Vengeance: A Review of Ceremony of Ashes

Ceremony of Ashes - A Horror Novella of Witchcraft and Vengeance by Jayson Robert Ducharme book cover. Image on the cover is of a silhoutte of someone holding a large staffTitle: Ceremony of Ashes – A Horror Novella of Witchcraft and Vengeance

Author: Jayson Robert Ducharme

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 1, 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary

Length: 135 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 stars

Blurb:

Something wicked descends upon Leinster Village
Adrian Holloway’s life is turned upside down after receiving a disquieting phone call. His sister and niece have gone missing, and his mother is in shambles.
Something malicious is lurking in his old hometown. Children are going missing and their mothers are turning up dead. People are afraid to go out. Rumors spread from house to house. Blood. Ritual murder. Sacrifice and mutilation.
Sins of the past become unearthed. A woman, whose powers are beyond imagination, is soon to extract her vengeance on the entire town. She can make the dead talk, breathe fire, and turn a man into an animal.
Only Adrian and a young female constable know the truth. Only they can stop her.
CEREMONY OF ASHES is a 135 page novella about witchcraft, vengeance, and how our destinies are sometimes forged before we are even born.
Fans of Stephen King, Ray Bradbury and Nikolai Gogol are in for a treat with this fast-faced, violent and uncompromising novella of terror.

Review:

Content warning: blood, ritual murder, sacrifice, and mutilation. I will briefly discuss these things in my next paragraph but will not go into detail about them.

Many of the items in that list happened before or after new scenes occurred. While this was firmly rooted in the horror genre for sure and did include some gory scenes, I was glad that so much of the rest of it was left up to the reader’s imagination.Filling in those moments for yourself can be so much scarier than having them all spelled out.

There’s more to Halloween than costumes and trick-or-treating in Leinster Village village this year.

Reading this novella was like eating a chocolate bar in the very best sense of that metaphor. I digested it quickly and enjoyed it for what it was without searching for a deeper meaning to it or anything like that. This was something that didn’t require analyzation or interpretation. It was simply a nice, scary distraction from everything going on the real world. Sometimes that’s exactly what a reader needs!

There were times when I had trouble keeping the dozens of characters straight. Some of them played pretty minor roles in the plot, so when they popped up again it often took me a while to remember who they were and how they might have been connected to the characters who were featured more prominently.

Small town life was captured nicely here. The characters I was able to keep good track of were connected to each other in multiple ways in many cases. I liked the way the many ways their lives overlapped was slowly revealed. It reminded me a lot of my own experiences living in small towns and how closely everyone’s lives end up intersecting regardless of whether they’re relatives of some sort or genetically unrelated to each other.

I would have liked to see more time spent on character development. While this was a heavily plot-driven tale and I certainly wouldn’t have expected it to be as introspective as something character-driven, it still would have been nice to get to know the main characters on a deeper level. They tended to be boxed into specific roles. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing in moderation, it happened so much in this particular story that I didn’t get to know the characters as individuals like I wanted to.

The witchcraft aspect was handled well. One thing I look for in speculative fiction books that include this topic is a sense that the author has put some thought into why they chose a witch as their antagonist. Rest assured there were excellent reasons for this decision that will be revealed later on in the storyline.

I’d recommend Ceremony of Ashes – A Horror Novella of Witchcraft and Vengeance to anyone who loves the dark side of the horror genre.

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Favourite Science Fiction Tropes

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

This is one of those prompts that I could ramble on about for ages. I did my best to keep this post fairly short and sweet, but do ask me about science fiction tropes if we ever meet in person and you’d like to see me suddenly shift from being quiet to talkative!

Galaxy filled with starsInterstellar Travel

Example: Star Trek

Why I Enjoy It: Sometimes I wish I’d been born at a point in time when we could actually go visit the planets and moons that astronomers are currently discovering. Based on how far away they are from us, we’d probably need to invent interstellar travel to make it possible for us to discover what – or maybe even who – else we’d discover on those possibly habitable words.

 

high-angle photo of a robotRobots

Example: Isaac Asimov’s Robot stories

Why I Enjoy It: I’m fascinated by technology in general, especially when it can be used to do complex tasks that used to require a human to do them correctly.

If we ever create robots that have human-like intelligence, I’d be so interested in finding out how they changed society and how humans treated them. In the meantime, there are many stories out there about this topic.

 

three strands of DNAClones 

Example: Jurassic Park (film and book)

Why I Enjoy It: I’ve loved this idea ever since I saw the baby dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. It’s also thought-provoking to imagine a world where someone who needs a new heart can have one grown from their own cells and never have to deal with any of the longterm health issues that transplant recipients currently need to look out for.

 

microscopic photo of nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Example: Michael Crichton’s Prey (film and book)

Why I Enjoy It: I dream of the day when my friends and relatives who live with chronic health conditions that currently have no cure might find relief from something like this.

This field is still in its infancy. There’s no telling what it might be capable of doing for future generations!

 

cryogenic podsCryosleep

Example: Futurama (TV show)

Why I Enjoy It: Being able to skip over hundreds or thousands of years of human history while keeping the same protagonist makes many science fiction plots feel much more plausible.

There’s also something amazing about getting a peek at what the future of humanity could possibly be like!

 

 

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Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Purple in the Title

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Purple is my favourite colour, so all of the books on today’s list will feature the word purple or a synonym of it.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker book cover. Image on cover is of a drawing of two african american women. Their lips are drawn but not their eyes , noses or eyebrows

1. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Harold and the Purple Crayon (Harold, #1) by Crockett Johnson book cover. image on cover is drawing of toddler drawing with a purple crayon on a black wall.

2. Harold and the Purple Crayon (Harold, #1) by Crockett Johnson

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book cover. Image on cover is abstract red and brown painting.

3. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Prince- Purple Reign by Mick Wall book cover. Image on cover is of Prince playing a guitar and singing.

4. Prince: Purple Reign by Mick Wall

The Lavender Screen- The Gay and Lesbian Films--Their Stars, Makers, Characters, and Critics by Boze Hadleigh book cover. Image on cover is of two queer women cuddling up and looking at the viewer

5. The Lavender Screen: The Gay and Lesbian Films–Their Stars, Makers, Characters, and Critics
by Boze Hadleigh

The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton- A True Story of Conjoined Twins by Dean Jensen book cover. Image on cover is of Daisy and Violet playing instruments on a stage.

6. The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins  by Dean Jensen

The Green and Purple Skin of the World by Paulo da Costa book cover. image on cover is of a clear glass container filled with a murky liquid.

7. The Green and Purple Skin of the World  by Paulo da Costa

When the Plums Are Ripe by Patrice Nganang book cover. image on cover is a black-and-white photo of people walking on a dusty road

8. When the Plums Are Ripe by Patrice Nganang

The Sugarless Plum- A Ballerina's Triumph Over Diabetes by Zippora Karz book cover. Image on cover is of a ballerina dancing.

9. The Sugarless Plum: A Ballerina’s Triumph Over Diabetes by Zippora Karz

Purple Dandelion- A Muslim Woman's Struggle Against Violence and Oppression by Farida Sultana book cover. Image on cover is of a photo of the author's face.

10. Purple Dandelion: A Muslim Woman’s Struggle Against Violence and Oppression  by Farida Sultana

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3 Mindfulness Exercises for a Bad Mood

An old dandelion that has lost all but one of its seed heads. The final seed head is holding onto the dandelion tenaciously. As I mentioned here, the idea for today’s post came from numerous hits my site has gotten over the last year or so about mindfulness exercises for bad moods.

I purposefully narrowed down this list to a a few exercises that are quick and easy to do because that’s exactly what I need when I’m down in the dumps. Complicated instructions and lengthy lists are best saved for more cheerful days, I think.

If you know of other quick and easy exercises like these, do jump into the comment section below and share. There are many other visualization techniques out there, and they range from simple ones like I’m about to share to much more complex routines.

 

A Gratitude Challenge

Time commitment: 1 minute

Best for: Reframing your thoughts

Step 1 – Close your eyes

Step 2 – Make a list of three things you’re genuinely grateful for. Literally anything counts, and there are no wrong answers. Sometimes I count the friendly pigeons who live in front of my building as one of my answers. They’re also so curious to see what the humans are up to when we wander by.

Step 3 – Open your eyes

 

white and red balloons floating away in the skyThe Balloon Game 

Time commitment: 1-5 minutes

Best for: Letting go and interrupting rumination

Step 1: Close your eyes and make a list of the things that are currently bothering you. They could be anything: unresolved conflicts, regrets, old conversations that keep replaying in your mind, and anything else that can’t be fixed right now or ever.

Step 2: Visualize as many balloons as you need for your list. I like to spend at least a minute picturing their colours and shapes in detail before imagining my problems listed on them.

Step 3: Imagine releasing each balloon into the sky on a windy day. (I once lost a balloon this way as a kid. They escape so quickly you can never chase them down again!) If or when that thought pops up again, remind yourself that it’s been blown away now. There’s no way to chase it down again.

 

Big Deep Breaths 

Time commitment: As long or as short as you want it to be.

