The blog for October Weeks; a paranormal/dark fantasy/horror writer and a reader with too many books and not enough shelves!
Just a quick Monday post 🙂
THE DAMNED is on sale for $0.99!
click the image to go to Amazon
PATH TO DAMNATION is now an audiobook~ grab your copy!
THE ARENA is now available~ grab your copy!
Evernight Publishing ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Smashwords ~ iTunes
The Tuck Houston series is one that I love deeply, and wish to continue. There are at least five books to conclude Tuck’s arc. I plan on self-pubbing the last two and am working on book four now.
Have a great Monday!!!
Happy Tuesday!
I’ve officially been on vacation since I left work last Friday 🙂 The first three days were spent traveling. I went to a place I’ve never been before but have always wanted to go: Sleepy Hollow, NY and Tarrytown, NY.
I had a great time! I learned so much about the history of the towns and Washington Irving~ I am still in awe of what I learned about Irving and his life and career. The trip was so refreshing for me as a person as well as the geek and horror lover in me.
We visited Irving’s home and grounds. It’s a beautiful home, and one that I wouldn’t mind living in myself. The energy inside was warm and welcoming, so much so that I could just see myself sitting down to dinner with him or sitting in his study writing with him in the room.
copyright@October Weeks 2018
Not the greatest photo, but I loved the architecture, the design, of the home. I could totally live there!
We also visited the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Old Dutch Church/Burying Ground. We did a small, one hour tour as well walking around on our own the last day we were there for three hours. The time was well spent. The history alone, of how both the Old Dutch Burying Grounds and the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery formed and got their names, and how both tied into the legend as well as the tie to Washington Irving (who he was as a person and as an author).
The Old Dutch Burying Grounds are hallowed ground, which in many legends means that ghosts cannot walk upon said ground. That is why in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod was trying to get onto the Old Dutch grounds. The Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is non-denominational.
copyright@October Weeks 2018
Washing Irving’s headstone. This is not the original headstone that once stood. He is buried with relatives, as he never married.
copyright@October Weeks 2018
This is the Old Dutch Church.
copyright@October Weeks 2018
Andrew Carnegie’s gravesite.
copyright@October Weeks 2018
There were many beautiful mausoleums and headstones. All of them had their own beauty and energy.
During the tour we got to see the inside of the receiving vault. I only took a few pictures, but I did like this touch 🙂 The show Dark Shadows had scenes in the cemetery~ in the picture is a photo of Barnabas Collins.
copyright@October Weeks 2018
Another highlight was the Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse (also known as the Tarrytown Lighthouse and Kingsland Point Lighthouse). Construction surrounded the lighthouse so we couldn’t get as close as I’d hoped, but it was still beautiful to see. The park was nice and had great views 🙂
copyright@October Weeks 2018
One of the other highlights of the trip happened during the cemetery tour. A mated pair of hawks was perched not too far overhead near Irving’s grave. They were beautiful! And it was such a treat to see 🙂
copyright@October Weeks 2018
How did this all affect me as an author? The energy and experiences of the drive down and back (no stress at all on the driving down and back!) as well as what I saw and learned on the trip was so refreshing that I as a person feel wonderful, and as an author I feel like someone hit the refresh button. I have so many ideas and am so excited to write! The trip also brought clarity to what was wrong with the books that I’d gotten stuck on, that the plot wouldn’t move forward so I set them aside, and now I can go back and finish those books! ❤ ❤ ❤
If you’ve never been to Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown but really want to go, I highly recommend it. I can’t wait to go back and see what we didn’t have time to on this trip!
The third book in The Salvation State trilogy by Marcus Damanda just released. I love this series, and highly recommend it!
BLURB:
Four Days till the Lamb …
On Angel Island, the Ceremony is ready. The cameras are in place. For Ruth Black and her husband, the Reverend Matthew, there’s just one problem: their intended sacrifice has plans of his own.
Huddled around a forbidden computer in the compound’s junk shop, five teenage prisoners launch an escape against impossible obstacles: a barricaded church, the electrified perimeter fence, the Key Tower guards, an invisible wall in the water that surrounds the island prison—and against the soldiers of Open Light of Day, led by the most ruthless collector of wayward children in all of New America.
They have to run during the ceremony. Far from keeping it secret, they need as many people to know the truth as possible, or there’ll be nowhere to run. For Rebecca Riggs, Daniel Forester, and their fellow Forgottens, the road home leads through Revelation Way.
