Welcome to Heather Grothaus' guest blog

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I know—you usually hear that phrase linked more with Christmas than Halloween, but for me, it's true. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and has been since I was a little kid. I love the jack-o-lanterns, the gory decor, the costumes—and, of course, the candy.

Beyond the haunted houses, pumpkin patches, and ghost stories, for one night, we can be anyone in this world (or another) that we can imagine, and anything at all is possible. That tale about the hitchhiking teenager in the letterman jacket could really be true. That old, abandoned house on the corner might actually be haunted. It is a time of year when your imagination takes hold of you in terrible and frightening ways, and you anticipate it more than the coming of Santa, welcome the vampires and witches and ghosts in wholeheartedly. At least, I do. What if? That is the ultimate question of Halloween, the delicious adventure.

I grew up in a very small town, and some of my fondest memories are of my friends and me holing up in someone's basement after trick-or-treating for Halloween slumber parties. With our loot sacks piled around and a few candles, we’d play spooky games like Light-as-a-Feather-Stiff-as-a-Board, and Bloody Mary. We held our fair share of séances. We’d watch gory movies and tell ghost stories, and basically try to scare each other silly. As I write this, I can't help but imagine how fun it would be to recreate the experience with a bunch of (grown-up) girlfriends now, along with a couple of bottles of wine and our favorite treats!

I still crave the scary, and I have carried on my love of the paranormal in deeper ways. I'm an amateur ghost hunter, and I spend a lot of time researching paranormal phenomenon. I'm the crazy woman running toward the mysterious bump-in-the-night with my mini recorder rather than cowering under the covers. In my writing, I can take those experiences and add them to what I've learned to create a world full of the unknown and unexplained for my readers. In my books you will find witches and ghosts, legends and curses, angels and demons. You'll also find the best of friends, and true love. Because, really, isn’t falling in love sometimes the scariest thing of all?

And now that I have kids of my own, I wonder how long it will be before they leave the sweetness of animal costumes behind and begin to seek out the unknown, the dark and the frightening, on their own. I wonder if they will share my passion for chasing the spooky and unexplained. And I wonder if they will let me tag along.

Take a look at Heather's newest release, Taming the beast:

After years of turmoil, Roderick Cherbon has left the Crusades to return to the home he loves. But the wars have changed him, and the heir who thought to heal his father’s injustices has become a vicious beast of a man, scarred inside and out. He will speak to no one, see no one; he leaves the shadows of his ruined keep only under the darkness of night. And even in death his father mocks him: to retain his land and title, Roderick, the Beast, must marry.

Lady Michaela Fortune is reviled for her poverty, ridiculed for her dreams, and preyed on for her soft heart. Humiliation and want dog her beloved family, and her pride is an indulgence she can ill afford. Cherbon and its shattered lord offer a solution. But to court a man who has fallen so low, Michaela will need all her grace and beauty to harbor any hopes of taming the beast…



Contest:

One lucky winner will get a copy of Taming the Beast, so stop by and say hello. Check back tomorrow to see if you are the winner, because you have 7 days to claim your prize!