Halloween and movies

One of the things I really love about Halloween time is the availablity of fun horror movies to watch.  Often things like Dracula and various Vincent Price movies (LOVE The Tingler).  Or maybe An American Werewolf in London -- one of my all time favorite movies. 

This weekend was a mix

One was House of Dark Shadows which sort of condenses and reimagines much of the tv show.  I love Dark Shadows and when a LONG time ago the SYFY channel (formerly SCIFI) showed Dark Shadows in its entirety.  I recorded it every day on good ole VHS tapes and watched it all.  So so fun.  That said, it has been ages since I watched the movie.  Wow - what a body count.  Condensing the show show much more of the dark Barnabas Collins rather the conflicted one.

Then I watched Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.  more fun than I expected.  

And finally, M (the remake - not Fritz Lang's brilliant one).  It was good.  They explained on TNT that they tried to use more modern psychology (1950-ish) for the murdered in an effort to explain the compulsion etc...  BUT the psychology was outdated and didn't make as much sense.  Solid acting and interesting idea to have the mob hunting down the killer etc... but just not as horrifying IMHO as the original.

So almost Halloween now and probably won't have much time to watch any others.  After all, I still need to watch last night's Walking Dead (I lost power for a few hours last night).

But hey - I still love the movies this time of year and have filled up my DVR with a lot of them so I can keep watching...

Terri

Review: Valley Fever Epidemic by Sharon and David Filip

I knew very little about Valley Fever before reading this book. What some of its sufferers go through is horrific - starting with the lack of knowledge in the medical field in endemic areas. The book has useful information and resources for sufferers. It is written in easy to understand language for people to get past the jargon. That said, what I take away from the book is how misinformed if not completely UNINFORMED the public is to this disease. There is a long way to go. My biggest issue those is the oft repeated statistic in the book is that only about 2% of those infected with VF are correctly diagnosed. That is a statistic that I would like to see data for, instead of taking it as a straight up fact. Terri

My favorite time of year: Blog

I love Halloween. It's my favorite time of the year. My October has been filled with unexpected situations that I will not bore you with and I have to say if it wasn't for movies, mystery books and acorn along with Netflix I would have had that nervous breakdown that I planned to have since May of this year.
I also have good friends like Terri, Bonnie, Sandy Henry and all of my facebook and blog friends to help me thru this one.
My dog Rylee has been an inspiration. You can learn a lot from a dog's life.
Anyway, do you have a favorite fall set of dishes or a favorite fall or Halloween centerpiece? Maybe a fall candle you like?
Is there a favorite fall mystery or movie you enjoy?
I love Hocus Pocus and Arsenic and Old Lace?
Love,
Pam

Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

October Again

Wow, another year is all but over. Pretty soon Halloween will be upon us, then Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 2018! 2018???? Unbelievable!

However, on to the blog. There almost wasn’t one this month, thanks to an infected left hand on my own personal body. As with most of the weird stuff that happens to me, this began with a dog; or, more specifically, a dog bite. I tried to break up a fight between Cookie and Bella, reached the wrong way, and Cookie nailed me. Hard. So I cleaned the wound, disinfected it, put antibiotic gel on it, bandaged it, and it got better. The wound healed and everything seemed fine and dandy. Then, two Thursdays ago, the hand began to get extremely sore. I could hardly move it. Then it swelled up. Then it got blue. Then it was Saturday morning, and I went to the ER. The doctor concluded I had tendonitis and an infection, and he gave me antibiotics and a Velcro splint. The swelling went down, but the hand continued immensely painful. So I went for a follow-up visit to my regular doctor. She told me to get a tetanus shot and gave me a prescription for steroids. Boy, those steroids worked miracles. Within one day, the inflammation began going away, and today, October 1, the hand almost doesn’t hurt at all. In fact, I just allowed several of the hounds to take me for an afternoon drag, and the hand lasted quite well. Mind you, I kept the splint on it for safety’s sake, but I actually think I’m going to survive this infected-hand thing. Oh, and I got the tetanus shot.

As for September, a few good things happened in the world of what I laughingly call my writing career. For one thing, I finished Daisy Gumm Majesty’s 12^th adventure, SPIRITS UNEARTHED, and turned it in to my publisher. The book begins with Daisy, Sam Rotondo (her fiancé), and Daisy’s dog Spike (a dachshund, naturally) visiting Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California. While they’re all there, Spike finds a vagrant shoe. Unfortunately for all concerned, the shoe contains a foot. Thus begins the mystery of to whom the foot belongs, why it was in the cemetery, and what happened to the foot’s owner. If one can be said to own one’s feet. I don’t know why not.

