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#BlackOwnedBusiness Christmas Shopping List for Writers and Book Lovers
Let’s Make A Pledge
In 2020, let’s pledge to skip Amazon. Instead, let’s show this holiday season at Black owned businesses. Here is a list of such business with amazing gifts for writers and book lovers:
Coloring Books by XavierArts available on Etsy
If you’re looking to take a break from reading and writing, check out these gorgeous coloring books designed by Xavier Arts on Etsy. This shop offers digital downloads of single sheets as well as coloring books that include five originally designed 8.5” x 11” coloring sheets.
Khoas and Kreations available on Etsy
Khoas and Kreations has a wide variety of unique stickers perfect to spice up your day planner or any boring surface. They’re reasonably priced, all under $3.00, with shipments usually arriving between 3-5 days.
Black Mom Magic available on Etsy
This shop has so many incredible gifts! They make custom corporate gifts, journals, stickers, and tees. This shop aspires to provide qualities items to encourage “authentic inspiration to be your best self.” Check out their journals!
Alijhae Arts available on Etsy
Alijhae Arts creates stunning bookmarks, art prints, stickers, t-shrits, notebooks, pins, and beauty supplies. The bookmarks are one side laminated, 2'“ x 6”, and come in a pack of three for only $4.00.
K Ligg Co. available on Etsy
K Ligg is on a mission to “inspire women of color,” and she succeeded! This shop specializes in bookmarks, stickers, notebooks, and prints. The incredible print featured below is $10 for a 5 x 7 or $15 for 8.5 x 11.
The Trini Gee
The Trini Gee creates products “infused with Melanin and Culture.” They produce clothing, aprons, mugs, notebooks, pillows, phone cases, masks, stickers, duffel bags, water bottles, and beanies. Below is one of there shirts with faces of Black women authors. The best part of this shirt is that the owner of the shop doesn’t list the authors displayed. It’s up to you to educate yourself and learn the identity of each woman. This shop is absolutely worth checking out!
There are TONS of Black owned businesses! These are only a few to get you started on your holiday shopping!
Shiver Anthology Pre-Sale Is Live!
Shiver Anthology is Pre-Sale Here!
You’ve patiently waited, and now the big moment is here! Shiver, a chilling anthology, is officially available for pre-order through Amazon! Paperbacks will be available on January 11, 2021, the official launch date. Check out this amazing wrap by Rooster Press!
Here is the TOC:
Sam Sumpter
Patrick Barb
Mark Wheaton
Sarah Jane Huntington
Ian A. Bain
Emily Reinhardt
Richard Webb
Christopher Wood
Mason McDonald
Alex Ebenstein
Michael Tichy
Lillah Lawson
Jonathan Torres
Erin Louis
Charles Maria Tor
Ziaul Moid Khan
Stehpanie Rabig
Eric Raglin
Steve Stred
Jessica Guess
KC Loesener
Jeremy Megargee
Sara Mullins
Jessie Small
Laura Nettles
Tiffany Michelle Brown
Sam Heaps
Brennan LaFaro
Enjoy!
Helena by Claire L. Smith #BookReview
Helena Book Review
4 stars
Helena is a fun fast-paced mystery horror book set in the 1800s and staring a strong female protagonist. Helena Morrigan is a mortician and funeral home director who can see ghosts. Unfortunately, her circumstances lead her to take up residency in an old home on the brink of a graveyard. While this creates obstacles for Helena, it weaves a fun mystery for readers as Helena finds herself in the web of a serial killer and his victims.
The gothic elements great a dark and macabre tone, set from the opening chapter where we are first introduced to Helena and her unique ability. Her arch starts as a woman with little self-confidence and blossoms into a heroine who courageously battles evil. She’s a bold character with many likeable and relatable traits. In fact, all the female characters were extremely well developed and came alive from the page. Since this plot was set in the 1800s, it would have been easy to create females more stereotypical of how females were perceived in that time period, but these women challenge those conventions, and thank goodness for that!
I enjoyed the horror elements of this book but I’m not sure I would classify it as a horror novel. The mystery elements outweigh the horror, and while there are stark and vivid horror descriptions, those who enjoy a strong dose of horror might be a little disappointed. However, those who enjoy atmospheric horror without the overwhelming guts and gore will find a pleasurable read in the handful of disturbing imagery and themes. (Think more along the lines of The Alienist and Penny Dreadful in terms of horror.)
Overall, it was a fun quick read with some unsettling scenes and a solid mystery plot. Thank you for the free ARC!
31 Spooky Halloween Movies
Countdown to Halloween: 31 Favorite Spooky Movies For Horror Lovers
Looking for some horror movie recommendations just in time for Halloween? Here are 31 are my favorites!
A group of homeless children battle drug dealers with the help of three magic wishes.
A summertime love affair between two men turns deadly.
Come on. Who doesn’t know what this movie is about?
The story of two sisters, an evil stepmother, and a deadly secret.
A young woman is stranded on a island. She’s not alone.
An Iranian vampire protects women in peril.
Again, who hasn’t heard of this movie?
Something sinister lurks below…
A classic. A favorite. A comedy horror delight.
A man tries to bring his daughter to safety as a zombie outbreak occurs.
Breakups are hard.
Don’t take advantage of your position of power or else…
She’s deaf. He’s a killer.
Watch out for the pole! Holy crap, this movie was disturbing!
A little fun and games and gore.
A classic. Beautiful. Tragic.
WTF?!? No, seriously…W…T…F!?
Yeah, a know a bunch of people didn’t like this, but I did, so it made the list. A mom who is trying to care for her kid.
Just don’t say his name.
There’s monsters. There’s ice. There’s Kurt Russell.
Look, we don’t have to agree on every movie to still be friends.
No one is as they seem.
A bunch of people trapped in a scary cube puzzle
Grandma’s a demon.
Music and horror and gore. Some people are overachievers.
Turn off the fucking TV!
Scary stuff in space.
Pretty self explanatory
Again, it’s all in the title.
There’s a cabin, but there’s also some cool other stuff, but then there’s tons of monsters and gore, so if that’s your thing…
Enjoy!
Popcorn Movie Reviews: Short Pop Up Reviews for Busy Movie Lovers
POPCORN #MOVIEREVIEWS
DOGS DON’T WEAR PANTS: AVAILABLE ON SHUDDER
A LONELY MAN CONNECTS WITH A DOMINATRIX. RECOMMENDED WATCH!
SCREAM QUEEN: AVAILABLE ON SHUDDER
LEARN THE BEHIND-THE-SCENES HAPPENINGS TO NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE. RECOMMENDED WATCH!
STARRY EYES: AVAILABLE ON AMAZON PRIME
WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR FAME? RECOMMENDED WATCH!
CREEP: AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX
A LONELY PSYCHO SEEKS A FRIEND: RECOMMENDED WATCH!
1BR: AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX
A YOUNG WOMAN LOOKING FOR COMMUNITY: EH, I KINDA RECOMMEND
Top Five Reads of the Summer #BookReview
This has been a crazy summer! With the world in chaos, I’ve escaped into the fantasy world of literature and emerged with these five hidden gems just waiting to be discovered! While some of these books are only a available as ARCS through NetGalley, they are all 5 star reads that are worth the wait of the impending release days! My full reviews of these books will be on SciFi And Scary throughout the rest of 2020. In the meantime, allow me to entice you with these sneak peak summaries. Here is my list of Top Five Reads of the Summer:
Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez
Available December 8, 2020
Set in a terrifyingly familiar near-future, with massive floods leading to rampant homelessness and devastation, a government-sanctioned regime called The Boots seizes on the opportunity to round up communities of color, the disabled, and the LGBTQ+ into labor camps.
In the shadows, a new hero emerges. After he loses his livelihood as a drag queen and the love of his life, Kay joins the resistance alongside Bahadur, a transmasculine refugee, and Firuzeh, a headstrong social worker. Guiding them in the use of weapons and close-quarters combat is Beck, a rogue army officer, who helps them plan an uprising at a major televised international event.
The First Sister by Linden Lewis
Available Aug 4, 2020
First Sister has no name and no voice. As a priestess of the Sisterhood, she travels the stars alongside the soldiers of Earth and Mars—the same ones who own the rights to her body and soul. When her former captain abandons her, First Sister’s hopes for freedom are dashed when she is forced to stay on her ship with no friends, no power, and a new captain—Saito Ren—whom she knows nothing about. She is commanded to spy on Captain Ren by the Sisterhood, but soon discovers that working for the war effort is so much harder to do when you’re falling in love.
