“Curses” & Paul Kane on Joseph Carrabis
Posted: October 2, 2025 Filed under: Anthology, Blog Tour, Book Promotion, Book Release, Books, Dark fiction, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal, Short Fiction, Stories | Tags: "The Weeping Man, Anthology, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness, Dark fiction, Joseph Carrabis, Paul Kane, WordCrafter Press 3 Comments
Meet the contributing authors and learn about their stories in Curses: Chronicles of Darkness.
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Day 4 of the WordCrafter “Curses” Book Blog Tour
Posted: October 2, 2025 Filed under: Anthology, Author Interview, Blog Tour, Book Promotion, Book Release, Book Sales, Dark fiction, Fiction, Giveaways, Guest Post, Horror, Paranormal, Short Fiction, Stories, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours, WordCrafter Press | Tags: "Roadkill", "The Longspeth Curse", Anthology, C.R. Johansson, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness, Dark fiction, Robert White, Roberta Writes, Short Stories, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours, WordCrafter Press Leave a comment
For the first stop on Day 4 of the WordCrafter Curses Book Blog Tour, we’re over at Roberta Writes, where Robbie Cheadle introduces contributing authors C.R. Johansson and Robert White, with a guest post about the inspiration for his story “The Longspeth Curse”. Please join us in sending off Curses: Chronicles of Darkness, from WordCrafter Press. Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a free digital copy of the anthology, and then drop by our second stop to catch DL Mullan’s interview with Robert White over at Undawnted.
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“Curses” & Molly Ertel on Joseph Carrabis
Posted: October 1, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized 3 CommentsMeet the contributing authors and learn about their stories in Curses: Chronicles of Darkness.
https://josephcarrabis.com/2025/10/01/molly-ertels-clover-in-wordcrafter-press-curses-anthology/
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Day 3 of the WordCrafter “Curses” Book Blog Tour
Posted: October 1, 2025 Filed under: Anthology, Blog Tour, Book Release, Books, Dark fiction, Fiction, Giveaways, Guest Post, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours | Tags: "The Weeping Man", "Uneasy Spirit", Abe MArgel, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness, Masticadores Phillipines, Michelle Navajas, Paul Kane, WordCrafter Press Leave a commentFor first stop on Day 3 of the WordCrafter Curses Book Blog Tour, we’re over at Masticadores Phillipines, with Michelle Ayon Navajas introducing contributing authors Abe Margel and Paul Kane, and a guest post by Paul Kane on the inspiration for his story, “The Weeping Man”. Please join us in sending off this deliciously dark fiction anthology, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness. Don’t forget to comment for a chance at a free digital copy of the anthology and visit Stop 2 over at Undawnted.
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Lindsey’s WRITING PRACTICE- Review: “Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays in a Time of Pestilence” by Denise Low
Posted: October 1, 2025 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Lindsey's Writing Practice, Nonfiction, Review | Tags: Book Reveiw, Denise Low, Jigsaw Puzzling, Lindsey Martin-Bowen, Lindsey's Writing Practice, Nonfiction, Problem Solving, Writing to be Read 4 Comments
By Lindsey Martin-Bowen
“I never underestimate the power of a single puzzle piece. It fits within a whole, like each moment of my unfolding life story.”
—Denise Low
Hey, Dear Readers, this month you’ve earned a break: No writing exercise. Instead, I’m posting an engaging book review by a well-known poet, professor, fiction and prose writer, and former Kansas Poet Laureate, Denise Low. Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays in a Time of Pestilence amazed me—and I had to share the experience with others. Please enjoy it!
Who’da thunk it? Such an accomplished, widely-published poet, fiction and scholarly writer, and esteemed university professor she is—yet she’s writing about and documenting info about jigsaw puzzles?
Yes!
This brilliant scholar, Denise Low, penned an insightful, in-depth, engaging and well-researched book that could suffice as a manual or textbook for the jig-sawing craft. Trapped indoors—sans travel and during the COVID-19 pandemic, she and her husband, visual artist, Thomas Pecore Weso, found fulfillment and experienced marvelous teamwork in assembling jigsaw puzzles, including those that emulate high art. (In fact, Chapter 4 , “The Great Masters in (Jigsaw) Pieces,” Lowe lists some of the painting reproductions transformed into jig-saw puzzles, among them, Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Claude Monet’s Waterlilies, and Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy.)
