Every October as I pull out my fake cobwebs, three foot spider, and an array of skeletons from my closet (no pun intended), I also like to wipe the dust off of any literature that gives me to heeby-jeebies. For book club, we do the same. In the past we have given ourselves nightmares by reading books like The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde, Blood Moon by Teri Harman, Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron, and Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice.
Now, I'm not one to fall for staged sightings of UFO's and I'm rarely scared by the Halloween haunted forests that come 'a callin' every October (though the Haunted Forest in American Fork did once make me scream). But, I'm not going to lie and say I haven't felt something akin to the paranormal before.
Ever been in a place and felt your skin crawl or a rush of air when no windows were open? What about the strange feeling that someone was watching you? If you haven't had any of these feelings or sensations, you owe it to yourself this October to experience the paranormal. Let's take Utah: are there really haunted places in our own backyard? You be the judge.
Say hello to the kindest, sweetest, most wonderful witch in the West...
Author Teri Harman
(Photo credit for all pictures goes to Bethany Madison)
Isn't this cover gorgeous?! We couldn't have chosen a better book for our October book club!
If you are planning on hosting your own Blood Moon book club then you definitely need to request one of these awesome book club packages from Teri. Inside I found menu ideas, questions, moon information, signed book marks and more! To request your own book club package then simply go HERE
FOOD & DECORATIONS:
So, no pressure or anything, but when the author of the book we're reading COMES to our book club, I tend to want everything to be perfect and step things up an extra five notches!
With that being the case, I did the smart thing and recruited one of my book club members who's creativity and talents have no boundaries...I called the beautiful Bethany and I definitely made the right decision!!
(Bethany and Chanel)
Just take a gander at the Blood Moon inspired decorations and food table Bethany whipped together...
I need to thank Robin for getting these stunning moon phase prints that we turned into vertical banners!
Witch Water and Bartholomew's spell that requires an owls heart and eyes in the cauldron to work its dark magic.
Here's the menu from our meeting
I think this might have been one of our most decadent and delicious book club feasts to date!
We had Rowans Risotto, Earthy Root Vegetables, Simon's Salad & SOOOO much more!
True Coven Caramel Apples and Rose infused whipped cream with fresh fruit
Doussantz....drool.... (If you want to try a dossantz {cousin to the cronut}then check out their website for more info!)
Dreamy Lavender Shortbread Cookies, Dossantz and Blood Moon Cake Pops!!
Butterbeer!!
If you want your taste buds to try something AMAZING then you need to try BUTTERBEER. And YES, I'm talking about the butterbeer from Harry Potter and YES, it's a real thing, and YES, you need to try it. I labeled ours "Bartholomew's Butterbeer" and let me tell you, Brittanie did a great job creating the most perfect frothy, buttery goodness! YUM! (And doesn't it look perfect in Bethany's cauldron punchbowl?) Click HERE to download two different Butterbeer recipes if you want to make your mouth smile!
And look at these beauties that Angie made...food art right? These delicate and scrumptious lavender flavored shortbread cookies not only looked dreamy but taste dreamy as well! I am in love with them! You can find the recipe that Angie used HERE.
Now, if you like a good salad and I mean, a GOOOOOOOD salad, then you need to make this gourmet green salad that Karen made and whose recipe is ALWAYS requested when she makes it! You will crave it for days after you eat it, it's that tasty!
I ordered this RAD spell book as part of the "Best Dressed" prize and I almost didn't give it away because I loved it so much! Every good witch needs this book in her collection.
I found this awesome moonstone pendant and made it into a necklace as part of the "Monthly Moon Names" prize along with an entire box of moon pies!(The quiz printable can be found at the bottom of this post)
Here are a few of the items I put in Teri's thank you gift: A mint moonstone necklace and earrings, a fun owl ring (I knew that Teri liked owls.) A Moon Spells book, an essential for any witch, and of course, a moon pie!
WINNERS! Libby won the moon name quiz and Brooke won the drawing for Best Dressed!
Teri is explaining her inspiration behind why she wrote Blood Moon and showing us photos of the creepy old school house that started it all. Read more about her inspiration HERE!
