E.J. Stevens's Blog, page 40

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 Orleans and our special guide is Suzanne Johnson author of the Sentinels of New Orleans series.

The Sentinels of New Orleans series is set in New Orleans, Louisiana so it seems fitting that our guide for this week's Paranormal Road Trip be the amazing Suzanne Johnson.  Let's see what terrifying places Suzanne has planned for our tour.

New Orleans' Top Five Spooky Places
There are plenty of reasons why my hometown of New Orleans is considered the most haunted city in America, and one of the most haunted in the world. I mean, you have the whole voodoo thing, an old city by U.S. standards with a very non-American vibe, an extremely violent history, rumors of vampires flying out the attic of a convent (really!), and—oh yeah—we bury our dead aboveground so occasional heavy floods send coffins and skeletons floating down the street.

Man, I love this place.

The ghost of pirate Jean Lafitte is said to hover around the Lafitte Blacksmith Shop Bar and the Old Absinthe House, and half the rooms in the Hotel Monteleone are said to be haunted. But if you really want to send the chill bumps racing up your spine and raising the hair on the back of your neck, check out these five spots, in no particular order.

St. Louis Cemetery Nos. 1 and 2.  These are the oldest of New Orleans’ famous “Cities of the Dead,” with tombs dating back to the 1700s. No. 1, the most well known, opened in 1789, a good 15 years before our pirate Lafitte wandered the streets of the city. Probably the most famous grave in No. 1 is that of voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, although you can also find Barthelemy Lafon, an architect who joined Lafitte’s pirate legions. In No. 2, cozy up to the crypt of Dominique You, Lafitte’s closest ally and alleged half-brother. (Alas, the whereabouts of Captain Lafitte himself are not known. Well, except in my books, where he lives on forever, the handsome scoundrel.) Even if graveyards in general don’t creep you out, I defy you to wander around the maze of St. Louis No. 1 or 2 with its rows of aboveground tombs and not feel a chill breeze or two. Not to mention that crow that hangs around Marie Laveau’s grave.

The Hotel Monteleone.  More than a dozen different spirits are said to hang out at the hotel (not including the ones in my books), and history oozes from the walls of the marble lobby with its antiques and revolving Carousel Bar, where local literati such as William Faulkner were said to imbibe. The thirteenth floor—renumbered fourteenth—is said to be the most haunted, and includes the ghost of a young boy believed to be a child who died nearby in the late 19th century.

The Bourbon Orleans.  Another hotel, this one haunted by the ghosts of the orphaned children the site once housed, as well as the nuns who ran the orphanage. There’s also believed to be a pirate ghost hanging out in the stairwells, and TVs have been known to turn themselves on and off.

The Napoleon House.  A great spot to people watch, original patrons of this 18th-century building constructed as a home-in-exile for Napoleon Bonaparte (he never made it) are said to sit in the upper-floor windows and watch the current, living, denizens of the place. There’s no better spot on a sultry, stormy night.

Six Flags New Orleans. Okay, okay, it’s probably not haunted, but it might as well be. In 2005, almost exactly nine years ago, Hurricane Katrina sent the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet over and through the levees, putting 80 percent of the New Orleans metro area underwater. Including Six Flags. The park never reopened and, caught in terminal litigation, it still sits there, its rusted swings moving in the breeze, weeds and vines winding through the silent roller coaster and other rides. It is by far and away THE creepiest spot in New Orleans. Maybe anywhere…which is why I had to use it as a setting of a novel, of course!


Thank you Suzanne for giving us such a haunting tour of New Orleans!  To learn more about Suzanne Johnson and her books, please visit her website and don't miss our Q+A with Suzanne Johnson here at From the Shadows.  Also, don't miss my review of Elysian Fields, the newest book in the Sentinels of New Orleans series, and our character interview with Drusilla "D.J." Jaco.  You can add her Sentinels of New Orleans series here on Goodreads.




Readers, was this your first visit to New Orleans?  Have you experienced anything supernatural in and around New Orleans?

What did you think of Suzanne Johnson's picks for spooky places?
Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Savanna, Georgia with J.D. Horn.  Next week we'll be traveling to Manhattan with Melissa De La Cruz.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!
Readers: What do you think of this new weekly feature?  Your feedback is important to us as we strive to bring you fresh new content that you want to read. 