Like me, Low views paintings as “more intimate than photographs.” She continues to explore this viewpoint by adding, “If [Van Gogh’s] Arles bedroom scene had been a photograph, historical documentation would give the image an aura of authenticity. The painted representation of the bedroom also has some value as documentation— what was a nineteenth century peasant room like, anyway?—and it also records his mode of painterly creation. The artist’s vivid palette and energetic, rough brushstrokes are unique to him. The puzzling apotheosis of Van Gogh, a person transformed into an artist god, overrode my experience of the original painting. (30)
Low also intertwines words from Margaret Drabble, who pointed out the integration of high art into jigsaw puzzles to Springbok Editions’ 1964 publication of Jackson Pollack’s Convergence, renowned as “the most difficult jigsaw puzzle in the world,” by a British Broadcasting Company radio show, hosted by Alan Dein. Drabble is also a jigsaw and Van Gogh admirer, Low points out, and quotes Drabble’s words about the two topics: From jigsaws, you learn about the brushstrokes of Van Gogh, the clouds of Constable, the reflections and shadows of Manet, the stripes of Tissot and Rousseau, the brickwork and tiles of the Dutch masters, the flesh tones of Titian, the undulating fabrics and limbs of Botticelli, the business of Botsch and Breughel. (31) (From Drabble’s The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws. Boston:Houghton Mifflin, p. 250, (2009 ).
Nevertheless, Low does not limit her analysis (and resolutions) of jigsaws to historical (primarily European) paintings. She also analyzes a work by a master Indigenous artist, whose works (in jigsaw puzzles) she admits were “not as easy” to find. Fortunately, her husband, (a member of the Menominee Nation family) found (on the internet) the Lakota leader Red Cloud, (his family’s distant relative), in a jigsaw of the original painting of Red Cloud standing with a calvary officer in front of four teepees, for a reconciliation—rather than for a war.
Both Low and her husband relate strongly to Native American art. In fact, she equates the process of piecing together a “large, table-size picture piece-by-piece “as tantamount to “creating a sand painting” (33), a process wherein Native American tribes and Tibetan Monks create art by mixing various hues with the sand.
Further, Low doesn’t focus solely on painted artwork. She also analyzes engravings and illustrations, such as one of a cabinet of curiosities from Ferrante Imperato’s Deli’Historia Naturale (Naples 1599), poetry shards, mosaics, and various other topics for jigsaw puzzles—and offers histories for these varieties of subjects in jigsaws.
In the final chapters, she wraps up how the jigsawing during that frightening pandemic affected her priorities, psyche, and health. An unexpected result of immersion into Jigsaw Landria has been how colors burn into my retinas and become part of my inner life. In waking dreams, sections from Water Lilies would dance before my eyes, colors of blue-topaz, cotton-candy pink, and fern green. Other puzzles have had the had the same effect, with after images of colors entering inner sight, dreams, and early morning awakening. These colors interacted with what, a spirit body? An etheric double? An aura?
From those questions, Low analyzes the various theories on color and concludes that Color is one of our first considerations when we select a puzzle. . . we want something bright or soothing or compelling. A puzzle made of too many colors is chaotic and upsetting . . . . As COVID-19 lasts far beyond the year 2020, we look for more from Monet’s palette, the muted tones of a seascape as sunlight filters through mist, we are grateful for this respite from the grim chaos beyond our control. (93)
Indeed, Low’s brilliant insight applies to our current Zeitgeist in the U.S., too.
After teaching many years as a tenured writing and literature Professor at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, Low now teaches at Baker University. With more than 30 poetry books published, she continues to work in her free-lance writing career.
About Lindsey Martin-Bowen
On Halloween 2023, redbat books released Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s 7th poetry collection, CASHING CHECKS with Jim Morrison. Her 4 th collection, Where Water Meets the Rock, was nominated for a Pulitzer; her 3rd, CROSSING KANSAS with Jim Morrison was a finalist in the QuillsEdge Press 2015-2016 Contest. In 2017, it won the Kansas Writers Assn award, “Looks Like a Million.” Writer’s Digest gave her “Vegetable Linguistics” an Honorable Mention in its 85th Annual (2017) Contest. Her Inside Virgil’s Garage (Chatter House Press 2013) was a runner-up in the 2015 Nelson Poetry Book Award. McClatchy Newspapers named her Standing on the Edge of the World (Woodley Press/Washburn University) was one of the Ten Top Poetry Books of 2008. It was nominated for a Pen Award.
