Haunted Houses on Huff Po!

For those of you who love a good horror story and you fans of the freaky, I’ve got a new post on the Huffington Post’s Weird News site about 5 Haunted Places I’d Love to Stay the Night! You can read it here and comment on where you’d stay. I think the list could easily be in the hundreds once we all get going!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/varla-ventura/best-haunted-houses_b_1539754.html

 

 

Of Magical Creatures: A Pre-Preview

You may have noticed the question or the requested comment that I’ve asked you, dear readers, to answer for me as part of this Bizarre Giveaway. What is your favorite magical creature? Dear Varla, why-ever do you want to know?

I’ve been working on a series of e-book only books for my publisher, Weiser Books, on the subject of Magical Creatures and we are very pleased to pre-announce that one creature in particular is making it to print early next year. And more will likely be on the way. So your comments are serving as more than a mere factoid–they are helping me help the publisher pick from my menagerie of banshees, werewolves, mermaids, phookas, and other crazy, creepy, cute, crawling creatures of mythical and magical proportions. So stay tuned, weigh in, and write to me about your favorite freaks! And in the meantime, buy my digital books!!

The Bizarre Book Giveaway, One Week Left

Well, technically a week and a day but that doesn’t make much of  a header now does it? Just a little reminder for those of you who haven’t entered the contest yet! It ends the 31st of May.

How to Enter*:

• Subscribe to THE BLOG OF THE BIZARRE {+1 point}
• “Like” the Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC Facebook page (they do a TON of giveaways weekly, so you may want to check them out regardless!) {+1 point}
• Follow me, @VarlaVentura on Twitter {+1 point}

*Comment on this post indicating which of the above you’ve done (I’ll be checking, so no cheaters!) and tell me what your favorite magical creature is. Mad for monsters or gaga for goblins? Cuhrayzee for banshees or wild for werewolves? I wanna know! Check out my Magical Creatures eBook collection for inspiration.

Bizarre Book Giveaway!

Attention fans of the freaky and the free! My publisher, Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC, and I are teaming up for a briliantly bizarre giveaway. Here are the devilish details:

Opens May 2, 2012 – Closes May 31, 2012, United States only

The Prize:

• 1 signed copy of THE BOOK OF THE BIZARRE by Varla Ventura
• 1 signed copy of BEYOND BIZARRE by Varla Ventura
• An assortment of weird and wacky swag items–handpicked by me!

If you already have a copy of my book(s) I can sign and send to ANYONE in the U.S. So if you want it to say “Dear Aunt Eleanor, You are weirder than me Love, Varla and Mike” I am totally willing!

How to Enter*:

• Subscribe to THE BLOG OF THE BIZARRE {+1 point}
• “Like” the Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC Facebook page (they do a TON of giveaways weekly, so you may want to check them out regardless!) {+1 point}
• Follow me, @VarlaVentura on Twitter {+1 point}

*Comment on this post indicating which of the above you’ve done (I’ll be checking, so no cheaters!) and tell me what your favorite magical creature is. Mad for monsters or gaga for goblins? Cuhrayzee for banshees or wild for werewolves? I wanna know! Check out my Magical Creatures eBook collection for inspiration.

I’ll then go through all the entries and choose someone at random as the winner. Remember, the more points you have the more times your name will be entered, so you’ll have a better chance at the prize.

Good night, and good luck!

May Day! May Day!

Happy May Day!

Often associated with the distress when a vessel or vehicle is in trouble, the call “mayday! mayday! mayday!” derives from the French word m’aider which means “come help me.” Lesser known is the call “pan-pan, pan-pan, pan-pan!” which means there is an urgent situation on board. Though one may think it is a derivation of the word panic it actually comes from the French word panne which refers to mechanical failure or breakdown of any kind.

But May Day is so much more than a distress call. May Day celebrations exist throughout the world, but are especially prominent in the U.K. and Western Europe. In England and Scotland the celebrations around or near May 1^st relate directly to the pagan Beltane (in Ireland Bealtaine) and are associated with the Rites of Spring—specifically fertility. The celebration of new life and birth at the time of year when the land is waking up, flowers pushing through the sodden hills, still takes place today with the crowning of the May Queen and the erecting of the may pole. (You don’t have to be a genius to figure out what a giant pole in the middle of a lush field wrapped in beautiful ribbons represents.) Bonfires are lit, merry is made.

Prominent also in Germany, Walpurgisnacht (Witches Night!) celebrations are usually held on the Eve O’ May: bonfires and the wrapping of the Maibaum—the may pole—are included along with dancing, drinking and general MAYHEM! Finns make special donuts and lemonade to mark the occasion.

Many early immigrants from Germany and England as well as other parts of Europe such as France and the Netherlands continued their traditional celebrations in the settlements of Early America. Without the community and established towns of Old Europe their traditions were often more family based and including the weaving of May Baskets and the giving of flowers. If you read this collection of short stories by Charles Montgomery Skinner, which includes the title work The May-Pole of Merrymount, you will gain a bit more insight into how some of these wild nights of fun and mayhem were translated into Puritan settlements of America. A downer? Yeah, a little. But worthy of a May Day read. Plus there are freaky stories of witches and old creepy men in caves that you probably shouldn’t think about, but can’t help yourself.

Charles Montgomery Skinner (1852-1907) was a native New Yorker with a literary palate as diverse as the community I grew up in. Perhaps best remembered for his work on Walt Whitman, “Whitman as Editor” which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1903, his works ranged from urbanization, gardening, the economy, communism, natural history, and folklore. This excerpt from his first collection of folk tales is from the greater work Myths and Legends of Our Own Land which was first published in 1897– a massive volume of stories from across the settled cities and wild plains of America. I have selected a few of my favorites for this collection, stories that I think represent the varied tastes of our author. The legend of a witch in the Catskills to the Maypole of Merrymount, we find a unique view on the lore that founded the United States. Skinner also wrote Myths and Legends Beyond Our Borders and Myths and Legends of Our New Possessions and Protectorate (lands we had pillaged) both of which were published in 1899.