Lily's Friday Prediction

I hope our American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

As I understand it today is Black Friday when everyone goes mad at the shops buying Christmas presents. Of course Amazon has been promoting Black Friday for a few years now, reducing the price of books and products. We don't call today anything special in the UK but it is the start of the festive frenzy, according to this morning's news. Well, as I hate shopping in public with a passion (nothing brings out the worst of behaviour in the human race as shopping) then Amazon gets my custom this year.

If you're looking for holiday reads, or books to buy for your loved ones make a note to visit Erin Cole's Book Blog Catalog from 2nd December. Find out details here. Thank you Erin for running this great feature again. 

Winners of Last Week's Prediction Challenge

I found the winning entry so different, with a feisty, intriguing character and a strong plot that could fill a whole book. Grogan picks up the (invisible) winner's cup this week, with Grace. Congratulations Grogan!

Runner-up, with a chilling, monkey's paw of a tale is Antonia with Wishes Granted. Well done Antonia! (And all the best for your new website!)

Words for 25 November 2011

Flip. It's open. Plunge and finger the pages. Here they come...

• Toad
• Charisma
• Generate

Have fun!

Rules

The rules are: 100 words max flash fiction or poetry using all of the words above. Please add your entries in the Comments box below. You have the whole week until 9pm UK time on Thursday 1st December to enter.

Winner will be announced next Friday 2nd December. If you can, please tweet about your entry, using the #fridayflash hashtag, and blog if you feel like it.

Open your arms to let the snow sprinkle flakes of sparkling words into your soul. Can't wait...

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Lily's Friday Prediction

What a week! The Childs family in now a healthy mob, all ready to pick today's Prediction challenge words from the big book.

And of course, I've finally published the second in the Magenta Shaman series, Magenta Shaman Stones The Crow.

Read the news about the book | Buy it here (UK) or here (US).

I've already held you up long enough so lets kick on...

Winner of Last Week's Prediction Challenge

Great mix of styles and directions this week, which actually makes it harder to choose winners. However - the task is complete.

Rising two places to the top of the charts my winner this week is AJ Humpage with her squidgy, gut-wrenching (literally) horror-fest that is... Squirm. Disinfectant at the ready... Congratulations AJ!!

And my runner-up with a tale worse than death is Nick Mott with God's Love Lacking. Very well done Nick.

Words for 18 November 2011

• Monsoon
• Chapel
• Transcend

Hmmnn, better get the brollie out.

Rules

The rules are: 100 words max flash fiction or poetry using all of the words above. Please add your entries in the Comments box below. You have the whole week until 9pm UK time on Thursday 24th November to enter.

Winner will be announced next Friday 25th November. If you can, please tweet about your entry, using the #fridayflash hashtag, and blog if you feel like it.

Lie down, meditate and invite the words in. I'll hear them in my dreams...

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Magenta Shaman Stones The Crow - Out Now!

I promised; I kept you waiting... but finally here it is - the second novella in the Magenta Shaman series, Magenta Shaman Stones The Crow.

Book Description:

Natural born shaman, Magenta Sweeney is torn from the comfort of England's green coast and sent on a terrifying trance journey by the very guides and guardians that claim to protect her. This time she must do as she is told. This time – she has no choice.

In Magenta Shaman Stones The Crow Maggie finds herself eight hundred miles from home, wandering the Bohemian forests of the Czech Republic in a final, desperate attempt to rescue the father she'd long believed dead.

As the bleak stone walls of ancient Houska Castle loom through the trees the shaman must prepare herself as never before.

And when the Gates of Hell open to invite Magenta in, she is forced to make a decision – one that could be her last.

Book cover (c) Laurence Ranger and Lily Childs

Download Magenta Shaman Stones The Crow now from:

Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

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Feedback... and would you write a review?

I would love to receive your feedback on Magenta Shaman Stones The Crow. Do leave your comments below - and if you would be prepared to write a review for Amazon or Goodreads, that would be wonderful (and helps others to decide whether to buy the book).

