Free Spine Tingling Horror Book for Halloween + Listen to it on YouTube Too!

Free Horror Book for Halloween

Happy Halloween one and all.

As has become a tradition for me and Soph at Wittegen Press, we like to give away a free book for Halloween (link and instructions at the bottom). It started when we heard about Neil Gaiman's All Hallows Read way back in 2012, where the idea is to give books as a Halloween treat.

Soph and I created eBooks to give away from 2012 to 2021. We took a little break in 2022 for family reasons, but now I am back to continue the tradition!👻 (Soph's been too busy at work this year to join in, poor thing - hopefully she'll have more time next Halloween).

This year the book is called Mirror Mirror: A Haunting Tale of Horror, which is the first story, and it also contains The Crosses We Bear.

A chill runs down your spine as you enter your refurbished home in Mirror Mirror. Little do you know that glancing in a mirror will spell doom for you. 

In The Crosses We Bear, meet Lyle and Susan, two ad executives who are about to discover that a remote Scottish hotel is only the beginning of their terrifying journey. Follow their story of facing terrible things in the dark as they confront the horror they find.

I also decided it would be fun to read Mirror Mirror over on my YouTube channel. I hope I come off as sufficiently spine tingling 😱 - although not too creepy or YouTube will bury my vid 😉.

The book is available from all the usual eBook sites, but to get it FREE you need to pop to Smashwords - and use this coupon code on checkout: HA85H

The offer is valid until 01 Dec 2023 - so grab your copy before it runs out.

🎃Please be aware the stories this year are not kid friendly - they are for older trick or treaters who enjoy a bit of horror.🎃

I do love writing a bit of dark horror from time to time. It balances out my usual desperate need for a happy ending I suppose 😉. Hope you enjoy the stories and have a fabulous Halloween.

If you are looking for more spooky horror, all the previous years books can be found here.

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Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel

Tales with Tasha

Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.

• 🎤Micro stories as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday- for fun quick viewing
• 🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed

Tasha's Social Media

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Receive 2 FREE eBooks just for signing up and a free short story once every month on Free Fiction Friday.

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Exciting Paranormal Murder Mystery to watch & download for free!

Survival of the Fittest

I am celebrating my 100th week on YouTube and hence have created a longer story vid as well as all my shorts this week. It’s a paranormal murder mystery. Enjoy!

Watch to the end to find out how to get a free copy of the eBook too.

Survival of the Fittest: Werewolves & Witches & More

On the surface, a quiet sleepy town, but it has ancient and deep secrets. Lil, the sheriff of this small, supernatural backwater, is the only thing standing between the cheerfully oblivious humans and the powerful supernatural beings that live alongside them. When a body washes up on the shore of the lake, Lil must face off against the supernatural conflict that threatens to tear her town apart. With the stakes higher than ever, can Lil uncover the truth and solve the murder of the werewolves’ alpha before it’s too late?

Also available to buy from Amazon, Smashwords & Others.

    

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Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel

Tales with Tasha

Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.

• 🎤Micro stories as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday along with jokes and parody movie reactions - for fun quick viewing
• 🕮A longer story every now and then for story time, over coffee or before going to bed

Tasha's Social Media

@beren_writesFacebookInstagramLinkedInAmazon

📚Join My Newsletter📚

Receive 2 FREE eBooks just for signing up and a free short story once every month on Free Fiction Friday.

Click here to join the Wittegen Press Newsletter

List hosted on MailChimp, information will only be used for Newsletter contact, and we do not send spam.

Short Narrated Stories - Funny Fantasy - Tales with Tasha wk93

Tales with Tasha Week 93
Funny Fantasy

Last week at Tales with Tasha the aim was to make everyone smile with Fantasy Comedy Stories. Mostly I was in a mood for cute magical creatures and these are the shorts I came up with.

Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy them.🥰

Defender of the Weak?

Some critter are not quite what they appear to be - this can be a good thing.

Pet Pet Pet

Dignity and diplomacy are not always viable bedfellows...

WARNING! Don't Touch!

