Winner of the Snarkolagy Halloween Blog hop is…
Shawdow.
Congratulations, Shadow.
I’ve already contacted Shadow and will being sending an amethyst pendant.
Tag Archives: halloween
Snarkolgy Halloween Blog Hop
If you are looking for the Snarkolgy Halloween Blog Hop, then you have found it.
***Prize alert***
***Please read the entire post for information on my blog hop prize and the prize for the hop.***
My daughter and her black Halloween kitty
What do you love about Halloween?
For me, I loved making my daughter’s costumes for Trick-or-treat. She’s been a bunny, cowgirl, Little Red Ridding Hood, fairy complete with wings, spider queen with a companion spider she’d walk on a pole, an angel with wings make with real feathers (I can’t take credit for that one) and a cat.
My daughter is grown now, but I still remember the festive feel to Halloween night, kids were (and still are) so excited to wear their costumes, and most people were friendly and nice. I’d walked my daughter along the road so she could knock on the doors. The scent of candle wax and pumpkin from the hand-carved jack-o-lanterns and the crisp fall leaves filled the air. We’d come home exhausted, and my daughter’s bag bursting at the seams. She was always a big hit when she trick-or-treated.
Blurb and excerpt from my published book: Matrix Crystal Hunters:
Team Alpha Three’s spaceship is out of power after fighting a wormhole, and parked on the primitive world of Zenevieva. With half the team sick from radiation poisoning, the team commander entrust geologist, Maya Gladstone, to find enough matrix crystals to power up their spacecraft, so they can go home to Earth. Vach Namaste of the powerful Clan Namaste, a native of the planet, has desired the lovely Maya since she stepped off the spaceship on that astonishing day a year ago. He’s hounded her every step since. As Hymeneal Night approaches, he makes plans to take her as his bride… willing or not.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s a bow in the rock wall.” Vach backed up, causing Maya to withdraw. “I’m bigger than the last time I went through here, but that was several years ago when my cousin, Xeno, brought me.”
He handed her the flashlight.
“Is there another way?” She shone the light around, noting how the crevice narrowed overhead.
“Not that I know of.” He grunted, trying to remove his robe, but there wasn’t much room to maneuver.
“Here, let me help you.” Maya pulled the robe off his shoulder. “Surely the ancients didn’t come through here?” She jerked one sleeve down over his hand and then reached to get the other side too, but found herself wedged between the rock wall and his hard body. Fighting the impulse to feel his muscles, she managed to get his other sleeve down.
“If there’s another entrance, it must have been blocked a long time ago.” He started to pull his tunic off, but struggled, thanks to his big arms and the lack of room. “Can you help me with my shirt?”
As Vach lifted his arms over his head, Maya grabbed a handful of cloth so she could lift the material high over his shoulders. “What are you going to do? Strip down and lube yourself with my cooking oil?”
“No.” He chuckled, his voice muffled by the shirt. “But that’s a good idea.”
With his arms up, Maya got a whiff of his spicy, male scent. It always surprised her that the Zeemen didn’t stink after exertion as humans did. I wouldn’t mind rubbing his body down with oil. Warmth spiraled through her middle. She bit her lip. Keep your mind on business and not on being in a tight spot with a handsome Zeeman.
Vach stuck his clothes in the tote and then sidestepped through the narrow opening. Grunting as he pushed past the bow, he finally got through.
Maya approached the bend and realized it was about breast height on her. No wonder Vach had a problem, with his deep chest and heavily muscled back.
Contemplating the aperture, she stood on tiptoe but couldn’t get high enough. Finally, she squatted down but then found she needed to keep her knees bent out sideways. Oh no, not awkward at all.
She managed a few crab steps before she got stuck. Vach grabbed her arm to pull her the rest of the way through. Her hiking boots slid over the loose gravel, while her thighs took the strain. He helped her to stand, leaving his hands placed on her waist as she leaned against the wall, panting. “I don’t know how we’re going to manage that going back.”
“At least we know it’s there.” His breath puffed against her face. It smelled of mint.
