Ellen DeGeneres Freaks Out Staffers & Thirty-One Loves of Oct

I had to share this amazingly hilarious video of Ellen D freaking out two of her staffers. I was crying with laughter!! It's a must watch!!

Ellen DeGeneres freaks out staffers by sending them to 'Walking Dead' haunted house via TODAY show.

YouTube Link as well




Thirty-One Loves of October: Day 24:
The new DRACULA show starts tomorrow night! Woot! So excited. It looks really good!

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Who's Your Hero Blogfest

J.L. Campbell is hosting a blogfest entitled, Who's Your Hero? Here is my Hero in less than 300 words.

SPC Anthony "Tony" W.

He used to come in my room at night and ask to sleep in my bed because he had a bad dream.

He would take my spot standing in the corner when I got punished so I could use the restroom.

When I was pregnant with my first child he would turn the bass up on his car stereo because he knew that was the only way he could feel my son kick. That smile every time he felt him move could melt the ice from any heart.

Every year my friends and I would go on a road trip the day after prom and I couldn’t go without him.

When I hit a deer late at night, he left work to help me out.

He let me in on a prank against his friends’ will because he knew I would be freaked out.

He tried to teach me how to drive a stick-shift even though I was older.

I would play cars with him to pay back the favor of me forcing him to play Barbie’s with me.

And now my favorite poem for him is…

Myself on left and Tony in the retro carrier.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft star-shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

Cause I know he is always with me…

For he is my brother.

Thirty-One Loves of October: Day 23:
Ouija Boards... *shutters*
Those things freak out. I used one once with a group of friends because I was such a sceptic... yeah, it was so dead on about someone that only I knew in my group (my grandma) that I will never touch one ever again!

Have a great Wednesday!

Thank You, Thirty-One Loves of Oct, Spooktoberfest

What's the Thank You for? It's for being a great community of support, encouragement, and emotions. Who would have thought I was going to grow up to be blogger. Definitely NOT ME! Who would have thought I was going to meet some of the most influential people through blogging? NOT I! But it happened. And I just want to say a big THANKS to all of you that stop by often (or when you can) and leave comments. Even if you know that I can be a crummy responder you still keep coming back. And I heart you for it.

I'm usually not so sentimental but when I go throughout my day and end up thinking about you guys during my day, something has to be said about your impact on my life. Strange, huh? Maybe this should have been an IWSG. Hmmm...



Thirty-One Love of October: Day 22:
Freddy vs Jason vs Michael ... which one is worse?

Spooktoberfest starts this Friday!
If you haven't signed up yet, get on it. You have until midnight on the 28th to join and submit your flash fiction entry to be eligable for some really fun and great prizes!

Go here to sign up and see what all the hub-bub is about! You will be happy you did!


Have a great Tuesday!

Express Yourself Candy & Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Express Yourself is a weekly Meme in which Jackie and myself asks you questions every week and you give your answers. Seems easy enough, right? Right!

This week we'd like to know: Which Halloween candy were/are you most excited to see in you Trick-or-Treat bag? (Yes, your kids' bag counts if you no longer get your own candy)

I would have to say... hmmm... Twix or Almond Joy. Yumm, those are my faves in chocolate dept. If not chocolate then Skittles.

Don't forget, next week we will not be doing EYM do to our Spooktoberfest!

If you would like to join in on the weekly fun that is EYM, click here

If SPOOKTOBERFEST is more your speed, click here to join!

I want to give out a few shoutout today! Last I entered a couple of giveaways and won both so I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Cassie Mae for her...

I won Dizzy by Nyrae Dawn and Jolene Perry! Super excited! I haven't read anything by either of these wonderful authors but have been dying too. So I'm thrilled I get an intro to something written by them both!

Up next Christine Rains was having a huge giveaway over at her place and I won 1st place which was a signed copy of her

We live about 2 hours away from each other (We might have to make plans to visit sometime) so I should be getting any day now! Over the moon to have won this. I've heard nothing but remarkable reviews!

I love winning books from fellow writers in my writerly community; people I have followed and commented thru each others blogs, twitter, facebook... and read each others struggles and to finally have their work in my hands is a great sign that if I keep working, it can be me. So thanks for more than just books girls, thanks for the inspiration.


Todays Thirty-One Loves of October: Day 21:
My Anniversary - I'm lucky to say that I've been happily married for 7 years today! I've been with him for almost 10 and it seems like we have accomplished so much together already!

