Halloween Blog Hop: MUSIC REVIEW of Midnight Syndicate's A Ghostly Gathering

Greetings,

I know many out there feel a sense of melancholy as Halloween draws to a close. But fear thee not. The Christmas holiday and winter solstice has a long history of being a time when friends and family would gather to celebrate good tidings, cheer, and yes, ghostly tales. Therefore I feel that bringing you this review of Midnight Syndicate's latest effort at this particular time rather appropriate.


Team Syndicate (Ed Douglas and Gavin Goszka) has been churning out creepy musical feasts for the ears and imagination since the 1990s, each recording offering a new theme and journey for the listener. And they continue to not disappoint.
With  A Ghostly Gathering, Midnight Syndicate crafts symphonic landscapes (and never fear...these landscapes are not the kind that put you to sleep...just the opposite, actually), giving traditional Christmas carols (and some new ones written by Douglas and Goszka) their own twist. Hearing some of the tracks (for example, their version of "Greensleeves") does offer the listener a glimpse of the olden days of Christmas, when telling ghostly stories by a roaring fire after a marvelous dinner with all the trimmings. Then there is the rather menacing version of "Up on the Housetop." This definitely isn't the "Up On the Housetop" you likely grew up singing in gradeschool. In fact, "good old Santa Clause" may not be so good. Or it sounds more like Krampus being up on your rooftop. Either way, you absolutely DO NOT want this individual coming down your chimney! And yes, there is a song involving Krampus, written by Douglas himself, titled "Night of Krampus." There is also a song called "Little Helpers", another song that hints at menace and mischief on the part of the Christmas elves.

The soundtrack of A Ghostly Gathering as a whole ranges from dark and sinister to absolutely beautiful and symphonic while painting a picture of a vast wintry landscape with the moon high above and a medieval castle in the distance. As I said earlier, I was far from disappointed with this latest effort and I highly recommend picking up A Ghostly Gathering this holiday season.

Of course, you can pick it up on Amazon, but I always encourage purchasing directly from the artist.
Midnight Syndicate Official Website

Midnight Syndicate Official Store 


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Halloween Blog Hop: Exploring the History of Witchcraft in Salem and Elsewhere or "Burn the Witch?"

Greetings and welcome to Day 3 of the Halloween Blog Hop.

And Happy Halloween!

When I was invited to participate in this blog hop, I wanted to bring to the table a subject that often seems misunderstood by the modern mind. Playing the role of real life "witch" Mary Bliss Parsons for the Depreciation Lands Museum's Cemetery Lantern Tours piqued my interest in this piece of history even more. When we think of witch trials, barbaric mobs of simpletons with their pitchforks, shovels, and torches screaming "burn the witch" as they drag the accused woman from her home is often what comes to mind.
While I'm not saying that there may not be a little truth in that, when you really start looking into things, it becomes obvious that the trials and accusations run far deeper. You also start to recognize what was likely over-dramatized for Hollywood.
For instance, it is often assumed that once someone was accused of witchcraft, they were automatically screwed. This was not always the case. In fact, Mary Bliss Parsons, whom I portrayed, was accused twice and acquitted both times. She and her husband were also able to file a slander suit against her accusers and ended up winning that suit.
It is also often assumed that only women were accused. Not true. Several men were also accused, convicted, and executed for witchcraft.
People also often assume that accused witches were only burned. To that, I say yes and no. In Europe, burning was among the most chosen forms of execution. In early America though, hanging seemed to be more common, according to recent findings I've made.
It is also said that the trials created "mass hysteria" due to the preachings of the clergyman putting fear into the minds of their 17th century parishoners. However, according to Chadwick Hansens's book Witchcraft at Salem, witchcraft was widely practiced throughout Europe and the Americas. Hansen reports that knowledge of witchcraft was as common among 17th century Puritans as it was among Anglicans, Lutherans, Quakers, and Catholics. The "mass hysteria" could also more accurately be described as public excitement. And according to Hansen, this was more due to the already popular fear of witches and witchcraft than it was the preachings of the clergy putting fear in their minds. In fact, Hansen suggests that the clergy was - in fact - chief opponents of the events at Salem, from beginning to end. This includes Cotton Mather. Many may know Mather as the wide-eyed bloodthirsty fanatic of tradition and the driving force behind the events taking place in Salem. But Witchcraft at Salem indicates that he went above and beyond to protect those who were innocent.

The writings of Chadwick Hansen might also shed some light on the story behind Moll Derry, also known as the Monongahela Witch or The Witch of the Revolution. As I state in my article for The Parting of Veils Webzine, Moll Derry was also a historical figure portrayed in the Cemetery Lantern Tours at the museum. Thomas White talks of her in his book Witches of Pennsylvania: Occult History and Lore. 
Derry was born in Germany during the year 1760. During the Revolutionary War, she moved to America with her husband, who was a Hessian soldier.
After the war ended, they moved to Fayette County in the 1790s. It is said that Derry lived in Georges Township until her death from old age in 1843 (which would have made her 83 at the time of her death).

