#FallIntoHorror with Mocha Memoirs Press!

Welcome to Fall Into Horror with Mocha Memoirs Press!

Mocha Memoirs Press is celebrating the new Fall season by showcasing their love of horror and the authors who write it.

Mocha Memoirs has a a great catalog of  horror stories guaranteed to set your teeth on edge and make you afraid of all the things that go bump in the night. If fear gives you wicked chills in an oh so delightful way, you'll love the reads Mocha Memoirs Press has for you.

For the next eight days our authors will be sharing with you why they love horror, and you lucky readers will get to ask them questions and share your own thoughts as we all FALL INTO HORROR.

Throughout the week you can comment here on the blog or join us in our Facebook Event here. Comment below and click on the rafflecopter options below for a chance to win the tour prize, a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Continue on with this FALL INTO HORROR. You can join Mocha Memoirs Press authors and share in their love of horror on Facebook. You can also click on the links below to meet other horror authors:

---

ABOUT MOCHA MEMOIRS PRESS:

Mocha Memoirs Press, LLC is a genre-oriented publishing company. Their vision is to provide an outlet for outstanding speculative and romance stories that often fall beneath the radar of traditional publishing houses. They seek to provide quality stories that invigorate the reader’s literary palette like a good, strong coffee. Like great coffee houses, they offer a variety of flavors. They publish stories in the following genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror, and romance, including the sub-genres of steampunk, cyberpunk, diesel punk, alternate history, weird westerns, and mash-ups.
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

In The Cafe... with Rie Sheridan Rose

I love to write poetry. It is like breathing to me. It is my favorite form. I write several poems a week.

I also write a lot of lyrics, and while they are related, they are not identical.

What is the difference between poetry and lyrics? Some lyrics are poetry. Some poetry can be lyrics. The differences can be hard to quantify.

Lyrics are often more rhythmic and repetitive than free verse poetry, though some of the more formal poetic forms use these devices. 

Now, there are some similarities, as well as differences. Good poetry and popular songs both connect with their audience in some manner. 

They create an emotional resonance. They allow their creator to express thoughts, emotions, and ideas on a topic. 

I wrote my first song when I was a little girl. It might not be the most polished song, but I still remember the tune. The lyrics were:

Lollipop Land

Where the rain rains lollipops and lemonade
and the sun is a great big gumdrop
No matter how tall
No matter how small
You're really not there at all...

Where the rain rains bats and three-legged toads
and the sun is a great big werewolf
No matter how tall
No matter how small
You don't want to be there at all...

Where the rain rains lollipops and lemonade
is a very nice place to be,
But otherwise is not, you see...
for otherwise is --

Where the rain rains bats and three-legged toads
and the sun is a great big werewolf
No matter how tall
No matter how small
You don't want to be there at all.

When the gumdrop sun is hot, so hot...
It bursts into little tiny pieces
But a new one always grows
As pretty as a rose
In the land of the gumdrop sun.

Where the rain rains lollipops and lemonade
and the sun is a great big gumdrop...
No matter how tall
No matter how small
You're really not there at all...

When I was in college, I wrote a song to the boy I had a crush on. It was a song of love and longing…and became the song that Stefan sings to Daerci in The Luckless Prince. The tune to this one is much richer and more mature. So are the words:

I tried to write a song for you,

To tell you how I feel—

I tried to write a song for you,

But the words won’t come out real….

I’ve loved you from the very start,

The first day that we met—

I’ve loved you from the very start,

And now I can’t forget….

That to you I’m just another note

In an ever changing theme—

And the hope I bear for love’s return

Is only a passing dream….

Presently, I write songs that range from the silly to the serious. My first “professional” song has been recorded by Marc Gunn several times. I wrote it for him after reading about the subject online. Though I’ve had several songs recorded since, this is still my favorite.

SOUL OF A HARPER

Oh, they say ’tis a hanging
that soon I will be–
My body a-twisting from
yonder oak tree–
For daring to think that a man
could live free…
but though I may die,
’tis a harper I’ll be.

The strings of my harp
will never be stilled
while the green of the shamrock
still grows on the hill
for the music of Ireland
is her strength and her will
and the soul of a harper
no mortal can kill.

Oh, the red-headed queen on her
cold golden throne
fears harper freedom
she never has known
Our bright Gaelic passion
comes through in the tone
so she orders it silenced
and broods all alone.

For a man of the road,
death holds no sting.
‘Tis another adventure–
a wondrous thing.
And I know that my music
will evermore ring
in the hills and the rivers
of each Irish spring.

 Check out some of Rie's work with Mocha Memoirs Press:

New Cover Reveal: An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Why yes!  It's finally here!  After months of planning, reading stories, and basically driving all my

loved ones insane, I can finally reveal the cover for the Sherlock anthology!  It's such an honor for

me, as a Sherlock Holmes fangirl but also because I had the chance to work with one of my favorite

people, Anne Rosario.  Anne is the stupidly talented artist who rendered this beautiful cover.  More

importantly she put up with me and all my harebrained ideas to come up with something that's

unique and absolutely fits the tone of the book.