We were all totally engrossed learning about Teri and asking her question after question about the book AND her next book, "Black Moon," due to come out fall of 2014. To read more about our Q&A with Teri and our discussion then go HEREto read about our evening!
After our discussion, Teri was kind enough to sign everyone's books and take pictures. Isn't her witch outfit perfect?!
We want to give Teri a BIG THANK YOU for taking the time to come to Delicious Reads book club and making our evening forever memorable.
PRINTABLES & FREEBIES!
If you are hosting your own Blood Moon book club meeting then you're in luck because I have TONS of great FREEBIES for you to use to make your evening extra witch-tacular! (See what I did there?)
Chanel had this fabulous idea to recreate a moment out of the book by using several fresh herbs out of her garden along with a kosher salt pentagram. She filled several red goblets with different herbs and I created these labels to identify each of them. Click HERE to download the herb label set.
{Click on quiz image to download it along with the answer key}
If you want to learn about why each month's moon has a different name then you can read about them HEREin this word document I made.
I made and used these eerie tags for the quiz and best dressed winners.
SUMMARY:
Willa and Simon have grown up feeling out of touch with society
because of a magic housed deep inside them - Willa's sees ghosts and
dreams future events and Simon feels others emotions and can heal
with a touch. It isn't until a chance meeting in Willa's hometown,
Twelve Acres, that the two teens find out that they are actually
witches. As an unexplained and powerful magic pull them together,
they have to choose to put away their simple lives and dreams to
become part of true Light Covenant, joined together forever with 10
other witches. If they don't, the Dark witches may send Twelve Acres
and the rest of their world back into the dark ages.
REVIEW:
We were lucky enough to get the author, Teri Harman, to come IN
PERSON to our magical night! Nearly everyone dressed in their
witchiest attire, including Teri, while we ate our magically-inspired
food. Since Teri was there, we spent a bulk of the evening getting to
know her and getting behind the scenes info on all things Blood
Moon (see Q&A below).
Check out and download the fun PowerPoint created by our moderator, Kelly HERE.
As we talked with Teri, we discovered
that many of the questions we had with Blood Moon will be answered in Book #2: Black Moon. We all want to know what is going to
happen with poor Simon. We also want to know more about Amelia and
Solace.
Storm Moon will be Book #3 –
which Teri admitted she has yet to write. We all tried to give her
ideas, though :). She also admitted she is not an outliner when she
writes. She is a discovery writer, meaning she the story is created
as she writes.
We discussed soul mates and the
relationship between Willa and Simon. We thought it was beautiful to
read about their instant connection. Teri compared Willa and Simon's
connection to how she met her husband at a young age and eventually
started dating him. Delicious Reader, Karen, admitted she felt the
same way about her husband too. We wondered about the reader response Teri has gotten about starting the book straight off with Simon and Willa. Teri wanted everyone to understand
right at the start that Simon and Willa have an unbreakable bond,
that may be challenged, but it is solid. She wanted people to get that this story wouldn't be about some cliche love triangle, but that it would be about the magical story of all the characters.
Teri told us that she wrote Blood Moon
not thinking about readers, but wrote the story that she saw. When
she started Black Moon, she started to think about readers and
after 45,000 words she had to throw it all out and start the story
over because she was trying to do something that wasn't right. She
quoted Stephen King, “Write with the door closed. Re-write with the
door open.” So she wrote the first draft without paying attention
to anyone else and not reading people's reviews of her book.
Teri met real witches before Blood Moon came out. She went to Salem and talked with some real witches that
truly believe their magic comes from the earth and you can manipulate
the earth to make things happen. She compared spells to the Christian
version of prayer.
We all loved the idea of the 6 magic gifts:
Each of us took the “Which Witch Are You” quiz to find out which type of magic we would have.
Q&A with Teri Harman
1. Where did you grow up?
Kansas City, Kansas, Miami (for 2.5
years), and Utah (since 12 years old)
2. Have you always enjoyed writing?
Yes! I've always loved writing even as
a child. My first story was about a cow, which I dictated to my mom
and she typed on her electric typewriter when I was four or five.
3. Where did your inspiration for
Blood Moon come from?