He must have used my toothpaste. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
With an electric jolt, Maya realized her shirt had risen up and Vach’s hands were resting on her bare skin. She became hyperaware of his scent, his closeness and the fact that he wore no shirt.
Moving even closer toward her in the confined space, he whispered in her ear. “I like the smell of your hair.”
His hand slid further under her shirt, gliding over her ribs.
Heat went through her as she rested her hand on his shoulder. “It’s my shampoo.”
“It’s nice.”
“You can borrow it sometime.”
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US Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FJ10W26
US Trade paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Matrix-Crystal-Hunters-Janice-Seagraves/dp/1492709751/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
UK Trade paperback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Matrix-Crystal-Hunters-Janice-Seagraves/dp/1492709751/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_t_1_KKW6
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Matrix Crystal Hunters is now on Smashwords:http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/447796
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Janice’s blog: http://ladyjanice.blogspot.com/
Janice on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Janice-Seagraves-Author/117551164948239
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***Now for the blog hop contest***
***Leave a comment about what you love about Halloween with your email addy***
***For the Hop’s grand prize please use the link to the Rafflecopter***
Contest rules: The prize is an Amethyst Crystal necklace, or if you live outside of the US, a five dollar or similar amount in the winners country’s currency in the form of a gift certificate to Amazon. The prize is valued at no more than five $5.00 USA dollars.
Contest starts October 28 and ends October 31, 2014. The winner will be notified by email.
By entering your email in the comment section, you are agreeing to the Official Rules and stating that you are older than eighteen (18).
Void were prohibitive.
Click here for a chance the grand prize for the blog hop—> a Rafflecopter giveaway
Don’t forget to drop in on these other blog hop participants for even more chances at prizes.
Things That Go Bump In The Night
Here’s my post on Romance Books 4 Us about things that go bump in the night. With an excerpt from my just released novel, Matrix Crystal Hunters, and a three of my drawings.
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2013/10/things-that-go-bump-in-night.html
Halloween Blog Hop
http://thebloghopspot.com/event-page/
If your looking for the Halloween blog hop post, then you have found it!
Hi, my name is Janice Seagraves. I write romance of various genres. Here’s my bio: Janice Seagraves grew up in a small California town. Her home is a hundred year old haunted house (I’m not kidding), where she lives with her husband and daughter, an overly affectionate cat and a Jack Russel that’s in love with her daughter (still not kidding).
A lot of people read my bio and ask me, “Is your house really haunted?”
Yes it is. 
Since my husband and I first moved into our house twenty years ago, I’ve heard a little girl crying when I washed my hands in the bathroom. Which in itself isn’t anything unusual, however we live two miles out of town in the middle of what had been a grape vineyard but is now an almond orchard, and we have no close neighbors. I’ve lived here for twenty years and heard the same child sobbing. Reason would dictate that if this was a child, it would be grown by now.
Once when my daughter was still a newborn baby, I was enjoying a few blessed moments of shared TV viewing with my husband (you never know how fleeting those moments are until your a new parent), and then my baby started to cry. I sighed and started to get up, when I heard a woman’s voice saying very clearly, “Hush, baby,” I ran into the bedroom, and my husband ran outside. When I turned on the light, the baby was asleep and no one was there. My husband came back inside and told me no one was outside.
While my daughter was a baby, she would sleep with us, and during this time I would feel the bed dip like someone was sitting down. Usually this meant that my hubby was putting on his boots for work. But other times, I’d open my eyes to see that I was alone. Over the years I, my husband and my daughter have seen a little girl ghost at different times and places in the house.
One time while my daughter was sleeping with me, she screamed in the middle of the night. I jerked awake and turned over, that’s when I saw the little girl ghost sitting on my bed on the far side of my daughter, staring at me. Then she faded away.
When my daughter was little about three or four, she had an invisible friend named Jenifer or Jenny, which I later realized was our ghost girl.
Once or twice I’ve heard a scary voice saying my name, and a chill would wash down my back.
