Majanka Verstraete's Blog

The Clumsy Magician (Weirdville #5) is available in print

The Clumsy Magician, the fifth book in the Weirdville series, is available in print format.

You can purchase the paperback from Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada and Amazon Australia.

Ever since he received a magic kit from his estranged father, Ryan wanted nothing more than to become a professional magician. But when he tries to perform a trick at school, and it fails, he becomes the laughing stock of the entire school–and starts to doubt himself.

Matthew, a creepy loner who hangs out with the school bully, promises Ryan he can help him perform real magic, not just tricks. Ryan doesn’t believe him, at first, but then mysterious things start happening to convince him that magic is real after all.

What Ryan doesn’t know is the price he’ll have to pay to use such magic.

Drowning in Fear (Weirdville #4) is available in print

Drowning in Fear, the fourth book in the Weirdville series, is available in print format.

You can purchase the paperback from Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada or Amazon Australia.

For as long as he can remember, Nolan has been afraid of drowning. The fear is so bad he can’t even go swimming with his friends.

In an attempt to help him get over his fears, his Dad signs him up for a summer camp near Lake Weird. Ever since Nolan heard the news, he’s been having nightmares about an abandoned cabin near a lake, and about him drowning in water thick as blood.

Nolan is certain his nightmares are related to his fear of drowning, but when he arrives at summer camp, and finds out there’s a cabin near Lake Weird that matches the withered cabin from his nightmares, he realizes something more sinister is going on.

Can Nolan find out the reason why he’s spent his entire life being afraid of drowning? How is it connected to the spooky cabin from his nightmares, and the lake surrounded by creepy, crawling mist?

 

 

Fright Train (Weirdville #3) is available in print

Fright Train, the third book in the Weirdville series, is now available in paperback format.

You can purchase the paperback from Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada or Amazon Australia.

Charlie’s parents drop him off at the train station so he can visit his grandma in Weirdville. It’s a cold winter evening, so when his usual train is cancelled at the last second, Charlie wishes he’d stayed home.

An hour later, shivering from the cold, he climbs onboard the next train to Weirdville, even though he’d rather not. It looks like something straight out of the nineteenth century, as if it used a time machine to arrive at the station.

His shivering doesn’t stop, for soon after Charlie boards, he realizes just how right he was to be wary of this strange train. Something is seriously wrong with all the people onboard. If only he could figure out what was going on. If only he could get off the train.

 

House of Horrors (Weirdville #2) is available in print

House of Horrors, the second book in the Weirdville series, is now available in paperback format.

You can purchase the paperback from Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada or Amazon Australia.

When her parents allow her to go to the fair, Jacky is over the moon. The fair is most famous for its haunted mansion, the House of Horrors, and her friend Ben can’t wait to try it out. Her best friend, Cass, is a little more reluctant, but then again, Cass has always been a chicken when it comes to getting scared.

Jacky and Cass are determined to act tough, so when Ben suggests they try out the House of Horrors, the girls tag along, even though the place gives them the chills.

As soon as the three of them enter the spooky monstrosity, the ride comes to a screeching halt, and the horror begins.

The lights fade, and a hooded figure appears and tells them they’re stuck in a twisted game of cat and mouse. He will show them their worst fears, and if the kids manage to face down those fears, they’ll have a chance of getting out of the House of Horrors alive. If they don’t, well….

Thirty minutes to go. Thirty minutes to face their nightmares… and the clock is ticking.

 

 

Sally Sleuth and the Missing Mice now available on multiple ebook platforms

Sally Sleuth and the Missing Mice, the first book in the Sally Sleuth Series, was originally available on Amazon only.

As of now, it’s also available on multiple other retailers, including B&N, Apple and Smashwords. For the full list, check out the Books2 Read link.

The paperback version is currently being redacted and should be available in a few days as well. I struggled a bit with the paperback cover, but the final proof looks OK, so hopefully it will get approved without issues.

Here is the synopsis:

Sally Sleuth, a fourth-grade self-proclaimed detective, is charged to bring the class’s pet mice home for the evening. But with her brother’s snake crawling around, her dad locking himself up in his office all night, and her mom’s strict “time for bed” policy causing her to leave the mouse cage open, it’s no wonder the animals have disappeared by the next morning.

Sally doesn’t have much time to find the mice before she’ll let her teacher and all her friends down.

Sally Sleuth is a series of chapter books for kids who like mysteries.

The Doll Maker (Weirdville #1) is available in print

The Doll Maker, the first book in the Weirdville series, is now available in paperback format.

You can purchase the paperback from Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon Australia or Amazon Canada.

Derek’s little sister wants one of those creepy-looking dolls, staring at him from the strange new doll shop in town, and what his sister wants, she gets. Now they’re stuck with a doll that looks so human, it gives Derek the creeps.

When Derek tells his friends, Martin and Jamie, about the new shop with creepy human-like dolls, they want to see for themselves. That has “bad idea” written all over it, but he takes his friends there anyway.

They meet the mysterious doll maker, who reminds Derek of Dr. Frankenstein, and who brainwashes Martin into buying one of those scary dolls. Derek and Jamie push and pull Martin out of the shop, but something isn’t right with their friend. He’s shivering all over, and he has no memory of what happened in the shop.

Martin’s condition worsens every day, and Derek’s sister grows more and more obsessed with her new doll. Derek and Jamie have to find out what’s going on, and fast, because….

…the doll maker seems linked to a bunch of mysterious disappearances, and the last thing Derek wants is his sister, or his friend, being next on the doll maker’s list.

 

Weirdville Series available on Apple, Nook and Smashwords

After being only available on Amazon for quite some time, I finally got around to releasing the Weirdville series on other ebook platforms this week.

The Weirdville books are now available multiple other platforms, including Apple, Nook and Smashwords. Click on the covers below to go to the Books2Read link, which features links to all retailers.

I’ve also updated the various pages / sub-pages of this website, and have been working hard on changing the website design. I hope you like it!

Next step is to release the paperback versions of the Weirdville books, and to continue working on the eBook versions of my other titles.

Crafting: Make Your Own Gingerbread House

Time Required: 1h – 1h30
Difficulty: Easy
Review of kit: 5 out of 5 stars

The moment I saw one of these gingerbread kits, I knew I wanted to give this a try. The brand we bought it from is called Weiss. It’s a German brand and we purchased the gingerbread house from Amazon.

I actually thought we would still have to make the gingerbread parts themselves, but this wasn’t the case. They already came pre-modeled and pre-baked, and we only had to cut up one sheet of gingerbread for the details of the house and the sideboards.

The above items were already included in the box and are meant to serve as decoration on the gingerbread house. The figures were very cute, but unfortunately one of them had broken in half.

The slices of gingerbread were delivered as they are laid out above. All I had to do was mix the sugar so I could use it as ‘glue’ to glue the house together.

Above you can see an example of what the gingerbread house looked like during build-up. I used toothpicks here and there to keep the structure from falling apart, and then used the sugar to glue it all together.

Eventually, the house ended up looking like the above. I used the figures and candy as decoration and also painted some snow on the Christmas tree, and painted a door and window using the sugar.

A front-view picture of the house. I really liked how it turned out, and the house was quite delicious to boot. Easily the best tasting gingerbread I’ve ever sampled.

Making and decorating a gingerbead house is a fun activity for everyone, but especially kids. It doesn’t take that long to decorate and they can really get creative while doing so. I’ll definitely buy one of these again next year.

 

Crafting: Christmas Make Your Own Clay Figure – Reindeer

Time Required: 1h
Difficulty: Medium
Review of kit: 4 out of 5 stars

Just like the Elf clay figure I crafted last week, I purchased this crafting kit from the Action store for about 1 EUR.

I have to say this crafting kit was a lot easier to make than the elf. This figure could also be fun for kids to craft as it’s fairly straightforward and doesn’t take too long. I finished this in about an hour’s time.

The kit came with a manual, spatula and clay in the colours needed to craft this figure. The instructions were quite clear.

I started with the basic shapes for the head, body and feet.

Next, I added the antlers using the darker colour clay, and the nose using the lighter colour clay. I also added the tail.

Thereafter, I worked on the little hat – how cute is that hat – and bowtie.

Lastly, I added the eyes and legs, and tada! Finished. I quite like the end result and it wasn’t that difficult to accomplish. It could also be a fun craft project with kids.

Crafting: Christmas Make Your Own Clay Figure – Elf

Time Required: 1h – 1h30
Difficulty: Hard
Review of kit: 3 out of 5 stars – figure is difficult to make and instructions are rather vague

This is another crafting kit I bought in the Action store in Belgium. I think it cost 1 EUR tops, and there were a few different kits to choose from, so I decided to buy all the ones I could find since they were cheap.

The package contained modelling clay in all the colours needed to craft the elf shown on the cover, instructions and a spatula.

I tried a few of these kits, but I have to say the elf one is the most difficult one I’ve made thus far. The instructions are not that clear, and there are a lot of details that make it extra difficult.

I started by making the body, which is just a hump of green clay, and then started working on the feet. They weren’t easy, so I have added a close-up for those of you who want to give this elf a try as well.

Next, I combined the body with the feet, but it was already clear to me by then that there was no way the elf would be stable. Maybe that’s due to my (lack of) skill, but the figure couldn’t balance properly.

I also thought there wasn’t enough pink clay for the head, ears and hands. I mean, I did manage but it made the head look rather small compared to the rest of the body.

I worked on the hat next, which was probably the easit part to do. But as you can probably see, I struggled with the feet / stockings the most, especially when combining the different parts of the figure and trying to balance the figure so it could stand up straight.

The figure eventually ended up looking like this. I struggled with the details: the belt, the collar, the eyes and mouth, etc. And while the figure can balance for a few seconds, it inevitably ends up tumbling forward. Someone with more experience with clay will no doubt do a far better job than I did, but I did enjoy myself while working on this little elf, and that’s the most important thing.

I ended up adding the elf to my Christmas decorations. It’s leaning against a wooden house I made, so it doesn’t fall down anymore. Excuse the grainy quality of the above picture, but I took it at night with only the Christmas lights on.