That Spooky Time of Year~

Of all the holidays, I think Halloween is my very favorite. I love the magical, fantastical element of it. I love ghost stories, spooky Gothic tales, and even the odd paranormal romance here and there. It's no surprise the first book I wrote begins in October, just before Halloween. I think I might have started writing it at that time of year too. Fall is an inspiring time to me. It's a time of change - the leaves on the trees change color, the nights grow cooler, and the sky becomes gloomy, foreshadowing the shorter days to come. The long winter's night is coming.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some of my favorite spooky books with you. I'm not crazy about horror, but I do love me some creepy suspense. If you need any reading recommendations this Halloween, pull up a chair.

One of my all time favorites is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. If you aren't familiar with it, it's the story of a young woman who's hired as a governess and goes to live and work in an old mansion called Thornfield. Thornfield is creepy. Her boss, Mr. Rochester, is creepy. His secret in the attic is even creepier, but Jane is absolutely fearless. She's a fabulous character.

I recently read Who R U Really? by Margo Kelly about a girl who faces an Internet stalker. It gave me the creeps so bad I almost had to put it down. Stalkers are a special kind of awful. Yikes!

Another book I've read within the last year is Fingers in the Mist by O'dell Hutchison about a girl who goes to live with her dad and finds herself in a creepsville cult. Thanks a lot, Dad!! You could have warned her. Geesh!

Another author who seems to have a special brand of creepy is Neil Gaiman. Try The Graveyard Book about a boy raised by ghosts in a cemetery. It's a beautiful little story. That and The Ocean at the End of the Lane have a wonderful, fantastical element I love reading. Not terrifying, but weird, scary, and even touching in a fun way. Gaiman is simply enchanting.

For a creature feature, I recommend The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. These aren't your usual vampire/werewolf type monsters and they aren't out to kill everyone, but they are supernatural beings in trouble. I bet you never read a book about either, have you? Put two star-crossed, supernatural creatures together in turn of the century New York City, and what's not to like? It's a unique tale with a wonderful historical flavor.

So there's a few options for your spooky reading enjoyment. Grab a warm, fuzzy throw blanket, your favorite hot beverage, a great book, and enjoy your Halloween!

Spooky Story for Halloween~

In celebration of the upcoming All Hallow's Eve, I thought I'd share an excerpt from my newest paranormal novella The Color of Water. Set on the North Carolina coast, it's the story of Samantha who loses her dad at sea and finds herself trying to protect her mom from a supernatural beast most everyone else believes is a real human. Enjoy~



~from Chapter 8~



On the sidewalk in front of us, a man leaned on an iron fence, half hidden in a bougainvillea vine. I smelled him before I could really see him, a weird mix of pipe smoke and alcohol and something salty like seaweed. The silky voice told me who it was before he leaned forward into the light of a nearby house.

“Pardon me, miss. Didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said, reaching out two nut brown hands to Karla. As Teach caught her hands in his own, I saw a tattoo on his forearm in the moonlight – a blue demon stabbing a heart across his rippling muscle. He gently steadied Karla, ignoring me.

“It’s fine,” Karla said. “I should watch where I’m going.”

Teach stood there, holding onto Karla’s hands, staring deep into her eyes like a lover. No one was allowed to look at my mom like that, not while I was standing there.

“Do you mind taking your paws off my mother?” I said, forgetting any warning Matt might have given me.

“I’m only trying to help,” he said, releasing her finally. “Perhaps I can make it up to you?”

“No really, its fine,” insisted Karla, trying to move past him. He caught her by the shoulders, holding her close to him.

“Can I see you again?” he begged in an urgent whisper.

“Let her go, you creep!” I yelled.

“A little something to remember me by,” he purred in her ear, a chunky gold bracelet emerging from his jacket pocket draped across his thick fingers. I was sure it was the exact same bracelet I pitched in the ocean weeks ago. He moved to lay it over her wrist. Without thinking, I snatched it away.

“Run Karla!” I yelled as I pushed my mom’s shoulder. She took off toward home as Teach turned his eyes to me. Even in the dim moonlight, I could see his crazy eyes, aqua blue like some stormy Caribbean Sea.

“Give it back, Samantha,” he said like a parent to a naughty child, patient but annoyed.

“How do you know my name?” I stalled.

“I know many things about you. I know you foolishly meddle in things you know nothing about, for instance,” he said, moving toward me, his eyes locked on mine. His words stung me.

“What is this thing?” I said, holding up the chain. If it wasn’t Louise’s bracelet, it was just like it. “Do you give it all the women you plan to kill?”

Teach laughed, a low chuckle, still coming toward me as I backed away, stumbling over the cracked sidewalk into the street.

