in the 18th century with Gothic Horror and continued in the 19th century with such classics as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), Robert Louis Stevenson’s Th Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Even more interesting, original horror targeted the female audience and usually included a female protagonist. Learn more at the Wikipedia Horror Entry.

photo credit: Bill McIntyre 

via photopin cc

The classic ghost stories and other tales of death were refined within the genre of Weird Fiction, which developed in the 19th and 20th centuries and includes authors H.P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, and Clark Ashton Smith. I did a recent post on Weird Fiction on my blog The Unhinged Historian if you’d like to learn more about this genre.

Horror and Weird Fiction are both sub-genres of Speculative Fiction, which includes any fantastical genre like fantasy and sci-fi. 

Scary Techniques
So if all scary stories are either speculative, horror, or weird, what are some of the different techniques for different types of scares?

photo credit

ojimbo via photopin cc

Once again referencing the Horror Writer’s Association, horror involves fear and as society embraces fear those anxieties lessen forcing writers to always be pushing the bounds of fear. Nevertheless, there are still some techniques that we can call upon.


Classic Gothic Horror – look into the classics, such as Bram Stroker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and reuse the classic techniques. Check out this post by WritingHood for ideas.

Monsters! – Classic and new monster stories are always fun. Usually, when we think of a monster story, we think of the swamp thing or the old werewolf flicks, but modern day monsters are created all the time. Check out these awesome videos for ideas about making up all new creatures and ghoulsThe Stan Winston School of Character Arts.

Suspense – a lot of people confuse suspense and thriller. The difference is that suspense causes a sense of anxiety due to impending danger whereas a thriller causes a sense of a rush due to action. Scary Suspense stories are the ones that have you gripping your seat then flinching when something jumps out causing you to spill your soda on your date. Check out this guest blog post on the Venture Galleries Blog.

Hauntings – If you like the Weird Fiction style, then maybe you’re interested in writing a modern day ghost story. I personally love ghost stories and Weird Fiction because hauntings are great for historical fiction writers. The reason being the best ghosts are from a creepy and disturbed past. Still, haunting stories have been done, done, done, so you need to make sure you are original. This Atomic Soapbox post has some pretty good points on how the ghost story works, and the best way to come up with something original is to understand what others have done and how the genre works.

photo credit:JustCallMe_♥Bethy♥_

via photopin cc

Gore – it’s what modern day horror is all about, and a lot of people absolutely love it. Horror movies are huge right now, but what a lot of people are beginning to realize is that gore is always more graphic in books. Why? Because you can push farther in the written word. Take Misery by Stephen King – in the move Annie Wilkes crushes Paul Sheldon’s feet with a sledge hammer while he is still conscious, but in the book, she sawed those little footies off! Check out this eHow Article on How To Write Gory Fiction for help.

Tapping into our Darkest Fears – this is the biggie in my book for scary stuff. I still cannot stand to think of certain stories that involved burying people alive, cutting them open while they are awake, and sewing orifices to other orifices. I tried to find a good resource for this technique and couldn’t find one. It’s made me conclude that the best technique is to go for something that is so horrifying, so gruesome, that no one has dared to go there before. Start with your own worst fears and chose the one that you absolutely positively do not want to go with. It takes a certain kind of audience to appreciate this though, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are writing for those individuals.

I hope you found these techniques useful, and I wish you horrific luck in scaring the skinny jeans off some unsuspecting readers. Happy Halloween!

Cover by Jenny Q

Historical Editorial

About the Author

Stephanie Carroll writes dark historical fiction with a touch of magical realism. Her debut novel, A White Room, is coming out in the Summer of 2013. She also writes a blog, The Unhinged Historian, for readers and writers of magical, Gothic-Victorian, and Weird historical fiction. Her website is www.stephaniecarroll.net.

Thank you Stephanie and good luck with all your writing and future work!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Guest Post - Author Sherrie Cronin

Today I have author Sherrie Cronin on my blog today who has kindly written a little about herself and book. Her book y1 is out now and sound like a great read. 

So everyone give a warm welcome to Sherrie! 

y1 blurb:
Zane just wants to be himself. He doesn’t believe in magic, and he’s gotten a degree in neuroscience mostly to understand how he can alter his shape the way he does. Unfortunately, that degree has landed him in the sales department of Penthes Pharmaceuticals, and the more he learns about the company’s secrets the more uncomfortable he becomes. Good thing he has always excelled at blending in. Then upper management discovers him and his life gets even more complicated.


