The Twelve Nightmares Before Christmas: Nightmare Four + Giveaway!!!

Hi everyone! 

I am so excited to have been asked to be part of this fun and a little creepy event. haha!

TODAY is my stop on the 12 NIGHTMARES before CHRISTMAS tour hosted by debut author Courtney Alameda. Courtney's NEW horror novel SHUTTER hits shelves on February 3rd 2015! Be sure to pre-order your copy soon. 

Please help me in welcoming, Courtney!

Hi! I’m Courtney Alameda, author of the soon-to-be published YA horror novel, SHUTTER. I love Christmastime and all things scary, so I wanted to celebrate by sharing some of my favorite Christmas beasties with everyone this year—twelve of them, to be exact! Join me and a few of my blogger friends every day from December 13 – 24, as we feature different holiday nightmares . . . if you dare!

So without further ado . . .

Nightmare Four: Gryla the Christmas Ogress

Brace yourselves for this one, folks, because GRYLA brings a whole new level of fierceness to our holiday nightmare countdown. Traditionally, Gryla’s an Icelandic fiend whose sole purpose in life is to eat naughty children. Her whole operation goes into overdrive during the Christmas season, when she comes down from her mountain home in search of young miscreants to turn into holiday stew. Aided by her impeccable sense of smell and sharp hearing, Gryla can detect a misbehaving child hundreds of miles away. Her appetite is insatiable, and it’s said that she’s never suffered a shortage of food. (Surprise, surprise.)

As any public librarian can tell you, there are a lot of naughty children running around. Still, I wouldn’t want this to happen to those screaming, book-ripping, wall-doodling, on-the-floor-peeing kids:

 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS B***HES!

Historians believe Gryla’s very name was anciently defined as “threat” or “threatening.” (The ancient Icelandic peoples were obviously very creative when it came to naming things.) She became part of the Icelandic holiday tradition in the 17th century, by which time she’d been named the mother of the 13 Yule Lads, who are terrifying/creepy/pervy in their own right.

Apparently the Gryla myth was so terrifying, the government of Iceland passed a decree in 1746 that prohibited parents from telling their children stories about her to prevent future generations from being traumatized. Seriously, if I lived in Iceland in the 17th and 18th centuries, I might’ve just started skipping Christmas altogether. “Hey, kids, do you want to put up the Christmas tree?” *Cue children running away screaming.*

Personally, the only holiday ogres I want in my life are these ones:

Thanks to the wonderful Beckie for hosting this post! Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below for a pre-ordered copy of SHUTTER, a “Reaper” necklace, and a signed bookplate. Please note that the giveaway is US only, and we promise prizes will not come with a side of Gryla stew.

Happiest of holidays, everyone!

BUY THE BOOK / Add on GR

Horror has a new name: introducing Courtney Alameda.

Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat—a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With an analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. She's aided by her crew: Oliver, a techno-whiz and the boy who developed her camera's technology; Jude, who can predict death; and Ryder, the boy Micheline has known and loved forever.

When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain. As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn't exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she's faced before . . . or die trying.

When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain. As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn't exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she's faced before . . . or die trying.

Lock, stock, and lens, she’s in for one hell of a week.

Giveaway is OPEN to US residents only and is for my blog readers only. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About The Author: Courtney Alameda

Find Courtney @

Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Blog

Courtney Alameda’s spent her entire career trying to con and cajole people into reading great books. A veteran of the big-box bookstore trenches, Courtney now works as a librarian for the prettiest library you’ve ever seen, where she spends her time ordering large stacks of YA books, doing readers’ advisory, and dressing up as various mythical creatures for a variety of library events.

Courtney holds a B.A. in English Literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Brigham Young University. She is represented by the amazing and talented John M. Cusick of Greenhouse Literary. A Northern California native, she now resides in Utah with a legion of books and a tiny, five pound cat who possesses a giant personality.

 Leave US some comment love! What do YOU think of Gryla the Christmas Ogress? Scary?!