Congratulations to Leah H. the winner of E.J.'s Birthday Bash Giveaway here at From the Shadows!  Leah will receive a Spirit Guide and Ivy Granger series swag pack, including postcards, trading cards, bookmarks, and stickers!


Thank you to all who entered!

**Winner selected randomly using Random.org**

To celebrate the recent audiobook release of CLUB NEXUS, we are having a giveaway! 


Club Nexus (Ivy Granger #2.5) by E.J Stevens.

A demon, an Unseelie faerie, and a vampire walk into a bar...

This Ivy Granger audiobook special contains short stories set in Club Nexus, the hidden haunt of Harborsmouth's paranormal underworld.

ICED

A bargain gone wrong leads a highborn Unseelie faerie to life as an enslaved bartender with a taste for revenge.

DUSTED

Being a highly skilled predator doesn't necessarily put you at the top of the food chain at Club Nexus. A southern vampire with a hankering for blood and wanton violence may have bit off more than he can chew.

DEMONIZED

The demon attorney we love to hate has his eye on a certain rockabilly human. Too bad she's brought a crossbow loaded with holy water dipped bolts for this night on the town.

JINXED

Just when Jinx needs a carefree girl's night out with Ivy, a smoking hot demon tries to buy her a drink. She really is the unluckiest human on the planet.

Note:  Already own Club Nexus on Kindle?  The Club Nexus audiobook is Whispersync for Voice ready.

Genre: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Add Club Nexus to Goodreads.

About the Ivy Granger series:   The Ivy Granger series is an urban fantasy series written by E.J. Stevens. The series is told in the first-person point-of-view of Ivy Granger, a psychic detective with ties to the paranormal underworld of Harborsmouth--ties that ensnare Ivy and her friend Jinx in the Machiavellian schemes of the city's teeming population of bloodsucking vampires and psychotic faeries.

Club Nexus Audiobook Giveaway
We are giving away SIX audiobook downloads of Club Nexus, written by E.J. Stevens and narrated by Traci Odom.

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is open INTERNATIONAL to anyone who can use download codes from Audible.com.  Giveaway ends September 20, 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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 Savannah, Georgia and our special guide is J.D. Horn author of the Witching Savannah series.

The Witching Savannah series is set in Savannah, Georgia so it seems fitting that our guide for this week's Paranormal Road Trip be the amazing J.D. Horn.  Let's see what terrifying places J.D. has planned for our tour.

Savannah's Top Five Spooky Places
5. East Oglethorpe Avenue between Abercorn and Habersham - Yes, Colonial Park Cemetery is just on the south side of the street, but the street itself is built over unmarked graves. It's one thing to be in a cemetery and know it. When you are in a cemetery and don't know it, that's an entirely different matter. (Oh, and don't even get me started on the playground located on the other side of the cemetery.)

4. Twelve West Oglethorpe - You hear on all the ghost hunter shows about spirits draining away energy from batteries. I'm not saying the place is haunted, but I aimed my freshly charged camera through a  hole--already existing, I swear I didn't make it--in a window to take a shot. (This was going to be the first picture of the day.)  I'm not saying the place is haunted, but my camera's battery died as soon as I snapped the shutter. No photo was taken.

3. The old gunpowder magazine - Hidden by trees off Ogeechee Road (a bit between an auto parts store and a drive-in restaurant), I was alone there, but I didn't feel alone. It was creepy enough for me to use it in the first chapter of THE SOURCE.

2. Old Candler Hospital  - I thought I had hit setting gold when I came across Old Candler. Reputedly haunted, steeped in dramatic history, and creepy as all get out. I used the the yellow fever tunnels that run underneath its parking lot to beneath Forsyth Park in THE LINE, and had intended to set the Tillandsia Club meetings from THE SOURCE there. Then after sitting deserted for years, a law school purchased the property. Had to wrap up that storyline right quick.  I look forward to seeing if the students report any paranormal encounters, or if the former hospital's reputation for being haunted will fade.

1. "Jilo's Crossroads" (Normandy Street) - There's a reason why I set Jilo's crossroads in the wooded area surrounding Normandy Street (west of the golf club and east of Randolph Street). Not only have I come across accounts of homeless encampments in the general vicinity, the whole area just has a weird vibe to it. I don't know if the land is privately or publicly owned, but either way, I recommend staying clear of it.

Thank you J.D. for giving us such a haunting tour of Savannah!  To learn more about J.D. Horn and his books, please visit his website and don't miss our Q+A with J.D. Horn.  You can add his Witching Savannah series here on Goodreads.



