Archive for October 27, 2014

I’m sure most of you have seen this book on my blog a few times.

I’ve featured it in several memes.

Now, I’m finally ready to tell you about it.

And the author has written a fun guest post about the cover art. I feel you’ll enjoy it as many of you commented on the cover before.

And there’s a giveaway too, so don’t forget to enter!

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Here’s Author William Hage and his guest post about the covers for Porcelain.

Take it away William!

When my brother first showed me the original cover for Porcelain, I loved it. The one thing I knew it needed was a creepy doll on the cover and he delivered with that. I had no intention of changing the cover so I published the book on Amazon and Goodreads, and I was perfectly happy with the result. Maybe it was nepotism.

 

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A few days later I had contacted an Amazon top 100 horror author for another reason and sent him a copy (I’ll keep him nameless, because I don’t want him bombarded with messages). I was amazed that he actually read it. He had two criticisms. One was the editing, which wasn’t that huge of an issue to him. The cover, on the other hand, was. He said the cover looked unprofessional and, more importantly, it didn’t do the story justice. He said the story was ‘ultra creepy’ (super creepy, ultra creepy and uber creepy have all been used to describe the story) and the cover just didn’t deliver. The author suggested that I take a look at the top 100 books in the horror category on Amazon.

So I spent about an hour sifting through covers trying to get past the dozens of Stephen King books. What did I find? He was right. The cover really didn’t stand up comparatively. First, I noticed was that the title was really low on the visibility scale and I noticed that a lot of the covers on Amazon didn’t bother with fancy fonts. Some did, but many went with something much more basic. So the first change had to be making the text on the cover easier to read. Also, while I loved the doll image, I felt there was something missing then. When looking at the other covers, it felt like it was just taking up too much space on the cover. I still couldn’t afford a professional cover design, so I had to go back to brother with all of the criticisms and see if he would make some changes.

He loaded up Photoshop and tried some different things with the text, but unfortunately nothing really worked, then he tried making some changes to the doll and none of those really worked either. So we decided to just go back to the original image. It was then that we discovered that he forgot to save all of the original layers and alteration and the order they were done in. Basically, we couldn’t recreate it exactly.

At this time I saw the original picture of the doll and told him I though it looked pretty damn creepy on its own. We still had the problem of needing something else on the cover. I suggested somehow adding trees since the story starts and ends in the Pine Barrens. With that little information he went back to his computer. About half an hour later he said he was done. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I can honestly say I was not expecting what he showed me. I loved it. It looked professionally done and, now more so than ever, it really looked creepy. We were both pleased when we shared the cover with others and everyone thought it was great, and thought that it was really quite creepy. So that’s basically how we decided to change the cover and we can both agree that it was a really good decision. So I owe a debt to that nameless author who told me in not so many words that the cover sucked.

I’m also working on a new book which I plan to release in the next few months. It will probably be about 5 or 6 short stories. Then I have plans to release another short story collection that will have a wraparound story that sort of brings everything in the collection together. The wraparound will take place at the Whateley Bed & Breakfast featured in Porcelain.

Thanks so much for sharing William.

You can count me in when your stories are ready!

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My Review

As a little girl, I wasn’t crazy about dolls. Sure, I had my barbies, but those bigger dolls, the ones that were almost actual size, with those creepy eyes, nope. I didn’t like them. It always felt they were watching me, their eyes following me. Now, all grown up, I still don’t like them.

I love horror, whether reading it or watching it. There are lots of movies about dolls. Let’s see. There’s all those Puppet Masters movies. How about Chuckie? Now, that’s one messed up doll. I would never have bought that for my kid. And now we have Annabelle. Have you seen The Conjuring? That doll was scary evil and wasn’t even the main plot in the movie.

I can go back much further. Ventriloquists. Their dolls come to life. Seen a few different takes on that idea.

So yes, the whole doll taking on a life of its own has been done before. It’s the author’s ability to take that and hone it to their own tale that reveals their talent and creativity. William didn’t disappoint me.

A weary traveler stops at a bed & breakfast for the night. It’s a rather lovely place with lots of collectibles on display.

The older woman who owns the place explains that each item has a history, it’s own story.

