Pre-Order: Amazon

Being released from Belle Consulting on October 31st (aka Halloween) is the paranormal romance, Witch's Eternal by Bri Clark.

It's been awhile since I've read anything paranormal related, and since Halloween is only a week away, I thought I would read the Witch's Eternal. Originally, I had planned on having this book read and reviewed weeks ahead of schedule, but a few things came up. So I had to read the book early this morning, which explains why my review is being posted late in the day.

Instead of writing up my own version of the book's synopsis, I'm just going to share the official blurb below:

Aisleen is the last of a rare race of witches. Her essence hangs in the balance as the magical and temporal poisoning of the Blue Death ravages her body.

Lucien Lemoine, the feared and revered leader of the eternals, searches for a cure. Something primal and instinctive drives him to save the little witch even when his people’s future hangs is threatened.

But when the Goddess finally breaks her decades long silence Lucien learns Aisleen is more than the one who will fulfill the prophesy of his fate and heal his heart. She can save them all.

But after his tragic betrayal, will she?

Scholastic; 152 pages; $6.99; Amazon

For anyone who follows this blog, you probably already know I'm a big R.L. Stine fan. I've been collecting his books ever since the first Goosebumps title was published in the early 1990s, so of course, I couldn't go a Halloween without reviewing at least one of his books.

Now available from Scholastic is the third installment of the Goosebumps SlappyWorld series, titled "I Am Slappy's Evil Twin."

Inspired by The Adventures of Pinocchio, Slappy is an evil ventriloquist's doll, who likes to terrorize his owners. Since the character first debuted in 1992's Night of the Living Dummy, Slappy has become a fan favorite villain. The character is now the star of own spinoff series, SlappyWorld, where he's the narrator and occasionally appears in the story.

"I Am Slappy's Evil Twin" kicks off with a three-chapter prologue that's set in 1920 and shows the origins of two evil puppets, which happens to be Slappy and his twin Snappy. The book then fast forwards to the present day, where us readers are introduced to the main characters, twelve-year-old Luke Harrison, his younger sister Kelly, and his best friend Jamal.

Luke's father is the owner of Horror House Films, where he produces horror movies, which explains why there are so many horror memorabilia throughout their home. Things start to get weird after Mr. Harrison brings home two identical puppets, which he's using in one of his latest horror films. As soon as Mr. Harrison turns his back, the puppets come to life and begin stalking Luke, Kelly, and Jamal!

Slappy and Snappy plan on making their very own horror flick and Luke, Kelly, and Jamal are the stars of it!

Mill Creek Ent., 150 minutes; $9.98; Amazon

Now available on DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment is Trick or Treat Spooktacular Collection: 13 Haunting Tales. As an added bonus, the DVD comes with a digital code that can be redeemed at www.millcreekent.com/redeem.

Yep! It's that time of year when you'll be finding many different Halloween themed DVD titles in the stores, and many of these will most likely be in the $5 bins!

Trick or Treat Spooktacular Collection: 13 Haunting Tales features four Casper shorts (1945-1954) and 13 other cartoons, which three of them were produced by Fleischer Studios in the 1930s, and the others are part of the Storybook Series. The shorts running time spans between 9 to 15 minutes.


The shorts on the single disc are:

• The Friendly Ghost
• There's a Good Boo Tonight
• Boo Moon
• A Haunting We Will Go

• The Cobwell Hotel
• The Fresh Vegetable Mystery
• Magic Mummy
• Sleepy Hollow
• Ghost in the Shed
• Noises in the Night
• Misunderstood Monsters
• Three Golden Hairs
• The Boy Who Couldn't Shiver

Now available on Amazon from Devil Dog Press is the horror novel Lycan Fallout: Rise of the Werewolf (A Michael Tablot Adventure) by Mark Tufo.


I would like to thank the author for taking the time out of his busy schedule to do a Q&A about his novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I wrote a bit in College. I’ve been interested in it ever since.

What was your first book/story published?

The first book I put up on Amazon Kindle was Indian Hill. The first book that sold more than one copy was Zombie Fallout. 😀

What inspired you to write Lycan Fallout?

Lycan Fallout came about after a conversation I had with my wife on a coffee excursion to town.

What character in Lycan Fallout is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Probably Michael Talbot. Im always getting myself into some sort of trouble.

What is your favorite part in Lycan Fallout?

