Celebrating five years of horror at Castle Macabre! #blogoversary

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That's right...it's five years today that I launched this little corner of the horror universe. I'm so pleased to have started a place to further explore my love of horror...and have been introduced to some terrific new horror authors in the process. Here's to many more years...and thanks to all who follow and read my stuff!

Here's a little blogoversary gift for you....

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Upcoming Fall Events - Gothic September and Season of the Witch in October

Fall is just around the corner and it's time again for two of my favorite events of the year.

Next month is Gothic September and I'm hosting a read-along of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I've been wanting to read the book for some time and with the film coming out at the end of September, I thought it was the perfect time. Yet I wondered if the book could truly be considered Gothic (I think so). I found this article which confirmed my thoughts.

So, mark your calendars. Leave a comment if you think you might want to participate, and I'll post the reading schedule on the first of September.

October is my annual event, Season of the Witch. This year, I'm going to host some short read-alongs of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft short stories. I will announce which stories later in September to get ready for October.

I would love to have some guests during either event, so if you like Gothic or spooky, feel free to contact me via the contact tab. Would love some guest posts or guest reviews.

Can't wait for...

Kristin Dearborn's Stolen Away - Review #StolenAway

My thoughts
Kristin Dearborn is a talented author. I read her Woman in White earlier this year and was impressed. Now Stolen Away...I'm floored!

Stolen Away is not just a horror novel about demons. No. It's much more than that. There are many more horrors present in this book that every day people deal with. Drug addiction, crushing feelings of worthlessness, family judgment, heartache and loss. It's all here. And Dearborn doesn't hold back. She tells it all viscerally and honestly...all the dirt and grime and shame right out there in the open. It's honest and real. It lets you know that, yes, demons are scary, but sometimes real life can be even scarier.

The demons and demon world were incredible. The concept of them and their existence was very plausible. I know I say this often because of my love for horror films, but I really think this one would make a great movie.

This book is so well-written, I couldn't stop reading. If you're looking for a page turner with a great story and characters, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.

About the book
Trisha will admit she’s made a few mistakes in her life but that checkered past is behind her. She loves her kids, even if it’s tough being a single mom. But her loyalties are put to the test when her infant son disappears in the middle of the night, and his big sister says a monster took him.

Now Trisha has to face the full truth behind the one-night-stand that produced Brayden in all its scaly torridness—Brayden’s father wasn’t human and isn’t interested in sharing custody. However, even though DEMON has pulled this stunt many times before, he made a mistake when he chose Trisha.

The one thing she won’t do is give up her son without a fight. Along with her ex-boyfriend, Joel, Trisha is dragged back into the seedy underworld in a desperate fight to reclaim her son, only this time she’s got a lot more to lose.

Of note: Brian Keene included Dearborn’s novel in his honorable mentions for best book of 2015 after reading her sold out Thunderstorm edition.

About the Cover 

The cover was created by Italian artist Daniele Serra. He is a winner of the British Fantasy Award and has worked with companies such as DC Comics, Image Comics, Cemetery Dance, Weird Tales Magazine and PS Publishing. Recently his work was featured as interior art in a scene of Stephen King’s The Cell, with Samuel Jackson looking it over. Visit his web site to see more of his art: http://www.multigrade.it

Links for Stolen Away

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Add to GoodReads

About the author

If it screams, squelches, or bleeds, Kristin Dearborn has probably written about it. Kristin has written books such as Sacrifice Island (DarkFuse), Trinity (DarkFuse), and had fiction published in several magazines and anthologies. Stolen Away was recently a limited edition offered from Thunderstorm Books, which sold out.

She revels in comments like “But you look so normal…how do you come up with that stuff?” A life-long New Englander, she aspires to the footsteps of the local masters, Messrs. King and Lovecraft. When not writing or rotting her brain with cheesy horror flicks (preferably creature features!) she can be found scaling rock cliffs or zipping around Vermont on a motorcycle, or gallivanting around the globe. Kristin’s latest DarkFuse release is Woman in White.

Find more about Kristin online at kristindearborn.com or Facebook.

Praise for Kristin Dearbon

“In Stolen Away, Kristin Dearborn writes with a confidence and ferocity that demands you keep turning pages. Where lesser writers would flinch and look away, Dearborn tells the tale the way it should be, with cruelty and fascination for both her characters and the story. Kristin Dearborn isn’t just a writer to watch, she’s a writer to watch out for. If she’s swinging, you might want to duck, because she hits hard!—Bracken MacLeod, author of Mountain and Stranded

“Kristin Dearborn’s fast-paced horror thriller, Stolen Away, will possess readers as they strap in for a demonic thrill ride of sin and redemption.”—Stephanie M. Wytovich, author of An Exorcism of Angels

“Gripping nonstop suspense and unsettling horror that blazes the pages from start to finish. You’ll swear Stolen Away was written by a seasoned veteran of best-selling novels. Expect to want more after reading the second novel by Kristin Dearborn, an author whose work will shoot her straight to the top of reading lists.”—Rena Mason, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Evolutionist

“Kristin Dearborn catapults readers into an intricately layered world that is bleak and terrifying but never so damned as to be without hope or redemption. If the devil, so to speak, is in the details, then this book raises hell, exploring not just demons internal as well as external, but also all the beautiful, heart-wrenching, contradictorily complex, powerful little things that define human experience. This book earns a prominent place of the bookshelf of any fan of demonic fiction.” —Mary SanGiovanni, author of The Hollower trilogy and Chills

