Every October, Teri Polen generously hosts Bad Moon Rising, a series of daily posts featuring horror, sci-fi, and paranormal books from the Indie author community. Teri never includes her own wonderful books in this series and so this year I invited Teri over to Roberta Writes for an Appendix to Bad Moon Rising post featuring her horror novel, Sarah.

Introducing Teri Polen

Thanks so much for hosting me today, Robbie!  For those of you not familiar with my blog, throughout the month of October I host Bad Moon Rising, which features a horror, paranormal, supernatural, or thriller indie author daily.  Each author completes a short interview with both fun and writing-related questions and chooses one of their books to highlight.  When Robbie asked if I’d like to answer my own BMR interview questions, I jumped at the chance—especially since my first book, Sarah, is FREE TODAY ONLY on Amazon! 

Sarah is a young adult horror story, but there are also plenty of comedic moments.  Two of my friends are very much not horror fans, books or movies, but out of loyalty both read it and survived just fine.  Strangly enough, the story was inspired by my black cat, Shadow.  We’d just moved into a new house where no one had ever lived, and Shadow would sit at the bottom of the stairs, fur bristling, staring and growling at something we couldn’t see.  It got the wheels turning and made me wonder how a house could be haunted if there were no previous occupants.  And the story was born from that little nugget.  I mentioned Shadow in the acknowledgements and also wrote a black cat, Eby (short for Ebony), into the story.  He deserved the credit. 

Even if you’re not a horror fan, I hope you’ll take a chance on Sarah and download it for FREE today! 

I must add that I have read Sarah and loved it!

What’s your favorite season of American Horror Story?

That’s a difficult question to answer.  The first season, Murder House, was a favorite for a couple reasons—I’m a Dylan McDermott fan, and I was stupid excited a show like that was finally on TV.  I was skeptical about the addition of Lady Gaga in season five, Hotel, but she did an outstanding job.  I adored season eight, Apocalypse, because it brought the witches back into the mix, and Cody Fern gave a mesmerizing performance as Michael Langdon, the antichrist.

If you watch horror movies, are you the person who yells at the characters, covers your eyes, or falls asleep?

I’m definitely the person who yells at the characters over their idiotic actions.  Of course it’s a good idea to check out the basement/attic/outside by yourself.  Then I usually start laughing and cheering for the villain because the naïve characters got what was coming to them.  I’m aware I have a dark, twisty sense of humor that not everyone appreciates.

Do you ever see figures in your peripheral vision?

Yes.  Sometimes they’re real.  For years (and as recently as last month), hubby or my sons tried to scare me by jumping out of the closet, from behind furniture, etc., but it never worked.  I’m not a nervous type of person.  Sometimes I see things in my peripheral vision that aren’t my hubby or sons.  Who knows what they might be?

If you decided to write a spinoff of a side character, who would you choose?

I didn’t even need to think about this one.  It would be Finn, the best friend of my main character, Cain, in Sarah.  He’s blatantly honest, eternally loyal, and has a soft spot for Cain’s little sister, Maddie.  I also never knew what would come out of his mouth.  He was snarky from the beginning and gave me plenty of laughs.

What do you do to get inside your characters’ heads?

Sometimes my characters are pretty forthcoming about who they are and how their minds work.  When they’re stubborn, I use a technique I learned at a writer’s retreat.  I interview them.  It’s surprising what they’ll reveal. 

What are you working on now?

I just turned in the sequel to my third book, Subject A36, a young adult sci-fi/dystopia.  It’s releasing later than I’d like (May 2022), especially for a sequel, but writing during the pandemic was a struggle for me.  I wanted to make sure these characters were able to tell their story.  I’ve had another story floating around in my head for the past two years, a YA supernatural/horror, so I’m working on that right now.

Thank you, Teri, for joining in this Appendix to Bad Moon Rising, I really enjoyed your responses to the questions.

Sarah by Teri Polen

The Blurb

Seventeen-year-old horror fan Cain Shannon thought helping a ghost find her killers would be the supernatural adventure of a lifetime. Now, he just hopes to survive long enough to protect his family and friends from her.

A bet between friends goes horribly wrong, resulting in Sarah’s death. When she returns to seek justice against those responsible, Cain agrees to help her. But when he discovers Sarah has been hijacking his body, he realizes she wants retribution instead of justice.

Terrified of what could have happened when he wasn’t in control, Cain commands Sarah to leave his house – but exorcising her isn’t that easy. She retaliates against her murderers in bloody, horrific ways, each death making her stronger, then sets her sights on Cain. With the help of friends, Cain fights to save himself and his loved ones and searches for a way to stop Sarah before she kills again.

