Mummy Dearest by Josh Lanyon

Summary:
The truth is out there. Way, way, way out there!

The XOXO Files, Book 1

Drew Lawson is racing against the clock. He’s got a twenty-four-hour window to authenticate the mummy of Princess Merneith. If he’s not at his boyfriend’s garden party when that window closes, it’ll be the final nail in their relationship coffin.

The last thing he needs traipsing on the final shred of his patience is brash, handsome reality show host Fraser Fortune, who’s scheduled to film a documentary about the mummy’s Halloween curse.

The opportunity to film a bona-fide professor examining the mummy is exactly the aura of authenticity Fraser needs. Except the grumpy PhD is a pompous ass on leave from his ivory tower. Yet something about Drew has Fraser using a word he doesn’t normally have to draw upon: please.

With no time to waste—and a spark of attraction he can’t deny—Drew reluctantly agrees to let Fraser follow his every move as he unwraps the mummy’s secrets. Soon they’re both making moves behind the scenes that even the dead can’t ignore…

Warning: Whoso shall ever open this tomb, er, book shall suffer the curse of the Pharaohs. Okay, maybe not. But set aside a chunk of time for marauding mummies, too many cosmopolitans, illicit sex in hotel rooms, and other non-academic shenanigans.

Perfect for Halloween, I read Josh Lanyon's short story/novella to quench my eerie thirst.  Very reminiscent of the classic Hollywood horror films in that everything isn't laid out before you in great gory detail, it leaves you imagining the scenes in your head.  Did Drew and Fraser really see a mummy or is it Halloween illusion?  There's humor, a bit of terror here and there, intriguing characters, and of course no Josh Lanyon story would be complete without the yummy.  Considering the length or lack thereof, depending on how you choose to see it, this story has a lot of "bang for your buck" as the cliche' goes.

Rating:  

Trailer:

Author Bio:
A distinct voice in gay fiction, multi-award-winning author JOSH LANYON has been writing gay mystery, adventure and romance for over a decade. In addition to numerous short stories, novellas, and novels, Josh is the author of the critically acclaimed Adrien English series, including The Hell You Say, winner of the 2006 USABookNews awards for GLBT Fiction. Josh is an Eppie Award winner and a three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist.

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Friday's Film Adaptions: Psycho by Robert Bloch

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Summary:
Robert Bloch's Psycho captivated a nation when it appeared in 1959. The story was all too real-indeed this classic was inspired by the real-life story of Ed Gein, a psychotic murderer who led a dual life. Alfred Hitchcock too was captivated, and turned the book into one of the most-loved classic films of all time the year after it was released.

Norman Bates loves his Mother. She has been dead for the past twenty years, or so people think. Norman knows better though. He has lived with Mother ever since leaving the hospital in the old house up on the hill above the Bates motel. One night Norman spies on a beautiful woman that checks into the hotel as she undresses. Norman can't help but spy on her. Mother is there though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife.

Films:

Psycho

Released:  August 8, 1960

Length: 109 minutes

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast:

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates

Janet Leigh as Marion Crane

Vera Miles as Lila Crane

John Gavin as Sam Loomis

Martin Balsam as Milton Arbogast

John McIntire as Al Chambers

Simon Oakland as Dr. Fred Richmond

Frank Albertson as Tom Cassidy

Pat Hitchcock as Caroline

Vaughn Taylor as George Lowery

Lurene Tuttle as Mrs. Chambers

John Anderson as California Charlie

Mort Mills as Highway Patrol Officer

Virginia Gregg, Jeanette Nolan, and Paul Jasmin (uncredited) as voice of Norma Bates

Ted Knight (uncredited) as a policeman guarding Norman Bates

Trailer:

Rating:  

Psycho

Released: December 4, 1998

Length: 104 minutes

Director: Gus Van Sant

Cast: 

Norman Bates--Vince Vaughn

Marion Crane--Anne Heche

Lila Crane--Julianne Moore

Sam Loomis--Viggo Mortensen

Milton Arbogast--William H. Macy

Al Chambers--Philip Baker Hall

Dr. Richmond--Robert Forster

Tom Cassidy--Chad Everett

Caroline--Rita Wilson

George Lowrey--Rance Howard

Mrs. Chambers--Anne Haney

California Charlie--James LeGros

Highway Patrol Officer--James Remar

Norma Bates (voice)--Rose Marie (uncredited)

Trailer:

Author Bio:

Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer. He was the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch (1884, Chicago-1952, Chicago), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880, Attica, Indiana-1944, Milwaukee, WI), a social worker, both of German-Jewish descent.

Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction (Psycho). He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle; Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.

He was a contributor to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter. He was the recipient of the Hugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Robert Bloch was also a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general. In the 1940s, he created the humorous character Lefty Feep in a story for Fantastic Adventures. He also worked for a time in local vaudeville, and tried to break into writing for nationally-known performers. He was a good friend of the science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the 1960's, he wrote 3 stories for Star Trek.

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Films

1960:  Amazon  /  TCM

1998:  Amazon  /  TCM

I've never read the book but I consider the 1960 film with Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh to be one of the scariest films ever made.  Throw in Alfred Hitchcock for directing and you have one of the best films ever made.  The shower scene alone makes the film but then add in Norman Bates, his mother, and the creepy house on the hill, it makes a complete package.  When Janet Leigh sees the sign for Bates Motel through her rain pebbled windshield, you just know nothing good is going to happen.  As for the 1998 remake, I haven't seen it nor do I have any wish to.  I'm sure it's a fine film but to me, when Hollywood attempts to remake a classic all they do is look foolish.

Trailer Reveal: The Casquette Girls by Alys Arden

Title: The Casquette Girls

Author: Alys Arden 

Series: The Casquette Girls #1 

Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Summary:
Seven girls tied by time.
Five powers that bind.
One curse to lock the horror away.
One attic to keep the monsters at bay.

* * *

After the Storm of the Century rips apart New Orleans, Adele Le Moyne and her father are among the first to return to the city following the mandatory evacuation. Adele wants nothing more than for life to return to normal, but with the silent city resembling a mold-infested war zone, a parish-wide curfew, and mysterious new faces lurking in the abandoned French Quarter, normal will have to be redefined.

Events too unnatural – even for New Orleans – lead Adele to an attic that has been sealed for three hundred years, and the chaos she unleashes threatens not only her life but everyone she knows.

Caught suddenly in a hurricane of eighteenth-century myths and monsters, Adele must quickly untangle a web of magic that links the climbing murder rate back to her own ancestors. But who can you trust in a city where everyone has a secret, and where keeping them can be a matter of life and death – unless, that is, you’re immortal.

Trailer:

Author Bio:
ALYS ARDEN grew up in the Vieux Carré, cut her teeth on the streets of New York, and has worked all around the world since. She still plans to run away with the circus one day.

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Brought to you by:

Tainted Love by Ghiselle St. James

Summary:
The first in a new three book series from Ghiselle St. James

This is not a fairytale. This is not a story of a woman who is perfect. This is not the story of a perfect couple that sails off into the sunset. This is gritty. This is frustrating. This is heartbreaking. This is my story, hard as it may be to tell.

**********

My name is Sullivan Beal – at least, that’s what I tell people – and I live life by my own rules. Most of my adult life has been spent hiding from my past. That is, until I meet him face-to-face.

Ben Hayes is the demanding C.O.O. who is hell-bent on having me for himself. But, I’m wrong for him. I know it, the universe knows it.

If he ever found out who I really am, how utterly tainted I am, he wouldn’t waste his time wanting me.
There are things in my past that would destroy everyone in my wake.

But Ben is relentless, trying to break down the walls around my heart that a messy past has caused me to construct. It’s a pity he                                                                                     doesn’t know…I am too tainted for love.

“Love isn’t for me, and my kind of love is too tainted, too blemished to share with anyone.” 

***Warning – For mature readers ONLY***

Trailer:

Author Bio:
Ghiselle St. James is a Jamaican author who has a never-ending love for written thoughts: poetry, song lyrics and non-fiction. A songwriter by the age of 9, Ghiselle enjoys singing just as much as she loves writing. She has been writing erotic novels since she was 13 years old. Never mind that they went unpublished; she had something inside her that wanted to break free…and it helped that it made her popular with the boys (hehe). Writing has been her outlet for most of her life, and will continue to be.

Ghiselle lives in Jamaica with her husband, Chris, and her handsome baby, Panthro the cat. She works full time but always makes time for music, writing, reading and chatting on Goodreads.
Ugh, I hate talking about myself in the third person.

Anywho…
I went to the Jamaica Theological Seminary (haha, yes!) where I studied Social Work and graduated with honors in June 2010. Since then, the writer in me has reawakened and hasn’t gone to sleep. I completed my first novel in January of 2013 and had never felt so accomplished in my life.

I pray my passion brings you as much joy as it has brought me.

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Kindle copy of Tainted Love by Ghiselle St. James

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Cover Reveal: In The Moment #3: In The Fairytale by Joan Duszynski

Title: In The Fairytale

 Series: In The Moments Book #3

Author: Joan Duszynski

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: December 4, 2014

Cover Design: Once Upon A Time Covers

In The Fairytale (#3)

Summary:

In Every fairytale there's anger, hurt, and love. For Raleigh Jefferson her fairytale is no different.

Since she was a little girl, watching Snow White meet her prince as she frolicked through the forest, the idea of Happily Ever After was embedded in Raleigh's mind. Her heart skipped a beat over the Beast's love of Belle, and she knew she'd swim the ocean to save her black haired prince from drowning, even without a mermaid tail. Destiny and forever. She wouldn't settle for anything less.

She wasn't looking for a man to frolic in the forest for her. If she were to actually witness such a thing she'd probably smack the man for acting a fool. But she did want her own Cinderella story. She wanted to glide down the aisle in her own glass slippers toward the man she loved, the one who returned that love unconditionally.

She never knew how hard this dream of hers would be until she met Him. Will the truth of the world around her and the pain that can be carried in someone's heart be too much to handle, or can Raleigh find a way to truly live... In The Fairytale?

In The Stars (#1)

Summary:

Caroline Reyes is starting her second year of college nothing like the first. Following a car accident over the summer with her best friend Raleigh she is now stuck with a bitch for a roommate as Raleigh recovers at home.

One Saturday morning starts off with a bang, literally at Caroline's door and leads to her needing to comfort a very distraught stranger. This brings Caroline into her first run in with Eric. She feels completely lust driven at just the sight of him, even though his words just piss her off. She can't shake the sensations running thru her though even after their brief meeting is over. Then comes Kyle and he is determined to get to know Caroline better and she feels the same way dismissing her earlier run in as just crazy hormones.

Now she is left with decisions having to be made and knowing someone is going to get hurt in the process. That someone could be her alone.

Caroline has always looked into the stars for comfort and reassurance since she was a little girl with her Daddy. Now she is looking up into them praying for the right answers and hoping they can help her along with her Daddy who is amongst them now. 

In The Now (#2)

Summary:

When the heartache of what Tara Wright believed was her love and life plan with her high school sweetheart follows her into a new year. Tara begins to rely on the three new and beautiful friendships that came compellingly into her life.

Caroline, easily becoming the perfect best friend for Tara. Thru Caroline she receives the encouragingly, witty Raleigh as a new found friend as well. Meeting Adam at a time where she needs to rediscover herself has her scared and confused. Every moment spent with him has her head swirling and her stubborn walls weakening.

Adam is the man that can make her laugh, give her support, and make her heart skip a beat every time he comes into view. He's everything Tara needs to make her way back out of her stubborn shell of fear she's closed herself into.

Finally starting to spend more time together and watching Adam in his realm of adrenaline induced racing at the Motocross has Tara's weakening walls finally crumbling to the ground and singeing in the heat Adam brings to her.

Has it all just been a crazy ride to recognize true love? Can Adam fix Tara's broken heart and make her believe that their love is In The Now? 

In The Fairytale(#3):  Spotify

In The Stars(#1):  Spotify

In The Now(#2):  Spotify

Trailers:
In The Stars(#1)

In The Now(#2)

Author Bio:
Joan Duszynski lives in Virginia with her husband and their three kids. Woods surround her home and she loves the privacy and quiet it brings. She wasn’t always a reader, so that moment when she picked up a book and found herself engrossed in its pages and unable to put it down will never be forgotten. It eventually led her to want to try and write and share stories of her own, in hopes that others will find themselves reading and getting lost inside of them. Thanks can’t be expressed enough for your time and interest. Please feel free to connect with the author either through Email, Twitter, or Facebook.

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Email:  joanduszynskiauthor@gmail.com

In the Fairytale(#3)

Goodreads TBR

In The Storm (#1)

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In The Now (#2)

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