Halloween 2024

I hope everyone's been enjoying spooky season this year. I know I have!

We haven't thrown a party since 2019 (due to Covid, a trip to New Orleans, and then we had to cancel last year for other reasons), but we finally did this year. And for once, I wasn't terribly behind in prepping the house for the party, so I actually got to enjoy putting out my decorations.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take more pictures of some of my newer deco. Oops. I was having too much fun running a haunted house tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) that I wrote for us. Heh.

I did grab a couple pictures, at least. Enjoy the spookiness!

Halloween 2019

Happy Halloween, 2019!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been diligently making progress on several things, though. The first draft of Well of Solitude (Fortunes of Fate, 7) is complete, and I've already received some critiques on it. Revision and release likely won't happen until 2020 for that. And I'm also doing a final round of edits on Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) for the November 13, 2019 release! And other little boring, writerly tasks...

Oh, and NaNoWriMo is coming up!

But this post isn't about writing all the words. It's that time of year again - the time of year I love. Unfortunately, this year I've been having a hard time enjoying Halloween, per usual. Worrying about other stuff tends to do that.

However, we've already had our Halloween party for the year (which reminds me, next year we won't be hosting one - maybe I'll be posting Halloween related pics from Disney World, though), which means I have a handful of pictures to post.

Not too many are below. None of me again. I stuck on my cat ears and tail and called it a year, so only got a family picture instead of an individual one. As I said, it's been a little rough getting into the Halloween spirit.

Pumpkins, pumpkins! Nope, jack o' lanterns! Mine is the starry-eyed emoji face one, and the 5-year-old attempted her first pumpkin carving on her own (which one do you think it is? - lol). My eldest was lazy with the cat head, whereas Hubbie was lazy per usual with a simple face.

New little bat fences this year. I figured it was time to add something new to the outside since I usually don't have too much set up there. I'm not a fan of the huge inflatable things, and every time I consider putting up some gravestones I decide against it, so I went lower key with the bat fence on each side of the walkway. Dollar Store purchases, but I don't need anything fancy!

This was my favorite addition to my decorations this year. There was a unicorn skull as well (I'm obsessed with unicorns, so it was hard to resist and choose between them), but I ultimately chose the dragon - look at the fire!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween. Don't forget to find a black cat to cross your path for good luck (yes - good luck - poor things get a bad rap, and I can attest that our Nightshade is just derpy, not unlucky)!

Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween! OK, I know it's tomorrow, but our annual party and Trick or Treating with the kids has already come and gone (and I get a day off tomorrow -- 16th wedding anniversary). So, I shall regale you all with pictures. You like pictures, don't you?

This year, I cosplayed another one of my own creations! The idea grabbed hold of me when I was writing Hell On Wheels. Yup, I decided to dress up as Moira, stuck unhappily in her Welcomer garb. Well, my costume wasn't quite as skimpy as what she has to put up with (I couldn't bring myself to squeeze into a sequined bikini). What do you think? Did I do her justice? Maybe next year I should play Grinka from the Fractured Fairies series. Aqua hair? I'd have to pass on playing Tamara the fairy -- I'd be too cold, and I don't think my guests would appreciate me flitting around naked.

Per usual, I was rushing to get the house ready for the party, so I didn't get to spend a lot of time on my pumpkin (I always wish I had more time to do something fancy). This year, I decided to do a monster face, mainly because of my youngest's little googly-eyed monster headband we got her to play with (she was not a monster for Halloween, though, but Rainbow Dash). My eldest did the flying kitty (since that's what she also dressed up as), and I carved the ghost into my youngest's white pumpkin. Per usual, my husband did a simple face -- he's not much for pumpkin carving, but he still does it with us!

The kids also painted some of those pumpkin gourds and the teeny tiny pumpkin my youngest picked out at the pumpkin farm when she went with her preschool.

One picture of the decorations from the party! I didn't take many because of the major rushing this time. Once everyone started arriving, I pretty much collapsed into a chair, chattered, and ate.

And I thought this was a cute picture, so I'm going to post it, even though I am careful not to post many pictures of my kids publicly. Trick or Treating! I love it that the last couple of years we've all went together. (Don't worry, we still put a bowl of candy out for the other Trick or Treaters.)

Finally, look at all this candy that my kids got this year. Notice the pitchfork resting on top of it all? Yeah, Mama Tax. >:)

I hope everyone had a great Halloween this year!

Oh, and as a reminder, you can still get the Monster Maelstrom anthology with my Fractured Fairies flash story, "Monster in the Room", in it for FREE! Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Smashwords, iBooks, and GooglePlay!

Halloween 2015

We interrupt your regularly scheduled chapter posts of Chains of Nect for...

HALLOWEEN!

There will be a chapter up next Wednesday. Promise.

Anyway, Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. Unless there is some major life event getting in the way, I throw a party every year. This is as social as this hermit writer ever gets. The rest of the year, you'll find me forcing myself to interact outside the house.

This means I decorate every year. I had some help from a friend this year, since I was pretty sick in September and beginning of October, so I was behind on a lot of things (though, I fully admit, I'm always decorating last minute - I'm always running at least a little behind).

I figured I should start posting a few pictures every year. So, here they are!

BEWARE of the MOAT! We had to have the sidewalk ripped out on the side of our house because it was putting pressure on the foundation. Clearly we haven't done anything with the hole that was left from that. I went with it.

Pumpkins. Yes, the small one says Pika. My toddler is obsessed with Pokemon. She even has a stuffed Pikachu she carries around. Pikachu was her first 3-syllable word. I wasn't about to carve the whole name into her pumpkin, though, so she got the short version.

The altar! This is a yearly must. Though this year, I was missing a chalice (still packed away from the kitchen remodel - oops). That skull candle there is supposed to look like it bleeds. It kind of does. Sort of.

Clearly I don't like showing off pictures of myself too often, but I'll give in this time. I was a Walking Halloween Cliche with my cat ears/tail, fairy wings, and Ouija Board shirt. Hey, look, you can even catch a toddler head in the corner. Little Photo Bomber!

I hope you all have a Happy Halloween (and Blessed Samhain for us Pagans)!