E.J. Stevens's Blog, page 20

Congratulations Amanda the winner of our All Hallow's Read Giveaway at From the Shadows!  Amanda will receive an ebook copy of Hunting in Bruges, the first novel in the Hunters' Guild urban fantasy series.


Thank you to all who entered!

**Winner randomly selected using Random.org**

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Washington D.C. and our special guide is R.S. Belcher, author of NIGHTWISE.

Washington D.C.'s Top 5 Spooky Places
The characters in my novel, Nightwise, pay a visit to Washington D.C. and attempt to run a caper on the occult agencies of the U.S. shadow government.  I used to live in D.C. when I was going to graduate school and working as a private detective.  I found it to be a fascinating city with a very unique feeling of power, criminality, culture, antiquity, and weirdness—the city hums with all of it.

So when I lived in D.C. and then, years later, when I researched my characters coming to town to stir up trouble, I discovered all kinds of cool and strange things about the District.  I thought I'd share them with you as part of your paranormal road trip.

The Octagon House:  This home in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood is reported to be one of the most haunted locations in the District.  The Octagon is one of the oldest buildings in Washington D.C. and was built in 1799.  The house was declared a national historical landmark in 1960 and opened as a museum in 1970. 

There has been all manner of supernatural phenomena and entities reported in Octagon House over the centuries.  As far back as the 1800's, spectral servant bells ringing are recorded through much of the house's early history, even after the cords for the bells were cut.  Ghostly apparitions have been sighted on the stairs and stair landings, as well as the ghost of  First Lady, Dolly Madison, who has been seen in the house on multiple occasions.  The Madison's resided in the house briefly after the burning of the White House by the British in the War of 1812.

In 1888, a team of twelve men entered the home to either prove or debunk the claims of supernatural activity.  A first-person account of what happened published after the group's overnight stay reported all manner of activity in the home including bloodcurdling screams, the tromping sound of boots, and the clanking of sabers.

The Reston Monkey House: This house was in the suburbs of D.C. , in the quiet little community of Reston, Virginia and was the site where the Hazelton Labs animal containment facility once stood.  This innocuous building, which was destroyed in 1995 by the owner after numerous failed attempts to rent it, is the birth place of the first reported American-based strain of the Ebola virus—Reston Virus, or RESTV.  This strain of  Ebola was only lethal to non-human primates, but its close relation to the Ebola strain that infects humans, viruses nasty habit of mutating, and the facility's close location to the U.S. Capitol set off all manner official and unofficial red flags in the 90s.   

The Monkey house and its unfortunate residents—long-tailed macaques—are highlighted in the novel, The Hot Zone by Robert Preston.  Don't read it when you're coming down with the flu.  You'll be comforted to know if you visit the site today, the new building located where the Monkey House once was has been home to a series of child care related businesses for decades.

The Lair of the Demon Cat:  Legend has it a demon stalks the sub-levels of the nation's Capitol Building.  Washington has a semi-secret underground city—miles of tunnels, corridors, and connecting sub-levels that run between the numerous Federal buildings.  The workers and security personnel that navigate the maze of tunnels have reported encountering a creature that takes the form of a black cat with hypnotic yellow eyes.  This creature, Federal workers have nicknamed “DC,” has shown up since shortly after the construction of the Capitol in 1793. 

The Demon Cat is said to appear to someone just prior to some national tragedy, like the assassination of presidents, the stock market crash that led to the great depression and the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Security guards have claimed to fire on the cat as it came toward them, growing in size and ferocity, only to vanish as it pounced, untouched by the gunfire.   The tales have bounced around the Capitol for over a century.  The legend may date back to the 19th century when building caretakers employed cats to deal with the building's rodent problems.  I have even heard that there is a pair of small cat footprint tracks embedded in the stone floor of the Capitol Rotunda near the old entrance to the Senate hall.  One of the D.C. Roller derby teams call themselves the “D.C. DemonCats.”

Rock Creek Park:  A beautiful and serene oasis of green in the concrete heart of  D.C. the park is often a refuge for joggers, lovers, and those looking to disconnect for a little while from the hum of the urban hive; however, the solitude attracts others with less innocent intent.  Rock Creek has a long history of being the final resting place of victims of murders and suicides.  The most famous of these in recent memory is Chandra Levy, the intern and lover of Representative Gary Condit.  Levy's remains were discovered in the park in the early 2000s. 

