Stephanie Cage - Writer

Halloween is a great excuse to dig out Nightmare Before Christmas and all my favourite spooky stories, so my contribution to the Halloween blog hop is, in no particular order, my seven favourite magical books (or series - a sneaky way of not quite having to narrow down to seven books) of all time. How many have you read? Follow the hop for more fun, great books, and awesome prizes.  And make sure to read to the end for a chance to win a sneak preview of a magical collection, as well as a hop-wide prize draw for $50 or $100 in Amazon gift cards.   Tamora Pierce: Alanna (Song of the Lioness series) Along with 'Little Women', this is one of my most read books ever.  The story of a girl in a magical land which, sadly, reflects our own in having certain expectations of how boys and girls will behave.  Alanna doesn't want to be a lady and learn to dress prettily and walk nicely.  She wants to fight the bad guys, and both she and her twin Thom are gi...

Firstly a huge thank-you to everyone who visited during the Wild Roses blog hop.  I hope you enjoyed the hope and maybe discovered some new authors, or rediscovered some old favourites.  Special thanks to those who shared their thoughts about the joys of Halloween - I wish I could give you all a prize, but since I only have one to give away, the winner, as selected by Random.org's random number generator, is: Drum roll and fanfare... JeanMP! Congratulations Jean, a copy of Desperate Bid will be hitting your inbox in the next few days.  I hope you enjoy it (and please don't be shy about letting me know what you think - like most writers, I love to hear from readers - feedback, both positive and negative, is how we learn!) Finally, before we wrap up Halloween for this year, here's something for those of you who wanted to know about my Halloween costume.  This is me playing dress-up - thanks to the Friends of Hyde Park cemetery for the costume, and for a ...

Welcome to the Wild Rose Press Halloween Haunted Garden Blog Hop and Giveaway.  Phew, what a mouthful!  Oh, and welcome back if you've followed the link here from one of the lovely Roses' blogs.  If you've visited before, you may remember I promised you some thoughts on the dark side of light fiction, and here they are...   I love Halloween, and all things gothic and vampiric, which surprises most people who don't know me well. After all, I don't write dark, paranormal fiction.  Well, not often, anyway.  I mostly write light contemporary romances, with not a ghoul or demon in sight (though I do have one, as yet unpublished, story featuring a Djinn.  And even that one's faintly comic).  Occasionally I have an odd outburst of creepiness, as in the case of a ghost story I wrote in which the ghosts of a family who perished in a flood came back to claim a child (mercifully, that one's somehow disappeared off my computer - maybe a poltergeist ...

Yes, Halloween is nearly here.  The nights are drawing in, there's a nip in the air, the shops are full of pumpkins and black cats and gruesome edibles (gunky eyeball cake, anyone?), and the Wild Rose Press Halloween blog hop is coming up!  Stop by nearer the time to read my thoughts on the dark side of writing light fiction, and for links to lots of lovely Wild Rose Authors writing about the season of spookiness. I've got some personal plans for the 31st too, so if you're really good and leave me lots of friendly comments, I may risk a photo of my Halloween costume ... Though come to think of it, you may prefer that I didn't.  That probably depends on the costume ...