Here we are with author Sylvie again, this time with a few Halloween word searches she created for the kids in the group (or the adults in the group that have kids).
Boo-graphy: Sylvie Gionet is a writer of fiction and an accomplished photographer. A Halloween Adventure with Jack and Ony Lantern is her first children’s book. If you like a dark folktale but a pleasant story, then you will enjoy Jack and Ony’s mystical journey.
Someone is creeping into the factories at night where they make the delicious Halloween treats and destroying the ingredients.
Luckily for the magical inhabitants of Halloween-land, Ony and Jack Lantern are Halloween fanatics, and when a young witch named Casey arrives on Earth one night to ask for their help, they know they will be the perfect superheroes for the adventure.
Put your Halloween costume on, grab a Halloween treat, and get ready for a ride to a land filled with Halloween madness!
Author Sylvie Gionet took the time to find us some very interesting things on Pinterest to help us celebrate Halloween, including recipes and fun activities. Maybe you’ll find your next Halloween tradition in the links below, a new holiday decoration to make, or even something scrumpdiliumptious to eat while bingewatching your favorite Halloween movies.
Boo-graphy: Sylvie Gionet is a writer of fiction and an accomplished photographer. A Halloween Adventure with Jack and Ony Lantern is her first children’s book. If you like a dark folktale but a pleasant story, then you will enjoy Jack and Ony’s mystical journey.
Someone is creeping into the factories at night where they make the delicious Halloween treats and destroying the ingredients.
Luckily for the magical inhabitants of Halloween-land, Ony and Jack Lantern are Halloween fanatics, and when a young witch named Casey arrives on Earth one night to ask for their help, they know they will be the perfect superheroes for the adventure.
Put your Halloween costume on, grab a Halloween treat, and get ready for a ride to a land filled with Halloween madness!
In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff – gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.
Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.
And now the dread night approaches – so let the Game begin.
Author: Roger Zelazny Illustrator: Gahan Wilson Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp Publisher: Avon Books Publication Date: September 1, 1994 Pages: 280
October 8th
Snuff and Jack have a visitor, a large dark-haired man by the name of Larry Talbot who introduces himself as a new neighbor. He seems polite and well-mannered but there’s a strange scent about him that Snuff can’t identify. While Jack and the new man chat over tea Snuff has to scurry upstairs as the ‘thing’ in the wardrobe is making an escape. We learn it has leathery wings, reinforcing my earlier thought that the ‘thing’s are trapped demons. Snuff manages to battle it back into its pen but, being a dog, has trouble latching the door. Jack arrives in the nick of time to close it in. Talbot remarks on how Snuff is a good ‘closer of doors’, and drops a none- too-subtle hint that he himself is a closer, and that he believes that he and Jack are on the same side. That might be true, but nobody is really showing their hand yet and there is no indication of what needs to be opened or closed, or why.
When Talbot leaves, Snuff follows and adds the man’s house to his mental map which is coming along nicely now that he also knows the location of the Count. He is prevented from adding more detail to it by news that the two occultists have broken the unsaid rules of the game and have made an attempt on the life of Greymalk. Snuff rushes to save her from the well into which she’d been thrown, and is thanked for his help. Is this the beginning of an alliance? Time will tell.
So already we have Jack the Ripper, the Wolfman, Dracula, Doctor Frankenstein, Rasputin, Holmes and Watson and various occultists, witches and familiars, all congregated in a small patch of countryside, all preparing for what is obviously a ritual at Halloween, and all apparently aligned as either openers or closers. Who else will be along to do the Monster Mash?
Today there was also one of the best lines in the book. When asking questions about Talbot, one of the other familiars says to Snuff “Perhaps he’s his own best friend.” A lovely joke just thrown in among many witticisms and knowing references to older works. This book is a marvel.
Boo-graphy: William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.
He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.
He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.
When he’s not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.
The Green & the Black — A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.
They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.
Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.
The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.
I love coming up with creepy remixes on fun desserts, so I had a lot of fun coming up with this idea for Meghan’s amazing Halloween Extravaganza! You can rest assured, no actual monkeys were harmed in the making of this delicious pull apart bread. It will, however, be a perfect addition to your next spooky gathering!