Each and every year, I decorate the front yard with decorations for Halloween Night, which includes an inflatable Frankenstein, Dracula, and a witch. I also put up a creepy cemetery, full of tombstones, skeletons and a few zombie groundbreakers! Last year, I added a fog machine, which went over well with the trick-or-treaters.

What new decorations am I adding to my yard this year?

Well, I'm adding a new groundbreaker called Pumpkin Man and a 5' Collapsible Coffin, which I received from Oriental Trading.

Pumpkin Man still in the packaging.

The box the Collapsible Coffin came in.

Oriental Trading is largest party supply store in the nation. Besides from party supplies, they also sell arts and crafts, school supplies, toys and novelties. They have a huge section on their website called the "Halloween Headquarters," which contains over 5,000 costumes, craft items, party supplies, candy, and decorations.

The Pumpkin Man!

The coffin lid.

All the Halloween Goodies I received.

Disney; 43 minutes; TV-G; Amazon

Now available on DVD from Disney Home Entertainment is Mickey Mouse: Merry & Scary, featuring the new television special "The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!" and last year's "Duck The Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special." There are no special features, but the DVD does contain five bonus shorts.

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are trying their best to scare Mickey's nephews (Morty and Ferdie) and Donald's nephews (Huey, Dewey and Louie) in "The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!" by telling them the kids a very scary story. The problem is that no matter what story they come up with, the nephews are just not scared.

Like all other ducks, Donald always travels to the south for the winter, which means he always misses Christmas. Well, this year he decides not to migrate in "Duck The Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special," so he can spend the holidays with his pals Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie. Mickey tries his best to give Donald the greatest Christmas, but Donald quickly learns why Ducks migrate to the south for the winter.

The bonus shorts are:





 

2. Enter the link to your terrifying tale in the haunting list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in a curse).

 

3. Visit other haunters in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new creeper.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
 

Yes, I have read Dracula and Frankenstein, and I own more than one copy of both.

Linky List:

Being released this month from WordFire Press is the monster mash-up novel Monsterland by Michael Okon. The book can be pre-ordered on Amazon.

Welcome to Monsterland—the scariest place on Earth.

The last couple years of high school have not been fun for Wyatt Baldwin. His parents divorce, then his dad mysteriously dies. He’s not exactly comfortable with his new stepfather, Carter White, either. An on-going debate with his best friends Howard Drucker and Melvin over which monster is superior has gotten stale. He’d much rather spend his days with beautiful and popular Jade. However, she’s dating the brash high-school quarterback Nolan, and Wyatt thinks he doesn’t stand a chance.

But everything changes when Wyatt and his friends are invited to attend the grand opening of Monsterland, a groundbreaking theme park where guests can rock out with vampires at Vampire Village, be chased by actual werewolves on the Werewolf River Run, and walk among the dead in Zombieville.

With real werewolves, vampires and zombies as the main attractions, what could possibly go wrong?

The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about Monsterland.


When did you become interested in storytelling?

I’ve been writing since I’m 15 years old, albeit poorly. I really fell in love with the craft of screenwriting in high school and college. I started self-publishing novels under my pen name Michael Phillip Cash and finally got a publishing deal this year.

What was your first book/story published?

In 2017, WordFire Press picked up my books Monsterland 1 & 2, in a two book publishing deal. So it took me about 20 years a 15 minutes to get published.

What inspired you to write Monsterland?

I always wanted to write a monster book, but I couldn’t come up with something original. I was binge watching an 80s/90s movie marathon with my son and it just popped into my head, why isn’t there a theme park with zombies. I called my brother immediately and he said it has to be werewolves, vampires, AND zombies. I started beating out the storyline that night.

What character in Monsterland is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

The character least like me is Dr. Vincent Konrad – the mad evil genius of the Monsterland universe. Vincent is using the theme park for nefarious purposes. I could never deliberately try to overthrow anyone or anything. I don’t even like killing ants, let alone trying to take over the world.

2. Enter the link to your terrifying tale in the haunting list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in a curse).

 

3. Visit other haunters in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new creeper.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
 

I would go as the "Phantom" from the classic novel The Phantom of the Opera.

Linky List:

This is how my new book, Impulse, begins... Cady and her roommate Torie leave their Boston apartment one night to head to a fortune-teller's shop in Salem. Cady goes only as a favor to Torie, never imagining she will hear more than a few prepackaged, sunny cliches. Instead, what she hears is enough to drive her straight to the nearest bar...