****
EXCERPT:
Rebecca held Daniel’s left hand so tightly, he felt as though he didn’t have to do any of the work, at least as far as holding was concerned.
He hung over the side of the roof, right hand gripping the corrugated stone gutter, letting go only when she nodded to him. Still she held him, inching closer to the side herself, sliding too easily over the wet, arched tiles. One foot, two feet, she lowered him—closing in on the drop herself.
Behind her was Caroline, muttering “Oh my gosh” on repeat. Behind her was Gnash. And at the back was Asher, still at the portal, anchoring them all with an expression Daniel was sure would have been agony personified, if only he could see it. He couldn’t let this take forever.
They’d been careful to pick a point between two of the high stained-glass windows. They couldn’t make any shadows. Daniel forced his legs to hang as though dead, resisting the temptation to make contact with the wall. They couldn’t have any unnecessary noise either—even though the eight hundred and fifty-some kids in the chapel were making plenty for camouflage.
The drop from the steepled roof of the praise-and-worship building was twenty feet down to the flat roof of the boys’ school wing. Hanging himself off the edge cut the drop to less than fifteen. Rebecca edging him farther, clutching with tears in her eyes and with both hands, cut it to maybe twelve.
“Let go,” he grunted. “Now or never.”
This might hurt, he told himself. Bend your legs. Don’t cry out. The impact will be loud enough.
Still she held him.
“Do it,” he said.
But it was the rain that conquered. No one could have held him forever in the rain.
****
BUY LINKS:
Amazon ~ Smashwords ~ Evernight Teen ~ Barnes and Noble
****
BOOKS ONE AND TWO:
Blurb:
“This is what the truth is. Second Salvations murdered my parents, and I’m running away.”
A single post over unregulated Internet channels. A sleeping society awakens to a chase, broadcast live on television screens all across the New United States of America…
Rebecca and Daniel have never met. A fifteen-year-old preacher’s kid and a sixteen-year-old atheist outcast, they appear to have little in common. And yet they have both attracted the attention of a recruiter for Angel Island, where bad kids go to be remade—or destroyed.
Agents of the all-powerful New America Unity Church will stop at nothing to get them. They’re building an army, a modern children’s crusade, in which Rebecca and Daniel may be just the kind of future leaders they need.
If not, they might be just the kind of sacrifice necessary to keep the rest of the faithless in line.
Blurb:
The chase is over. For Rebecca, Daniel, and the rest of the Forgottens of Second Salvations, there is only one choice: get with the program or die. But there’s a spy lurking somewhere within the cabins of Angel Island, someone with contacts in the outside world. Ruth Black is determined to find out who it is before the world learns the truth about her—and about the special punishment ministry of her husband, the Reverend Matthew.
Rebecca and Daniel are not destined to remain forgotten very long.
Welcome to New America: one nation, under God. An island prison, just for kids, built to convert the very worst of them. Kids like Rebecca and Daniel, with one impossible task:
Escape.
****
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Marcus Damanda lives in Woodbridge, Virginia with his cat, Shazam. At various times throughout his life, he played bass guitar for the garage heavy metal band Mother’s Day, wrote for The Dale City Messenger, and published editorials in The Potomac News and The Freelance Star. Currently, while not plotting his next foray into fictitious suburban mayhem, he spoils his nieces and nephews and teaches middle school English.
https://www.facebook.com/MarcusDamandaAuthor/
Here is an excerpt of THE ARENA for your reading pleasure 🙂
Evernight Publishing ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Smashwords
Excerpt:
copyright@October Weeks 2018
The opening chords of Godsmack’s “Stand Alone” jarred Tuck Houston out of much needed slumber. She tried to move closer to the nightstand but the arm around her tightened in protest.
“Leave it,” Tristan Baudin grumbled.
She laughed softly. “You know better than that, Tristan.”
The phone stopped, but Tuck had a strong feeling that quiet wasn’t going to last.
Tristan slid his hand up the side of her torso and across her chest to lightly grasp her breast. “See?”
She sighed, and a shiver of desire ran through her. “Three, two—”
The phone started up again.
Tristan mumbled something about “bullshitery” and loosened his grip.
Tuck wasn’t fond of moving out of his arms, but whoever was calling wasn’t going to let her stay snuggled up.
