CarrollBooks

Stephanie Carroll - Author of historical and women's fiction - Author of A White Room and The Binding of Saint Barbara - www.stephaniecarroll.net

Farewell Tumblr!

Hi All. I’m afraid this is going to have to be my final Tumblr post and I am going to have to say farewell. I won’t be posting here any longer but please come find me at my blogs The Unhinged Historian http://unhingedhistorian.blogspot.com and Unhinged & Empowered Navy Wives http://unhingednavywives.blogspot.com as well as on my website www.stephaniecarroll.net and on Goodreads!

Please also search for me on Facebook and Twitter and keep an eye out for my debut novel A White Room which comes out in the Summer of 2013.


Farewell and I hope to see anyone who finds me here somewhere else in the inter-world. =)


Stephanie

The Origin of Horror Fiction and Techniques for Scaring Your Readers

For Halloween, I’ve written How to Get the Scary in Your Scary Story as a guest blog on the book review blog Lost to Books written by paranormal romance author Sienna Logan. Below is a little preview but to read the entire post, you’ll need to click on over to Lost to Books.

Happy Halloween!

photo credit: Stephanie Massaro via photopin cc

The Origins of Horror

Most people probably have the impression that horror is a genre that reflects the extreme side of scary stories, meaning there are other genres, but as I researched this, it turns out that’s not quite the case.

According to the Horror Writer’s Association, any story meant to frighten the reader is considered horror fiction. However, in the 1980s and 1990s the horror genre became stereotyped following formulas debuted by Stephen King. In order to avoid the hype, modern day writers who technically write horror fiction label their works under another genre. For example, by the horror definition, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is horror fiction.

The roots of horror fiction come from ancient and folklore tales mostly dealing with religious fears, including death, the afterlife, evil, demons, and the devil. The genre of horror fiction specialized in the 18th century with Gothic Horror and continued in the 19th century with such classics as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Even more interesting, original horror targeted the female audience and usually included a female protagonist. Learn more at the Wikipedia Horror Entry.

Scary Techniques

Continued at Lost to Books. Check out Sienna’s blog and follow if you like it.

(Source: unhingedhistorian.blogspot.com)

Presenting The Liebster Blog Award

I hope my regular readers don’t mind my forgoing my weekly post to pass along a little love to my fellow bloggers because I’ve got The Liebster Blog bug. So if you have a little free time check out some of my favorite blogs and if you like them follow and help build their readership. If you’ve ventured to my blog because of the following links, please peruse at your leisure, and I hope you enjoy it enough to follow. I’ll be back to regular bizarre, gothic, and magical historical fiction posts next week.

What in the World is The Liebster Blog Award?

photo credit: ObscuredDreamer via photopin cc

The Liebster Blog Award is believed to have originated in Germany. Depending on who you ask, Liebster means love, favorite, or dearest. The idea is to showcase blogs with less than 200/300 followers (amount depending on who you ask).

The blogger who nominates you posts your blog on their blog, thereby sharing their readers and when you nominate others, you are getting the attention of their readers. It works too. My nomination lead to a record number of page views for my blog in the first week.

Feel free to research this, if you feel nervous. I know I did because having a stranger claim to award you something, screams scam, but I researched it and found this is the case. It’s just an attempt for bloggers to virally help out other bloggers. 



photo credit: violet.blue via photopin cc

Thank you to Author C.P. Lesley for my nomination. Visit her blog Historical Novelist Attacks the Internet Age – A blog featuring her trials as she concurs the internet and social media after having published her first historical novel.

 Here are the rules:

  • Choose five blogs that have less than 300 followers to showcase on your blog and inform them via the comment sections of their blogs.
  • Post the award and list the bloggers you’ve nominated in a blog post on your blog as I’ve done here, explaining what in the world The Liebster Blog Award is.
  • Showcase and thank the blogger who nominated you on your post by listing their blog.

And The Nominees Are: 

The following blogs were chosen because I personally follow them for their quality and because I personally found them interesting, fun, and useful. Check them out!

photo credit: Pedro Vezini via photopin cc

Foes of Reality – Authors Steven M. Long, Dan Berger, and Miranda Weingartner’s science fiction and fantasy review blog. If you like the fantasy and magic in my blog then you will love this blog, which is really well done. It’s growing fast, so hitch on quick for a fantastical ride and if you really want a treat, make sure to check out each author’s writings here - these authors have some pretty wild and fun stories.

Democracy Sometimes –Activism, cultural criticism, feminism, reflections on state of the left, queer issues, Palestine, dealing with breast cancer, and the occasional random thought of Author Kate Raphael. This author’s upcoming title Murder Under the Bridge is a fresh and amazing story about a Palestinian female detective. Much of this author’s novels were influenced by her own experiences in an Israeli immigration prison!  

One Finger Typing – California author Steve Masover’s ideas, meditations, and rants on books writing, culture, technology, and politics. If you love Cali and its lesser known landscapes, check out his short stories and particularly the creepy Martin’s Pond available for free on Smashwords.


Writing Women’sHistory – Nonfiction author Jennifer Newby’s blog about the experiences of women in history. This blog is great for women’s historical research, which as a women’s historical fiction author, I do a lot of, and am always on the lookout for great resources. 

Historical FictionNotebook – A place for history, historical fiction, and other random reads. This is a great blog for reviews and information about historical fiction. This blogger even gets review copies direct from authors so she’s got some great stuff to check out.


I hope my regular readership enjoys these blogs and I wish all my fellow blogger luck in building our readership up past that golden number.

(Source: unhingedhistorian.blogspot.com)

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, a magnificent work about a group of Judean women surviving Roman attacks in 70 c.e. in an ancient world where magic and demons were a part of everyday life. Learn more at http://alicehoffman.com/.

If you like the books I recommend and write about and write, follow my blog at http://unhingedhistorian.blogspot.com or visit my website at www.stephaniecarroll.net.

Also @CarrollBooks on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Tumblr, and more.