The second good thing was that I began writing Spirits #13, SHAKEN SPIRITS. Ouchily for Daisy, the book begins with her being hit by a car. It hurts. Poor Daisy.

Then the third good thing was that Denise Stradling, who narrates my Daisy Gumm Majesty books for audio, finished reading SPIRITS REVIVED! Nina Paules, who has done all the wonderful covers for my Daisy Gumm Majesty series, even did the cover art for it. SPIRITS REVIVED is technically the 7^th in my Daisy series, but the cover of this book says it’s #6 ½ because I don’t have the e-book or print rights back to the book yet. Eventually, I’ll get ‘em back, but I expect it will remain # 6 ½ in the series. What the heck, the cover’s already made and all. I adore this cover:

So a bunch of people have won copies of SPIRITS REVIVED in its audio form, and I’ll be in touch with them all individually.

 

This coming month, I do believe I’ll give away BRUISED SPIRITS, Daisy’s 10^th adventure. I have a particular fondness for this particular book, because it’s based on a woman’s actual experiences. They weren’t happy. But everything turns out all right.

A word about my monthly contests. I love giving my work to people; however, I found out quite by accident a few months ago that sending books to Great Britain, Australia, and other countries outside the United States is beyond my monetary capability. If a resident of a nation other than the United States has an e-reader, I’ll happily supply that person with an e-book. If a person doesn’t have an e-reader and still likes to read book-books, he or she is on his or her own. I’m sorry, but what I laughingly call my writing career hasn’t made me wealthy yet. And it probably won’t, but let’s not get in to that because it always depresses me. So. That’s that.

If you’d like to enter the contest, just send me an email (alice@aliceduncan.net) and give me your name and home address. If you’d like to be added to my mailing list, you may do so on my web site (http://aliceduncan.net/) or email me (you won’t be smothered in e-mails, because I only write one blog a month, and that’s an effort). If you’d like to be friends on Facebook, visit my page at https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925.

Thank you!

Review: Star Trek Discovery -- the First two episodes

I was very much looking forward to this for so many reasons.  I have always loved Star Trek.  Even DS9 which my brotherly refers to as The Vulcan Chess Match.

Then - Sonequa Martin-Green!  Absolutely loved her as Sasha on The Walking Dead.

After lots of delays -- it has finally made it to watch!

So, the basic story -- Michael Burnham (Green) survived a horrific Klingon attack as a child and was fostered by Sarek of Vulcan - the first human in the Vulcan Science Academy.  Brilliant, and definitely conflicted  trying to balance emotions and logic.  Michael is first officer on the Starship Shenzhou - and along the edges of Federation space they find an alien relic and are quickly in conflict with a bunch of Klingons with religious ideaology wanting to provoke a war with the Federation.  

The cast is stellar and the twists are intriguing.  There is obviously a lot going on that has yet to unfold and I think the ride is going to be fascinating.

The only annoying this is you have to subscribe to CBS' streaming service.  Yet another monthly charge beyond cable, hulu, netflix, Acorn etc....  

Terri

Review: Final Girls by Riley Sager

Quincy is a survivor.  She is also is what the media called a "Final Girl" as she was the only survivor of a mass murder attack.  When another "Final Girl" supposedly commits suicide and another shows up on her doorstep, she can't hide from the past nor continue pretending to be fine.

I really enjoyed this book.  However, Quincy was portrayed as someone who had moved on and had her life on track, it was far from true and her constant Xanax popping really annoyed me.  Clearly NOT coping well at all.  Very superficial and a humongous amount of denial.

That said, the hardest part for me to buy into was that she allows a clearly messed up "Final Girl" into her home by virtue of that traumatic label they shared.

The twists were good and I enjoyed them.  Things circled around in a way I found satisfying except for the killer.  Just did not feel satisfied by that at all.  It was a motive thing for me.

That said, I was impressed by the author and will certainly try to read more.

Terri

Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

September? Really?

