One of Those Weeks

Real life has been relentless this week.  I thought I’d made it out of the woods by the weekend, but then my car died on me.  After mind tricking it back into submission, I found I had little energy left to write.

I am still determined to finish my third draft by NaNo and I’m still excited to start some new material.  But it’s going to be close.  I may be getting tricked, not treated this year.

But so it goes.  Sorry I don’t have more.  Hopefully I will be better by the Write In.

Ciao and have a Happy Halloween.

 

 

Something’s a Foot

Friday, October 28, the entire swamp is alive with the prospect of All Hallows Eve.  The Zombies are chomping at the–well everything to be honest.  I head over to that expensive department store, Maelstrom’s for a costume. All I see are zombies, zombie banker, or zombie nurse, or zombie nun.  They even had zombie used car salesman, which honestly wasn’t much of a costume at all.  So I say, “Don’t you have anything besides zombies?”

“Sorry sir, but zombies are the in thing this year.”  She says in this perky little voice that makes me wish I’d asked Swamp Thing to come shopping with me.

“Tell me about it.  They’re my life.  You should see the swamp, it’s littered with half eaten corpses.”

“Excuse me!” she gasps.

“Nevermind.  I’m looking for something really scary.  Don’t you have something in a McDonalds fry boy or a Wal-Mart greeter.”

“Sorry.  Have you tried Saps Fifth Avenue?”  I heard they have a Personal Injury Attorney costume that is to die for.”

“That sounds scary, on so many levels.”  I thank her for her help and leave her perkiness and head over to Saps.  Of course they don’t have the Personal Injury Attorney in my size.

“You should try the children’s section sir.  I mean your ahh, kind of, not so tall.”  The sales woman sniffs adjusting her jewel encrusted glasses so she can look down her beak-like nose at me.

“I beg your pardon.  I’m actually fairly average for a dwarf I’ll have you know.”  I continued to berate her until I noticed a group of large, uniformed men with weapons arriving on Segways.  ”Thank you very much.  I’ll just be on my way now.”  

What happened to the good old days when you paid a decent witch for a temporary spell for All Hallows Eve.  She could turn you into a handsome prince, or king of the realm, for the night.  Even an enchanted frog if your funding was lacking.  No two costumes were alike back then.  These days everybody wants the store-bought costume that looks like every other one.  Of course on the down side, you had to watch out for the occasional enchanted candied apple.  Remember what happened to Sleeping Beauty.  

Still without a costume, I’m off the Sal Manella’s Sweet Shop.  Sal carries all the best treats for All Hallows Eve.  His selection of hand dipped fungi is legendary, not to mention the Chocolate Covered Squirrel Nuts.  What they lack in size they make up for in taste.  Sal can even provide you with one of the afore-mentioned apples on request.  Of course you have order them way in advance.  Just ask for the mother-in-law special.

Arriving at Sal’s I see the line is out the door.  Everyone is talking about the fried bat wings.  He has Barbed-a-cue, Sea Salt and Stinger, Sour Creme and Bunyan and Fromunda Cheese,  just to name a few of the flavors.

My favorite treats are the E-Coli Carmels.  He also has S&Ms and Feces Pieces in every color.  They’ve called my number, I’ve got to go.  So enjoy the holiday.  Until next week.

“My candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open…”

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

Shakespeare, Macbeth

“As I was going up the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today…Oh, how I wish he’d go away.”

Anonymous

Happy All Hallows Eve

Write On,

Eerie

The Greatest Holiday Ever….

Halloween is around the corner and this month zipped by in spectacularly fast fashion.  With little time to spare, I wrangled the Prankster Duo, via a Venus Fly Trap snare, made them leave the head of one of Eerie’s zombies at home, and off we went to shop for costumes.   As we emerged from the Swamp, the youngest pointed out the new signs wallpapering the Impenetrable Forest.  Seems they’re in the midst of working on another deadly…I mean lovely, maze for this year’s celebration.

So we’re at the Aberzombie & Witch when my oldest informs me in funeral tones that this will be his last year of trick-or-treating.

Shocked, all I could manage was a garbled, “Uh?”

Ignoring my eloquence, he continued, “My friends and I discussed this, and this is it for us.”

“You make it sound like your impending demise looms upon the horizon, child. It’s Halloween!”

I never thought I’d get such a look from the fruit of my loins. (Loins, Eerie, not Looms!)  From the Whipmistress?  Hell yeah.  Him? Not so much.  “I don’t want to embarrass myself.”

Really? Okay, Mr. Daddy Long Legs…let’s think about this for a second.  You’re a boy, a sweet one occasionally, but a pre-teen boy.  Embarrassment is soon to be a way of life for you.  My poor baby.

He added, “Besides, we’ll be in Junior High.”

Ahhh! I get it.  As we leave the familiar halls of elementary school behind and begin to prepare for the hallowed journey to middle school, suddenly “coolness” factors into every decision.  Then it’s on to those oh-so-torturous years of high school.

“Okay then.  But you do realize that mom had no problem donning a wig, goth make-up and heeled boots for her writer’s conference a couple years back.  Remember that?”

He does a damn good eye roll, “Yeah, mom, but you’re…a writer, you’re suppose to be crazy.”