Buy Link: Amazon

This is where she meets Mick Croft and their stormy, intense, and at times, comical journey to love begins. Without a doubt, I love Halloween and the days, even weeks, leading up to it represent my favorite time of the year. Not only is New England gorgeous in October, but it's enveloped in the kind of festive Halloween ambiance that I include in my story...like rustling trees and scattering leaves, wind-chimes and thunder, shadowy nightfall and fog. Halloween brings with it what I call a fun-eeriness, which I hope I convey in the setting, as Mick and Cady try to stay apart (well, are they really trying? Hmm...doubtful.)

St. Martin's Press; 276 pages; $18.99; Amazon

Once upon a time, there were young adult horror novels that didn't contain glittering vampires, dystopian worlds, or supernatural romances. Yep, back in the middle 1980s throughout the 1990s, there were a slew of YA horror novels, mostly published by Point Horror. Of course one of the most popular series at the time was Fear Street by R.L. Stine (who later created the Goosebumps series). Each novel played out like an 80s' slasher flick with the main character typically being a female teenager who is either being stalked by a killer or has stumbled into a supernatural plot involving the Fear family.

In 2014, R.L. Stine brought back the Fear Street series with Party Games. Now available from St. Martin's Press is the fifth installment in the relaunch series, titled The Dead Boyfriend: A Fear Street Novel.

Set in the fictional Shadyside, Ohio, the novel centers on a teenager named Caitlin, who is thrilled to be dating the new boy in town, Blade. Despite the objections of all her friends, she quickly falls in love with him. Sadly, Blade doesn't feel the same for Caitlin. After a brief public argument, Caitlin kills Blade in self-defense. With no witness in sight, she flees the crime scene, hoping she can get away with the murder.

Unfortunately, this is a horror story, so things don't go quite as easy as Caitlin thought it would be. It seemed Blade had another admirer - Deena Fear, a descendant of Simon Fier (Fear). The girl has never been popular in school, mostly thanks to her Gothic looks and cold-hearted attitude. Her obsession with Blade goes way beyond the grave when she uses a little bit of witchcraft to bring him back from the dead.

Halloween Night is just over a week away, and there's no better time than the present to order your last minute decorations for your yard, class Halloween party, or for whatever you are planning for Oct. 31st.

For me, I decorate the yard each and every hear with spooky decorations, such as foam tombstones, zombie ground breakers, plastic rats, plastic spiders, hanging ghouls, and air-blown characters (2 Frankenstein's monsters and 1 witch). The only thing that could make the scene even creepier would be a little bit of fog.

With so many different fog machines on the market, I was overwhelmed with which one I should try. Eventually, I went with the 1byone Halloween Fog Machine, which retails for $39.99. There are seven different sizes and styles of fog machines on www.1byone.com, but I thought the 400Watt Fog Machine would be the perfect fit for what I need for Halloween Night.

The fog machines measures 9.84 x 7.54 x 4.49 in. It uses a power source input of AC 120V 60Hz and uses a 5A, 125V fuse. The tank holds up to 300ml (0.079 gallons). (Only use water-based fog solutions). The fog output is 2000CFM (cubic ft per minute). It comes with a 6.5ft wired one-switch remote control.

The fog machine come nicely packed in a simple black box with the lettering and illustrations in white. The actual machine is tightly stored inside the box. The only assembly required is for the metal handle, which takes less than a minute to put together.

I highly recommend reading the instructions before testing the fog machine out. Like I already mentioned, make sure to use a water-based fog solution (or otherwise known as fog juice or liquid).


To use the machine, you need to untwist the tank cap and pour in whatever desired amount of fog juice that you want to use. Replace the cap, making sure it's tightly secure. Place the machine on a flat surface. Plug the AC cord into an outlet. The machine will take several minutes to heat up, up to five minutes.

Once the machine is ready, it will spray out a blast of fog from the nozzle. The it will stop and reheat before it will release any more fog will be released.

PG; 113 minutes; $39.99; Amazon

Now available to own on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD from Walt Disney Home Entertainment is Alice Through The Looking Glass. Directed by James Bobin, the film stars Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Rhys Ifans, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

In this sequel to 2010's Alice in Wonderland (and based on the characters by Lewis Carroll), Alice Through The Looking Glass picks up three years later where Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska) has been at sea commanding her late father's ship. When she returns home, she learns that her ex-fiancé, Hamish Asco (played by Leo Bill) had taken over her father's company and is threatening to take her family home as well.