A Halloween party. Every year I host a
witch themed Halloween party for the women in my family. In 2010, I
found an incredible location - a 100 year old school house out in the
middle of nowhere. The Camp Floyd School House was so perfect I
needed a party to match. I started reading up on witches and magic to
get ideas for the party, but was so fascinated by what I read that it
soon became inspiration for a novel.
4. What was your publishing
experience like?
The first book I tried to publish
didn't work out, but I was able to get an agent for Blood Moon. A
year later, we still hadn't found a publisher, but my brother was at
a BYU conference and saw Jolly Fish Press. We sent my stuff off and
they agreed to publish. All together it took me 6 years and over 100
rejections before I saw my first novel published.
5. Tell us what it’s been like to
be a “Mom Author.”
It's chaos! But it's also great. I have
to be disciplined, but also flexible to get everything done that I
need to everyday. I love being at home for my kids, but am so glad I
have my own pursuits as well - it keeps me sane. And luckily I have
wonderful kids and an extremely helpful husband.
6. Tell us about your other book, “A
Painted Life”
This book is very dear to my heart. I
wrote it while BLOOD MOON was on submission and I was wondering if my
dream would ever be realized. This is Saffron's story. Saffron is a
painting - a girl in a painting who is alive. She wants nothing more
than to escape her prison of oil and canvas to live a normal life. A
normal life with the man she loves, Emmett Charles. The book is set
in the late 1890's in Boston and is part literary fiction, part magic
realism, part romance. I can't wait for reader's to read it!
7. What other hobbies or interests
do you have?
I am addicted to stories. I read a LOT!
I also love watching TV series and movies. I enjoy yoga, dancing and
biking. We also love to travel and be in the great outdoors. And when
the mood strikes me, I love to cook.
8. What are your favorite movies/TV
Shows?
Call the Midwife (Netflix),
Walking Dead, Sherlock, Downton Abbey, North and South (BBC),
Wuthering Heights (BBC with Tom Hardy), The Big Bang
Theory. The best witch movies I've seen are Practical Magic
and Hocus Pocus. There are so many non-witch movies--its so
hard to choose. An oldie but goodie is Sense and Sensibility
(Emma Thompson one), The River Wild, The Decoy Bride,
Love Actually, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,
Edward Scissorhands, I'm also a sucker for old movies and
musicals.
I'm kind of a geek too so we love
Doctor Who, Battlestar Galatica, and some of my favorite
movies are the old Star Trek movies. I grew up on them, but
I'm sure people who watch them now are saying, "What is wrong
with you?!" I watched The Next Generation and probably
have seen every episode at least five times.
9. Do you have a favorite witch
book? Other than your own ;)
My favorite witch writer is Paula
Brackston. She actually has two books out right now The Witch's
Daughter and The Winter Witch. The Winter Witch just came
out this spring. Her books have natural magic--they are like
historical fiction/supernatural thriller. I hope she comes out with
lots of them.
10. What books have you enjoyed that
you think would make a good book club book?
We have a book club and we've read The
Thirteenth Tale, The Book Thief, Big in Japan, Eleanor & Park
(watch out for swearing and sexual content), The Snow Child, The
Light Between Oceans.
11. Tell us about your book launch
at The King's English.
That was one of the surreal, dream days
because I go to the King's English all the time. It's my favorite
book store. Every time I've stepped in there or gone to an author
event, there was always in the back of my head, "I really want
it to be me! Why isn't it me yet?" So that day was surreal and
perfect. The King's English had a cake made with the book cover
image. I didn't even know they were going to do that.
12. Which Witch gift would you
choose?
I would have to say Willa's gift
because a lot of the scenes in the book were inspired by my own
dreams. That's why I gave her that gift. That's where it all began.
The hand reaching out - that was a dream I had. I saw that hand.
Also, the part where Willa is running through the forest and the sky
shatters and falls. That was a dream. When I was thinking of what her
magical power would be I thought, "Let's make her a dreamer."
She's not me, but that gift is what I would want.
-2.jpg "Blood Moon Book Club, Delicious Reads, Teri Harman, Blood Moon Book Review")
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.jpg "Blood Moon Book Club, Delicious Reads, Teri Harman, Blood Moon Book Review")