Have a great Monday everyone!

Celebrate the Small Things

Friday means a lot of things; the end of my work week, the day I can where a casual shirt to work, the day when I can be more flippant (wait, that's everyday), and the day I get to share all the cool stuff I've done this week. Thanks Viklit for giving us an outlet!

• I FINALLY had the chance to sit down and watch the 2 hr and 50 min movie THE HOBBIT: An Unexpected Journey. It started out a little rough to me. (I hope I don't get stoned for that) It's true though, I felt as though I was watching the 7 dwarves from Snow White in Bilbo's house but once all the silliness past I was able to fall in love again with the story. I understand Gimli was usually the comic relief from LOTR and we needed to be reminded of that but I thought it was slightly over the top with the singing. I guess I wanted more pissed off dwarves. Idk.

• I caught up on some of my TV shows. I have so many that it's hard to keep up. Sleepy Hollow, AHS: Coven (I couldn't stay up to watch Wednesday nights), Revolution, and I still need to get caught up on Under the Dome. Ugh... with Grimm and Dracula starting I don't know what I'm going to do. Sheesh!

• I have a pile of books I wanna read but you all just found out how far behind I am on my TV shows... but I am happy to announce that I started reading Triangles by Kimberly Ann Miller!! Whoop! Let the Bermuda fun begin!

• Here are some pictures from last Saturday's zombie party (our littlest one stayed with grandma, she would have hated the party)... she hated my Day of the Dead face makeup. I did all of our makeup, it was fun glue everyones zombie scars on and plastering on the fake blood in the gash wounds...

Thirty-One Loves of October: Days 17-20:

Haunted Houses/Castles/Jails/Forests

Candy Corn

Fake Spiders - cause real ones are gross

Hoodies!!

Have an awesome weekend!

Thirty-One Loves of October - Family Friendly Movies

Thirty-One Loves of October: Day 16

Family Friendly Halloween Movies:

Addams Family

Monster House

Beetlejuice

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Rise of the Guardians - it's slighty spooky

Casper

Twitches

Ghostbusters

Pratical Magic

Hocus Pocus

Frankenweenie

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

The Little Vampire

The Witches

Harry Potter

Halloweentown franchise

Hotel Transylvania

Monsters Inc & University

Paranorman

Monsters vs Aliens

Winnie the Pooh

          Boo to You too! Winnie the Pooh

          Pooh's Heffalump Halloween

Tom & Jerry Tricks and Treats

Wallace and Gromit the Curse of the Were Rabbit

Caroline

Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular

Goosebumps (some of those can be super scary for little ones)

Corpse Bride

Scared Shrekless

Scooby Doo

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf

Spooky Buddies

I have supplied you with enough movies to last everyday of the month... too bad we are 1/2 through already. Enjoy your family friendly movies!

Thirty-One Loves of October: Witches & TV

(Credit: Wikipedia)

American Horror Story: Coven is the upcoming third season of the FX horror anthology television series American Horror Story. It is set to premiere on October 9, 2013, and conclude in January 2014.

It's been around 300 years since the Salem witch trials. Those who remain are almost extinct and in danger again. A school has opened in New Orleans to teach protection to the young. The long-absent Supreme, Fiona, arrives to also protect the coven and their secrets. Fiona's daughter, Cordelia, teaches at the school. The themes include witches, witch hunts, incest, minorities, slavery, mothers and daughters, and witchcraft versus voodoo. This season will be set in modern day and the 1830s.

Main cast

• Sarah Paulson as Cordelia Foxx
• Taissa Farmiga as Zoe Benson
• Frances Conroy as Myrtle Snow
• Evan Peters as Kyle Spencer
• Lily Rabe as Misty Day
• Emma Roberts as Madison Montgomery
• Denis O'Hare as Spalding
• Kathy Bates as Delphine LaLaurie
• Jessica Lange as Fiona Goode
  

Recurring cast

• Robin Bartlett
• Angela Bassett as Marie Laveau
• Alexandra Breckenridge
• Jamie Brewer as Nan
• Grey Damon
• Alexander Dreymon as Luke Ramsey
• James DuMont
• Christine Ebersole
• Josh Hamilton as Hank Foxx
• Danny Huston
• Leslie Jordan
• Patti LuPone as Joan Ramsey
• Gabourey Sidibe as Queenie
• Mare Winningham

Are you going to stay up tonight to watch it?! I hope so, I would love to hear what you think on the matter.

