Blog Tour: Egg by Ross Victory (Review)

Welcome to the book tour for short story Egg by Ross Victory!

Egg: A Short Story
by: Ross Victory

Publication Date: October 31st, 2020
Genre: Short Story/ Horror

SYNOPSIS

“Miracle baby” Nakoa Jamar discovers a mosquito bite in the center of his chest on his 12th birthday, which rapidly grows into a Siamese twin. The older Nakoa gets, the more terrorizing his twin brother, Marcus, becomes. Distressed by the changes in their family and unable to bear another scandal incited by Marcus, The Taylors, Nakoa’s parents, research doctors to separate the twins after the boys nearly destroy each other in a merciless fight. The problem is the boys are conjoined at the heart. Separation will kill them both.

Using horror, fertility issues, and Yin and Yang symbolism as the backdrop, Egg contemplates what it means for light and darkness to manifest in the body. Egg explores the limits of love and the limits of hatred while speaking to the ability we have as human beings—the ability to choose

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REVIEW

Egg is a fairly decent story that plays with the idea of life and the good and bad sides used in comparison to the concept of yin and yang when the character ends up growing a Siamese twin from their heart. The reason for this eventually gets revealed in a unique twist that dives into the concept of consequences for getting something as everything is a fair trade reminding me a little of a Chinese book called The Pawnshop No.8 by Zita Law which uses the premise of trading with the “devil”.

Being a short story, it does allow this to be an immersive quick read especially as the story jumps through Nakoa’s birthdays before and after Marcus’ existence. It shapes his personality and who it is but most of all, it focuses on the parents as they witness on the son. Perhaps what gets lost is whether the son’s Yin and Yang situation is the focal point or the parents cause and effect of their decisions and their play in this. That part is a little fuzzy.

It is a short story so to not ruin with spoilers, I won’t say too much. Overall, Egg is a fun read. Horror wise, it has some graphic descriptions perhaps more at the beginning. The concept is unique with Yin and Yang being an angle that could be used more. There lacks a bit of depth but its more the short story length that limits it. The length also leaves the characters all feeling lightly grazed with four characters feeling key, its inevitable. Still, short stories show the author’s skill and writing style. In this case, its a pretty good one with good use of descriptions to bring to life what feels like a mesh of body horror versus psychological.

Where to buy: Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ross Victory is an Award-Winning author and Adult Contemporary recording artist from Southern California. He is the author of the father-son themed memoir, Views from the Cockpit: The Journey of a Son and bisexual-themed Panorama: The Missing Chapter. Ross finds his unique voice by using his story to produce art in written and musical formats. He spent his early years collecting pens, notepads and interviewing himself in a tape recorder. With an acute awareness for his young age, Ross was eager to point out hypocrisies and character inconsistencies in children and adults through English assignments. If he weren’t keeping his English teachers on their toes for what he would say or write next, he was processing his world through song writing and music. After years of traveling

the world and working corporate roles, Ross has developed a special brand of entertainment, inspiration, and media to engage the public at several axis points.

Website
Instagram
Goodreads

MINI TOUR SCHEDULE

December 7th
Reads & Reels (Spotlight) 
@BearPigLovesBooks (Review)

December 8th
Cats Luv Coffee (Spotlight)

December 9th
B is for Book Review (Spotlight) 
Jessica Belmont (Review)

December 10th
Tranquil Dreams (Review)
@TheCrookedHouse (Review)

December 11th
I Smell Sheep (Review) 
The Faerie Review (Review)

Blog Tour Hosted by:

R&R Book Tours

What’s Up 2020: Week 49

Another week has gone by! This week was pretty good. Got a little bit of everything done!

READING

• Egg by Ross Victory

Currently reading: Wayward Kindred

A little bit of reading this week as I prepared for the next blog tour commitment for Egg which is coming out tomorrow. I won’t say too much since its a short story as to keep a bit of freshness for the review. Its an interesting one to say the least. As for other things, I’m still slowly reading Wayward Kindred, which I do want to wrap up before starting up the next novel for another blog tour commitment. I really need to organize these blog tour commitments a little more sparsely.

