How Do You Halloween?

by Maureen Bonatch 

Halloween doesn’t have to have an age limit. Even though some neighborhoods forgo the traditional costume wearing and trick or treating, or put an age limit on it, that doesn’t stop some of us.

It could be that there’s something about the leaves starting to change colors, the air getting cooler and the plethora of spooky movies filling the movie and television screen that makes us want to join in the festivities.

 Or maybe it’s just me?  

Have you taken advantage of the month of October to:

• Stock up on a plethora of edible treats for the cute little trick or treaters…or for us, admit it, most of the candy is for us
• Dress up as something scary, sexy, funny, or whatever strikes your fancy—no limits!
• Scare our friends and family
• Neglect housecleaning and leave some cobwebs—they're just festive decorations!
• Binge watch scary movies
• Devour every book related to magic, fantasy and horror
• Share ghost stories

Need Some Help Getting Into the Spirit of the Season?

If you like ghost stories that might tempt you to leave a light on at night, or to tread a little more carefully through the house, check out my book Evil Speaks Softly.

They were never supposed to meet. Fame came easy for Liv by following in the footsteps of the female writers in her family. The cycle repeated for decades…until Liv changed the story. Her villain doesn’t like the revision—and he isn’t a fictional character. In his story, the bad guy always wins.

They were never supposed to find love. Liv never questioned her demanding nocturnal muse, or the strange incidents in her old, family home until she met Gage. His job was to watch her from afar, not reveal the truth about the curse and the stories of the dead.

They’ve broken all the rules. Together they unravel secrets as they strive to stop the cycle. Liv’s ability to find love, and protect her loved ones, hangs on the fickle whims of the dead—and they’ve got nothing to lose.

Look Halloween in the Eye and Laugh?

If you prefer to keep the humor in Halloween and find the fun in all things magical, check out my book, Grandma Must Die.

Carman has worn out more towns and last names than impractical shoes protecting the secret of her magic blood. But when a friend goes missing, and another is infected with a deadly spell, Carman must choose. Expose her magic blood by curing the spell—or stop the infection from spreading by killing the source…the grandmother.

Magic bounty hunter Dylan has scoured libraries of banned magic paraphernalia seeking a method to distinguish genuine witches from impersonators. He suspects unorthodox librarian Carman might hold this information tighter than the hair he’s dying to unleash from her bun. With a past as hidden as his sleeve of tattoos, Dylan discovers he’s been used to gain Carman’s trust and their passion risks more than mixing mortals and magic.

Win Some Treats of Your Own?

The authors at Here Be Magic looooove sharing treats this time of the year—and we want to help you fill your list of movies to binge watch this month, or avoid if you don't like to be scared. Check out our weekly Friday posts about Scary Movies this month (and enter to win some treats!)

Here's what you've missed so far this month:

• Part One appeared here on Friday, Oct 4: "SCARY MOVIES 1 - THE ONES THAT TERRIFIED US AS KIDS!" - When you're little, a movie doesn't have to be from the horror genre to scare the bejeebers out of you! 

• Part Two came out here on Friday, Oct. 11: "SCARY MOVIES 2 - THE ONES WE LOVE TO WATCH AGAIN + AGAIN" - Are there certain movies you simply MUST watch every Halloween?  Or any time?

Be sure to stop back Friday for the next Scary Movie installment this month.

Hungry for More Spook-tacular Reads?

Visit My Author Page or Website for some more stories perfect for the Halloween Season.

Want to talk about everything Halloween?

Put the word “Halloween” in the search field on this blog and you’ll find everything and anything Halloween! What can we say? When you write fantasy and paranormal, you usually geek out a little this time of the year with all things Halloween.

So Tell Me, How Do You Halloween?

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

Be the first to know about Maureen’s book sales and new releases by following her on BookBub, Amazon and/or signing up for her newsletter

LOVE FAERIES? New Excerpt from STORM CROSSED by Dani Harper

"The latest stand-alone novel in Dani Harper’s Grim Series will delight old and new fans alike, transporting them to the ancient fae realm beneath the modern human world,
where magic rules and menace abounds…"

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was back in July to see Storm Crossed named as one of the 3 finalists for the PRISM award in Urban Fantasy! But it was nothing compared to the feelings that overwhelmed me on September 30th when I found out that my story had actually WON!

I'm still a little dazed, but truly thankful. Much appreciation goes to the organizers and judges of the PRISM - it's a lot of work to put on a writing competition. Most of all, I'm grateful to my wonderful readers who have taken this story to their hearts.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Heir to a noble fae house, Trahern is forced to watch helplessly as his twin brother is cruelly changed into a grim—a death dog—as punishment for falling in love with the wrong person. Trahern doesn’t believe love exists, but he will do anything to keep his brother alive—even join the Wild Hunt and ride the night skies of the human world.

