Future Plans

Hey Everyone,

Halloween is over. I'll miss it, but there are some things to look forward to coming up. We had a very fun party. Joel and I went as "Team Rocket" from Pokemon. I love Team Rocket. We might have to wear those costumes again in the future. It was pretty funny. We were still a little under the weather during our party, but I was glad we at least got to do it. I'm pretty sure that everyone had fun.

On the day of Halloween our girls dressed as a bee and a ladybug. They were adorable. We dressed as Team Rocket again and we all went trick-or-treating together. They did better this year than last year. The process still scares them a little but my oldest did say "Trick or Treat" when people opened the door and my youngest eventually got a little less frightened. We didn't get to many houses, but in the end the consensus was we all had fun. Overall it was a very good month and a very good Halloween. Now the depressing process of taking down the decorations must begin.

For those who haven't gotten a copy of Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes, now is still a good time. It would be a nice way to relive a little Halloween scare while it's still fresh in your mind. After all, what's more fun than a school Halloween carnival going terribly wrong?  If you like stories about dangerous bullies, revenge of the nerds, possession, demons, other dimensions, and the fear of what you are capable of, you might be interested in this book.

There are a few things to look forward to in November. The next book of the series, Spine Chillers: The Firefly is coming out around Thanksgiving. I'm currently working on a few content edits before I send it out to fix any grammatical errors. I'll be continuing the writing process for the last book of the Spine Chillers series coming out in December.

I've also made a decision that hopefully you'll like. I think I'm going to continue the adventures of the children in the stories in a new series that will take place when they are in high school. That's right, I'm going to make a young adult series with the same characters that were in the original stories. This will be another work in progress. I'll need to start making some new notes and new scenarios.

I will probably take a brief break from writing after the last book of the Spine Chillers series, but it won't be for long. Basically, I'll be working on getting it into local libraries and school libraries and maybe even making an appearance or two for a books signing. Wish me luck. I think kids will really enjoy this series and benefit from reading it if I can just get the word out.  Also, during my break, I'll finish the first book of the Fay Bitten series for a slight change of pace. If it is well received I might publish it at a later date, but we'll have to see.

Anyway, those are my future plans. I hope that you enjoy the stories! Please let me know that you're interested by picking up a copy of what is out, preferably The Beast of Black Pond or Empty Eyes, and giving me a review. I really would love to hear some feedback. Thank you!

Keep reading and writing.

Updates

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to let you know that things in this household are slowly getting back to normal. My youngest daughter has two ear infections and I have one in my left ear that is the worst I've ever had, but we seem to be finished with the flu. Thank goodness. It was hard enough dealing with being sick myself, but seeing my other daughter with such a high fever was really rough. Being that sick makes you realize how powerless you are against things that you can't control. We did the best we could with the medicines we had and we seem to have made it out okay, at least for now. 

Please, get your flu shot! We would've gotten it sooner, but all of us were sick with various colds for two weeks previous to catching the flu and couldn't get the shot. The flu circulated earlier than usual this year too. Usually it's worse in November, but it's making its rounds early. Just a warning, please don't let your children go through what mine had to recently.

That aside, the new book should be out today or tomorrow. I'm really excited about it. Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes is one of the best ones I've written, possibly because the creatures in it terrify me. While I was writing it I felt paranoid and kept looking out my widow, which is usually a good sign. What would I have done if I saw two creepy, black eyed children looking in? My guess is probably screamed like a little girl, shut every curtain in the house, and hid in my room until I had to leave to pick up the girls from school. I probably would call my husband and the police, but as with any horror novel by the time help arrived they would be gone. I don't like to go to my door if I don't know the person knocking anyway, but two creepy children with black eyes, well that's right out.

In terms of writing goals, I have a few more content edits to make on Spine Chillers: The Firefly. I'm looking for that to come out about the twentieth of November, so I have a little time. There aren't many things I would like to change, but there are a few little things one of my test readers pointed out. Once I'm done with the content edits, I'll send it to be edited for grammatical mistakes. Once I'm done with that I'll be concentrating on the story that will come out around Christmas. I'm nearly finished with the opening chapter.  

Meanwhile, when I'm not neck deep in writing work or wallowing in illness and self-pity, I'm working on decorating the house for my yearly Halloween party. By some miracle despite our various illnesses it looks like we should all be better by Saturday, so I'm assuming we'll have our party. Therefore, I'm going to clean every inch of my house until there is no possibility of infection and finish the decorating. For those of you who don't know, decorating for this party is a month long event but it's worth it. I can't wait for everyone to see our costumes. Joel and I have a matching couples' costume that is going to be hilarious and fun. I'll post a picture when we're done. 