Readers, was this your first visit to Savannah?  Have you experienced anything supernatural in Savannah?

What did you think of J.D. Horn's picks for spooky places?
Next week on Paranormal Road Trip, we'll be traveling to New Orleans with Suzanne Johnson.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!
Readers: What do you think of this new weekly feature?  Your feedback is important to us as we strive to bring you fresh new content that you want to read. 

Please welcome today's paranormal guest author Skyla Dawn Cameron.  Skyla is the author of RIVER.  Today she will be sharing a special guest post on the subject of High School bullying.  We will also be having a giveaway, so keep reading!

School is Hell, Werewolf or Not
Making my novel River a YA book was not initially something that entered my head; it came purely by necessity. A wolf being turned into a human was bad enough, but an adult woman could basically just leave the human world and find her way back to the forest. Not so for an underage girl, who would have many more barriers in her way and fewer potential resources. So keeping River among humans for the book meant making her a teen, which, of course, meant the setting had to be high school.

I had two main points of concern about this.

One, that all of the cruelty I’d witnessed from kids take the forefront of River’s high schooled experience. Most people consider high school hell. For me, it was middle school.

There were changes in my home life, my mood disorder was changing shape and morphing closer into what I live with today, I had a male teacher who was highly inappropriate with me and other girls, and the other kids...kids were horrible. The push for social dominance that I’d glimpsed in elementary school grew more prominent and uglier in middle school, and while a lot of individuals would find their niche in high school, being different in grades seven and eight was a death sentence. You couldn’t escape becoming a target, sometimes merely saying the wrong thing, being in the wrong place, or doing absolutely nothing at all might lead to violence.

Here’s a quick bit from River:

Jen went silent and still, and I couldn’t appreciate the reprieve because the fine hairs rose on the back of my neck, a presence pushing behind me. Jen stared wide-eyed over my shoulder and lips parted.
I looked behind me to find a crowd of six people swarming, the girl in the lead drawing my attention right away. Long straight dark hair and cold eyes locked on me, broader shoulders and more height than her picture had suggested. Lindsay Sinclair...and she brought an entourage. What a surprise. I hate teenagers.
The photo hadn’t given me the impression there was much to her. I was wrong. Though she might have been a friend of Celeste’s, she wasn’t dressed in the typical, trendy clothes the others wore. Jeans, a large blue winter jacket probably concealing a weapon or two, solid running shoes.
I might need to worry about this one.
I twisted in my seat to face her and leaned back casually, clutched my 8B sketching pencil in case I had to stab her in the eye with it.
She stared down at me calmly, the buzzing tension around the others waiting for a fight not seeming to faze her. “You River?”
Hmm, she needed verification of my identity. Evidently there were several other tall, extremely pale girls with almost white hair at our school. Funny, I never saw any of them. Maybe they were werewolves too.
“I asked you a fucking question,” she said. “Oh, I forgot: you’re a little slow, aren’t you?”
This was going to be fun. My body tensed, prepared to leap at her. “What?”
“I hear you’ve been bothering some friends of mine,” she said.
I waited, but she didn’t continue. Apparently she required confirmation each time she spoke. Lindsay should’ve done her research—she’d be standing there all day if she expected me to respond to everything.
“Are you fucking deaf too?”
I spun the pencil between my fingers, gave the silence a few beats longer just to annoy her. “Waiting for you to get to the point.”
Her gaze narrowed and her cocky half-smile fell. “I don’t like it when someone bothers my people. Get it?”
I got it, I just didn’t care.
Her foot lashed out, kicked into the leg of my chair. My seat turned, screeched on the tile floor, and knocked into the table behind me. Lindsay leaned forward, hands hitting the table on either side of me, just a hair’s breadth away. Our eyes were level and she didn’t blink. “If I ever hear about you pulling that shit again, I will slit your fucking throat.”
A challenge. A challenge issued by someone who could actually be a threat. The pencil in my hand creaked as I clenched my fist; heart raced with glee at the prospect of a fight. My muscles tensed and burned, ready to attack.
Instead I leaned closer, glared directly in her green eyes, and growled low enough only she could hear. “Try it.”

That happened to me. Eighth grade. Except it was outside during lunch and the girl’s entourage was more like thirty or forty kids because they thought a fight was incoming. Someone had told the girl I was spreading rumours about a friend of her sister’s. I, of course, didn’t respond with “try it.” I responded with “I have no idea what you’re talking about but sure, I won’t do it again” while thinking oh god, I’ve never been in a fight, what if it hurts.