Lito val Lucius climbed his way out of the slums to become an elite soldier of Venus, but was defeated in combat by none other than Saito Ren, resulting in the disappearance of his partner, Hiro. When Lito learns that Hiro is both alive and a traitor to the cause, he now has a shot at redemption: track down and kill his former partner. But when he discovers recordings that Hiro secretly made, Lito’s own allegiances are put to the test. Ultimately, he must decide between following orders and following his heart.
The Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones
Available September 1, 2020
Stephen Graham Jones returns with Night of the Mannequins, a contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?
The Crowman Chronicles of the Fallen Volume One by Gareth Clegg
Some say the world is shattered, that our way of life is dying. Our sun fills half the sky and the scorched lands struggle to provide enough to sustain us. Still, there has always been hope. But as that fiery red orb descends below the rocky skyline, then comes the shadow: Dark spirits hell-bent on destroying what’s left of humanity, as if we needed any help.
My name is Cheveyo Santiago. I cheated death as a child, but that trauma marked me, and now I sense the evil in others. So here I am, drawn like a moth to the flame. Though I carry a revolver, I’m no gunslinger, there are plenty faster on the draw than me. My real edge is knowledge.
Old family recipes passed down through the ages – the secrets to banish the shadow back to the hells that spawned it. Salt, Brimstone, Silver and Tallow shall be my weapons.
So, hear this, all creatures and spirits of evil. I know you. I see you. Prepare yourself for judgement.
The Conductors by Nicole Glover
Available April 13, 2020
As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people north with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband Benjy have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch. When they find one of their friends slain in an alley, Hetty and Benjy bury the body and set off to find answers. But the secrets and intricate lies of the elites of Black Philadelphia only serve to dredge up more questions. To solve this mystery, they will have to face ugly truths all around them, including the ones about each other.
Indigenous Speculative Fiction and Horror Reads to Check Out
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Back Cover: Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden—but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.
Cherie Dimaline is an award winning indigenous author, activist, and member the Georgian Bay Metis Community in Ontario. In a 2017 article with Publishing Perspectives, Dimaline discusses the importance of keeping “indigenous” as an identifier:
“Because we are the people of story, it is a great honor for me to be called a Métis writer. It denotes a title, an honor, and a certain knowledge. In fact, I feel demoted when I’m referred to as only a Canadian writer. My community has struggled and survived, and I’m enormously proud to be able to carry our voices forward. I can’t speak for every writer, but for myself, I am a writer. But being called an Indigenous author is like having a PhD at the end of your signature.”
Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
Back Cover:
Blackfeet author Stephen Graham Jones brings readers a spine-tingling Native American horror novella.
Walking through his own house at night, a fifteen-year-old thinks he sees another person stepping through a doorway. Instead of the people who could be there, his mother or his brother, the figure reminds him of his long-gone father, who died mysteriously before his family left the reservation. When he follows it he discovers his house is bigger and deeper than he knew.
The house is the kind of wrong place where you can lose yourself and find things you'd rather not have. Over the course of a few nights, the boy tries to map out his house in an effort that puts his little brother in the worst danger, and puts him in the position to save them . . . at terrible cost.
Stephen Graham Jones is an award winning author whose bio starts like this:
“Stephen Graham Jones was born in Midland, Texas in 1972. As an infant, he got knocked out by a ceiling when a family friend threw him too high into the air and, before he was even one, he had more than 100 stitches in his face. Another time, the fire department had to be called to get his head unstuck from the highchair. It’s so easy to get hurt.”
He’s worth checking out. Buy Mapping the Interior here.
Deer Woman: An Anthology
Back Cover: Based on the true stories of Indigenous women throughout the world, Deer Woman: An Anthology is an extension of the Deer Woman: A Vignette, comic book that itself is a powerful expression and weaves the stories of Deer Woman into a modern narrative of the struggles of Indigenous women in North America. This anthology features the work of more than a dozen Native women sharing stories of survival, empowerment, and healing. Edited by Elizabeth LaPensée and Weshoyot Alvitre and featuring the work of: Patty Stonefish, Allie Vasquez, Mia Casesa, Darcie Little Badger, Tara Ogaick, Kimberly Robertson, Barbara Kenmille, Maria Wolf Lopez, Tatum Bowie, Jackie Fawn, Rebecca Roanhorse, Carolyn Dunn, Nashoba Dunn-Anderson, and more, this anthology is an important addition to the current conversation about violence against women, especially Native women.