I am so grateful for your thoughts - as always.

Coming Soon on Other Devices

I hope to publish both Magenta Shaman and Magenta Shaman Stones The Crow through Smashwords in the next few weeks. This will allow you to download it in other forms (including PDF) to PC, Mac, Nook, e-readers, i-Phones/Pads, Android phones and more.

The books will be available through Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Sony and the Apple Store.

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Lily's Friday Prediction

Caught myself a superb horror film this week, The Loved Ones. The only resemblance to any other film of this genre is the school dance - everything else is unique. This Australian gore-fest shows trailer-trash freakdom at its best. What's worst is the niggling worry that the horrific scenarios could really happen. Highly recommended.

And so to the topic of this post (I get so easily distracted)...

Winners of Last Week's Prediction Challenge

Trepidation lines the walls of The Feardom's tunnels this morning as I truly don't know how to choose a winner out of the excellent entries. What a wicked bunch you are with your clever words, beguiling characters and seething plots. But choose, I must - or be damned. So...

This week's winner is Reba - RR Kovar with Step Up, Step Down -  a sordid delight that flips with a twist which totally took me by surprise. Congratulations Reba!

I have two runners-up - as is my wont/prerogative. Because it made me giggle when I read it in the PM's voice my first runner-up is David Barber's In Debt - great dialogue, as always, despite the schoolboy excuses ;-) 

Conversely I have chosen AJ Humpage's horrifying slap in the face of reality Hive as second runner-up; exquisitely detailed and graphic with an ending that shames us as a human race. 

Well done both.

Words for 11 November 2011

On this monumental date of 11.11.11, lets see what the old tome has to say for itself and dig out a few words for you...

• Mule
• Convert (Conversion and other verb/noun forms are fine)
• Eclipse

May I just send out a wee reminder that if you get the time to comment on each others' entries, everyone really appreciates the feedback.

Rules

The rules are: 100 words max flash fiction or poetry using all of the words above. Please add your entries in the Comments box below. You have the whole week until 9pm UK time on Thursday 17th November to enter.

Winner will be announced next Friday 18th November. If you can, please tweet about your entry, using the #fridayflash hashtag, and blog if you feel like it.

So get on your old gallopy, ride off into the sunset - but bring the darkness back with you...

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Lily's Friday Prediction

It's bonfire season. Bit of a double-edged sword this. Love it but worry terribly about the animals.

Enjoy, be careful - and whatever you do, don't forget to check for hedgehogs before you light the fire. Right - that's my brain cleared out.

Winners of Last Week's Prediction Challenge

We had fewer entries than usual this time round but what we did have were double-concentrated! All gorgeous, dark and delicious, except for my frivolous little thing.

My winner is Ravenways with her untitled and wicked girdle delight. Absolutely dripping with gothic delectation. Congratulations!

Runner-up, with her terrifying tale of eternal torture is Antonia Woodville's Another Day In Hell. A girdle of manacled women - beautiful. Well done Antonia.

Words for 04 November 2011

What will we see; what will we choose...?

• Passport
• Rent
• Interrupt

Okaaaayyyy. Good luck with those.

Rules

The rules are: 100 words max flash fiction or poetry using all of the words above. Please add your entries in the Comments box below. You have the whole week until 9pm UK time on Thursday 10th November to enter.

Winner will be announced next Friday 11th November. If you can, please tweet about your entry, using the #fridayflash hashtag, and blog if you feel like it.

Get your visas ready. No fakes. Transport me...

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What's Going On? I'll Tell Ya!

I've read so much great fiction these last couple of weeks it feels like there's a literary fest going on in my head.

Here's a little catch up on my and others' news:

• First things first. Hip, hip! I have finished the final draft of Magenta Shaman Stones The Crow. I'm just waiting for the cover to be completed and intend publishing it on Amazon by the end of next week.
  