When the woman is pulled away from the conversation by a phone call and the guest kills time looking over the many objects, one in particular catches his eye.

A porcelain doll, quite lovely. His daughter would love it.

When the guest checks out in the morning, the doll travels with him to his condo. There it will wait until he visits his daughter.

But the doll won’t wait for long. It has quite a history and is ready to make a new one.

Once the doll began it’s rampage, I asked myself what I would do. Would I take it back where I got it from? I had a feeling either the old woman or the place wouldn’t be there anymore. Or, the doll would just return to get me so why bother. I’d just have to figure out how to deal with it.

 I thought I saw the end coming. I was so wrong about that. Once the author revealed the dolls history, it went every which way but the way I thought it would.

The suspense was nail biting. If this were a movie, I’d be peeking through my fingers.

Scary good stuff.

5 Stars

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Synopsis

Out near the Pine Barrens in New Jersey sits the Whateley Bed & Breakfast, home of a wide collection of knick-knacks and antiques for its guests to view, including a beautifully ornate porcelain doll. However, after the Whateley’s latest guest purchases the doll as a gift, a horrifying series of nightmarish events begins to unfold.

Porcelain is a 8000 word novelette.

evil halloween doll photo: evil doll evil-dolly.gif

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I also read this short story by William Hage.

Here’s a little something special from William.

With Halloween right around the corner, my short story “Welcome Home” will be free from Oct 30st – Nov 1st, so go ahead and pick up a free copy for something to read this weekend.

Use these links to get yours.

Amazon US ~ Amazon UK

Welcome Home

A Short Story

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My Review

I like it when I go into a book thinking I’m getting one thing, and I get something totally different. This happened when I began reading Welcome Home. I thought it was going to be a haunted house story.

The story is haunting but there are no actual ghosts. What’s there is something shadowing John Lester. It’s like when you see something out of the corner of your eye and when you turn to look, nothing is there. But this isn’t visual so much as it’s memories. They haunt his sleep, staying just out of reach of recall.

While this didn’t really scare me, it did surprise me and that’s always a good thing.

A good story for a rainy day.

3 Stars

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Synopsis

John Lester is returning to a place he never really considered home to begin with, a place that he has not seen in years. But what he does not realize is that what went on in this house was much less homely than he thought as he unearths something dark about his family.

“Welcome Home” is a short story approximately 6600 words.

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Author William Hage

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, William became obsessed with all things horror at a young age. He indulged himself greatly in horror films of all sorts as well as horror literature. Over the years he became heavily inspired and influenced by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, and Edgar Allen Poe.

William has recently self-published two stories on Amazon. Welcome Home: A Short Story & Porcelain: A Novelette. He also has 3 stories published in the magazine Sanitarium.

When he isn’t writing, William has a deep love for technology and bides his time researching the latest things and has spent years working with computers.

William also appeared in a few bands writing songs and playing guitar, having recorded two albums with his former band ESM.

Author Links

Goodreads ~ Amazon ~ Website ~ Twitter

Facebook

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I have three eBook copies of Porcelain to giveaway, courtesy of the author.

To enter, please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win and answer this question:

“If a doll were coming after you, which one would scare you the most?”

Giveaway ends November 3rd

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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I have a great post for you today.
I read Sanctuary back when I received the ARC and loved it so I’m excited to share it with you again today.
I loved the old cover art and love the new cover too.
Looking for a great Apocalyptic Dystopian. You’ll find it here.
Enjoy the excerpt and my review.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
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Title: Sanctuary

Author: Pauline Creeden

Genre: Apocalyptic/dystopian, clean NA

In a heart-racing thriller described as Falling Skies meets The Walking Dead, Jennie struggles to find a safe place for what’s left of her family. But it seems as though there is no place sacred, no place secure. First the aliens attacked the sun, making it dimmer, weaker, and half what it used to be. Then they attacked the water supply, killing one-third of Earth’s population with a bitter contaminate. And when they unleash a new terror on humankind, the victims will wish for death, but will not find it…When the world shatters to pieces around her, will Jennie find the strength she needs to keep going?

