Showing posts with label Vanessa Morgan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vanessa Morgan. Show all posts

Monday, June 3, 2024

Clowders by Vanessa Morgan ~ @TravellingCats @XpressoTours #Supernatural #Thriller ~ ThereIsAGive@way #Excerpt

Clowders
Vanessa Morgan
Publication date: March 1st 2018
Genres: Adult, Supernatural, Thriller

About the Book:

Clervaux, Luxembourg. This secluded, picturesque town in the middle of Europe is home to more cats than people. For years, tourists have flocked to this place – also known as “cat haven” – to meet the cats and buy cat-related souvenirs.

When Aidan, Jess and their five-year-old daughter, Eleonore, move from America to Clervaux, it seems as if they’ve arrived in paradise. It soon becomes evident, though, that the inhabitants’ adoration of their cats is unhealthy. According to a local legend, each time a cat dies, nine human lives are taken as a punishment. To tourists, these tales are supernatural folklore, created to frighten children on cold winter nights. But for the inhabitants of Clervaux, the danger is horrifyingly real.

Initially, Aidan and Jess regard this as local superstition, but when Jess runs over a cat after a night on the town, people start dying, one by one, and each time it happens, a clowder of cats can be seen roaming the premises.

Are they falling victim to the collective paranoia infecting the entire town? Or is something unspeakably evil waiting for them?

Their move to Europe may just have been the worst decision they ever made.

Add to Goodreads 

Purchase from Amazon / Barnes & Noble

—

FREE for a limited time only!

—

Read an Excerpt:

“Who is she?” Eleonore asked when Jess drove her to school Friday morning.

“Who’s who?” Jess countered, not sure what her daughter was talking about.

“The girl. The one who’s always watching us.”

“No one’s watching us,” Jess said.

“Yes, there is. All the girls in my baking class say the same.”

Normally, Jess wouldn’t have put much thought into such a remark – children can say weird things sometimes. But now it seemed Eleonore might be right. Jess felt like there was indeed someone watching them, no matter what they were doing.

She felt it everywhere she went. When she took Eleonore to baking class, when she was lying in bed at night, even in the shops. But not all the time.

Some of the time.

More often than not, everything seemed normal, and then all of a sudden, she felt as if someone was checking up on her. Sometimes it was only briefly, like a minute or so, but at other times, she could feel it for several hours.

Sometimes she could feel it on the streets.

But mostly at home.

And never outside Clervaux.

You’re imagining things, she told herself.

In fact, every day since she’d arrived in Europe, it had gotten worse. More and more, she’d get that tingly feeling, and know that someone behind her was watching her. She’d try to ignore it, tried to resist the urge to look over her shoulder, but eventually the hair on the back of her neck would stand up, and the tingling would turn into a chill, and finally, she’d turn around.

And nobody would be there.

Nobody, except for the cats. The sight of cats waddling along the pavement had never seemed eerie to her, but the fact that they were always there, no matter where she was – on the sidewalk, at the main square, in a café, in the forest – made her skin crawl.

Whenever she was running errands in Clervaux, she kept looking into store windows, but it wasn’t the merchandise she was looking at; it was the reflection in the glass.

The reflection of something sinister watching her.

Sometimes she could have sworn she saw something. The reflection of a small, squatting figure. But then she glanced over her shoulder and all she could see once more were the cats of Clervaux staring back at her.

She decided to not let her imagination get to her, to resist the urge to glance over her shoulder every few seconds.

And then her daughter muttered the words, “Who is she? The girl. The one who’s always watching us,” and the paranoia tightened its grip on her once more.


Meet the Author:

Vanessa Morgan is the editor of the movie reference guides When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals, Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies, and Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children. She also has had one cat book (Avalon) and four supernatural thrillers (Drowned Sorrow, The Strangers Outside, A Good Man, and Clowders) published. Three of her stories have been turned into movies. She has written for myriad Belgian magazines and newspapers and introduces movie screenings at several European film festivals. She is also a programmer for the Offscreen Film Festival in Belgium. When she's not working on her latest book, you can find her reading, watching movies, eating out, or photographing felines for her blog Traveling Cats.

Website: https://traveling-cats.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/travelingcats

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelingcatsblog/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TravellingCats

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eeriestories/

Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/3WwZ0Y9


GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

—

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Egg Nog Recipes for You.....and Your Cat by Vanessa Morgan, Author of Avalon @eeriestories ~ Deck the Halls with Books Holiday Extravaganza #EnterforaChance



EGG NOG RECIPES FOR YOU... AND YOUR CAT
 
No Christmas is ever complete without at least one serving of Egg Nog, the holiday-themed cocktail drink that is popular in the United States and Canada. It is a frothy beverage that contains milk, cream, and eggs. You can combine this mixture with other ingredients such as alcohol, sugar, and spices. It is best served chilled.

You can easily modify the Egg Nog recipe below to be vegan-friendly (by replacing the eggs with silken tofu and by using almond milk instead of cow's milk).

When I was in my twenties, I used to buy Egg Nog in the supermarket at Christmas-time. Nowadays, however, I prefer to make it myself.

My cat Avalon used to go all crazy whenever I pulled out the Egg Nog, so I started by making a cat-friendly version, just for him. It may sound a little crazy, but trust me on this one... Kitty Egg Nog is sure to please even the most discerning palates, and your cat will be eternally grateful to you for it.

On top of that, we are celebrating the French edition release of Avalon's memoir, so we should all indulge a little extra this year, don't you agree?

Here's what you need to make Egg Nog for both you and your cat.

Egg Nog for you




Ingredients:

2 cups of milk
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla powder
1/8 tablespoon nutmeg
¼ cup cream

If you like it sweet, you can add three tablespoons of sugar. Also, I usually make Egg Nog without alcohol, but if I do add some, I prefer to add rum over any other type. 

Preparation:

Beat the eggs until smooth
Add the milk, cream, vanilla powder, and nutmeg (and any other ingredients)
Put everything in the blender
Serve chilled



Egg Nog for your cat
 
Ingredients:

200 ml cat milk
1 egg yolk
1 pinch of turmeric (don't use cinnamon as it can be toxic to cats)
A little whipped cream

Preparation:

Put all ingredients in the blender, and blend until smooth
Serve in small portions, as it is a heavy drink, even without the alcohol.

Warning! Don't use real milk for your cat's Egg Nog. After all, the lactose in cow's milk may cause diarrhea and other digestive problems in cats.

Let me know in the comments if you will be making Egg Nog for yourself and your cat this year.

Enjoy!


Avalon: a Heartwarming True Cat Story
Vanessa Morgan

Genre:  Memoir / Cats
Date of Publication:  June 4, 2015 
ISBN:1511863633 
ASIN: B00XC1NE4I 
Number of pages:134 pages 
Word Count: 31.468 words
Cover Artist: Gilles Vranckx

Tagline:  Some cats need nine lives to make a difference. Avalon only needed one.

About the Book:

From Amazon bestselling author Vanessa Morgan, Avalon is the heartwarming and once-in-a-lifetime love story of a girl and her neurotic Turkish Van cat.

With humor, the author details how Avalon made other creatures cringe in distress whenever he was around, how he threw her dates out by means of special techniques, and how he rendered it almost impossible for her to leave the house. 

Avalon was so incorrigible that even the landlord ordered to get rid of him. But beneath Avalon's demonic boisterousness, Vanessa recognized her own flaws and insecurities, and she understood that abandoning Avalon would be the worst she could do to him. Thanks to her unswerving loyalty, Avalon transformed into a tender feline and even landed a major role in a horror movie. In turn, Avalon made it his mission to be there for his human companion.

Avalon is a memoir for anyone who has ever been obsessively in love with a pet.

Avalon is also available in French.

Purchase Links:



Filming of The Strangers Outside took place in August and September 2010. Avalon joined the set for two days. The location: a vacation cabin in the woods of Sint-Katelijne-Waver, a place where shadows came alive and danced with the rare patches of light. The perfect site for a horror movie.

Outside the vacation cabin, the film crew prepared for action. Camera tripods and lights were set up. An actor in monk clothes smoked his last cigarette before the shoot.

Two large tables with food and drinks sat in the shade, each bottle of water labeled with the name of an actor or crew member. Avalon had a bottle all for himself.

Avalon was remarkably at ease on set. He examined the vacation cabin for about half an hour, sniffing his way through the dusty corners, before settling into a deep sleep on the couch.

While everyone fawned over Avalon and fed him snacks from the buffet table, the director gave us a quick rundown of the scene to come. “The camera focuses on Avalon lying on the coffee table. In the background, through the windows, we see actors Pierre Lekeux and Iulia Nastase arriving home. Avalon follows their movements with his head as they move from one side of the house to the other. When the front door opens, Avalon jumps off the table to greet them.”

“Avalon won’t do that,” I said. “Just like children, cats are uncontrollable. It’s a great idea for a scene, but I’m afraid you’ll have to come up with something less demanding.”

Apparently, I didn’t know my cat very well, because Avalon did exactly what was expected of him.

The scene was shot several times in a row and Avalon never missed a beat.
In another scene, while eating his Schesir dinner, Avalon suddenly had to look up in panic. The fear in his eyes looked genuine. He was perfect.


Sitting at the dining table, actor Pierre Lekeux watched Avalon with incomprehensibility and admiration, shaking his head in denial. “I need at least twenty minutes to prepare a scene, to enter a certain state of mind. But this cat nails it in a matter of seconds. Avalon’s the best actor on set. He’s even better than me.”

Pierre was right. Avalon had this air--he carried himself in a certain way, very much aware of his charisma. He was a natural performer. A miniature star.



