Michelle Muto's Blog

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My traditional publisher, Skyscape, has placed the kindle version of THE HAUNTING SEASON on sale for .99 cents. OF SHADOW & STONE is on sale for $1.49.

My other titles are all $3 or less.

Sale ends tomorrow night, so go grab your copy.

What genres are included? Horror, urban fantasy, dystopian, short stories.

The Haunting Season:

Be careful what you let in…

Siler House has stood silent beneath Savannah’s moss-draped oaks for decades. Notoriously haunted, it has remained empty until college-bound Jess Perry and three of her peers gather to take part in a month-long study on the paranormal. Jess, who talks to ghosts, quickly bonds with her fellow test subjects. One is a girl possessed. Another just wants to forget. The third is a guy who really knows how to turn up the August heat, not to mention Jess’s heart rate…when he’s not resurrecting the dead.

The study soon turns into something far more sinister when they discover that Siler House and the dark forces within are determined to keep them forever. In order to escape, Jess and the others will have to open themselves up to the true horror of Siler House and channel the very evil that has welcomed them all.

Diary of the Damned – sequel to The Haunting Season:

“Allison said that, in time, he’d come for you. For what it’s worth, Evy, I believe her.”

Evy Breen has worked hard to forget her past. She’s changed her appearance and moved from her hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Knoxville, Tennessee, where she does her best to fit in.

Evy’s past catches up with her when she finds a package on her apartment doorstep. The package has no postmark, no return address. Inside is a note… and the diary of Evy’s missing best friend, Allison.

The diary contains everything about their friendship, the bullying they endured, and Allison’s confinement at a psychiatric hospital for schizophrenia. Except Allison wasn’t schizophrenic. Allison was suffering from demonic possession.

According to the note, that same demon now has its sights set on Evy. The mysterious sender claims that, despite sliding into madness and depression, Allison inserted clues into her diary that might save Evy’s life.

As Evy reads her friend’s diary, she discovers secrets that Allison kept from her—the incidents surrounding the gruesome death of a former classmate and the truth behind a government agency more interested in embracing a demon than in exorcising it.

If Evy is to survive, she must return home. There, she must confront a life she prefers to forget and fight off an ancient and powerful demon set on revenge—if only she can decipher the clues her friend left behind.

Of Shadow & Stone – Like urban fantasy? Like Gargoyles? This is your book.

Don’t Fear the Reaper – dystopian urban fantasy. Probably some of my best writing. This one’s dark and also a tear-jerker.

The Book of Lost Souls – urban fantasy. Like Harry Potter? Teen witches? Mischief, mayhem, and humor? I’ll always have a soft spot for this book.

Nature’s Fifth Season: Stephen King was right. If novels are the long romance, short stories are the kiss in the dark. My favorites are Dear Maddy and without a single doubt, Touch. Want to get to know my writing styles? For under a $1, pick this one up.

Buy them here.

So Apple updated Reminders. And then they released iOS 13 – for phones. Not iPads. If you updated your phone and reminders, you’ll notice that you can’t sync or even see reminders between any of your other iOS or Mac OS devices.

Bummer.

Apple says that all you need to do is update to Catalina. But what if you can’t because of other software you need or if you don’t want to? Or what if your Mac or MacBook can’t update to Catalina? Relax. It’s ok. You’ve got this.

I have a workaround. And all your reminders will sync up nicely. You won’t have to downgrade your iPhone, which would almost certainly require you to start it fresh as though it were a new iPhone. You probably don’t want to do that as you’ll spend HOURS and hours and hours putting back not only the app, but ALLLLLL the data. If you can.

Here it is:

Use another iCloud acct. Don’t have one? Create one.
Recreate your reminders on the new account. I know, that’s a pain if you have a lot or a lot of items in each list. You might want to log in to your primary Apple iCloud account on the web, then copy/paste them into a text file. Log out. Log into your newly created account and paste them back.
Add the newly created iCloud account on all your iOS devices (iPads, iPhones). How?

Tap Settings
Tap Passwords & Accounts
Tap Add Account
Tap the Reminder setting to ON (green)

Now, regardless if you have iPhone, iPad, iMac, MacBook — regardless if you’re running Mojave, High Sierra, iOS 12 or 13, you’ll have all your reminders synced. No web interface needed. No waiting for an Apple issued fix. You’re good to go.

Did I help you out? Consider returning a favor. I’m an author and that translates into starving artist these days. I’d love it if you’d check out my books on Amazon. Maybe you’ll like what you see. Even if you don’t, maybe you know someone who does. Share on social media!

Remember, no matter where you go, there you are. Make it count. #Kindness

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I can’t recall when I’ve seen my publisher offer such a fantastic deal on THE HAUNTING SEASON! It’s just 99¢!

If you like haunted house stories, I think you’ll enjoy THE HAUNTING SEASON. I could point you to the first chapter or the excerpts here, but really… it’s just 99¢. Go one-click it.

Sale ends 5/31/2019. (But don’t wait!)

 

I rarely make appearances, but I’ll be an instructor at the 2019 Atlanta Writer’s Workshop on March 9th.

I’m teaching Writing Other Worlds — a Guide to Blending Setting, Plot, and Character in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Aside from teaching, I’ll be doing 10-page critiques and offering one-on-one in-depth critiques for attendees. Space for critiques is limited, so if you’re going, be sure to secure your critique or one-on-one early.

At the end of the day, I’ll also be on hand for a book signing.

There are other classes of interest scheduled as well, plus agents and editors will be on hand for those with written and polished manuscripts. Again, spots are limited for agent and editor meetings.

Like short stories? Like having them read to you instead of reading? Now you can listen to one of my nighttime tales of terror from my short story collection NATURE’S FIFTH SEASON.

What’s The Goblin about? Remember being a kid and worrying about the monster under your bed?

More of my work will be presented by the awesome folks who create What the French Toast! WtFT brings you plenty of tales – from horror to thriller to… well, you’ll just have to hop over and listen. And if you’re like me and love a good short story, subscribe and tell your friends.

While the audio is free, consider supporting the show via Patreon. Like The Goblin and want more? The ebook version of NATURE’S FIFTH SEASON is available for the ridiculously low price of $1 on Amazon, iTunes, B&N, Kobo.

Listen to The Goblin

Amazon

B&N

iTunes

Kobo

Books A Million

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NATURE’S FIFTH SEASON

Four short stories and one novella from author Michelle Muto.

Eleanor

Two teens meet their match during a home invasion when they encounter the elderly homeowner.

The Goblin

An eight-year-old boy ponders the Rules of Monsters and the creature that lives under his bed.

Crossroads

A midnight trip across a desolate highway takes a husband and wife farther than they expected.

Dear Maddy

During a winter-long stay at a remote mountain cabin, a man writes letters a ghost and soon begins to question his sanity.

Touch

Devotion, loyalty, and second chances. The heartfelt story of a young girl, an abandoned dog, and the unbreakable bond between them.

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For a very limited time, three of my novels are on sale, just $1.99 each!

THE HAUNTING SEASON is on sale until midnight, June 30th.

DON’T FEAR THE REAPER is on sale until July 4th, midnight.

OF SHADOW & STONE? It’s up to my publisher. It’s anyone’s guess and it could go away tomorrow.

So go! Grab them while you can for a ridiculously low price. All three for just $6. Seriously. Six bucks. You can’t buy lunch for that, much less three full novels.

If you’ve already read and loved my novels, consider supporting me by sharing the news on social media. Share this post!

THE HAUNTING SEASON:

Genre: New Adult Horror

Be careful what you let in…

Siler House has stood silent beneath Savannah’s moss-draped oaks for decades. Notoriously haunted, it has remained empty until college-bound Jess Perry and three of her peers gather to take part in a month-long study on the paranormal. Jess, who talks to ghosts, quickly bonds with her fellow test subjects. One is a girl possessed. Another just wants to forget. The third is a guy who really knows how to turn up the August heat, not to mention Jess’s heart rate…when he’s not resurrecting the dead.

The study soon turns into something far more sinister when they discover that Siler House and the dark forces within are determined to keep them forever. In order to escape, Jess and the others will have to open themselves up to the true horror of Siler House and channel the very evil that has welcomed them all.

DON’T FEAR THE REAPER:

Genre YA Horror/Dystopian Urban Fantasy

Haunted by memories of her murdered twin, Keely Morrison is convinced suicide is her only ticket to eternal peace. But in death, she discovers the afterlife is nothing like she expected. Instead of peaceful oblivion or a joyful reunion with her sister, Keely is trapped in a netherworld on Earth with only a bounty-hunting reaper and a sarcastic demon to show her the ropes.

