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Very Superstitious:
Myths, Legends and
Tales of Superstition
by Shannon Delany,
Jackie Morse Kessler, Stephanie Kuehnert, Jennifer Knight, Marianne Mancusi,
Michelle E. Reed, Dianne Salerni and Pab Sungenis
Goodreads blurb:
The stories are based on urban legends, myths, tribal tales and
superstitions from around the world. A charity anthology to benefit SPCA
International with stories by Shannon Delany, Jackie Morse Kessler, Stephanie
Kuehnert, Jennifer Knight, Marianne Mancusi, Michelle E. Reed, Dianne Salerni
and Pab Sungenis.
About the Very
Superstitious Authors:
Shannon Delany
Shannon Delany's newest novel, WEATHER WITCH (St.
Martin's Press) is already available for pre-order (which both stuns and
delights Delany)!
Shannon Delany has written stories since she was a child. She began writing in earnest when her grandmother fell unexpectedly ill during a family vacation. In 2008 her greatly abbreviated version of 13 to Life (written in just five weeks) won the grand prize in the first-ever cell phone novel contest in the western world through Textnovel.com .
Shannon was thrilled when St. Martin’s Press offered her a contract for a series about her 13 to Life characters. She expanded on the cell phone novel version, adding the subplots and characters she didn’t have time to during the contest. As paranormal as werewolves seem, the grief Shannon used to build Jess’s character is something she personally experienced with the loss of her own mother. Focusing on Jess and Pietr’s story of loss, love and dramatic and dangerous changes, Shannon came to better grips with her own struggle. The resulting novel has earned her blurbs from authors she respects most.
The first novel in Shannon’s YA paranormal series, 13 to Life, debuted June 22, 2010, and was followed by Secrets and Shadows, Bargains and Betrayals, Destiny and Deception, and the Rivals and Retribution (August 2012).
Shannon has also debuted with interactive science fiction in her short story ("To Hel and Back") for Spirited: 13 to Haunting Tales (Leap Books) and will make her high fantasy debut with Month 9 Books' charity anthology titled Two and Twenty Dark Tales (October 2012, "Pieces of Eight" with musician Max Scialdone).
Shannon's new series (a steampunk trilogy titled WEATHER WITCH, also with St. Martin's Press) will launch June 25, 2013.
Previously a teacher and now a farmer raising heritage livestock, Shannon lives and writes in Upstate New York and enjoys traveling to talk to people about most anything.
Shannon Delany has written stories since she was a child. She began writing in earnest when her grandmother fell unexpectedly ill during a family vacation. In 2008 her greatly abbreviated version of 13 to Life (written in just five weeks) won the grand prize in the first-ever cell phone novel contest in the western world through Textnovel.com .
Shannon was thrilled when St. Martin’s Press offered her a contract for a series about her 13 to Life characters. She expanded on the cell phone novel version, adding the subplots and characters she didn’t have time to during the contest. As paranormal as werewolves seem, the grief Shannon used to build Jess’s character is something she personally experienced with the loss of her own mother. Focusing on Jess and Pietr’s story of loss, love and dramatic and dangerous changes, Shannon came to better grips with her own struggle. The resulting novel has earned her blurbs from authors she respects most.
The first novel in Shannon’s YA paranormal series, 13 to Life, debuted June 22, 2010, and was followed by Secrets and Shadows, Bargains and Betrayals, Destiny and Deception, and the Rivals and Retribution (August 2012).
Shannon has also debuted with interactive science fiction in her short story ("To Hel and Back") for Spirited: 13 to Haunting Tales (Leap Books) and will make her high fantasy debut with Month 9 Books' charity anthology titled Two and Twenty Dark Tales (October 2012, "Pieces of Eight" with musician Max Scialdone).
Shannon's new series (a steampunk trilogy titled WEATHER WITCH, also with St. Martin's Press) will launch June 25, 2013.