Coming October 27, 2015!!!

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable,

must be the truth.”

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most recognizable characters in Western literature.  Conan Doyle’s

inimitable detective has been the subject of literally thousands of books, movies, television shows,

plays and even songs.  With the rise of the BBC series and the release of all copyrights, the beloved

character has found a new life among modern audiences.

In An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 14 authors of horror and

mystery have come together to create a unique anthology that sets Holmes on some of his most

terrifying adventures.  A pair of sisters willing to sacrifice young girls to an ancient demon for a taste

of success, a sinister device that can manipulate time itself, and a madman that can raise corpses

from the dead are just a few among the grisly tales that can be found within these pages.

Curl up with a warm cuppa and leave all the lights on.  This is not your grandfather’s Sherlock

Holmes.

Look at this list of stories!  Doesn't it sound fantastic??!!

The Fairy Pool by Lucy Blue

Sherlock Holmes and the Hungry Ghost by Katie Magnusson

The Diamond Carter Ghost by Matthew Wilson

The Haunted Branch Line by Tally Johnson

The Arendall Horror by Thomas Olbert

Worlds Collide by S. H. Roddey

Time is Running Out, Watson by Adrian Cross

A Voice in the Blood by Dan Shaurette

The Hunt of the Red Boar by Thomas Fortenberry

The Canaries of Clee Hills Mine by Robert Perret

The Chase by Melissa McArthur

The Adventure of the Missing Trophy by Mark W. Coulter

The Case of the Rising Dead by Trenton Mabey

The Adventure of the Slow Death by Harding McFadden

I know, I know... I'm stalling.  It's called BUILDING THE SUSPENSE.  But now, without further ado...

Want to stay abreast of the developments of this exciting anthology and other MMP news? Join our Newsletter! (scroll down to the bottom)

Follow Us on Twitter @mochamemoirs
Join Us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/MochaMemoirs

One Haitian Woman's journey...

This month marks the anniversary of the Katrina disaster.  Grassroots International commemorated the event in Boston, MA by hosting Juslene Tyresias, a visiting climate awareness and peasant rights activist leader from the Haitian peasant’s rights organization MPP.  I was privileged to attend.

Speaking through an interpreter, before a packed house, Ms. Tyresias was a potent and charismatic figure.  She gave a stirring and heartfelt speech, outlining the disturbing effects of climate change in Haiti.  A predominantly rural country whose peasant population is dependent on subsistence agriculture, Haiti is on the forefront of the climate crisis.  The island nation has been hit hard and to the core by rapidly escalating heat and declining rainfall.  Damage to farming economies has grown worse as crops whither and cattle die.

In her talk, Ms. Tyresias stressed the importance of education and adaptation to the changing climate through organic farming of heat-resistant crops, development of water-conveying village infrastructures and the planting of trees as a means of counter-acting global warming.  (MPP has planted approximately 30 million trees over the past 30 years.)  She also stressed MPP’s continued pressure on Haiti’s government to develop alternative energy sources, including production of solar panels.  One obstacle to this effort she noted was that poverty forced the rural population into clear-cutting for charcoal production, illustrating a direct link between economic inequality and the climate crisis.

Ms. Tyresias outlined her personal growth within the peasants’ rights movement in Haiti since the MPP’s beginnings in the 70’s and the evolution of the women’s movement within the MPP, now a woman-led organization, the number of women growing from a handful in past decades to over twenty thousand today, half the MPP membership.  An inspirational example of the capacity of human societies to rapidly progress in response to difficult circumstances.

Above all, she stressed the importance of recognizing the climate crisis through a global movement which crosses economic, national, racial and gender boundaries.  She starkly illustrated the need for global solidarity and the common problems of rich and poor countries alike in describing her visit to New Orleans.  She expressed her dismay at the stark misery of income inequality in New Orleans, primarily along racial lines, in a country so much richer and more developed than her own, homelessness continuing in the city even a decade after Katrina.  Here, Ms. Tyresias illustrated the point at which the progressive movements of climate awareness and Black Lives Matter dovetailed  by emphasizing the disproportionately devastating effects of climate change on low-income communities of color, both in the industrialized and developing regions of the world.  She raised the subject of land trusts in communities of color to grow food locally and limit development.  Most striking, though, was her reaction to the growing militarization of the police in America and the growing income inequality and alienation from communities of color.

Ms. Tyresias was followed by Trina Jackson, Executive Director of Grassroots International, and leaders of the Black Lives matter movement, who spoke of recent events in Cleveland, OH, stressing that the Black Lives Matter movement drew its strength not from “black militancy,” but from “black love.”  The importance of grassroots leadership, excluding black “celebrity worship” was mentioned.  The speakers also echoed Juslene Tyresias’ emphasis on inclusivity, including the LGBT community.

I found it inspiring.  And, a reminder that all progressive struggles, especially today, are part of a larger common struggle, not just for justice and positive change, but for something as basic as the long-term survival of the human race.