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From shimmering specters to mysterious tricks, Varla Ventura's Paranormal Parlor includes original supernatural tales, classic ghost stories, legends, hauntings, séances, superstitions, and death customs. This book showcases a chilling collection of startling ghost stories as told to the author as well as legendary ghosts and haunted locations and an overview of the paranormal parlor games that rose to popularity in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. It also includes hidden history such as the story of Mark Twain's ghost, and the quiet horror writings of the architect who started the Gothic Revival movement (Ralph Adams Cram).
From Homer's Odyssey to Pirates of the Caribbean, Mermaids have fascinated popular culture for centuries. Among the Mermaids is an enchanting collection of classic stories, facts, and tales of mermaids from around the world that will thrill every lover of this romanticized mythological creature. Compiled by Book of the Bizarre author and Magical Creature devotee Varla Ventura, Among the Mermaids includes turn of the century tales of merfolk from Bret Harte, T. Crofton Croker, and W.B. Yeats, along with tantalizing trivia, facts, first-hand accounts, and speculations about mermaids in popular culture. Some facts about the fluid and the fair from the book: Many people believe today that early ...
The lusty vampire, the sympathetic werewolf, the tragic banshee are just a few of the dark and frightening creatures you'll discover in Banshees, Werewolves, Vampires, and Other Creatures of the Night. Huffington Post Weird News columnist and author Varla Ventura takes readers on a wild ride through the shadowy hills of rural Ireland, the dark German forests, and along abandoned farms and country roads across the world to discover some of the most frightening and freaktacular tales, tidbits, and encounters with all those beasties that go bump in the night. Along with classic pieces from Bram Stoker, Elliot O'Donnell, Sabine BaringGould, William Butler Yeats and many others, Ventura includes: • Famous vampires you may not know • The identity of the author of the first English vampire novel (and his relationship to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) • Excerpts from the first psychic vampire novel ever written • Stories of 19th century werewolf hunters • Why banshees are the most feared of supernatural creatures
From enchanted animals to bizarre rock-and-roll stories, discover hundreds of far-out facts guaranteed to give your trivia game a whole new twist. Did you know duck dander is hallucinogenic? Or that Katherine Hepburn had a phobia of dirty hair? Have you ever wondered about the Magical Skull of Doom or contemplated the mysterious Transylvanian Tablets? The Book of the Bizarre is a veritable treasure trove of startling and stranger-than-fiction trivia that spans history, continents, even worlds. Never before have so many truly frightful facts been gathered together in one place. Teeming with the strange, the shocking, and the downright fantastic, The Book of the Bizarre’s thirteen chapters i...
The author of The Book of the Bizarre returns with a new compendium of freaky facts, terrifying trivia, and true stories that are stranger than fiction. In Beyond Bizarre, Varla Ventura presents an all-new batch of nightmarish tales that teem queasy diseases and paranormal encounters—not to mention the outrageous, outlandish, and the simply strange. Arranged into thirteen chilling chapters like Haunted Hollywood, Tales from the Cryptids, Bride of the Bizarre, and It’s Enough to Make You Hurl, Beyond Bizarre tackles everything from female pirates and creepy candy stripers to psychic predictions, virgin shark births and much, much more. A word of warning: this book is not for the faint of heart!
Varla Ventura, fan favorite on Huffington Post’s Weird News, frequent guest on Coast to Coast, and bestselling author of The Book of the Bizarre and Beyond Bizarre, introduces a new Weiser Books Collection of forgotten crypto-classics. Magical Creatures is a hair-raising herd of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s affectionate and unerring eye for the fantastic. The warrior's sword and the village heroes are no match for the ogres and goblins that gnash their teeth and wreck havoc in early 20th century Japan.
Mermaids are not always found in the sparkling waters of the deep blue sea. Sometimes you find them inland: in lakes, streams, and even in swimming pools. The Mermaid of Druid Lake is about such an inland dwelling water nymph who coaxes two gentlemen into taking her for a joyride around the park. Sweet, humorous, and delightfully Edwardian this 1906 classic tale will delight lovers of the merfolk and folklore alike.
Varla Ventura, fan favorite on Huffington Post’s Weird News, frequent guest on Coast to Coast, and bestselling author of The Book of the Bizarre and Beyond Bizarre, introduces a new Weiser Books Collection of forgotten crypto-classics. Magical Creatures is a hair-raising herd of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s affectionate and unerring eye for the fantastic. The mythical beast of extraordinary proportions, the dragon has snarled and slithered its way across the centuries where it remains both feared and loved. Join Clint Marsh and Varla Ventura as they explore a few of the stories that should thrill and chill dragon lovers and dragon slayers alike.
Varla Ventura, fan favorite on Huffington Post’s Weird News, frequent guest on Coast to Coast, and bestselling author of The Book of the Bizarre and Beyond Bizarre, introduces a new Weiser Books Collection of forgotten crypto-classics. Magical Creatures is a hair-raising herd of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s affectionate and unerring eye for the fantastic. Perhaps one of the most notorious creatures from the fairy realm is the ever-changing trickster fairy: the Pooka. A shapeshifter, the pooka can take many forms, including invisibility, although it most often appears as a terrible horse with eyes of fire and flaming breath. It can also appear as a goat, goblin, dog, or even a rabbit. Not inherently evil, their main task is taunting: they'll take you on a joyride of terrifying proportions, shake you out of your current frame of mind, knock you out of your stupor with a swift kick. Taming the Pooka includes tales of this monster's mayhem--from such notables as W. B. Yeats and T. Crofton Croker, as well as Douglas Hyde. No one is beyond the cunning of the pooka!
Varla Ventura, Coast to Coast favorite, Weird News blogger on Huffington Post, and author of The Book of the Bizarre and Beyond Bizarre, introduces Weiser Books’ new Collection of forgotten occult classics. Paranormal Parlor is an eerie assemblage of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s sixth sense for tales of the weird and unusual. Should you find yourself walking beneath the silvery branches of an orchard on a fine late Summer afternoon, you may hear, among the birds tweets and the rustling wind, a haunting melody. This tune, most likely an old French love ballad, might take hold of your heart and mind in a way you've never known. If this should happen, you have two choices. You can run screaming away, terrified of the paranormal encounter you have unwittingly stumbled into, or you can stay and meet the specter behind the song.