SPOOKTOBERFEST Winners, Runner-Ups, & the Lot

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
It's a bloody bummer this fest has come, once again, to an end. Seriously guys, the talent that came from all of you is remarkable and outstanding! I loved every entry for their own uniqueness and voice! To make a choice was like picking out my favorite kid... it was hard but it had to be done. ;)

 

 

My WINNER is...

"12 past 2" by DRC @ Writing Through Fiction

Some say putting children in the center of horror is bad juju, but I find it exuberating and real. In the real world children are not exempt from paranormal activity, in fact, they are more open to it, being so innocent and open-minded to the world. DRC, in my opinion, took a risk to some but did it in a tasteful way. Kudos and congrats DRC from WTF!!  #CeilingFansKill

 My RUNNER-UPS are...

 

First up...

"Under the Glass" by Sarah @ Sarah Marsh Writes

From the beginning I was hooked. Kids walking home from school in the dark is terrifying anyways, but then you go and add a spooky ass house... FREAKY! (Another reason this got to me... I HATE being outside in the dark)
And then the twist!! Can I just say... GENIOUS!
Never saw it coming. And the picture topped it off and set the mood for sure!
You rock Sarah! 
#NeverLookAtADollHouseTheSameWayAgain

And then...

"Infection" by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off the Edge

LG is no newbie to this fest and she has always delivered amazing pieces! "Carving", "Subscribe", and now "Infection". A faithful fester for sure and I know she will always have something great when it comes to her writing! FYI, I've always had a recurring dream about drowning so this is really not something I would like to have done to me.  #NeedlesArePricks

And don't forget...

 

Entry #4) “The Church” by Laura @ My Baffling Brain – I LOVED the dialogue between these devious kids. And the ending leaves you wanting more!  #FearlessKids

Entry #5) “A Warm Meal” by Sheena-kay Graham @ Queendsheena – We would all like to know what goes on inside of a zombies head; their thoughts and inner dialogue, since their moaning does nothing for us. This is the perfect portrayal of it.  #DeadHeadThoughts

Entry #6) dolorah @ Book Lover – This is a true taking on trickery. To think you know someone and them to turn out to be the enemy. Perfect!  #Frenemy

Entry #8) “The Newbie” by cleemckenzie @ The Write Game – Makes you wonder how, such a little thing could bring so much turmoil! “I think we should ask them to give it back.” Duh people, just ask.  #EasyPeasy

Entry #9) “Vanilla Virus” by J. Lenni Dorner – So where is that bloody vanilla pod? So creative and entertaining to say the least, I think I was holding my breath the entire time I was reading.  #NowWhereDidIPutThat

Entry #10) Tiffany @ For the Love of Books and Writing – I REALLY like how this pulled me in from the start and left me wanting to be there next to her. Of course I would have opened it for her cause I’m a curious soul.  #CuriosityKilledTheCat

Entry #12) “Revenge” by Felicity @ It’s a Book Nerd Thing – OK Felicity, can I just say how much I enjoyed this? I can? Good. Another zombie piece but this one is from a teenage badass who brings her own weapons to prom. So cool!  #SatisfactionKills

Entry #13) “Home by the Sea” by Debra @ The Write Mage – Ahhhhh! “Sit down. Listen to our stories.” Uhh, no thanks! Not with what I was imagining their true forms to look like. Chilling and eerie to say the least!  #ListenToTheShadow

Entry #14) “Masquerade Ball” by Patricia Lynne – Short, sweet, and to the damn point! I loved how in so few words and with using all the mandatory words, this perfect bone chilling tale was told flawlessly. There is a real talent, one I could not pull off, in telling such a story in less than 100 words!  #FlawlessAxWielder

Entry #15) “The Cure” by Claudia @ Avalon – Wow, makes you think twice about your neighbors. Another short piece that brought a big punch!  #LousyNeighbors

Entry #16) “I Am” by Lily @ lilicasplace – Ooooo, so haunting; to let go of you inner evil, to let it consume you.  Talk about inner turmoil of the darkest kind!  #ToBeOrNotToBeEvil

Go here to see who Jax picked!

And the winners... we will be in contact soon to get your info on where to send the ecards!
Also, the badges above are yours to copy and keep!

Thanks a bunch and can't wait to read your submissions next year!

Top Ten Books & Movies For Halloween

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is...

 

 

October 28: Top Ten Books/Movies To Read Or Watch To Get In The Halloween Spirit. I can’t just pick one category, so I’ll do both, books and movies.

 

Novels

 

 1. The Shining by Stephen King (ok… anything scary by SK)

2. The Passage Series by Justin Cronin

3. The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell

4. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

 

5. Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

6. House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker

7. The Forest of Hands & Teeth series by Carrie Ryan

 

8. The Hollows by Amanda Hocking

9. Skinjacker Series by Neal Shusterman

10. Heartstopper by Joy Fielding

 

Movies

 

1. The Conjuring

2. Dawn of the Dead

3. 30 Days of Night

4. Jeepers Creepers franchise

 

5. Nightmare on Elm Street franchise

6. Halloween franchise

7. Wrong Turn (original)

 

8. Friday the 13^th franchise

9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise

10. Insidious

Express Yourself - Halloween Plans and Costumes

Express Yourself is a weekly meme hosted by myself and Jackie. It's goal is to help our fellow bloggers get to know one another better, to help motivate one another, laugh (or cry) together, in other words – stalk.

