Varla Ventura

Did you know duck dander is hallucinogenic? Or that Katherine Hepburn had a phobia of dirty hair? Have you ever wondered about the Magickal Skull of Doom or contemplated the mysterious Transylvanian Tablets? The Book of the Bizarre is a veritable treasure trove of startling and stranger-than-? ction 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 include: Something Wicked: Mysterious Objects & Haunted Homes, Tender Murderers and Malevolent Males: Killingly Good Tales of Terror, and Morbid Writers and Tortured Artists: From Edgar Allan Poe to Vincent Van Gogh. Terrifying topics range from Corpses on Campus to Strange Rock and Roll Stories to Medical Maladies, Conspiracy Theories, Superstitions, Hexes, and even UFO's. The Book of the Bizarre is designed for the depraved, outlandish enough for the eccentric, and freaky enough for even the hardest trivia nut.

Freaky Facts and Strange Stories

The Book of the Bizarre

Frightening Facts and Blood-Curdling True Tales

Beyond Bizarre

Emily Grant Hutchings

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. Not just a “novel written by the Ouija” Jap Herron was purported to be one of three lost novels of Mark Twain, delivered by his mortal scribe, Mrs. Emily Grant Hutchings. According to the author's introduction, over several months Samuel L. Clemens' (Mark Twain's) ghost delivered message specifically for Hutchings to edit into a story, all via a medium's Ouija board. Hutchings and her husband painstakingly took down every letter the planchette directed them to. However, Jap Herron was never widely published, having been pulled from distribution thanks to a lawsuit brought against Hutchings and her publisher by Twain's daughter. Hutchings, a fairly accomplished journalist, was skewered for her desperate attempts to gain fame. Surprisingly true to the voice of Twain, Hutchings was either a gifted charlatan or a truthful telepathic. You read it and decide!

Paranormal Parlor, A Weiser Books Collection

Jap Herron, A Novel Written from the Ouija Board

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 freak-tacular 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 Baring-Gould, 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

Facts, Fictions, and First-Hand Accounts

Banshees, Werewolves, Vampires, and Other Creatures of the Night

John William Polidori

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 story of the conception of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is a tale well known to horror devotees. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Wollstonecraft (Shelley) were reading ghost stories aloud to one another one stormy night at Byron's lake house in Geneva, Switzerland. Byron prompted his partygoers to write a ghostly tale of their own. Out of this came the beginnings of one of the most famous horror novels of all time, Frankenstein, a Modern Prometheus. As it happened, John William Polidori was also there that fated night. Personal physician to Lord Byron and a writer as a past time, Polidori crafted The Vampyre, A Tale from a sketch of a story that Byron composed that same evening. Often wrongly advertised as a story by Byron himself, The Vampyre has remained a relatively obscure tale of terror. The first vampire story published in English, Polidori's work predates the seminal Bram Stoker's Dracula by more than seventy years.

Magical Creatures, A Weiser Books Collection

The Vampyre: A Tale

Clint Marsh

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 most revered of all mythical beings, the Unicorn, dashes across the pages of this collection of fiction and folklore from such notable authors as Odell Shepperd and selections from works such as Unicorns: A Mythological Investigation.

Unicornicopia

Eugene Field

In the dark of the night, in the deep of the woods, there dwells a creature that is neither man nor beast. Considered by some to be supernatural, many would call his plight a curse. The curse of the werewolf. Hunted, feared, and deified this snarling being is the stuff legends are made of. This classic tale of terror from noted children's author Eugene Field will have you howling at the moon!

The Werewolf

William Wirt Sikes

Goblins, fairies, pooka, changelings, gnomes, and elves...all are lurking within this book. Their stories and legends stand the test of time, and by reading them you will soon find that you have released these creatures into your life! Are your shoes missing again? Garden thriving in spite of your neglect? Did you hear something calling out to you from the shores of the river or the sea? Be warned! You have invoked the power of the fairie. It is best to study their culture and learn to live with them. 19th century author Wirt Sikes learned to live in harmony with them while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Wales. Perhaps this collection he has bestowed upon us will help you to celebrate the magic (and the mayhem) of the fairy realm.

The Occult Powers of Goats and Other Welsh Tales of Goblins, Fairies, Gnomes, and Elves

Noralie Robertson

After being diagnosed with a life-threatening tumor at the age of 22 Leonora Piper sought out the services of a known healer and medium that was reputed to be able to instill psychic abilities in his patrons. During her first session with this medium she went into a trance and thus began a long and interesting career in the psychic arts. Though she claimed psychic experiences were common to her, even in childhood, her session with the medium resulted in her ability to channel such diverse entities as a French doctor, Abraham Lincoln, a young Italian maid, and Johann Sebastian Bach, Mrs. Piper and the Society for Psychical Research is the story of this corseted maven and the Society for Psychical Research’s exhaustive fifteen year investigation into her supernatural powers.

Mrs. Piper and the Society for Psychical Research

Ralph Adams Cram

Ralph Adams Cram was a master builder with a secret talent for occult horror writing. This wonderful short-story shows a side to this famous architect that proves his own dabblings as a writer are just as noteworthy as the Federal Building in Boston, one of Cram's most famous building designs. Besides deco architecture Cram is best known for the Gothic revival movement, and is the architect behind dozens of beautiful cathedrals and buildings throughout New England. A true gothic at heart, his story of No. 252 Rue M. le Prince in Paris--where dark magic lurks and horrors await any who dare enter--shows just how dark this draftsman could be.