Another new witchy show I started to watch: Witches of East End. I'm not too sure what I think of it so far. It sort of reminds me of Charmed but I'm not going to give it the axe just yet. I'll keep watching just because new-comer, Cillian (aka Daniel DiTomasso and in the books it was spelled with a K if I remember correctly), the mysterious bad boy, is the hottest thing that has hit television in the a while.

Witches! One reason I love October and the Witching season!

Spooktoberfest Reminder and Thirty-One Loves of Oct

2013 Requirements:

1. Follow us - Dani and Jax, if you don’t already. We love meeting new bloggers, and we do follow back.

2. Your Flash Fiction piece should be between 300 - 500 words. It can be scary, funny, action-packed, romantic, or whatever you choose. Just let your creativity flow!

3. You must choose 3 of the 6  words listed below to include in your flash fiction piece…

WRETCH (ED)

IMPEDING

ALIEN (S)

SKELETON (S)

POTION (S)

MASK (S)

4.  Highlight those 3 words in your story so we can find them.

5. Choose at least 1 of the 4 pictures below to BE THE SETTING for your flash fiction piece. Go here to find the pictures.

6. Post your piece any day from Friday Oct 25th thru Monday, Oct. 28th.

7. It’s a blog hop, so… hop around to other participating blogs and leave some awesome comments.

8. We'll announce the winners on Thurs Oct. 31, 2013 - Halloween! Jackie and I will each choose a winner. You read that right – two winners!
9. Have fun!!!

Side note - not required: If you have a twitter account and have the extra time - go ahead and send out a tweet letting us know you have posted your submission (this step is very helpful for us). Below is our @ accounts and the hashtag.

@JackieFel

@danibertrand

#Spooktoberfest

PRIZES: A grab bag (more like a box of stuff) and candy. The winners will get the biggest bags we can find of their favorite candy along with some spookified items.

Oh, and yes, this blogfest is international. So what are you ghouls waiting for? Sign up using the Linky Thing below and spread the word!

And share, share, share!

Thirty-One Loves of October
Day 8: Halloween Decorations

I just love all of the Halloween decor I see every where. It makes the season all that more special for me. I love Halloween and love the spirit about it. I love seeing the kids in the neighborhood look at the real looking mummy in my window and hear their murmurs when they ride their bikes by. It puts a smile on my face. Or hearing my own kids "ooh" and "aah" over other people's decorations when drive by. It means that the hard work of decorating paid off.

Opening One-liners and Scary Movies

Express Yourself is a weekly Meme co-hosted by Jackie @Bouquet of Books and yours truly. Each week we ask you to answer a question or list something.

This week is no different:

Share some first line book openers you adore.

*They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did.* Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)

I hope my love for this opener doesn't offend anyone, especially since it's a great start to this amazing book. It told an amazing story. Doesn't that one line just make you wonder what the book is about. It could be about so many things and in so many different times. You have to read it to find out.

Thirty-One Loves of October:

Day 7: Scary Movies!

Must of you know I love scary movies. Now they all don't have to be a blockbuster, and lets face it, most aren't but they are my favorites. Scary, spooky, sci-fi, paranormal, gory, you name it, I love it. I want to be scared and grossed out.

Dawn of the Dead

28 Days Later

28 Weeks Later

The Collector

The Collection

The Fourth Kind

Paranormal Activit(ies)

30 Days of Night

Let Me In

Texas Chainsaw Mass(es)

Friday the 13th(s)

Nightmare on Elm Street

and the list could go on and on.

Any favorite opening one-liners in a book? What's your favorite scary movie?

Muahahahhahaha!

Celebrating and Dancing - Ouch!

It's Friday, Jump on it, jump on it, *dance, dance, dance, dance, Jersey fist pump, hip bump, chest bump* - wait... ouch! That one hurt. Let me catch my breath...

Yeah I'm in that kind of a mood and have no freakin idea why! Just go with it.

As always VikLit is letting us celebrate our weeks little thrills, so lets begin...

• I have Instagram and my son talked me in to doing the October challenge #octogram. So far, so good. Today's picture... #scarecrow  Now there are two #octograms going on right now. If you have Instagram and want to partake, do a search in Instagram for #octogram and look for the one with the jack-o-lantern face. That's the one I'm doing!! You can tag me @danibertrand
• I'm also doing something October inspired this month on my blog: Thirty-One Loves of October. Today I'm going to share 3 since I don't blog on Saturdays and Sundays, and this is an everyday shoutout to my 31 things I love about October.
• Beautiful Skies - October has some of the most spectacular sunrises and sunsets and the most wonderful color palettes painted in the sky.
• Pumpkin carvings - I love seeing all of the creative carvings people come up with and how different they all are. Some people are just so talented!
• Candles - This is my favorite time of year to buy candles. Some of the best fragrances are during the Autumn season. Pumpkin spice, vanilla spice, leaves, pumpkin pie, etc. I try to stock up for the whole year. Yankee Candle, Gold Canyon or Bath and Body have some of my favorites.
• My little girl is turning 4 on Sunday!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

IWSG & Thirty-One Loves of October

Geez Louise! I've been a day late on two post so far this week. It's a theme, what can I say.

So I haven't been feeling INSECURE lately. No, I'm not bragging... I just haven't been writing so there is nothing to feel insecure about I guess. Oh, but don't think I have been away from my writing or anything, I've been deeply involved in fact. But I haven't been writing in the "writing" sense.

I haven't added words to my manuscript, I have been adding inspiration. And no, that isn't a euphemism. I haven't added a single word. I can't. I can't find my muse... so I'm finding her in the glimpses of pictures - still frames.

In the place of letters and symbols that make up words and sentences, I am finding pictures which express the way I want to feel in a scene - what I'm picturing in my movie-reel-head.

She [picture of girl] walking through [picture of woods] looking for [picture of creature or boy]. But without the words. Do you get what I'm meaning? A storyboard but for a novel. My mind always works more like a movie than a book.

Example:


http://www.pinterest.com/thornsidhe/inspiration-badass/

http://www.picstopin.com/2560/sun-forest/http:%7C%7Cwww*usernetsite*com%7Cdepot%7Cwallpapers%7Cbeautiful-forests%7Cmist-forest*jpg/

http://monstersandbeasts.blogspot.com

 And this is just a small snippet of the WIP I am working on. Have I piqued your curiosity? I posted a while back a Flash Fiction piece about Rena, her sister, and the Baquarat. Here you see Rena holding her spear trying to summon her "spirits", The Dark Forest with her "spirits" approaching, and the Baquarat.



Thirty-One Loves of October:
Day 3: Pumpkin Patches

Who doesn't love to rummage through a Pumpkin Patch to find the perfect orange, white, or multi-colored gourd? I'm not talking about the Smashing Pumpkins... I've seen them in concert and loved every minute it! - in 1996. Though watching someone actually smash a pumpkin would be right up my alley but unfortunately I'm young enough to have missed out on Gallagher but old enough to know who he is. My favorite part now is the looks on my kids' faces when they get the perfect "fit" for them. Large to small, mean looking to adorable and sweet. All so different and fun.

What's your favorite kind of gourd?

Thirty-One Loves of October - Days 1 & 2

Today is the first official day of my month long dedication to the month of October - and not in any particular order. Yesterday should have started the whole thing off but my little one is battling her allergies and the allergies won. So I stayed home to snuggle her yesterday and didn't attempt to make her grumpy by venturing close to the computer.

My little blurb for Oct. 1st, is for the Changing of the Leaves. It's usually something everyone enjoys and loves. Lots of people around here and even a few from afar like to travel to Brown County, Indiana to peep them a show. The leaves like to slip into something a little more comfortable... or should I say, colorful! I love leaves. Every year my kids go out and collect a few of their favorite shapes and sizes, we laminate them on stockcard with the saying, "Jesus never leaves". Not that I'm super religious or anything, and this can be done with almost any religion (sub out the name Jesus), but I think its cute.

For today, Oct. 2nd, my second highlight is the Weather. I love how the breeze comes waltzing through the windows and washes the old air away and replaces it with refreshing and new particles to enrich our lungs... or in my daughters case... enrages hers, causing her to cough.

I love how it also varies from day to day. One day it can be in the high 70's or even low 80's and then next it's in the high 60's. Never a dull day around here. And I love that about Indiana, now come winter time... I won't be loving it so much. In fact I will be cursing it to High Heaven. When it's cold... it's just damn cold.

There are other reasons why I love the cooler weather so much, but that is for another post this month.

Stay tuned!