 

I know EYM isn't happening this week due to Spooktoberfest but I'm doing a little bit of catching up in between reading submissions.

 

 

Oct. 13-17: Do you have any Halloween plans?

 

Usually we go to my in-laws so our kids can hang out with their "old" group of friends, but since they have moved, we now need to come up with a new plan & neighborhood for me to unleash my kids on. My other plans include... watching a ton of scary movies and shows, eating a bunch of unhealthy stuff, and enjoying the everything Autumn-ish that happens this time of year, maybe even have a bonfire in our little fire pit.

 

Oct. 20-24: What's a Halloween costume you wore as a child?

 

I was dressed up as Paul Stanley from Kiss. Best make-up job EVER!! I rocked it like nobodies business! Next day tho, I broke out like nobodies business, which didn't rock.

 

 

Do you have any cool Halloween plans or costumes you'd like to share?

 



Spooktoberfest - Gifted Ward

Welcome to the 3rd annual Spooktoberfest hosted by Cover Girls!

Today is the first day and it's running until Tuesday, Oct. 28th.

This is my attempt to bring a little bit of mild horror to brighten your Halloween drama!

Written in a matter of two hours - give or take a few minutes.

Gifted Ward
by Dani B.
Word Count: 300

“But I don’t want to go!” Walter said vehemently.

“Walter, please. This isn’t easy for me either. I can’t have you around Frankie and Beatrice after all the commotion you caused with your father yesterday,” she whispered, “The crotch of his trousers didn’t catch on fire by itself!” Mother held Walters hand as tight as she could through the halls of the, Gifted Ward, as she called it.

“I didn’t mean to Mama, you have to believe me. I didn’t mean to!” Walter yelled.

“I know,” Mother patted his hand, “you came out cursed. Fourteen years later I thought you would’ve grown out of it.” Mother wondered the hallway looking for the room number Doc told her. “Come on now, W–”, Mother paused as she spotted a little girl looking out a window.

The girl with long braids and a blue gown stood entranced in her picture window.  Mother’s attention, though, was on the little girls feet hovering several inches off the ground. The sight sent chills through Mother’s body like a virus. “Freaks,” Mother spitted under her breath.

When they finally arrived at room 991, Mother saw something even stranger than the little girl in room 987. A boy about Walters’s age squeezed through a thin slit in what looked like a cocoon suspended from the ceiling.

“Hello.” The boy bent into a flamboyant bow, tiny ripples fluttered up his back until a pair of wings unhitched and cascaded down his back, peaking out the bottom of his shirt, “I’m Markim,” he said when he stood.

Mother ignored it, turned, and left Walter standing there.

“So,” said Markim, “what brings you here?”

A black feeling weld up inside of Walter, “My father has been doing bad things to my little sister so I scorched him where it mattered.”



It's definitely not too late to participate in this! Go over to Cover Girls and sign up now!!

Top Ten Tuesday - [New] Series I Want To Read

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is...

 

 

 

October 21: Top Ten New Series I Want to Start (New… as in the last year or so)

Idk about “New” per se but I’m just going to list series I want to start but haven’t as of yet.

 

1. The InfernalDevices by Cassandra Clare

2. Penryn &the End of Days by Susan Ee

3. The TunnelSeries by Roderick Gordon

4. NewsoulSeries by Jodi Meadows

 

 5. The AbandonTrilogy by Meg Cabot

6. Sign ofSeven by Nora Roberts

7. PartialsSequence by Dan Wells

 

8. Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi

9. AlienatedSeries by Melissa Landers

10. Red RisingTrilogy by Pierce Brown

 

 

 

Bucket List Bloghop & Survive & Thrive Bloghop

It's time for some more hops this month. There has been quite a few!

The Bucket List bloghop is co-hosted by Sherry Ellis at Mama Diaries and Susanne Drazic at Putting Words Down on Paper.

Travel to...

1. Australia/New Zealand

2. Hawaii

3. Yukon for camping trip

 

Visit...

4. Yellowstone National Park

5. Yosemite National Park

6. Niagara Falls

 

7. Finish/Publish my WIP

8. Find our forever home

9. Have my wardrobe look like my Pinterest wardrobe

10. Go white water rafting one more time

 

 

 

Survive & Thrive Bloghop

 

Monday, October 20, 2014

Stephen Tremp, Michael Di Gesu, Diane Wolfe, and Alex J. Cavanaugh 

 

I'm going to highlight a chronic disease my husband battles every day.

