Yep. November arrived last week, then daylight savings time ended, and we Fell back. I hear the pitter-patter of holiday feet and, of course, Christmas decorations are already in the store windows. However, I refuse to panic…yet. I have more important things, like my Featured Follower of the Month. Ta-Da! L.X. Cain is a writer of horror fiction and she does a great job at scaring me, yet keeping me reading, so I’m excited to feature her here this month.
“Lightning flashes. Another child disappears…” This is how the book starts, and you’ll have to keep reading because the terror doesn’t stop until the end. You can enter to win either an eBook or an AudioBook by leaving a comment with your choice and a contact email.
What happens in the dark will come to light.
There’s an anthology that’s just out, and I’m plugging it because all proceeds go to an excellent cause. Full Dark is a benefit anthology. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Gary Sinise Foundation, an organization that does many wonderful things for our country’s active military, its veterans, and the countless first responders who sacrifice so much to keep us safe.
GET YOUR COPY TODAY!
And what about France? Well, it was much more than I expected. I’ll be boring you with snippets of my adventure, so be forewarned. First, there was Limoges. We didn’t stay in Paris. We had other plans for this trip, and that included heading south. Limoge is about four hours by car. Four hours and many toll roads. Think $$$$. Of course, there was the adventure of one of our gang losing a credit card the first day out. We hit French soil and within hours were trying to use our rusty French to stave off financial disaster. Amazingly, we did. And we discovered our cards didn’t work at the gas pumps. The French have a card that’s like our debit card with a password. They spit ours out, or just don’t return them from the machines. Oops! The images below show our first night. We are all still pounds thinner than at the end of the journey, so this was a good picture to reveal. Kind of a before the after!
 |
 Food First |
 Maybe Wine First |
 At this point, we were six. We’d just picked up a friend in Paris. |
I’m sure French food anywhere else will never taste the same again. That was certainly my experience with Italy. We could definitely learn a lot about food production from the Europeans, where vegetables still taste like something.
Lovely photos! The food there looks yummy. I also went recently. The currency…OMG…the spending in EURO was hard!
Also, great review of Bloodwalker! As a huge horror fan, I can’t help but be intrigued by this book. Would like to enter for an audiobook version. I love listening to thrillers!
So happy to see L.X. Cain spotlighted here! I have the book you are featuring- so I won’t enter to win. 🙂
Your trip to France sounds like quite an adventure. I went to Paris two years ago and loved it. We didn’t venture out of Paris (we got to Paris by train- and it was such an adventure we decided to stay put in Paris and explore by foot). I had no idea about the gas pumps and credit cards. Yikes! Looking forward to hearing more. 🙂
Paris is always an exciting adventure. So glad you explored that city on foot. The best way to know any place.
Thanks for the reminder about Lexa Cain’s books. I love horror and am always open to a new (to me) author.
Great. Tell us what you think!
Sounds like you had quite an interesting adventure. Dealing with currency and payments in another country isn’t always easy.
Much easier with the Euro these days. It used to be a real challenge with a fist full of lira or francs in one hand and pesetas in the other. I was always at the mercy of the person taking my money!
Ah, food! 😀 Yummy!
And the credit cards, yikes!
Can’t wait to hear more about your adventures! 🙂
Alexa
thessalexa.blogspot.com
verbosityreviews.com
Bloodwalker is a spooky story. L X Cain did a great job with her characters and plot.
France sounds like an interesting place to visit. Remember to take lots of money. 🙂
Seems you’re doubling up! Who knows why that happens? I did on Blogspot once in a while as well.
Sigh! I know. Everything I do is a mess. 🙂 Sorry.
Bloodwalker is a spooky story. L X Cain did a great job with her characters and the plot.
France sounds like a great place to visit. Be sure and take plenty of money. 🙂 Glad you had a good time.
Thanks for featuring Full Dark! Your trip to France looks divine.
Glad to do it. Looking forward to reading the stories.
P.S. I’ll live vicariously through you when it comes to travel. I’m a homebody, and then some. 😛
I’m going to be a homebody for several months!
Thank you for plugging the anthology, Lee. I’m a hurricane Harvey survivor, so it’s a cause that’s dear to my heart.
Congrats, LX. The cover of Bloodwalker, alone, makes me want to read it!
How in heaven’s name did you get anything published this year? You are amazing, Melissa. So sorry about that dreadful Harvey. I understand why your cause is so important.
Yay for Lexa and the anthology!