Once again, Alice runs away, but this time she follows the butterfly Absolem (voiced by Alan Rickman in his final performance) through a mirror that takes her to Underland. There she learns that her old friend, the Mad Hatter (played by Johnny Depp), has become homesick after finding a mini-hat he had made when he was a child. It seems his family died during the Attack of the Jabberwocky.

After talking to the White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway), Alice decides to search for Time (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) and try to convince him to travel back in time to save the Mad Hatter's family. Unfortunately, things doesn't go as plan, forcing Alice to steal the Chronosphere and travel through time herself.

Of course the Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter) is never too far behind.




Bonus Features includes:

Jimmy Patterson; 330 pages; $18.99; Amazon

The identity of Jack the Ripper is still one of the biggest murder mysteries of all time. While there are plenty of theories, the 1888-1891 Whitechapel murders have still gone unsolved.

Today, Jack the Ripper is more of a legend. There have been countless non-fiction titles written about the murders, as well as several fictionalized stories based on the killer. There has also been movies, mini-series, and television series made about Jack the Ripper.

My fascination with Jack the Ripper started when I read a non-fiction middle-grade book about the Whitechapel killings when I was in elementary school during the early 1990s. So, naturally, I was interested in reading the young adult horror-thriller Stalking Jack The Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco, which is the first non-written James Patterson title to be released under Mr. Patterson's new children book imprint Jimmy Patterson Books.

Set in the Fall of 1888 in England, Stalking Jack The Ripper centers on Audrey Rose Wadsworth, a teenager with a sort-of-fetish for the dead. Yep, instead of learning how to be ladylike, Audrey would rather be in a morgue cutting up cadavers with Uncle Jonathan, a professor at Harrow School for Boys. Just like her uncle, she is fascinated with the Whitechapel killings.

I'm starting to feel a little bit old after I realized that The Blair Witch Project is seventeen-years-old! The film was released to theaters in July 1999, about a month before I started my senior year of high school. I recall seeing tons of advertisements on television for it, as well as watching a fake documentary about the Blair Witch on the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy). I think I might have owned a couple of tie-in books that were released around that time.

Anyhow, I only watched the actual movie two or three times on VHS, and I had completely forgot about the movie until I had saw the advertisements for the belated sequel Blair Witch a few months ago.

Later, I stumbled upon the DVD for the original film for $5 at Walmart, and of course I purchased it to replace my old VHS copy. I didn't get around to actually watching the film until last night, which I viewed on my laptop.

While the 1980 horror flick Cannibal Holocaust was technically the first found footage horror film, The Blair Witch Project was the one that really kicked off a slew of copycats, including the popular Paranormal Activity franchise.

Ripley Publishing; 256 pages; $28.95

If you're looking to give your kids something a bit unusual this year for Halloween instead of sugary candy, then the recently released Ripley's Believe It or Not!: Unlock The Weird! would make a perfect gift.

Ripley Publishing has been releasing an annual book showcasing the weirdest and strangest facts from around the world along with hundreds of colorful photos

Unlock The Weird! marks the 13 volume in the series. As you can see by the cover art, it has three eyes popping practically popping out at you. The book has been named a Mom's Choice Awards winner.

Similar to the other releases, this edition kicks off with a two-page biography of Robert Ripley along with a few pictures. The rest of the book is divided into 10 chapters - Believe It!, World, Animals, Body, Pop Culture, Transport, Feats, Art, Food, and Beyond Believe.

Artist Eric Millikin used over 1,000 miniature bags of M&Ms to create this pop culture portrait of Count Chocula.

Has your house been BOO'D this month?

I'm not exactly sure when it started, but for the last several years there has been a new tradition of "Booing your Neighbor." It's also known as "Ghosting" and or "Boo-gramming."

The way the tradition goes, you make a little BOO bundle (a plastic candy bucket will work), fill it with treats (candies, stickers, Halloween DVD/Blu-rays, etc.), and leave the bundle on your neighbor's porch or doorsteps. You can also leave it on your co-worker's desk. Kids can also get involved with the tradition by leaving a BOO Bundle on a classmate's desk. Lastly, you need to encourage the recipients to BOO It Forward to others by leaving a BOO card explaining what to do. Then the recipient would have 48 hours to BOO It Forward to their neighbor or friends, creating a chain throughout your neighborhood.

This year Walmart and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have teamed up for the Ghostbusters themed "BOO It Forward" kits. All you have to do is visit Walmart.com/BooitForward to pick out a BOO bucket and treats for the kits. You can place your order right on the website and have it delivered to your home or you can pick it up at your local Walmart store. Also, you can view & print three different Boo cards for free!