 

Crohns Disease - also known as Crohn syndrome and regional enteritis, is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract from

mouth to anus. Symptoms often include: abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever and weight loss. Crohn's disease is caused by a combination of environmental, immune and bacterial factors in genetically susceptible individuals. Crohn's disease affects about 3.2 per 1,000 people in Europe and North America. While the exact cause is unknown, Crohn's disease seems to be due to a combination of environmental factors and genetic predisposition. Crohn's has a genetic component. Because of this, siblings of known people with Crohn's are 30 times more likely to develop Crohn's than the general population. The diagnosis of Crohn's disease can sometimes be challenging, and a number of tests are often required to assist the physician in making the diagnosis.

 

Ok, so thats the short Wiki version... my husband was diagnosed in early 2006 but had symptoms starting in late 2005. He was sick for months, going from 198lbs to 125lbs in a matter of months. The biggest symptoms were his very high fevers and an enlarged segment of his stomach that was bulbous, red, and hot to the touch. And it could be easily noticed just by looking at it. I took him to the hospital because I thought it was his appendix. This is when his condition went from Acid Reflux/IBS to Crohns. After a week long stay in the hospital and almost having a section of his intestines removed, the doctors put him on some serious meds which helped! After a series of medications that wouldn't stabilize his condition, the doctors decided to put him on Remicade. Remicade is an intervenes drug that helps treat anything from arthritis to various cancers. (He sits at the hospital for 4 hours, once every 6-8 weeks.

 

Side effects from Remicade:

• serious and sometimes fatal blood disorders
• serious infections
• lymphoma and solid tissue cancers
• reports of serious liver injury
• drug-induced lupus
• demyelinating central nervous system disorders
• psoriasis and psoriasiform skin lesions

and others.

 

Since taking Remicade, he is back up to his original weight and seems to be healthier. Although, taking this drug diminishes your immune system so he [we] have dealt with some serious skin infections and it happens on a regular basis. He now has to treat these occurrences with more drugs. It's a never ending cycle.

 

Side note: Another side effect... crabbiness (that's gentle way of putting it).

 

Thank you for stopping by and taking a peak at my Bucket List. And big thumbs up for taking the time to read about Crohns.

 

Stay Healthy my friends!

 

 



Top Ten Tuesday - Book Places We Want To Visit

Top 10 Tuesday is a post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week's topic is...

 

 

October 14: Ten Places Books Have Made Me Want To Visit (whether fictional or real)

 

 

1. Hogwarts – Harry Potter by JK. Rowling

2. Middle Earth – The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

3. Wonderland – Splintered by A.G Howard

4. New Beijing – The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyers

5. Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy – Finishing School Series by Gail Carriger

6. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – same name by Ransom Riggs

7. Eretz – Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor

8. House of Night Vampire School – House of Night series by P.C. & Kristen Cast

9. The Smoke – Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

10. St. Vladimir’s Academy – Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

 

 

 

Zombie Apocalypse: Survival Kit & Crew Blogfest

Today is the day! In honour of The Walking Dead premiere on Sunday, we...

Jackie @Bouquet of Books
 

Mina @Some Dark Romantic
 

and myself...

Dani @Entertaining Interests

... are celebrating by hosting:



Zombie Apocalypse: Survival Kit & Crew!

(Since this bloghop is all about having fun, if you have kiddos, we can assume they are safely tucked away in a safe haven somewhere while we’re out in the world fighting off zombies so do not worry.)

Crew:

1 TWD character: Daryl Dixon (crossbow)

1 book character: John Snow; A Song of Ice & Fire/GoT (sword)

1 movie character: Alice; Resident Evil (massive firearms)

1 TV character (other than TWD): Ragnar Lothbrok; Vikings (sword/axe)

1 loved one: Justin; my husband (firearms)

1 friend: Jackie; soultwin, cousin (spiked baseball bat – cause she’s badass enough to pull it off)

1 freebie: 10k from Z Nation (sniper/slingshot)

Items:

1 comfort item: Picture of kids/family; to keep me going

1 weapon: Pickaxe; my other crew members have plenty of the other stuff

1 luxury item: My glasses

1 food item: Beef Jerky

1 medicine/first aid item: Inhaler

1 hygiene item: Deodorant

1 freebie: LifeStraw; water purifying straw

 

Background:

Outpost: My parents house. they have a stockpile of weapons and on a small lake. Also close to a distribution center. That is the meeting spot decided in our family. (Yes, we have a plan!)

Outbreak: Methuselah Virus(copyright)
Cause of the apocalypse: Scientists created a parasitic host to slow down the aging process when it went horribly wrong, creating mindless humanoids with only one thing on their minds – warm-blooded creatures. The virus spreads when host bites another victim, allowing parasite to inject eggs into the blood stream. Depending on the health of the new host, the eggs can take up to a couple of days to hatch and attack hosts system, slowly turning them.
Cure: N/A – temporary cures; destroy the heart and/or brain

1 item you NEED to find:  Pharmaceuticals/Pharmacy; yanno, for illnesses & an inhaler

1 item you WANT to find: Chocolate factory; What? Chocolate lasts forever, provides energy, and I LOVE it!

Method of travel: Sturdy vehicles and a surplus of gas/diesel from the air force base. If it’s been tapped out then we are screwed and on foot we will go until we can find vehicles to siphon.

 

It's never too late to join! Click here to find out how you can participate!