“You might say that,” he admitted. “But I don’t give it to anyone who doesn’t welcome it.”

“Who welcomes death?”

“You’re young. I wouldn’t expect you to understand. Now give it to me,” his tone growing more insistent. I held the bracelet behind my back.

“Not until you promise to leave my mother alone,” I said, my voice quivering like a leaf in the wind. The energy radiating off Teach now burned my skin, like standing too close to an open fire.

“I don’t make bargains with little girls. What’s mine is mine,” he snarled, his skin tightening over his skull and then evaporating to reveal the bones underneath. His blue eyes burned like coals in the darkness, inhuman and unnatural. The heat felt like it would scorch my eyebrows off. I fell as he swung at me, screaming.

Happy Halloween!!

The Fact behind the Fiction of The Color of Water

Everyone's heard of Blackbeard, right? The terrible pirate? Hollywood staple pirate character? But did you know that Blackbeard was a real person named Edward Teach? I remember as a kid thinking he was just a cartoon-ish character and being amazed to learn he was real. You can read all about him on Wikipedia.  Born in 1680, he only lived to be about 35 or 40 years old because he was finally captured and beheaded in 1718. Perhaps because it was so long ago, he's become the stuff of legends? Even his flag is kinda creepy.

The ghost of Blackbeard is the main baddie in my new novella The Color of Water. He was such delicious fun to write, re-imagined as a modern day biker. Here's a sneak peek of my heroine, Samantha, unexpectedly seeing Blackbeard, aka Teach, on the streets of Beaufort ~


    The summer sun was still hot enough to make me sweat, but it was cooling down as the shadows got longer. The rain had left steamy puddles along the sidewalks, but the sky was clearing just like Matt said it would. Seeing nothing unusual at the Queen Ann’s, I kept walking, turning down an alley to avoid all the tourists on Front Street. That’s where I saw them – a man and a woman having a hella fight in the alley. My heart jumped up into my throat when I realized it was Harley man – Teach.

    I ducked behind a dumpster and tried to blend into the back of a building. It didn’t seem to matter to Teach and his lady friend because their screaming argument suddenly dissolved into a groping, kissing thing. I couldn’t stop staring at them. Teach’s beefy, tattooed arms wrapped the woman like an octopus’s tentacles, his fingers snaking through her God-awful, red-orange dye job. She didn’t seem to mind. She kissed him like she was starving and he was a steak dinner. After coming up for air, they stumbled back inside the building.

    I saw the door was printed with ‘No one under 21 admitted’ as I hurried past. If he was going to kill her, he would have done it right there, wouldn’t he? I resolved not to tell Matt about it, since he obviously didn’t want me anywhere near Teach. I didn’t want to risk making him mad again. I picked up my pace, running a few blocks so I wouldn’t be late.

You can find The Color of Water in print and ebook on Amazon and Goodreads! Enjoy~

The Color of Water Giveaway

The cure for anything is saltwater –

sweat, tears, or the sea.

~Isak Dinesen

I love the sea. I've always loved it, although I haven't always lived near it. I once thought I'd grow up to be an oceanographer or a marine biologist, but fate had other plans for me. And truth be told, the ocean can be a frightening thing. I'm always in awe of the men and women who are brave enough to sail it. I enjoy riding in boats, but I'm always glad to get back to dry land. I'm truly happiest on a beach.

My latest southern gothic novella, The Color of Water, was inspired by a trip to the North Carolina coast a few years back and a visit to the historic town of Beaufort. Beaufort is just about as old as a town gets in North America, founded in 1709. It's seen the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and everything since. With all that history, you can imagine what a great graveyard it had. And ghosts. Lots of places in North Carolina have ghosts, but Beaufort has the best in my opinion. Pirates, merchants, soldiers, and little girls - there's just about any type of ghost you might want there.

So Beaufort combines two things I adore - the ocean and history. When I visited, I knew immediately it would be the setting for my next book. The Color of Water is a novella, so it's the perfect length for a rainy, fall afternoon, cozying up on the couch with a ghost story. Fans of love triangles and super sweet teen romance may be disappointed. The story is very much about the ebbs and flows of life and death, about holding on and letting go. It's also about the connection of a parent to a child, so while there are some elements of a first love, it's also about much more. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

~About the Book~

Life is unpredictable. Why would death be any different?

Sixteen year old Samantha’s Dad died in a sailing accident and her Mom’s moving them to the sleepy, backwater town of Beaufort, North Carolina, so they can make a new start. Afraid to sail again, Samantha takes her mind off the past by trying to solve the mystery of who's killing young women on the island, only the killer is way more than your ordinary psychopath.