Rock Creek has developed an infamous reputation as a hunting ground for serial killers, muggers and rapists looking for isolated prey.  There have been numerous discoveries of slaughtered animals in the park that authorities and park police attribute to sacrifices made as part of the Santeria religion.  The darker aspect of Santeria—Palo Mayombe—is popular with certain drug gangs in the District looking to get a supernatural edge on their competition.

The Underground World of Harrison Dyar:  In 1928, a truck driving near 21st and P street in the District fell into the earth as the street beneath it collapsed.  The incident revealed an intricate series of elaborate  tunnels stretching beneath the city streets, inducing bricked walls, plastered six-foot arched ceilings, and electrical lighting.  Further investigation could not determine the architect of the covert network of tunnels or what purpose for which they were created.

Enter Harrison G. Dyar—an entomologist with the Smithsonian, who claimed the maze of tunnels were a hobby of his with no ulterior motive and that he simply loved to dig.  Dyar stated to the press, when he  came forward to claim the tunnels as his work, that he had discovered this passion while digging in his wife's backyard garden in 1905 and simply kept going. Dyar was a non-descript, hunched man of 58 in 1928 and seemed physically incapable of such an elaborate project on his own.  He admitted to digging other tunnels under the streets of the District, including a massive bunker chamber and more tunnels including pipe ladders to access the various levels.  This complex reached the water table under B Street.  You could toss pebbles into the darkness at the end of one such tunnel and here it splash in the water below.

There were strange things about Dyar's underworld that were never explained to anyone's satisfaction, including sculptures of human and animal heads on the walls at intermittent points along the tunnels, and on one tunnel arch, a Latin inscription—“ Facilis Descensus Averno”—from Virgil, it translates to “The way down to the lower world is easy.”   Dyar never had a chance to be pressed on any more details to his odd, and seemingly, incomplete story.  He died at his desk of a stroke in 1929.
Many theories and rumors persist about the reason for the tunnels, including one tale that claims that Dyar had two families and used the tunnels to move between houses and another tale that he suffered some form of mania that compelled him to keep digging.  The underworld of the mysterious scientist still exists, but the known entrances have all been sealed with concrete. 

Thank you R.S. for giving us such a haunting tour of D.C.! 
To learn more about R.S. Belcher and his books, please visit his website.  You can add Nightwise here on Goodreads.



What did you think of R.S. Belcher's picks for spooky places?
On our last Paranormal Road Trip we visited New York City with Shanna Swendson.  Next week we have a special week of Black Friday bookish deals and giveaways planned.  The following week Paranormal Road Trip will continue as we travel to Los Angeles with Rachel Marks.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

Today we have a very special book giveaway for our readers.  We are giving away a hardcover copy of THE LEFT-HAND WAY by Tom Doyle!

Win The Left-Hand Way

The Left-Hand Way (American Craftsmen #2) by Tom Doyle.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy meets ancient magic, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Poe’s Red Death returns, more powerful than ever. Can anyone stop him before he summons an apocalyptic nightmare even worse than himself?

In this second book of Tom Doyle’s contemporary fantasy series, the American craftsmen are scattered like bait overseas. What starts as an ordinary liaison mission to London for Major Michael Endicott becomes a desperate chase across Europe, where Endicott is both hunted and hunter. Reluctantly joining him is his minder from MI13, Commander Grace Marlowe, one of Her Majesty’s most lethal magician soldiers, whose family has centuries of justified hostility to the Endicotts.

Meanwhile, in Istanbul and Tokyo, Endicott’s comrades, Scherie Rezvani and Dale Morton, are caught in their own battles for survival against hired assassins and a ghost-powered doomsday machine. And in Kiev, Roderick Morton, the spider at the center of a global web, plots their destruction and his ultimate apotheosis. After centuries of imprisonment, nothing less than godlike power will satisfy Roderick, whatever the dreadful cost.

Release Date: August 11, 2015
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Add to Goodreads.