About the Author:

Vanessa Morgan is the editor of the movie reference guides When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals, Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies, and Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children. She also has had one cat book (Avalon) and four supernatural thrillers (Drowned Sorrow, The Strangers Outside, A Good Man, and Clowders) published. Three of her stories have been turned into movies. She has written for myriad Belgian magazines and newspapers and introduces movie screenings at several European film festivals. She is also a programmer for the Offscreen Film Festival in Belgium. When she's not working on her latest book, you can find her reading, watching movies, eating out, or photographing felines for her blog Traveling Cats.









a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Haunted Halloween Spooktacular & #Giveaway ~ 5 Unusual Halloween Activities by Vanessa Morgan, @eeriestories Author of Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children

Spooktacular HTML Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children Please Choose ONE to post 5 Unusual Halloween Activities - 5 Unusual Halloween Activities with Vanessa Morgan & Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children


FIVE UNUSUAL HALLOWEEN ACTIVITIES

By Vanessa Morgan 

Do you want to do something different for Halloween? Here are five unusual places you can visit.

A horror-themed museum

Torture museums are the obvious picks for Halloween. But what about a Museum of Vampires and Legendary Creatures, or a Museum of Fantastic Art?

A horror-themed escape game

Escape games are all the rage these days, and they come in a variety of different themes. For Halloween, pick one with a haunted house or horror topic. Will you make it out... alive?

An abandoned (haunted) house or building

They don't even have to be haunted; abandoned locations are creepy enough in and of itself, especially if you visit them at nighttime. A word of caution, though: Some of these places can be dangerous (holes in floors, falling bricks), so don't go exploring on your own.

A horror-themed restaurant or bar

The Vampire Cafe in Shinjuku, Japan, for example, has cross-shaped food, dark corners, blood-red decorations, and waiters dressed up as vampires and speaking with a Transylvanian accent. If you want to keep it more simple and close to home, you could opt for Lost Boys Pizza in London, England, named after the 1980s horror movie – complete with horror movie background music, black pizzas (Kale All Vampires, Fangs for the Memories), and horror-themed events (movie screenings, vampire yoga).

A horror film festival

Many cinemas host horror movie nights for Halloween, but it's even more fun to visit a horror film festival (such as Razor Reel) and enjoy horror films all week(end) long.

Which unusual Halloween place(s) would you like to visit?


Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide 
to Villainous Children
Vanessa Morgan

Genre: Horror, Thriller, 
Movie Reference, Encyclopedia

Publisher: Moonlight Creek Publishing
Date of Publication: August 15, 2021
ASIN: B09CNSJRTF
Number of pages: 392
Word Count: 143.538
Cover Artist: Gilles Vranckx

About the Book:

Something's wrong with the children. They're murdering classmates, torturing parents, speaking in tongues, drinking human blood, and practicing black magic. Your offspring is on the rise, their blood no longer innocent. There will be casualties, and you may be among them.

Featuring nearly 250 of the creepiest, weirdest, and most dangerous kids ever to inhabit the cinematic landscape and sourced from over 40 different countries, Evil Seeds is THE comprehensive movie guide to villainous children in all their incarnations: the supernatural horror of ghosts and demonic possession, twisted tales of twins and changelings, dark matters of witches and evil babies, visceral frights of werewolves and vampires, the lurid lore of golems and trolls, and shocking drama of murderous orphans, juvenile serial killers, survivalist youngsters, and disturbing family values.

From cult classics to obscure fan favorites, Evil Seeds proves there is no shortage of frightening children. So keep an eye on your little darlings, or they might just fix their sights on YOU.

Purchase Links:


About the Author:

Vanessa Morgan is the editor of the movie reference guides When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals, Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies, and Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children. She also has had one cat book (Avalon) and four supernatural thrillers (Drowned Sorrow, The Strangers Outside, A Good Man, and Clowders) published. Three of her stories have been turned into movies. She has written for myriad Belgian magazines and newspapers and introduces movie screenings at several European film festivals. She is also a programmer for the Offscreen Film Festival in Belgium. When she's not working on her latest book, you can find her reading, watching movies, eating out, or photographing felines for her blog Traveling Cats.





a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Strange Blood ~ 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies ~ Edited by Vanessa Morgan ~ @eeriestories ~ Horror



Strange Blood 

71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies

Edited by Vanessa Morgan

Genre: Horror


This is an overview of the most offbeat and underrated vampire movies spanning nine decades and 23 countries.

Strange Blood encompasses well-known hits as well as obscurities that differ from your standard fang fare by turning genre conventions on their head. Here, vampires come in the form of cars, pets, aliens, mechanical objects, gorillas, or floating heads. And when they do look like a demonic monster or an aristocratic Count or Countess, they break the mold in terms of imagery, style, or setting. Leading horror writers, filmmakers, actors, distributors, academics, and programmers present their favorite vampire films through in-depth essays, providing background information, analysis, and trivia regarding the various films. Some of these stories are hilarious, some are terrifying, some are touching, and some are just plain weird. Not all of these movies line up with the critical consensus, yet they have one thing in common: they are unlike anything you've ever seen in the world of vampires. Just when you thought that the children of the night had become a tired trope, it turns out they have quite a diverse inventory after all. 

Add to Goodreads * Purchase from Amazon



Vanessa Morgan is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books in the horror genre. Three of her stories (The Strangers Outside, Next to Her, and A Good Man), have become movies. When she's not working on her latest book, you can find her reading, watching horror movies, digging through flea markets, or photographing felines for her blog Traveling Cats (www.traveling-cats.com). 



Follow the tour HERE for exclusive content and a giveaway!