It doesn’t seem quite fair that, the older I get, the faster time seems to fly. I remember sitting in schoolrooms when I was a kid, watching that stupid clock on the wall, and wishing I could push the minute hand faster so I could get the heck out of there and go home and play with my dog. Now I kinda wish time would slow down a trifle. Oh, well. If wishes were horses…

SPIRITS UNITED, Daisy Gumm Majesty’s eleventh adventure (well, it’s actually her twelfth, but until I get the rights back to SPIRITS REVIVED, her actual seventh adventure, the numbers don’t reflect the entire series). I appreciate everyone who bought a copy, and I’d appreciate even more if you’d buy copies for all of your friends and relations. Heck, even total strangers! I wouldn’t mind being a best-selling author once. Or even twice. But I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to beg.

During the first week in August of this year, I visited California. This was primarily to attend my best friend’s memorial service, but I also had a chance to revisit several places I recall from my youth back in the early middle ages. Some friends and I went to Morningside Cemetery in Altadena, where my best friend has finally joined her late husband. I also wandered around the place, said hello to my late aunt and several cousins, and I think I found about where Billy Majesty might have been planted back in 1922. Here it is:

Daisy’s next adventure, SPIRITS UNEARTHED, begins at Billy Majesty’s grave at the Morningside Cemetery, so you might want to keep the area in mind for future reference. By the way, one of my spectacular beta readers, Lynne Welch, mentioned that lots of town in the Midwest, East, and South have little cemeteries sprinkled all over the place. If you live in Altadena or Pasadena, you either end up at Morningside or in an urn on somebody’s mantel. My younger daughter told me I could reside in a box on her mantel in between two of her husband’s late dachshunds. Can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be for all eternity!

I also tootled past Daisy’s house. Whatta mess! If my second ex-husband, Old Weird Robert, still lives there, he’s sure not taking care of the place. I object. On the other hand, the house no longer belongs to me, so I guess there’s not much I can do about it.

The lovely and talented Denice Stradling, voice actor and audiobook narrator, is closing in on the final chapters of SPIRITS REVIVED, which will be published soon and will be available on Audible.com. I don’t have the cover art for the book yet, but I do have a picture of the room in which the ghost of Eddie Hastings shows up, much to Daisy’s distress, during a séance she held at Mrs. Bissel’s house in the book. The room doesn’t look awfully large in this photograph, but my aunt, her children, her two boarders (Burke and Jack, who used to own a gas station at Lake Avenue and Altadena Drive), and my own family of four (Mom, Dad, sister and me) used to dine there every evening. Everyone included, that was maybe ten or twelve people, and nobody was crowded. Of course, my aunt’s table was larger than the one depicted below. This was my Aunt Wrennie’s “breakfast room” back in the olden days. She had a dining room, too, which was much larger. I can’t even imagine what a table the size of hers would cost these days. That thing was huge:

If SPIRITS REVIVED is available by the end of September, I’ll be giving away audio copies of that book. If it’s not, you may pick your own book of those I’ve written (providing I have copies of same). I’ll be in touch with the winners of August’s contest to find out which book of mine they’d like to have either e-delivered or delivered by post, and I’ll attempt to get the books mailed in a timely manner.

Oh, and before I forget again, many people have asked me what “bishop sleeves” are. Daisy’s always making suits and dresses with “bishop sleeves.” So, for your continuing education, below is a picture of a couture gown from 1924 featuring bishop sleeves! Courtesy Jean Lanvin, in fact. Mind you, these are a little puffier at the wrists than lots of bishop sleeves, but that’s because they have slashes at the wrist and inserts of cloth of another color:

A word about my monthly contests. I love giving my work to people; however, I found out quite by accident a few months ago that sending books to Great Britain, Australia, and other countries outside the United States is beyond my monetary capability. If a resident of a nation other than the United States has an e-reader, I’ll happily supply that person with an e-book. If a person doesn’t have an e-reader and still likes to read book-books, he or she is on his or her own. I’m sorry, but what I laughingly call my writing career hasn’t made me wealthy yet. And it probably won’t, but let’s not get in to that because it always depresses me. So. That’s that.

If you’d like to enter the contest, just send me an email (alice@aliceduncan.net) and give me your name and home address. If you’d like to be added to my mailing list, you may do so on my web site (http://aliceduncan.net/) or email me (you won’t be smothered in e-mails, because I only write one blog a month, and that’s an effort). If you’d like to be friends on Facebook, visit my page at https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925.

Thank you!