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.

Paranormal Odyssey

A super fun interview with Paranormal Odyssey Podcast, now available for download HERE. Here’s what the hosts had to say about it.

 

Author Varla Ventura takes the stage on the Paranormal Odyssey Podcast, and scares the shit out of us with tales of Werewolves, Irish monsters, and Banshees. Keep the lights on when you listen to this one! The Mighty Ants Lipanovic takes the center seat on this one!

http://paranormalodyssey.podomatic.com/entry/2013-03-20T05_01_23-07_00

 

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.

Sex on the Beach with Mermaids~A Happy Hour of Horrors

As the cold of November settles upon most of us, sinking into the bones and sharpening our breath, even the most heavy-caped of us might find ourselves–even for just a moment–wanting the feel of sand beneath our toes and the lapping of warm waters against our flesh. So how can we achieve these sensations, even with a few inches of snow on the ground? It’s not as (ahem) hard as you may think. Just grab yourself a copy of one of my Magical Creatures eBooks on the topic of mermaids, mix yourself up a potent Sex on the Beach, crank up your heater (and maybe your humidifier) and get wild!

Available now for under $3 you can read these on your Kindle, Nook, iPad or whatever digital creation you’ve managed to procure. Just make sure you read them before you’ve had too many cocktails, as they don’t recover from sticky spills like hardcover books!

The Mermaid of Druid Lake by Varla Ventura and Charles Weathers Bump

Amazon

B&N

Among the Mermaids by Varla Ventura, T. Crofton Croker and William Butler Yeats

Amazon

B&N 

The Mermaid’s Prophecy and Other Stories by Varla Ventura

Amazon

B&N

And once you’ve had your night of wild fun, don’t forget to read my post on my forthcoming, full-length book (pre-order here) coming this next year. I’m still accepting submissions about your mermaid encounters. I know you’ve had them. Or if you’ve got some other sea-creature or water-beast hiding in your bathtub, I want to know! If you know pirates, scuba-divers, or oceanographers, please share the call for entries with them.

Sex on the Beach

I got this basic recipe from DrinkNation but I’ve made some notes on variation to really Horror-fy it.

• 2/3 oz. Schnapps, peach (you can add peach juice if you’d rather, but the Schnapps give it an extra kick, thus insuring you’ll get drunker. I like to use a few frozen peaches as well, but the drink can get muddled–much like your mind when you’ve had a few!)
• 1 1/3 oz. Vodka
• 1 1/3 oz. Cranberry Juice
• 1 1/3 oz. Orange Juice
• Sometimes I add a splash of coconut rum here, if I have any leftover from my most recent romp with the pirates. Instead of juice you can use a syrup like Torani, and you can even sub raspberry for cranberry.

Mixing Instructions

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass filled with ice.

I like to add a mermaid swizzle stick or at minimum a mini-paper parasol. You can also serve this in a martini glass but once you’ve had your third one you might want to switch to the highball. It doesn’t spill as easy!

Trust me, drink enough of these and you’ll remember a mermaid encounter or two…

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!

Friday the 13th: Luck and Lore

Happy Friday the 13th!!

Here are a few fun tidbits about luck, lore, superstitions, and strange beliefs to get you in the spirit of the day!

Triskaidekaphobia is the term for a morbid fear of the number 13.

Some say the fear of Friday the 13th comes from the early Christian belief that there were 13 present at the Last Supper, and it is said that Christ was crucified on a Friday.

In early 20th-century Europe it was believed that the hand of a dead person, especially the hand of a person who’d been executed for a crime, held healing powers.

On the books in Pennsylvania: A case from 1971 in which a man suing Satan for his own bad luck and downfall. The case was thrown out of court because it could not be proven that Satan lived in the state of Pennsylvania!

Scholionophobia is an extreme fear and hatred of school.

Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson always charged into battle with his left hand held over his head, allegedly for psychic balance.

Spanish Queen Juana so loved her husband Phillip that when he died in 1506 she kept his coffin with her until her own death.

 

Oh, there are so many more! Check out my books if you want to curl up and read some real freakery!

Haunted Dorms

I just returned from a lengthy week off-the-grid at my sister’s place, where I spent evenings looking into the starry abyss (for UFOs, of course!) and days swimming in the murky lake straight out of Stephen King’s short story The Raft. The lake was once a blown out sinkhole caused by a mining explosion, and it even has a “plug” at the bottom that leads to an underground shaft. When we were young there was actually a raft floating in the middle of the lake, with a big chain attached to the bottom, that we would swim out to. Until the summer we read that short-story. After that, my sister refused to swim there and I was left swimming out on my own–much more boring. It is murky, icky, oozy, deep blue, icy-cold and completely isolated. In short, it was great! The perfect place for a grown-up-goth to spend her summer days.

Anyway, I got back and had a fun email in my inbox from a reader of my post about haunted places (5 Haunted Places I’d Love to Stay the Night)with a link to an article about some haunted college dorms.

Check it out! I know there are probably hundreds more out there, too!

http://www.thebestdegrees.org/7-college-dorms-that-are-allegedly-haunted/

Big thanks to Crystal for sending this article. And for all you freaks out there, feel free to email me your own freaky stories and links at varlaventura@gmail.com. I will try and post them, and who knows, you might just make it into my next book!

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