Black Owned Bookstores to Support
This list is by no means complete. I’ll be updating it periodically, but here is a jumping off point. Please consider supporting black owned businesses including these black owned bookstores:
CANADA
A Different Booklist (Toronto) Twitter
Knowledge Bookstore (Brampton) Twitter
Nile Valley Books (Toronto) Twitter
EUROPE
Presence Africaine Editions (Paris)
USA
Black Stone Bookstore and Cultural Center (Ypsilanti, Michigan)
Brave + Kind Bookshop (Decatur, Georgia) Instagram
Cafe Con Libros (Brooklyn, NY) Twitter
Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Center (Instagram)
Eye See Me (St Louis, MO) Twitter
Eso Won Books (Los Angeles, CA) Twitter
Frugal Bookstore (Boston, MA) Twitter
Fulton Street Books and Coffee (Tulsa, OK)
Harriet’s Bookshop (Philadelphia, PA) Twitter
The Key Bookstore (CT) Facebook
Loyalty Books (Silver Springs, MD) Twitter
Mahogany Books (Washington, DC) Twitter
Semicolon (Chicago, IL) Twitter
Sister’s Uptown (New York, NY) Twitter
Source Booksellers (Detroit, MI) Twitter
Eden by Tim Lebbon #BookReview
3 Star Book Review
I have a confession. This is my first time reading Tim Lebbon. I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for a review, and I’m so glad I got the chance to experience Eden. I haven’t read a lot of climate change fiction, so this was a bit of a change for me. Here’s the back cover:
From the bestselling author of The Silence comes a brand-new supernatural eco thriller. In large areas of the planet, nature is no longer humanity's friend...
In a time of global warming and spiraling damage to the environment, the Virgin Zones were established to help combat the change. Abandoned by humanity and given back to nature, these vast areas in a dozen remote locations across the planet were intended to become the lungs of the world.
But there are always those drawn to such places. Extreme sports enthusiasts and adventure racing teams target the dangerous, sometimes deadly zones for illicit races. Only the hardiest and most experienced dare undertake these expeditions. When one such team enters the oldest Zone, Eden, they aren't prepared for what confronts them. Nature has returned to Eden in an elemental, primeval way. And here, nature is no longer humanity's friend.
Sounds pretty cool, right?
This is an wild thriller where the Earth gets a chance to fight back against humanity. The Virgin Zones are have been given back to the Earth as a sort of apology for the centuries of abuse we’ve caused. There’s a lot guts and gore, and once bodies start splattering the pages, it’s a red dash to the finish. The second half of the book had a lot to look forward to, and I was much more engaged during those life-or-death moments than the moments of exploration in the first half.
It’s an interesting concept. Groups of adventure seeking extremists independently race across the Virgin Zones for bragging rights as well as to be the first to discover the hidden beauty of Earth untouched by man. But how much exploring and appreciation of the Earth can they do while they’re running thirteen miles a day? It seemed odd to me that these people would take so much risk to get into the Zone and then race, literally, from one side to the next. Also, they had conversations while running. Granted, these are supposed to be high endurance runners, but I know that even at my physical fitness peak, I wasn’t in the mood to have ominous heart-to-hearts while navigating a running path.
In addition to the slow paced nature of the first half, I also wasn’t sure if the “villain” really hit home. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, which was a nice surprise, but at the same time, I was a bit disappointed. I appreciated the attempt to try something new. You’re not going to get killer plants swinging their roots out of the ground and pulling the explorers into the dirt. But what we did get just felt a little…underdeveloped. It’s like the premise was so close to being fleshed out, but never exactly reached full potential.
Also, while I’m not usually a fan of epilogues, I would have liked one in this book. There were introductions to each chapter that suggested there might be something else that happened at the end, but we aren’t given any insight into it. Instead, the last two chapters felt rather abrupt considering all the action that led up to them.
With all that said, I did get a perverse enjoyment out of the death scenes. As a horror writer and avid reader, I loved that the author didn’t hold back. We experience each squish and gash the characters do. But overall, I’m not sure this book worked for me.
That’s just my opinion. Give it a read and decide if it works for you!