PLAYING

• Gnog

Currently playing: Hyperdot

The highlight for this week is Gnog that I completed 100% achievements on Steam. Its a rare situation so I like to mention it. With that said, its a fun little puzzle game with some great soundtrack. Its super feel good and just made me so happy to play it. I probably will do a quick little review for it.

I’m starting to work through the Xbox Game Pass. Its going to be the priority for this coming month as of end of November. I’m trying to at least get through some of The Game Awards nominated games available there while also playing some games that I’ve wanted to play in a while but didn’t get around to the last time I had the Game Pass. Maybe I’ll keep it for another month depending on how I feel and how much time I can commit to it in January. The first game is a very simple game called Hyperdot. I’ve played other games similar to this before so it doesn’t feel that unique but visually its done pretty good and there is a certain amount of variety. I’m halfway through at Level 50 and just wondering whether there’s anything else that will be new. Might stop and move on to something else if nothing new happens by Level 60.

Game Warp has finished up some production meeting so we’re going to be back on track which means, I need to get back onto the planned gaming and get some more content out. I’m planning on having some streaming plans that probably will start early next year but maybe earlier, if I figure out a schedule.

WATCHING

• Angela’s Christmas Wish (2020)
• Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)

I’m focusing on the holiday films lately to get this Holidays marathon going on right now with more content. Fairly ahead with movie watching, just a little behind on writing. Honestly, these two new Christmas/Holidays films are pretty decent. I do like Jingle Jangle for that one thing that its a pretty fun musical and the whole set and music is rather good. Although that’s not saying Angela’s Christmas Wish isn’t good which hit me in the feels with their ending.

BINGING

• Forget You Remember Love (忘记你记得爱情, 2020 Review)
• Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas (Season 1, 2020)
• The Holiday Movies That Made Us (Season 1, 2020)
• Everybody Stand By 2 (Actors Take Your Place 2, 2020)

Currently binging: You Are So Sweet, Sing or Spin S2, Shine! Super Brothers, The Wolf, Our Song 2, Meeting Mr. Right S3, The Romance of Tiger and Rose

Would you look at that? I’m working on my TV binge stuff backwards as I mentioned last week (or in the Adventures post, I can’t remember). Anyways, it seems to be working out much better than the prior plan. Sadly, Forget You Remember Love wasn’t my highlight this week. It just was too long. You can check out the review linked above. It was pretty cute in parts but some parts was just a little too frustrating. For people who are big fans of the original series, they might still enjoy this one though.

My highlight this week goes to Everybody Stand By S2 which is an actor competition variety show. Its for different actors from various backgrounds and experiences to perform in a competition with renowned directors on different pieces to finally stand out in the end based on audience and industry votes as well as online popularity votes. I never saw the first season but this season did reveal a lot of really great actors and actresses as well as some familiar faces. Plus, the director crew are all rather well known with Vicki Zhao (best known for her directorial piece So Young and her actress career in Shaolin Soccer), Kaige Chen (director of Farewell My Concubine), Derek Yee (Director of Full Throttle, One Night in Mongkok, Shinjuku Incident) and Jingming Guo (Director of Tiny Times, Cry Me A Sad River). An outstanding crew of directors to say the least which makes it all the more fun to watch.

With that said, some new additions this week as I continue to work through the popular series that I skipped over this year with The Romance of Tiger and Rose as well as starting up a new variety show called Shine Super Brothers to create a group of more sophisticated performers/celebrities, etc. I’m watching it mostly for some of the celebrities that joined the show. Plus, I did finish 2 Netflix Original series. Holiday Home Makeover and Holiday Movies That Made Us both were pretty fun to watch as well and only 4 and 2 episodes respectively so very quick binges. I’ll be doing a post for it soon so I won’t talk too much about it right now.

That’s it for this week’s What’s Up!
What have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?

