It’s great to be back, Adrienne! I’ve got a fun list for you today. Are we ready??

1. The Others

2. The Corpse Bride

3. Hocus Pocus

4. Sleepy Hollow

5. Bram Stroker’s Dracula

Hi Adrienne and audience! Thanks for having us here today. I’m so excited about the upcoming release of my second book, co-authored by my daughter, Bethanie. LITTLE DEAD RIDING HOOD is available Tuesday, October 14th, 2014!

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How does writing fulfill you in your life?

Fiona:

It’s hard to answer this without creative use of understatement. Writing is in the same arena with eating and breathing in terms of how integral it is to my existence.

Living through a single reality without imagined alternatives sounds to me like living with my head wrapped in soundproofing foam.

Stories are the best way I know to look at that reality, examine its parts, analyze its potential, figure out how and where and why we find meaning in it. I’ve always known I needed to be part of making the stories.

Okay, putting aside sweeping, dramatic, ethereal reasons for writing, it is in fact a calling that makes everything else in life easier and more interesting and meaningful, because everything is research. Everything I see and hear and experience goes into storage for writing material later. So when I’m having a bad day, at least I’m spending it gathering details of characters’ future bad days, and thinking of ways to describe or joke about whatever’s bothering me.

So how does my writing make my life better? By making my life into something that makes my writing better.

Matt:

I’ve always had an active imagination. As a kid it usually manifested itself by making me absolutely terrified of anything I didn’t know or understand or that TV told me to be afraid of (since, being a little kid, TV was kind of my god at the time). It wasn’t until I started to grow up and really get into reading that I realized that I could use a lot of this constantly active imagination to mold a lot of my crazier ideas into stories, which was a pretty good outlet for getting them out of my head, since these ideas tend to get cluttered at times. For this reason alone, I honestly could not see a world without writing. I could see a world with my head potentially popping like a balloon, but not a world without writing.

However nice it may be not seeing my head explode like something in a Gallagher routine, I think the part I really love about writing is just entertaining people. I love to make people laugh, cry and scream (for good reasons). I love to transport people to other worlds, to get them to forget about the world for just a few minutes while taking a look into my oft-twisted brain. At heart I’m a storyteller, and though I’d write even if I was the last person on Earth, I just live to see people’s reactions to my work, good, bad and otherwise (though more good than bad is always nice).

Check out their latest book, Splinters, here:

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You can find F.J.R. Titchenell online here:
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You can find Matt Carter online here:
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TOPIC: What is thrilling and spooky, but not too overpowering?

Pitch Green and Mojave Green are the first two books in The
Dimensions in Death young adult horror series. Based on a scary story we
used to tell as kids to our siblings and friends, these books combine
horror, suspense and mystery, moving at a breathtaking pace as our
protagonists fight for their lives while they battle a monstrous evil
presence hiding in and around an old, deserted mansion in a small mining
town located in a desolate part of the Mojave Desert.
Though what is overpowering to one, is underwhelming to another,
achieving “scary” is child’s play once we understand the rules of the game,
and some of the best games are kid’s games.
#
Slowly I pushed the door open, straining to see into the bedroom
without actually stepping in. The door opened all the way against the
sliding closet doors behind it. I could see that both closet doors were
closed, so I knew there was nothing immediately behind the door I was
pushing, but I had no idea what might be waiting for me in the closet. The
hallway lights were off, but there was still enough light behind me to cast
a pillar across the room and onto the far wall. Nervously, I crouched to
minimize my dark shadow, knowing there were hidden eyes watching me, waiting
for my next move.
Reaching carefully around the corner into the room, I flipped the
light switch hoping a light might come on, but nothing happened. Though it
was hopeless, I flipped the switch a couple more times, thinking it might
elicit a response from someone in the room–still nothing. Except for a dim
lamp, stuffed into a far corner of the room under a red sheet, the room was
dark and mostly hidden in black shadows–nothing moved. A blanket hung
across the outside windows, blocking all light. Another blanket hung from
the non-working ceiling light across to one end of the window blind,
completely hiding one corner of the room.
This was a new configuration. I had no way of knowing what to
expect. Down on hands and knees, I tried to see under the beds, but
blankets on both beds had been pulled all the way down to the floor.
Holding my breath, I listened for any noise-any sound that might betray a
stalker lying in wait, but I heard nothing. The first move had to be mine,
so I stood and leaned into the room. There were piles of blankets and
pillows on the bed to my right. I decided not to go that way–who knew what
was under those piles.
Sliding into the room with my back against the closet door, I kept
one hand on its handle, ready to prevent anyone from sliding it open from
inside. I stepped quickly to the middle of the wall on the other side.
Back to the wall, facing out, I watched for any movement, listened for any
noise. I was now close enough to the second bed that with a quick step, I
could hop on top. It had no blankets or pillows on it that might be hiding
something–it looked safe. I stepped forward, and a hand suddenly shot out
from under the bed, grabbing my ankle. I yelped in surprise. They had me,
and I hadn’t seen it coming.
#
In a sudden rush, the tension was released, and I was safe once
more. Of course, I had never really been in danger–it had just felt that
way. And that was the fun of our small haunted house.
This was a game invented by our cousins, Sandra and Steven, fraternal twins.
When they came to our house, there was usually something scary going on, and
one of our favorite games was called, “Haunted House.” Because the grownups
didn’t want us ransacking the entire house, it was really just “a haunted
bedroom,” but that was all we needed to create some serious haunting.
The rules of the game were simple. One kid was sent away to wait in
the front room while all the other kids turned a bedroom into a haunted
house. When someone in the haunted house yelled, “Ready,” the designated
victim would try to find all the monsters hidden around the room before one
of them could grab the victim by surprise. Everyone enjoyed the mystery and
suspense of being the victim. It was a challenge trying to anticipate where
all the monsters would be hidden. Sometimes a monster would be put in an
obvious place to distract the victim from another monster carefully hidden
nearby.
We all enjoyed being monsters too. It took a lot of creativity to
not do the same thing every time–there was no mystery or suspense in
repeatedly doing the same thing. In addition, a good haunted house required
more than just mystery and suspense. In order to be really scary, a good
haunted house, or a good horror story, needs one or both of the following:
(1) a dangerous threat from a hidden source of power, and/or (2) a warping
or distortion of something that is normally familiar and friendly.
The victim in a haunted house (or the reader of a horror story) must
feel a personal threat (either to him or herself directly or to a
significant other, like the story’s main character). The more significant
the threat, the scarier the threat, with life and death threats being among
the scariest. A good horror story creates a bond between the reader and the
character at risk, so the threat will hang heavy over the reader as it hangs
heavy over the character in the story.
One way to make a hidden power threatening, or to increase the sense
of threat, is to create a sense of revulsion through the warping or
distortion of the familiar. Few things are more fascinating, and at the
same time more scary, as something familiar, even mundane, that has been
horribly warped or distorted to the point of being painfully ugly. Even
without feeling a direct personal threat to oneself, or a significant other,
an encounter with a painfully ugly distortion of the familiar can elicit gut
wrenching feelings of revulsion and fear. This has been done successfully
with clowns, birds and even mothers.
When it comes to “scary,” a subtle presentation of a hidden threat
coupled with a distortion of the familiar will beat a stream of blood and
gore every time, and will keep your readers (victims) coming back again and
again. Though you will need to be creative in building the mystery and
suspense anew in each new story, your readers will love you for it. Good
haunting! Good horror!