Ultimately, thankfully, there was no fight. The next year, ninth grade, the same girl was in my homeroom and was all smiles, friendly and talkative, and I’m pretty sure she had no bloody idea who the hell I was. (Which I found baffling.)

The second point of concern I had was to be careful to show the hellishness of school when you’re thrust in with these people who are still growing and changing and more often than not are horrible, all while avoiding typical high school stereotypes you see in movies and on TV.

Mostly because I don’t remember any of those.

Cheerleaders, right? Actually, I don’t know if we had those. I certainly never saw any women wandering the school in cheerleader outfits. And jocks, I mean, I think we might’ve had those, but I probably couldn’t pick them out in a crowd. I don’t know who was “popular” and whether they were any more horrible than everyone else (I’m guessing not). I hung out with the guitar crowd for a few years and I’m not sure if they counted as a stereotype or not.

And so it was with the novel River. The girls who are mean to her aren’t cheerleaders but just normal bitchy girls. The people who befriend River aren’t just dorks or outsiders, but kids from various groups who simply are lacking something—a sense of place in a pack—she can provide.

None of the kids, even the bullies, can be boiled down to just one type of person—they cross different social circles and they have different motivations (whether to collectively pounce on The Person Who Is Different or from insecurity driving them to establish a false sense of dominance). I know I was picked on, and I picked on others. Sometimes I stood up for kids being teased, other times I joined in the teasing. I am not particularly proud of anything I did that was cruel to someone else, but I think that’s probably more accurate for a lot of teen experiences than a clear-cut case of Person A is a bully and Person B is a victim every time. We can all be monsters given the right circumstances.

A lot of the other secondary characters came from similar idea of folding a lot of different aspects together, amalgamations of people I knew and watched. Charlie, River’s foster brother in the book, is made up of three or four different guys I knew in high school; the thing that happens to him during the dance (no spoilers) is an actual thing that happened to one of those guys (I heard the story second hand since I didn’t go to prom because ugh, I was busy having an anti-prom).

River, in a lot of ways, reflected my experience of school and the things I witnessed more than anything else, which I hope added a touch of realism to a book where wolf in human skin has to attend tenth grade.



River (River Wolfe #1) by Skyla Dawn Cameron.

Defiant, nocturnal, moody, and short tempered. Though she sounds like a typical teenager, River is anything but. She's a werewolf. River was once the alpha female of a wolf pack, until one night when she was attacked and bitten by a mysterious human. When she awoke, she found herself completely alone, and changed into a young human girl. Three years later, after being thrust into a world where she doesn't belong, and living in foster care, River believes she'll never know who bit her or why. Then one day in school, all that changes. Enter Daryl, who seems to be a normal teenage boy, though River recognizes him for what he is: the human that changed her. He holds the answers to all her questions, but only offers vague responses. He seems to be a step ahead of her at every turn, giving her only enough information to create even more questions. Although they're playing his game, River is determined to win. As if being stuck in a world she hates, with a life she never asked for, and faced with a destiny she doesn't want wasn't bad enough, River still must find a way to survive every human's greatest challenge: high school.

Genre: Mature/Upper YA, Paranormal
Add to Goodreads.

Thank you Skla for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about Skyla Dawn Cameron and her books, please visit her website and don't miss our Q+A with Skyla Dawn Cameron where we discuss her Demons of Oblivion series.

River Giveaway
The author is giving away a HUGE River themed prize pack.

- DVD/Blu-Ray combo of Ginger Snaps
- River poster print
- River tote bag
- wolf charm bookmark
- River postcard
- wolf charm necklace
- Animal Speak pocket guide version by Ted Andrews

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is open to US and Canada.  This is a tour giveaway, so winners will be randomly selected by the author or publisher.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!

Please welcome today's paranormal guest author Skyla Dawn Cameron.  Skyla is the author of RIVER.  Today she will be sharing a special guest post on the subject of High School bullying.  We will also be having a giveaway, so keep reading!

School is Hell, Werewolf or Not
Making my novel River a YA book was not initially something that entered my head; it came purely by necessity. A wolf being turned into a human was bad enough, but an adult woman could basically just leave the human world and find her way back to the forest. Not so for an underage girl, who would have many more barriers in her way and fewer potential resources. So keeping River among humans for the book meant making her a teen, which, of course, meant the setting had to be high school.

I had two main points of concern about this.

One, that all of the cruelty I’d witnessed from kids take the forefront of River’s high schooled experience. Most people consider high school hell. For me, it was middle school.

There were changes in my home life, my mood disorder was changing shape and morphing closer into what I live with today, I had a male teacher who was highly inappropriate with me and other girls, and the other kids...kids were horrible. The push for social dominance that I’d glimpsed in elementary school grew more prominent and uglier in middle school, and while a lot of individuals would find their niche in high school, being different in grades seven and eight was a death sentence. You couldn’t escape becoming a target, sometimes merely saying the wrong thing, being in the wrong place, or doing absolutely nothing at all might lead to violence.

Here’s a quick bit from River:

Jen went silent and still, and I couldn’t appreciate the reprieve because the fine hairs rose on the back of my neck, a presence pushing behind me. Jen stared wide-eyed over my shoulder and lips parted.
I looked behind me to find a crowd of six people swarming, the girl in the lead drawing my attention right away. Long straight dark hair and cold eyes locked on me, broader shoulders and more height than her picture had suggested. Lindsay Sinclair...and she brought an entourage. What a surprise. I hate teenagers.
The photo hadn’t given me the impression there was much to her. I was wrong. Though she might have been a friend of Celeste’s, she wasn’t dressed in the typical, trendy clothes the others wore. Jeans, a large blue winter jacket probably concealing a weapon or two, solid running shoes.
I might need to worry about this one.
I twisted in my seat to face her and leaned back casually, clutched my 8B sketching pencil in case I had to stab her in the eye with it.
She stared down at me calmly, the buzzing tension around the others waiting for a fight not seeming to faze her. “You River?”
Hmm, she needed verification of my identity. Evidently there were several other tall, extremely pale girls with almost white hair at our school. Funny, I never saw any of them. Maybe they were werewolves too.
“I asked you a fucking question,” she said. “Oh, I forgot: you’re a little slow, aren’t you?”
This was going to be fun. My body tensed, prepared to leap at her. “What?”
“I hear you’ve been bothering some friends of mine,” she said.
I waited, but she didn’t continue. Apparently she required confirmation each time she spoke. Lindsay should’ve done her research—she’d be standing there all day if she expected me to respond to everything.
“Are you fucking deaf too?”
I spun the pencil between my fingers, gave the silence a few beats longer just to annoy her. “Waiting for you to get to the point.”
Her gaze narrowed and her cocky half-smile fell. “I don’t like it when someone bothers my people. Get it?”
I got it, I just didn’t care.
Her foot lashed out, kicked into the leg of my chair. My seat turned, screeched on the tile floor, and knocked into the table behind me. Lindsay leaned forward, hands hitting the table on either side of me, just a hair’s breadth away. Our eyes were level and she didn’t blink. “If I ever hear about you pulling that shit again, I will slit your fucking throat.”
A challenge. A challenge issued by someone who could actually be a threat. The pencil in my hand creaked as I clenched my fist; heart raced with glee at the prospect of a fight. My muscles tensed and burned, ready to attack.
Instead I leaned closer, glared directly in her green eyes, and growled low enough only she could hear. “Try it.”

That happened to me. Eighth grade. Except it was outside during lunch and the girl’s entourage was more like thirty or forty kids because they thought a fight was incoming. Someone had told the girl I was spreading rumours about a friend of her sister’s. I, of course, didn’t respond with “try it.” I responded with “I have no idea what you’re talking about but sure, I won’t do it again” while thinking oh god, I’ve never been in a fight, what if it hurts.

Ultimately, thankfully, there was no fight. The next year, ninth grade, the same girl was in my homeroom and was all smiles, friendly and talkative, and I’m pretty sure she had no bloody idea who the hell I was. (Which I found baffling.)

The second point of concern I had was to be careful to show the hellishness of school when you’re thrust in with these people who are still growing and changing and more often than not are horrible, all while avoiding typical high school stereotypes you see in movies and on TV.

Mostly because I don’t remember any of those.

Cheerleaders, right? Actually, I don’t know if we had those. I certainly never saw any women wandering the school in cheerleader outfits. And jocks, I mean, I think we might’ve had those, but I probably couldn’t pick them out in a crowd. I don’t know who was “popular” and whether they were any more horrible than everyone else (I’m guessing not). I hung out with the guitar crowd for a few years and I’m not sure if they counted as a stereotype or not.