Conscience (Short Story) by Jonathan Pongratz

Conscience
by: Jonathan Pongratz

Rory Bennels lives in a world ruled by a business entity known as the Corporation. For years he’s executed cerebral uploads for the recently deceased, but when the famed anarchist Epher Lore ends up in his lab, a series of events occur that shakes Rory’s world to the core. – Goodreads

*Received in exchange for honest review*

Running a swift 37 pages, Conscience is a science fiction novel set in a futuristic dystopian world. As with short stories, its a fairly quick-paced as the story sees Rory experiencing an error with his cerebral upload that would usually go smoothly. The story gives a little slice of this world and who the Corporation is. As the plot dives deeper between the interaction of these two characters, Rory starts seeing another side to the world that he thinks that he knows and having to test which truth that he would believe to lead up to the end.

For a short story, the characters actually get rather padded out especially since the anarchist Epher Lore is one that takes on this different approach of being transferred into a robot by accident and as they call it, becomes immortal for most part which makes it a bad situation for Rory and the consequences from the Corporation that he is afraid to face. The dialogue between Epher Lore and Rory also have a lot of weight in the whole scenario as the characters somehow build their understanding of each other. Epher Lore is more than the anarchist that he has been caught for while Rory also develops throughout the story from the starting point until the ending. For a short story, its a bit of surprise how well the characters are written.

Conscience is really just a snippet of this futuristic dystopia and the world that it could be with the Corporation and these characters and some robots/AI put in the mix. It outlines a general state of the world on hand and yet leaves so much room to build this world. Some of the individual science fiction elements might not be completely unseen or unique but its how Jonathan Pongratz delivers and puts together these elements that gives it a distinctive turn of events. With how this story ends, it leaves an intriguing space to revisit this world if ever he decides to write another story and one that I’d definitely be interested to read more of this world if it happens.

Score: 5/5

Other Jonathan Pongratz stories: Reaper

The Celestial Assignment by Theresa Braun

The Celestial Assignment
By: Theresa Braun

After a sudden death, Will, a misguided angel, is tasked with protecting a baby girl. Watching over her as she grows up and navigates the world appears a harsh punishment for his past failings. Can he redeem himself, or will he fall further from grace? – Goodreads

*Book received in exchange for honest review*

The Celestial Assignment is a short story running at around 28 pages. As much as its a story, its really a character analysis exercise. The main character Will has become an angel after his death and assigned to take care of a baby girl called Celeste, much to his surprise. Will is something of a character development analysis. His personality changes subtly, unknowing to himself that he no longer is that selfish man that he used to be and learns more by observing the things that happen to Celeste that he is looking over. Does he face his own problems and really address what makes him draw some parallels to the people that the baby girl meets as she gradually grows up and runs into her own problems and meets guys that are like him when he was alive.

Theresa Braun is a pretty good writer. The Celestial Assignment has a good flow and knows what he tries to presents. With limited page count, the story stays on track all the time and knows exactly what it wants to deliver and the focus it needs to take while keeping everything at a minimum. Will comes to life on paper by how he is written through his reactions, whether its his remarks or his actions, whether you find it snarky, witty or sarcastic. At the beginning there is a real sense of disapproval for such a negative character who does experience the different changes because he is written so vividly.

Seeing as The Celestial Assignment is a shorter story, there isn’t much to talk about without sharing too much of the story. In that sense, I’d rather you go and read it yourself. Its an incredibly quick read. Character analysis like this one helps with the reflection of our own lives and for that, it becomes an intriguing read as we see how the character on the page comes to terms with the person before and now and how to move forward.

Previous books reviewed by Theresa Braun

Dead Over Heels
Fountain Dead

Halloween 2018: Nightlight Tales 2 by Anthony Renfro

*Book received in exchange for honest review*

It has been a long while since we looked at Anthony Renfro’s work. Consider me very sorry about it since its beem sitting in my inbox for at least a few months. However, such a fitting time to read an anthology of horror short stories. To keep things moving, I will link back to reviews for some of these that I have written about before. One thing is for sure is that you should head over and check out Anthony’s blog HERE.