When the demon offers Keely her ultimate temptation–revenge on her sister’s killer–she must determine who she can trust. Because, as Keely soon learns, the reaper and demon have been keeping secrets and she fears the worst is true—that her every decision changes how, and with whom, she spends eternity.

OF SHADOW & STONE:

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Humans are so unobservant. All they have to do is look up… and hope the gargoyles looking back down don’t target them as prey.

Gargoyles were created centuries ago to protect mankind, but something went horribly wrong. Now only the sentinel—a mortal chosen to control the stone beasts—stands between them and their human prey.

When the latest sentinel is killed, Kate Mercer is destined to take his place. But Kate has enough going on in her life—like a skyrocketing film career, a delusional ex-boyfriend, and a crazed stalker who will stop at nothing to get to her. But the powers that be have decided, and Kate is transported to Shadow Wood, a mysterious castle that serves as a sanctuary for the supernatural. Although beautiful, Shadow Wood is no safe place for a mere mortal. Yet Kate is drawn not only to the gargoyles but also Ian McGuire, a charming novelist who might be in the greatest danger of all.

As Kate decides whether to accept the most perilous role of her life, she discovers there are more secrets than answers within the castle’s walls. Her survival and Ian’s depend on her ability to master the gargoyles before time runs out. Is fate really cast in stone?

I admit that of all the supernatural beings, I have a thing for witches over everything else. Swish a wand, a little incantation, and BOOM! Laundry is done. Food is made. Whatever was broken is now fixed. Okay, so that’s just the domestic side of things. I’m sure we’d all come up with more useful, if not somewhat nefarious spells. The person who leaves shopping carts to bang into other cars when the return cart area is RIGHT THERE? Yep. That car would get ALL the dings.

So yeah, I guess you’d say I’d be a good witch. Nothing too dark. Well, except for the karma bus. I’d probably cast a spell for some people to ride that in the worst stop & go traffic for quite a while.

So with my love for witches, it’s no surprise that I’ve written a book—my first, actually—that is about witches. THE BOOK OF LOST SOULS is available for a free download for a VERY short time as part of a promo. Disclosure? You have to sign up for my newsletter to download it.

THE BOOK OF LOST SOULS isn’t the only book you can download, though. And, disclosure, you’ll have to sign up for those authors’ mailing lists, too.

Here’s a link to the promotion (but come back to this page, I have even more recommendations for books, movies, and TV shows for all you fellow witch fans)

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Witches’ Night Book Promotion page

But hurry! The promotion ends May 13th. After that, you won’t be able to download any of the books.

Here’s the rundown on THE BOOK OF LOST SOULS:

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When teen witch Ivy MacTavish changes a lizard into her date for a Halloween dance, everything turns to chaos. And when no one is powerful enough to transform him back except Ivy, it sparks the rumor: Like father, like daughter. Ivy has heard it all before – that her father, who left when she was seven – was involved with the darkest of magic.

Making the rumors worse, someone uses an evil spell book to bring back two of history’s most nefarious killers. Ivy’s got a simple plan to set things right: find the real dark spell caster, steal the book, and reverse the spell. No problem! But she’ll have to deal with something more dangerous than murderous spirits that want her and her friends dead: the school’s resident bad boy and hotter-than-brimstone demon, Nick Marcelli. Nick’s offering Ivy more than his help with recovering the missing book – he’s offering her a way to ditch her scaly reputation as a lizard-lover. Demons are about as hard to handle as black magic, and as Ivy soon discovers, it’s going to take more than a lot of luck and a little charm if she wants to survive long enough to clear her status as a dark witch, get a warm-blooded boyfriend, and have her former date back to eating meal worms before the week’s end.

You can skip the promo if you’d like to support me and buy the book instead (no signing up for a newsletter):

Available at these retailers:

Amazon   B&N   iTunes   Kobo   Books A Million

If that’s not enough witchy goodness, how about this—I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite books, movies, and shows where witches rule.

TV Shows:

Bewitched

Charmed

Movies:

Practical Magic. I just love Sandra Bullock

The Craft

Season of the Witch

The Blair Witch Project

The Witches of Eastwick (an oldie, but still one of my favs)

Harry Potter (all of them)

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Hocus Pocus (Amok, amok, amok!)

The Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

Books:

Harry Potter (all of them. Yes, they’re my favorite)

Hex Hall

A Discovery of Witches

Wicked

The Witching Hour

Demon Glass

Dresden Files

How about you? What movies, TV shows, and books about witches would you recommend? Leave them in the comments below so others may enjoy them as well.

Winter is being a bit stubborn here on the east coast. Reports of blizzards, colder than normal temps means many of us would rather stay inside. What better way to spend it than with a cup of hot chocolate, a great book, and a companion. Here’s my favorite reading companion:

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First up, a special offer for Amazon Prime Reading program members. For a few months, you can read THE HAUNTING SEASON for FREE! Yep. Free. Just click on the book link, and if you’re already a Prime Reading Program subscriber, you’ll see the option READ FOR FREE.

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Be careful what you let in…

Siler House has stood silent beneath Savannah’s moss-draped oaks for decades. Notoriously haunted, it has remained empty until college-bound Jess Perry and three of her peers gather to take part in a month-long study on the paranormal. Jess, who talks to ghosts, quickly bonds with her fellow test subjects. One is a girl possessed. Another just wants to forget. The third is a guy who really knows how to turn up the August heat, not to mention Jess’s heart rate…when he’s not resurrecting the dead.

The study soon turns into something far more sinister when they discover that Siler House and the dark forces within are determined to keep them forever. In order to escape, Jess and the others will have to open themselves up to the true horror of Siler House and channel the very evil that has welcomed them all.

Already read THE HAUNTING SEASON and want more? There’s a sequel. Grab

DIARY OF THE DAMNED here.

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“Allison said that, in time, he’d come for you. For what it’s worth, Evy, I believe her.”

Evy Breen has worked hard to forget her past. She’s changed her appearance and moved from her hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Knoxville, Tennessee, where she does her best to fit in.
Evy’s past catches up with her when she finds a package on her apartment doorstep. The package has no postmark, no return address. Inside is a note… and the diary of Evy’s missing best friend, Allison.
  The diary contains everything about their friendship, the bullying they endured, and Allison’s confinement at a psychiatric hospital for schizophrenia. Except Allison wasn’t schizophrenic. Allison was suffering from demonic possession.
According to the note, that same demon now has its sights set on Evy. The mysterious sender claims that, despite sliding into madness and depression, Allison inserted clues into her diary that might save Evy’s life.
As Evy reads her friend’s diary, she discovers secrets that Allison kept from her—the incidents surrounding the gruesome death of a former classmate and the truth behind a government agency more interested in embracing a demon than in exorcising it.
If Evy is to survive, she must return home. There, she must confront a life she prefers to forget and fight off an ancient and powerful demon set on revenge—if only she can decipher the clues her friend left behind.

 

Got Gargoyles?

No? Pick up OF SHADOW & STONE for just a $1.49 for your Kindle.

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Humans are so unobservant. All they have to do is look up… and hope the gargoyles looking back down don’t target them as prey.

Gargoyles were created centuries ago to protect mankind, but something went horribly wrong. Now only the sentinel—a mortal chosen to control the stone beasts—stands between them and their human prey.

When the latest sentinel is killed, Kate Mercer is destined to take his place. But Kate has enough going on in her life—like a skyrocketing film career, a delusional ex-boyfriend, and a crazed stalker who will stop at nothing to get to her. But the powers that be have decided, and Kate is transported to Shadow Wood, a mysterious castle that serves as a sanctuary for the supernatural. Although beautiful, Shadow Wood is no safe place for a mere mortal. Yet Kate is drawn not only to the gargoyles but also Ian McGuire, a charming novelist who might be in the greatest danger of all.

As Kate decides whether to accept the most perilous role of her life, she discovers there are more secrets than answers within the castle’s walls. Her survival and Ian’s depend on her ability to master the gargoyles before time runs out. Is fate really cast in stone?

And if psychological thrillers thrill you like they do me, then you’ll want to pick up Courtney Evan Tate’s brand new SUCH DARK THINGS.

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Dr. Corinne Cabot is living the American dream. She’s a successful ER physician in Chicago who’s married to a handsome husband. Together they live in a charming house in the suburbs. But appearances can be deceiving—and what no one can see is Corinne’s dark past. Troubling gaps in her memory mean she recalls little about a haunting event in her life years ago that changed everything.