Purchase Sarah by Teri Polen

Link to Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Teri-Polen-ebook/dp/B01NBIFRF4

My review of Sarah

I listened to the audio book of Sarah by Teri Polen. I thought the reader did a good job and narrated the story at a good pace and with sufficient expression and interest factor to keep the listener engaged.

I thought this book was really creepy. It is a YA book and the characters are all older teenagers which I think worked well for this plot as teenagers, particularly males, do not see risk and are likely to react to situations with a lot more bravado than an adult would in the same circumstances. The almost underhanded and devious way the ghost of Sarah, a murdered school girl, introduces herself to Cain, a jock with a kind heart, lets you know in a subtle way right up front that this is not a particularly friendly ghost and that there is more to her than initially meets the eye. 

Cain has assumed the role of man of the house after the death of his father and is protective of his Mother and much younger sister. His compassion, youth and naivety does not stand him good stead in identifying the potential threat posed by Sarah although, as he finds out more about her death, he gradually realises that she is after retribution against her killers and is not looking for help to move on from her current status.

The author’s descriptions of Sarah as she becomes more and more evil and travels further down the path of revenge are very vivid and disturbing. Sarah’s evil thoughts and deeds are reflected in her ghostly face and form. 

Fortunately for Cain, he has good friends on his side in the form of Finn, an intelligent and clear minded childhood friend, and Lindsey, a lovely young lady with an aunt who deals in the occult and is able to provide talismans and assistance in fighting Sarah as she becomes more deranged and angry. The clairvoyant aunt was a bit convenient but I did not detract from the story for me.

Thank you to 4Wills Publishing and Nonnie Jules for this wonderful first post for my A Ghost and His Gold Halloween book tour. The cover of this book recently won the Rave Reviews Book Club Writers Conference and Book Expo and this post is all about the thought process behind this cover.

Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

I am late – like the White Rabbit

We have a lovely park near our home. Sometimes, Terence and I go walking in the park. As is is in a residential suburb and is adjacent to several houses, there are a few back yard doors that lead from peoples homes into the park. These pictures were taken in March when the Cosmos was in flower.

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Whew! Made it!

White Rabbit picture credits: https://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/resources/pictures/white-rabbit/

You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2021/10/07/lake-superior-railroad-museum/

My blogging friend Rebecca Budd is currently participating in a #KaramazovReadalong, you can read about it here: https://ontheroadbookclub.com/2021/07/27/karamazovreadalong-day-1-who-is-fyodor/.

The reading group are reading one chapter a day of this book and it inspired me to tackle Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri in the same manner.

Canto 6 has Dante and Virgil passing into the third circle of Hell which is guarded by Cerberus. In Greek mythology, Cerberus is referred to as the hound of Hades and is depicted as a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld so that the spirits cannot escape. As the third circle is inhabited by gluttons, Cerberus with his multiple mouths and endless hunger is a suitable guardian.

The naked spirits lie on the ground rolling in the mud like pigs which a stinking slush falls from the sky. Cerberus stands over the howling spirits and barks furiously at them, clawing and biting those within his reach.

Cerberus requires a concession for each of his mouths to allow passersby passage through the third circle. Virgil satisfies this requirement by throwing the revolting slimy mud into his mouth.

As Dante and Virgil cross the swamp, one of the gluttons sits up and speaks to Dante. The spirit is Ciacco, the Hog, who claims to be from Florence and to know Dante. Dante is sympathetic to Ciacco’s fate and, knowing that the Damned can foresee the future, asks him why Florence is so divided and what the city’s fate is. Ciacco makes a prediction about a future war and defeat with one party being expelled. Dante asks about the location of certain famous Florentines and Ciacco tells him they are deeper in Hell.

Virgil tells Dante that Ciacco and the other gluttons will remain where they are until the Last Judgement afterwhich they will feel more pain as well as more pleasure having moved a little closer to perfection.

Here is an extract from Canto 6:

“Cerberus, cruel monster, fierce and strange,
Through his wide threefold throat barks as a dog
Over the multitude immers’d beneath.
His eyes glare crimson, black his unctuous beard,
His belly large, and claw’d the hands, with which
He tears the spirits, flays them, and their limbs
Piecemeal disparts.  Howling there spread, as curs,
Under the rainy deluge, with one side
The other screening, oft they roll them round,
A wretched, godless crew.  When that great worm
Descried us, savage Cerberus, he op’d
His jaws, and the fangs show’d us; not a limb
Of him but trembled.”