Nightlight Tales 2
by Anthony Renfro

The Headless Fountain Man

Fun fact: This story was inspired by a picture that I posted on Avenue of Daydreams.

There is something so fun about The Headless Fountain Man. I would have to say that he nailed it on the head with the “monster” in this one. Not to mention the main character is called Kim so it could be my biggest nightmare. The details and description for this short story is really well done. I had this slight feeling of one of the scenes from Gerald’s Game in there. It kind of creeped my out and also explains why I don’t normally take human figures or sculptures often. 100% awesomeness for this short story on all angles especially for creativity. I may have taken the picture to inspire it but it sure went off in an unexpected direction.

Fear of the Scarecrow

Revenge, scarecrows, incantations, pumpkins, creatures and some bloody moments pretty much sums up Fear of the Scarecrow. Its a story about revenge and how far to go for it. But its even more than that because there are layers to this story more on a physical level as the events and revenge gets more intense with how it turns outs. I’ve read this one before and rereading it is still pretty fun.

It Sleeps At Dawn – Review

The Dead of Winter – Review

Gluten-Free

Unexpected is how I’d describe this story. I think this highlights why I like reading Anthony’s short stories a lot. I’ve talked about his creativity before but I wouldn’t have imagined on using gluten as a central way to commit suicide. Extreme, gruesome and very well described. Gluten-Free is one of the shorter short stories but one that is fully engaging because of how its presented. Its unique and that is what makes it stand out for myself.

The Lot – Review

The Dragon

In our current landscape, technology is everywhere. A lot of people ignore the horrors that come with it. Of course, we’ve also been seeing a lot of movies that reflect this especially with the new wave of screenlife horror and thrillers. The Dragon mimics something of the dangers of when something like Alexa is a lot more sinister. Its clever to use technology as the background but what I like a lot about it is the vivid description of how things go down. Its great to be able to picture every moment that happens.

Webs

I was wondering when spiders would be the central horror in one of the stories. A completely fresh setting compared to previous stories also gives it a nice little change. At the same time, the story paces itself quickly and takes a quick change for a fairly bloody turn of events. Using curses and spider webs and looking for ancient idols being the center makes for a fun adventure. It only focuses on the main event but could definitely be something that I’d read a full story about from the whole research to the horror in the cave or tomb or whatnot.

Gas Station of the Dead

One of the longer (is not longest) story of this collection is a story that comes back to what I think Anthony does a great job at: Zombies. I’ve always been more of a fan of the short stories, this one is more fleshed out. It gives us a more complete story with the main character. Its definitely not a bad thing and this one packs a lot of the hero and having the positivity to move forward and be smart about how to get out of each situation. It is a tamer novel as a while but with a commendable end goal for our main character as we watch him hatch his plan while not exactly knowing what exactly his plan is until we get there. I can’t say its my favorite mostly because if we were looking at commendable characters from this collection, Mike Beem Chronicles, which is a series that I’ve read all of and features as the final four stories does an incredible job at with both building a memorable main character. I guess this one fell short a little for myself.

Mike Beem Chronicles:

A Zombie Christmas – Review
A Zombie Christmas 2 – Review
Flesh of the Zombies – Review
Zombie Beach – Review

Overall…

Nightlight Tales 2 shows a diversity in what Anthony Renfro can create. While he has an obvious love for writing about zombies, there are other aspects of horror that he dives into using different avenues to share the depths of his creativity. This collection is definitely a fun read and is packed with page turning stories, which are perfect for the Halloween season or any horror craving you may be having.

Where to find it:

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CJTDK66

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CJTDK66

AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07CJTDK66

CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07CJTDK66

Short Story: Tess & Tattoos by H.A. Leuschel

Tess & Tattoos
by: H.A. Leuschel

**Received in exchange for honest review**

Synopsis

A suspenseful and emotional novella exploring whether we can ever be free from our past mistakes.