Lissy Santiago-Callahan believes in love but has no time for it. She’s busy juggling her career as an academic and her home life as a single mom to a young son with Asperger’s. Her hectic life in sleepy Eastern Washington is made even more chaotic with the sudden arrival of a demanding fae and his unusual “dog.”

Mortal and immortal have nothing in common, and the attraction between Lissy and Trahern surprises them both. But when their desire places Lissy and her child in the path of a deadly faery feud, will the connection last, or will their separate worlds prove too great a divide?

EXCERPT:

The ear-piercing screams would have done a pterodactyl proud as nine-year-old Fox entered total meltdown mode in the produce department of Naturally Yours Organics. As usual, the din won either disapproving glares or pained expressions of sympathy from other shoppers. Today the glares were in the majority. In a last-ditch effort to defuse the situation, Lissy sat down on the hardwood floor next to her son’s flailing body. “Just breathe, bud. Breathe in and out.” She kept her voice calm and matter-of-fact, even as she slid his beloved Squishy Bear close to him. Sometimes the soft toy was a life preserver in a storm of stimulation that he couldn’t process fast enough.

Not today.

“It’s okay, we’re going now.” She got to her feet and hefted Fox, all fifty-one struggling pounds of him, onto her hip. He was small for his age—what on earth would she do when he got bigger? Either rent a hand truck or get a hip replacement. Especially when he continued to thrash like a netted tuna all the way to the front of the store. Once she’d taken a few steps outside, however, he went completely limp, his shrill screams subsiding into strange, silent sobbing, punctuated only by the occasional hiccup. Lissy remembered plenty of occasions those first few years when she’d sobbed all the way to the car, too.

She settled his rag-doll body into his booster seat, placed his bear and his favorite video game within reach, then half sat, half collapsed into the driver’s seat. The closing of the car door shut the world out with a satisfying clunch, and Lissy imagined a baseball umpire yelling, Safe! 

Taking a couple of deep breaths in the blissful quiet, she turned the key and switched on the air-conditioning. The car was parked in the shade, but temperatures climbed early at this time of year. Besides, cool air often relaxed Fox, no matter what time of year it was. She checked on her son in the rearview mirror. He lay unmoving, his blond head turned away from the window, face pale and his ever-serious blue eyes staring. He looked exhausted. Although he lost control much less often now, an episode still took a toll on him.

Truth be told, it took a helluva toll on her, too. But Melissa Santiago-Callahan would never give up. The word quit just wasn’t in her vocabulary. Sometimes, though, she couldn’t help but wish that things were different—

She had been close to finishing her doctorate in geophysics when she met Chief Warrant Officer Matt Lovell, on leave from Fort Carson.

Funny, thoughtful, intelligent, and every bit as driven to succeed as she was, the tall helicopter pilot fell hard for her—and she for him. On the six-month anniversary of their first date, they were engaged. Two months after she said yes, he was deployed to Iraq. And one month later he was gone. Death came for him not in the skies that he loved so much but on the ground in an IED explosion.

The shock to her heart was enormous. To go from such a high-intensity relationship to nothing in the space of a heartbeat was hard enough. But even as she swung between soul-searing pain and frozen numbness, Lissy discovered she was pregnant.

And seven months later, Fox was born by emergency C-section.

Despite his abrupt introduction to the world, her son was healthy and strong. Lissy was determined to be the very best parent possible, and if the universe was fair, it should have worked. She should have been able to shower Fox with love and have everything turn out fine. 

But by the time his third birthday rolled around, she realized that her beautiful son was different from other children—

.....

STORM CROSSED by Dani Harper is available on Amazon in these formats - Kindle ebook, paperback, Audiobook and MP3-CD.

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Crossed-Grim-Book-4-ebook/dp/B073TTTGZD

Check out all Dani Harper's novels or sign up for her newsletter at www.daniharper.com

HERE BE NEWS for October 14, 2019

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday, October 7 - 
"HERE BE NEWS" - All the latest from the gang at Here Be Magic.

Tuesday, October 8 -
“PETS IN SPACE 4®” – Sci-fi romance author Veronica Scott is our guest today on Here Be Magic, with an excerpt from her new story, STAR CRUISE: IDOL’S CURSE. Every Pets In Space® anthology helps support a service dog organization! 

Thursday, October 10 -
“SHAZAM!” – What is a spell? Are there rules for using magick? Author Ruth A. Casie explores the world of spellcasting on Here Be Magic.

Friday, October 11 -
"SCARY MOVIES 2 - THE ONES WE LOVE TO WATCH AGAIN + AGAIN" - Are there certain movies you simply MUST watch every Halloween? The Here Be Magic authors share their favorites in Part Two of their Scary Movie series. Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY! 

