Monster Giveaway Winners!

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in Friday the 13th Week here at From the Shadows!  We had a fabulous turn out for the Monster Giveaway and winners have been selected using Random.org.  Winners will also be notified by email.

The winner of Paranormal Prize Pack #1 is Maddie!

The winner of Paranormal Prize Pack #2 is Lisa R!

The winner of Paranormal Prize Pack #3 is Amanda!

The winner of Paranormal Prize Pack #4 is Ali!

The winner of Paranormal Prize Pack #5 is Debbie D!

Congratulations to the winners!

Winners of the Swag Giveaway will be drawn later this week and notified by email.  Thank you for joining the Friday the 13th Week festivities!

Guest Author Interview: Angelique Armae

Please welcome today's guest author Angelique Armae!  Angelique is the author of Come the Night, The Tangled Web, Dead Walkers: The Protectorate, and Shadows of the Soul.

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Angelique:   I've been writing as far back as I can remember.  When I was in grade school I loved writing poetry and short stories. As for writing professionally, I started getting serious about my work after I discovered Romance Writers of America.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Angelique:   My love of the paranormal genre goes way back.  One of my favorite dolls as a kid was Emerald The Witch.  Growing up my grandmother told me tales of angels and miracles, and  good vs. evil. I suppose I've always been exposed to that world, so when I decided to start writing it was only natural I penned paranormal stories.

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

Angelique:  Hmmm...that's a tough one because there are so many cool supernatural talents I've given my characters!  But maybe to be able to control the weather - how cool would it be to build a snowman in the middle of summer or to go sun bathing during the winter and not have to leave your own town?  You could have whatever type of day you'd like on whim.  Now that would be awesome.

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

Angelique:  My latest book, Shadows of the Soul, is a tale about a Grigori prince and a demon huntress who team up to find the antidote to a supernatural disease.  My hero, Nicolai Valentine, is a super sexy bad boy of Hell, and my heroine, Isabel Godfroie Heart, is a kick-ass woman with a passed life secret.  She's also a Scholar trained in angelic warfare, mentored by the archangel Gabriel.  I loved writing this book.  My hero and heroine have been through a lot, and just in this lifetime.  I hope readers connect to the characters the same way I did because I laughed, cried and shared their emotions in a way I've never experienced before.  These are definitely two of my most favorite characters to date.  And there will be sequels to the book.

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

Angelique:   Henry Cavill would make a great hero - sexy and good looking.  Simon Baker would be perfect as the archangel Michael. And as one of the heroines, I would cast Alicia Witt - she'd make the perfect sassy, kick-ass heroine to compliment the type of hero I write.

Thanks for having me!

Shadows of the Soul (Paradisian Chronicles, book 1) by Angelique Armae

A fallen angel…A human scholar… A race against time…When two souls born on opposite sides of the battle between Heaven and Hell, team up to find a sacred antidote to a supernatural disease, the balance between good and evil are forever altered. Isabel Godfroie Heart is a Paradisian Scholar-an immortal human trained in the ways of Heaven and Hell-who's suffering from memory loss. During her last battle, a dark force erased specific portions of her past life memories. Now she remembers little of times past, save for the fact she's a demon slayer mentored by the archangel Gabriel. When ordered to a new post to help translate a volume of ancient text from a forbidden verse, Isabel is forced to work with the dark prince Nicolai Valentine, a soul who may or may not be responsible for her memory loss. If only she didn't find the tempting creature so hard to resist…Born to a fallen angel and a mortal mother, Nicolai Valentine is a prince of the Grigorcov, the children of the fallen sons of God. Searching for the lost chalice that will save his kin from eternal damnation, Nicky unknowingly unleashes the Hadean Virus, a dark entity targeting members of the Grigorcov. Now the entity has been unleashed on man's world and Nicky's in a race against time to find the antidote that will stop this deadly parasite. But in order to keep the Hadean virus from attacking again, Nicolai must enlist the help of Isabel Godfroie Heart, the Paradisian Scholar he was unable to save from the wrath of Hell centuries ago… What do you get when you cross an angel with a demon? Sex as hot as the fires of hell and Love as soft as an angel's wing.

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

To learn more about Angelique Armae and her books please visit her website.

I Dream of Jeannie (and His Minions)

Please welcome today's very special guest blogger author Leanore Elliott.  You may remember Leanore from her visit here in June when E.J. interviewed her about her upcoming Beasts series.  You may read this fun interview here.  As part of Friday the 13th Week Leanore agreed to come share with us a true story of one her experiences with the paranormal.  Enjoy!

I Dream of Jeannie (and His Minions)
We lived in a Mobile home park in Espanola New Mexico, just outside of Santa Fe. This was the late 80’s.  It all started at night of course. Both my husband and I would lay down for sleep. We would hear a scraping noise coming from beneath our bedroom floor and this happened for several nights. One night, it became loud, very loud. It sounded like a cement lid that was being slid from a crypt (like cement grinding on cement.) One evening, I heard voices. We had a small child and a toddler at that time and I was mad that they were playing somewhere in the middle of the night. I got up checked and nope... they were both asleep. I lay back down and the voices started again. Small voices, like children but the tone was deeper. My room had the bathroom right at the corner and then a hallway. I heard all kinds of laughter and noises coming from the bathroom, the toilet flushing repeatedly etc. I got up to catch my kids at it. I neared the door and heard them.  Two male voices: “Yeah, he will be coming and just wait...” An evil giggle followed... “Yeah, he’s gonna scare them like nobody else!” Both voices laugh.  I stood frozen and listened. They ran the faucet, snickered and flushed the toilet repeatedly. I drew closer and stepped to the door, which was open just a crack. My heart pounded in my chest and my shaky hand pushed the door open just a little more. I could see their little hands with knobby little fingers and long ugly nails as one of them reached out and flushed the toilet again.  I gasped loudly and the hands pulled back out of my sight. I was too afraid to look anymore. I ran back to bed and woke my husband up. “There are...there are... trolls playing in our bathroom!” My husband rubbed his eyes. “Honey, just make them go back to bed.”  I sighed. “No, not the kids they---”  He rolled over. “You were just dreaming, go back to sleep.”

The next night, the same thing; hushed conversation, giggles, water running etc. This time, I woke my husband up and made him listen. His eyes narrowed, he got up and crept up to the bathroom while he listened. He threw the door open. Nothing there...  He came back to bed. He was silent. “Well?” I asked with fear in my voice.  He sighed. “We were both dreaming.” He turned over and went to sleep.  Not me, I lay awake listening until the wee hours.  I was sleepless all that week waiting for the Trolls. Then the crypt noise started up again. I would put a pillow around my head and then I noticed that the vibration of it was even running through our bed. I sat up and my bedroom door stood wide open. I could see the hallway (There was light from the kitchen.) Above the hall was a swamp cooler vent (it was winter, so it was not on.) A thick bright neon pink-purplish smoke wafted down from the vent. I shook my husband and my eyes must’ve been huge in my face.  He sat up with a frustrated sigh. “What?”  I motioned my head towards the open door.  We sat and watched this bright Pink smoke that did indeed look like the smoke from that old TV series ( I Dream of Jeannie.)  It spilled in from the vent and filled the hallway and it smelled just like firework sulfur.  My eyes even ran with tears at the painful stench of it. It rolled into the room, thick and almost solid looking. It rose to the ceiling and our heads drew all the way up to look at it. It began to take shape before our eyes. We heard laughter, the troll’s laughter. This shape was of a man, but he was so large that he had no head. It was like his head must be through the ceiling as all we saw was a neck up that far.  My husband flipped the bedside lamp on.  There was nothing there.

There were all sorts of noises, laughter and banging, booms etc. every night for the next month and it would all start with the Crypt sliding noise at exactly 2 am. Sharp.  The pink specter-Jeannie would appear often. Every time we flipped the light on? He would disappear.  My husband plugged in a spot light and would use it when he appeared. He had noticed that when the storms would start, (for it was now spring and there are thunderstorms in N.M.) That there was no activity from this entity; He devised a plan, based on a theory that the Jeannie did not like electrical energy from the lightening. He split an old electrical cord and stuck one side into an electric outlet plug and we would hold onto the ends to get “charged.”  The scraping got louder and even sounded angrier, but he did not appear. It got quiet and we finally could sleep at night.  One night, I felt movement on the bed and turned my head on my pillow. My husband was choking. I sat up with confusion.  There was this giant hand around his neck.  His face turned purple and his eyes rolled back.  I hit it with my hands, picked up a pillow and hit it. I screamed with pure, terrified panic.  My husband’s sounds of choking were getting louder. I looked for the spotlight and my shaky hands flipped it on. It was unplugged! I screamed with panic and crawled around the bed to plug it in.  There were the trolls, their faces grinning at me with ugly evil grins. I drew in my breath in, crawled forward, plugged it in and stood up, swinging the light to my husband. The light fell on him. The hand disappeared and he gasped desperately for air. 

We so wanted to move as you can well imagine, but there was nothing available that we could afford.  There were all kinds of incidents like messes made in the kitchen at night. Smashed eggs from the fridge on the floor, swamped in pancake mix. Water flooding from the sinks, cabinets cleared out and everything thrown in the floor. Missing keys, missing brushes, missing shoes and then to find the missing items all lined up on the kitchen table.  My husband, “Mr. Logical” says. “You really need to keep those kids from running amuck around here!”  I would yell back as I was cleaning another morning’s mess. “It’s the Dammed TROLLS!” Then one night we were finally sleeping. There was a metallic bang on the outside of the mobile, right outside of our bedroom wall. Then another bang and another; these bangs grew loud and spread along the outside of the entire mobile.  We got up and peeked out of our window.  My husband believed it to be young kids trying to scare us. I thought. Oh, yeah? After what we have been through? “Well, they’re welcome to try...” I replied.  We laughed nervously and continued to look out of different windows throughout the house to catch them at it. We saw no one and nothing.  The metallic banging grew so loud that I covered my ears and the trailer shook.  It was now on the roof.  We looked at each other and knew that they could not be on all sides; the full length and on the Fricking roof, all at the same time!  It went on for at least ten minutes.  I went to comfort my kids.  It all stopped suddenly.  There were no more incidents after that. Something cleansed our mobile? The Evil Jeannie got mad and made noise before he left?  We will never know, but I’ve never looked at that smoke from the little bottle on “I dream of Jeannie” in the same way ever again.

Friday the 13th Week Swag Giveaway

It is Day 3 of Friday the 13th Week at From the Shadows and I have 13 fabulous paranormal swag packs to give away!  Swag packs will include bookmarks, postcards, posters and magnets.  A few swag packs will also contain Clockwork Angel journals, however, these were damaged in transit so I apologize for any scuff marks on the covers. 

To enter my Friday the 13th Week Swag Giveaway please leave a comment on this post including your email address.  US mailing addresses only.  You do not have to be a follower to enter (though I always appreciate a follow!).  Giveaway ends August 15th Midnight EST.

Don't forget to enter my Friday the 13th Week Monster Giveaway.  I am giving away 13 paranormal books!  Click here to enter.

I would like to thank Simon & Schuster and author Danielle D. Smith for contributing to this giveaway.

Friday the 13th Week + Monster Giveaway!

Welcome to Friday the 13th Week at From the Shadows!

Visit From the Shadows August 8th-15th for special guest author interviews, guest blogs, and giveaways.

Friday the 13th Week Monster Giveaway

The Monster Giveaway will run throughout Friday the 13th Week.  I will be giving away 13 new paranormal books!  Please check out the Paranormal Prize Packs and let me know which one you prefer (or all of the above if you can't decide!).

To enter my Friday the 13th Week Monster Giveaway please leave a comment on this post including your email address so that I may reach you if you are the winner.  You do not have to be a follower to enter, however, I am giving extra entries for followers (see below).  This giveaway is for US mailing addresses only.  Giveaway ends August 15th at Midnight EST.

Extra entries:
+1 Follow From the Shadows
+1 Add my new YA/PNR novel She Smells the Dead to your Goodreads to-read list (I'm shameless I know)
+1 Share (Twitter, Facebook, Blog, etc.)

The Prizes:

Paranormal Prize Pack #1
Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, book 1) by Jeaniene Frost
Cheat the Grave (Sign of the Zodiac, book 5) by Vicki Petterson
Pray for Dawn (Dark Days, book 4) Jocelynn Drake
& one Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices) poster

Paranormal Prize Pack #2
Dawnbreaker (Dark Days, book 3) by Jocelynn Drake
Pray for Dawn (Dark Days, book 4) by Jocelyn Drake
Invasion of Justice (Shadows of Justice, book 2) by Regan Black
& one Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices) poster

Paranormal Prize Pack #3
White Cat (Curse Workers, book 1) by Holly Black hardcover
The Hollow by Jessica Verday
& one Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices) poster

 Paranormal Prize Pack #4
Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush, book 1) by Becca Fitzpatrick hardcover
Pray for Dawn (Dark Days, book 4) by Jocelyn Drake
& one Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices) poster

Paranormal Prize Pack #5
Embrace the Night (Envy Chronicles, book 2) by Joss Ware
Abandon the Night (Envy Chronicles, book 3) by Joss Ware
Insatiable by Meg Cabot hardcover
& one Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices) poster

A special thanks to HarperTeen, Simon & Schuster, Regan Black, and Danielle D. Smith for their contributions to the Monster Giveaway and Swag Prize Pack Mini-Giveaways taking place during Friday the 13th Week here at From the Shadows!