Previously a teacher and now a farmer raising heritage livestock, Shannon lives and writes in Upstate New York and enjoys traveling to talk to people about most anything.
Connect with Shannon:
Pab Sungenis
Born in the swamps of Southern New Jersey, Pab
Sungenis developed a childhood fascination with cartooning and drew a daily
strip for his own amusement for two years before realizing he couldn’t draw. He
wound up in broadcasting, worked for numerous stations including WSBU, WOND,
WMGM, WSKR, WBNJ, WWBZ, and WKTU. He describes his drawing ability as like that
of “a mentally challenged rhinoceros on a Ny-Quil bender”, but thanks to the
wonders of photo-manipulation and computer image editing, on February 8, 2006
he found himself creating The New Adventures of Queen Victoria, which has
appeared ever since, first on Comicssherpa.com., and now in online syndication
with gocomics.com. Pab Sungenis is available for quotes, signings, video or
podcast appearances, and all opportunities relative to SIDEKICK: THE MISADVENTURES
OF THE NEW SCARLET KNIGHT.
Connect with Pab:
Stephanie Kuehnert
STEPHANIE
KUEHNERT got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor
blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced
several D.I.Y. feminist 'zines. After short stints in Ohio and Wisconsin,
Stephanie ultimately returned home and received her MFA in creative writing
from Columbia College Chicago. She currently resides in Forest Park, IL.
Connect with Stephanie:
Jennifer Knight
Hi. I’m Jen. I am twenty-two years old and live in
Miami, Florida with my family. I’m a lifelong lover of books, romance and
anything even vaguely supernatural. Except zombies. Zombies scare me.
I started writing in college after trying and failing to find a major. It was all I really knew how to do and since school was going nowhere, I threw myself into it. I wrote my first book in a matter of months and watched it go up in flames.
Smoldering, but still determined to make this writing thing work, I moved on to something completely different. Werewolves! Love them. Who doesn’t? I wrote the first draft of Blood on the Moon in about two months, during which I locked myself in my room and thought about teeth and moons and kissing.
I must have done something right, because Running Press bought my book and now you’re here reading this. I guess that means you liked the book. Yay! If I had a cookie, I’d totally give it to you. You deserve it.
Anyway, now that Blood on the Moon is done, I’m writing the sequel. And also some other stuff that hopefully you’ll see one day.
I started writing in college after trying and failing to find a major. It was all I really knew how to do and since school was going nowhere, I threw myself into it. I wrote my first book in a matter of months and watched it go up in flames.
Smoldering, but still determined to make this writing thing work, I moved on to something completely different. Werewolves! Love them. Who doesn’t? I wrote the first draft of Blood on the Moon in about two months, during which I locked myself in my room and thought about teeth and moons and kissing.
I must have done something right, because Running Press bought my book and now you’re here reading this. I guess that means you liked the book. Yay! If I had a cookie, I’d totally give it to you. You deserve it.
Anyway, now that Blood on the Moon is done, I’m writing the sequel. And also some other stuff that hopefully you’ll see one day.
Connect with Jen:
Mari Mancusi
Mari Mancusi used to wish she could become a
vampire back in high school. But she ended up in another blood sucking
profession --journalism -- instead. Today she works as a freelance TV producer
and author of books for teens and adults.
When not writing about creatures of the night, Mari enjoys traveling, cooking, goth clubbing, watching cheesy horror movies, and her favorite guilty pleasure--videogames. A graduate of Boston University and a two time Emmy Award winner, she lives in Austin , Texas with her husband Jacob, daughter Avalon and their dog Mesquite. You can find Mari online at www.marimancusi.com orwww.bloodcovenvampires.com.
When not writing about creatures of the night, Mari enjoys traveling, cooking, goth clubbing, watching cheesy horror movies, and her favorite guilty pleasure--videogames. A graduate of Boston University and a two time Emmy Award winner, she lives in Austin , Texas with her husband Jacob, daughter Avalon and their dog Mesquite. You can find Mari online at www.marimancusi.com orwww.bloodcovenvampires.com.