With Halloween on the way, the Here Be Magic gang got talking about horror movies - both the fun and the frightening. Of course we had to share, so we've come up with a four-part "Scary Movies" series for October!  We also have a month-long CONTEST you can enter on any one of these posts!

Part One appeared on Friday, Oct 4: "SCARY MOVIES 1 - THE ONES THAT TERRIFIED US AS KIDS!" - When you're little, a movie doesn't have to be from the horror genre to scare the bejeebers out of you! 

Part Two came out on Friday, Oct. 11: "SCARY MOVIES 2 - THE ONES WE LOVE TO WATCH AGAIN + AGAIN" - Are there certain movies you simply MUST watch every Halloween?  Or any time?

Watch for our next installment on Friday, Oct. 18!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SCARY MOVIES 2 - The Ones We Love to Watch Again and Again! + A GIVEAWAY

We might have seen them a dozen times or more. We might even own our own copy. But when these flicks appear on the TV, resistance is futile...
.....

JODY - "The only scary movie I’ve watched more than once is TREMORS and I will watch Kevin Bacon in all of his 6 graboid degrees any time that movie is on! It’s one of my favorite movies of all time, especially the acting role Reba McIntyre, yes that Reba, has in the movie. I haven’t shown my kids yet because they do NOT like scary movies, but now I’m feeling the urge for a re-watch." 
~ Jody Wallace, jodywallace.com
.....

LINDA - "Is it wrong to love a zombie Christmas movie? My fave is “Anna and the Apocalypse”. And it’s a musical!" 
~ Linda Mooney, lindamooney.com
.....

DANI - "When my kids were teenagers, Halloween was a whole season at our house! Punctuated by every Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode ever made, there was a looong list of movies to be watched, including famous franchises like Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. 

"But I have some personal favorites of my own that I never get tired of. One of my top favs is CONSTANTINE featuring Keanu Reeves as the demon hunter, John Constantine." 
~ Dani Harper, daniharper.com
.....

.....

ANGELA - "John Carpenter's “Halloween” (1978) is one of my all-time favorite movies, so of course, I have to watch it every October (although I watch it other times of the year too if I'm in the mood). I even binge the sequels, including the ones that are terrible, although I have only been able to watch the Rob Zombie remakes once. Same with the 2018 film. I just did not like those. The original, though, is one my entire family used to watch every Halloween (yeah, we were weird). 

"For me, it’s part nostalgia to watch it, but also, it still manages to give me the creeps a little bit. And Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode is the perfect Final Girl role model -- you know, in case you ever come face to face with a maniac serial killer." 
~ Angela Campbell, www.angelacampbellonline.com
.....

PG - "I'm not sure this counts as a "scary" movie, but it's weird, bloody and violent and yet I've watched it several times--although not anytime recently. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is just...strange. It's almost comedic. I'm not sure if it's a genuinely bad movie, or if it's "badness" is a work of genius." 
~ PG Forte, pgforte.com
.....

MAUREEN – “I can't pass up The Shining, Constantine or The Silence of the Lambs and other oldies-but-goodies if I see that they're on.” 
~ Maureen Bonatch, maureenbonatch.com
.....

SHAWNA - "I rarely have time to re-watch movies, but I've seen Crimson Peak three times and plan to watch it again this Halloween. Not only does it boast Tom Hiddleston in period clothing (though this would be reason enough) but it is a beautiful example of the gothic horror genre, with just the slightest hint of steampunk." ~ Shawna Reppert, www.shawna-reppert.com

.....

CINDY - "I'm actually not a big fan of horror, though I love suspense and paranormal. My favorite has to be Rocky Horror Picture Show just for the sheer cult classicism of it all. Oh--and I almost forgot Nightmare before Christmas." ~ Cindy Spencer Paper, www.cindyspencerpape.com 
.....

UPDATE - The contest is over and we have winners! 

1. BEVERLY wins an ebook from Jody Wallace - Catalyst: Cat Ship (Obsidian Rim Book 8) 

2. LOUISE wins her choice of one ebook from Dani Harper

3. GLENDA wins a deluxe canvas tote bag from Dani Harper

4. SHERRY wins her choice of one ebook from Linda Mooney

5. MARTHA wins her choice of one Audiobook from Linda Mooney

6. ANNE wins the grand prize, a $35 Amazon Gift eCard from all the authors at HERE BE MAGIC

We have the contact information for everyone and winners will receive emails within a couple of days.

THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by our Scary Movie blogs. We had a lot of fun putting them together!

.........................

Shazam!

