The 12 Days of Christmas Challenge

Some families start the count down toward Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving dinner is off the table.  Traditionally, in my house, that is exactly the case.  My tree is up the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Mostly because I can't on Black Friday as I am finishing up my shopping for the year. 

Some start it December 1st, like ABC Family, where there are 25 days of Christmas movies, specials, gifts, etc. 

I recently did some research on the 12 days of Christmas, which is well known as a song.  It's more than that, however, but its not what you think.  Commonly, it is known as the 12 days prior to Christmas.   There are calendars and Christmas knick knacks that have secret pockets in them for each of these 12 days available in stores.

Traditionally, the churches mean the 12 days of Christmas as a countdown from Christmas day to a day called Epiphany, which is January 6th.  Epiphany is traditionally celebrated as the day the Three Wise Men finally arrived with their gifts to Jesus and his family (a year after Jesus birth, of course, not less than two weeks). 

No matter how you celebrate it, the 12 Days of Christmas is about giving.  And that brings me to the challenge.

There is a beautiful foundation out there called " The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation".  What I am challenging everyone who goes to this blog is to spend the next 12 days performing a single act of random kindness to a perfect stranger.  There are many ways to do this.  Donations are most common.

For example, today, as my RAK, I left my $15.76 in change at McDonald's to be a Pay-it-Forward to individuals behind me waiting to buy coffee or breakfast this morning.  I don't know any of them, but I touched them positively today and that is what this is all about.

So, I ask this of all of you reading today, be a light.  Touch someone's life in a good way.  Give a little bit each day for the next 12 days and help this be a wonderful holiday for someone that could really use some good cheer.  Even if it means just buying something to put in a food drive, or a toy to be dropped in a Toys for Tots location, or even coats, mittens, or scarves as some banks ask for to be given to families in the local area that are in need, it is in the spirit of this challenge.

Each day, you can make one person have something a little bit better this season.  If you do this for 12 people, and your neighbor can for 12, and so forth, by the end of this, thousands could be blessed.

So, what do you say?  Are you in?

Screaming Sunday + ROW 80 Update

Keeping to the theme, and in honor of the previous posts, I am dubbing this Screaming Sunday (being the Sunday before Halloween).   And like screams, I'll try to keep it short and...well, just short.

I'm just going to dedicate this post to all the different kinds of screams.

At the fair, I scream in delight with my kids as we twirl in circles and get pushed by the gravitation within the Tilt-A-Whirl ride against our seats.

In my books, my characters scream in the throes of passion.

My grandmother screams in fear when she sees a spider.  My girls scream at the cats when trying to get into their room and at bugs in general.  I scream at scorpions and I'm glad Michigan doesn't have them.

I also have been known to scream in frustration when something is getting out of hand at home.  Well, it's more like a growl, really, but I think it could apply.

Now for the reader's turn:  What makes you scream?  Is it a positive or negative event that causes it?  Or both?  I want to know. 

Now for my ROW 80 Update:

Reading:  Finished Sookie #7 and #8, as well as Lord of Rage by Jill Monroe;
WIP:  Added 1,741 new words to my novel;
Exercise:  None :(
Halloween preparations with kids:  Finished carving pumpkins and got the "Ruby Slippers" for my little Dorothy.  Too bad my little Minnie Mouse is too sick to go Trick-or-Treating tomorrow.  Rotten stomach virus.

Happy Reading!

Slasher Saturday

I think I already mentioned this, but I don't really care for Slasher movies.  However, I'm dubbing the Saturday before Halloween, Slasher Saturday.  I'm on a roll and going to have fun with it.

Wikipedia defines "slasher movie" as "A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe."  No wonder I don't like them!  What the definition doesn't add is that a good portion of slasher movies, especially in modern times, also includes some voluptuous dingbat that is required, and shortly killed, to add titillation.  Something like this:

 That doesn't leave much for the imagination.  Copy and past the heavy sarcasm here.

The earliest slasher was called Thirteen Women which was released in 1932, according to my Wikipedia source (and how reliable is that?).  That was a long time ago!  Since slashers didn't seem to really take rise until the 1960's, this is probably a little known fact.

I'm sure some of you remember the classic Psycho or even its remake with Anne Heche in 1998.  For me Hitchcock's thriller/slasher movie is preferred because it left the viewer to try to come up with his/her own theories of what is happening until the very end of the film.   It was this mental titillation that I rate a movie on over the erotic titillation in modern slashers.  Keep me interested and on the edge of my seat and I'll enjoy the movie a little bit more despite all the blood and guts.

My sister and I tend to agree that the Scream movies are a little more along our preferences as well.  It has some campy, fun parts to keep you from getting too drawn into the drama and intensity of a scene.  How can you not laugh at Jamie Kennedy yelling at the TV for the girl to look behind her when he should be doing the same thing?  