Framce… Oh boy. What an adventure! Losing ID’s, cards, etc… I’d have been a nervous wreck. The only way I could do France is if I could convince my savvy world traveling buddy to come be my guide.
I’ve been traveling since I was 24. My husband since he was 17. He taught me how to do it, and it has freed me to no end. I’m either writing or I’m traveling or I’m planning to travel. I can’t imagine not packing a suitcase to take off for someplace.
Bloodwalker sounds fascinating. Your trip sounds like a lot of fun. Love the new site.
I MUST have another go at horror fiction; I used to devour Stephen King (his books) and, as an adolescent, even read some Dennis Wheatley. Ah – France – love the place – easy motoring (away from cities), good roads, full of surprises, history…and wine, don’t forget the wine…
Never forget the wine! I did read some of King’s books, but they didn’t have much humanity in them. Always soulless creatures out to gobble up the last humans, kind of thing. On was called Cell, I think. Gave me the shivers, but not much reading satisfaction.
Thanks for stopping in to say hi. I’m thoroughly enjoying my visits to your blog, and I’m sending some Anglophiles your way.
Hi Lee – great to feature LX … while her book does sounds scary – I prefer not to do that … but might get to read some sometime … gosh France – well I don’t go over, nor will do for the foreseeable future … but am so looking forward to hearing more of your travels – and lovely you can travel with friends and know what to expect (well almost) and get over the snafus. The anthology looks good too – cheers Hilary
And you’re only a Chunnel away! I have to fly for hours to get to your side of the planet. Yes. sharing those snafus with others is easier and they make for some good laughs during the journey.
Sounds like an adventure.
Just like life.
Traveling always has some snafu happening. But you all look like you’re having fun anyway.
We did. And since we’ve traveled together a lot, we know how to enjoy those snafus.
Blood walker sounds good and scary!!!
France sounds lovely – on my list for One Day…
Bloodwalker was a good read. I liked it even while I was shaking in my boots.
The things you just have no idea you need to know! But it sounds like you have fun anyway. So, hooray!
Stay tuned. More to come! However, it was a good adventure. I have fun with this group of people.
I hadn’t thought of linking my blog review to Amazon even though I do that for NetGalley. Clever that, Lee.
And I loved your idea of linking your review to NetGalley! Clever back at you.
Looking forward to more snippets from your journey.
I have been seeing Full Dark everywhere of late – great cause.
Horror? Not usually for me, but the dark corners of my mind have been reaching out.
And the little you posted about Bloodwalker has me intrigued.
Thank you.
My dark corners have been reaching out, too. I’ve read a couple and, guess what? I just wrote a horror short story. Yep. Scared myself.
It feels odd to admit that I’ve never been to France, even though my local ferry port goes directly there, and on a weekend away recently to the east of England I could see the French coast. Oh well, I’ll get there one day. Great photos, all that meat and wine 🙂
I’ve never to a lot of places that are quite close to me. Why is that? Anyway, go south. I’m sure you’ll have a great time.
So France first… I can see everyone had a grand time! You’ll have great memories.
Congrats to LX Cain!
A wonderful and worthy organization for the anthology donation. They do good stuff.
Hi Carol! Thanks for the visit.
Sure sounds like a bit of adjusting with the $$$ part. I guess they don’t want to share their gas with foreigners haha
Lovely photos! The food there looks addictive. But yikes, I can’t imagine how stressful it must be to lose a credit card in another country, or to have none of the gas pumps accept one. Very interesting to learn what cards are like in France, though!
Also, great review of Bloodwalker! As a huge horror fan, I can’t help but be intrigued by this book. Would like to enter for an audiobook version. (My email can be found under the “contact me” tab on my blog, if I win.)
Thanks, Heather. Consider yourself entered.
The food was a highlight. I had to walk miles to justify all those croissants in the morning. :-0
Sounds like you had quite the adventure, especially at the start trying to figure out how to pay for gas and things. That’d freak me out to lose my credit card in another country. And yes, I can’t believe that it’s November either.
Didn’t we just open the Champagne to celebrate 2017? Scary.
Not boring at all quite the opposite we had no idea about the changes to paying for gas in France. It is well worth knowing before our next trip.
I’ve just read your Amazon review for Bloodwalker – it sounds scary but good.
It is scary. I don’t usually read horror, but a couple of my friends write it and I’m beginning to cultivate a taste for it.
Glad the gas information is helpful.