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“Curses” & Author Denise Aparo on Joseph Carrabis
Posted: September 30, 2025 Filed under: Anthology, Book Promotion, Book Release, Books, Dark fiction, Mythology and Legend, Short Fiction, Stories, WordCrafter Press | Tags: "Mohawk Monster: The Curse of the HErkimer Diamond", Anthology, Blog Tour, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness, Denise Aparo, Joseph Carrabis, WordCrafter Press Leave a commentMeet the contributing authors and learn about their stories in Curses: Chronicles of Darkness.
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Day 2 of the WordCrafter “Curses” Book Blog Tour
Posted: September 30, 2025 Filed under: Audio Excerpt, Blog Tour, Dark fiction, Giveaways, Guest Post, Short Fiction, Stories, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours | Tags: Anthology, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness, Dark fiction, Joseph Carrabis, Kaye Lynne Booth, Robbie's Inspiration, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours Leave a commentFor the first stop for Day 2 of the WordCrafter Curses Book Blog Tour, we’re over at Robbie’s Inspiration, where Robbie Cheadle introduces contributing author, Joseph Carrabis with readings from his stories, and allows me to present a post on the inspiration for my story “Caverna Del Oro (Cave of Gold)”. Join us in sending off Curses: Chronicles of Darkness. Don’t forget to comment for a chance at a free digital copy of the anthology and visit Stop 2 over at Undawnted.
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“Curses” & author Abe Margel on Joseph Carrabis
Posted: September 29, 2025 Filed under: Anthology, Book Promotion | Tags: "Uneasy Spirit", Abe MArgel, Anthology, Curses, Dark fiction, Joseph Carrabis Leave a commentMeet the contributing authors and learn about their stories in Curses: Chronicles of Darkness.
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Welcome to the WordCrafter “Curses” Book Blog Tour!
Posted: September 29, 2025 Filed under: Anthology, Blog Tour, Book Release, Books, Dark fiction, Guest Post, Horror, Paranormal, Short Fiction, Stories, WordCrafter Book Blog Tours, WordCrafter Press | Tags: "The Death Clock, "The Mohawk Monster: The Curse of the Herkimer Diamond, Anthology, Curses, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness, Dark fiction, Denise Aparo, Kaye Lynne Booth, WordCrafter Press 2 CommentsWelcome to the opening day of the WordCrafter Curses Book Blog Tour. I want to thank each of you for joining us in the send-off for this themed dark fiction anthology, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness. All contributors have worked hard on this to bring you eleven quality stories about… well… curses.
We have a great tour planned, featuring guest posts, readings and/or interviews from six of our contributing authors. On this tour, you will have the opportunity to meet and learn more about Denise Aparo, Joseph Carrabis, Paul Kane, Robert White, Danaeka Scrimshaw, and Molly Ertel and their stories. And, of course, we’ll have a giveaway for 5 digital copies of the anthology, one for each day of the tour. You can follow the tour through the links at the bottom of this post.
Giveaway
We’re giving away 5 digital copies of Curses: Chronicles of Darkness.
All you have to do to enter is
follow the tour and leave a comment each day.
The Authors of Curses: Chronicles of Darkness
WordCrafter Short
Curses: Chronicles of Darkness releases tomorrow, September 30, but it is available for pre-order now. We have a great group of authors, including myself, who contributed to this anthology. I’m pleased to be able to bring them to you via this blog tour. Like live tours, blog tours bring readers closer to authors, and we will be introducing you to at least one or two authors each day on this double-stop tour.
Each day will feature one stop along the blog tour route where you will be introduced to at least one of our contributing authors and we’ll share a little about each story, then a second stop over at the Undawnted blog, where DL Mullan will interview one of the authors featured that day. Undawnted does not support comments, but you can leave them on the other host sites, or here, on Writing to be Read. And you’ll want to be sure and do that, because your comments are what enters you in the giveaway, and we will be drawing one winner per day. (Authors may also be available to respond to those comments to create a more personal experience.)
About Curses: Chronicles of Darkness
There are all types of curses.
Cursed places, cursed items, cursed people, cursed families.
Curses that last throughout time. Curses which can’t be broken. Curses which are brought upon ourselves. Curses that will kill you and those that will only make you wish you were dead.
Eleven tantalizing tales of curses and the cursed. Includes stories by Kaye Lynne Booth, Molly Ertel, C.R. Johansson, Robert White, Joseph Carrabis, Paul Kane, Danaeka Scrimshaw, Abe Margel, and Denise Aparo.
Pre-Order and Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/CursesChroniclesofDarkness
Meet Kaye Lynne Booth (That’s Me!)