Here are links to the Brothers Washburn’s social media:

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Jo Nelle. She is a new author with three books coming out this year! Whew – that’s enough to keep anyone busy. I’ve asked her to give some writing advice to other authors and below is what she has for you. But make sure you read this entire blog, because she’s doing an awesome giveaway that’ll have you blog hopping in no time!

We’re looking at some ways to build tension in our stories and decided to ask a lot of questions to get us started.

Questions!

Decide what the overall book question is going to be for your story. This is the overall premise you are writing to achieve. For Damnation it is:

* Will 17 yo Cassie Witlon earn amnesty from Hell in the next 20 days?

Then as you plan or revise each scene decide what questions you can plant for the readers to be motivated to learn the answer to. Here are some more we used:

* Will Cassie beat the deadline?

* Will Cassie escape?

* Will Cassie get distracted from her purpose?

These are a little cryptic but they become more detailed as we wrote the scenes. We need one question for each scene. Some authors describe this step as making sure your scenes have a “purpose” or a “goal.” It’s just a little easier for us to think in terms of answering a question.

Blurb of their upcoming release, Damnation:

Cassie is going to heaven—if she can get amnesty from hell in the next twenty days. Her assignment is to change the eternal destination of a girl in Albuquerque to earn admittance into heaven.

No sweat.

But when Cassie returns to earth during her three-week, mostly-mortal assignment, her old habits get in the way, (apparently habits don’t die when you do), the partners assigned to help her are anything but helpful, and it turns out the girl she is supposed to help is the only enemy she made on her first day of school.

Oh, I’m so going to hell.

Things aren’t all bad—it helps to have a hot angel on your side. Mmm-Marc. Even though he’s all about heavenly business, Cassie would like to make it personal.

Assignment with benefits.

•About Jo Noelle:

Jo Noelle grew up in Colorado and Utah but also spent time in Idaho and California. She has two adult children and three small kids.

She teaches teachers and students about reading and writing, grows freakishly large tomatoes, enjoys cooking especially for desserts, builds furniture, sews beautiful dresses, and likes to go hiking in the nearby mountains.

Oh, and by the way, she’s two people—Canda Mortensen and Deanna Henderson, a mother/daughter writing team.

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1 winner will receive a $100.00 Amazon.com giftcard.

Blog hop and Rafflecopter registrations Begin 9/1/14 and End 9/7/14 MDT

This drawing is open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Card. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. Check back on this blog between Sept. 8-10, 2014. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized and sponsored by Canda Mortensen & Deanna Henderson DBA Jo Noelle. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Blogs to hop to for the giveaway: