Girls & Monsters Halloween Giveaway

It's no secret: autumn is my favorite time of year, especially because of Mother Nature lashing out her brightest colors before killing everything for winter. And then there's Halloween, the celebration of the Dead and the Un-Dead. So pretty the skulls and spiders adorning the neighborhood, the pumpkin grins and the skeleton dances, so inspiring for future stories to come.

 

 

And so I want to spread the dark joy of scaring people, of making people squeal in disgust and hide in fright by giving away a signed copy of my collection of dark tales for young adult, Girls & Monsters, as well as The Monsters Collection of Skellies. Of course, I won't be celebrating alone, so please visit my fellow Coffin Hoppers blogs and websites for other scares and goodies by clicking the sexy zombies, up above.

*Girls & Monsters Giveaway*

1st prize winner gets a signed copy of Girls & Monsters plus The Monsters Collection of Skellies, made by moi.

2nd prize winner gets a digital copy of Death By Drive-In, an anthology featuring stories written by 24 horror authors/Coffin Hoppers.



To participate, click here: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beginning on Octobre 24th and ending on Halloween at midnight (east), the contest is international, the winners will be picked by ramdom.org, and the prizes shipped the next day. Good luck♥

Where do I go from here? Girls & Ghosts Edition

Here's one of my not-so-secret secrets: I have tons of journals filled with ideas and a bunch of half-written stories dispersed in my computer. Oh no sir, I'm not the type of writer who leaves projects unfinished, but it happens that after starting a plot, its complexity or direction isn't working for me. So I let go more than abandon, because one day, I'll come back to it – and I always do.

Not this time, folks. Only fresh ideas for this new collection of ghostly stories where girls confront their deepest fears... and I'm actually scared. Of course I've been thinking about this project for a while, so ideas are slowly growing into creepy plots, but there's nothing already written on my plate like my past collections of novellas, and it makes me jittery.

 

So what is a girl to do? I'm trying to grasp as much information as I can, about things we don't fully understand with the little evidence out there. Like a junkie, I'm watching all these ghost hunters shows where people go willingly to haunted places to poke at spirits and gather EVPs, images of shadow figures and responsive communication – if any. Sceptic or not, it's beginning to form in my mind: girls who are scared, girls who don't believe, girls who are trying to help, girls who see dead people, and girls who won't confront the truth. And very slowly, they tell me their stories and how they deal with the fact that in the end we all die, and that we might become ghosts ourselves.

And then some miracle happens and someone captures such inspiring pictures, I completely lose my breath – and I'm still trying to catch it. Neil Gaiman posted this abandoned amusement park on Tumblr

 

Haunted, much? Seriously, look at the fog and the plants invading the structures – you can almost hear the screams of glee as the roller coaster rides down the rusty rails. But it's only an echo, because like many other places in New Orleans, it never got over the catastrophic disaster and it's slowly dying after being deserted and forgotten.

I can't forget, though – a bit like those ghosts who can't let go of what they knew and who they loved and how they used to be. So that will be my inspiration, an homage to people who are gone, places that are falling apart, and things we used to believe in.

 

 

Wish me luck? I need it, embarking on this Girls & Ghosts quest to give a voice to those who don't have any. One thing for sure: dark it will be, I promise.

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Want an autographed softcover of Girls & Monsters? Giveaway ends June 28^th, don't miss out ♥

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Girls & Monsters don't always play nice...

Luckily, today they're being downright SWEET!

I'm honored to welcome the ever lovely, ever dark Anne Michaud to ADR3NALIN3 today! I met Anne via blogger and fell in love with her delectable, seductive, and morbid prose while reading the short stories and poems she would post on her blog. Now at last she has a book coming out and the whole world can savor her terrifyingly twisted tales! Her new YA horror novel is launching in just a few days, so she has stopped by to tell us a little about it.

Anne, you have the spotlight!

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They hide under the bed, in the closet or in a dark corner of your mind; they want to scare, play with or eat you. Monsters are everywhere, feeding off your screams, waiting for the perfect moment to attack - and sometimes, only girls can kick their butts. A killer mermaid, suburbia, hallucinations, one huge spider and zombies all face their match in this dark horror collection of 5 novellas for young adult. Annoyed by weak and fragile protagonists waiting for boys to save the day? Here's GIRLS & MONSTERS! Death Song, an excerpt:

Something catches in the back of my throat. I hide my face in my hands to quiet the sobs. But then, something ain’t right. Air moves around me and I stop. I look between my fingers, but the blur of my tears thickens everything: the bathtub, the towels, and someone on the floor. A woman’s in here with me, door still closed and locked. An exhale, like after a deep swim, and a smell, like the swamp close to my empty home. A chill runs down my back, I wipe my eyes, rub and scratch them to see more clearly. And I do. Two gray hands scratch the floor tiles, nails green with algae, putrid flesh sagging on her legs, arms and torso, hair so long and wet and heavy, it drags her down. Diluted, impossible to focus on, like little waves rippling over her body from head to foot, seaweed in the water. Scales and fins, mermaidlike, little knives, those are. And they scrape the floor, like a fork on a plate. It’s her—Limnade. She opens her mouth of scissor-teeth and the rotten smell of fish wraps around my throat like two hands trying to choke me. "You can’t be…” I don’t finish my breathless thought and jump backward, knocking over the dish of decorative soaps. Blurry waves, vision impaired, out of focus, unreal. She crawls toward me, eyes unblinking, lethal, hands inches from me: my legs refuse to move, as my body feels like stone. Frozen, hypnotized, a statue. Then I hear something coming from within her…A melody, reminding me of something lost, tickles my ears. It drags on until the sweetness turns sickly, vibrating into a full-on super-scream, hyenalike, enough to pop my ears and make them bleed. Her large mouth deforms her face into one gap of black, the cry so high and strident, I scream from the pain. Limnade stares at me, everything but her fades away—Jo’s nice bathroom, Jo’s new life, Jo himself, none of it matters anymore. Her fingers brush my forehead, they’re cold and sticky like clams. And I let the darkness take me away.

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To celebrate the release of Girls & Monsters on April 30th, the author has handcrafted Skellies, The Monster Collection, each representing a monster of the 5 stories. The giveaway also includes a softcover of the collection, autographed if requested. The grand prize winner will be announced during the book launch's LIVE CHAT with Anne Michaud on April 30th at 9PM (east)! Girls & Monsters will be available at Darkfuse and other retailers from that date on. ♥

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Anne Michaud

She who likes dark things never grew up. She never stopped listening to gothic, industrial and alternative bands like when she was fifteen. She always loved to read horror and dystopia and fantasy, where doom and gloom drip from the pages. She, who was supposed to make films, decided to write short stories, novelettes and novels instead. She, who’s had her films listed on festival programs, has been printed in a dozen anthologies and magazines since. She who likes dark things prefers night to day, rain to sun, and reading to anything else.

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And don't forget to add Girls & Monsters to your goodread list ♥