Hope everyone is having a wonderful October! We were delighted today to hear of the FDA vaccine approval for kids 5-11, so we will definitely be downing some chocolate and peanut butter confections in celebration tonight. 🙂

I promised a snippet from Clanblades… And here it is. Slow but steady wins the race…

Zama slumped down at his scrying area as soon as Unira had swept away toward her son’s room and breathed a sigh of relief. The mirror reflected his image, for now, and he stared at the human form he’d assumed for this world. He was liking it less and less as the days when by.

He didn’t like admitting failure. Or fault. Or any weakness, really. As a demon summoned from another realm, he was supposed to be immensely powerful. All powerful even. Mighty and full of omnipotent wrath.

He did have more than the average mortal here. But he always sensed that Unira had sky-high expectations—and he wasn’t living up to them.

The anomaly didn’t help matters.

He did not think of the ‘boy’ as a boy. It was an anomaly. This Nyalin could be another demon, for all he could tell. The jumps between mirror worlds were thinner at times, and at certain locations in most planes. There were easier places to summon and be summoned. Zama himself had taken advantage of this multiple times.

But never had he seen a thin spot… move.

The moon could thin the barrier. Places of power, like the cave where Unira had summoned him, were primed and ready to ease the transition, the divide between one world and the next razor thin in those special locations.
But everything around this ‘boy’ was thin. And the thinness followed him wherever he went.

Zama needed to do something about it. But he could hardly understand it. How could he figure out if he needed to control the anomaly or destroy it, if he couldn’t understand how it was possible?

He would have to get closer. And find out more.

– Pre-Edit version of Book 2 of Legends of the Clanblades by R.K. Thorne

And now for some Halloween fun.

I don’t really read horror. I watch a little in things like Death Note or Alien, but mostly I don’t go there. So this is the cross-section of Books I Enjoyed and Books That Are Sort Of Spooky Or Contain Werewolves. And I paired them with my favorite candies, because I could.

So, in no particular order, here they are.

Master of Crows by Grace Draven with some Sour Patch Kids

This has touches of horror that are probably the closest I’ll ever get to recommending some, but personally I’m reading for the fantasy romance action. Also, the hero’s orange grove will stick with you after a read, which is why I picked something tangy, juicy, and indulgent to go with this one.

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher with Mini Milky Way Midnights

What’s better than werewolves for Halloween? What? Vampires? Monsters? Spiders? Okay, point taken. Anyway I like werewolves. And this is a pretty fun urban fantasy mystery with a very engaging main character.

Technically Storm Front comes first, so you might need to hurry up if you want to read the series in order. 🙂

Something classic and semi-nutritious with a dark twist seemed fitting for me.

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs and some Twizzlers

Cause they’re both a little bit sassy. I haven’t gotten far into the Mercy Thompson series, even though she’s an amazing character, probably because I’m not a huge fan of love triangles. But the world is lush, and who doesn’t love a smart lady mechanic as a main character?

A very authentic character and a very artificial strawberry candy. You decide if they go together.

The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe with KitKats

Especially “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Listened to “The Raven” with my kiddos while we ate some candy corn. I swear I wasn’t trying to torture them. They actually like candy corn. I know, I don’t know where they came from.

With Poe, I don’t recommend candy corn. Try some glow in the dark KitKats. These are a bit goth, and the crunch will add to the paranoia any reader feels reading about the body under the floorboards.

Or maybe it just needs to be straight bourbon.

What would you recommend? Put your spooks and snacks in the comments. 🙂

Don’t forget you can always read my latest space opera Songbird Rising. It’s not really very spooky, but what that I write is? 🙂

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3B1C7hK
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songbird-Rising-Audacity-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B09C2QKMSZ/
Amazon AUS: https://www.amazon.com.au/Songbird-Rising-Audacity-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B09C2QKMSZ/
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Songbird-Rising-Audacity-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B09C2QKMSZ/
Amazon DE: https://www.amazon.de/Songbird-Rising-Audacity-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B09C2QKMSZ/
Amazon FR: https://www.amazon.fr/Songbird-Rising-Audacity-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B09C2QKMSZ/