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My Review

As the story begins, the aliens have already damaged the sun, causing perpetual twilight during the day, making it difficult to grow crops. And they’ve contaminated the water supply, which has killed off one-third of Earth’s population.

As the aliens don’t do anything further for quite some time, just hover in the skies, people try to go about their daily lives.

But the aliens unleash something horrific, something beyond imagination, and it has serious repercussions, killing off another third of the population.

This is where things really get dicey.

What comes next? Are they planning on wiping us out completely? Or do they have something else in store?

Jenny never did get to return for her second year of college. The aliens attacked again and life as she knew it crumbled.

Now, she’s separated from her parents and has to protect her five-year old brother.

I admire Jenny. She’s a young woman, alone, facing something we couldn’t even imagine. What she focuses on is getting her and her little brother to safety.

She’s scared to death as she navigates the streets. But she has keen instincts and stays sharp when things get really bad. She’s a natural nurturer and has a heart of gold.

You’ll get to know Hugh and Brad, the brothers.

Hugh was a teacher at Jenny’s old highschool. He was trapped in his apartment building. When people were being attacked in the street, his first instinct was to go outside and help, but the apartment manager wouldn’t risk unlocking the doors.

When he finally does leave his apartment, he ends up at the church. There he runs into his younger brother Brad.

There is no love lost between these two.

Brad is lucky when he stumbles upon the church. But he didn’t much like the fact his brother was there.

I liked Hugh. He was a quiet, introspective man. Willing to help in any way he could.

Brad was another story all together. Every story needs a villain and he seemed to wear the title proudly. He was arrogant and self-serving. Quite the spoiled brat. And he never missed a chance to get under Hugh’s skin. One thing he did had me thinking he might be redeemable but I can’t spoil it for you.

Each chapter is told from the points of view of Jenny, Hugh, and Brad, but they flow easily and you quickly recognize their individual voices.

This is listed as a christian thriller, but it’s not like any you’ve read before. There are aliens, dog/lion creatures that bite you and turn you into zombies, and the disturbing situations you have to deal with when in a group, struggling to survive.

I was kind of reminded of Stephen King’s The Mist, when they are all confined in the grocery store. Not everybody likes each other or gets along. Life and death situations make people do weird things.

While Jenny draws on her religious beliefs to get her through this, I never felt like I was being preached at. If anything, she had me asking myself how I would hold up, what would I turn to. And with so much going on, I was kept busy following the action, trying to stay one step ahead of the horror.

The religious tones in this story are a natural progression and make it more real. Look at all of the disaster movies and books out there. So many of them have people gathering at a church, either for spiritual strength or just solace in the company of others.

If you like a mix of genres, some science fiction and fantasy with your horror, I recommend you read Sanctuary. It keeps you connected, never bogs down, and there’s plenty of action and danger.

5 STARS

*****

YouTube book Trailers:

http://youtu.be/tVQNvPzk3rc

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Purchase:
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Enjoy this glimpse inside Sanctuary
Jennie filled the
glass and set it on the counter. She needed an ibuprofen.
As she reached up
to the top shelf in the pantry, a vibration started in her chest. Holding the
white bottle in her hand, she turned around confused.
Like a jet when it
flew too low, the rumble increased in intensity as it approached. Jennie
watched the glass tremble on the counter top for a moment before fear clenched
her stomach. “MOM!?”
She rushed to the
sink and looked out the window, but her mother wasn’t in the garden any more.
Jennie barreled through the kitchen, the vibrations in her chest like bass on a
stereo. “MOM?”
When Jennie
reached the back door, she saw them. Four large dog-like creatures with pinched
faces like bulldogs and lion-like manes. They snarled, and one of them leapt at
the window on the top half of the door when it saw her. Jennie jumped back and
fell hard on the cold tile floor. The bottle of painkiller bounced across the
kitchen tiles. The creature slammed against the window a second time, cracking
it. She blinked hard. Her heart sunk, and the hairs on her arms stood on end. A
horrendous gargling howl rent the air, causing a shiver down her spine. She
held her breath and waited for the creature to slam into the door again.
“What on earth?”
she whispered to herself.
When the third
attempt never came, she scrambled toward the door. Blinking hard, she used the
door knob to help herself stand. Out the cracked window, her mother was still
out of sight, but the last of the dogs headed across the field behind her
backyard.
“MOM?” Jennie
called out.
The rumbling
faded, and the vibrations in her chest receded with the dogs. She pulled open
the door and rushed onto their back deck. “Mom, where are you?”
When she reached
the banister, she looked over the side. Her mom lay sprawled with one hand on
the lattice. Blood gushed from Mom’s leg and her opposite arm. Jennie’s ears
rang and flooded with every beat of her heart.
Jennie didn’t know
how she got to the second floor of her house, but she found herself shaking her
sleeping father. How had he slept through the rumbling? “Outside, it’s Mom…”
Her father leapt
from the bed. Mickey, her little brother, lay asleep and undisturbed. Dad ran
down the stairs and outside in his flannel pajama bottoms and white t-shirt. He
scooped Mom up to his chest and carried her inside. Blood stained his shirt in
crimson.
“Jennie, call
911!”  Her father had said it at least
three times before it finally registered in her brain.
She pulled the
cell phone from her pocket, but it refused to connect. With a groan, she
grabbed the cordless from the wall receiver, glad her heart stopped pounding in
her head so she could hear.
“All operators are
busy at this time,” a mechanical voice deadpanned, “Please stay on the line,
and the next available operator will take your call.”
“They have me on
hold, Dad. Should I hang up and try again?” She held the phone in both hands
away from her face.
“No, just stay on
the line.” Her father lifted the shredded jeans from Mom’s leg. “It looks like
a shark bite. What on earth happened?”
Jennie took in the
damage through tear-filled eyes. A huge chunk was taken from her mother’s calf,
exposing the fibrous tendons that covered the bone in her leg. A bloodstain
grew on the beige couch. Was she going to die? Panic rose up.
“What happened,
Jennie?”
“I…I…They
looked like lions, or dogs, or something. The rumbling shook the whole house…I
tried to go outside to get Mom, but—” A sob blocked her throat.
Her father grabbed
a throw pillow and held it against the leg. Mom’s exposed forearm laid across
her chest in much the same condition as her calf.
“Grab me the duct
tape.”
Jennie suddenly
remembered the phone, put it back to her ear, and headed to the hall closet.
She reached for the shelf above the jackets and grabbed the junk basket next to
the toolbox.
“Please stay on
the line. An operator will be with you shortly.”
She shoved the
phone in the crook of her neck and fished through the box.  Half the contents dropped around her feet. Who cares? When her fingers wrapped
around the silver duct tape, a short-lived relief sent prickles down her arms.
But the urgency gripped her chest in less than a heart beat, and she threw the
junk basket on the ground with the rest of the items.
“Hurry, Jennie!”
her father called from the living room. “And turn on the TV. Maybe they’ll have
something about what’s going on.”
She handed her
father the tape and turned toward the TV. The mechanical voice on the phone
came through again, followed by more easy listening.
When she clicked
on the TV, the shouting and wailing began before the picture warmed up on the
screen. A sideways picture of New York
City broke through, with the shaky voice of the
newscaster voicing over.
“What we are
watching now – I can’t believe it – is live footage of Times
Square,” the newscaster’s voice paused for a deep breath. “We’ve
lost our man on the scene and his camera man to what appears to be some kind of
new alien creature. Just a short half-hour ago, the doors to the ship that
hovered above Central Park opened and these
dog-like creatures flooded out.”
Jennie couldn’t
pull her eyes from the screen. She straightened and dropped the phone on the
hardwood. The battery popped out and skidded across the floor.
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About Pauline

In simple language, Pauline Creeden creates worlds that are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil between dimensions. She becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long. Pauline is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.

Armored Hearts, her joint effort with author Melissa Turner Lee, has been awarded the Crowned Heart for Excellence by InDtale Magazine. It is also the 2013 Book Junkie’s Choice Winner in Historical Fiction. Her debut novel, Sanctuary, won 1st Place Christian YA Title 2013 Dante Rosetti Award and 2014 Reader’s Choice Gold Award for Best YA Horror Novel.

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$20 Amazon Gift Card
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 Click on the rafflecopter below to enter.
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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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