The Monster Mash Books and Prizes

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12 amazing books! 

12 incredible authors! 12 days of fun features, fun facts, interviews, excerpts, and more!!

Don't forget to invite your friends!

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Dark Dreams Halloween Giveaway!

Dozens of authors gathered together -- thanks to the efforts of Claudette Nicole Melanson -- in order to offer you a plethora of spooky reads, Halloween inspired prizes and one GRAND PRIZE consisting of $175 PayPal Cash. Each author is giving away one of their own books like my STEVIE-GIRL AND THE PHANTOMS TRILOGY (all three tales in one volume) shown above + a Halloween inspired prize like my RAVEN PENDANT (also shown above). 

Enter NOW through Halloween. Good luck and great reading! 

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Just in Time for Halloween ~ New Release ~ The Phantom Series ~ All Three Books in One Volume

Are you like me, do you love a ghost story, especially at Halloween?  One of my favorite memories of teaching 5th and 6th graders was choosing the class novels -- especially at Halloween.  RL Stine was always in demand!  That's probably why I wrote these ghost stories.  Because I love reading them.

Just for the record, I still love ghost stories.  Joyland, by Stephen King, was quite a treat.  Now, I'm on Doctor Sleep (and loving it).  And aside from reading about them, writing about Stevie's ghosts was a blast.  Scary?  Yep, sometimes -- check out the first meeting with the Phantom Pilot in book one, or the little mirror-phantom in book two.  Better yet, crawl in the tent with Stevie and the babydoll in book three -- if you're feeling brave!  What have you got to lose, except for a few hours reading time, and maybe a loss of sleep . . . and when you've finished the trio, send me an email.  Tell me which ghost was your favorite.

A trio of ghostly tales all in one book ~ The Phantom Series ~ just in time for Halloween http://tinyurl.com/mjslkax  $2.99


 OR if you've already read one or more of the tales, you can pick up the others for only .99 each ~ links below!





Title: The Phantom Series (3 books)

Author: Ann Swann

Genre(s): Ghost stories, MG, YA, mystery

Book One: Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot

TAGLINE:

No matter who dares you, no matter what lures you, do not go in the spooky old house…

BLURB:

When a small planes crashes behind Jase's rural home, strange things begin to happen. But no one believes him. After all, there's no such thing as a ghost, right?  Then he sees his pretty, quiet schoolmate, Stevie-girl, about to enter the legendary haunted house, and he knows if anyone can help him solve the mystery, she's the one.  

http://tinyurl.com/crr5kry

Book Two: Stevie-girl and the Phantom Student

Tagline:

Bullies, freaks, and phantoms inhabit the abandoned elementary school.  Would you go inside to help out a friend?

Blurb:

Stevie asks Jase to help her find out why the ghost of a girl keeps appearing in her mirror. They think it has something to do with the new student at their school, a boy who has Tourette syndrome.  Both the new kid and the new phantom seem to need some kind of help. When the new kid falls prey to the school bullies, Stevie knows they must act. But will they be too late, or will a tragic moment in their school's history be repeated on Halloween night?

http://tinyurl.com/d47a8hs

Book Three: Stevie-girl and the Phantom of Crybaby Bridge

Tagline:

Stevie-girl and her best friend, Jase, are phantom magnets. Whenever they are together, the doorway between this world and the next swings slightly open.

Blurb:

The summer his parents treat them to a camping trip in New Mexico, the two friends can’t wait to visit the legendary Crybaby Bridge.  Right away, they hear the crying baby.  Is it a phantom, or is someone playing tricks on them?

As the two friends scour the campgrounds for answers, they discover that phantoms are not the only secrets the nearby town has kept hidden for over 60 years.  They also discover things about each other, and about Stevie’s family history, that will force their relationship to a whole new level—a level from which there may be no return.

http://tinyurl.com/n7pusfw

The Interview

1. I got the idea for this book late one night when a small plane flew over my house and then went silent.  I jumped up from the computer and ran outside to see if it had crashed.  It had not.  I didn’t see a thing.  But I dashed back inside and wrote a short story, which I called The Escort.  It won several awards for short fiction, and then I turned it into a novella, which is now Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot.  The short story is included in the novella—except now, it belongs to Jase.