Best for: Living in the moment and calming racing thoughts. 

Step 1: Search for breathe calming gifs like this one. You’ll want to keep your eyes open for this exercise.

A mindfulness gif of a box being expanded and contracted.

Step 2: Synchronize your breathing so that you inhale when the image expands and exhale when it contracts. Some of these gifs are specifically designed to slow down the breathing cycle a little for users. That in and of itself can distract you from thoughts that stubbornly stick around.

Step 3: Repeat as many times as necessary.

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A Photo Essay of Toronto in July

marigolds growing by lush, green plantsEach month I share photos from one of the parks in Toronto to show my readers what our landscape looks like throughout the year. This is the sixth instalment of this series.

Click on February, MarchAprilMay, and June to read the earlier posts. It was a blissful 27 Celsius (81 Fahrenheit) and sunny on this morning visit.

July was an incredibly hot month, so I jumped on the chance to show up earlier in the day and snap some photos before the temperatures soared to 35 C (95 F) or more again.

Let me be honest with all of you. The photos for this month, August, and maybe even September are going to be pretty similar to June’s photos. Everything is green, lush, and growing furiously.

The true difference between June and the rest of the summer has to do with the temperature. June still has mild, pleasant days, but that becomes a rare treat between now until October most years.

A World War I memorial surrounded by green, lush trees in a park.

Welcome to the park in July. If you were actually walking here with me, I would have recommended you bring a water bottle and put on some sunscreen. The sun is quite powerful at this time of the year, and I wouldn’t want any of you to get burned or dehydrated.

A close-up photo of the World War I memories. It's green

Anyone who comes here later in the day might see the air shimmering in the heat. For now, it’s warm but still pretty comfortable in the shade. Some of the weeds are starting to take over the steps on this monument. I suspect this is due to city workers not having as many resources for park maintenance as usual.

A dusty running trail at a park. The trail is lined with large, healthy trees.

The running trail is firm and dustier than usual due to our dry summer so far.  It’s heavily used in the morning and evening, probably because running in 40 C (104 F) heat at midday is at best miserable and at worst a recipe for heat stroke.

I love seeing all of the walkers and joggers out and about early in the morning or after the sun begins to set and the weather is less hot. (Even if you choose to jog at 3 am, you probably won’t find overnight temperatures lower than 28 C (82 F) or so for the next couple of months).  Everyone seems to be incredibly polite and kind even when the trail is overflowing with users which makes me proud of my city.

Large, green branches of a tree against a bright blue sky

You all knew this shot was coming! I love the bright blue skies of this time of year. We won’t see much of that in the autumn and winter when I return.

A skyward shot of many overlapping tree branches filled with leaves. They're so lush you can only see a tiny sliver of the blue sky.

But now it’s less common to see blue sky between the branches of nearby trees. They’ve grown so much that they block out a refreshing amount of heat and light.

A sun-dappled park. The grass is heavily shaded by the leaves of the enormous trees growing there.

Here’s another example of what that looks like. Most people who visit the park now flock to these shady areas. Sitting in direct sunlight for longer periods of time is simply too hot, especially with the high humidity we tend to have now.

A tree that had half of its branches shorn off last winter. It is green and thriving now.

Our tree friend that lost half its branches last winter is thriving from what I can tell.

A tree that lost about a third of its branches in a storm last winter. It is green and thriving now.

And so is our bigger tree friend that lost about a third of its branches. I’m still amazed at how well they heal.

A sapling growing in a park.

The saplings that were planted last month seem to be doing really well, too. A heavily shaded stone path in a park

I am seeing a decrease in visitors to the park like I expected last month. Given the steamy weather and the increasing number of places in Ontario that are reopening as our numbers of Covid-19 cases continue to decrease, this is completely understandable.

And that’s all until August!

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Stuff on My Bucket List

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Some of topics over the last several weeks have been tricky ones, but this one is easy.

Red sandstone cliffs and red beach at Prince Edward Island.

By Fundamentaldan – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1550270

One of the biggest things still on my bucket list is visiting Prince Edward Island. My curiosity about this province began when I first read the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery.

Someday I want to see their red roads, rocks, and beaches for myself.

Visiting the various real-life places that Montgomery fictionalized for her stories would also be amazing.

The interesting thing about this goal is that I rarely yearn to travel much in general! I usually prefer to stick close to home due to how easily I feel motion sickness on various forms of transportation.

I’d love to go back to school someday and get a Masters degree. My Bachelors degree was in Psychology, so maybe something related to that? I once dreamed of working as a therapist and still think that would be a rewarding line of work.