She remembers only being in the house the night two people were found murdered. Her father was there, too. Now her father is in prison; she hasn’t been in contact in years. Repressing that terrifying memory has caused Corinne moments of paranoia and panic. Sometimes she thinks she sees things that aren’t there, hears words that haven’t been spoken. Or have they? She fears she may be losing her mind, unable to determine what’s real and what’s not.

So when she senses her husband’s growing distance, she thinks she’s imagining things. She writes her suspicions off to fatigue, overwork, anything to explain what she can’t accept—that her life really isn’t what it seems.psycho

 

 

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Since it’s nearing Halloween I thought we’d have a little fun with words.

Let’s start with the word dead. Ever wonder about where the expressions dead ahead, dead last, or dead meat came from? Well, thanks to the Free Dictionary, now you do.

How about the word skeleton? Sure, we might all know what it means when someone has a skeleton in their closet (or cupboard), and that a skeleton crew means that a minimal amount of people are working during a shift to keep a business running, but there’s also skeleton at the feast.

“Every time I have dinner with Reggie, it’s like there’s a skeleton at the feast.”

Now there’s a fun one. What does it mean? No, it’s not that Reggie is thin or that he doesn’t eat. It means that Reggie isn’t a cheerful or fun dinner date. In our example, Reggie spends most of the dinner complaining about his life and his problems. Maybe Reggie wants you to fix his problems. Maybe he just wants to be miserable and he wants you to be miserable, too.

Mwahahahahaha!

But we’re on to Reggie. He can’t scare us. Let’s have some word fun, shall we?

Since we’re not blind as a bat, we see that Reggie is most likely bat-shit crazy for expecting us to listen to his problems all the time and look to us to either fix them or join in. We realize that Reggis is… an emotional vampire! Yep, he’ll drain the life out of us, turn us into an imprisoned zombie if we don’t break the spell he has on us.

I hear you booing. Clean up, isle 13!

But sir, we don’t have an isle 13.

*cue creepy music*

Of course, there are other Halloween-ish idioms. Some will inevitably come back to haunt me. Others might seem hauntingly familiar, but give the devil his due, will you?

Okay, okay! While my examples might not be scary good, they’re at least frightfully clean.

What turn of a phrase or idioms do you have for Halloween? Use them in a sentence in the replies.

Yes, yes. I DID use the words diabolical and good next to each other.

For the entire month of October, my publisher, Skyscape is running an ebook sale on both The Haunting Season and Of Shadow & Stone. 

I don’t have control over when these titles are on sale, and this is the cheapest I’ve seen them in… I don’t even remember when they were last this reasonable! So go grab them both if you haven’t already read them. And if you have, tell a friend or three.

THE HAUNTING SEASON

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Be careful what you let in…

Siler House has stood silent beneath Savannah’s moss-draped oaks for decades. Notoriously haunted, it has remained empty until college-bound Jess Perry and three of her peers gather to take part in a month-long study on the paranormal. Jess, who talks to ghosts, quickly bonds with her fellow test subjects. One is a girl possessed. Another just wants to forget. The third is a guy who really knows how to turn up the August heat, not to mention Jess’s heart rate…when he’s not resurrecting the dead.

The study soon turns into something far more sinister when they discover that Siler House and the dark forces within are determined to keep them forever. In order to escape, Jess and the others will have to open themselves up to the true horror of Siler House and channel the very evil that has welcomed them all.[image error]

 

OF SHADOW & STONE

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Humans are so unobservant. All they have to do is look up… and hope the gargoyles looking back down don’t target them as prey.

Gargoyles were created centuries ago to protect mankind, but something went horribly wrong. Now only the sentinel—a mortal chosen to control the stone beasts—stands between them and their human prey.

When the latest sentinel is killed, Kate Mercer is destined to take his place. But Kate has enough going on in her life—like a skyrocketing film career, a delusional ex-boyfriend, and a crazed stalker who will stop at nothing to get to her. But the powers that be have decided, and Kate is transported to Shadow Wood, a mysterious castle that serves as a sanctuary for the supernatural. Although beautiful, Shadow Wood is no safe place for a mere mortal. Yet Kate is drawn not only to the gargoyles but also Ian McGuire, a charming novelist who might be in the greatest danger of all.

As Kate decides whether to accept the most perilous role of her life, she discovers there are more secrets than answers within the castle’s walls. Her survival and Ian’s depend on her ability to master the gargoyles before time runs out. Is fate really cast in stone?[image error]