I usually post about the Divine Comedy on a Monday, but as author Daniel Kemp has his book Why on promotion for the next few days and I have just read it, it am switching my posts around and will share about Canto 6 of the Divine Comedy on Wednesday. You can read Daniel’s promotional post here: https://theauthordannykemp.com/2021/10/03/free-kindle-8/

What Amazon says

Why? Is a story set in a web of despair, sex, unreachable emotion and love.One man’s crippling injuries, caused by an unprovoked, vicious attack, ruins the lives of everyone around him. This includes Terry Meadows, a nineteen-year-old boy who falls in love with the main character’s daughter Laura, twenty-seven years before the opening of the story.The twisted, interconnecting matrix in which Francis, Laura’s father, lives, destroys and distorts his daughter’s image of life beyond repair. It is a sad tragedy with an unexpected ending.

My review

Why is a most unusual romance between 19-year old Teri and Laura, the young and beautiful daughter of a crippled and vicious gangster. While out on the prowl one evening, Teri picks up an older woman of colour who invites him home for an evening of uncomplicated sex. Sammy is exotic and provocative, and Teri can’t resist. The evening doesn’t turn out as planned when Sammy’s daughter, Laura, and husband, Francis, turn out to be unexpectedly at home.

Teri is lucky to only be ‘carefully’ beaten by Francis’ henchman, Gary. After the two criminals depart, Teri is left with Laura who tells him how her father came to be crippled before she was born, and the details of the twisted sexual games he plays with his wife and her various lovers. Fascinated by Laura and attracted by the life of luxury Francis waves under his nose, Teri starts working for Francis.

Francis is a deeply disturbed and mentally twisted man who take a perverse pleasure in tormenting his already emotionally damaged wife. He is filled with rage and anger at everyone and the world in general, and deliberately tries to play with the minds and emotions of everyone he engages with. Sadly, Francis doesn’t exhibit a single redeeming feature and it is impossible for the reader to pity him, despite his terrible disability.

Laura is disturbed sole. She has a huge heart and lovely personality which is what draws Teri to her. The mental abuse she has experienced her whole life due to her father’s inhuman behaviour and her mother’s bizarre sexual activities are a huge burden on her shoulders. Laura is a victim and her story is compelling. It is impossible not to root for Laura and hope that she is able to conquer her past and many psychological traumas.

Teri is young and misguided at the beginning of this story. He is easily influenced by promises of sex and money and has little conscience about going after both. His character experiences the most growth in this story as he goes from an impetuous and naive youngster to a man who wants to change his life’s path and give his children a better future.

Why is an excellent and complex story which exposes the hypocrisy, debauchery, and corruption that plagues the lifestyles of the world’s most wealthy and influential people.

Purchase Why?: A Complicated Love

Amazon US

Daniel Kemp Amazon Author Page

http://mybook.to/WhyDK

Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

Our base, during our recent short vacation when we visited the Cradle of Mankind was Kloofzig Lodge & Spa. You can learn more about it here: https://guvonhotels.co.za/kloofzicht-lodge/

I can’t tell you anything about the spa as those aren’t my scene and I didn’t visit it, but the food, accommodation, and surroundings were splendid.

Pictures of the hotel:

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Pictures of our room:

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The surrounds:

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You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2021/09/30/duluth-union-station/

My blogging friend Rebecca Budd is currently participating in a #KaramazovReadalong, you can read about it here: https://ontheroadbookclub.com/2021/07/27/karamazovreadalong-day-1-who-is-fyodor/.

The reading group are reading one chapter a day of this book and it inspired me to tackle Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri in the same manner.

Dante and Virgil descend into the Second Circle of Hell and the Reader starts to get an idea of what Hell is all about.

They see the monster, Minos, standing in front of a seemingly endless line of sinners and assigning them their eternal punishment. The sinners confess their sins and Minos then wraps his tail around himself a certain number of times thereby indicating the circle to which they must go. Minos says that Dante may not enter as he is a living soul, but Virgil explains the circumstances and they are allowed to pass into a dark place where torrential rains fall continuously and gales of wind tear through the air.

The souls in this Second Circle of Hell are guilt of being lustful and committing sins of the flesh. In Hell they are punished by being endlessly blown about by stormy winds.

Virgil identifies the souls of Helen of Troy and Cleopatra among those swirling past.