The Left-Hand Way Book Giveaway
Win a hardcover copy of THE LEFT-HAND WAY by Tom Doyle!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post and include your email address so we may contact you if you win.  Giveaway open to US and Canada.  Giveaway ends November 20, 2015 midnight EST.

Magician soldiers?  Ghost-powered doomsday machine?  This book sounds amazing.

Good luck!

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is New York City and our special guide is Shanna Swendson, author of the Enchanted, Inc., Rebel Mechanics, and Fairy Tale series.

NYC's Top 5 Spooky Places
All of my fantasy novels so far have been set in New York City, probably because that's always been a magical place to me. I didn't actually visit the city until I was an adult, but I'd seen so many movies set there, read so many books set there, and had dreamed about it as a place to achieve stardom that by the time I did finally go there, some of that magic seemed to transfer to the way I experienced the city. It's a place full of history layered on top of more history, full of possibilities, so I find magical things that inspire stories around every corner. Here are five magical (and maybe a little spooky) places that have inspired my books:

1) Central Park
The very concept of a vast parkland in the middle of a major city is rather mindblowing. It seems to exist on a border between the manmade world and the natural world, and I feel like I've entered some other realm when I visit the park. That was a big inspiration behind my Fairy Tale series, in which the park holds portals to the fairy Realm. The Ramble, in particular, seems to exist in some other sphere than the city, and sometimes you can hear the distant sound of a violin coming from within. Or there are the tunnels under the street that lead to Bethesda Terrace, which I'm pretty sure are passages to a magical land. Then there are all those lampposts straight out of Narnia.

2) Lower Manhattan
This is the oldest part of the city, and although there aren't too many buildings from the colonial era left, thanks to fires, war, and constant reconstruction, the twisty, turny street pattern from that era remains. It's very different from the grid in the rest of the city, and it's one place where I can get truly lost in spite of my good sense of direction and ability to carry maps in my head. You never know what you'll find around the next corner, and sometimes things look entirely different when you look at them out of the corner of your eye. This is where I set the headquarters for Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., the magical corporation in my Enchanted, Inc. series. It just seemed like the kind of place an ancient corporation would be based, and where you might find a castle with turrets tucked down a narrow side street that you never noticed before.

3) The South Street Seaport
There's something about a tall ship that calls to my soul, and the masts and rigging towering over the docks here seem to have come out of another era. If you look at it the right way and in the right frame of mind, you might even imagine yourself traveling in time. That imagery comes into play in Rebel Mechanics, set in an alternate 1888 New York, where those tall ships at docks are a common sight. I just wish I could see them from the deck of an airship, the way my heroine does.

4) Grace Church
This Gothic-style church makes the list more for what isn't there. When I was initially planning the first book in my Enchanted, Inc. series, I was pretty sure there had to be gargoyles there. It's the kind of building that just cries out for some gargoyles or grotesques. But when I visited the city to research the book and took a good look at the church with my story in mind, I was surprised not to find any gargoyles at all. That ended up playing into my story. And you kind of have to wonder where the gargoyles might have gone …

5) The mansions of Fifth Avenue
This is another item on the list that's about what isn't there anymore. For a rather brief period of time, the stretch of Fifth Avenue facing Central Park was a row of impressive mansions. These buildings nearly filled entire city blocks and looked like palaces. But that's some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and although you'd think a building would be substantial, these turned out to be rather ephemeral, gone within a couple of decades and replaced by tall apartment buildings. There are only a few traces left of what was once there, with some of the old mansions now serving as museums, or the gates from a mansion now gracing the gardens in the park. This was one case where I couldn't research a book setting by visiting it because the setting I wanted to use in Rebel Mechanics was no longer there. Fortunately, a lot of photos were taken of these homes, inside and out, and a few facades still exist to help us imagine the ghosts of what briefly existed there.

Thank you Shanna for giving us such a haunting tour of NYC! 
To learn more about Shanna Swendson and her books, please visit her website.  You can add here new steampunk fantasy novel Rebel Mechanics here on Goodreads.


What did you think of Jamie's picks for spooky places?
On our last Paranormal Road Trip we visited Los Angeles with Jamie Schultz.  Next week we'll be traveling to Washington D.C. with R.S. Belcher.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

We have a very special book giveaway for our readers.  We are giving away a Trade Paperback copy of DEADLANDS: GHOSTWALKERS by Jonathan Maberry and a *signed* bookplate!

Love steampunk?  Weird west alternate history?  Urban fantasy?  Keep reading for a chance to win.


Deadlands: Ghostwalkers by Jonathan Maberry

From New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Maberry, the first in a thrilling series of novels based on Deadlands, a hugely successful role-playing game (RPG) set in the Weird, Weird West.

Welcome to the Deadlands, where steely-eyed gunfighters rub shoulders with mad scientists and dark, unnatural forces. Where the Great Quake of 1868 has shattered California into a labyrinth of sea-flooded caverns . . . and a mysterious substance called "ghost rock" fuels exotic steampunk inventions as well as plenty of bloodshed and flying bullets.

In Ghostwalkers, a gun-for-hire, literally haunted by his bloody past, comes to the struggling town of Paradise Falls, where he becomes embroiled in a deadly conflict between the besieged community and a diabolically brilliant alchemist who is building terrible new weapons of mass destruction . . . and an army of the living dead!

Release Date: September 22, 2015
Genre: Steampunk, Alternate History, Urban Fantasy
Add to Goodreads.

Deadlands Ghostwalkers Book Giveaway
We are giving away a Trade Paperback copy of DEADLANDS: GHOSTWALKERS by Jonathan Maberry and a *signed* bookplate to one lucky winner!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post and include your email address so we may contact you if you win.  BONUS ENTRY: Share a link to this contest and let us know where you shared it (Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Forum, Pinterest, Tsu...).  This giveaway is open to mailing addresses in the US and Canada.  Giveaway ends November 12, 2015 midnight EST.

Good luck!

In response to tremendous reader request, BLOOD AND MISTLETOE is now available in trade paperback.

First time in print!
The holidays will never be the same again.


Blood and Mistletoe (Ivy Granger #1.5) by E.J. Stevens

Holidays are worse than a full moon for making people crazy. In Harborsmouth, where many of the residents are undead vampires or monstrous fae, the combination may prove deadly.

Ivy Granger, psychic private investigator, returns to the streets of Harborsmouth in this addition to the bestselling urban fantasy series.

Holidays are Hell, a point driven home when a certain demon attorney returns with information regarding a series of bloody murders. Five Harborsmouth residents have been killed and every victim has one thing in common—they are fae. Whoever is killing faeries must be stopped, but they only leave one clue behind—a piece of mistletoe floating in a pool of the victim's blood.

The holidays just got interesting. Too bad this case may drive Ivy mad before the New Year. Heck, she'll be lucky to survive Christmas.

BLOOD AND MISTLETOE is an Ivy Granger series novella. The world of Ivy Granger, including the Ivy Granger Psychic Detective series and Hunters' Guild series, is filled with action, paranormal mystery, magic, dark humor, quirky characters, bloodsucking vampires, flirtatious demons, sarcastic gargoyles, sexy shifters, temperamental witches, psychotic faeries, and snarky, kick-butt heroines.

Genre: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Add to Goodreads.

Now available in Trade Paperback, Ebook, and Audiobook.
A huge thank you to everyone who came out for the Blood and Mistletoe Paperback Book Launch at Hallowread in haunted Ellicott City, Maryland.

Congratulations to Fee R., Ashley M., and Debby the winners of our Nightwise Dark Fantasy Book Giveaway here at From the Shadows.  All three winners will receive hardcover copies of Nightwise by R.S. Belcher.


But that's not all!

Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Washington, D.C.
Intrigued by this dark urban fantasy?  Don't miss our upcoming Paranormal Road Trip Monday, November 9th as R.S. Belcher takes us on a haunting journey to the Top 5 Spooky Places in Washington, D.C.

*Giveaway winners randomly selected using Random.org*

Congratulations Jolie, Meredith, Wicked, and Nancy our October Frights Burning Bright Audiobook Giveaway winners.  Winners will be gifted Burning Bright audiobooks through Audible.com.



Thank you to all who entered!

*Winners randomly selected using Rafflecopter and powered by Random.org*

Today we are hopping along with Broad Universe speculative fiction authors.  We have moon themed posts and incredible giveaways for you, so come hop with us!

