Verrrrrrry Scarrrrrry....

by Jeanne Adams

BOOO!!!

Did I scare you? BWAH-Ha-Ha-HA!!! It's Halloween! Tonight is Trick or Treat! Tomorrow, All Soul's Day...Are you ready?

Oh, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Grins.


All of you know, by now that I ADORE Halloween. Almost every year we have an annual Addams Family Halloween party - in hiatus this year because I was on deadline, alas.

*huge, long-standing pout*

However, it is an event like no other. We've had up to 65 people in our house and garden for this affair. One year, early on while it was still just "Jeanne's Annual Halloween Party" (i.e. Pre-DH) I did a scary movie fest.

That was a strange one - not that they all don't have their strange character! - but this one struck me as odd because half the group was in the family room of my then-condo watching the scary movies, devouring popcorn, beer, and cupcakes with the same abandon as the monster on the screen devoured people.

The other half were in my miniscule kitchen talking as loudly as they could so as not to hear the scary noises or gasps of the populace from the TV screen.

Hmmm. I drew a frightening conclusion. Some people are really frightened by scary movies! Imagine that!

Did I mention that I'm REALLY missing the party this year? Can you tell? So I thought we could have a Virtual Halloween Party here.

Let's talk about Scary Movies! And Scary Books, Shaaaaall we?

The scariest movie I ever saw (nightmare producing scare and I was an adult!) was Aliens II. The one on the ship. *shudder* Something about that one just gave me the flat out willies. I literally did have fall out of the bed nightmares after that one. Could'a been the cold medicine too, but jumpin' heebie jeebies, Batman! That one was a doozy.

Second to that one in the "gives Jeanne the collywobbles" category is American Werewolf in London. Now before you go all Hollywood Critique on me and tell me it's a parody, I'll say that yes, I do know that. Doesn't matter. That scene, where the werewolves are dressed as Nazis and bust in the house? Huh-uh, oh no you dinnna!?! I truly did walk out of the theater. Well, run on wobbly legs might be a more writerly description. Ha!

Others that were on the "Sleep Disturbing" list are : Jagged Edge; Body Heat; and Wait Until Dark.

Alien (the first one) didn't get me. The Halloween movies didn't bother me. Neither did any of the Elm Street movies. Frankly if you are boneheaded flat out stupid peabrained enough to get yourself IN to that situation? Damn if you don't deserve to get dead. Snork!! And hey, Jamie Lee Curtis? If you go in the house to get something, come back out and the car doors are locked and the windows fogged?

GET. THE. HECK. OUT. OF. THERE. Yeeesh. Too Stupid to Live. Seriously.

What really seems to get me are not the slasher/gore movies. No, it's the pscyological ones. Hitchcock. The Birds.

I still have an unnatural fear of things that flap.

Gaslight. Are you mad, or are you being "gaslighted?" Grins.

Then there's the books and movies-from-books like The Exorcist and The Omen and Rosemary's Baby. Oh, and all the Anne Rice books.

Ohhhh yeah. Scarwy.

So I knew what scared me. I figured I'd ask some of the Banditas.

For Suz, it's the old school thriller - Rear Window; Midnight Lace; Charade; and the aforementioned Gaslight.

For our own AC, The Talented Mr. Ripley made her shiver, along with the end of the world flick 28 Days.

Nancy says Wait Until Dark had her covering her eyes. She also cited Dead Again and Terminator as among the collywobble films. (Now, with passing time, she's decided Michael Beign made all the Terminator fear worth it.)

Joan, despite her love of blood thirsty Romans, assures me she does NOT watch scary movies. Of course, she went on to list three....Exorcist (the mere discussion of it had her worried); Jurrassic Park (especially the part with the raptors in the kitchen...but you know, she doesn't watch scary movies); and What Lies Beneath. I'm sure she saw this for Harrison Ford, never THINKING it was a scary movie. Right JT? Grins.

Our own Anna says the first Halloween scared her to death, along with The Shining. "Daddy's home!" *shudder!* Anna likes thrillers. Movies like Fatal Attraction, Dressed to Kill, Sleeping with the Enemy, Seven, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Suspect. Suspect's one of my favorites, but Anna says Notorious is one of the best.

Tawny too refuses to see the scary ones, but says her kids think the REAL scary movies are: Dead Alive, Sixth Sense, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Quarantine, The Grudge and the Evil Dead.

So what about you? What's YOUR scary movie?

Any of them give you nightmares?

Do you get more frightened by the psychological stuff - Jagged Edge, Mr. Ripley, Gaslight, and so on - or the blood guts and gore, like Saw, and Halloween and Elm Street?

What about books?


Lisa Gardner's Say Goodbye had me seeing spiders everywhere. *shiver!!* and I certainly wouldn't want to meet any of Linda Howard, Karen Rose Smith or Lisa Jackson's villains in MY town!

Last but not least...I always buy at least three new Halloween books for my children each year. This year, the best is:

Tell Me Another Scary Story by Carl Reiner
Now....last but not least, for all my Pagan Pals...

Blessed Be and HAPPY SAMHAIN!!!!Source URL: http://violeta-diario.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Halloween Tricks and Costumes

by Jo Robertson

Halloween isn’t really an official “holiday,” but you wouldn’t know that by the antics of high school and elementary students during the week of the big event. They come to school dressed in all kinds of getups and engage in all sorts of antics as they prepare for the Big Day.

I always got a kick out of my seniors getting in the spirit. Since they were high on some kind of pre-Halloween candy anyway, I figured I’d try to turn the holiday into a learning lesson.

Orson Welles’ classic radio broadcast of HG Wells' “War of the Worlds” went over like a lead balloon.

Tron-Gen Kids don't believe that people actually committed suicide or took to the hills with their cars loaded with emergency supplies because they believed aliens from another world had landed on earth. I mean, listen to those special effects sounds. Pretty hokey compared to what today’s whiz masters can produce.

I tried using Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds” based on a Daphne du Maurier short story as a writing springboard. The movie terrified me as a college student. Probably because someone let loose a frightened bird into the dome-ceilinged old theater and scared us all nearly to death. Talk about crying "fire" in a crowded room! I passed birds very gingerly for a long time after that.

What worked fairly well happened during the years I taught drama in addition to English and had a stand-alone classroom that literally had no windows. I could close the doors and create utter darkness. Mawhahaha, so conducive to Halloween antics!

I held a flashlight under my chin to give my face an eerie cast in the pitch black room. Then I read Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” all the while fingering several squishy, wet, seeping items on a covered plate on the desk in front of me.

At the end, with the narrator’s words, “'Tis the beating of his hideous heart!” I flung off the cover and lifted several pounds of raw liver into the air.







Oh yeah, that should’ve gotten me fired.





But my favorite part of Halloween is the costumes!



One of the most interesting costumes I’ve seen was when my daughter and her husband dressed as golf balls (right). How clever!




Children are cute no matter what costumes their parents put them in.










Power Rangers Sydney and Max rule! They jumped off a balcony and pretended they died!










One year, Annie was a butterfly and Max was Ash from Pokemon. Tweenie Corinna decided rhinestone cowgirls are fun. Or maybe she's Brittany Spears!


Cutest cheerleader ever!





Of course, Darth Vader (Jake) is popular any time.















This year's most popular Halloween costumes, according to those in the know, are dead celebrities, kinda macabre, but I'll bet we'll see a lot of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett costumes.














The spike (pun intended) in interest in vampires with Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries should give us a lot of child and adult vampire costumes this year.






It's always so much fun to wear those pointy incisors, you know!

What about you? What's the most interesting or favorite costume you've ever worn? Or favorite Halloween trick or experience?

A $15 Border's gift certificate goes to the person with the most original sounding costume, scariest or funniest Halloween experience, or best Halloween trick.





Mwahhhhhhhaaaaaa, and let the games begin!






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Lucky Winners

Thanks to Berta Platas, we have three books to give away to commenters on her blog, Life, Love, and the Lottery.




One copy of Lucky Chica goes to Eilis Flynn, and one copy goes to Joan Kayse!

The lone copy of Berta's rare debut book, now out of print, Miami Heat, goes to p226!

Please email Nancy via the link on the blog page and put "Berta's winner" in the subject line.



Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who stopped by.Source URL: http://violeta-diario.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Mystic Winners

We have booty to give away! The winners of one copy (each) of Patricia Rice's Mystic Warrior goes to Blodeuedd and Ms. Hellion!





Please email Patricia directly: price100@aol.com




Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who stopped by!
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Cleaning up the Confetti!

Wow, what an incredible day in the lair! I've been sweeping up confetti and streamers all day. But I've managed to tear myself away to draw the winners.

And guess what - clearly I drank too much because instead of three winners, there seem to be FOUR WINNERS!!!! Yes, for over 200 comments, I threw in another copy of CAPTIVE OF SIN!

So the lucky wedding guests are:

Eva S

Drew

Mariska

Debbie

Congratulations to all of you! Please email me on anna@annacampbell.info with your snail mail details and I'll get your books off to you.

Seriously, I couldn't have asked for a better launch party. Thank you to everyone who commented! There's one seriously touched writer down in Oz!Source URL: http://violeta-diario.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Halloween Hair Accessories

If you are planning to be Cleopatra or Egyptian goddess this coming Halloween, be sure to check out New York Nat's Egyptian inspired hair accessories. They come in fuchsias, emeralds and golds with accents of Swarovski crystals.