Dante calls out to the souls and he is answered by a lady called Francesca. She tells Dante how, in life, she was married to an elderly deformed man. She falls in love with her husband’s younger brother, Paolo da Rimini. One day while they are sitting reading the story of King Arthur, they read a particularly romantic piece and cannot resist kissing. The book is forgotten and “We read no more that day.”

Dante is again overwhelmed with pity and he faints.

It is quite interesting that some of the adulterers are also suicides and yet they are not sent to the circle deeper in Hell that is reserved for suicides. The reason for this is that in Dante’s description of Hell, a person is judged by the standards of the time period during which he/she lived. Suicide wasn’t considered a sin during classical times but adultery was. Those adulterers from this time who committed suicide are condemned for their adultery only.

Here is a quote from Canto 5:

“The next is she who killed herself through love,

and to Sichaeus’ ashes broke her faith;

the lustful Cleopatra follows her.

See Helen, for whose sake so long a time

of guilt rolled by, and great Achilles see,

who fought with love when at the end of life.

Paris and Tristan see;” and then he showed me,

and pointed out by name, a thousand shades

and more, whom love had from our life cut off.

When I had heard my Leader speak the names

of ladies and their knights of olden times,

pity o’ercame me, and I almost swooned.”

Welcome to Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time).

During our recent trip to Magaliesburg, we visited The Cradle of Mankind which includes Sterkfontein Caves and The Maropeng Visitor Centre.

I wrote about our trip to the Sterkfontein Caves here: https://robertawrites235681907.wordpress.com/2021/09/10/roberta-writes-thursday-doors-exploring-sterkfontein-caves-cradle-of-mankind/

Later that afternoon, we visited Maropeng. This is what the website says:

“The Maropeng Visitor Centre is an award-winning, world-class exhibition, focusing on the development of humans and our ancestors over the past few million years.

Take a journey through time, starting with the formation of the planet and moving all the way through the evolutionary processes that culminated in the world as we know it today.

See fossils, learn about how humankind was born, view stone tools that are up to one million years old, and much more. This self-guided, interactive tour allows you to take all the time you need to ponder humanity’s fascinating origin story.” Read more here: https://www.maropeng.co.za/content/page/maropeng-visitor-centre

The tour starts with an underground boat trip through the four elements, Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind.

The main reason for our visit to Maropeng was to see the artifacts of Lucy.

“Lucy” is the nickname of one of the most well-known human ancestor fossils. The partial skeleton of Lucy was discovered in November 1974  Dr. Donald Johanson and his graduate student, Tom Gray, while walking across 3.2 million year old sediments at the site of Hadar, Ethiopia. You can read more about Lucy here: https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/lucy-a-marvelous-specimen-135716086/

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The other big attraction for me were the Little Foot artifacts.

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“Little Foot”, an extraordinary fossilised skeleton of an early form of Australopithecus, is 3.67-million years old, making it the oldest known hominid from the Cradle of Humankind. The finding of Little Foot, deep inside a Sterkfontein cavern, was one of the most remarkable discoveries ever made in the field of palaeoanthropology. You can read the story of poor Little Foot here: https://www.maropeng.co.za/content/page/little-foot.

Last but not least, I enjoyed this display of the evolution of mankind:

If you are interested in ancient history, you should have a look at Jacqui Murray’s site and books here: https://worddreams.wordpress.com/

Jacqui Murray has two series about ancient man. The first is the Dawn of Humanity series and the second is the Crossroads series. You can find out more about Jacqui’s books here: https://www.amazon.com/Jacqui-Murray/e/B002E78CQQ

If you’d like to join in Thursday Doors, you can do so here: https://nofacilities.com/2021/09/23/superior-street-doors/

Welcome to my stop on the WordCrafter Where Spirits Linger Book Blog tour. You can find the other posts to date here:

Day 1: https://writingtoberead.com/2021/09/20/welcome-to-the-wordcrafter-where-spirits-linger-book-blog-tour/ hosted by Kaye Lynne Booth

Day 2: https://theshowersofblessings.com/2021/09/20/where-spirits-linger-book-blog-tour/ hosted by Miriam Hurdle

Day 3: https://pattysworlds.com/day-3-of-the-wordcrafter-where-spirits-linger-book-blog-tour-blogtour-wordpresswednesday/ Hosted by Patty Fletcher

Today I am delighted to feature Christa Planko, a co-contributor to the WordCrafter Where Spirits Linger Book Blog tour and the winning contributor with her short story, Olde Tyme Village.