Learning how to enjoy jogging is something I’d also like to accomplish. I’ve tried several times and have never felt that runner’s high that some athletic people talk about. Maybe one day it will happen.

Becoming fluent in Spanish is the final big thing on my bucket list for the time being. Learning to speak a second language is a lot of work, so I dip in and out of practicing it as my time and energy levels allow for. I’d bet I could become fluent if I were more diligent about practicing. Can anyone recommend some good Spanish music or TV shows?

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Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Photos

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

My pick for this week’s freebie theme is a simple one. Let’s look at some interesting bookish stock photos! Tell me which one is your favourite in the comment section below. I’m including brief descriptions of them for anyone who needs captions or who can’t see the photos.

Sad girl holding a book while standing outside near a forest

Sad girl holding a book while standing outside near a forest.

 

Black and white drawing of an astronaut floating through outer space. A book is attached to their helmet with a cord. 

 

Drawing of a skull sitting on top of an antique book. An extinguished candle and empty hourglass are flanking it.

 

Two children standing in a forest reading books.

Two children standing in a forest reading books.

 

A cat wearing a pair of oversized glasses

A cat wearing a pair of oversized glasses

 

A cup of tea and a few chocolate chip cookies on two fancy saucers

 

A cardboard robot standing on two stacked books while stirring a cup of coffee with a teaspoon

A cardboard robot standing on two stacked books while stirring a cup of coffee with a teaspoon

 

Two women balancing books on their heads while reading and laughing

Two women balancing books on their heads while reading and laughing

 

Man floating in a body of water while reading and wearing a pair of sunglasses

Man floating in a body of water while reading and wearing a pair of sunglasses

 

woman reading a book to her dog

Woman reading a book to her dog

 

Senior woman sitting on chair while reading a book to a young girl

Senior woman sitting on chair while reading a book to a young girl

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I’ll Show You My Drafts Folder If You’ll Show Me Yours

Woman working in home officeWhy, yes, I did write the same sort of post last summer! It was such a smashing success that I’ve decided to do it again.

Last year’s peek at upcoming posts has since been edited to include links to everything that I ended up writing.

Some of the stuff listed below are ideas from last year that I didn’t end up writing then but plan or hope to change this time around.

Once again, I’ll edit this post to include links to the posts of anyone else who decides to write about this same topic. I love getting sneak peeks of what all of you are working on!

 

Title: Mindfulness Exercises for a Bad Mood

Publication Date: August 3

Why: This is something I talked about writing last year. My research into the topic has finally culminated in enough knowledge to share what I’ve learned.

Film poster for The Others. Image on poster is of Nicole Kidman looking scared.

Title: A Review of The Others

Publication Date: August 20

Why: The 2001 film The Others is my all-time favourite haunted house story. I’ve been raving about it here for years and finally found space in my editorial calendar to officially review it.  If you haven’t seen it yet, this is your chance to go rent it so we can gush about it together.

 

Title:Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Things to Do in the Autumn

Publication Date: September 23

Why: Autumn in Toronto is gorgeous and filled with amazing things to do, many of which are outdoors and therefore will hopefully not be affected by Covid-19. Fingers crossed.

 

Film poster for Us. Image on cover is of protagonist crying while holding a mask that looks identical to her face.

Title: Dodging Doppelgängers: A Review of Us 

Publication Date: October 15

Why: Am I the last person on Earth to see Us? Possibly.  It was still a great deal of fun to watch, though, and is perfect for Halloween, my favourite holiday.

 

Title: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Funniest Things That Have Happened To Me

Publication Date: November 18

Why: These stories would otherwise never fit into the theme of this site. Their topics range from alternative uses for adamantium (the fictional alloy used to coat Wolverine’s bones in the Marvel universe) to what it’s like when acquaintences get so confused about certain facts about your life like your racial identity that they argue with you about how everything really must work.

 

Title: Stained Property: A Review of The Red Lodge (Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories)

Publication Date: December 3

Why: Did you all know that telling Christmas ghost stories was a tradition in England in the 1800s and early 1900s? Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories is a series of those tales. I’ve written reviews of all of them and will publish them in December 2020 and December 2021. This is something I’m really excited to share with you all as some of them aren’t well known at all in our era. And what’s better than shining light on excellent stories from the past? 

Person standing on snowy mountain while looking at aurora borealis at night

Title: Fitness and the Holidays

Publication Date: December 7

Why: Like a lot of folks, my healthy habits tend to slip up a bit over the holidays. I’ve been meaning to talk about this topic for years and decided to finally bite the bullet in 2020.

