Dark Horse; 80 pages; $10.99; Amazon

I thought the perfect way to end this year's Halloween event would be for me to feature something from my favorite television from the late 1990s - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a supernatural series that I was obsessed with throughout my teenage years. By obsessed, I mean I had posters of Sarah Michelle Gellar taped to my bedroom wall; I owned every Buffy tie-in novel and read them until the pages were practically worn out; and I recorded every episode on my VHS recorder (Remember those?). So I guess you can say that I was a big Buffy fan. By the time the series ended in 2003, I was out of my Buffy phase, though I did purchase the series on DVD (as well as the spinoff series, Angel) several years later.

Arriving in bookstores tomorrow from Dark Horse Comis is the graphic novel (well, a comic book), titled Buffy: The High School Years - Glutton For Punishment. Executive produced by Joss Whedon, the novel is written by Kel McDonald and illustrated by Yishan Li.

As you can guess by the title, the graphic novel is set during Buffy's high school years or more specifically it's set during season one of the series, where Buffy has just moved to Sunnydale and has befriended fellow classmates Willow (aka the nerd) and Xander (aka the geek). 

"Glutton For Punishment" centers on Buffy and Xander taking an extra-curricular cooking class. At first it looks like a quick way to make an A, but things quickly change on the first day of class when the cooking teacher, Ms. Miller, goes missing and is replaced by the very strict Mr. Blake. All the students try to bake the perfect dessert, but Mr. Blake's taste buds seem to be from another planet as nothing will satisfy his hunger.

This year's hit animated film Disney/Pixar's Finding Dory will be arriving on Blu-ray and DVD on November 15th, but it's already available to purchase on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA) with over two hours of bonus features & extras.

Directed by Andrew Stanton, Finding Dory take place a year later after the events that occurred in 2003's Finding Nemo. The forgetful Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) suddenly has a childhood flashback about her parents, leading her to make the decision to venture out into the ocean to search for them. There is only one problem - Dory keeps forgetting she has short-term memory loss!

Nemo and his father Marlin decide to join Dory in her quest to find her parents, which leads them to the Marine Life Institute. They have to find a way to get into the institute after Dory is taken there for quarantine.

While inside the institute, Dory befriends an octopus named Hank who might know the whereabouts of her parents

Special Features/Bonus Extras are:

Despite my love for everything caffeinated, I do occasionally drink a cup of decaffeinated coffee. The problem for me is that I'm limited to two or three  decaf brands in my area (I live in a small town with only a Walmart and a Dollar General!). When I had an opportunity to review a new decaf brand, of course I jumped at the offer.

The brand is called "Five Cups Coffee," which has dubbed itself "the world's finest decaf coffee. It's a USDA organic and direct certified trade.

Why is it called "Five Cups Coffee?"

Well, since it's decaf, you can drink five cups of coffee without having to worry about any harmful effects to your body. Plus, you won't have the unwanted "caffeine" crash!

The coffee is made with a blend of 100% arabica beans that were grown on award winning farms in Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras. The coffee beans go through the Swiss Water® decaffeination, which is a 100% chemical free process.

The coffee is roasted on demand, in small batches in the USA. Each bag of coffee beans has a ziplock, which will help keep the freshness.

I had received a DVD screener of the horror flick 2 Jennifer from Sector 5 Films back in the spring, but I had misplaced the screener until I stumbled upon it last month.

2 Jennifer is sequel to the 2013's To Jennifer, which I have never even seen. The sequel is written & directed by Hunter Johnson and centers on an aspiring filmmaker named Spencer (played by Hunter Johnson) who is obsessed with the film To Jennifer.

Shot on an iPhone, Spencer pitches an idea for a sequel to To Jennifer, and sets out to make the movie. Of course his only real goal is to find an actress named Jennifer to play "Jennifer" in the film. It doesn't take long for the cast & crew to realize Spencer is out of his mind.

Final Thoughts

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:

Now available from Red Fist Fiction is the urban fantasy Demimonde Series (Bleeding Heart, Blood Rush, Wolf's Bane) from author Ash Krafton.

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her debut novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I've been making up stories since I was a kid, but I didn't think it would ever become a career. I wanted to be a pharmacist, instead. Practicing in retail pharmacy while raising my kids left little room for a third job…and, yet…

When my children were in elementary school, I started writing again. It was a way to stay sane while being bombarded by children's television and kid-friendly activities. While they played or napped, I wrote, filling notebooks with amateurish attempts at writing a novel. No one ever read those things. They were just a way to keep my brain busy.

It wasn't until I started writing BLEEDING HEARTS: Book One of the Demimonde that I thought I could be brave enough to tell someone. I didn't expect the huge amount of support that I got but it was what gave me the courage to pursue it, to finish it, and to seek publication.

What was your first book/story published?

BLEEDING HEARTS (Demimonde #1) was my first novel. It was picked up in three book deal by Pink Narcissus Press, a small press publisher of eclectic fiction.

What inspired you to write The Demimonde Series?