Birthright Cover Reveal Winner

Congratulations Susan V. the winner of the Birthright Cover Reveal Giveaway!  Susan will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card, Birthright mini-poster, and signed Birthright postcard.

Thank you to all who entered!

**Giveaway winner randomly selected using Rafflecopter**

February is for Paranormal Romance: Q+A with Leigh Goff + Giveaway

February is for Paranormal Romance...and we have an incredible month of special author features for you.  Today we have a Valentine's Day themed "this or that" Q+A with Leigh Goff. 

Keep reading for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Q+A with Leigh Goff and Sophie Goodchild

Sixteen-year-old Sophie Goodchild, the half-witch main character from the YA fantasy romance Disenchanted by Leigh Goff answers the following February This or That questions.

EJ:  Chocolates or Flowers?

Sophie:  My Aunt Janie, an herbalist witch who owns a shop called Scents and Scentsabilities, has infused a deep appreciation for plant magic into my head and heart, but she also makes a mean enchanted chocolate confection to help me keep secrets and it melts on my tongue in the most delicious way. I’m torn on this question, but if I have to choose, I choose flowers because they really communicate so much more sentiment than chocolate, and they come in handy when you want to concoct magical products like Tulips to Kiss Stick and Forever First Love Lip Balm.

EJ:  Going out or staying in?

Sophie:  Staying in. Hands down. When you are dating a guy as hot as mine, you want to spend as much alone time together as possible. His name is Alexavier. He’s American, but went to school in London, so he has a dreamy British accent. He’s tall, dark-haired, and a bad boy at heart. Did I mention he’s forbidden? Oh yeah. *Swoon*

EJ:  Fancy restaurant or pizza/burger joint?

Sophie:  I’m going with fancy restaurant on this one. Witches own most of the pizza/burger/sandwich shops in Wethersfield, and sometimes, they add enchanted ingredients like Parisian basil to their Witch Wraps to keep customers coming back. I’ll take mine without Parisian basil, thank you very much!

EJ:  Action flick or romantic comedy?

Sophie:  Alexavier really prefers action flicks because he is all about action. He never shies away from a fight. He even goes out in thunderstorms looking for trouble. That’s how we met. Me, I prefer watching zombie flicks with my pal, Callum. My friend, Macey thinks there is a love triangle going on with Alexavier, Callum, and me, but as sweet as Callum is, my heart belongs to Alexavier.

EJ:  Nightclub or ballroom?

Sophie:  Ballroom. And only because of the weird dreams I’ve been having lately where I find myself wearing seventeenth century gowns and dancing to harpsichord music with a well-dressed gentleman who looks a lot like Alexavier. I think my witch ancestor is trying to tell me something…

EJ:  Coffee or cocktails?

Sophie:  Coffee. I’m too young to drink cocktails and with the sleepless nights I’ve been having thanks to a witchy ghost from the past, caffeine is exactly what I need to wake up and keep me out of trouble. Good thing I have my mom’s diamond bloodcharm to enhance my magic, just in case trouble finds me and I’m not caffeinated.

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Thank you Leigh and Sophie for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

Leigh Goff is the author of Disenchanted.

To learn more about paranormal romance author Leigh Goff, please visit her website.

February is for Paranormal Romance Giveaway

All month long we are posting special features from our favorite paranormal romance authors, and we are topping this off with a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  If you cannot accept an electronic Amazon Gift Card, you may choose one paranormal romance book from The Book Depository (value up to $10.00).  Giveaway ends February 28, 2015 midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Australia with Cassandra Page

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Australia, the setting of Isla's Oath and our special guide is Cassandra Page.  Cassandra is the author of the Isla's Inheritance young adult urban fantasy series.

Cassandra's Top 5 Spooky Places in Australia

The title is a bit misleading, because Australia is a huge country and I haven’t been to all the spookiest places and done a creep-factor comparison (presumably measured based on the number of goosebumps per square inch!). Still, these places come up again and again in conversations about spooky places to visit.

Monte Cristo Homestead, New South Wales

The Monte Cristo Homestead, a beautiful two-storey house ringed with balconies and set on gorgeous grounds, was built in the late 1800s. It’s located in the New South Wales town of Junee, whose name is Aboriginal for “speak to me”. The homestead claims to be Australia’s most haunted house, and its hauntings include strange lights and presences, and visions of the reclusive Mrs Crawley, the wife of the man that built the house, who died there when she was 92.

Port Arthur, Tasmania

Port Arthur was Australia’s allegedly “inescapable” prison back in our convict days, and was the place where all the worst British criminals were sent. Located on the Tasman Peninsula, these days it’s an open-air museum, but at the time the waters around it were rumoured to be shark-infested, and guards protected the isthmus accompanied by half-starved dogs. Much more recently, in 1996, Port Arthur was the site of Australia’s last killing spree, in which 35 people were killed and 23 wounded.

Beechworth Asylum, Victoria

Originally known as the Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, this is a decommissioned hospital that closed 20 years ago, after being in operation since 1867. Regardless of whether you believe in ghosts, any abandoned hospital is going to be creepy—with the peeling paint on the walls, bars on the windows and the strange marks on the floor—but an abandoned psychiatric hospital from the dark old days of isolation boxes and restraining chairs is far, far worse. Apparently over 3000 people died at the asylum over the course of its life.

Old Melbourne Goal, Victoria

The Old Melbourne Gaol—well, the third gaol—is a three-storey bluestone building that operated from 1842 to 1939. It was also used during World War II to house AWOL prisoners. Many of Australia’s most notorious criminals were housed there, and 133 were hanged, including a serial killer, an innocent man who strangled for 40 minutes before finally dying, and our most famous bushranger, Ned Kelly. Kelly’s skull was stolen in 1978, but his death mask and those of many others are still on display.

Lake George, New South Wales

This one is close to my own heart. Lake George is located on the highway just outside Canberra, where I live. It is long, almost completely flat, and generally extremely shallow (averaging around a metre, but up to 4.5 metres deep when its full)—this shallowness means that during a strong wind the surface gets very choppy and dangerous. The lake is also notorious for its fluctuating water levels.

More often than not these days it’s shallow or bone dry, so it’s hard to believe that in 1956 five cadets from the local military academy drowned there. Its Aboriginal name, Werriwa, means “bad water”.

Sure, you could say that this was due to how salty the water is, when there is any at all—it’s almost as saline as seawater. But every time I drive past this lake, it creeps me out. And others claim to have seem ghosts out there. It’s also a popular site of UFO sightings

Thank you Cassandra for giving us such a haunting tour of Australia!  

To learn more about Cassandra Page and her books, please visit her website.  You can add her Isla's Inheritance series here on Goodreads.

Have you visited Australia?  Ever experience anything of the supernatural kind in Australia?

What did you think of Cassandra's picks for spooky places?

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Rapid City with Elizabeth Bear.  Next week we'll be traveling to New York City with Susan Wright.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

Blood and Mistletoe Urban Fantasy Audiobook

I am excited to finally share with you my super secret project!

Since the beginning of the year, I've been secretly working to bring additional books from the world of Ivy Granger to life in audiobook format.

I am amazed by the talented voice actresses who submitted auditions, but one audition blew me away.  Melanie A. Mason, and her voice partner David, did such an amazing reading that it gave me chills.

(You heard that right.  We have female AND male voice actors working with us on this project!  You do not want to miss this.)

So I am very happy to announce that we are now under contract to bring you the BLOOD AND MISTLETOE audiobook this May.

Rejoice audiobook fans!  A new Ivy Granger urban fantasy audiobook coming to you in time for Audiobook Month.

Note:  If you subscribe to my author newsletter, this news won't come as a total surprise.  I let subscribers in on the secret earlier this month, in my February Newsletter.  Not a subscriber?  What are you waiting for?  I never share your personal information EVER, and being on my mailing list gives you access to special deals, giveaways, FREE signed postcards, and insider info.  Sign up here to subscribe to E.J. Stevens' newsletter.

February is for Paranormal Romance Q+A with Maggie Shayne + Giveaway

February is for Paranormal Romance...and we have an incredible month of special author features for you.  Today we have a Valentine's Day themed "this or that" Q+A with Maggie Shayne. 

Keep reading for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Q+A with Maggie Shayne

EJ:  Chocolates or flowers?

Maggie:  BOTH. And something else, too. Valentine's Day is also our Anniversary. (This year is our very 1st anniversary in fact!) So I get extra presents!

EJ:  Going out or staying in?

Maggie:  I really, truly prefer staying in. If we do go out, we enjoy going to movie theaters in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, when no one else is likely to be there, and we often wind up with the whole place to ourselves. Our favorite place to do this is a theater that recently installed huge, comfy reclining chairs. We could lay there all day!

EJ:  Fancy restaurant or pizza/burger joint?

Maggie:  Barbecue on the deck out back if it's passably warm. If not, pizza and wings!

EJ:  Action flick or romantic comedy?

Maggie:  Depends on whose turn it is to pick. He picks action flicks, I pick romantic comedies. But our favorites are Marvel Comic based movies and fairy tales, like Avengers and Thor and Maleficent and Mirror, Mirror.

EJ:  Nightclub or ballroom?

Maggie:  Living Room.

EJ:  Coffee or cocktails?

Maggie:  Coffee. We really are boringly tame, aren't we? Mine would be decaf. But we'd both prefer apple cider!

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Thank you Maggie for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

Maggie Shayne is the author of the Immortal Witches, Fairies of Rush, The Portal, and the Wings in the Night paranormal romance series.

To learn more about paranormal romance author Maggie Shayne, please visit her website.

Before we get to the giveaway, we also have an exciting announcement.  ETERNITY (Immortal Witches #1) is now FREE for the entire month of February.  Okay, now for the giveaway...

February is for Paranormal Romance Giveaway

All month long we are posting special features from our favorite paranormal romance authors, and we are topping this off with a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  If you cannot accept an electronic Amazon Gift Card, you may choose one paranormal romance book from The Book Depository (value up to $10.00).  Giveaway ends February 28, 2015 midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Wolves' Bane Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Thais P. winner of the Wolves' Bane Giveaway at From the Shadows!  Thais will receive an ebook copy of Wolves' Bane by Angela Addams.

Thank you to all who entered!

*Giveaway winner selected using Random.org*

Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Rapid City with Elizabeth Bear + Giveaway

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Rapid City, the setting of KAREN MEMORY, and our special guide is Elizabeth Bear.

Keep reading for a chance to win Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear!

Elizabeth is the author of the Eternal Sky series, Jenny Casey series, Promethean age series, Jacob's Ladder series, New Amsterdam series, The Edda of Burdens series, The Stratford Man series, Bone and Jewel Creatures series, and the new steampunk novel Karen Memory.

Elizabeth's Top 5 Spooky Places in Rapid City

I might be cheating a bit here, because Rapid City is a fictional place, and all its spook is spook I made up. But the world of Karen Memory is one where, in the very least, the so-called Creatures of the Lumberwoods (the North American legendary fauna of tall tales and native theology) do exist—so it’s conceivable that Karen could hike up into the hills surrounding Rapid City and have a close encounter with a hodag or a splintercat. (Watch out for the hoopsnakes, Karen. I hear they have a nasty bite!)

So we’ll start with that, in fact.

#5 Spooky place in Rapid City… is actually a short day trip outside of town. It’s the primeval temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest: vast, towering, and dripping with moss. Their emerald canopies mean deep, moist shade underneath. Dense undergrowth could hide just about anything from wildcats to sasquatch, and you’ll never know what might be peering at you from within the tangled canes of the nearest blackberry bramble.

#4 Spooky place in Rapid City… the dockyards. Massive air and steamships come and go from this Gold Rush town, relentlessly as the tide. They haul out hopeful men and doomed dogs north to Anchorage for the gold trail; hardwood timber for furniture, flooring, framing houses; machinery and raw materials for foreign need. They haul in silk, spices, and indentured Chinese and Indian immigrants—little better than slaves under the law—to work under brutal conditions in mines, on the railroads, and in the prostitute’s cribs. Towering armatures controlled by stevedores clank and hiss, hauling enormous shipping crates into and out of holds. Men and women—ragged, down on their luck—scavenge or whore.

#3 Spooky place in Rapid City… Bayside Market. You wouldn’t think so to look at the bustling and labyrinthine market it shelters, but this immense shed up on piles at the waterfront—it resembles an airship hangar or a drydock, it’s so vast—is said to be haunted. Eager tourists can wander between the stalls, attracted by heaps of golden melons or bright red onions or glistening, jeweled berries (depending on the season); rummaging around piles of baskets made in India and through stacks of willowware bowls imported from China; stroking silk and fawning over ready-made petticoats; nibbling sweet smoked salmon seasoned with maple syrup—and never know that at night, when the wind creaks the slatted walls and the hissing newfangled electric lights go dark, it’s said that a ghostly, translucent glow can be seen gliding between those same stalls. Those who have witnessed this say they’ve glimpsed the outline of a young woman, always an aisle or two away, slender and obviously distraught, running through the empty paths.

There are conflicting stories about her background—a suicide; a murder victim; a girl who was distracted by grief, slipped down the granite steps outside, and died. (It’s also possible that she’s something cooked up by the Rapid City Board of Tourism: a nice genteel haunting is good for business, after all!)

#2 Spooky place in Rapid City… this doesn’t appear in the book, but I’m contemplating a short story about the Rain City Riverside, a notorious local hotel. The Riverside occupies a good location close to the opera house (Rapid City’s pride, joy, and cultural center). The hotel is Rapid City’s only four-star establishment: fine dining, private baths, and at least one of the steakhouse employees is actually French! (Sadly, it’s the maitre d’hotel, rather than the chef, but on the frontier you have to take what you can get. Nobody’s ever seen a ghost in the Riverside—or if they have, hotel management paid them off handsomely enough that they’ve kept it to themselves.

But while the Riverside caters to mining and logging executives, it’s also popular with those lucky gold miners who come back to civilization with a bag of dust or a few nuggets in their pocket, ready to spend.

The legend is that Old Boston, the owner of the Griswold Claim in Alaska, spent a little too much time out in the wilderness—and by the time when he was finally ready to ship back to Rapid City, he’d gone more than a little mad. Whether the violent deaths of himself, three other miners, one bartender, and a saloon girl in the hotel bar were performed by his own hand (as the hotel still insists) or by the hand of an enraged tommyknocker (a kind of mine gremlin) he’d captured in Alaska and smuggled home in a steamer trunk with the plan of selling it to a traveling exhibition (as the lone survivor of the massacre, the maimed and traumatized piano player, maintans) is not known one way or the other.

If there was a tommyknocker, it was never captured, and no one knows what became of it. Which might be why the hotel denies its existence.

They do have extensive wine cellars, however.

#1 Spooky place in Rapid City… the Underground. As with Boston, Seattle, and a number of other coastal towns, Rapid City has had an ongoing problem with flooding and high tides. So Rapid City adopted the same solution as these other municipalities! Which is a pretty lousy solution while it’s under construction, honestly—it involved building retaining walls along the edges of the streets—leaving sidewalk pathways between street and building so doors are still accessible—and then raising the street with fill to a new ground level. This has the side effect, as you might guess, of providing a terrible, terrifying, dark, narrow well around the ground floor of every single affected building, which you must enter in order to get in or out of those buildings—at least until the streets are finished, and the sidewalks are closed over, and new entrances are cut at the new ground level.

Of course, then those wells remain down there, even darker now with a sidewalk on top! And the wells aren’t connected to one another, so in order to get from one building to the next, you have to scramble up and down ladders. About as much fun in hoop skirts and bustles as a pre-novocaine root canal. And the best side effect is that the wells become havens for all the sorts of things you might not wish to do in a public street—from pissing and furtive sex to muggings, assault, and the disposal of bodies.

Urban planning at its finest, and very, very spooky indeed.

Thank you Elizabeth for giving us such a haunting tour of Rapid City!  

To learn more about Elizabeth Bear and her books, please visit her website.  You can add Karen Memory here on Goodreads.

We are also having a fantastic book giveaway to celebrate the release of KAREN MEMORY by Elizabeth Bear.

Karen Memory Book Giveaway

We are giving away a hardcover copy of Karen Memory to one lucky winner!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post, and include your email address so we may contact you if you win.   This giveaway is open to US and Canada only.  Giveaway ends March 3, 2015 midnight EST.

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear.

“You ain’t gonna like what I have to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It's French, so Beatrice tells me.”

Set in the late 19th century—when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes, would-be gold miners were heading to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront, Karen is a young woman on her own, is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable’s high-quality bordello. Through Karen’s eyes we get to know the other girls in the house—a resourceful group—and the poor and the powerful of the town. Trouble erupts one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, beggin sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, and who has a machine that can take over anyone’s mind and control their actions.  And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped in their rubbish heap—a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered.

Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper yarn of the old west with a light touch in Karen’s own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science.

Release Date: February 3, 2015
Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk

What did you think of Elizabeth's picks for spooky places?  Does Rapid City sound like a place you'd like to visit?

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Louisville with Shiloh Walker.  Next week we'll be traveling to Australia with Cassandra Page.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

Romance is in the Air Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Maria B. winner of the Romance is in the Air Giveaway at From the Shadows!  Maria will receive a complete ebook set of the Spirit Guide young adult paranormal romance series.

Thank you to all who entered.  I hope you had a fantastic Valentine's Day!

**Giveaway winner randomly selected using Rafflecopter**

February is for Paranormal Romance Q+A with Felicity Heaton + Giveaway

February is for Paranormal Romance...and we have an incredible month of special author features for you.  Today we have a Valentine's Day themed "this or that" Q+A with Felicity Heaton and Owen Nightingale. 

Keep reading for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Q+A with Felicity Heaton and Owen Nightingale

I’m standing in the living room of the illustrious hunter, Owen Nightingale, waiting for the man himself to make an appearance. When I arranged this little fun interview, he told me to use the key above the door to let myself into his very elegant Georgian townhouse in the centre of London and that he would meet me here later.

Well, later has come and gone and I think I’ve snooped at every square inch of the pale blue drawing room, messed around with every weapon scattered across the large oak table taking up a good amount of space on the left of the expansive room, and even thumbed through a few of the books that are stacked tightly in the cases that line the right hand side of the room between the tall sash windows. I’ve stared out of those windows for more minutes than I can count, losing track of time as I stared at the quiet residential street below, waiting for the familiar black car to roll up to the space outside Owen’s rather posh house.

Maybe he’s forgotten me.

Just as I debate leaving the U of three black leather couches near the fireplace, I hear a door open and slam shut again far below me. I really hope that’s Owen and not someone who has just let themselves in to burgle the joint. He didn’t tell me to lock the door after myself, and it is the small hours of a Saturday morning.

Heavy footsteps sound on the wooden stairs and even though I’m prepared for it, I still jump when the door bursts open, whirling to face it as my hand leaps to my chest.

Pale green eyes stare across the room at me and then dark slashes of eyebrows drop low above them, narrowing them into a frown that quickly melts into a guilty look.

“Heck, it was today, wasn’t it?” Owen grimaces, and the guy looks just as handsome when he’s cringing as he does when he’s flashing me a killer smile a second later and scrubbing the back of his neck, tousling his dark hair. “Sorry. I got caught up in a little business.”

He seems to be wearing the evidence of that ‘little business’ on his face. I point a shaky finger at the blood splattered up his neck and over the strong straight line of his jaw. His smile fades and he touches his face, brings his hand away so he can look at it, and grimaces again.

He stalks across the room, long lean black-jeans-clad legs eating up the stretch of wooden floor between us. He rounds the couch near me, close enough I can feel his heat and smell his aftershave, and bends to swipe a tissue from the box on the coffee table nestled between the couches. I watch in silence as he wipes the blood off, and then nod and smile when he looks at me, green eyes asking whether he got it all.

Owen heaves a sigh and collapses onto the couch that faces the fireplace, his black dress shirt and jeans making him blend into it in the low light coming from the fire. He stretches his arms out along the back of the couch and kicks his boots up onto the coffee table, a weary look on his handsome face.

“I can come back another time if this is a bad one,” I say and he flashes that killer smile again.

“Nah, we’re good. I should’ve remembered. Cait reminded me enough times. She posted notes all over the damned house.” He shoves his fingers through his dark hair, tugging it back. “And yet I still forgot.”

I shrug this time and sit on the couch to his left. “It won’t take long, just a simple list of this and that questions I need you to answer, and then you can get some sleep.”

He looks tired, and I really shouldn’t have mentioned him going to sleep, because now I’m thinking about him stripping off and crawling into bed.

I clear my throat and rush out the first question. “Chocolates or flowers?”

Owen tips his head back and my eyes disobey my command not to drop to his throat and his delicious Adam’s apple visible through the day’s worth of stubble.

“Ah, flowers.” He drops his chin and smiles at me, a flicker of warmth in his eyes as he realises that the questions are all about romance. “This’ll sound odd, but Cait can’t eat chocolate… it’s a cat thing… being a hellcat shifter is apparently very much like being a regular cat. No chocolate. She loves flowers though. She can’t get enough of them. You don’t see many flowers in Hell where she’s from.”

“It makes sense, although I’ve never really thought about whether cat shifters suffer the same problems as their animal brethren.” It’s definitely something worth noting for all those cat shifter lovers out there. If you ever bag yourself a hot cat shifter, don’t give them chocolate. “I think I know the answer to the next one. Going out or staying in?”

Owen’s smile widens. “Out. She loves it when I take her out. As I said, she doesn’t leave Hell much, but now we’re together, she’s regularly here getting in my way on my jobs.”

Something in his smile says he doesn’t mind the sassy shifter crashing his missions and lending a paw.

“Fancy restaurant or fast food joint?” This I definitely want to know the answer to as I can’t imagine Owen in a fast food joint. He doesn’t look the sort.

“That edge to your cheeky smile says you know I don’t do fast food. I have to keep in shape.” Owen pats his stomach and I try my best not to look down and imagine what he looks like under that black shirt. “That isn’t to say I haven’t taken Cait to a burger joint. She wants to try every single item of food she can, in as little time as possible. Sometimes, I don’t think she understands the concept of immortality. She has centuries to try everything.”

“Okay, so… say you do go out on a date, or maybe have a quiet night in, and you were going to watch a movie. What would it be… an action flick or romantic comedy?”

Owen cringes. “I can’t watch romance with Cait. She gets this gooey look in her eyes and a goofy smile. She almost kicked my arse the first time we watched a romance together and I poked fun at her because she was so absorbed in it and looking like a teen girl with a crush.”

“Definitely action then?” I have to sympathise with Cait because I have been known to sport a silly smile and moon eyes after a good romantic flick. Haven’t we all, Ladies?

Owen nods very enthusiastically.

“Well, since you two love going out, do you take her to a nightclub or a ballroom?” I definitely know the answer to this one.

Owen laughs, and the sound is magical, captivating me as he smiles at me. “Nightclub. She loves Underworld almost as much as I do and we’re regularly there. You have to see Cait dance. Heck, she loves to dance… and it’s mesmerising. Although… I do want to kill the guys who try to dance with her.”

“Why don’t you dance with her?”

He shrugs. “I do, sometimes… but I’m really not a dancer… and when Cait dances I tend to just end up standing there in front of her, staring at her as she dances at me. She’s too damned hot and sexy when she dances. I can’t concentrate.”

“She definitely cast a spell on you at the beginning of your romance by dancing in Underworld right in front of you. I can understand why she affects you so badly.” The opening moment in their romance, Bitten by a Hellcat, is set in that nightclub and Owen was thoroughly captivated by his bad little kitty.

A touch of colour darkens his cheeks and he glances away from me and shrugs. I smile. It’s nice seeing a guy in love.

“Cocktails or coffee? I’m guessing cocktails, many of them… or maybe a shot of Hellfire?” I grin when he scowls at me, refusing to apologise for my coded reference to a moment when he first met Cait.

It softens into another killer smile. “Yeah, cocktails. She loves them. All the bright colours. Cavanaugh makes a mean Mai Tai and Blue Lagoon. I tend to stick with the vodka.”
Understandable. I can’t imagine Owen Nightingale sipping a colourful cocktail. He might lose a little of the respect of the demons, shifters and fae who frequent Underworld. They would definitely be less afraid of him anyway.

I look down at my list of questions. “That’s all of them. Thanks for giving us this little insight into the romance habits of Owen Nightingale, infamous shifter hunter extraordinaire.”

“Ha ha… you’re so not funny. Want me to kick you out?” The tired edge to his jade eyes says he’s half serious.

I stand and brush down my jeans. “Nah. I can let myself out. You get some shuteye. Something tells me it isn’t just the jobs wearing you out…”

The blush stains his cheeks again and he gives me his best glare. I shrug it off. It’s fun embarrassing grown men about affairs of the heart. I think I’ll have to do it more often, but maybe I’ll stick to the heroes in my books who won’t be inclined to tear out my jugular for bringing up their sex lives.

I give Owen a little wave. “Catch you later.”

He lifts his hand in a salute as he yawns and flops over to lay on the couch. I let myself out, quietly closing the door, sure that I’ll be seeing more of Owen and Cait soon.

I hope you enjoyed my little interview with Owen, the hero of Bitten by a Hellcat, the next book in the Eternal Mates series. If you want to know more about Owen, you can take a peek at his book, which is out on February 17th, at my website.

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Thank you Felicity for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

Felicity Heaton is the author of the ETERNAL MATES paranormal romance series.  BITTEN BY A HELLCAT hits shelves February 17th!

To learn more about paranormal romance author Felicity Heaton, please visit her website, and don't miss our in depth Q+A with Felicity Heaton earlier this month here at From the Shadows.

February is for Paranormal Romance Giveaway

All month long we are posting special features from our favorite paranormal romance authors, and we are topping this off with a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  If you cannot accept an electronic Amazon Gift Card, you may choose one paranormal romance book from The Book Depository (value up to $10.00).  Giveaway ends February 28, 2015 midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cover Reveal: Birthright by E.J. Stevens

I am very excited to show off the cover to BIRTHRIGHT, the fourth full-length novel in the Ivy Granger urban fantasy series!

This cover does a fantastic job of displaying Ivy Granger's growing proficiency with knives. It also gives us a sneak peek at the horrors that Ivy must face in Tech Duinn, on her journey to Faerie.

What do you think of the cover?

Birthright (Ivy Granger #4) by E.J. Stevens

Being a faerie princess isn't all it's cracked up to be...

Ivy must go to Faerie, but the gateway to the Wisp Court is through Tech Duinn, the house of Donn—Celtic god of the dead. Just her luck.

Unable to share her secret with Jinx, and with Jenna called away on Hunters' Guild business, Ivy must rely on Ceff and Torn to lead her to Death's door, literally, and back again. As if that wasn't dangerous enough, there's no saying what horrors lay in store within the Faerie realm. Too bad the Wisp Court is the one lead Ivy has in the search for her father—and possible salvation.

Maybe hiding away and dodging sidhe assassins isn't so bad after all...

Release Date: July 14, 2015
Genre: Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Add to Goodreads.

About the Ivy Granger Series

The Ivy Granger series is an urban fantasy series written by E.J. Stevens. The series is told in the first-person point of view of Ivy Granger, a psychic detective with ties to the paranormal underworld of Harborsmouth--ties that ensnare Ivy and her friend Jinx in the Machiavellian schemes of the city's teeming population of bloodsucking vampires and psychotic faeries.

Books in this series: Shadow Sight (Ivy Granger #1), Blood and Mistletoe (Ivy Granger #1.5), Ghost Light (Ivy Granger #2), Club Nexus (Ivy Granger #2.5), Burning Bright (Ivy Granger #3).

About the Author

E.J. Stevens is the author of the Spirit Guide young adult series and the bestselling Ivy Granger urban fantasy series. When E.J. isn't at her writing desk she enjoys dancing along seaside cliffs, singing in graveyards, and sleeping in faerie circles. E.J. currently resides in a magical forest on the coast of Maine where she finds daily inspiration for her writing.

Connect with E.J. on Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon, Facebook, and on her Blog.

We are celebrating this cover reveal with a fantastic Birthright giveaway...

Cover Reveal Giveaway

We are giving away a $10 Amazon Gift Card, Birthright mini-poster, and signed Birthright postcard to one lucky winner. 

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  Giveaway begins Friday, February 13th and ends Friday, February 27th.

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Happy Friday the 13th!

Q+A with Kate Avery Ellison + Giveaway

Please welcome today's guest author Kate Avery Ellison!  Kate is the author of the Frost Chronicles and the Secrets of Itlantis series, including OF SEA AND STONE.

Keep reading for a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Q+A with Kate Avery Ellison

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Kate:  I began writing when I was about eight, I think. I wrote “books” that had chapters and a beginning, middle, and end, although they were only a few pages long. I was a big Nancy Drew fan so I started out writing a mystery series that had a total of fourteen books in it, I believe.

I began writing seriously with the intent to publish when I was about seventeen. Health problems got in the way for a while, but I published my first book around age 24.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Kate:  I’ve always loved the fantastic. I think sci fi and fantasy make it easier to explore difficult concepts in an abstract and less threatening way, so they’re good for writing on topics relating to justice and change, and for pushing the boundaries of thinking and understanding. And hey, dragons and magic are a lot of fun. Also, I just like to let my imagination run wild. I like to look at the world and think, what if ___ were different? How would we live? How would we think?

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be?

Kate:  So if I could have one supernatural talent, it would be the ability to always give the perfect gift, just exactly what the person wants to receive and the most appropriate and touching/meaningful/useful thing.

Why?  I think it would make birthdays and holidays a lot easier, and I like to make people happy. Also I don’t think it’s very easily exploitable by, say, a government or terrorist organization, so it wouldn’t make my life complicated or dangerous.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Kate:  Well, my two newest releases are A Gift of Poison and the 4th book in the Secrets of Itlantis series, For Wreck and Remnant. A Gift of Poison is one of my favorite books I’ve ever written, and readers who like dragons, magic, sword fights, tales of vindication/cleverness/proving oneself against huge odds, or steampunk fantasy should really enjoy it. The main character Briand is really scrappy and she has a lot of grit. She’s “enlisted” (basically kidnapped) into helping a secret group of fighters who serve the true prince as they use dragons in the war against a psychopathic ruler. I have another book coming out in the same world very soon called The Season of Lightning.

Readers who are enjoying the Secrets of Itlantis series should like For Wreck and Remnant because it has some nice romantic elements between a certain two characters, as well as a LOT of answers about some of the biggest mysteries of the series.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Kate:
Aemi – Jessica Szohr, as she can do that sharp, kind of wild look that really makes me think of Aemi, and the actress has a diverse ancestry like Aemi.
Nol – Jake Abel. I think he has the right “handsome but snobby/broody look” Nol has going on for the first part of the book.
Kit – Blake Lee, only with really curly thick hair and more of a tan than normal.
Lyssia – Jena Malone. She’d make a good Lyssia.
Tob – Thomas Brodie-Sangster. He was so loveable in The Maze Runner, and Tob is a very loveable character to me. He has a good energy to him too.
Merelus – Liam Neeson, he has the right gravitas mixed with kindness.
Annah – Nicole Galicia is probably way too young to play Senator Annah, but I like her.

Of Sea and Stone (Secrets of Itlantis #1) by Kate Avery Ellison

All her life, clever Aemi has been a slave in the Village of the Rocks, a place where the sea and sky meet. She’s heard the stories about the fabled People of the Sea, a people who possess unimaginable technology who live below the waves in the dark, secret places of the ocean. But she never dreamed those stories were true.

When a ship emerges from the ocean and men burn her village, Aemi is captured, and enslaved below the waves in Itlantis, a world filled with ancient cities of glass and metal, floating gardens, and wondrous devices that seem to work magic. To make matters worse, her village nemesis, the stuck-up mayor’s son Nol, was captured with her, and they are made servants in the same household beneath the sea.

Desperate to be free, Aemi plots her escape, even going so far as to work with Nol. But the sea holds more secrets than she realizes, and escape might not be as simple as leaving...

Release Date: February 2, 2014
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Add to Goodreads.

Thank you Kate for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

You can learn more about Kate Avery Ellison and her books by visiting her website.

Kate Avery Ellison Book Giveaway

The author is giving away print copies of stand-alone novel A Gift of Poison (US/CA) and a $25 Amazon Gift Card (INTL)!

To enter, use the Rafflecopter form below.   This giveaway is part of the Of Sea and Stone Book Tour, so giveaway winners will be selected by the author or publisher.  Giveaway ends February 19, 2015.

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Good luck!

Paranormal Road Trip Giveaway Winner

Congratulations Carmel B. winner of our Paranormal Road Trip Giveaway here at From the Shadows!  Carmel will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

Thank you to all who entered!

Eternal Mates Giveaway Winner

Congratulations bn100 winner of the Eternal Mates Giveaway at From the Shadows!  BN100 will receive an Eternal Mates ebook, winner's choice of Kissed by a Dark Prince, Claimed by a Demon King, or Tempted by a Rogue Prince.

Thank you to all who entered!

*Giveaway winner selected using Random.org*

Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Louisville with Shiloh Walker

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Louisville, Kentucky and our special guide is Shiloh Walker.  Shiloh is the author of the Ash Trilogy, the Rafferty series, The Hunters series, the Grimm's Circle series, and the FBI Psychics series, as well the Colbana Files urban fantasy series as J.C. Daniels.

Shiloh's Top Spooky Places in Louisville

So you want to check out the things that go bump in the night?  Head on down to Louisville, KY.

When you get there, maybe talk to my mom’s side of the family.  Almost all of them have seen a ghost…or three.  If he was still alive, you could talk to my grandfather—he was actually my mom’s stepdad.  Although, honestly, I doubt he’d tell you this story.

He was a cool guy.  He had this big eagle tattooed on his chest.  Apparently, he was in the navy and got…um, well.  One morning, he woke up and there it was.  ‘Nuff said, right?  He made the most amazing dollhouses.

He’s been gone a long time and my memories of him are mostly just impressions.  But I’ve got stories.

One in particular.

Let me tell about this night…

My family all came from Louisville.  Both sides have been in this general area for a while—my dad’s side has actually been in Kentucky going back generations.  My parents had been dating for a little while and on this particular night, they came home to find my grandmother sitting outside with R*.  had been married to my grandmother for only a short while.  He was my grandmother’s second husband.

It was kind of odd for both of them to be sitting on the porch and my folks looked at them and asked, “What are you all doing out here?”

R looked at Grandma and then at my dad.  “Son, would you mind going into the house, down to our bedroom and turning off the lamp?”

Dad probably thought this was weird.  But he did it and came back out.

“It’s off.”

R. asked him to go and check, and then said, “Would you unplug it? Just to be sure?”

So, Dad does just that. Except it was already unplugged.  Oh. And the light was on.  You can imagine he came scooting out of that house really fast.

Turns out, R. had been napping while Grandma was on the bed reading.  He woke up to see the light coming on, then going off.  He asked Grandma to stop playing with the light.  She said, “It’s not me.  Just lay there.  It will do it again.”

It did. He got up. Unplugged it.  Laid down.  The light came on. Went off.   He jumped off the bed and moved.  Grandma was right after him.

I never did ask what happened to the lamp.

Nor can I tell you where this house is…my mom probably still remembers, but I’m not about to risk setting some family up to be harassed. ;)

But if you’re looking for some spooky thrills, what about the Seelbach?  While you’re probably not going to find much about it at the hotel’s official website, the hotel has had more than just presidents and famous writers within its walls.  Back in the thirties, a woman was found dead in the elevator shaft and ever since, people report seeing a woman in a long blue gown walking toward the elevators on the eighth floor. She’s called, of course, The Lady in Blue.  Guests have complaints of freezing rooms.  There have been reports of seeing people in reflections…then you turn and nobody is there.

Another famously haunted hotel would be the Brown.  The original owner, James Graham Brown, is said to have really loved life.  He loved his life and he loved his hotel.  According to Halloween Louisville, he loved these things so much, he just never left.  People complain all the time about the footsteps up on the 15th floor.  But the only thing on the 15th floor is storage.  Weird, yeah?

But the real jewel of the Louisville haunts has got to be Waverly.  This place is amazing and I can tell you this from experience—I’ve been there.  From the towering, crumbling façade to the eerie, echoing silence of the body chute, there is no other place on earth like Waverly Hills Sanatorium.  Thousands of people died here of TB.  There were suicides as well—I believe one of the ghosts supposedly haunting the place is a nurse who killed herself.

Because they didn’t want moral to suffer from the high death rate, a tunnel was built to take bodies away from the hospital.  It’s been called the death tunnel, the body chute, etc.  The tunnel was used to transfer bodies from the hospital down the hill—no, people were just sent rolling down the chute.

And yes…it’s still there.

So, who is up for a road trip?

Thank you Shiloh for giving us such a haunting tour of Louisville!  

To learn more about Shiloh Walker and her books, please visit her website, and don't miss our Q+A with Shiloh Walker here at From the Shadows.  You can add her books here on Goodreads.

Have you visited Louisville, Kentucky?  Ever experience anything of the supernatural kind in and around Louisville?

What did you think of Shiloh's picks for spooky places?

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Banff, Alberta with Nancy Baker. In case you missed it, we're also having a Paranormal Road Trip Giveaway.  (ending soon)  Win an Amazon Gift Card!

Next week we'll be traveling to Rapid City with Elizabeth Bear.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

Q+A with Felicity Heaton and Eternal Mates Giveaway

Please welcome today's guest author Felicity Heaton!  Felicity is the author of the Eternal Mates (Kissed by a Dark Prince, Claimed by a Demon King, Tempted by a Rogue Prince, Hunted by a Jaguar, Craved by an Alpha) paranormal romance series.

Keep reading for a chance to win an Eternal Mates ebook!

Q+A with Felicity Heaton

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Felicity:  I wrote a little in school when I was a teenager because we had to write the opening chapter of a gothic horror and it really got my mind working, and my teacher liked mine so much that she read it out to the class. I wrote more for it, had a whole plan for the story, but then schoolwork took over and it fell to the wayside.

I didn’t write until 2003 after that. I got really into writing fanfiction for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and was running my own fanfiction website for my stories. A friend who was writing the same genre as me convinced me to give writing something original with my own characters a go. I took a little convincing but I took the leap and really loved it. I began indie publishing my books back in 2006 after being with an e-publisher for a year. It was just something I came to naturally. I didn’t set out to be a writer. It just sort of evolved into my career. I was happy balancing a full-time job with writing in my spare time. I never really believed that I would make enough money each year to be only a writer. I was shocked when I found I could quit my day job back in 2010. I went full-time writer in 2011 and I still can’t believe this is my job!

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Felicity:  I’ve loved paranormal genre stuff since I was really young, like just starting to read young and in single digits. I have book reports where I call every book boring unless it has vampires, werewolves, witches or monsters in it! I was hooked at an early age and it has stayed with me throughout my life. My passion for it only grew in strength when I read the classics as a teen, devouring Dracula and Frankenstein, and reading H P Lovecraft and Poe. I read classic romances too, like Jane Eyre, North and South, Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice too. I think I began to blend those two very separate genres, falling for vampires and other creatures of the night, imagining worlds where they existed.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Felicity:  A vampire. I’ve had a thing for them since I was a kid, as I mentioned above, and I always come back to them. I have flings with the idea of being a shifter, or an angel, or a witch, but I always come back to the vampires.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Felicity:  It’s a story of a love that will last forever and two characters finally overcoming the obstacles that stand between them in order to claim that forever they want with each other. Cavanaugh is the alpha of a snow leopard shifter pride and it’s a role he never wanted, but one he was forced to accept on the death of his father. His ascension separated him from the woman he loved and his new status means he can’t be with her, even though she’s his fated female, the one woman made entirely for him and the only one he can bond with and claim.

Craved by an Alpha is the story of Cavanaugh finally breaking down the barriers that stand between him and Eloise, the low-ranking woman he’s been in love with for years, and Eloise does a little breaking down of barriers of her own too. If readers enjoy a story of love finally finding a happen ending, a happily forever after in this case, then they’ll really like Craved by an Alpha. It has passion, emotion, and action, and a hero who will stop at nothing to claim the woman he loves and the future he desires with her.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Felicity:  I’d love to cast unknown or little known actors who really suited the characters’ appearances and personalities, but if I had to choose a few famous actors to cast in some of the leading roles, I could definitely see Chris Hemsworth as Snow from my Vampire Erotic Theatre series. I really think that Bradley Cooper would be a good choice too, but I’m not sure who I would cast him as. The why of it? Well, I just kinda like them as actors and extremely good looking men, and boy would it be awesome to spend days on set just watching them do their thing in the flesh!

Thank you Felicity for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about Felicity Heaton, please visit her website.  You can add the Eternal Mates series here on Goodreads.

Craved by an Alpha, the fifth book in New York Times best-seller Felicity Heaton’s hot paranormal romance series, Eternal Mates, is now available in ebook and paperback. To celebrate the release, she’s holding a FANTASTIC GIVEAWAY at her website and sharing sneak peeks of the book.

Find out how to enter the Craved by an Alpha international giveaway (ends February 8th) and be in with a shot of winning a $75, $50 or $25 gift certificate at her website, where you can also download a 5 chapter sample of the novel.

We're also having a giveaway here at From the Shadows...

Eternal Mates Giveaway

In addition to the amazing giveaways happening on Felicity's website, we're hosting a giveaway for an Eternal Mates ebook, winner's choice of Kissed by a Dark Prince, Claimed by a Demon King, or Tempted by a Rogue Prince!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post and include your email address so that we may contact you if you win.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  Giveaway ends February 9th midnight EST.

Good luck!

Want more Felicity Heaton?  You're in luck!  Felicity will be back on February 14th for a fantastic Valentines Day Q+A as part of our month long February is for Paranormal Romance event.

Romance Is In The Air Giveaway

Welcome to our stop on the Romance is in the Air giveaway hop!  We have teamed up with a ton of fantastic blogs to bring you Young Adult and clean romance book giveaways.  Keep reading to see what we're giving away here at From the Shadows!

Romance is in the Air Giveaway

We are giving away a complete ebook set of the Spirit Guide young adult paranormal romance series!

Win She Smells the Dead, Spirit Storm, Legend of Witchtrot Road, Brush with Death, and The Pirate Curse.

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  Winner will receive all 5 books in the Spirit Guide young adult paranormal romance series in their choice of Kindle, PDF, and ePub format.  Giveaway ends February 14, 2015 midnight EST.


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Visit all of the Romance is in the Air participating blogs for more YA/clean romance giveaways.

Good luck and thank you for hopping by!

Love books?  Don't miss our special February is for Paranormal Romance giveaway.  Visit guest posts from your favorite paranormal romance authors during the month of February for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card (or Paranormal Romance book from The Book Depository). 

Beginning February 5th, we'll also be giving away a book from Felicity Heaton's Eternal Mates paranormal romance series in our Eternal Mates Giveaway.  

And that's not all!  We are also celebrating 6 months of Paranormal Road Trip blog posts with a giveaway.  Enter our Paranormal Road Trip Giveaway for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Banff with Nancy Baker

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.  This week's stop is Banff, Alberta and our special guide is Nancy Baker, author of the vampire novels The Night Inside, Blood and Chrysanthemums, and A Terrible Beauty.

Blood and Chrysanthemums is set in Banff so it seems fitting that our guide for this week's Paranormal Road Trip be author Nancy Baker.  Let's see what terrifying places Nancy has planned for our tour.

Nancy's Top 5 Spooky Places

Who knew that Banff, site of great skiing, climbing and healthy daylight outdoor activities, has a secret spooky side? During my research for Blood and Chrysanthemums, I was on the lookout for locations that would suit my vampires Ardeth Alexander and Dimitri Rozokov during their time in the mountain town and I found enough scary spots to suit several stories.

The Banff Springs Hotel
This gorgeous century-old baronial-style hotel naturally has its share of ghost stories. Sam the bellman, a long-time employee who died in 1975 always promised to come back and haunt the place, has apparently appeared in period regalia to help guests when no bellman is on duty and is supposedly fond of opening and closing elevator doors at random times. There is also the “doomed bride” who is supposed to have fallen to her death down the curved stone staircase, catching on fire from one of the torches as she fell. Her flaming figure has been seen dancing in the grand ballroom. There’s also Room 873, which is supposed to have been the site of the gruesome murder of an entire family.  After the room was restored, guests reported screaming and the appearance of bloody handprints on the mirror. It’s claimed that the hotel had the room sealed up and the hallway replastered to conceal its existence.

The Old Banff Cemetery
Actually, this is quite lovely old cemetery that I’ve happily wandered through taking pictures on more than one occasion. It’s the perfect place for a walk whenever you feel that all that fresh air, sunshine and fleece outerwear is making you feel far too fit and sensible to be contemplating vampires.

Dead Man’s Flats
Not in Banff proper, but off the highway on the way, this one is interesting because of the bloody story behind the name. In 1904, Francois Marret murdered his brother with an axe and threw his body into the river to prevent his ghost from returning to haunt him. Explanations from the crime ranged from Marret’s anger that his brother had not paid him for work he’d done to the murderer’s believe that his victim was planning to kill him with a “whirring electric machine”. Justice moving more swiftly in those days, Marret was sentenced a week later. The verdict: not guilty by reason of insanity.  

Banff Park Museum
What could be frightening about a museum? Dead animals, for one thing. Lots and lots of stuffed dead animals. The Banff Park Museum has deliberately maintained its historical feel and I’ve always thought that being trapped there at night with all those beady taxidermy eyes trained on you would be terrifying.

The Trail through Cascade Gardens to Middle Springs
This one is personal. The Cascade Gardens are quite pretty. They are, however, part of the trail that winds its way up to the communities above them, which is where I usually stay in Banff. The first time we braved this trail alone at night, it was so dark we had to shuffle along, hands outstretched, to avoid running into a tree. On one trip, I walked up that path several times at night, wondering why on earth I didn’t just go the long way, waiting for a bear or a cougar – or a werewolf – to get me. Despite the fact that the scariest thing I’ve ever seen there is an elk, I still count this as my personal “spookiest place in Banff”.

Thank you Nancy for giving us such a haunting tour of Banff!  

To learn more about Nancy Baker and her books, please visit her website.  You can add Blood and Chrysanthemums here on Goodreads.

Have you visited Banff, Alberta?  Ever experience anything of the supernatural kind in and around Banff?

What did you think of Nancy's picks for spooky places?

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we did a six month Paranormal Road Trip recap. In case you missed it, we're also having a Paranormal Road Trip Giveaway.  Win an Amazon Gift Card!

Next week we'll be traveling to Louisville with Shiloh Walker (aka J.C. Daniels).

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

February is for Paranormal Romance Q+A with Angela Addams + Giveaway

February is for Paranormal Romance...and we have an incredible month of special author features for you.  Today we have a Valentine's Day themed "this or that" Q+A with Angela Addams. 

Keep reading for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card and a copy of Wolves' Bane!

Q+A with Angela Addams

EJ:  Chocolates or flowers?

Angela:  Chocolate….always CHOCOLATE! Flowers die. They dry up, they get crumbly and then fall all over your table and make a big mess and look disgusting. (Okay, so I totally neglect flowers. Don’t ever get me flowers. I’m a flower murderer.) But chocolate…mmm…it makes my heart ramp up and my mouth water. It melts on my tongue and makes me feel so happy. So, yeah, chocolate. Like, right now. I’m waiting.

EJ:  Going out or staying in?

Angela:  I like the idea of going out but when it actually comes time to leave the house I’d suddenly rather stay home. Unless we’re going out for dinner, then I’m all in. In fact, I’ll drive. So let’s go.

EJ:  Fancy restaurant or pizza/burger joint?

Angela:  I like steak therefore I require a restaurant. It doesn’t need to be fancy but it does need to have some good steak. I also like fast food. I hate cooking so really this is a trick question because it’s more like what are we having tonight? Burger? Pizza? Chinese? Steak?

EJ:  Action flick or romantic comedy?

Angela:  Action flick usually, especially if it’s an action flick with a kick ass female in the lead. I like movies like Underworld and shows like Buffy, so yeah, blood, guts and maybe a little bit of romance sprinkled here and there.

EJ:  Nightclub or ballroom?

Angela:  Nightclub for sure. I mean, not anymore because I’m way too old for that crap, but back in the day when I didn’t go to bed at ten, I’d be at the club dancing and drinking.

EJ:  Coffee or cocktails?

Angela:  Both? I mean, Bailey’s in one’s coffee is vital. I am not a huge drinker to be honest. I like to have the occasional bourbon but my daily intake of coffee probably means that I choose that over cocktails. When I’m on vacation though, all bets are off.

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Thank you Angela for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

Angela Addams is the author of The Order of the Wolf paranormal romance series.

To learn more about paranormal romance author Angela Addams, please visit her website.

Now for the giveaways!  We are hosting a month long February is for Paranormal Romance giveaway AND author Angela Addams is offering an ebook copy of Wolves' Bane to one lucky commenter!

#1

Wolves' Bane Giveaway

The author is giving away an ebook copy of Wolves' Bane by Angela Addams to one lucky winner.

To enter, please leave a comment on this post and include your email address so we may contact you if you win.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  Giveaway ends February 17th midnight EST.

#2

February is for Paranormal Romance Giveaway

All month long we are posting special features from our favorite paranormal romance authors, and we are topping this off with a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

To enter, please use the Rafflecopter form below.  This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL.  If you cannot accept an electronic Amazon Gift Card, you may choose one paranormal romance book from The Book Depository (value up to $10.00).  Giveaway ends February 28, 2015 midnight EST.

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Good luck!

That's right!  One comment on this post might get you entries into TWO fantastic giveaways (rafflecopter required for second giveaway entry), so share the comment love.