Throughout her lifetime, Derry was said to have told fortunes, removed hexes, and cured ailments. There is even a story of how she tried to help a young woman by warning that young woman of what seemed to be an abusive fiance. Unfortunately, the young woman did not listen and she was later found dead. Derry was also said to have a vengeful side to her, and pity the fools that dared cross her. There are many stories of curses and affliction place upon those that angered Derry, from farmers having their livestock mysteriously perish to men that tormented her having their lives cut short by hanging.
Either way, her reputation as "the most well-known witch of the western side of the [Pennsylvania] state" made her a legend long before her earthly life ended.
In my article, I share my own wonder at how in a time and place when such practices were said to have been severely frowned upon, how did Derry - a supposed well-known witch - manage to slip through the cracks without any legal trouble? At least none that has been found recorded. Perhaps people did fear 'crossing her,' but it is also possible that perhaps witchcraft, as Hansen suggests, was a more common practice than many tend to believe. But at the same time, not everyone was as fortunate as Derry. So why them and not her?

I am going to continue researching this further and will bring you all more info as I go.

For the second part of this article, I will go back in time even further. Since I have learned to spin yarn and thread on a drop spindle and am currently learning how to spin on a spinning wheel, I found this article at the American Folkloric Witchcraft blog particularly interesting. The article gets into the Masculine and Feminine mysteries of the craft and the stang and distaff.
When the article gets to the feminine mysteries, the author goes into the following:

"The third branch of witchcraft, and the third use of the stang, is as a traditional woman's tool -- that of the distaff. The older versions of a spinner's distaff was either a two or three pronged "stang" ("stick"). The distaff and spindle were once the main daily working tools of all women...The distaff is a traditional handspinner's tool used for holding raw fibers as they are spun into thread on a spindle.
Sarah Lawless, in her excellent post about magical sticks, suggests from her studies that the distaff/stang wrapped in flax for spinning was mistaken for a broom in folklore and art. Quite possibly. The stang is certainly a tool for travel."

So as I said earlier, I will continue researching all of this and present more information as I go. And as I research history and the events surrounding it, the more I come to recognize how true the following statement is. That history truly is a giant, mysterious labyrinth with many different and unexpected twists and turns.


PS- Don't forget to enter for a chance to win a signed copy of Descent, the first book in my series The Birthrite. The rafflecopter widget is a little further down. :)


Article Sources:

-Mary Bliss Parsons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_%28Bliss%29_Parsons
-Witchcraft at Salem by Chadwick Hansen 
-Sample of Witches of Pennsylvania by Thomas White:
http://www.heraldstandard.com/entertainment/weekend_magazine/new-folklore-book-includes-fayette-county-legends/article_be86eb4c-4f67-534c-a068-37e5078168ad.html 
-American Folkloric Witchcraft: Stang and Distaff
- Salem Withch Trials:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials
- Parting of Veils Webzine: Haunted Monongahela
http://partingofveilswebzine.blogspot.com/2015/10/haunted-monongahela-witch-of.html




Jump and hop from blog to blog with some awesome authors…with this Halloween Blog Hop.
http://francishpowellauthor.weebly.com/halloween-blog-hop.html


*Enter for a chance to win a free signed paperback copy of my book Descent (The Birthrite Series, #1) until November 5!

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Halloween Blog Hop: Interview with Amanda M. Lyons



For Day 2 of the Halloween Blog Hop, I am interviewing author, Amanda M. Lyons. In a world where paranormal romance has been saturated with brooding vampires with six packs, Ms. Lyons is carving her own niche, harkening back to the gothic vampire novels of the 1990s. So read on and also stop by her blog today where she also features an interview with yours truly. :)

And don't forget to enter for a chance to win a copy of DESCENT, the first novel in my series, The Birthrite at the end of this interview (the giveaway is running until November 5).

So without further ado, here is Amanda M. Lyons.



TA: So first, welcome to my blog! For those that may just be stumbling upon your work, introduce and tell a little about yourself.

AL: Thanks for having me, Tiffany! I'm Amanda M. Lyons and I'm an author and editor with J. Ellington Ashton Press, a mom to two kiddos, and a partner to another author, Todd Misura. Most of what I write is horror, right now I have a gothic vampire series out called Shades of Midnight. Book 1 is called Eyes Like Blue Fire, Book two is called Water Like Crimson Sorrow and the third book, which will be coming out soon, is called Cool Green Waters. If you’re wondering what they’re like think something like Anne Rice with just a bit of difference and more horror. I’ve had it compared to a gothic fairy tale for grownups actually. I also have several short stories out in anthologies at JEA, a collaborative vampire horror novel called Feral Hearts with Ed Cardillo, catt dahman, Michael Fisher, Jim Goforth, and Mark Woods as well as a novelette called Wendy Won’t Go which is a ghost story with a twist.


 

TA: Now among your many written works, the one you are currently working on is the third novel in the gothic vampire series, The Shades of Midnight. What inspired this particular story and the main character Katja?


