HAPPY NATIONAL PARANORMAL DAY!

How cool is this?

I stumbled upon this holiday a few weeks ago while Googling paranormal topics for one of my books.

On May 3rd each year, people in this country and around the world, gather on FB, in groups, at parties to talk about and tell each other their paranormal experiences.

The word Paranormal came to be in use, circa 1915-1920.

The dictionary defines it as: (noun) - not scientifically explainable.

No matter your paranormal preference, ghosts, witches, aliens, UFO's, vampires or shifters, there is a group for you!

I hope to write a more detailed post on the Love Features Blog on

Sunday, May 3rd.

Do you have a story to share?

***

Debbie Christiana writes paranormal romance, dark romantic fiction and short dark fiction.

You can find her at:

www.debbiechristiana.com

Twitter: @DebChristiana

FB: Debbie Christiana, Author

A SIP OF LIQUORE STREGA

I grew up in a large Sicilian family (my grandparents/family arrived through Ellis Island in 1920). Sunday dinners were filled with delicious food, homemade wine, and a bit of small talk about the local Stregas (Italian witches) that resided in most small villages of the Mediterranean Island.

Italy has a history of tolerance for their 'wise women' more than other European countries, especially during the Inquisition. They were respected members of the community known for their knowledge of nature, herbs and curatives.

The unique thing about Stregas is that they have their own liquore, the recipe known only to their kind, made in Benevento, Italy (City of Witches). Legend tells us there is a sacred walnut tree that keeps it's leaves all year long and the place Stregas would gather every full moon for a ritual.  

Until 622 AD.

That's when Duke Arechi II of Benvento was said to willingly and happily partake in the monthly revelry among the witches. His angry wife told the local priest, who immediately cut down the tree and built a church on it's site, and made the Duke convert to Christianity. Although it's believed the Stregas tricked the priest and the true Walnut tree still stands well hidden in the Benevento forest. 

If you look closely at the label you'll see the Stregas dancing under the tree.

That brings us to the Alberti family. One day Gisueppe Alberti and his brothers were foraging the woods of Benevento for herbs when they saved the life of a witch from a falling tree. In appreciation she gifted the brothers with the secret recipe. To this day the Alberti family is the only producer of Liquore Strega, the recipe is kept under lock and key and only a few family members are privy to its ingredients.  The only known ingredient for sure is the Saffron that gives it its brilliant yellow hue.

But beware! Liquore Strega is a love potion that has the power to bewitch. Remember, "whomever you share a glass with you shall be forever united with."

A scary proposition, depending on who you are sipping the Strega with and the basis of a short story of mine, Choose Wisely.

Debbie Christiana writes paranormal romance, dark romantic fiction and short dark stories.

www.debbiechristiana.com

FB: Debbie Christiana, author

Twitter: @DebChristiana

Does Paranormal Romance Allow Us To Indulge Our Darker Side?

Welcome to the Paranormal Love Wednesday Blog Hop, where we celebrate paranormal romance in all its many forms! Every Wednesday, we invite authors of paranormal fiction to share snippets of their works, either published or unpublished, involving some aspect of paranormal love.

In my first entry on the Paranormal Love Features page, I noted that even those paranormal stories that don't focus on romance in some way tie in to our deep-seated connection to the sexuality of the paranormal. Sexy vampires, for example, have been with us for quite a while—and long before vampires were openly sexy, they carried a sexual connotation.

In Bram Stoker's original novel, for example, Dracula has hairy palms (and for some great information about the historical connections between masturbation and hairy palms, check out this excellent article).  Carmilla, from Sheridan Le Fanu's 1871 novel, seduces her female victim in scenes of pretty heavy-duty sublimated eroticism. Lord Ruthven from Polidori's The Vampyre seduces virtually every woman with whom he crosses paths. And the blood exchange between vampires and their creations is often a heavily eroticized version of other exchanges of bodily fluids.

Similarly, werewolves and other shapeshifters appeal to our animalistic sides—the parts of us that want to let go and revel in violence and/or sexuality. And hardly a traditional monster is without its seductive side. Incubi and succubae are openly sexual, drawing energy to survive from the seduction of their victims. Early witches were said to have "congress with the beast" (or sex with Satan). And demons offered people their hearts' desires in return for their souls.

As a general rule, I would argue (as many others have) that our monsters illustrate our deepest, darkest desires. In our cultures, we create that which both frightens and entices us. And then we depict it over and over again, as many ways as possible, as often as possible, because these depictions are safe outlets for our less cultured selves.

Given that, paranormal love offers us a way to indulge the parts of ourselves that we might not openly share in our daily, structured lives. These stories allow us to be the monsters and the victims, the lover and the beloved. They allow us to delve into the parts of us we don't usually let out into the light—and in doing so, they allow us to understand ourselves, and one another, better than we might otherwise.

So if you love vampires, shapeshifters, demons, witches, faeries, incubi, succubae,  or even the occasional ghost or goblin, click on the entries below to HOP to the entries!

But before you go, tell us: what do you love most about paranormal love?