Turns out, the blood-thirsty ghost of Blackbeard returns to Beaufort on the high tide to collect the souls of beautiful young women and now he wants her mom. With only the help of a two-bit psychic and the ghost of a young, drowned sailor she might be falling in love with, Samantha struggles to save her mother. But Sam has some demons of her own to conquer first.

  ~ From Chapter One ~

   It’s funny what you notice when you’re dying. It’s not your breath or your heartbeat, or the ripple of your mind slowly coming undone. It’s what you love. For me, it’s the color of the water. First, it’s green like bottle glass. Then it’s deep, dark blue-black, like a midnight sky.

   The water seeps into my ears blocking everything else out. It creeps into my clothes, through the strands of my hair. It invades my nose, my mouth, and slides into my lungs, into my stomach. It envelopes me, claims me as its own. I’m going with it.

   And then something jerks me back. In the murky water, I can barely see what it is through my salt-blinded eyes. It’s Dad. He’s got me. He’s tugging on my vest, trying to unhitch the tether and I wonder why. Something breaks free and he pulls me up with him. The vest I’m wearing pops me up to the surface like a cork.

   On the surface, my lungs vomit out searing salt water, even as more angry waves bash us against the hull of the sloop. She’s completely upside down. Dad’s pushing my limp arms up on The Tempest, trying to make me grab a hold of something, anything to keep my head above water.

~***~

To celebrate the release, two lucky winners will win a free copy of the print book or e-book - your choice! Be sure to enter :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can always find The Color of Water on Amazon :) and Goodreads! and if you'd like to learn more about me, Lisa Cresswell, please visit my web site. Enjoy!

Paranormal Romance for Halloween? Yes!

My paranormal romance novella The Color of Water is finally coming to print and e-book this fall! Nothing like a good ghost pirate story to enjoy the Halloween season, right?? What's it about, you say?

Here's the book blurb~

Life is unpredictable. Why would death be any different?

Sixteen year old Samantha’s Dad died in a sailing accident and her Mom’s moving them to the sleepy, backwater town of Beaufort, North Carolina, so they can make a new start. Afraid to sail again, Samantha takes her mind off the past by trying to solve the mystery of who's killing young women on the island, only the killer is way more than your ordinary psychopath.

Turns out, the blood-thirsty ghost of Blackbeard returns to Beaufort on the high tide to collect the souls of beautiful young women and now he wants her mom. With only the help of a two-bit psychic and the ghost of a young, drowned sailor she might be falling in love with, Samantha struggles to save her mother. But Sam has some demons of her own to conquer first.

Want to join the blog tour? Let me know :)

and be sure to follow me on Goodreads for updates on the release!

Just another #MondayBlogs post~

Hi peeps,

I've been thinking lately and here's what I want to know:

I've seen on Twitter recently that agents say they can't sell paranormal or fantasy right now. Of course, I'm "hearing" this second hand, so bear with me, but I do believe it is the general trend.

I'm sure that's because publishers have told them "no fantasy", but why? Just look at the most popular movies and television shows of the last few years, many of which are based on books~

Marvel superhero movies = comic book fantasy

Lord of the Rings = high fantasy

City of Bones, Divergent, Hunger Games = dystopian fantasy

Game of Thrones = high fantasy

Maleficent, Frozen = high fantasy

Star Wars, Star Trek, Enders Game = sci-fi fantasy

 

I saw recently where The Giver, another dystopian fantasy by Lois Lowery is also coming to the screen soon. It's clear, the public wants fantastical stories, so why, why, why would a publisher refuse to offer them such books??? It seems ridiculous to me.

 

 

 

To the writers, publishers, and agents still putting out fantasy, paranormal, and sci-fi, I say "Hats off to you!! Thank you for supporting readers!"

The Color of Water~

Well peeps, I've finally gone and submitted my latest novel, The Color of Water, to a publisher. It's been a long time coming!  I think the original idea for the story hit me back in 2010 while visiting the North Carolina coast. I've been working on it off and on ever since, but this last year I told myself: "Enough! This will get finished and get out there!"

If you haven't guessed, it's a paranormal, young adult tale with pirates, and ghosts, and a bit of romance. Beaufort, North Carolina - one of the three oldest towns in North Carolina - is the setting. It's perfect because the town's history and plentiful ghost stories provide a deliciously gothic, Southern location.

 

 

I don't want to give too much away since I'm currently querying it, but if I find that no one wants to publish paranormal stories right now, I'll self publish. I've worked too hard to let stuff languish unseen anymore. I write to be read. :) So stay tuned, dear reader!  The best is yet to come~