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...

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  I mostly write light contemporary romances, with not a ghoul or demon in sight (though I do have one, as yet unpublished, story featuring a Djinn.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 ...