Who is Christa Planko, tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m a person who has always loved to write and edit. If you had asked me in grade school what I wanted to be when I grow up, I would have told you then that I wanted to become a writer. I was fortunate to fulfill that dream by becoming a professional copywriter. In my spare time, I also dabble in creative writing.

You seem to be drawn to flash fiction – what attracts you to this form of writing?

My career is in medical communications where the audience consists of busy healthcare professionals. For them, time is of the essence, so writing must be brief, concise, and to the point. Keeping up my practice of word economy and having a busy schedule myself, I naturally gravitate toward shorter forms of writing. Flash fiction stories and short forms of poetry, like haiku and tanka, have become my favorite creative outlets. It’s fun to challenge yourself to tell a story or create a mood within a limited word count.

Your book, CatchUp is written under the name Christa Plunkett. Is that a pen name? Do you find it beneficial to use to different names for your writing?

Yes, Christa Plunkett was a pen name I created when I first started publishing stories. I thought it was what every author was supposed to do and wanted to choose a pen name that sounded close to my actual surname. I visited Ireland several years ago and fell in love with the country and its culture. Not having a strand of Irish DNA to boast of, I found the name “Plunkett,” which has Irish roots and also sounds similar to my own last name. It gave me an opportunity to become Irish in my creative world!

When first seeking to have my creative work published, I wasn’t sure what genre my writing would fall under. So, it was convenient to use a pen name to start. I think I’m still figuring out my voice and what genre I enjoy most.

Tell us about your book, Catch Up. What inspired you to write it? Who is your target market with this book?

Catch Up is a middle-grade novella inspired by the type of character I wished existed when I was thirteen years old. I remember reading middle-grade romance novels from the school library that made me feel bad about myself. The heroines were always beautiful and popular. Their biggest dilemmas were: “Which offer should I accept for my prom date?” Or, “Will I become the next Prom Queen?” What about the ordinary girl next door who was awkward and had issues with body image? That type of girl still has teenage crushes and desires to go to the school dance, but may also have to contend with bullies and taking school work seriously. I think many 13-year-old girls could relate more to a character like that—like Cassie in Catch Up. With her, I didn’t want to go down the dramatic route and show how the repercussions could lead to emotional pain and suicide. I also didn’t want her to overcome the bullies by reporting them at school and dealing with revenge while never learning the biggest lesson: self-love and respect. So, instead, I kept the story light-hearted and humorous. There are moments when you can feel the painful awkwardness Cassie is experiencing, yet she is smart. She understands the psychology that makes the bullies tick, but she is still affected. With a little help from a stylish friend who shows her how to bring out her own natural beauty, Cassie eventually comes to stand on her own two feet and find her confidence. That’s what girls need to see. If they’re being bullied, the problem isn’t them—it’s what’s going on inside the bully’s own psyche. It’s still tough to overcome, but once you get on top of it, you can achieve anything.

Catch Up was intended to be part of a trilogy with two more books I outlined to follow: Break Up and Make Up.  Who knows…I may pick that back up again some day.

What is next for Christa Planko? What are you working on now?

I’m currently working on a romance novel geared toward an adult audience. It takes place in an advertising agency where the dynamic has traditionally been male dominated—think Mad Men. A successful copywriter meets his match who is a promising young female writer. He must work with her while up against office politics, gender politics, and his own career pursuits conflicting with love interest. I’m pretty far along with it and am excited to finish and get it published.

How do you market your writing? Do you use social media?

Oddly enough, I’ve never put much effort into really marketing my writing. Catch Up was the first book I’d ever written for which I established an author page and blog. I didn’t really push sales too much or use social media. This is something I’m looking to get more adept at and leverage more in the days ahead. I’ve created a new site listing all of my published work and it’s a work in progress—as am I as a commercial writer.

About Christa Planko

Christa is a professional writer with a passion for creative expression. She has had her poetry and short stories featured in several publications, including River Poets Journal, Wingless Dreamer, Tanka and Haiku Journals, Rune Bear, Jitter Press, and Every Day Fiction. When she’s not writing, she is likely bicycling, kayaking, or dancing. She currently resides in South Jersey with her 4 feline muses.

https://christascorner.godaddysites.com/about-us

The contributors to Where Spirits Linger anthology

Purchase Where Spirits Linger

Print: https://www.amazon.com/Where-Spirits-Linger-Lynne-Booth/dp/B09DFDDB1Q

Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GNZJVJ5

Book your WordCrafter Blog Tour here: https://writingtoberead.com/wc-book-blog-tours-2/