Full Moon Broad Universe Giveaway
We are giving away a HUGE prize pack of horror, science fiction, and fantasy ebooks and a $75 Gift Card.


To enter, please use the Broad Universe Giveaway Rafflecopter form .  Giveaway ends November 7, 2015.

From the Shadows BIRTHRIGHT Book Giveaway
Here at From the Shadows we are also giving away an Ebook copy of Birthright, a nominee for the 2015 BTS Red Carpet Book Awards and the newest release in the award-winning Ivy Granger urban fantasy series by E.J. Stevens.  


To enter, comment on this blog post and please include your email address so we may contact you if you win.

Did you see the Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse?
I was in Orlando for a book convention the night of the recent Super Moon, Blood Moon, and lunar eclipse.  Sadly, it was a raining night in Florida, and I wasn't able to see the lunar activity.  

BONUS ENTRY:  Leave a comment on this month's poll October Poll: What is your favorite paranormal creature? for one extra giveaway entry.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  Giveaway ends November 7, 2015 midnight EST.

But that's not all!  
Visit the Broad Universe Full Moon Blog Hop page and keep on hopping for more chances to win amazing bookish prizes.

Don't miss these great giveaways at From the Shadows...
World Zombie Day Giveaway
Nightwise Dark Fantasy Book Giveaway
All Hallow's Read Giveaway
Deadlands: Ghostwalkers Giveaway (begins 10/29)
The Left-Hand Way Book Giveaway (begins 11/5)

I will also be giving away books on my E.J. Stevens Facebook Author Page October 31st for PageCurl's Halloween Hop event, and during my one hour takeover of the Halloween Spectacular October 31st from 3-4pm EST.

Thank you for stopping by!

It's time for our annual All Hallow's Read book giveaway!  I am on my way to Hallowread in Ellicott City, MD, but I leave you with this spooktacular giveaway.

All Hallow's Read Giveaway
We are giving away one ebook copy of Hunting in Bruges, the first novel in the Hunters' Guild urban fantasy series.

To enter, please leave a comment below and include your email address so we may contact you if you win.  BONUS ENTRY:  Leave a comment on this month's poll October Poll: What is your favorite paranormal creature? for one extra giveaway entry.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  Giveaway ends November 3, 2015 midnight EST.


Hunting in Bruges (Hunters' Guild #1) by E.J. Stevens

The only thing worse than being a Hunter in the fae-ridden city of Harborsmouth, is hunting vamps in Bruges.

Being shipped off to Belgium sucks. The medieval city of Bruges is quaint, but the local Hunters' Guild is understaffed, the canals are choked with dead bodies, and there's no shortage of supernatural predators as likely suspects.

On second thought, maybe Bruges isn't so bad after all.

With a desire to prove herself, protect the innocent, and advance within the ranks of the Hunters' Guild, Jenna Lehane hits the cobbled streets of Bruges with blades at the ready. Someone, or something, is murdering tourists and dumping their bodies in the city's scenic canals.  With the help of a mysterious stranger, Jenna begins to piece together clues that are dotted throughout the city like blood spatter.

Determined to stop the killings, Jenna delves into a bloody local history that only raises more questions--but some secrets are best left buried. Jenna must put her combat training to the test as she struggles to unearth the truth about an ancient enemy.

 "Jenna Lehane. Hunter. Protector of the innocent. All-around bad ass. ...An amazing new series by E.J. Stevens!"
-My Urban Fantasies
  [Jenna] is full of brave, kick ass, heroine action that will keep you on your seat, and this is her first major story."
-Happy Tails and Tales
  "Perfect for the adult urban fantasy fan"
-Rabid Reads
  "Jenna is definitely one to add to my list of kick-ass fiction heroines. If you like the Ivy Granger series, then you will like this one too as it takes you into another aspect and perspective of that paranormal world."
-VVB Reads 
Genre: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Add to Goodreads.
Buy on Amazon.

Happy All Hallow's Read!
Note: I'll be signing and on panels at Hallowread in Ellicott City, Maryland Friday, October 23rd and Saturday, October 24th.  I will also be there for the Blood and Mistletoe Paperback Book Launch Party Saturday at 4:30pm EST.  I hope to see you there!