Connect with Mari:
Michelle E. Reed
Michelle was born in a small Midwestern town, to
which she has returned to raise her own family. Her imagination and love of
literature were fueled by a childhood of late nights, hidden under the covers
and reading by flashlight. She is a passionate adoption advocate who lives in
Wisconsin with her husband, son, and their yellow lab, Sully.
Connect with Michelle:
Jackie Morse Kessler
Jackie Morse Kessler
grew up in Brooklyn, NY, with a cranky cat and overflowing shelves filled with
dolls and books. Now she’s in Upstate NY with another cranky cat, a loving
husband, two sons, and overflowing shelves filled with dragons and books (except
when her sons steal her dragons). She has a bachelor’s degree in English and
American Literature, and yet she’s never read any Jane Austen (with or without
zombies). She also has a master’s degree in media ecology. (The living study of
technology and culture. Which is cool, but she still can’t figure out how to
use Tweetdeck.)
Jackie spends a lot of time writing, reading, and getting distracted by bright and shiny new ideas. (She just came up with a new idea right now.) She has a weakness for chocolate and a tendency to let her cat take over her office chair.
Connect
with Jackie:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
DIANNE
K. SALERNI is a fifth grade teacher by day and a writer by night. She's the
author of YA historical novels, We Hear the Dead (Sourcebooks) and The Caged
Graves (Clarion/HMH), and a forthcoming MG fantasy series, The Eighth Day
(HarperCollins 2014).
The Caged Graves is a Junior Library Guild Selection, and We Hear the Dead was
the inspiration for a 10 minute short film, The Spirit Game, which premiered at
the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.http://vimeo.com/64738099
In her spare time, Dianne is prone to hanging around creepy cemeteries and
climbing 2000 year-old pyramids in the name of book research.
Connect with
Dianne:
My Thoughts - 4 out of
5 unicorns - I really liked it!!
The
cover is beautiful and alludes to usual superstitions with cats, the moon, and
the number 13. I think it is a very
fitting cover even if the stories do not revolve around those particular
superstitions.
I
have to say that I find it extremely honorable for the authors taking part to
help such a worthy cause. I am an animal
lover, and I want to cry when I see animals hurt, abused, or thrown away. All animals deserve our respect and care just
as people do. If you are not familiar with
SPCA International, here is the website that you can visit for more
information: http://www.spcai.org/
Okay
there are several stories in this anthology, and they were all enjoyable. My three favorite stories were The
Rescue by Shannon Delany, Chupacabra by Jennifer Knight, and The
Gift of the Were-Magi by Mari Mancusi, so these are the ones I’m
focusing on.
In
The
Rescue, a man must decide between trusting the legends about red dogs
and the fae or his faith in his best friend.
Shannon says she deviated from the tale of folklore, and I think it was
a great change. The story had me from
the beginning, but I do not want to give anything away. Shannon writes beautifully, and you get
sucked into the world she writes about.
In
Chupacabra,
it is a tale of a family curse and a beast who murderers people. This story is another that is very well
written that you can see everything taking place like you are right there in
the story. I love when this happens
because it is how I escape reality. Can
love conquer all? I guess you will have
to read the story to see ;)
In
The
Gift of the Were-Magi, Mari creates a fantastic world that I would love
to read more about. Okay there are parts
of this story that had me screaming at the book because it was going a
direction I didn’t want it to, but I loved it all the same. The emotional twists let me know how vested
in the story I am. Could you walk away
from your own personal happiness to ensure that someone you loved would be
happy?
I
definitely recommend this story to all because first, it is for a fantastic
cause, and second, it is a great collection of stories.
Interested in reading & helping the SPCA??
Giveaway Information:
· An
ebook of each authors' work (INT)
· One
(1) physical copy of the Very Superstitious Anthology (US Only)
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