See the rest of the collection and prepare to be a head-turner this Halloween!





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Lady Gaga Makes The Whole World Gaga In Flair Magazine

Lady Gaga will make the whole world go gaga on November 9 when the December 2009 issue of Flare Magazine hits the news stands. What do you think of her pink wig?
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Miranda Kerr and Ana Beatriz Barros Dressed Like Pin-up Girls for V Magazine

Victoria's Secret Angels Miranda Kerr and Ana Beatriz Barros graced the pages of V Magazine's December 2009 Issue. The Angels channeled a pin-up look as they pulled off the greatest Resort collections for the season.


The magazine will hit the newsstands on November 3, 2009.
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Wan Pin Kou

It snowed so badly yesterday and today and i am snowed in. I made this as the whiteness of this snack sort of resembled the snow. This is a very traditional snack of yesteryears. It used to be in a rectangular cut shaped snack packed in pink paper and i wonder if it is still so. There is no flavorings or colorings whatsoever, just sweet and white, that is why it is packed in pink paper cos chinese associates white with death. I think this snack looks more appealing with patterns and a filling to enhance the taste. It is easy and fun to make but has to be consumed when freshly made as it will get hardened fast in high altitude, even in air-tight containers, perhaps it is better at sea-level places.




Ingredients:

Cookie:
100 gm. Koh fun (cooked glutinous rice flour)
80 gm. icing sugar
20 gm. Crisco shortening
1/4 tsp. Vanillin powder
30 - 40 gm. cold water
Filling:

Hawflakes/Chopped roasted peanuts/Pineapple Jam

Method:

Mix all the ingredients for the cookie together - it should look like breadcrumbs, add more water if you have to.

Fill mould with some koh fun mixture, place some filling on top then fill mould with more koh fun mixture

Press hard to have a very vivid pattern, remove excess if there is any and knock it to remove.

This cookie/snack is ready for serving.
Enjoy

Serves
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Top Three Signs Your Manuscript May Be Possessed/Undead/A Zombie/In Terrible Trouble:

by Susan Sey

1) Your plot bursts into flame when touched by daylight.

Not good. Your characters should be taking your plot out to play at least once every couple of chapters. It should NOT be hanging upside down in the cellar all day while the hero and heroine exchange witty quips, drink coffee and compliment each other's shoes.


2) Your villain is far and away the most sympathetic character in the book.

This is especially troubling if your villain is a vain, selfish predator who lures underaged girls into (ahem) inappropriate activities. (If you made him a hottie, though, you had to know you were asking for it. Where's your CP? Kindly request a forehead slap and an "oh, honey, no.")

3) Your best idea for revisions involves a wooden stake, a crucifix and a spritz of holy water.

You thought about shooting it with a silver bullet, too, but oh, that's for werewolves. Still, shooting something is appealing. Understandably so. But consider the mess. 400 pages of confetti. And who's in charge of vacuuming? Exactly. Don't make more work for yourself--there's plenty on your plate already from the looks of this zombie manuscript of yours.

So, what to do?

1) Inform the family that, as of this moment, they are on their own in terms of laundry, food, housekeeping and transportation. The little ones will cry ("But mommy I can't reach the washing machine!") but wah, wah, wah. This is war.

2) List all the character traits that make your villain really fascinating and three-dimensional. Now give them to your hero. Evidently you forgot to give him any redeeming qualities of his own, & your villain will need to share. Consider doing the same thing over in the Motivation department. Can't hurt.



3) More sex. (For your characters, not you. You don't have time to fool around. Nose to the grindstone, you.) Why more sex? Because if your plot blows and your villain's outcharming your hero, your readers deserve something. They could probably use a distraction at the very least. Throw them a (heh) bone.

So, any advice for raising a manuscript from the dead? What's your favorite jump-start? Any Dr. Frankensteins out there willing to share? And be honest--can really great sex redeem an otherwise ho-hum book?Source URL: http://violeta-diario.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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A Russian Meat Fashion Show by Goodman Steak House

I was shocked when I saw the photos of a fashion show where models strutted the runway with outfits made from raw meat. The fashion show was organized by Goodman Steak House of Russia. During the show, models paraded a beef skirt, a filet mignon purse, a necklace of ribs and other meat clothes and accessories.










I suddenly remembered last year's episode of America's Next Top Model when models wore meat underwear.

What would PETA say about this gross event? Personally, I felt sad that some people chose to waste the life of those poor animals. Obviously, they are not contented with eating meat, they also want to wear them. Such a barbaric act! Any reactions?

Source
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