“Horror born straight from a nor’easter, Dearborn’s Woman in White is a great read for a winter night—with a monster I’ll never forget.” —Christopher Irvin, author of Federales and Burn Cards

“Kristin Dearborn’s Woman in White is a rip-roaring monster tale with sharp-eyed characterization and something to say about the power dynamics between men and woman. Thought-provoking and entertaining as hell!” —Tim Waggoner, author of Eat the Night

“Great stuff! Suspenseful, quickly paced, unpredictable and wonderfully evil tale. Kristin Dearborn’s best yet!” —Jeff Strand, author of Pressure and Blister

“Dearborn has a wonderful sense of the macabre, along with the ability to balance the spookier aspects of her work with well-rendered, solid characterizations…Sacrifice Island is a blazing fast read, with engaging characters and a compelling narrative.” —The Maine Edge

“Sacrifice Island is a fresh and interesting take on a tried and true horror setup.” —Examiner

Find out more about RAW DOG SCREAMING PRESS

Mayan Blue by Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason - Review #MayanBlue

My thoughts
Okay, Eli Roth, James Wan, Rob Zombie, or perhaps Guillermo Del Toro, you need to read this book and make it into a movie. Because it already reads like a movie. A really good scary, gory movie. (I think Eli Roth would be good fit for this one, but that's just my opinion).

I have always been fascinated by the Mayans. I long to visit Chichen Itza and the other Mayan archaeological ruin sites. Mel Gibson's Apocalypto is one of my favorite films. Many people are interested in the fact that the Mayans practiced human sacrifice. Yes, that is interesting...and horrifying. However, I find the fact of their vast knowledge to be far more interesting. The creation of their hieroglyphic script, the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well their art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system, is what I find truly amazing.

The authors, known as The Sisters of Slaughter, have created a unique premise here with one of their characters, a professor and archaeologist, having a theory that some of the Mayan's scattered and found refuge in the mountain regions of the state of Georgia. I find this an interesting and even plausible theory. The Mayan's were so advanced...why couldn't some of them have broke away and migrated elsewhere?

The professor decides to explore his theory, along with his research assistant and a group of college students, traveling to the Blood Mountain area of Georgia. As you can probably imagine, it all goes down hill from there. I keep telling these archaeologists in movies/books...don't move or remove things, damn it. They don't listen. (and that's as spoilery as I'm going to get).

As I mentioned at the beginning, reading this is like watching a good horror movie. Edge of seat, nail biting terror at what is steadily revealed as the story progresses. Forget zombies. These entities (to use a nice word that doesn't even begin to describe them) are grotesque almost beyond description. Also, I love owls, but after this book,..I may have to think on that more. Oh, and don't forget the gore. This is a journey into Xibalba, the Mayan underworld. What can be expected but blood, gore and endless suffering in the world of Ah Puch, the god of death.

All I can say is that Mayan Blue is the BOMB. I was thrilled through every minute of reading it and I read it very fast...and I'm not a fast reader. I can't wait to read more from The Sisters of Slaughter.

About the book
File Size: 488 KB
Print Length: 149 pages
Publisher: Sinister Grin Press (May 25, 2016)
Publication Date: May 25, 2016

GoodReads

Xibalba, home of torture and sacrifice, is the kingdom of the lord of death. He stalked the night in the guise of a putrefied corpse, with the head of an owl and adorned with a necklace of disembodied eyes that hung from nerve cords. He commanded legions of shapeshifting creatures, spectral shamans, and corpses hungry for the flesh of the living. The Mayans feared him and his realm of horror. He sat atop his pyramid temple surrounded by his demon kings and demanded sacrifices of blood and beating hearts as tribute to him and his ghostly world.

These legends, along with those that lived in fear of them, have been dead and gone for centuries. Yet now, a doorway has been opened in Georgia. A group of college students seek their missing professor, a man who has secretly uncovered the answer to one of history’s greatest mysteries. However, what they find is more than the evidence of a hidden civilization. It’s also a gateway to a world of living nightmares.

About the authors

Melissa Lason and Michelle Garza have been writing together since they were little girls and were dubbed The Sisters of Slaughter by the editors of Fireside Press. They are constantly working together on new stories in the horror and dark fantasy genres. Their work has been included in FRESH MEAT published by Sinister Grin Press, WISHFUL THINKING by Fireside Press, WIDOWMAKERS a benefit anthology of dark fiction.

Find them on Facebook!

Praise for Mayan Blue

“From the outset, Garza and Lason let the blood spill, plunging their small cast of characters into the depths of Mayan hell. There’s plenty of action to go around as the group is confronted with a number of horrors, from the labyrinthine and booby-trapped maze of the newly discovered Mayan temple to the angry gods and their owl-headed, sharp-clawed servants.” –Michael Hicks, Author of Convergence

“Their short works are wonderful to read. However this book proves that they can tackle longer works without missing a beat.” –Tom, GoodReads

”These two show no quarter dragging the characters--and by extension, the reader--into the depths of the Mayan version of Hell. There's vividness to the scenes they craft that made me want to make sure I was reading in full daylight, or at least with most of the lights on.” –John Quick, Author of Consequences

Purchase Links

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Sinister Grin Press