Calling all Vampires!

Perhaps the most enticing and desperately attractive creature of the supernatural realm, ask some folks and they will tell you vampires are quite real. And there are often more to them than meets the eye. So whether you’ve had your blood drawn, your energy drained, had an odd encounter with a bat, or self-identify as a vamprie (or vampyre) I want to hear from you. I’d like some first-hand accounts for my forthcoming (October of 2013) book Banshees, Werewolves, Vampires, and Other Creatures of the Night. Send me your encounters at varlaventura AT gmail.com.

(I’ll contact you for permission if I want to put your story in my book.)

Calling all Werewolves!

Lycanthropy is a clinical disease, one in which a supposedly deranged individual “imagines” that they are a werewolf. And according to Sabine Baring Gould, everyone of us has the potential to be a werewolf–we all have a primal, uncontrolled element to us that manifests in some people as madnees, others as cravings, and others as murder. Not quite as “sexy” as the vampire, werewolves have an element of the pathetic and loyal dog, so often seeming to be animals without choice. In many stories the werewolf tries desperately to hide who he is, attempting to protect the ones he loves from his own animal-urges.

Have you encountered a werewolf or seen a were-creature?

I want to know! I’d like to include your first-hand account in my forthcoming book, Banshees, Werewolves, Vampires, and Other Creatures of the Night. Email me at varlaventura AT gmail.com. I’ll contact you if I’d like to include your story in my collection.

 

 

Calling all Banshees!

Banshees are among the most feared creatures of the fairy and supernatural realm,  and this may be in part to the sympathies they invoke when you hear their wailing. You could easily be lured into the dark of night, hoping to help the pathetic creature who sounds as if she is in mourning. Some tales recount that banshees are the ghosts of women who have died in childbirth; others say they are the restless sprits of unrequited lovers.

It is common for families to inherit the banshee, who arrives time and time again to warn of an impending death.

To quote Raymond Buckland from his book The Weiser Field Guide to Ghosts:

“It has been said that a banshee is really the disembodied soul of someone who once lived and was attached to the family in some way.  It depends upon the relationship that the banshee had with the dying family member as to how the banshee announces his or her coming death.  If the person about to die was of a gentle, kind disposition, then the banshee will appear and sing soft songs of warning, summoning the person to death.  But if the person destined to die was of a hateful disposition, then the banshee will make her announcement with horrible cries and screams.”

Have you ever seen or heard a banshee? I want your first-hand accounts for my upcoming book, Banshees, Werewovles, Vampires, and Other Creatures of the Night (Weiser Books, October 2013).

Contact me at varlaventura AT gmail.com (you know how to actually type that, right?) and let me know what creepy creatures you’ve encountered.

Ring in the New Year with Murderous Bells: A Very Happy Hour of Horrors

The usual gaiety of chiming bells ringing in the New Year might sound a little more sinister once you get through this short little eBook, selected by me from a collection of fairy and folklore by Welsh “Grimm” William Wirt Sikes.

Don’t walk into that churchyard or a schoolhouse without a hard-hat! There are more than just the usual hazards of daily life in rural Wales that could bring you harm. There are murderous bells afoot!

Bells on B&N 

Bells on Sony

Bells on Amazon  

You can grab your little e-reading device and buy the book, it’s less than $3, and then mix up a nice Champagne Cocktail. You’ll want to have a few before serving them to guests–to be sure they are as delicious as they sound, so you might as well test run them tonight!

If you want a nice list of other champagne and sparkling wine cocktails, check out Martha Stewart’s List HERE for amazing ideas like Blood Orange Champagne Cocktail and Lemon Drop Champagne Punch.

Bells on B&N 

Bells on Sony

Bells on Amazon  

This is Martha’s recipe, and I like it just the way it is, although I prefer just one or two drops of the bitters.

Ingredients

• 3 drops bitters
• 1 sugar cube
• 1 ounce Cognac
• 4 ounces chilled Champagne

Directions

1. Drop bitters onto sugar cube; let soak in. Place sugar cube in a Champagne flute. Add Cognac, and top with Champagne.

Happy New Year! May it be merry, bright, and safe. And be careful where you walk, for the bells of towers may be chiming your own demise.

Saturday Night Special~Church of Mabus!