A Haunting in Paris, A Truly Terrifying Tale

Women have always been heroes. But it is no longer enough just to say so. As we shake off the last traces of a major patriarchal hangover, women need a new name of their own. As sheroes, all women can fully embrace their fiery fempower and celebrate their no-holds-barred individuality. From the serhoic foremothers who blazed trails and broke barriers, to today's women warriors from sports, science, cyberspace, city hall, the lecture hall, and the silver screen, Sheroes paints 200 portraits of powerful and inspiring role models for women poised for the future. Drawn from the fictional and real worlds, the sheroic profiles include: Dian Fossey, Martina Navratilova, Sojourner Truth, Indira Ghandi, Aretha Franklin, Margaret Mead, Coretta Scott king, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Agent Scully, Joan Baez, Eleanor Roosevelt, Coco Chanel, Anita Hill, Thelma and Louise, Ripley, Roseanne, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, and others.

Bold, Brash, and Absolutely Unabashed Superwomen from Susan B. Anthony to Xena

Sheroes

Elliot O'Donnell

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 cryptoclassics. Magical Creatures is a hairraising herd of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s affectionate and unerring eye for the fantastic. Beware the death bogle! A sighting of this fearsome creature will likely lead to sudden illness and untimely death. Folklorist Elliot O'Donnell warns of this relative of The Bogieman and all that lurk at the crossroads in this Edwardianera collection about the notsofair fairies of old.

Death Bogle at the Crossroads

Presents portraits of real and fictional role models for women, from sports, science, politics, and entertainment, including Dian Fossey, Aretha Franklin, Joan Baez, Anita Hill, and Agent Dana Scully

Andrew Lang

Reginald Bakeley

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. Excerpted from the English folklorist Andrew Lang's greater collection, these delightful tales of goblin ponies and little gray men are introduced by self-declared fairy hunter and goblinproofer Reginald Bakeley.

The Goblin Pony and Other Tales

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. For fairy tale lovers and fans of TV shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time and movies like Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, here is a collection of stories thick with dark woods, poison apples, wicked queens, curses, blessings, huntsmen, true love, crystal coffins, and helpless beauties, largely from Andrew Lang's bestselling Victorian series of color fairy books.

The Poison Apple: And Other Tales of Magic Mirrors and Wicked Queen

The author of The Book of the Bizarre presents an enchanting collection of classic mermaid stories and historical anecdotes from around the world. From Homer's Odyssey to Pirates of the Caribbean, mermaids have fascinated popular culture for centuries. Varla Ventura explores the wealth of literature about these mythical creatures in this charming anthology. This volume 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. In these pages, you will discover: · Many people today believe that early explorer sightings of mermaids were actually manatees. · The legendary pirate Blackbeard was afraid of his crew being lured into a watery grave by mermaids, so he ordered his ships to avoid areas where they were said to be. · Since 2009, the town of Kiryat Yam, Israel, has offered a prize of $1 million dollars to anyone who can prove the mermaid off their coast is real. The prize remains unclaimed.

Facts, Myths, and Enchantments from the Sirens of the Sea

Among the Mermaids

Charles Dickens

Elizabeth Gaskell

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. In the 1859 Christmas edition of his regular publication, All Year Round, Charles Dickens solicited his favorite authors to take up residence in his Haunted House. With an introductory story by Dickens (The Mortals in the House) each author writes from the point of view of the ghost residing in a room. On the Twelfth Night of Christmas, a night believed to hold supernatural powers, the ghost begin to speak. Adelaide Anne Procter, who was Queen Victoria’s favorite poet, delivers the tale of “The Ghost in the Picture Room” entirely in rhyming verse. Wilkie Collins, a lifelong friend of Dickens and a well known author and playwright, delights with his nautical story of “The Ghost in the Cupboard Room.” And Elizabeth Gaskell, in the longest of the stories in the collection, paints a vivid portrait of the ghost of a judge in “The Ghost in the Garden Room.” For any lover of Dickens, Gaskell, or even just a good ghost story, this unique collection will warm the heart and chill the bones.

The Haunted House of 1859

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 the most feared creature in Irish fairy lore, the Banshee is the ghostly, female apparition whose shriek portents the demise of a loved one. Elliot O'Donnell explores the terrifying Banshee-equivalents of cultures around the world-- from the Highland Castles of Scotland to the seaside villages of Italy-- and his tales of these creatures make the Irish Banshee look like nothing more than a cherubic Christmas-caroler.

The Alleged Counterparts of the Banshee

Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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. An empty house, where no one dares live. A landlord who swears no one can make it through a single night. A brave, or foolish, young man with a scientific mind, who takes the challenge and locks himself in for a night he will never forget. And of course, it is a dark and stormy night... Apparitions, dark magic, floating objects, and paralyzing terror all wait any one who dares enter the doorway of this London haunted house. Written by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, most known for the classic horror intro "It was a dark and stormy night" Lytton takes his place in the archives of the most frightening fiction with The House and the Brain. Originally published in 1859 as The Haunters and the Haunted, or The House and the Brain this story will make even the most modern reader's blood curl.

The House and the Brain, A Truly Terrifying Tale

The latest addition to the best-selling Wild Women series, Wild Women Talk About Love is like having a heart-to-heart with 200 of your closest friends. Loquacious ladies of every stripe unleash their wicked wit in this humorous and enlightening compilation and tell it like it is. Chapters include "Love Is Fabulous," "Love Is a Pain," "Love Lost," "Are Men Really Necessary" and cover sex, personal ads, blind dates, break ups, weddings, and the prerequisites for the perfect kiss. Sidebars include "Size Matters," and "Weepiest Romantic Movies Ever." Wait, there's more--true tales about wild women of yore that entertain as much as they enlighten. From Lily Tomlin to Dorothy Allison, Elizabeth Taylor to Annie Dillard, there's no shortage of sass, sarcasm, or sizzle. Find out, once and for all, what women talk about when they talk about love.

Varla Ventura

Books

Your next favorite book is out there