In this story, the reader is taken on a compelling journey into the human mind where genuine friendship offers the key to inner peace.

Meet Tess, an elderly lady living in a care home apartment in the outskirts of Edinburgh, whose past is haunted by a wrong decision. She meets Nurse Sandra, a warm and bubbly single mother of three, who is instantly intrigued by Tess’s personality and the mystery that surrounds her.

‘Tess and Tattoos’ is one of five gripping stories in HA Leuschel’s story collection Manipulated Lives centred around psychological manipulation.

Review

This is the second story I’ve reviewed by H.A. Leuschel and one thing is apparent with her style and that is her wonderful ability to create an intriguing character study. In this case, the main character is an elderly lady living at a senior home called Tess. We start getting glimpses of her personality as she interacts with others particularly the new nurse Sandra. She seems at first like a closed and reserved lady, perhaps even typical because she craves company and attention despite choosing to be alone in her room all the time. However, an incident leads her to be exposed literally and her secrets spill out just a little and Sandra learns more about Tess. It also brings into a question of how much you do know someone is really dependent on how much they want you to know, which is a great angle for the story to take as Tess is revealed even more as the story takes a clever turn in the finale.

There were some pacing issues in the first bits. Perhaps it is to emphasize the monotone life that Tess leads and helps highlight her personality. It did seem to drag for a moment. Luckily this is a short story so pacing issues usually don’t last for too long before it moves along to introducing a new character like Sandra.  however, Tess and Tattoos delivers an emotional and somewhat shocking and clever finish as we see more into the life of Tess. Just like My Sweet Friend, Tess and Tattoos delivers us a thought provoking story.

Goodreads: 3/5 (but its a 3.5 in reality)

Author Bio

Helene Andrea Leuschel grew up in Belgium where she gained a Licentiate in Journalism & Communication, which led to a career in radio and television in Brussels, London and Edinburgh. She now lives with her husband and two children in Portugal and recently acquired a Master of Philosophy with the OU, deepening her passion for the study of the mind. When she is not writing, Helene works as a freelance journalist and teaches Yoga.

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Universal Purchase Link: https://t.co/ECi4Rmjhaa

Short Story: Zombie Beach by Anthony Renfro

If you missed the other reviews of the previous short stories in The Mike Beem Chronicles. You can check it out in the the following links:

• A Zombie Holiday Trilogy
• A Zombie Christmas 2
• Flesh For The Zombies

Zombie Beach
By: Anthony Renfro

Part 1: Mike and Captain

On the Coast, Mike runs into an old Sea Captain and they form an instant bond. Mike learns of Captain’s boat, his son and daughter-in-law. Captain is desperate to get off Carolina Beach, but there is a problem (and it is a big problem) the town is swarming with zombies. Mike decides to help the old man fight his way through the hordes in order to gain safe passage on his boat.

Part 2: Mike and Myrtle Beach

Alone again. Mike finds an old motel on the South Carolina coast and decides to call it home. While rebuilding his life and motel he meets some new friends, fights off countless numbers of zombies, and settles into his new life by the sea.
– Goodreads

Excerpt

Mike Beem lowered his rifle, put his right eye on the scope, and closed his left eye. The zombie he was about to shoot was an ugly sucker. He was currently hanging ten on a tall gigantic wave. The zombie surfer was riding a long board, wearing red flowered swimming trunks, and a tee shirt with a dirty smiley face on it. His shirt and shorts along with his thin long blonde hair were flapping in the breeze as he sailed down the wave at top speed.

Poof!

The zombies head exploded leaving only a ragged stump shooting blood up into the air. The headless body surfed for a moment or two before tumbling into the crashing wave.

“Why’d you do that?” A voice behind Mike asked, an older voice full of age and salty wisdom. He sounded like a man who had sailed the sea for most of his adult life.

Mike turned around to face him, lowering his rifle.

“Just saying, he wasn’t hurting anybody,” the old guy replied, leaning on a wooden cane with a silver metal ball on the top of it. His long white hair and soft white beard reminded Mike of his own granddad who had died when he was just a boy.

