EVE OF ALL HALLOWS
Natalie-Nicole Bates
Genre:
paranormal romance novelette
Publisher:
Leap of Faith Publishing * Date of
Publication: 10/2015
ASIN:
B016T7FGP6 * Number of
pages: 34 * Word
Count: 10, 500
Book
Description:
As Jamie
travels the world in search of fulfillment, she arrives in Majorca the day
before Halloween. Almost immediately, she realizes all is not what it seems.
There are no tourists, and everyone is just a bit -- different. She meets a
local tattooist named Carlito, a native of Peru. The attraction is
instantaneous and intense. He makes her an unbelievable offer. But whether it
means heaven or horror, she is not sure. When the Eve of All Hallows meets All
Saints Day only Fate can decide the outcome.
Excerpt:
I
think I will enjoy my time here.
Very
much.
I’m
taking in that magnificent view while I swirl a glass of red wine. Sometimes a
girl gets lucky. It’s well past midnight now, but I can’t sleep. Beyond the
beauty of my surroundings, of the warmth on my skin this late in the year, is
the sound of the sea. I am truly alone in my own little nirvana. No one knows
where I am, and I don’t care.
There’s
a flash of movement from the corner of my eye. Maybe I’m not as alone as I
thought. My heart flutters a little. Then I see him walking the beach towards
the water, under the great moon above. My magnificent view just got even more
spectacular. He’s fully naked.
My
attention is riveted now as I sip my wine. I can’t see a lot of detail in the
darkness, but I can see he is tall, with long hair. Nicely built, and if my
eyes don’t deceive me, well-endowed as well. Now, this is a very interesting
development.
I
watch as he enters the water, and I shiver just a little as if my own skin was
touched by the cool waters. He disappears momentarily beneath the dark sea, and
emerges, throwing back his long hair. I know I should look away, I should
respect his privacy, but I cannot. I am a voyeur in my own little world.
I’m
not really sure how much time I spend watching him. Perhaps only a few minutes,
maybe even an hour. He emerges from the waves, a mere silhouette now in the
moonlight. He stops and looks straight to me. My first reaction is to want to drop
to the floor. But my mind tells me he cannot see me in the darkness.
So,
if he cannot see me, why does he stare in my direction?
By
Natalie-Nicole Bates
I was
born on Halloween day. This I suppose is the reason for my love of all things
Halloween. My favorite part of the holiday isn’t the trick or treating or the
fancy costumes, not even the birthday cake and the Halloween themed birthday
gifts.
No, for
me it was, and still is the choosing of the perfect pumpkin for carving into
the slightly imperfect Jack O Lantern (you must know that I am artistically
challenged – so the slightly imperfect remark).
But to
understand the (supposed) origins of the Jack O Lantern, we must first briefly
discuss the pumpkin. Those beautiful globes of orange goodness whose remnants
become pies, cookies, muffins, and seeds. Or wind up on the compost heap.
The name
pumpkin dates back to Greek origin. Pepon or large melon. It was translated
into Pompon by the French. The English then translated pompon to Pumpion. In
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare makes mention of Pumpion. Pumpkins are
also a large mention in such classics as Cinderella, Peter, Peter Pumpkin
Eater, and of course, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Native
Americans roasted pumpkins on an open fire, and dried strips of pumpkin were
woven into mats. The earliest pumpkin pies were baked over hot ashes. The
Colonists sliced off the top, removed the seeds, added spices, honey, and milk
before baking. A handy baking vessel and treat all in one.
The Jack
O Lantern has been around for centuries. The story goes that an Irish fellow by
the name of Stingy Jack once invited the devil over for drinks. In true stingy
style, Jack didn’t want to pay for the drinks, so he suggested the devil turn
himself into a coin, and Jack could pay. The devil did so (how incredibly
foolish), and Jack pocketed the coin. He kept the coin in his pocket near a
silver cross, thus not allowing the devil to reanimate. Eventually the devil
was free, but Jack managed to trick him at least two more times. Each time Jack
extracted a promise from the devil not to claim his soul if he should die.
You know
nothing good was coming of this.
So Jack
died one day, and God told him to hit the road, he wasn’t allowing such a cad
into heaven, so Jack paid his friend the devil a visit in hell. Well, the
devil, still seething about the multiple tricks perpetrated upon him by Jack,
also told him to hit the road, he certainly wasn’t welcome in hell, either. He
gave Jack a burning lump of coal and sent him off into the night. Jack carved a
hole in a turnip, placed the lump of burning coal inside, and has been using it
to light his way ever since. Doomed to roam the earth forever and ever. The
Irish referred to this ghostly figure with a lamp as Jack of the Lantern. In
time this changed to Jack O’ Lantern.
Frightened
by the possibility of Stingy Jack or other malevolent spirits haunting their
neighborhoods, folks in Ireland and Scotland began carving scary faces into
turnips and potatoes, beets were used in England, and placing them in their
windows to scare the spirits away. As immigrants made their way to America, the
glorious pumpkin became the go-to fruit for this task.
I hope
you enjoyed this brief history of the pumpkin and the Jack O Lantern. Happy
Halloween!
***************
About the Author:
Natalie-Nicole
Bates is a book reviewer and author.
Her
passions in life include books and hockey along with Victorian photography,
Frozen Charlotte dolls, and antique poison bottles. Natalie contributes her
uncharacteristic love of hockey to being born in Russia.
She
currently resides in the UK where she is working on her next book and adding to
her collection of 19th century post-mortem photos.
Visit
Natalie online at www.natalienicolebates.com
Goodreads
: https://www.goodreads.com/Natalie-Nicole
Twitter:
@BatesNatalie https://twitter.com/BatesNatalie
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Amazon
Author Central Page: http://amzn.to/2eNmt3c
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Thank you so much for featuring EVE OF ALL HOLLOWS!
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