And so it was with the novel River. The girls who are mean to her aren’t cheerleaders but just normal bitchy girls. The people who befriend River aren’t just dorks or outsiders, but kids from various groups who simply are lacking something—a sense of place in a pack—she can provide.

None of the kids, even the bullies, can be boiled down to just one type of person—they cross different social circles and they have different motivations (whether to collectively pounce on The Person Who Is Different or from insecurity driving them to establish a false sense of dominance). I know I was picked on, and I picked on others. Sometimes I stood up for kids being teased, other times I joined in the teasing. I am not particularly proud of anything I did that was cruel to someone else, but I think that’s probably more accurate for a lot of teen experiences than a clear-cut case of Person A is a bully and Person B is a victim every time. We can all be monsters given the right circumstances.

A lot of the other secondary characters came from similar idea of folding a lot of different aspects together, amalgamations of people I knew and watched. Charlie, River’s foster brother in the book, is made up of three or four different guys I knew in high school; the thing that happens to him during the dance (no spoilers) is an actual thing that happened to one of those guys (I heard the story second hand since I didn’t go to prom because ugh, I was busy having an anti-prom).

River, in a lot of ways, reflected my experience of school and the things I witnessed more than anything else, which I hope added a touch of realism to a book where wolf in human skin has to attend tenth grade.



River (River Wolfe #1) by Skyla Dawn Cameron.

Defiant, nocturnal, moody, and short tempered. Though she sounds like a typical teenager, River is anything but. She's a werewolf. River was once the alpha female of a wolf pack, until one night when she was attacked and bitten by a mysterious human. When she awoke, she found herself completely alone, and changed into a young human girl. Three years later, after being thrust into a world where she doesn't belong, and living in foster care, River believes she'll never know who bit her or why. Then one day in school, all that changes. Enter Daryl, who seems to be a normal teenage boy, though River recognizes him for what he is: the human that changed her. He holds the answers to all her questions, but only offers vague responses. He seems to be a step ahead of her at every turn, giving her only enough information to create even more questions. Although they're playing his game, River is determined to win. As if being stuck in a world she hates, with a life she never asked for, and faced with a destiny she doesn't want wasn't bad enough, River still must find a way to survive every human's greatest challenge: high school.

Genre: Mature/Upper YA, Paranormal
Add to Goodreads.

Thank you Skla for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about Skyla Dawn Cameron and her books, please visit her website and don't miss our Q+A with Skyla Dawn Cameron where we discuss her Demons of Oblivion series.

River Giveaway
The author is giving away a HUGE River themed prize pack.

- DVD/Blu-Ray combo of Ginger Snaps
- River poster print
- River tote bag
- wolf charm bookmark
- River postcard
- wolf charm necklace
- Animal Speak pocket guide version by Ted Andrews

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is open to US and Canada.  This is a tour giveaway, so winners will be randomly selected by the author or publisher.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!

Today we have a special Teen Wytche Saga book excerpt and giveaway for our readers.

Book ExcerptSpell Fire: Teen Wytche Saga
I paused beneath the fern‑painted ceiling fan and scanned the wall menu. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but a weird craving fueled my search.

The dragon exerted pressure between my shoulder blades, prompting me. "A Scorpion's Nest smoothie."

Morningstar leaned over the high counter and gave me a once‐over. "You feeling okay?"

I licked my lips. "Absolutely." I had never tasted an orange juice, vanilla ice cream, and peanut butter combo, but I slapped the countertop and said, "I'm fine. Hit me."

Morningstar tilted her head to one side and studied me.

Oh — crap. Maybe I'm dragon drunk.

My thoughts: This looks like such a fun YA read.  I can totally picture Ainslie slapping the counter and ordering more of this strange concoction.  I can't wait to read more!

What did you think of the book excerpt?

Spell Fire (Teen Wytche Saga #3) by Ariella Moon

Ainslie’s parents ditch her at Christmas.
A dragon wants to be her new BFF.
There is something her boyfriend isn’t telling her.
And no one will explain the hissing spell book.

Second worst Christmas EVER!

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Add to Goodreads.

Teen Wytche Saga Giveaway 
The author is giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is a tour giveaway and the winners will be randomly selected by the author or publisher.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!

It's my birthday and I'm celebrating with a giveaway!  I am giving away tons of fabulous swag. 