Ingredients:
3 cans refrigerated biscuit dough 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1/2 cup butter (one stick) 1 cup packed brown sugar 1 can cherry pie filling 3/4 cup powdered sugar 2-3 tablespoons milk Red food coloring
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C). Grease one bundt pan.
Step 2: Mix white sugar and cinnamon in a plastic bag. Cut biscuits into quarters, spoon a tiny amount of cherry pie filling into each quarter and form them into balls.
Step 3: Shake 6 to 8 biscuit balls in the cinnamon sugar mix. Arrange pieces in the bottom of the prepared pan. Continue until all biscuits are coated and placed in pan.
Step 4: In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the brown sugar over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over the biscuits.
Step 5: Bake for 35 minutes, or until dough is cooked through. Let bread cool slightly.
Step 6: Mix the powdered sugar, milk, and a few drops of the red food coloring in a small bowl, using enough food coloring to give off a “bloody” appearance. Drizzle over the top of the bread.
Step 7: Pull apart/cut to serve.
Boo-graphy: I’m one of those people that is absolutely terrible about talking about myself. I can get a book out there like nobody’s business, but when it comes to selling myself, I tend to falter. More often than not, you can find me with a cup of coffee in hand and my Pomeranian, Lil Bell, nearby – usually rather jealous I’m paying too much attention to my laptop and not enough to her crazy antics. I love going on fun adventures with my dorky, perfect boyfriend, awesome friends, or my zany-but-amazing family. Be it random, hole-in-the-wall shops or yard sales, riding roller coasters, going to book signings, or the front row adrenaline of Emarosa and Dance Gavin Dance concerts – I love exploring places I’ve never been before and trying new things along the way. I’m super thankful for my Kindle app because I always have to have a stack of books with me and a box of paperbacks can take up a lot of room on a road trip.
When I’m not exploring the world around me, watching awesome horror movies, and living in the fictional worlds within my favorite books, I am helping authors find readers for their books and murdering people in my own debut (I’m writing a thriller – I’m a nice girl, honest). Playing matchmaker for books and readers is one of my favorite things, and I adore coming up with creative marketing and publicity campaigns that help make things happen.
In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff – gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.
Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.
And now the dread night approaches – so let the Game begin.
Author: Roger Zelazny Illustrator: Gahan Wilson Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp Publisher: Avon Books Publication Date: September 1, 1994 Pages: 280
October 7th
The day begins early with Jack and Snuff on a foray into the city for ‘materials’. It’s bloody work again, but Jack announces himself pleased with the prize of a piece of green material from the clothes of a redhead, a necessary piece of a spell. Once again they are pursued by the dour detective and his rotund friend, the latter of which is still hampered by a limp so much that Jack and Snuff can get clear away. Did Snuff cause the limp, or is it the rotund chap’s old war wound playing up? Inquiring minds need to know.
In the morning Snuff’s rounds turn up an intruder! He finds a rat, sitting staring at the ‘things’ in the mirror. Snuff’s first instinct is to dispose of it outright, but the rat talks, announcing itself as Bobo, a familiar of “The Good Doctor”. After a bit of trading Snuff spares the rat in return for the location of the Count. Together they visit a ruined church. The rat tells Snuff that the Count is down in the crypt, sleeping. Snuff, sensing trouble, takes his word for it. In return for the rat’s help he shares his info on the locations of the other players.
At the close of the day we learn that, as the bells chime for midnight, Snuff can talk to Jack. They have a conversation about the day’s findings, in the course of which we discover that they have been together for some time, having played at least one previous great game in Dijon. They chat about the other players, the witch and the cat in particular, both seeming to be interested in them and in ascertaining whether they are friend or foe. Snuff finally settles down to sleep, seeking the advice of someone called Growler in his dreams.
Beneath the seemingly easy-going conversations of the day there’s been a lot going on. Zelazny is a master of foreshadowing and there’s a lot of it here, more than enough to quicken the interest and get us turning pages. I had to force myself to stop at the end of the day. I’m playing by rules here too.
Boo-graphy: William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.
He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.
He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.
When he’s not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.
The Green & the Black — A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.
They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.
Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.
The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.
Meghan's House of Books 