A sales boondoggle in the South Pacific shows him that he isn’t alone, and that others like him have problems far worse than his. As his new friends flee those who would control their lives, Zane wants to help. Their freedom-loving philosophy of y1 calls to him. But first he has to deal with a murder charge, an unsavory boot camp manager, and serious repercussions from the fact that not everyone at Penthes likes him, or wants him to knows the mysteries that the company has worked so hard to keep hidden. In fact, it may take all the talents he has just to keep from going from a murder suspect to a murder victim.

Author Bio: 
Sherrie Roth grew up in Western Kansas thinking that there was no place in the universe more fascinating than outer space. After her mother vetoed astronaut as a career ambition, she went on to study journalism and physics in hopes of becoming a science writer. She published her first short story in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, but when the next story idea came to her it declared that it had to be a whole book, nothing less. One night, while digesting this disturbing piece of news, she drank way too many shots of ouzo with her boyfriend. She woke up thirty-one years later demanding to know what was going on.


The boyfriend, who she had apparently long since married, explained calmly that in a fit of practicality she had gotten a degree in geophysics and had spent the last 28 years interpreting seismic data in the oil industry. The good news was that she had found it at least mildly entertaining and ridiculously well paying. The bad news was that the two of them had still managed to spend almost all of the money.


Apparently, she was now Mrs. Cronin, and they had produced three wonderful children whom they loved dearly, even though that is where a lot of the money had gone. Mr. Cronin turned out to be a warm-hearted sort who was happy to see her awake and ready to write. Sherrie Cronin discovered that over the ensuing decades Sally Ride had managed to become the first woman in space and apparently had done a fine job of it. No one, however, had written the book that had been in Sherrie's head for decades. The only problem was, the book informed her sternly that it had now grown into a six book series. Sherrie decided that she better start writing it before it got any longer. She has been wide awake ever since, and writing away.


You can find out more about Sherrie Cronin and y1 on her blog: http://ytothepowerof1.org/

Book Available to buy here on Amazon

Giveaway - The Sarafin Perigord Sereis by A.J Scott-Ryder

I am pleased to announce that A.J Scott-Ryder has kindly offered to give away one kindle copy of each book this month on my blog! I have recently reviewed the first 2 books and will be starting the third soon. I really enjoyed both books as they are great reads for any paranormal/romance lover. Seriously you will not be dissapointed with these books and you won't be able to put them down!

You can read the reviews here:
The Secret Review
The Tattoo Review


Descriptions (The books can be read in order or as separate stories)

The Secret ( Sarafin Perigord #1)
Catherine is a surgeon born into a family with a frustrating number of secrets. Photos hidden from view, her mother crying in the night, her father telling her she'd find out more when she was older. Well, she's older, her parents have both passed away and still completely in the dark she's moving from London to France to live in the home she never knew her father owned - and to meet Jean-Marc, the mysterious friend of the family her father told her to trust.
France introduces her to Tristan and from there to love, happiness and the French way of life. It also brings the growing realisation that not only are many of the people that she meets not exactly human, but possibly neither is she...
When her family's darkest secret is finally revealed, Catherine is forced to choose between staying in France where she has finally found happiness or protecting those she now loves from what she has learned by returning to England to the same half-life that her parents endured.


The Tattoo (Sarafin Perigord #2)

Twenty-something Amelia is used to thinking of herself as the immature dropout of the family, with zero love life and a failed attempt at a university degree behind her.
Complications force her to give up her job in a tattoo parlour but things look up as she starts work in an alternative bookshop in Bristol and begins the "great quest" that she set herself at her mother's deathbed.
This quest brings Amelia to France and to the man she is destined to love and from there to more danger. In the end she realises that the hardest thing to conquer is your own fear when everything about you is changing and you have left your comfort zone far behind you.
A story about love, courage and ultimately trust, told with insight and humour.

The Journey (Sarafin Perigord #3)
Anne-Sophie's life is full of frustrations. These include working alongside overly protective Frenchmen in the Sarafin as well as being in love with Jean-Marc, who hardly seems to notice that she exists...
When a perilous assignment crops up requiring one of the Sarafin to travel to Elizabethan England in a parallel dimension she insists on being chosen for the job as her right. She realises that she has bitten off more than she can chew, however, when she is transported into the role of a powerless woman of that era and has to find some way to get from a dangerous Scotland to the even more dangerous court of Elizabeth I.
Anne-Sophie finds herself marrying against her wishes and sharing a bed with a man she met only days before and in the process finds out more about herself than she was ready to know.
A sweeping tale of love, loss and friendship, The Journey will make you laugh and cry.

 OK so now for the giveaway!

Answers to the bonus questions can be found in the description or my reviews.

The winners will be notified by email within 48hrs of the giveaway ending, if you do not reply to confirm your email then another winner will be chosen. After confirming your email winners will be contacted by the author with the gifted book.

Good Luck Everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway