You’re Never Too Old for Halloween

My kids love dressing up for Halloween. I must admit that I do too, especially when Halloween falls on a weekday and people come to the office (my day job) dressed up in all sorts of elaborate and imaginative costumes. There are many great ready-made costumes available, but I find it a fun and satisfying challenge to put together a costume from scratch (and pay a lot less for it).

This year’s costume has been months in the making. Back in the spring, I came home after a haircut and my daughter told me I looked like a certain character from one of the TV shows she watches. (Hint: I have bobbed brown hair and glasses.) So I decided right then that I should dress as this character for Halloween.

Every time I went to Value Village over the spring and summer, I searched for the required pieces to the costume. I first found the red shoes ($6.50) and then the red pleated skirt ($10). It took some time to find the perfect orange turtleneck sweater, and I was thrilled when I finally spotted it among the fall arrivals in September ($4). It’s surprisingly difficult to find orange knee socks, but they had some at Party Mart in their Halloween section ($6). Add a large magnifying glass (borrowed from the kids), and I’m all done.

Can you guess who I’ll be for Halloween?

How about you?

October’s furious pace – and the welcoming of the Dark Half of the year

I usually blog the third Wednesday of the month. I realized I’d missed my blog day as I sat drinking a coffee in bed, the Saturday after, with my daughter in Toronto.

I’d left for Toronto on Wednesday – usual blog day – traveled from Wisconsin through Chicago, into Indiana (briefly) to Benton Harbor, Michigan where I stayed for the night, making Toronto Thursday afternoon.

Long story short – I’m writing my blog today.

On the “UP” side, I’ve got lots to blog about.

Toronto, Stratford, Hamilton – this area of Ontario is lovely. I got to see it and be with our girl who is now in her third year of naturopathic medical school and won’t be coming home for any extended stay after this year.

Magical. All of it..

We saw “Guys and Dolls” at the Stratford Festival = FANTASTIC. We wandered through the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. We played card games and drank beer with our girl. All good. All over too fast.

On the way home, I couldn’t type so I researched. I’m writing a legal thriller at the moment, which I started right before I delved into my novella – CHRISTMAS IN JULY – for the Authors of Main Street Box Set. I wrote CHRISTMAS IN JULY quickly and enjoyed the process. I think it’s my best novella yet.

Fast forward to: A TIME TO KILL (working title). I’m writing this one fast & furiously as well. I’m liking this process, so I’m quite literally running with it. A TIME TO KILL is more thriller than romantic suspense – but I can’t seem to keep the romance out of it. Not that I’m trying too hard. Every great story I’ve ever read has love in it somewhere – every truly wonderful one has romance. Since I love it – I guess I’m destined to weave it in.

October has indeed been furiously paced for me, but that’s as it should be. October holds its own magic and none of it is subtle or reserved.

Tomorrow is my birthday – a day where I am thankful to be on this glorious planet surrounded by people I love and the opportunity to make the coming year better than the last.

The day after tomorrow is my dad’s birthday. It is also the Celtic New Year.

Halloween for the Celts is the day when the veil between this world and the OTHERWORLD is the thinnest. The day we honor those who came before – the day they walk among us once again.

This is the day the dark overtakes the light and we in the Northern Hemisphere enter our dark half of the year.

This is the time of the storytellers.

This is the time where magic is real and hopefully it will flow onto the page.

I LOVE OCTOBER!

Time to celebrate life – seeing our daughter. Time to celebrate those who came before – Happy birthday – I’ll be setting a place at dinner while we tell funny, i.e. embarrassing, stories about you, dad.

Time to tell stories – get busy and write – write – write. Time to read great stories. For those of you so inclined, please buy our Christmas Box Set. Here’s a helpful buy link. It’s also a time to be thankful to be alive.

Happy Celtic New Year!

May Inspiration, Enthusiasm, and Magic find you and Bless you as we move into the storytelling half of the year.

Leigh

 

A Spooky Day in the Life of Stephanie Queen

Myren’s Hat

Is it a coincidence that during this Halloween time of year (sorry if this doesn’t apply to you folks from non-Trick-or-Treating cultures) that black cats seem to multiply and the howling wind sounds like haunting ghosts? I think not.

Even the hastening darkness conspires to set the Halloween mood. Spookiness descends at the exact time when we all might be despairing about stocking up on light bulbs. So instead, we’re stocking up on candles, pumpkins and oodles of candy as if those innocent little children really would play tricks on us (Myren takes a different view of the children’s innocence than I do and uses this to justify his attempts at trickery).

So what’s your point? I can hear you asking now (yes, I’m a mind reader—but it only works on imaginary people who are reading my columns—then I get this fabulous insight about …okay, back to the point.)

My point is…well…it’s more an observation than a point. Let me illustrate with a snippet from a typical day in my life during this dark and dangerously spooky time of year.

First, I do not wake up to the sunlight streaming in the window—I only dreamed about that. Instead, the cat woke me—at first she looked like a black cat until I opened my eyes–with extra loud purring because even she knows about her role in the Halloween excitement. (She watches too much TV and I’m afraid all the commercials have affected her.) So in the murky morning dark I follow the sound of the cat’s purring (and occasional screeching when I misstep) to the light switch.

Fast forward to coffee-drinking—or I should say slow-forward since there’s nothing fast about my pre-coffee activities (which include dressing and what-not) (what-not is a handy word isn’t it?). By the time I finish my last sip of coffee, bedecked in my orange and black sweater sprinkled with felt pumpkins, ghosts, witches on brooms and random scary flashing lights, I’m feeling awake enough to put on my Halloween crown. It’s the black one with orange-colored pumpkins and flashing ghosts. I grab my sunglasses and whistle for Myren my Chauffeur. (The sunglasses are to protect against flashes of scary lightening since there’s always a tremendously horror-filled thunderstorm lurking.)

Myren pulls up sporting his witch’s hat in place of the chauffeur cap and I’m sporting a big smile. I’m in the mood to thwart the whole purpose of the witch hat, which is theoretically to make me cringe in fear, isn’t it? Okay, maybe I’m always in the mood to thwart Myren. At least he’s not wearing the pumpkin head—that would kill me—I’d have to laugh out loud. I have a crown with…I digress—back to the day.

My mission this morning is to get the candy. Oodles of irresistible, delicious candy of every kind imaginable to make my castle door the most popular in the trick-or-treating kingdom. (Myren is not on board with the mission exactly, but he knows which side his pumpkin bread is buttered on). I write for a living, so I know candy. It’s one of my major motivators. I’m like one of Pavlov’s dogs with M&Ms. But I digress…

We drive around and run in and out of countless candy stores—you know those fancy stores with charming pane windows with all kinds of mouth-watering delights on porcelain and silver trays in the window and the chunky candy-loving clerks inside.

Finally we end up at a Walgreen’s with a truck-load candy sale two-for-one giant bag special going on. The back seat of the limo is already crowded with boxes of truffles and Myren is observing that no kid’s mother is going to let them eat unpackaged candy and I probably only bought that for myself. (Okay, maybe he has a point, but in my defense, I wasn’t thinking. I was blinded by the smell of chocolate—or something like that.)

There are about two thousand brands to choose from. So after looking around, I grab up bags  and bags and carriages full. We ran out of space in the trunk—which was about the time my feet were getting tired and the daylight started dwindling.

Myren slammed the back door and we were off. I was looking forward to a chocolate snack and a not-too-scary movie (maybe Charlie Brown’s pumpkin) about now. And I was looking forward to all those cute little trick-or-treaters dressed up in fun elaborate costumes knocking at my door (I would find a way to keep Myren from scaring them away).

So my point is, don’t be too hard on all that commercialism and craziness at this time of year. It all serves a purpose. It’s all about overcompensating for the spooky starlight to keep our spirits up and chase the evil spirits away. Or to give us a headache to distract us from our depression about the dark and dangerous monsters. Either way, it’s not entirely a bad thing.

Stephanie Queen has some fabulous spirit-lifting and spirit-chasing novels perfect for reading this time of year. Check out her romantic detective series including her upcoming release Beachcomber Investigations and coming soon Beachcomber Santa. Visit her website at www.StephanieQueen.com for more information.

Small Town Halloween

Not that many people decorated their yard this year. This display is located down the street from my house. There is this and another display similar to it on the left hand side of the yard. At night orange lights light up the area. I hope it scared some of the Trick-or-Treaters.

My son lives in a subdivision that is popular for Trick-or-Treaters, and he and his wife go all out to celebrate Halloween.

The town has a major function at the Courthouse square and afterwards the cars start lining up. This year it was held on Thursday night.

This was the first ‘batch’ of kids. Notice the delicate face paint on the two girls on the right. Some of the kids didn’t even say ‘Trick or Treat’ – they just held out their bag waiting for the candy to be dropped in. Though some parents trained their kids well and they did say ‘thank you’ and one bunch all said, ‘nice house’ which we thought was funny.

I thought the little girl on the right had the cutest original costume. Note in the background the mode of transportation for the neighbors.

I thought this costume was original as well. Note the wagon in the left background that someone pulled around with kids inside. We saw princess outfits, several Ninja Turtles, Elvis, Michael Jackson, a really gruesome werewolf and a devil with a huge red face that scared a two year old when he saw it. Most of the costumes were bought, some were homemade and surprisingly, there were a few kids with no costumes at all.

After the Trick-or-Treaters left, we started eating. Here are some of the appetizers that my daughter-in-law made.

This gives a whole new meaning to ‘deviled eggs’!  Regular recipe, except put some green food coloring in the yokes, and take a toothpick and draw squiggly lines with red food coloring.

We had seafood gumbo, and several other dishes, including my white chocolate bread pudding, then watched the Saints play football on television. And yeah! they won!!!

But the best thing was the family present. All six of my kids, some of the grandkids…in costume. Extended family. All enjoying each other’s company. That is what is wonderful!

 

You might want to check out ‘The Devil Has Dimples’ which has a Halloween funeral. With over 125 five star reviews on Amazon, it’s an entertaining book set in Boggy Bayou Louisiana.

 

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Adopted!

In the Deep South, one of the first questions asked when meeting someone new in a small town is, “Who’s your daddy?” The answer defines you as a person. Not knowing is disheartening.

Sara McLaughlin never knew she was adopted and is stunned to realize that if she wants to find out the questions burning in her brain as to the ‘why’ she was given up at birth, and who her father might be, she has to live in her birth mother’s apartment for the next six weeks.

Grant St. Romain, attorney, is supposed to be helping, but the hunky dimpled devil is making her mind think of other things.

Can she find the truth? Or will she break her heart trying to find out the answers in Boggy Bayou, where many secrets are hidden?

—

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Entranced Halloween

Announcing the Entranced Box Set.

I am pleased to be a part of this Halloween themed box set.

Halloween is huge for Celts everywhere, and I am no exception to that truism.

The Celts call Halloween, Samhain (sow-in). It is one of the largest of the Celtic Fire Festivals, and it marks the beginning of the Celtic New Year – a time to honor our dead, reflect on the past year, and embrace the coming year with hope and renewed energy.

It is also a time of faerie magic.

In Scottish lore, if you had a loved one taken into the faerie realm, you could go into that realm on Samhain and retrieve them.

My contribution to the Entranced Box Set is: MIDDAY MASQUERADE – A Shute Pond Novella. It is filled with faerie magic and lore. I love this season and its mystical, magical, and mysterious elements, many of which are woven into MIDDAY MASQUERADE.

Here’s a short blurb:

Thanks to an ancient curse, for Primrose Scott, finding love and not keeping it, could prove deadly. So, Prim chooses to hide behind the fire burning within her, behind her plain exterior and “not interested” vibe. Keeping herself in check, and potential loves at bay, is easy, if less than satisfying, until she meets Lorcan Flynn.

Lorcan Flynn loves hard when he loves, without thought and without fear – at least he used to. Left broken from his first wife’s defection, Lorcan fled Ireland and settled far away, from Dublin’s busy streets, in Shute Pond, Wisconsin. It is there he practices his eco-architecture and creates leather masks he is compelled to bring to life by a cloaked woman who haunts his dreams. Lorcan is content in his quiet life, until he meets Primrose Scott.

Can two lost people conquer a curse? Can a mask help release their inner desires? With a little push from a long-dead fallen faerie, two interfering demi-faeries, and one Irish father, will Primrose and Lorcan shed their masks and find happily ever after? Will they find a way to conquer fear, open their hearts, and let love in?

Both of these were taken last weekend. Left, I’m with my daughter at a Samhain celebration in Madison and on the right, I’m dressed to go to the pumpkin farm with my son.

Every year I wear a Witch’s hat. This is my newest complete with butterflies underneath and on top. I love it!

For a chance to win this lovely Entranced wine glass, join Leigh Morgan’s Minions on Facebook and tell me about your favorite Halloween tradition, memory, costume or anything else you love about this last harvest festival. In the alternative, in honor of the Celtic New Year, join Leigh Morgan’s Minions on Facebook and tell me your goal, desire or hope for the coming year and what you wish to leave behind from the past year.

Good Luck! Happy Halloween! Much love to you all! Blessed Be!

Leigh

The Magic of Autumn

For me every season has its magic, its beauty, its wonder. Spring gives rise to hope and renewal; beauty springs forth and life blossoms anew. Summer is a time of growth, loving, and taking joy in all the activities warm weather and longer days afford us. Winter is a time of rest, contemplation and planning for the new year to come.

But fall is….magic.

Technically autumn doesn’t start until September 22^nd when the autumnal equinox happens. Then, the dark half of the year is celebrated in Celtic cultures, culminating in the feast day of Samhain, or Halloween. Halloween holds a special place in my heart because it is my father’s birthday. Mine is on October 30^th, so literally these days are blessed for me, and so it is with the whole season. This year for the first time in my life, I will celebrate my birthday—and my dad’s—without him. Weird that. Even the thought leaves me feeling conspicuously numb.

Still, it is rather fitting that I’ll be celebrating a life well lived at a time when the spirits of the dead are so close they are celebrated as well. We’ll see how that goes. I’m guessing pretty well, all things considered.

 I committed to doing a Halloween novella for a box set with other writers from my monthly writers lunch crew earlier this summer and that particular project has helped save me from engaging in too much thought of sorrow about the season. Harvest season isn’t a time for sorrow. It is the end of the growing season. It is the celebration of all the fruits of our labor from winter planning to spring planting and summer growing. It is a celebration of life…the circle of the year…the circle of a life.

So as I put the finishing touches on my Halloween novella: Midday Masquerade, which will be featured in the box set Entranced: A Halloween Box Set, I am even more conscious, if such a thing is possible, of the magic that is autumn. The riotous color, the scent of fallen apples on the ground and burning leaves in the air. (I’m a Wisconsinite, so we do get four glorious seasons every year, even if winter lasts for about five to six months.) Our falls in the Midwest can be glorious. Now the bright green sedum is just starting to turn pink. Over the next few weeks it’ll turn from blushing pink to deep scarlet. Maybe the geography of where I live contributes to the awareness that as the seasons turn we should enjoy–no– revel in them, because as they pass so does our time here.

To live well, we need to live fully now. Every day. My dad was fond of saying, “No one gives you tomorrow.” I prefer to flip that on its head. “Make the most of today. What you do now matters.” It’s also the only thing any of us can control.

So in this time where historically I looked forward to birthday cake, and enjoying my favorite meal with my dad—both of us dressed up for Halloween, yep, every year—I now do so as the head of my Clan. A mantle I could have done without for another decade or so, but now choose to wear with pride, hope, and a feeling that a life well lived is one that should be celebrated forever. I’ll be just that on Halloween.

The Scottish Celts have a term for those who have recently passed yet still grow in our hearts. These souls are called: Flowers of the Forest. Here’s to all of you who have a forest where one flower or many grow. May the pain in your hearts ease as joyful memories fill them. May you love those around you even more. May you live every day like it contains all the seasons.

Happy Almost Birthday, Dad. Happy Almost-Halloween. Here’s to celebrating a vibrant life and a vibrant season!

Leigh

Oranges for Halloween?

The hubby picked the first ripe satsuma oranges yesterday.  We’ll be having tree-ripen oranges for awhile.

Knowing I had to write a blog the day before Halloween, I thought I would have some fun.

 

This is the result…and what fun it was to do.  This would be an amazing way for small kids to decorate ‘pumpkins‘ without knives and the mess.  You can get a ton of ideas from Google images.

Many years ago, I did do a real pumpkin with a small boy opening the door, it was amazing and heartbreaking when it finally was useless.

I usually buy pumpkins after Halloween so I can make pumpkin pies later on.  One of the kids love pumpkin pie and I won’t pass up a piece either!

I do wonder what the dh will say when he comes home and glances at the fruit bowl.  LOL

My book, Unconditionally, is FREE at Amazon through Friday, November 1st.  Grab your copy.

North and South

Florida Romance Writers Super Saturday, sitting on a panel, next to Heather Graham.

No, I am not talking about the Civil War, although I used to enjoy romance novels set during that period, particularly those of Heather Graham, my favorite historical author twenty years ago.

South is where I live, close to the Ocean, my favorite view.

North is where I used to live most of my life and where I raised my children. Another time another life. How I managed to juggle work, children, their activities, my gym, cooking, cleaning, and on occasions taking classes to advance my career– with a husband who traveled fifty percent of the time and was absent during all our emergencies– is beyond me. I was young and energetic.

Last week, I was back North to visit my grandchildren. They are making it a tradition to invite before Halloween to admire their costumes, enjoy their decorations, and watch the foliage. It was a delightful week with delightful children. They kept me busy and I was so happy to be useful.

Other than the above, the highlights of my trip included a visit to the gym and another to karate.
Lying down with each child before they slept was my favorite time. I felt like a mom again.

Of course, there was no time to read email, write a new scene, edit a manuscript, or promote a book. Forget it. The previous were replaced with preparing chocolate milk and pancake for breakfast, walking to the bus stop, playing monopoly, supervising homework. Although I was flabbergasted by how these kids do their math, I mean additions and multiplications, on a laptop. And they trained me on how to use my iPad. Oh God, I feel so old and so out-of-it when I remember we had to memorize multiplication tables!

Amazing how the best joys are the simple ones. How a child’s smile is all I needed to be happy.

What are your greatest joys in life?

If you like to travel and love to read, come and enjoy my international romances. I will take you around the world with stories that simmer with emotion and sizzle with passion.

Try my latest Christmas ebook, a hilarious and sweet romance, set on a cruise to Spain and Italy.

I love Autumn!

It’s fall here in Virginia, USA, and I love this time of year. The weather is almost perfect. Cool evenings and crispy days that are still sun warmed. Pumpkins and gourds are everywhere.

I love it so much I wrote about it. A Skeleton at Her Door isn’t a Halloween story – it’s a love story. It just happens to take place during autumn. It starts a few days before Halloween and ends shortly after Thanksgiving.

I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone but the first scene is based on a real life situation. I opened my door to a skeleton! Then I did that whole what if and wrote the story. It’s a slightly sexy little story about two single parents finding love the second time around, overcoming fears, dealing with teens,  a little girl, and learning to trust again.

I’ve been incredibly busy trying to get several books out and it now looks like I’ll have release dates around the first of November.

I’ll start with the really big news. The Authors of Main Street have banded together and are creating a boxed set of eleven (11) holiday books! Each with a holiday theme from your favorite authors, Mona Risk, Tori Scott, Kelly Rae, Jill James, Kristy Tate, Carol DeVaney, Pepper Phillips, Susan R. Hughes, Stephanie Queen, Leigh Morgan, and me ( E. Ayers).  Yes, eleven books and it’ll be a super deal! Look for it around November 1. I promise we’ll have links to it on this blog as soon as it goes live!

I’ve got a short story in Debra Holland’s Christmas anthology, Sweetwater Springs Christmas, set in 1895, Montana. Scheduled for release in November.

I’ll have a historical novel that will be out the end of October that follows the story that is in the Sweetwater Springs Christmas, and it still does not have a title or a cover. You don’t need to read the one to read the other, but I do hope you read both. They are tales of two sisters, each with her own story. I promise to post the cover in our little widget as soon as I have it available.

I have another very short contemporary piece in A Holiday Anthology by the Exquisite Quills that will be available free in most e-book stores around the beginning of November.

And if I ever catch my breath, I’ll have that historic diary ready to be released around Christmas.

Yes, I love holidays! Can’t you tell?

A pink ribbon to remind you!

And don’t forget October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Have you had a mammogram in the last year? They aren’t what the used to be. The new digital imaging makes them so much easier! It could save your life. Make that appointment.

For those of you who live closer to the equator, I’m sorry that you will miss out on all the beautiful fall foliage, freshly roasted chestnuts, and crunchy apples. The farm fields near me look as though snow has fallen, but it’s the cotton that had ripened and is ready to be harvested. The soybeans fields are turning a golden color, and the peanuts will soon be tossed from the ground. There are corn mazes, hayrides, and pumpkins to be carved.

And don’t forget to connect with me on Twitter. All this month I’m tweeting Halloween jokes. (The kind you can share with the children. They’ll giggle and you’ll groan!)

Smile!

Halloween is coming! Happy reading.

Halloween Nostalgia, circa 1963 by Stephanie Queen

SQ and friends in the Halloween glory days of 1963

Halloween was the perfect holiday in the Camelot world of 1963, when I was 8 years old and living in the quintessential Mad Men-style suburb on Long Island, New York. I was an innocent in innocent times. I scoffed at the big adult-only worry–the razor-blade-in-the-apple scare.  All of us kids from the block believed the razor blade apples were a myth made up by dentists to encourage more candy eating. As if we needed encouraging. Like I told my mother, “No worries. No self-respecting trick-or-treater would eat an apple on Halloween with all that candy waiting to be gorged,” or some appropriate 8-year-old words to that effect.

Of course my mother was a worrier by nature so she forbade us to eat apples (ironic isn’t it. Those dentists were clever) and told us to only eat the store-bought wrapped candy.

Obeying the edict to eat candy

We solemnly promised to obey.

Not even the mandate that we must trick-or-treat during daylight hours to avoid the dangers of the dark could mar the pure joy of the day. Dressed-up in overdone make-up and a cheap shiny dress (no this wasn’t last week—see the pictures),

Award winning costumes of the day

carrying a bag of candy, I paraded around the neighborhood with my midget gang of wild dressers to demand more candy, ringing doorbells at all the mysterious doors that we’d wondered about. We hurried from door to door driven by the goal to get the most candy possible within our mom-imposed time limit in the waning sun of the crisp fall afternoon.

I remember the rustle of leaves, the sharp cool autumn air and realizing there were a lot of houses packed in on the short block of our suburban piece of Camelot. That was a good thing then. Maybe it still is. In spite of the ensuing suburban sprawl, isolation of acreage and mini-van chauffeured trick-or-treaters, Halloween to this day, brings to mind that Camelot innocence of my youth. And a sudden urge for GoodNPlentys.

The Thowbacks, as the title suggests, was written with a tip of the hat to the seemingly innocent and carefree attitude of the old days.  These days, I’ll honor the rite of Halloween with a candy bar break in my writerly routine and I’ll sit at my computer wearing my crown. I might even add the rustle of autumn leaves to the pages of my story…