  Twice as long as the first story in the Magenta Shaman novella series, this tale finds the shaman thrown to The Gates of Hell in the realms between modern and ancient Prague. Here's a little excerpt to tease...
  
  
  Heavy clouds sped across a waxing moon. At least the magnetic pull was on their side. Magenta hated journeying during the waning period – the closer to the dark moon the more difficult the trip. She lay back on the ground, Tom’s arms clasped around her from behind. To use her meditation cave to enter the trance was a first for Maggie but the protection she had built up in the chalk cavity over the years meant she’d be grounded; that nothing but she, Tom and her ethereal messengers could enter or leave the sacred place.
  
  
  A small fire flickered at Magenta’s feet, throwing light around the small space. Mugwort smouldered with sticky frankincense in a brass dish on one of the coals. Maggie had chosen the mildly noxious herb because of its dream recollection properties. She had returned from the previous Houska experience humming with nausea and grief – knowing she’d fought and lost to a demon more ancient, more vicious than any she had battled before – knowing her father Sam had been swallowed into the depths and killed – yet Magenta had no memory of it. The demon, if it were even that, had wiped her head of all but the emotions associated with the event. If her body hadn’t been covered with storm-bloom bruises that swelled and dissipated within thirty minutes of her return, then the emotions were the only residual evidence of the day Samuel French had died.
  
  
  Unlike the journey four years before, Maggie had prepared herself better this time. Her former, unfounded confidence had taught her a lesson and she was taking no chances. A thick line of salt made a circle around the couple, its crystalline make-up flecked with crumbled myrrh to protect the cave and its inhabitants.
  
  
  “Are you ready?”
  
  
  Tom stared down at his wife; her breathing had shallowed almost to nothing. She opened her lips. Tom took a laurel leaf and slipped it beneath Magenta’s tongue. As soon as he felt her weight shift, the flames at her feet died down and he sighed as his wife’s spirit evanesced into the shadows.
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  Not read Magenta Shaman, the first story yet? Grab it from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
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• 
  The UK's Writing Magazine recently commissioned me to write a couple of articles on why e-publishing was right for me, and a 'How To' on preparing and uploading your manuscript to Amazon using Kindle Direct Publishing.
  
  The articles have both been published in the latest, December issue of the Magazine. You can buy it from WH Smith and can also subscribe.
  
  I also recommend Writing Magazine's online forum Talkback; I joined in 2009 and - it sounds trite - but it has opened so many doors, and I have 'met' some wonderful writers and editors, including Thrillers Killers 'n' Chillers Col Bury. And we know what THAT led to! ;-)


• And talking of Thrillers Killers 'n' Chillers - as you know, I'm now hanging out as Horror Editor in its dark passages and am currently hosting a week-long Hellicious Halloween showcase.
  
  Thirteen stories from twelve excellent writers including Predictioneers Chris Allinotte, Phil Ambler, Erin Cole, Sean Patrick Reardon, Dorothy Davies (our Antonia) and our new and inimitable Absolutely*Kate. Plus more brilliant stories from J. Bramwell Slater, Harris Tobias, Keith Gingell, Patricia Abbott, Gill Hoffs and Kevin G. Bufton.
  
  Here's the line-up. Do give your feedback and support. Thank you.


• 
  Continuing the theme of TKnC, I simply have to recommend the new e-book by fellow editor Col Bury 'Manchester 6'.
  
  This collection of "Six Gritty Crime Stories" is a must-have. You can download it from Amazon.co.uk for just 86p (bargain!!!) It's also available from Amazon.com and in other formats - see Col's blog for more details.


• Finally, I was highly delighted to discover my Pentacle Drummers mate, the Big Man Draven - who has already drummed in Dizzee Rascal's Dirtee Cash video, also performed in Florence & The Machine's Dogs Days Video! How I missed him, I'll never know. Go Greg!!!
  
  I'm a big Flo fan. Her new album Ceremonials was dropped into my hands this very morning. Dropping it into my ears now...