Guest post by Bethany Griffin, author of The Masque of the Red Death and The Dance of the Red Death + GIVEAWAY!


I’m pretty sure that I’m ready for a desert Island scenario- as a kid I read The Swiss Family Robinson at least 5 times….except that now that I think about it, my memory is a little hazy (did they ride on Ostriches?) and there was a scene with a big snake that gave me nightmares….maybe instead of literature I need an unlimited connection to the internet so I can google which fruit/berries are edible…Still here is my list of Desert Island Survival Essentials

1. Sunscreen- I am very quick to burn and very slow to tan.

2. My Kindle (and a way to charge it) I know! I’m totally cheating on this one because how would you charge it? And also because I rarely read on my Kindle, but it would be so hard to bring all of my favorite books with me, and what else are you going to do on a desert island?

3. One of those solar device chargers I just remembered seeing advertised- and also a nice waterproof tent to keep my electronics dry and to keep me safe from the big snake from the Swiss Family Robinson mentioned above.

4. An army of Mongooses, (mongeese?) and…whatever other things kill snakes. Is there such a thing as reptile repellant? (Also, though it would be fitting, there will be no crocodiles on my island) I have an intense horror of snakes that carries over to pretty much all other reptiles, with a focus on those that eat people.

5. Notebooks and pens or conversely my MacBook so I could write/use the word processor. But I wouldn’t mind the notebooks if that was all I had. I like writing by hand, and I’m just going to say if I was stuck on a desert island, why bother revising? I could just write stuff and believe that it was awesome, without any audience, who would know? And after being rescued, who would have the audacity to judge, even if I used the words lonely in every single sentence? Or wretched or sandy. Who would care if all my plots centered around fear of large reptiles?

6. Music- some way to access my itunes library? A stack of favorite cd’s and a player? Some headphones? Earbuds? Speakers? It doesn’t even matter because I’m going to need some music, otherwise I’ll end up like Tom Hanks, talking to a volleyball, and I really do try to avoid talking to myself, even when I’m in the middle of plotting out a news story, or working through revisions.

7. A magic lunchbox that delivers hot fresh pizza. I fantasized this in like second grade on a day when my mom sent me something unappetizing for lunch. I sat in some class, probably math, and had a complete fantasy about a lunch box that could send me delicious piping hot pizza, and an ice cold soda. I still like pizza, and I still don’t know how to do math.


Thanks to Bethany for sharing her desert island essentials (I completely agree with solar panels and Kindle). But wait, you can also win a set of books (UK only) thanks to the lovely people at Indigo. One winner will receive copies of both The Masque of the Red Death and The Dance of the Red Death. Just enter via rafflecopter below.

 Both books are now available to buy in paperback and ebook editions. Check back later this week for my review of the second book.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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