She grabbed her phone and lay on her back. The screen said Lucia. Concern swept through her as she swiped the screen. “Lucia?”
“Tuck. I’m sorry if I’ve woken you.”
“It’s all right. What’s going on?”
Vaguely, she heard Tristan mumble, “Fuck me,” and then he rolled over and snuggled her against him.
“A few days ago we found a nest of vampyr just outside of Tombstone. We killed them, but they had fifteen human bodies in the basement of the house they were squatting in. The whole area felt off. Once we veered off the main road, the desolation was immediate.”
Tuck did not like the sound of that. “How far out from the house did that start?”
“Nine miles.”
“Shit,” Tuck said as she sat up.
Tristan did the same, a look of concern on his face as he watched her.
“We’re tracking another group now, one we picked up on once the house and bodies were dealt with. That same feeling is following them—all the way into New Mexico. When we get close, the feeling deepens. I’ve never felt anything like it, Tuck, but I know what that could mean—Vampyr and Damned don’t have the ability to mask themselves that heavily or for that long of a distance. Not even the oldest ones.”
No, they don’t.
Vampyr and Damned could hide from humans quite well, but that power only stretched out so far, even if there was more than one vampire involved. The farthest that power could spread was roughly one mile. More times than not, Vampyr and Damned would only mask the area they rested or lived in. The farther out their power reached, the weaker it became.
Only one breed of vampire could mask the way Lucia was describing—strigoi. Tuck understood why Lucia had phoned her.
“Your dad said you and Tristan are in San Diego.”
“Yes, we just finished our hunt a few hours ago. Where are you right now?”
“About an hour outside of Las Cruces, but this group is headed farther into the desert and away from civilization. One of us will go back to Las Cruces and wait for you and Tristan.”
“We’re on our way.”
“Thank you, Tuck. I have a bad feeling about this one.”
In DiGregorio terms, that meant whatever was happening was beyond the pale, and that sent the spike of urgency already forming in Tuck’s gut all the way up her spine. The DiGregorios never called in backup unless something was very wrong.
“Be careful. If something looks too easy, don’t move forward. Wait for me, please.”
“We will,” Lucia promised, and then ended the phone call.
Tuck ran a hand over her face and then told Tristan what was happening. “We need to hustle. I don’t want Lucia on this hunt without me if strigoi are truly involved. If we leave in the next half hour we can be there by mid-afternoon.”
He kissed her shoulder and then nuzzled her neck. “Take a shower first. I’ll get the gear packed.”
She thanked him with a kiss and then quickly got into the shower.
The time has come~ the next Tuck Houston novel is LIVE!
Evernight Publishing ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Smashwords
BLURB:
An ancient grudge. An ancient darkness. A slayer who will stop at nothing to put an end to both.
When her good friend Lucia DiGregorio calls her asking for help, slayer Tuck Houston immediately joins the hunt. Once she gets a hint of strigoi power at the scene of a slaughter, she understands exactly why Lucia called her in.
Shortly after that slaughter, Tuck realizes that the team is in a trap and none of them will be able to leave until the game is done. The gravity of the situation is made clear when they discover that the vampyr responsible holds an ancient grudge against Lucia’s family, and that the strigoi in league with the vampyr has his own plans for Tuck once the game is done.
But Tuck won’t make success easy for the vampyr or the strigoi. She will find a way to end the game … even if she has to die to do it.
~~~~~
BOOK TRAILER:
On the heels of the cover reveal, I give you the book trailer for THE ARENA!
Here it is~ the cover of THE ARENA, Tuck Houston book three ❤ The wonderful Jay Aheer again hit the mark 🙂
releasing SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
BLURB:
When her good friend Lucia DiGregorio calls her asking for help, slayer Tuck Houston immediately joins the hunt. Once she gets a hint of strigoi power at the scene of a slaughter, she understands exactly why Lucia called her in.
Shortly after that slaughter, Tuck realizes that the team is in a trap and none of them will be able to leave until the game is done. The gravity of the situation is made clear when they discover that the vampyr responsible holds an ancient grudge against Lucia’s family, and that the strigoi in league with the vampyr has his own plans for Tuck once the game is done.
But Tuck won’t make success easy for the vampyr or the strigoi. She will find a way to end the game…even if she has to die to do it.