Thank goodness I haven’t had that in a while. *shiver*
I’ve been woken up by the sound of my bedroom door being opened and when I looked to see who it was, the door was closed. That just happened the other night. I got up again to look and the door was closed.
Nope, no more sleep for me. 
We’ve seen orbs. Mostly green and blue ones. I saw one in the bathroom and followed it in my daughter’s room, where it landed on the foot of her bed and disappeared. I have taken a few orb photos with our black kitty we used to have, and I have an earlier photo with a white something that went through my husband’s mouth.
These photos were taken with two different cameras; the above photo is digital and the below one is a 35 mm. 
When my husband worked nights, sometimes I would see something under the fitted sheet moving back and forth. I thought maybe a mouse got into the mattress. My husband and I flipped the mattress over and I couldn’t find any mouse holes, so I have no idea what that was.
One morning, I was woken up by a child singing the song called the Lilac Tree. Both my husband and daughter were in the living room watching Saturday morning cartoons. And nothing they watched had a child singing. I’ve been woken up by the smell of Brownies and thought my daughter was baking. I got up to go into the kitchen and no one was cooking. Boy was I disappointed.
One time when I overslept, I heard someone walking around my bed and a voice saying, “Come on, honey, it’s time to get up.” When I got up, no one was there.
When one of my daughter’s friends spend she reported hearing the bathroom door creak open, and the sound of whispering. The friend asked my daughter if her parents were awake. My daughter said no, and then they both went and checked the bathroom. They found it empty.
My husband and I both have heard whispering voices before, right when we got home. We’d quickly unlock the front door to the house, flinging it open, but the noises stopped and no one was there.
A few months ago when I just laid down to go to sleep, I felt someone tuck in the tag on my pajama top. My bedroom door was closed and hubby was working the graveyard shift and my daughter was spending the night at a friend’s house.
I was alone.
Or was I?
***Contest alert***
Leave a comment about your own ghostly experience and your email addy, for a chance to win a five dollar Amazon gift certificate.
And just for stopping by, you also receive two free downloads, which is the start of my science fiction romance series The Arcon Saga.
The Arcons Are Coming!
Exodus Arcon Trailer The first of a new Science Fiction series
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Janice’s website: http://janiceseagraves.org/
Janice’s main blog: http://ladyjanice.blogspot.com/
A Killer’s Field by Susan Elizabeth Alvis
I’m stopping by today to share an excerpt from A Killer’s Field, a new fictional novella motivated by the senseless I-45 Texas killings, most of which have remained unsolved.
A few years ago, I became aware of the overwhelming number of unsolved crimes along the I-45 corridor located south of Houston. In an area known as the Texas killing fields, this property has become a dumping ground for some of the country’s most horrific crimes.
Since the early 70s, bodies have been abandoned in these Texas swamps. Many young lives ended too soon and families were devastated as bodies were recovered but never truly laid to rest. Killers seemingly committed the perfect crimes and thanks to the mysteries surrounding so many of the murders, questions were forever left unanswered.
A Killer’s Field is a short young adult Halloween story available in e-format. Published by Devine Destinies, the novella is fictional but the inspiration behind the story was developed over time by researching some of the true, and quite brutal, unsolved Texas killings.
A Killer’s Field isn’t a true story. However, when I wrote the novella, I tried to write a short story that would appeal to young people and in some small way let the victims’ families know their loved one hasn’t been forgotten. At the same time, this short story includes a warning for all readers with an underlying message in regards to social networks, a tool often used when criminals make their first connection with their future victims.
I’d like to invite your readers to check out A Killer’s Field, on sale now at Devine Destinies. Readers, please leave your comments about the cover, short story, or any aspect of A Killer’s Field. I’ll stop by again today and choose one random winner for one free e-gift. If you’re posting a comment, please include an email address or check back to see how you can claim your prize.