I guess that's all for now. I'll keep giving you updates on the next book.  I think as soon as Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes comes out I'll write the blog about the inspiration for the creature from The Beast of Black Pond. Beware, when I write that blog there will be spoilers for those who haven't read it, but I'll make that clear in the title.

I'll do the cover reveal for the new book as soon as publishing begins. It will be very soon. In the meantime, here are the banners for the previous books to tease you.

Decorating, Working, and Reading

Hey Everybody,

Well, just wanted to let you know what's new and what is going on.  First of all, I'm finally almost finished decorating my house for the Halloween Party.  I'm very excited about Halloween this year.  We have our costumes ahead of time and are better organized than we were last year, so I think the party will be a success.  I've also vowed not to overdue the last minute preparations so that I enjoy myself more this year and won't make myself sick.  (Since I'm constantly getting sick anyway, there's no guarantee that I'll be well for the party and for Halloween night, but I'm not going to make myself worse by pushing myself too hard.)

In other news, I've started reading Clockwork Angel again.  I'm 127 pages into it, and so far it's pretty good.  Unfortunately, this is a story that switches perspective from one character to another, and that annoys me, but so far the story is good enough to hold my interest anyway.  I'll write a full review once I finish.  I've been using the exercise bike and reading at the same time and then reading while I catch my breath, which lets me enjoy at least a few chapters a day.  The problem is, I read obsessively and basically read up to this point in about two days.  While I love reading, I need to balance it with my other work as well.

In terms of writing, I'm in the process of editing "Blood Rain" again.  I realize that the original copy that I published needs a grammatical makeover.  I'm changing the mistakes that I know are there and sending it to someone more qualified to catch my errors.  Once that is done I'm going to make the changes to the travelling times that I mentioned previously and, hopefully, those will be the last edits I will have to make before I open it up to be a "print to order" novel.  Wish me luck.  I'm working hard, but I'm thinking it will take at least another few weeks before it will be done.  If you have already purchased the book, just re-upload it when I update the e-book version.  And if you want to buy a hard copy, that would be nice too.

Anyway, I'm off to do a little reading.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

So close to sending query letters...

Hello all,

I know I promised an amusing book review, but I'm not quite done with the last one of the series yet, so it'll have to wait.  In the meantime, I thought I would blog a quick update about what's new. 

First of all, I finished making the changes on "Blood Rain" and am almost done with a one page synopsis.  I feel better about this synopsis since it focuses on the main plot and seems to flow pretty well.  We'll see, though.  I think it still needs a little work, so I'm going to run it by my friends who have read the book and those who haven't. 

I still have a good feeling about "Blood Rain."  I might even be able to start submitting my query letter to agents early next week.  That would be nice.  Either way, I need to hear the opinions of my test readers first to make sure the changes I've made are adequate.  Once I've submitted it to as many agents as I can that are into young adult fantasy stories, then I'll probably finish up book two.  If I work on book two again soon enough, I really might be able to finish it before NaNoWriMo and then work on book three during that time.  Wish me luck.

No luck on the Tron costumes for the Halloween party.  Long story short, we've run out of time to order a costume, try it on, and then send it back if it doesn't fit.  Also, none of the Halloween stores around here are selling them this year.  Ideas that I'm throwing around now are Sweeny Todd and Mrs. Lovett, Luigi from Luigi's mansion and a ghost, or a zombie bride and groom.  Still, I'm trying to be flexible.  We still have a little time to buy a costume, so we'll probably go shopping this weekend.  I'll figure something out even if I have to recycle a costume from a previous year.  Still, I'd rather get a cheap new one if possible.

Looking forward to Halloween as always.  I've got lots of fun things coming up.  There's my a birthday party for one of my friends, Rifftrax Live, the Doobie Brothers in concert at the fair (I grew up listening to the Doobie Brothers, and I haven't been to the fair in years), and my Halloween Party.  I'm also planning to cook up some new treats this year such as caramel coated apples, deviled eggs, and two new flavors of punch.  Totally psyched.  :-D

Anyway, I should have that review for you by the end of the week or the beginning of next week.  In the meantime, I'll be writing, proofing, and sending query letters.  I also have a surprise to announce later this week.  I might send something out about that tomorrow...

Halloween Party

Okay, I couldn't wait until I got back from DragonCon to think about the Halloween Party.  Joel and I have decided that, assuming the costumes fit, we're going to be "programs" from Tron this year.  We're going to get the costumes for Tron Legacy, some glow paint from a craft store and paint the white strips within the costume either blue or red to glow under black light.  We would love to actually buy the strips of light that you can use to light up your costume, but that's just too expensive.  We think the glow paint will get mostly the same effect.  We're also going to buy Frisbees and paint them to look like data disks.  The inflatable data disk that comes with the costume just didn't look good enough.

The general theme of the party will be 80s, (though no one has to dress that way or use that theme for their costumes) so we'll primarily be watching 80s horror movies.  Still, I do want to watch Trick R Treat, a very good independent horror film that came out fairly recently.  I might make an exception to the theme for that movie.  Still, there are plenty of good ones from the 80s to choose from.  I'm thinking "Poltergeist" because it's so damn scary, "Gremlins" because it's campy and classic, "An American Werewolf in London" because, honestly, I haven't seen the whole thing yet, and "Evil Dead" or "Evil Dead 2."  And of course, the "Lost Boys."

I like to vary it by scary, not scary, scary, etc.  Still, nothing is set in stone yet.  I just want to actually have a list this time because last year we couldn't decide on anything to watch.  I kind of let people put on what they wanted, which basically meant that nothing stayed on for a long period of time.  Someone would be like "this reminds me of that movie" and then we ended up not watching anything at all.  Not again.

I'm going to try to think of ideas for 80s themed pumpkins as well.  If anyone has a good one, please leave your ideas in the comment section.  I could use them.  I've seen some very good carvings of gizmo from "Gremlins" and David from "The Lost Boys."  Whether I actually have the skill to pull off those designs, though, is yet to be seen.  I like to think I'm pretty good at pumpkin carving.  I've had some very good ones in the past, but I'm nowhere near competition level, so those designs might be too challenging.  If they come out well, maybe I'll post the pictures on the blog.

Other than that, probably we'll do the usual.  Rock Band will be set up in the blue room, the kitchen will be for refreshments, movies will be in the main room, and people can mill around as they see fit.  Hopefully it won't be raining if anyone wants to sit on the porch to talk.  I would like to have access to board games and table top role-playing games, but we might not be able to because we actually have a room-mate in the extra room this year.  Maybe we can clean up the office and put the games in there.  That might be better anyway so that if people want access to the extra computer.  We'll see.

Anyway, Happy Haunting.  Keep reading and writing.

This is Halloween...

Once again, sorry that I haven't been keeping up with the blog like I should. I've been crazy busy lately. I'm always crazy busy in October because there's a lot to do around Halloween.

This weekend was the big Halloween party that my friend Gini throws every year. Once again, it was a lot of fun, and her awesome decorations once again put me to shame. She had candles suspended from fishing line in her living room as though they were floating, ravens suspended the same way in the bathroom like something out of a Hitchcock film, not to mention the large cloth hanging from the ceiling in the living room like the nest of a giant spider, including said giant spider. Gini's decorations always impress me. And, as always, the refreshments were awesome, the music was good, and there were movies playing outside projected on a big screen and inside on the big TV. She puts a lot of thought into her parties. It's nice to go visit her and I feel like I've become decent friends with some of her guests as well, even if thus far I only see them around Halloween. It's always fun to meet new people and hang out with friends that you don't get to see very often.

There are a lot of parties for me to attend this year. It sounds like, aside from Gini's party, there are two more parties being thrown by friends of mine that I don't get to see very often. I'm hoping that I'll get to go to both parties, but since they're being thrown on the same night, I'm not sure yet. I'm going to try, though. Aside from both of those, I'm throwing my party on October 29th, so I have a lot of work to do around the house to get ready. I also just need to sit down and plan for it. I have the rough theme of zombies and undead, even though I'm not dressing as a zombie this year. The theme at my party really doesn't dictate costume, mostly just the movies shown, the pumpkin designs, and sometimes the food. As long as my friends come in costume, I'm not very particular about what they come as, assuming it's tasteful. This year, I'm dressing as Carmen Sandiego, and my husband is dressing as Waldo from "Where's Waldo." I think the costumes turned out pretty good.

Other than Halloween parties, I've also just finished my "Everburn" synopsis, so at some point today I'm going to send it in to the publishers that my friend Josh suggested. Wish me luck on that. I really want this one to work out. Honestly, I think I like this book much more than my first trilogy, and there's plenty of potential for a trilogy with this novel as well. I just need someone to give me a chance. My writer's block is still here, but it's slowly disappointing. I'm hoping to do some sort of writing work this week to make up for all of the time I've lost. Some people can get over writer's block by writing, but I don't think I'm one of those people. I usually just end up producing something that seems like regurgitated trite, which makes me feel bad about myself. Like I said, though, I'm thankfully getting over it now.