2. I wrote the story in one evening.  Then, when it became successful, I went back and lengthened it in just a few days.  The thing seemed to write itself.  Appropriate for a ghost story, wouldn’t you say?  Books two and three went almost as fast.  It seems that Stevie girl isn’t through with me yet.  I pretty sure there will be a book four, and possibly more.

3. When I wrote the short story, I had no target audience.  It just came out onto the page.  Later, when I wrote the rest of the story, I intentionally aimed it at tweens because I taught that age group for many years—and I know how they love anything spooky!

4. A couple of different reviewers have compared this series to The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. I’m quite flattered by the comparisons!  In truth though, I’ve tried to incorporate a bit of reality into the books.  In book one, for example, there is the underlying theme of loneliness.  In book two, school bullying and being different takes center stage, and in book three, jealousy is examined.  Furthermore, due to the 1960s-1970s time period, the Vietnam War wraps around the entire series like an invisible blanket.

5. Is there anyone in the book like me?  Well, yes.  Stevie is my idealistic self.  I only wish I were half as brave!  I will admit that her hometown is based on the one where I grew up.  Even the brick streets are the same—and the music store?  It was my home away from home. 

Reviews:

Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot (Book One)

“ A touching tale with just enough fright!”

“Ann Swann took me back in time! The characters were so easy to identify with. As a retired Jr high reading teacher, I would have loved using The Phantom Pilot as a class novel. So many teaching and learning activities could be used with this novel. I loved it and cannot wait for the sequel.”

“I loved this book and so did my daughter!”

Stevie-girl and the Phantom Student (Book Two)

“A must read sequel!”

“A captivating series . . .”

“Ann Swann does it again. Rarely does a sequel measure up to the first, but The Phantom Student is a gleaming exception!”

Stevie-girl and the Phantom of Crybaby Bridge (Book Three)

“An enchanting mystery!”

“Book #3 is as good as the rest.  Bring on #4!”

“Teenage ghost hunters!”

New Release - The Phantom Student will be here Oct. 16th!

The Phantom Pilot will be FREE this weekend! http://tinyurl.com/6uk5cp2   The latest review says: What a brilliant story.  I loved it and so did my daughter!  Five Stars!  It is the prequel to THE PHANTOM STUDENT which will be released Tuesday, October 16th.  Great Halloween read. It is also getting ★★★★★ in the early reviews.
 
Hi! It's October.
When I was a teacher of small children (yes, I know, chilling thought heh heh heh), I would always write October on the board with a jack-o-lantern in place of the O.  Simple, but fun.  Then we would proceed to read as many spooky stories as we could fit in for the month.  I love October.  Guess that's why I write spooky stories.  I think I've mentioned this before, but here it is again, Ray Bradbury's October Game is one of my favorite short stories of all time.  And his novel, Dandelion Wine, featuring The Lonely One . . . I still get the willies thinking about it.  Check 'em out if you like weird stuff.

Now, on to Ghosties.

Last night, I was sitting here, right here, typing on my regular old keyboard (old school) when something touched me on the shoulder.  That's NEVER happened to me before.  NEVER.  I jerked and turned around but, of course, nothing was there.  And the dogs didn't even stir.  Aren't dogs supposed to be hyper-sensitive to spirits and such?  Oh well . . . not sure what that was, but I have had some odd things happen.  Last time I told you about the graveyard-shift blond that gave me such a fright (not that I have anything against little people, of course not, it was just an odd thing to see that blond hair draped over the parking rail that way--in the middle of the night).  Anyhow, here's another odd ghostie-type thing:

I was sitting at the kitchen table with my mom.  We had just got up and were drinking our first cups of coffee.  I was a young newlywed, and we lived in a town nearby.  I was visiting my mom for the weekend since my husband was out of town for a couple of days.

