Stephanie Cage - Writer

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  I mostly write light contemporary romances, with not a ghoul or demon in sight (though I do have one, as yet unpublished, story featuring a Djinn.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

I used to be a big fan of literary magazines, but everything changes so fast online that recently I've rather lost touch.  So I was delighted to stumble across a link to this oddly named and oddly compelling publication: http://bluepennyquarterly.blogspot.co.uk/ Published, as you might expect, quarterly, and packed with polished and thought-provoking stories (albeit with rather an American slant), it's well worth a visit, especially since it's free to read.  The magazine is advert-free, and publication is subsidised by a small reading fee of $2 per submission.   And why is it so named?  Ah ha.  Read it and find out! 

Now that, thanks to the ubiquity of the Kindle, e-books are finally coming into their own here in the UK, I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favourites.  I'll admit that this is a rather biased list, since it is chosen only from those books which I happen to have read in electronic form, but still... here, in no particular order, are my favourite five e-books.  If you're thinking about taking the plunge into reading e-books by contemporary authors, or you're just looking for something new to read, any of these is a great place to start.  Slightly Foxed, by Jane Lovering A deliciously light, funny read, which I loved even more than her first, 'Reversing over Liberace', because this one happens to involve a heroine who loves books, works in a bookshop, and falls in love with dead poets. Fire and Shadow, by Imogen Howson I ummed and aaahed for some time over which of Imogen Howson's books to include, because I love them all, but ultimately the win...

My lovely publishers, The Wild Rose Press , have some great giveaways for Read an E-Book Week .  I've just downloaded half a dozen to add to my electronic to-read pile.  If your computer/e-reader isn't already groaning under the weight of your wish list, you can access eight fabulous free e-books at: https://digibookscafe.com/index.php?main_page=specials Unfortunately, my book ' Desperate Bid ' isn't among the freebies, but it is only $4.25 at full price.  And if that's too much of a stretch, there's 50% off my two short story collections at Smashwords (full details are in my earlier post ) making them just $0.99 each. So there's an e-book for everyone, whatever your budget.  Happy reading! And thanks to everyone who's shared their experiences of e-books with me this week in honour of Read an E-Book Week.  If you haven't done so yet, feel free to comment below. I'd love to hear your experiences, especially as after years of happily ...