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
About “The Death Clock”
My story, “The Death Clock“, is about a curse placed on an Ormulu clock in the sixteenth century, placed on it by its maker. I got the inspiration for this story, after the call for submissions for Curses went out, from an episode of Pawn Stars, where Rick explains why they call these clocks death clocks. After watching this, I thought Boy, if anything would be cursed, one of those clocks would be.
Ormulu clocks are gilded gold clocks which were commissioned with the most skilled clockmakers by members of the aristocracy as symbols of prestige. (In my story, the clock was commissioned by Napolean, himself.) During the gilding process, the gold is gilded to the bronze clock housing, by covering the housing with mercury and then, pressing the gold into it by hand. Then, the piece was fired to burn the mercury off, leaving the gilded gold. Many of these clock makers then suffered from insanity or death as a result of their labors. Hence the name “Death Clock”.
“The Death Clock” takes place in present day and is about one woman’s efforts to break the curse when she accidentally inherits an Ormulu clock with the house she and her husband just purchased.
Meet Denise Aparo
Denise Aparo is an author with four published short stories in the horror/supernatural genre in the WordCrafter Midnight Anthologies. All of her stories are written under Denise Aparo and are edited by Kaye Lynne Booth, through WordCrafter Press.
As a native New Englander, she lives with her husband Joe, spending much of her time writing, reading, gardening, making crocheted blankets, and crafting with her grandchildren. She loves the paranormal historical fiction genre and has recently completed edits on her first novel, a historical fiction titled Crossbows, which will be self-published in the near future.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English – Fine Arts/Creative Writing with concentration in Fiction from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). And a member of five honor societies with leadership recognition.
She is published in several newspapers and magazines—special interest articles, along with poems and short stories that have been published in print and digital format. She is a member of the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association (CAPA) and the author of a WordPress writing blog, The Write Voice.
Denise has three short stories in the horror/supernatural genre in the Midnight Series, through WordPress. These short stories are published under Denise Aparo and the third and last of the Midnight Series will be released on September 30, 2025.
You can learn more about Denise and her story, by visiting the second stop on today’s tour, over at Undawnted, in Denise’s interview with DL Mullan. Remember to leave your comments or questions here for both of today’s stops.
Denise Aparo’s story in Curses is “The Mohawk Montser: The Curse of the Herkimer Diamond”. A tale of an ancient Indian curse which stands over a diamond mine in New York and the surrounding land, including the diamonds in the mine.
Inspiration for “The Mohawk Monster: The Curse of the Herkimer Diamond”
The Curses: Chronicles of Darkness story prompt was a curse(s). My short story, “The Mohawk Monster: The Curse of the Herkimer Diamond,” is a brief prequel to my recently completed novel, Crossbows, which I plan to publish soon. My novel actually began with an untold curse by a New England, Native American Goddess.
I thought it would be a great way to tell the story about her curse on a New York Community, Herkimer County, which is near the New England setting in my novel. The Goddess Komorkis was deeply saddened by the murders of the band of warriors she kept watch over. The sacred warriors, The Shadow Wolves, protected an ancient Tome, The Tome of Life with a sigil. The tome and the Sigillum Dei Sigil, has miraculous power over all creatures. This short story takes place at the Herkimer Diamond Mine in New York.
The why the story came about was because of my childhood memories of my dad. My father was a rock collector, who traveled to many mines and quarries, collecting rare and semiprecious rocks and stones. One of his favorite places to hunt was at the Herkimer Diamond Mine. He had collected many Herkimer Diamonds throughout his life.
Because I write historical fiction about New England, I am always researching unusual places, people, and things. The Mohawk Valley Mineral Mining is a unique Herkimer Diamond mining location set in a dense forest within the remote farm town of Sprakers, NY. I remembered how the place has many rare and unusual crystals. One of the largest known crystals is the Herkimer Diamond, called The Mohawk Monster. It was labeled this due to its large size and found in that mine, which is located in the Mohawk Valley.
Since the name of the diamond has the word “monster” in it, it prompted me to write a story about it for the Curses Anthology!
You can learn more about Denise and her story, by visiting the second stop on today’s tour, over at Undawnted, where you can catch Denise’s interview with DL Mullan.
Don’t forget to leave your comments and questions for both tour stops here for a chance to win in today’s giveaway drawing for a copy of Curses: Chronicles of Darkness.
