Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Book Excerpt: Grintroduction

Below is an excerpt from Jack-o’-Lantern Press’s book, “Transylveinya Traveler: A Travel Guide for Monsters, Ghosts, Vampires, Aliens, Werewolves, Witches, Zombies, Demons … And Mad Scientists, Too.” 

To purchase the book, go to JackoLanternPress.com. Or click HERE.

We monsters appreciate all your support, and kindly ask that you rate and review the book. Enjoy!

GRINTRODUCTION

For those of you creatures out there who are tired of magical sunsets on idyllic tropical beaches, clean, fresh-air hikes through majestic mountains and the vibrant nightlife of cool, cosmopolitan cities, it’s time to explore Transylveinya, a monster’s paradise packed with dark and very alive graveyards, endless life-threatening jungles and seedy metropolises with horrors around every corner.

There’s another monster revolution upon us. Transylveinya travelers are popping up everywhere, coming through various gateways (portals) from the human world, anxious to see the homes of their great and not-so-great monster ancestors, eager to link up with long-lost family members, rejoin the monster community, scare and be scared. Even humans are finding their monster within and are using portals to try their luck in this danger zone, seeking that sense of belonging. Even monsters living here are doing more exploring of their own world.

From the pages of Jack-o’-Lantern Press, your portal to the monster community, this is your ultimate guide to Transylveinya. The top travel journalists of the publication will take you on a tour of all 13 districts of our great land, and they’ll help you to not only just survive to explore each district, but to experience the ultimate finale in Jack-o’-Lantern Park.

They’ll first introduce you to the leaders of each land (creatures and characters known as The Transylveinya 13), so that you’ll know, based on who’s running things and where, what to expect from the unexpected. You’ll find out what’s hot and what’s rot in each district in the Rot Spots stories. Then you’ll learn about the more charming places to visit and things to do in the Hidden Harms essays. To cap off each adventure, you’ll discover the more serene locales in our Deceaseful Settings stories. Throughout all these pages, Jack-o’-Lantern Press travel experts will offer up tips on what to pack and how to dress, a list of must-have souvenirs to pick up, things to do before passing on, informational tales about celebrated landmarks and places for perfect photo ops, hometown recipes and historical highlights to help you get unreasonably familiar with each area.

In the end, you won’t be any more able to take on the horrors of Transylveinya, but by (not really) knowing what to expect, you will be more terrified. And that makes all the difference.

Transylveinya was discovered many centuries ago by The Founder. The Founder, who may or may not still be around, is/was part vampire, part werewolf, created in what we would today call a lab. He was hunted by angry villagers, caught, mummified and entombed alive. Over 100 years later, tomb raiders unintentionally freed him. And he was still not dead. So he destroyed them and then sought revenge on anyone who had anything to do with his torture. Having accomplished that, he found himself very alone.

In his search for a place to spend his endless days and acquire an never-ending supply of blood for sustenance, The Founder came upon a land in the middle of what was once known as The Unknown. There he found a river of blood, what we know now to be the Mighty Vein River (which at present stains all 13 districts of Transylveinya before flowing out to the Blood Sea), and in the river he found enough blood for three or maybe more abnormal lifetimes.

Due to this artery of red liquid coursing right through the land, The Founder named the whole place Transylveinya. Note the syllable “vein” in the name. We’re told The Founder is/was a punster. He built his home — a large, crumbling, dusty, web-infested castle (even when it was brand new) — high on a hilltop. The palace can still be viewed in the far corner of the Transylveinya Pines gated community.

Over the years, The Founder traveled the world, discovering other dimensions through the portals we still use today, democratically terrorizing all forms of life, sucking up more blood, and attracting other like-minded creatures on his way back home.

The monsters, ghouls, goblins and witches who followed him back would stake out their own corners of Transylveinya, gradually forming the 13 Districts of Transylveinya:

1) Witches Meadow
2) Downtown Transylveinya
3) The Mad Science District
4) Transylveinya Hills
5) Werewolftown
6) Bigfoot National Park
7) The Carpathian Mountains
8) Shadow City
9) The Monster Islands (in the Blood Sea)
10) The Black Lagoon
11) Valley of Doom
12) UFO Springs
13) Jack-o’-Lantern Park

This book should shed a little darkness on each of those gloomy districts. We won’t cover all the things to do — the rare and unusual shopping, the places not to eat or the pitiful lodging — but we’ll highlight what we think is worth checking out on your own way to checking out. (All other information, when in the monster universe only, can be found on the Monster World Wide Web, mwww.InsertNameHere.mon. That’s “mon” for “monster,” silly.)

Upon your transition from one district to the next, you’ll receive a District Coin. Each coin is unique to the district you just barely survived (if you survive), imprinted with the bust of the leader of that district. Save those woody wafer-like coins. You’ll need them for the aforementioned grand finale of your journey in Jack-o’-Lantern Park, where, with those coins, you’ll be allowed to climb up Jack-o’-Lantern Tree Hill and see the great Jack-o’-Lantern Tree, the hill’s namesake and the source of all authentic Halloween magic. You’ll not only view an amazing landmark there, but you might also be able (mad scientists and evil villains pay close attention here) to harness the fickle magic of the tree and take over the entire world.

Transylveinya is a great big monstrously terrible land. But we still look forward to you visiting. And to those of you who already reside in these parts, we look forward to you getting to know where you “live” a little better.

It’s time to get ready for your trip to the monster homeland. It’s time to monster up!

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