Hey Freaks! Whatcha’ doin Saturday night? Want to get into the “spirit” of Christmas? Join me on Church of Mabus radio.  Hosts Jeffery Pritchett & Erica Goetsch are ripe and ready to discuss Christmas trolls, Krampus, terrifying creatures of the night, little men you should beware of, freaky facts, dark and strormys and so much more!

Follow this link and listen live this Saturday DECEMBER 15th from 8pm-11pm PST, 11pm-1am EST:

http://churchofmabusradio.com/1328/church-of-mabus/varla-ventura-yuletide-krampus-christmas-terrors-the-totally-bizarre/

And if you aren’t up for the night (pathetic! you fall asleep sooo early these days!) you can listen to the archived show the morning after. Or sometime to follow that.

So if you’re worried that that isn’t Santa scratching on your rooftop, join me. It probably isn’t. And it aint’ the wind, neither.

Unicorns are Real (Or They Were, Anyway)

Recent headlines in Korea settle the myth vs. reality debate once and for all! Unicorns are REAL, or at least they were once upon a time. According to  the Korean News Agency:

Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668).

The lair is located 200 meters from the Yongmyong Temple in Moran Hill in Pyongyang City. A rectangular rock carved with words “Unicorn Lair” stands in front of the lair. The carved words are believed to date back to the period of Koryo Kingdom (918-1392).

 

Say what? Unicorns abound.

Check out this Unicorn e-book collection, compiled by me and my friend Clint Marsh:

Unicornicopia by Varla Ventura and Clint Marsh

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

 

Haunted Nursery and Pookas on Huff Po

What was that tapped my forehead in the middle of the night?

Read more and weigh in:

Varla Ventura on Huffington Post

 

 

Coast to Coast: Friday September 21st

Werewolves, banshees, vampires, ghosts! Come tune in for TWO HOURS of lively banter with George Noory and moi!

Friday, September 21st, 10pm-12pm PST

Listen LIVE via the web or your local AM radio station.

Remember, you have to either listen live or subscribe (for a small fee) to listen to archived shows. Click the link and find out what local station the show will be on.

COAST TO COAST AM

I’ll be discussing the Magical Creatures e-book collection and other spooky, ookie, freaky fun!

The Goblins of Springtime

Ah, the Vernal Equinox. A time for gathering round the fairy ring and dancing two by two, drinking the dew from the Lady’s Mantle for eternal youth and beauty, lying in wait to capture a Brownie, or a Pixie, or if you are lucky, enslave a little Gnome.

The nature of the folktales of Ireland and Wales, collected widely throughout the latter part of the 1800′s by the likes of W.B. Yeats and William Wirt Sikes, were not always the “fairy tales” they’ve morphed into today. Like the Grimm brothers, Yeats and Sikes spent time traveling the countryside and writing down what had always been an oral tradition.

These beasties and beings, though not always evil or menacing, are always portrayed with an air of warning about them. The creatures of the Fairy Kingdom are working to trick you but if you get to them first you will have riches untold. The stories also serve as a warning: mainly to children and drunks to mind your manners and stay off the roads late at night.

Check out these collections of Welsh and Irish folklore I’ve curated as part of the Magical Creatures collection for Weiser Books.

The Occult Power of Goats

The Goblins of Electricity

The Malevolent Banshee

The Mermaid’s Prophecy

Merry meet and Happy Spring!

~Varla

Magical Creatures

Today marks the launching of a new venture, so get out those lady luck candles and send your good vibes to Varla! Weiser Books has created a series of electronic books and yours truly is the official curator of the Magical Creatures and the Paranormal Parlor series. I’ve been combing dusty stacks and virtual archives to find lost and forgotten freakery for you lovers of the creepy, the curious, and the so old-its-new modern era of digital books. Each story or book features an intro by me. Not only are the stories interesting but the “back-stories” and author’s bios lend an element of appeal that can’t be planned! Think Lord Byron’s physician and a children’s author does horror, for starters…

Magical Creatures includes fairies, goblins, pookas, mermaids, mummies, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, devils, elves, and more! Basically all of the creatures you might find if you were to open up the cobwebby closet of my mind. I am completely and utterly thrilled and honored to be working on such an exciting project. It truly is a Brave New World!!

These books are available today on Kindle and will be available this week on other digital readers. I’ll send links when those go live!