Birthday Bash Giveaway
One lucky winner will receive swag (some of it signed) from both my Spirit Guide young adult paranormal romance series and the Ivy Granger urban fantasy series.  I am digging into my secret stash for postcards, bookmarks, stickers, trading cards, magnets, and more!

To enter, leave a message on this post and include your email address so we may contact you if you win.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  Giveaway ends September 5, 2014 midnight EST.

A very merry unbirthday to YOU.

Please welcome today's paranormal guest author, Madeline Freeman!  Madeline is the author of CRYSTAL MAGIC.

Keep reading for a chance to win a signed copy of Crystal Magic by Madeline Freeman!

Q+A with Madeline Freeman
EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Madeline:  I wrote my first story for pleasure when I was in the fifth grade—maybe ten or eleven years old. After that, it was like I opened a floodgate. All through middle school, I wrote stories in notebooks, passing them around to my friends. When I was in the eighth and ninth grade, I wrote the first draft of what eventually became Crystal Magic. There are few similarities between the original and the published version, though.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Madeline:  The real world is boring. Who doesn’t want to teleport or read minds? I always find myself drawn to movies and shows with a fantastic element. I love living inside magical worlds.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Madeline:  OMG, I would be the master of time and space—like Hiro Nakamura in the show Heroes. I’d be able to freeze time and teleport at will. Why? Because it would be awesome! Hm, looks like it’ll be rainy this weekend, but I had my heart set on going to the beach. BOOM! Hawaii, here I am! Or even just day-to-day stuff. I’m at work and I realize I left something at home? BOOM! Back home, nab the thing, back to work! As for freezing time, who couldn’t use more sleep or more time to relax?

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Madeline:  People will enjoy Crystal Magic because it has elements of mystery and love. It’s a story of a girl claiming her place in the world. Also, magic.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Madeline:  Kristyl Barnette would be played by someone like Georgina Haig. I loved her in Fringe and am excited to see her in season four of Once Upon a Time as Elsa. She can play innocent and badass. I think Kristyl needs something like that.

When I imagine Bridget Burke, she looks a lot like Francia Raisa, from The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Some of the other characters are harder, because, in my mind, they tend to be younger versions of actors I grew up with. Owen Marsh, for example, looks like an actor named Jonathan Brandis, who I had the biggest crush on back in middle- and high school (you know, forever ago). (If you’ve got Netflix, I highly recommend searching for the show seaQuest. It’s from the early 1990s and super cheesy, but I love it.) And Fox Holloway is a young David Duchovny (because, well, Fox).

But if I had to choose actors who are, you know, currently kind of young, my cast list might look more like this:

Owen Marsh: Connor Jessup—I like how he can be both sweet and tortured.

Crystal Jamison: Shelley Hennig—I liked her in The Secret Circle. She can play a leader.

For Lexie Taylor and Fox Holloway, I might go with Holland Roden and Tyler Posey (both from Teen Wolf), although, to be honest, I’ve never seen either of them act. They just have the right vibe for the characters.

Have a question for Madeline? Let us know in the comments.


Crystal Magic (Clearwater Witches #1) by Madeline Freeman.

Nothing is safe around Kristyl Barnette. Windows break. Books rocket across the room. Lights flicker. Strange occurrences follow the sixteen-year-old everywhere.

When tragedy forces her to move to the small town of Clearwater, Michigan, with her estranged aunt Jodi, Kristyl tries to leave her past behind. But Clearwater has secrets of its own—a mystical history that intersects with Kristyl’s life and might shed light on the inexplicable events that plague her.

When a mysterious illness threatens her aunt’s life, Kristyl will do anything to cure her. Enlisting the help of witches could save Jodi, but is dealing in magic worth the consequences?

Release Date:  March 30, 2014
Genre:  Paranormal Romance, Young Adult
Add to Goodreads.

Crystal Magic Book Giveaway
The author is giving away a signed copy of Crystal Magic by Madeline Freeman to one lucky winner!

To enter, please use the easy peasy Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is open to US and Canada.  This is a tour giveaway and the winner will be randomly selected by the author or publisher.  Giveaway ends August 26, 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!

Congratulations Stephanie the winner of our Solus Series Ebook Giveaway here at From the Shadows!  Stephanie will an ebook copy of any one book in the Solus series by Devri Walls.


Thank you to all who entered!

**Giveaway winner selected using Random.org**