“I found this silencer, and I just wanted to try it out,” Mike replied, reloading his gun. “Besides, one dead zombie is one less zombie in this world as far as I’m concerned. Don’t care if it’s a threat or not.’”

“Got a name, son?”

“Mike Beem, you?”

“Most folks call me Captain, and I’m fine with it,” the old guy replied, as a cool blast of air pushed back his long hair. “Storm’s moving in. Going to be a nasty one.”

“I had the same feeling,” Mike replied, scanning the late afternoon sky filling up with grey storm clouds.

“That your truck?” Captain asked, nodding towards the 1955 Chevy.

“It was,” Mike replied, turning to face the machine, which was currently sitting perfectly positioned in a parking spot. Pieces of zombies where sticking out of the smoldering radiator, including one complete head with the eyes still looking around, mouth chomping away. “Parking lot was full of corpses. I had to get down to the beach somehow.”

“Guess so,” Captain replied, thinking this Mike guy wasn’t exactly all there. “How about a hot meal and a place to rest your head?”

Mike looked up and down the empty beach, across the decaying splintered boardwalk and the buildings now falling into disrepair. His decision was a quick easy one to make. “Sure, lead the way, Captain,” he replied, climbing down off the bench he’d been standing on. He slung the rifle over his shoulder, picked up his small bag of personal items, and then set off after the old man.

Review

If you haven’t read Mike Beem stories before, it usually adds a much more hopeful twist to the grim zombie apocalypse world. Mike Beem has lost a lot over the last few stories however he is a survival. His character is the pillar of these novels and he is written always as someone who is not only a hero but also very human and relatable. It is why its so engaging to read these stories. While Zombie Beach expands on the location with two parts and still has some charming characters, its hard to feel that that at some parts, it falls a little flat. Of course, those moments are never long, especially seeing as this is a short story however, with the comparison of the previous stories, this one lacks a little more depth perhaps its the fact that the circumstances are little more docile for the most part with only a few more action-packed moments. However, for the well-written characters especially the badass Mike Beem, this story (and all the previous ones) are totally worth your time.

Links

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0736H6M52
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0736H6M52
AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0736H6M52
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0736H6M52

The Mike Beem Chronicles

If you want to check out all the Mike Beem stories in one book, this is the collection of the 6 stories.

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0736DX4CS
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0736DX4CS
AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0736DX4CS
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0736DX4CS

TaleSpins (TaleSpins #1-3) by Michael Mullin

After a nice weekend off from mostly everything online, I’m happy to be back writing again. It was something that I needed a lot to just sit back and take some time to break out of the normal routine. Its a new week and time for more writing. Next up is a book review of TaleSpins which is technically three short stories put together into this one book.

Let’s check it out!

TaleSpins (TaleSpins #1-3)
by: Michael Mullin

A trilogy of alternative fairytales and retellings. Discover the real Snow White story through the eyes of Creepy, the unknown 8th dwarf! Meet a teen princess who hires “The Frog Prince” witch to get revenge on a Mean Girl! And learn how the giant, boy thief and magic beans tale truly went down! – Goodreads

I love reading fairy tales and the retellings are usually so fun as well. Disney makes them suitable for all ages and in many ways, tells some of these stories without the true darkness it may have. However, perhaps its how innocent we know all these stories that when they retold, it turns into a darker affair. TaleSpins’ three story is set up in a deeper story, adding in characters and events while putting it into a sing song rhyme poetry sort of way. Because of this new approach, it is a refreshing take on how we read these unique stories.

The first story in this trilogy is a spin on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and its called The 8th Dwarf, an awkward dwarf that was punished to live in the basement of the dwarves home. This character intercepted the story really well and definitely was the best of the three stories here.  The second story is based on The Frog Prince and somehow was taken with bullying and a girl trying to get revenge on a classmate in an extreme way. Also an interesting take as the endeavor of it was for the girl to succeed however the Frog Prince character here takes a more conscience sort of role and teaches us a little lesson. The last story is a take on Jack and the Beanstalk which actually turns things around as we see the ogre being the centre of attentiom instead of Jack who really if you think about it is a thief.