AL: Katja is the main character of the entire series, a female vampire who’s struggled with her sense of place and importance even in her immortal life. During the course of the series she’s finding that she’s much stronger and more powerful than she imagined and that Anton, the vampire who changed her, is far more complex than he seemed even in the time she knew him. This involves evil vampires, necromancers, ghouls, half vampires, werewolves, ghosts, bloodshed and madness.
All of the books ask some big questions about identity, fears, perception and the way we respond to trauma, all of them rose out of some events in my own life and my need to find reason in the chaos. 




TA: In an industry that is saturated with paranormal stories featuring vampires, what can you say sets Shades of Midnight apart from the others? In other words, how would you describe it to someone fearing that it might be another Twilight knockoff?


AL: There’s nothing at all Twilight about these vampires, there are some more human aspects to their character, but they’re killers, things which must thrive on the life of others and they all deal with that in their own way. For Katja it’s about granting mercy and survival, for Marie it’s about reveling in the horror and brutality, for Mateo it’s about punishing the world for its duplicity and the marks it has left on him, for Trudeau it means being something more than man, and for Delamorte it’s about seizing power over his fate. This is gothic horror, yes there are emotional bits, but no, there are no sparkling Edwards and moping Bellas. Instead expect ghouls shambling around to the horror of others, corpses raised from the dead to gain revenge on the living, ghosts haunting with their bloody tableau, and tales of nighttime encounters with vampires both subtle and vicious, also sex.
I think it actually suits its own mini subgenre, gothic vampire fairy tale for adults, because it doesn’t fit into any established mold, it’s not 30 Days of Night, nor Interview with the Vampire or any of a thousand PNR vampire novels you can think up. It lies between all of those things and has its own story. If you can’t handle a bit of a romantic plot don’t bother, but by the same token don’t expect brooding vampires with six packs either. Shades of Midnight is about Katja’s exploration of self and the darkness she finds along with her strength, but it’s not going to suit people who can’t handle the gothic vampires of the 90s, those books were equally monstrous and emotive, historical and modern all at once. They never set out to drown in you in blood or sex but gave you judicious helpings of many things instead, focusing on story and character driven plot. That’s what I set out to do and then add a bit of my own tone and style to it. 





TA: Are any of the characters in the series based off of anyone you know in real life?


AL: Actually a lot of the characters run from aspects of me at various points in my life, though chunks of people did end up in some of them. Raven has a bit of my fiancĂ© Todd in him for instance.  



TA: Going into the third book, what can fans expect?

AL: Cool Green Waters takes place after some pretty big events in the first two books. A major enemy was defeated, but it left Katja and Raven with a great deal to sort out. Raven has a chunk of the vampire who created Katja, Anton, blended with his own soul and since that piece has come forward he’s been struggling with his identity, which complicates their relationship a great deal. On top of this, Kaja is still trying to track down all of the things Anton left behind when he died. After tackling Marie Gaston she’s not about to leave things up to chance, so she sends out her companions Zero and Michael to find the only other vampire apprentice Katja knows still lives, Mateo. Is he good or is he evil? Is there maybe more there than it seems at first glance? Mateo owns a BDSM club, not the sort we see in the real world, but a place that really does thrive on intensity and sometimes brutal acts, but how much of this is him? Who is the mysterious redheaded woman who lures Michael and Zero inside? And who is this stranger haunting Katja’s dreams? Is he a new danger?




TA: Was there a specific author or book that inspired you growing up?


AL: A lot of them actually, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. I used to eat up all kinds of those spooky story books and the ones about the paranormal when I was younger. I was first introduced to the authors via movies and stories I’d read at the time. I had started Stephen King’s books by the time I was 12.



TA: And since it's the Halloween season, what scares you?

AL: Death, the idea of not getting to do all of the things in life that you intend to do before your time is through as well as the seemingly random and instantaneous nature of it as a whole.



TA: If you could choose any character from any of your written works to materialize and come to life in our world, who would it be?


AL: Hmm, I write horror, that might not be the best thing for me, especially considering some of the characters are less than positive. I don’t think I would actually. 





TA: Finally, what's next for you and where can potential new readers find you?
 
AL: I have another book in Shades of Midnight in progress called Hollow Black Corners of the Soul which finishes out some of the elements in Cool Green Waters and that might take another year or two to complete. I’m also hoping to get Other Dangers, my apocalyptic horror novel, out in the next year or so, that will be another series which might appeal more to those who enjoy horror with fantasy and horror elements in them. I also have several anthologies that will be coming out in the coming months from J. Ellington Ashton Press. In addition to Amazon and Goodreads you can find out about me through my website at www.amandamlyons.weebly.com where you can also find links to some of my other social media sites.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7035440.Amanda_M_Lyons



Jump and hop from blog to blog with some awesome authors…with this Halloween Blog Hop.
http://francishpowellauthor.weebly.com/halloween-blog-hop.html


*Enter for a chance to win a free signed paperback copy of my book Descent (The Birthrite Series, #1) until November 5!

a Rafflecopter giveaway










 

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