Tour Schedule
Day 1
- Stop 1 – Writing to be Read – About the Curses Anthology & Meet Denise Aparo
- Stop 2 – Undawnted – DL Mullan Interviews Denise Aparo
Day 2
- Stop 1 – Robbie’s Inspiration – Kaye Lynne Booth & Joseph Carrabis with Readings of “It’s a Man’s World” & “Grafton’s Ghost-Child”
- Stop 2 – Undawnted – DL Mullan Interviews Joseph Carrabis
Day 3
- Stop 1 – Poetry by Mich – Meet Abe Margel & Paul Kane with a guest post about the inspiration of his story “The Weeping Man”
- Stop 2 – Undawnted – DL Mullan Interviews Paul Kane
Day 4
- Stop 1 – Roberta Writes – Meet C.R. Johansson & Robert White with a guest post about the inspiration for “The Longspeth Curse”
- Stop 2 – Undawnted – DL Mullan interviews Robert White
Day 5
- Stop 1 – Writing to be Read – Meet Kaye Lynne Booth, Danaeka Scrimshaw & Molly Ertel with Inspiration Video about “Clover’s Mirror Box”
- Stop 2 – Undawnted – DL Mullan interviews Danaeka Scrimshaw
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Halloween Hauntings Sale at WordCrafter Press
Posted: September 28, 2025 Filed under: Anthology, Book Promotion, Book Sales, Books, Dark fiction, Short Fiction, Stories | Tags: Anthologies, Books, Curses, Curses: Chronicles of Darkness, Dark fiction, Entertainment, Halloween Hauntings Sale, horror, Lingering Spirit Whispers, Midnight Anthology Series, Midnight Garden, Midnight Oil, Midnight Roost, Narrating the Paranormal Series, Once Upon an Ever After, Refracted Reflections, Spirits of the West, Tales from the Hanging Tree, Where Spirits Linger, Whispers of the Past, WordCrafter Press 8 Comments
I Love Halloween!
I may have mentioned that a few times before, but I really do love this time of year. October is such a fun month with scarecrows and jack-o-lanterns, creepy/crawlies, witches and warlocks, ghosts and demons, and all things of the scary variety. When my son, Michael, was little, maybe four or five, and approaching his first Halloween trick-or-treating with his older brothers and sisters, we talked through what he could expect. Our mantra became, “It will be scary, but it will be fun.” And it was. And for the rest of his short life, Halloween was always his favorite holiday, because he could dress up and pretend to be anyone or anything he wanted, at least for a short time.
2025 Dark Fiction Anthologies
So, when this time of year comes around, I always try to do special things to honor his memory. But, I’m a little old to dress in costume, so nowadays most of the fun stuff I do are things like putting out dark fiction anthologies, as I’ve done this year with Curses and Midnight Oil. But those are just two, the most recent in a whole slew of deliciously dark anthologies which have been published by WordCrafter Press. This year’s anthologies both turned out wonderfully. Curses: Chronicles of Darkness will be released Tuesday, September 29, and we’ll be running the WordCrafter Curses Book Blog Tour all this week, starting here, tomorrow, through October 3. Midnight Oil will be released October 28, just in time for Halloween, with a tour running all that week. I hope you’ll come celebrate both of these original anthologies with us this year
Other Halloween Hauntings from WordCrafter Press
During the month of October, all Halloween Hauntings (or dark fiction anthologies from WordCrafter Press), are on sale for our Halloween Hauntings Sale, October 1 – 31, 2025.
Midnight Dark Fiction Anthology Series
Midnight Roost and Midnight Garden, volumes 1 & 2 in the Midnight Dark Fiction Anthology series are both half price at $3.50 each through the links below.
Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories: https://books2read.com/MidnightRoost
Midnight Garden: Where Dark Tales Grow: https://books2read.com/MidnightGardenAnthology
Narrating The Paranormal Series
All three volumes in the Narrating the Paranormal Series are only .99 cents each through the links below.
Whispers of the Past: https://books2read.com/WhispersPast
Spirits of the West: https://books2read.com/SpiritsoftheWest
Where Spirits Linger: https://books2read.com/WhereSpiritsLinger1
Or you can get all three books in our trilogy volume, Lingering Spirit Whispers for only $2.99.
Lingering Spirit Whispers: https://books2read.com/LingeringSpiritWhispers
Themed Anthologies
You can get Tales From the Hanging Tree for only $2.99 through the link below.
Tales From the Hanging Tree: Imprint of Tragedy: https://books2read.com/Hanging-Tree
Once Upon an Ever After is only $2.99 through the link below.
Once Upon an Ever After: Modern Fairy Tales & Folklore: https://books2read.com/OnceUponanEverAfter
You can get Refracted Reflections for only $2.99.
Refracted Reflections: Twisted Tales of Duality & Deception: https://books2read.com/RefractedReflections