When it comes to a witch's familiar there are certain expectations.

Protect The Puppy!

It's not your fault you didn't know he was a werewolf!

No! Bad Boy!

Dragon Whisperer, yeah right, more like glorified babysitter!

Don't Be DECEIVED!

Don't pet the unknown magical creature, even if it is cute!

Save Me NOW!

Outed by a unicorn!

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Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel

Tales with Tasha

Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.

• 🎤Micro stories as YouTube Shorts Monday - Sunday - for fun quick viewing
• 🕮A longer story every now and then - for story time, over coffee or before going to bed

Tasha's Social Media

@beren_writesFacebookInstagramLinkedInAmazon

📚Join My Newsletter📚

Receive 2 FREE eBooks just for signing up and a free short story once every month on Free Fiction Friday.

Click here to join the Wittegen Press Newsletter

List hosted on MailChimp, information will only be used for Newsletter contact, and we do not send spam.

Free Fiction - Fallen Angel: A Christmas Romance - Check it out on YouTube

Fallen Angel: A Christmas Romance

BAD Timing? Now This Is AWKWARD! 
🎄 😇 (Christmas Romance Short Story) #comedy

Hello, Lovelies. I hope you are all doing well, Long time no talk. Let's just say it's been a bit of a year and look forward to Christmas and 2023 💝

My YouTube channel Tales with Tasha, is still going strong and slowly building an audience. Please, do check it out if you haven't already. New stories every day as YouTube shorts :- some fun, some terrifying, some mystifying and more.

This week I have a longer story as well, in the spirit of Christmas. You can listen for free at Tales with Tasha and pick up a copy at all the usual eBook places as well. Great for sitting down to over a nice cup of hot chocolate, or you beverage of choice.

Fallen Angel: A Christmas Romance

LGBTQ+ Christmas Romance 

Kay is preparing for her and her husband Greg’s annual Christmas party when the angel falls off her tree. She’d put him right back up there, only now he’s six foot two, naked and adorably confused. Not one to argue with Christmas magic, Kay sets about trying to figure out what is going on as well as make sure her guest is no longer sans clothes.

7 Christmas themed micro stories also included.

Buy Links

    

YouTube How To:
Most Important Thing About Titles

I have watched many, many YouTube how to videos on what to do to make the algorithm love a video, and I have tried lots of their tips. What I am coming to realise is this:

It does not matter how good your video content is if you are a small channel, the only way to get ahead is to play the game and chase the algorithm.

One proviso, is that I am talking about my experience with YouTube shorts, which is one of the best ways to grow a channel from scratch at the moment. Longer videos require other techniques as well, but there is a lot of crossover.

The number 1 tip that seems to finally be working for my channel is this:

❗Write the title before even starting the video.❗

I spent months deciding on my stories, then trying to come up with titles that would grab viewers, and I was getting a steady viewership, but it had completely stalled in new subs and viewing number. In the past 2 weeks I have completely changed my strategy and my views have gone up considerably, so has my like count, as well as gaining new subscribers. I mean, it's nothing astronomical yet, but growth is growth.

This is my strategy:

1. Sunday, go to "What is popular on YouTube" playlist.
2. Look at the most successful topics.
3. Create click-bait titles for my five shorts for that week, based on various hot topics.
4. Decide on my overall story themes (first week I did Midsomer Murder parodies, this week comedy horror)
5. Come up with stories that incorporate the title somehow, but fit the theme.

An Example

1. One of the popular topics was Minecraft, so I came up with the following title: Minecraft Mystery?! 🤯 #shorts (1 min story) (Midsomer Murders Parody)

Note that the end of my title does not hide the true nature of my short, I do not want to lie to people and make them feel betrayed. However, it does count on the fact most people scan the beginning of the title first and don't bother with the end.

2. The story itself is a ridiculous murder in a craft shop in an old mine.

It technically fits the title and it's supposed to be funny, so will hopefully make them smile and even if they have been tricked, they won't mind that much.

Results

From getting anywhere from 10 to around 100 views on a vid, using this technique I managed to get all of last weeks vids to around 200 views, and some of my older titles are getting some more views too. I link to a different playlist at the end of Monday's vid and the playlist for the week from every other vid that week.

Of course it does depend on the topic, and sometimes I get it wrong. This week, Monday's vid, only has 40 views and I'm planning on changing up the title some more once I can think of how to do it, however, Tuesday's, is currently at 1,150 and still going up.

It’s a SCAM! Grifter Alert! 👿 #shorts (1 min story) (FUNNY Ghost Story)

Changing the title can work too - one of last week's vids did not do well overnight, so I changed up the title and managed to bring it up to the same level as the others. It's a bit of a game against the algorithm, if you haven't realised that yet 😉.

Conclusion

There are many factors in creating a good title, but getting the popular buzz words in there, seems to be a really, really important one. So far the one that gets the most traction for me is "Scam/Scammer". It is a sad fact of life that negative connotations get more hits. However, if I can get a bit of humour into someone's life using a click-baity title, I count it as a good thing.

We shall have to see how this continues to pan out.

Updates

25-Aug-22: Wednesday's vid has ~480 views this morning, so not as good as "Scam", but "Scandal" seems to be a good word. 

Still messing with Monday's title to try and get the vid seen - have not found a golden combination yet 😉.

SCANDAL at the PALACE! Princess of Nowhere!😲 #shorts (1 min story) (FUNNY Ghost Story)

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Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel

Tales with Tasha

Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.

• 🎤Micro stories as YouTube Shorts Monday - Friday - for fun quick viewing
• Longer stories as specials from time to time.

Tasha's Social Media

@beren_writesFacebookInstagramLinkedInAmazon

📚Join My Newsletter📚

Receive 2 FREE eBooks just for signing up and a free short story once every month on Free Fiction Friday.

Click here to join the Wittegen Press Newsletter

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X is for X-Rated? #YouTube #AtoZChallenge

YouTube - What They Don't Tell You
X is for X-Rated?

My AtoZ theme this year is my YouTube journey with my new fiction channel, and all that I have learned - plus some free fiction - scroll down to the embedded vid for that.

YouTube used to be a platform where anything went except blatant pornography, then it became uber popular and it started cracking down because of its ad revenue. Then there was the whole debacle about children watching it, even though no one under 13 should be able to create an account, and it got worse.

YouTube does not allow pornographic content in video, text, audio or images. All of their examples say "for the purpose of sexual gratification" which is a very wishy-washy term, but if you don't want your vids age restricted or worse, your channel deleted, avoid such things. Given that YouTube is notorious for banning or restricting things because someone else reported it, rather than actually investigating properly with actual human beings, just avoid adult content.

Photo by Eliott Van Buggenhout on Unsplash

There are certain words that will get your vids age restricted and/or demonetised too, like swearing and sexualised words even when not used in a sexual context. Given that YouTube is not supposed to be for children under 13 in the first place this is very, very annoying, but we don't get to argue with it. We just have to watch what we say.

Does it annoy you too, that a site supposed to be for adult and teens is so restrictive because of prudish advertisers?

Current YouTube Episode

April's Theme - Ghost Stories

New story every week day at 4pm GMT

Please subscribe to never miss a vid (it's free).

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About the AtoZ Challenge

The A to Z Challenge happens every April. Bloggers from all over the world come together to post every day in April, apart from Sundays, inspired by the letters of the alpha bet. A = April 1st etc. Some of us have themes, some of us don't. Click the image below for more info and links to other participants.

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Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel

Tales with Tasha

Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.

• 🎤Micro stories as YouTube Shorts Monday - Thursday - for fun quick viewing
• 🕮A longer story every Friday - for story time, over coffee or before going to bed

Tasha's Social Media

@beren_writesFacebookInstagramLinkedInAmazon

📚Join My Newsletter📚

Receive 2 FREE eBooks just for signing up and a free short story once every month on Free Fiction Friday.

Click here to join the Wittegen Press Newsletter

List hosted on MailChimp, information will only be used for Newsletter contact, and we do not send spam.