So, how about my readers?  Are there any slasher movies you would sit down to watch in the bright lights of your living room in broad daylight or in the darkest of nights?  Any of you prefer to watch the classics or modern slashers?  Anyone like to have bouts of fright, then bouts of laughter?  Let me know!

Happy Reading!

Frankenstein Friday

Another author in Twitter inspired me for today's random blog when they mentioned today as Frankenstein Friday.  I started doing some research online about Frankenstein and discovered something new about Mary Shelley, the author who created the Frankenstein monster.  Apparently there is such a thing as a "Frankenstein Moon". 

As the story goes, Lord Byron issued a challenge to those visiting him at Lake Geneva to write their own Ghost Story.  Apparently, Mary Shelley was having issues finding her muse until one night she had a vision or dream that inspired her story and opened her eyes to see the moonlight streaming in through the windows. 

I'm not entirely sure why physicists would be so interested in recreating that event or why it was controversial in any way at all.  Why would she lie about the moon coming in through her window?  And who cares if she were?  She's an author and has the right to embellish anything she writes.  It's how we are. We create and embellish to draw in our readers.  Sometimes we do so to draw ourselves into our writing too.

I'm curious about my readers and ask for you to participate.  Does any of you watch the classic horror movies like Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolfman?  And, if so, do you like the originals or remakes?  Personally, I think Boris Karloff was an awesome make-up artist for his time and really enjoy the black and white classics (but I also am a huge fan of Young Frankenstein).

I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Reading!

ROW 80 Updated for 10/23/11

I actually accomplished a goal that I didn't put on my list.  I took the girls outside - it was a beautiful day of sixty odd degrees and sunny - and had them help me dump some pots that were on the front deck.  I had one little girl go gun-ho and tried to rake a little, although the wind helped a great deal with that last week.  I even moved my raised bed box to the back of the house.  I feel so accomplished today.

Now for the ROW 80 Update.  Below are a list of accomplishments:




Reading:  Finished Sookie Stackhouse book #6; Finished Heart of Darkness anthology;
WIP:  Made some necessary cuts during editing and added 1,828 words;

On a side note, the book is really coming along now.  I have my villain's plot planned out.  I was making it way too complicated at first, hence the need to edit and hack out unnecessary parts to make the motive more simple.  Now I am developing minor characters and their roles in the villain's plan.  There is another villain - a minor one - that will be necessary for a change of location for another set of characters, but right now, I'm working with the villain who first challenges the heroine.  This first villain is less complicated as he tends to work in political and religious circles.  The minor villain will be a bigger challenge for me as he will be more barbaric.  It's a big strange even to me how I just classified them and their difficulty rating.  I would have suspected the one manipulating things behind the scenes would be harder to write, but he isn't.  It's the one where I need to create battle scenes for that will be more difficult.  

Happy Reading!

My First Award!

I have just received my first blogging award!  I'm so excited.  Thanks, Angela!  Please do me a fave and check out Angela Wallace's blog: Angela Wallace ~Believe, Dream, Awaken.  She has been a regular follower of my blog and I really love stopping by her blog. 

This is all new to me, so I'll just follow the spirit of the acceptance of this award from the last two recipients. 

And since Halloween is almost upon us, I’m going to stick with the same theme as Angela and share 7 Halloween facts about me:

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1. I love Halloween so much it's my number one holiday, making Christmas my number two holiday;

2. I hate horror movies, but I like paranormal ones - just not Paranormal Activity;

3. I love the candy called bottle caps which was good for me because my brother and sister hated them, so would give them all my Tootsie rolls and they would give me all their bottle caps;

4. I always laughed in the haunted houses - I never screamed once;

5. I find that graveyards are full of history and enjoy looking through them.  The older the better.  I once visited one that was actually segregated into sections by nationality, including Jewish (I know, not technically nationality, but you know what I mean), Dutch, and African American.

6. After watching Grudge, I couldn't look into dark doorways for a month, afraid the white face and black hair of that woman would be peering back at me;

7. My kids and I love singing a Nick Jr. song called I Don't Like Candy Corn which isn't true, because we love eating it.

Now it's my turn to pass this blog award on to other very deserving bloggers.  So here are my choices:

1.  Karen Mahoney ~Urban Fantasy Writer

2.  Author in Progress

3.  Paperback Writer

Happy Reading!

ROW 80 - Update on 10/19/11

List of accomplishments this week so far:

Finished Sookie Stackhouse book #5;
On Monday, added 397 new words to WIP;
On Wednesday (today), added 899 new words to WIP;
Read with my girls;
Put the girls to bed early (on-time, really);
Got the girls to school on time every day so far this week.

List of things still behind:
Exercise;
Housework

Overall, I'm not entirely disappointed.  Life just has to be more adjustable.  I appreciate my readers for checking in on me even though it has to be boring reading blogs that just talk about one thing anymore.  I wish I had the time to devote to having other blog posts, but just getting my WIP done in a day is a working miracle. 

In the mean time....Happy Reading!