See! My son is brilliant! As I glide through the pride of my son’s keen intellect, my youngest cuts in.  “Mom, they don’t have any Minecraft pig costumes.”

Looking over the selection, I notice he’s absolutely correct.  Nary a piece of bacon in sight.  Unless you count the strangely compelling anatomically correct adult version hanging in the corner.  I gently steer his young, impressionable mind elsewhere.  “Okay, then, what’s your back-up plan?”

“Hmmm….” he studies the offerings with the seriousness of a heart surgeon.  A few minutes later and a decision is made.  I head to the counter, lay out the cash and we’re homeward bound.

Later that night as my knight-in-slightly-muddy armor starts to work on his daily shine-fest, the Duo drag out their costumes.

“Look, Dad? Like the whip?”  For a kid who doesn’t want to trick-or-treat, my oldest hides his excitement fairly well.

“Nice, son,” my  knight checks the workmanship.  “So, Indiana Jones, uh?”

“Yeah, no mask required.”

They’re interrupted as my youngest taps my knight on his shoulder.  “Check it out, Dad!”  The voice is a little muffled behind the mask, but it gets a smile from my knight.

“Niccceeee…I see we stuck with our old stand-by, Star Wars!”

“Yeah, no Minecraft pigs.” Disappointment has our ARF Stormtrooper’s shoulder sagging. But only for a moment.  “But it’s okay, this one has wickedly cool camo!”

As the Duo dart off to harangue the hell-hound, my knight turns to me.  “Does he realize the camo is for snow covered landscapes?”

“Yep, but it’s camo and you know as well as I do, any camo is good camo, as far as he’s concerned.”  From outside our well barricaded cabin, we hear another zombie cage-fight match start up.  I sure wish the Swamp Thing would leave them alone. I double check the locks on the door and make sure the flamethrowers are set.  “Besides, does it matter? It’s Halloween, and isn’t one of the best parts being able to dress up however we want?”

–Wicked

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!

The Haunted Palace

by Edgar Allen Poe

In the greenest of our valleys
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace -
Radiant palace – reared its head.
In the monarch Thought’s dominion -
It stood there!

Never seraph spread a pinion
Over fabric half so fair!
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow,
(This – all this – was in the olden
Time long ago,)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
A wingèd odor went away.

Wanderers in that happy valley,
Through two luminous windows, saw
Spirits moving musically,
To a lute’s well-tunèd law,
Round about a throne where, sitting
(Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.

And all with pearl and ruby glowing

Was the fair palace-door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.

But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch’s high estate.
(Ah, let us mourn! – for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him desolate!)
And round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.

And travellers now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh – but smile no more.

Halloween and characters

Halloween is full of fiction, make-believe, dress up and pretending to be someone you’re not—all the things fantasy writers love. The night is a huge cast of characters, roaming the streets in search of another sugar fix.

You have the three-year-old darlings dressed in princess costumes, with yellow or pink sequins and lace trimming the hem. At that age—they ARE a princess. No question. No pretend. They may even demand to sleep in their dress. They are the “character” the moment they step into their costume.  If only they could write at that age–the innocent words of total belief they’d spin. It would be magical.

Every goblin, ghoul, vampire, wizard or demon and every fairy, cowgirl, witch, superhero or angel is someone unless underneath though. It’s a costume. A creation. Pretend for the masses. Not so different than fiction. Behind every costume is the costumee (is that a word?). And behind every character in a book is the author who created them.

So books and Halloween aren’t all that different. They pull us into another world, tempt us to imagine being someone (or something else) and give us a sense that maybe…just maybe it isn’t all make believe after all. I mean, who doesn’t want to occasionally believe in the unbelievable? Our culture is slightly obsessed with all things fantasy, we love stretching our imagination and hoping that we are all a hero/heroine, shapeshifter or something supernatural underneath our human masks. We want to forgot real life from time to time.

Whether you dress up as Snow White on Halloween or whether you are part of the “real life” 7 Evil Dwarves–nothing compares to jumping head first into an imaginary world–where you can be anything you want to be.

I am Sunny Dwarf. My alter ego is Gabrielle. I believe in the impossible. Do you?

Free Book for Halloween

Ha! Gotcha to look. But I am giving away a free copy of Dragos: Burned tomorrow, Tuesday, 10/26. This will be an E-Book, format the winner’s choice

and

I will also mail you a personalized autographed cover card : )

Okay, first, maybe I should apolgize for the picture of the flashers, but it was so great, I had to share. Isn’t this what Halloween is about — having fun?

I love Halloween. Heck, I still dress up every single year, sometimes more than once if I include all the kids activities.

So, Ya’ll have a HAPPY, HAPPY HALLOWEEN and good luck on winning a free copy of my book tomorrow!

And if you’re in the area, tomorrow I will also be blogging at Got Romance Reviews.

AND

This Friday I’m having a RELEASE PARTY!!!!

Friday 10/29, from 4pm to Midnight EST, I’ll be blogging and sharing excerpts HERE.

I will choose winners from those who leave comments to win personalized prizes. If you’d like to see some, check out my Amber Kallyn Blog.