Thank you for sharing your blog with me, Janice. 🙂
A Killer’s Field by Susan Elizabeth Alvis
“A deadly event turns participants into victims as a Texas killing field becomes ground zero for a Halloween hunt….” A Killer’s Field, Susan Smith Alvis
Blurb:
Kristen McMurray is flabbergasted when her boyfriend decides to take her to the Texas Killing Fields for Halloween. She’s not at all impressed with his plans for a romantic evening, let alone the idea of frolicking on the very grounds known to harbor the deadliest of secrets.
Picturing a moonlit sky high above them and a murderer lurking in the shadows, Kristen is convinced her boyfriend has either lost his mind or worse. Perhaps he’s become a quiet lunatic waiting to emerge.
Reluctantly, Kristen agrees to spend Halloween in the fields. Unbeknownst to her, they enter the heart of a huge Halloween hunt, an organized event and obvious trap used to entice unsuspecting victims to the very place where dozens of bodies have been previously dumped.
One brush with death leads to another, but Kristen keeps her wits about her as her boyfriend turns their Halloween night into an evening she’ll never forget. While the fields live up to their harrowing name, Kristen faces the horrors of the past. Somewhere along the way, she discovers an inner strength and a will to survive, realizing determination and the desire to live are the only elements ensuring she’ll leave the fields alive!
Excerpt for A Killer’s Field by Susan Smith Alvis
I’m about as flabbergasted as my Dobermans were when I went outside to feed them prime rib and a vulture swept down and stole the raw meat straight from the pan. The event occurred last week but I can still picture their wide eyes as they stretched their necks upward and barked at the heavens. They were in terrible shock, poor things. After the clever bird escaped, all they could do was stand there and pant, foam forming in the corners of their mouths.
Okay, so I’m not panting or wiping drool from my chin. I am, however, stunned.
“Well, what do you think?” Dennison asks, backing away from his pickup. “Say yes, Kristen. It’ll be a lifetime experience. One you’ll remember forever.”
“What makes you think we’ll live to later share our experiences?”
“You’re so dramatic,” he says, returning to work on his truck. “Most women would see this trip for what it is—an overnight getaway.”
“Visiting the Texas Killing Fields, on Halloween no less, is not my idea of a romantic weekend.” I stare at his back. “Where will we stay?”
“I’ll pack a tent and a sleeping bag.”
Wonderful. For a minute, I consider his idea of snuggling inside confined spaces. That is, until a body bag comes to mind. After all, those fields symbolize decades of horror.
Copyright © 2012
A Killer’s Field by Susan Elizabeth Alvis is available at Devine Destinies. Cover art for A Killer’s Field was created by Carmen Waters.
Thursday’s Thirteen: October’s to do list
Since its October first or nearly at this posting, here are thirteen things for October in no particular order.
I would have posted some photos but my internet service is acting funny.
1. Setting out the autumn decorations.
2. Getting out and decorating for Halloween. It’s not the same decorations as the autumn ones.
3. Raking fall leaves. I really hate this chore. We have sycamore trees, they have big leaves. Lots and lots of them.
4. Dusting the house and getting it ready, so I can shut all the windows for the cold season.
5. Picking out a pumpkin. I don’t do this quite so much now that my daughter is older.
6. Pulling out the spent spring flowers and planting fall bulbs or more mums.
7. Cleaning out my planters and planting some fall flowers.
8. Putting away all the shorts and summer clothes. Then digging out of the back of my closet for my long sleeve blouses and long pants. Cool weather clothes, oh how I miss thee.
9. Costume making time. My daughter has taken over this chore. She’s too old for trick-or-treating, but there’s an Ani-jam on Halloween that’s she’ll be attending. She won third place in the last one for her costume she had made.
10. Buying Halloween candy. We don’t get trick-or-treaters, we live too far out of town but I buy them for my small family. We like candy. 🙂
11. This year it’s on us for my daughter’s senior year school picture. It all has to be done by October 15th.
12. Get sign up for the Nanowritmo (National Novel Writer’s Month). It’s always a crazy month for me, but for the last three years I have finished in time with a 50,000 word novel.
13. Celebrate my hubby’s Birthday. His B-day is on the 29th.
Janice Seagraves, Author 