At the risk of sounding like a broken record, here is the link to my Huffington Post post all about vampires and the whole Doctor Polidori freakery, for those of you who didn’t see it on my facebook page. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/varla-ventura/v-is-for-vampire_b_1269712.html
Huffington Post Post: Vampires!!! Read More »
Dear Readers! As a delightful Valentine to you, for a limited time you can get a FREE downloadable PDF of The Haunted Orchard, part of the Paranormal Parlor digital book collection curated by me. This horror-story-romp in the countryside was a deviation from author Richard le Gallienne’s usual poetry and romantic stories, but it has
Today is Charles Dickens’ birthday and it seems that the world has caught a new batch of Dickensian Fever with the publication of Claire Tomalin’s biography and a fantastic article in the latest issue of Smithsonian Magazine. I’m not going to attempt to give you the greater details of Dickens’ life or his life’s work
Charles Dickens, Ghostbuster Read More »
Lock up your daughters. And your sons! No child, strike that, no mortal is safe in the dark hours of Christmas Eve. For there lurks the Christmas troll, drunk on spirits and cavorting with the witches, waiting to trick you into a midnight ride. Early 20th century author Clement A. Miles was a historian and
Beware the Scandanavian Christmas Troll!!! Read More »
And other weird things I’ve learned just in time for the holidays! Seriously, though…I was reading A Kidnapped Santa Claus, this fantastic short story written by beloved Oz author L. Frank Baum way back in 1904. It takes place in Laughing Valley–Baum’s alternative to The North Pole–which happens to be surrounded by mountains where there
L. Frank Baum Was a Woman Read More »
As we all roll out of bed on this post-Thanksgiving Monday morning, possibly still clutching our guts in regret of the pie-we-ate-that-lasted-too-long, we can have a nice snack from an entirely different table. Dive into the juicy tidbits on this wonderful site The Magical Buffet. Lots of fun things, but of course you know I
Another Feast for the Freaks Read More »
I was settling into my annual reading of The Halloween Tree, which is a ritual I have invoked and maintained for the last few post-Halloweens–a great way to come down from the witches’ high of the Big Night and prepare for Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. I was savoring my copy
Ray Bradbury Is So Cool Read More »
For those of you who missed my Halloween musings on The Huffington Post’ Weird News, you can read about kitchen ghosts, Halloween cookies, a dark and stormy night, and what this all has to do with Scooby Doo here: Once Upon a Midnight Dreary
Or maybe, in this case, it is the other way around. You fans of horror (you are fans of horror, right?!?) may recall the story of the birth of one of the best horror novels of all time–Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft (Shelley) were reading ghost stories aloud to
Vampire Meets Frankenstein Read More »
The latest Huffington Post blog gets into some details about a lone grave, the Ouija board, and the ghost of Samuel L. Clemens!! Read it here: Paranormal Parlor Games
The Ghost of Mark Twain Read More »