Mom was just telling me that she'd had a nightmare in which her grandmother (my great-grandmother, of course) was stuck in a nursing home and calling out for her (my mom) to come and get her.  And to make it quick because she didn't have much time.  

My mother was very upset by this dream.  She kept saying, "I couldn't get there, I couldn't find her.  She just kept calling for me."

That's when the phone rang.

It was one of those old-fashioned wall phones and it was almost directly behind my head.

I jumped, spilled my coffee, and answered the phone.

It was my cousin.  "I need to talk to Peg," he said.

I handed Mom the phone and watched as tears welled up in her eyes.  When she hung up, she said, "Granny passed away about two hours ago.  I guess that's why she was calling me."

I almost fell off my chair.  I probably wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't been sitting right there at the time.

But when my own grandmother passed away many years later, this incident came back to haunt me.  Literally.  I'll tell you all about it next time.  But for now . . . have you had any odd things happen?  Ghost stories or unexplained incidents?  Leave me a comment.  I'd love to hear them, and I'm sure others would, too.

CHEMS

Howdy Folks,
Just a very quick update-type note.  First of all, I just published a stand-alone short story called CHEMS. Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/cj64sd8  It is a story about a pseudo-zombie and that's all I'm going to say, except it will be FREE this Friday the 13th (and Saturday, too).


I think I will post six sentences from it this Sunday for the Six Sentence Sunday.  I have to admit, this is a lot of fun!  I didn't know it would be this much fun.  I even enjoyed designing the cover from an old photograph.  It didn't come out exactly the way I wanted, but it was darn close.  I think you'll see what I mean if you read the story.  Many thanks to Dude for helping me and for not flinching when I stomped and hollered. :-)


On top of all that, I got my first round of edits from Denise (YoDen) Vitola, editor extraordinaire, for The Phantom Student (slated to be released around Halloween). Believe it or not, I really like this part of the writing process, the editing part, I mean.  As long as I'm not having to edit someone else's book...ooh, torture.  No offense, Yo, but I don't know how you do it.


Hey, I'm sensing a pattern here; first, my short story goes FREE on Friday the 13th, now my new book will be released around Halloween...oooweeeoooo.  I'm liking this.  It reminds me of a story (everything reminds me of a story heh heh) by Ray Bradbury.  Did you ever read the one about the kids Halloween party in the basement where this dad is passing around peeled grapes (eyeballs, natch) and oh man! What was the name of that story?  Now, I have to go find it.  I've got a huge book of his short fiction here somewhere...


Okay, even the weather is getting in on this, creating the atmosphere for me: mucho lightning in the west, rumbles of thunder from way off in the distance, and the requisite tree branch tapping at the window like Poe's raven tap tap tapping...hope the electricity doesn't go out.  It almost always goes out when it storms around here.  (Let me just interject this for those of you who know how bad the West Texas drought has become: YAY FOR RAIN!!! Who cares if we do lose power?  IT'S RAINING!)

But back to the topic: I don't know why I like scary stories.  Do you?  What was the scariest story you ever read?  For me, it might be "The Shining."  That woman in the tub, even after thirty-odd years, let's not go there.  Then again, "The Beach" stayed with me for a long, long time.  It was terrifying in a whole different way.  How about you?  What story scared you the most?


Ann


Afterthought:  "The Black Cat," by Poe.  That one really got to me, too.  C'mon, tell me your scary story. 


After-afterthought: Can I whoop and holler about your book yet, Sara?  (shh, she's waiting for her contract to come back after she signed it today--the book is going to be published October 10th, but you didn't hear that from me.  The name of it is A Heart on Hold, and it is terrific!  But remember, you didn't read that here.)