Spells and spellcasting. The very first spell I clearly remember is salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo. Put them together and what do you get? Cinderella! A magic coach, horses, a footman, glass slippers and a beautiful ball gown and let’s not forget the handsome prince.

What makes the fairy-godmother’s words a spell? A spell is much like a prayer said with a great deal of intent, focus, and will that gives words (or nonsense ones) new meanings. Deborah Blake, an authority on Wiccans, explains that taking a shower can be a magical event. Your intent or goal is to wash away the stress of the day. You focus on the water pouring down on you and visualize your stress being washed away. Your will is to apply energy to the task. Along with the words she uses to increase the impact of the magick “Water, water, wash away all the stress of the day,” your shower becomes magickal. So, is Cinderella’s fairy-godmother invoking magick?

Her fairy-godmother cast her spell speaking an incantation to create a specific outcome. She clearly imagined what she wanted. She intended the magic coach, horse, etc. to all appear. She was keening focused on the results. And through sheer will she used all the energy at her disposal to make it happen.

What is a spell? Spells are written or spoken words together with set actions sometimes using objects, all with the intent to bring about specific results. The words are the important thing. The actions and objects are used to help the spellcaster concentrate and amplify their request. They use what they feel works well for them candles, herbs, oils, gems and other things. Color, phases of the moon and the day of the week may also play an important part of the spell.

Are there any rules for using magick? Deborah Blake, in her book, The Goddess is in the Details by Llewellyn Publications, July 2009, lays out the seven beliefs at the heart of being a witch.

1. Harm none. The Wiccan Rede says, “An it harm none, do as ye will.” While this sounds simple, whatever you do make certain you harm no one. That includes yourself and anyone else. She pointed out quite clearly that downstream affects are really unknown. This rule is a guideline and a reminder that the intent should always be to do good.
2. Do not interfere with free will. Everyone is responsible for their own actions and should not interfere with the actions of others. Not every witch (other regular person for that matter) seems to believe in this.
3. What you put out (into the universe) is what you get back. The Law of Return. I believe very strongly in this rule and I’m not a witch. I call it paying it forward. I truly believe that if you give of yourself will come back to you threefold.
4. As above, so below: Words have power. Witches believe that words have power. It is the reason why spells are said out loud—to announce your intention to the universe. They also believe symbols can be used to heighten the effects of words and can stand for objects or ideas. Sometimes they use candles, stones, water, wine, or anything that will help connect them to the object or idea. As above, so below means they not only have the power to effect change through symbolism and their connection with the universe, but they must also be careful with their words and thoughts. Ms. Blake gave a great example. If words have power, and you get back what you put out, think what would happen when you say, “I hate you.”
5. Magick is real and witches can use it to bring about positive change. With combination of their belief that they can bring about positive change and the power of words and symbols, they use intent and focus to alter their world.
6. We are part of nature. All Pagans have one thing in common—they respect nature and believe they are a part of it, not above it. While traditional religions view humans as superior, Pagans see themselves as guardians. Witches worship the mother earth, the nature goddess. They follow the cycle of the seasons and strive to connect to nature and stay close to their primordial gods.
7. The divine is in everything, including us. Pagans believe in the old gods and goddesses and that there is an element of the divine in everything. This is at the heart of what it means to be a witch. This connection to the universe and to the divine gives witches both power and responsibility. It connects them to every other living being.
8. So, let me leave you with this. Find a comfortable place to sit where you won’t be disturbed. Light a white candle, take a sip of red wine, hold the book your reading, and say:

The winds are still, as the words unfold.

Strong is the will, as the story is told.

Peace fills the room, and carries you away.

Imagination in bloom, the rest of the day.

Now sit back, open your book and enjoy the adventure. Happy Reading!

Oh... if I've enticed you to read a story with spells and adventure, you may like this one.

England, 1290

Lord Alex Stelton can't resist a challenge, especially one with a prize like this: protect a castle on the Scottish border for a year, and it's his. Desperate for land of his own, he'll do anything to win the estate—even enter a proxy marriage to Lady Lisbeth Reynolds, the rumored witch who lives there.

Feared and scorned for her second sight, Lisbeth swore she'd never marry, but she is drawn to the handsome, confident Alex. She sees great love with him but fears what he would think of her gift and her visions of a traitor in their midst.

Despite his own vow never to fall in love, Alex can't get the alluring Lisbeth out of his mind and is driven to protect her when attacks begin on the border. But as her visions of danger intensify, Lisbeth knows it is she who must protect him. Realizing they'll secure their future only by facing the threat together, she must choose between keeping her magic a secret and losing the man she loves.

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/ZgvmDw

BN: http://bit.ly/ZQkCuY

KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-guardian-s-witch

iBook:  https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-guardians-witch/id653078039?mt=11&at=1000lRmG