Well, I'd best be off to do some decorating and to send off that proposal for "Everburn." Wish me luck. Maybe at some point today I'll also get to finish up the sixth book of the Dresden Files. Thanks for reading.

Halloween is Officially Over...

Well, Halloween is officially over for the year. I've put up the last of my Halloween decorations and all signs of it (except for the leftover candy and party food) are gone. I have to admit it kind of brings me down, but on the upside, at least my house is less cluttered now.

All three Halloween parties are also over. My friend Gini's party was very fun. I envy her for her dedication in transforming her house for her party. The decorations looked professional, the food was excellent, and the movies we watched were fun. As always, hanging out with friends is the main draw behind any party though, and that was very fun as well.

My party also went very well. There was no "drama" this year and some of my friends came by from out of town. It was very good seeing them again. I didn't get to play as much Rock Band as I wanted to, but duties as hostess of the party had to come first. The movies we finally chose were the original House on Haunted Hill, Freaks, then the remake of House on Haunted Hill, and the Crow. I think that everyone enjoyed them because people didn't even go into the back rooms until the second half of the party and even then several people were still watching the movies.

The last party we went to was actually on Halloween night at my friend Jared's house. After hosting a party it was kind of fun to kick back and relax again. I have to admit, I was getting kind of tired of my Alice in Wonderland costume by then though, mostly because it was skimpy and I was tired of being cold. Still, that party was fun for different reasons. I got to see most of the people who couldn't make it to my party and so, overall, I saw almost all of my friends in one weekend. It was very nice. (Incidentally, we also watched the Resident Evil movies at that party. I was surprised to find I actually enjoyed the first two, campy though they were...)

Well, that's a brief summary of Halloween weekend. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. I guess the next big thing coming up is Christmas. I'll probably throw another party. Still, Christmas has a more somber tone because it is more important because of the meaning behind it. Sometimes it's fun to dress up and have a party just for a party's sake.

Halloween Happiness...

Well, it's getting close to time for my yearly Halloween Party. I don't know why, but Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. (Christmas is more important because of what it represents, but Halloween is more my style, though I do have a Christmas party every year too.) It's just so much fun to dress up, carve pumpkins, bake sweets, and of course, have a party. Plus, I love the change in the weather. I've had more than my fill of summer already.

I'm glad to say that this year we should have a good selection of movies. With Netflix, we've downloaded several classics such as "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," the original "House on Haunted Hill," "Nosferatu," and "The Phantom of the Opera." Also we've recently acquired Stephen King's "IT" and the remake of "House on Haunted Hill." We're viewing them to decide which ones to show at the party, but the point is, this year we should have a wider selection. (Also, it's just nice to have an excuse to watch more horror movies. I actually had never seen "IT" until I decided to review it for the party and I'm glad to stay it stuck close enough to the book to earn my approval.)

Also, we almost have everything we need for our costumes. I've always wanted to dress as Alice in Wonderland with my escort as the Mad Hatter for Halloween, and it looks like this year it's going to happen. I have a pretty good Alice costume and I've already made a few minor adjustments to make it tasteful (if you buy any kind of woman's costume now-a-days, it seems that they design them to show as much skin as possible, something I'm not very comfortable with. I might have lost nearly eleven pounds now so I don't think I look bad, but I still have my modesty...). Still, the props are what make the outfit since I have a white rabbit stuffed animal and a grinning cat pillow that looks a lot like the Cheshire cat. I'll carry a basket with the props separately for the full effect. Now we just need to finish up Joel's costume. He has a nice dress shirt, vest, bow-tie, black shoes, and dress pants that will work, and even a pocket watch, but he still needs the most important parts of the costume--a old fashioned style coat and, of course, the HAT.

I'm thinking of carving Alice in Wonderland style pumpkins this year since I really can't top the Nintendo themed pumpkins at the first party, and that will at least fit the theme of our costumes. A creepy grinning cat face would be pretty cool, and I might be able to pull of some face silhouettes like the drawings from the book. We'll see. We're also throwing around the idea of a sweet tea styled alcoholic punch this time, since we almost always do a mixed fruit/cranberry juice punch. (We want to do a few different things this year.) I still don't know what refreshments we'll be providing, but I do know we'll have some sort of meat (usually meatballs or little smokies), lots of candy, popcorn, chips and dip, and probably some sort of Halloween cake or cookies.

As for activities there are movies on in the main room, a rock band room in the back for those that are into that sort of thing, and an extra room for board games, table top RPG's or possibly classic video games this year (Hopefully we can set that up since that was a request last time). And this year, no drunken mishaps...definitely no drunken mishaps. We'll be calling cabs if we have to. ;-)

Hopefully we'll see you there!