 

Title: My 20 Most Popular Posts of 2020

Publication Date: December 28

Why: One, I enjoy sharing the posts that resonated with all of you the most. Two, seeing how the trends change over time helps me figure out what to focus on in the coming year.

The number 2020 cut out of white paper and surrounded by confetti

Title: Search Engine Questions from 2020

Publication Date: December 31

Why: The pure frivolity of it all. Some of these search engine questions are hilarious but don’t make enough room to be expanded into a 500-1000 word post. So why not let them shine in a few sentences instead?

 

Title: What I Read in 2020

Publication Date: January 4, 2021

Why: This is something I’ve written about annually for a long time. It’s always fun to take a look back at how many books you’ve finished!

 

Woman reading book while sitting on a stone bench in a forest

Title: Modern Classics Series (tentative title)

Publication Date: Unknown.

Why: Eventually, I hope to start recommending science fiction and fantasy books written in the last 20 years that I believe will be considered classics in the future. I still need to do a lot more reading before beginning this series, though!

 

Title: How to Find Your Way Home in Minecraft

Publication Date: Unknown

Why: I stopped playing Minecraft. Someday when I regain my interest in it I hope to write this post.

 

Rolled up yoga mats

Title: 3 Benefits of Taking a Yoga Class

Publication Date: Unknown.

Why: Even if fitness classes were open here at the moment, Covid-19 and what we know about how it spreads makes this stuff far too high risk for me to take that gamble.

 

Title: Health and Fitness at the Library

Publication Date: Unknown.

Why: *Me glaring at Covid-19 for shutting down all of the cool library programs I was going to promote here*

 

Title: 5 Places You Should Visit on a Trip to Ontario for Canada Day

Publication Date: Unknown.

Why:  Damn you, Covid-19!

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A Review of Terror Beneath Cactus Flats

Book cover for Seth Tucker's Terror Beneath Cactus Flats. Image on cover is of a desert with mountains in the backgroundTitle: Terror Beneath Cactus Flats (A Weird Western)

Author: Seth Tucker

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 25, 2013

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Western

Length: 43 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Jed, the fresh faced deputy Marshall of Cactus Flats, finds himself put to the test as an unknown evil besieges the small town. In order to save the townsfolk, Jed will have to venture into the old abandoned mines and confront the evil awaiting within.

Content warning: Blood. I will not be discussing this in my review.

Some tags were left off of this post for spoiler reasons.

The west isn’t always as simple as it may seem to be.

There are so many things I want to say about the evil lurking in the abandoned mines, but I really need to leave those details up to you to discover for yourselves as brand new readers of this tale. This device works best when someone has no idea what Jed’s about to find or why it’s so dangerous. Honestly, that’s one of my favourite types of horror. There’s something even scarier than usual about wandering into a storyline with no idea of what is to come in it.

I would have liked to see more time spent on the world building. Mr. Tucker introduced some fascinating concepts, but they weren’t fleshed out like they could have been. Obviously, I wouldn’t expect a short story to include as much world building as a full-length novel, but there was a lot of room here to explain everything more clearly.

Jed was such a likeable guy. He was from a time and place that had strict rules governing everyone’s roles in society. Sometimes those roles poked through the plot in ways that were important to the plot but might also go against the sensibilities of some readers. Seeing how he reacted to them made a great deal of sense. Of course the culture he grew up in affected the way he thought about others, but I also sensed a great deal of compassion and courage in him that had a big impact on how I interpreted those scenes.

If you love big plot twists, Terror Beneath Cactus Flats might be right up your alley!

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Character Names in a Book I Can’t Pronounce

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A knight kneeling in front of a woman who is wearing a medieval dress.Raise your hand if you read the fantasy genre!

There are countless things I love about these sorts of stories, but I have to admit that some of the names in them are pretty hard to get rolling off of my tongue.

There are often massive linguistic differences between names from real-life cultures I may not be well-acquainted with and names that were made up by the authors themselves.

The former have pronunciations that make sense once you understand a little bit about the language they came from and how vowels and consonants can and can’t be joined up together in it.

This isn’t always the case for the latter unless you have an author like J.R.R. Tolkien who creates entire languages for his worlds. While I definitely don’t judge anyone who skips that step when creating a fantasy world, it can make pronouncing the names of the characters in it trickier.

So I tried to keep this list pared down to names that trip me up due to them not being formed by strict rules of pronunciation.

  • Daenerys
  • Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander
  • Tekilashan
  • Numuhukumakiaki’aialunamor
  • Kylarral-ten
  • Tvlakv
  • Drizzt Daermon N’a’shezbaernon.
  • Zoenen Hoogstandjes

I found most of these names in this Reddit thread if anyone is interested in reading more.

 

 

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