TaleSpins is a collection of three short stories and they are pretty fast to get through. I like reading poetry and rhyming pieces out loud, so that worked for me and had me really invested. However, as the story gets into the longer sentences, I started wishing this was a physical book to really see the sentence structure better. The writing and language is very polished as well. Overall, a pretty good read. Mostly the last story fell flat for me a little in the middle but still a solid entry to the retellings of these three stories.

Have you read TaleSpins?

Blog Tour: Dead Over Heels (Short Story) by Theresa Braun

Dead Over Heels
By: Theresa Braun

Veronica’s first date with Sebastian not only stirs up a powerful attraction, but also a series of supernatural events that will tear them apart. – Goodreads

Dead Over Heels is a quick short paranormal story. It does take a little while to set up the stage and possibly the beginning gave me some odd vibes of generic dialogue and a hint of possibly the story turning into some contemporary romance, a genre that I’ve been struggling to find something appealing. However, Dead Over Heels is more than that. It proved that the beginning few pages takes just a little more patience and it picks up from there. Short stories are tricky, because it needs to carry character development and story building in a shorter time frame. This paranormal story manages to do it pretty well. Veronica is our main character here and she gets a lot of care into her past and with the events that go by, it allows for mystery and surprises to come up, giving it a fun little journey to the big finale.

Dead Over Heels might not start off great in the first few pages but it finds its pacing quick enough to still let us learn about our characters and build a story that not only has paranormal elements but also some mystery and surprises. A very welcome surprise to say the least and turning things around as it stepped into the finale.

Goodreads score: 4/5
(I’m somewhere in the 3.5/5 leaning towards 4)

About the Author

Theresa Braun was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and has carried some of that hardiness with her to South Florida where she currently resides with her two fur babies, who are her creative sidekicks. She enjoys delving into creative writing, painting, photography and even bouts of ghost hunting. Traveling is one of her passions—in fact, her latest adventure took her to Romania for a horror writers’ workshop where she followed in the steps of Vlad the Impaler. She writes horror fiction and the occasional romance. She blogs about writing, television shows, movies, and books, and all things dark. Her short stories are published in Under the Bed Magazine, in Hindered Souls, in The Horror Zine, in Schlock! Webzine, and by Frith Books. Upcoming stories to appear in Monsters Exist and Hardened Hearts.

A Vampire at Christmas (Short Story) by Anthony Renfro

Its Christmas Eve! Perhaps you’re taking a break from all those Christmas classics you’re watching or spending time with a ton of family, or maybe just hanging out a little before whatever you need to do today. As you read this, I’ll probably be baking up a storm for the annual family gathering at night. However, I can’t leave you all without something fun.

Today I’d like to promote a little for my fellow blogger Anthony over at Poetry, Books, Movies and Music and his short story based during the holidays, A Vampire at Christmas. You can find my review HERE.

A Vampire At Christmas
by Anthony Renfro

Synopsis

A short story about a Vampire who uses his riches and immortal skills to bring joy to those in need during the Christmas Season.

Excerpt

A naked, artificial, green Christmas tree (replaced every season) stood in one corner of this tomb; and there were no ornaments on this tree, no garland of any kind. The coffin he slept in was decorated with thick silver tinsel, and it draped and wrapped itself around this orifice of death like a shiny snake. Talan dared not play Christmas music because he was afraid of drawing attention to himself. People might discover his hiding place if they heard music playing up from somewhere deep in the Earth, no matter how far into the woods he made his lair. The tree and the decorated coffin were more than enough to keep him in a Christmas mood.

Where to find it

US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KRCCTU0?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KRCCTU0?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
AU: http://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B00KRCCTU0?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
CA: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00KRCCTU0?*Version*=1&*entries*=0