Last night we watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin. Charlie Brown.” Amanda wanted to see it. I’ll take her out tonight for some treats. She loves getting dressed up and going out for Halloween. I’ve been doing this for a long time. Maybe 28 years since I started taking our oldest children out on Halloween night. I told Amanda she has this year and next and then that’s it. She mentioned having a Halloween Party when she no longer goes house to house for treats. I’m glad the weather will be nice tonight.

My website contest and blog contest for this month ends tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. I’ll post the winners tonight or tomorrow morning. My website contest got listed on a sweepstakes site and I’ve received over 600 entries now so I’ll be glad when it ends. I had around ten entries with no answer to the contest question or a wrong answer. I’m happy so many read my excerpt and answered the question correctly. I hope I get some sales from this contest. That would be great!

I’m going to get pizza to eat before we go out, but I want to share what I have fixed in the past. I’ve made sloppy joe sandwiches with spooky cheese slices on top. Take orange cheese slices and cut out eyes, mouth, and etc. Put the hamburger mixture on top of the bottom of a hamburger bun. Then put the Halloween cheese slice on top of the hamburger mixture. Put your sandwiches on a cookie sheet. After you have enough sandwiches for your family, put in oven to melt the cheese.The kids loved eating their Halloween sloppy joe sandwiches before going out for their treats.

I participated in a chat for sweet and inspirational authors yesterday at Joyfully Reviewed site. Cristina won a free download of one of my three Samhain books. Congratulations Cristina!

Here is a recipe you might like to fix for Thanksgiving. We happen to like corn bread so probably the main reason we like this recipe.

CORN CASSEROLE

½ butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained

1 (14.75 ounce) can creamed corn

1 cup of sour cream

1 (8.5 ounce) package dry corn
bread mix - I use the Jiffy corn mix

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a 9 x 9 inch baking dish.

2.In a medium bowl, combine butter, eggs, corn bread mix, whole and creamed corn and sour cream. Spoon mixture into prepared dish.

3. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown.

I’ll give another recipe soon for a potato casserole.

~~~

I finished my Chapter Twenty of my sisters book last night at midnight. I actually thought I had finished it earlier but after some reflection, I decided to add a scene. I like a lot what I added. This one character is demanding more time in my book. After I climbed into bed, my character Whitney told me something about her first marriage, so I jumped out of bed to write her dialogue which will be the beginning of Chapter Twenty-One. This happens to me frequently when I work on my writing before I go to bed, and sometimes my brain retains the words I want to use in the next new scene, but other times my mind is blank in the morning. I like to play it safe and just write it down before going to sleep.

~~~
Since my monthly blog contest ends on Halloween night, I’m posting the list here for you to look over so if you are one of the two winners, you have a chance to decide which book you’d like.

Here is the list for October:

It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas

Manhunt by Janet Evanovich (reissued in 2005)

Just Perfect by Julie Ortolon

Dream of Me by Fern Michaels (nice trade size paperback)

Pretty Woman by Fern Michaels

Lady of Sin by Madeline Hunter

Born Under The Lone Star by Darlene Graham

The School for Heiresses by Sabrina Jeffries, Liz Carlyle, Julia London, Renee Bernard

Proper Conduct by Shannon Donnelly

The Truth About Love by Stephanie Laurens

Blue Dahlia by Nora Roberts

Staying Single by Millie criswell

Lady Of The West by Linda Howard

Navy Woman by Debbie Macomber

Ready for Love by Debbie Macomber

Song of the Road by Dorothy Garlock

Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

An Independent Woman by Candace Camp

A Wicked Gentleman by Jane Feather

Creole Fires by Kat Martin

When Darkness Comes by Alexandra Ivy

Widow In Scarlet by Nicole Byrd

The Warrior Trainer by Gerri Russell

My Buckeyes won Saturday night against Penn State. The final score was 37 to 17. Ohio State is ranked no. 1 in the polls. I graduated from Ohio State with a B.S. degree in Education. I’ll have to admit how the first two years I was unhappy at OSU. It was a big change going to a big ten university after attending the same small rural school for twelve years. My first choice had been to go to Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Because of financial reasons, my mother told me I needed to go to OSU and live with my two sisters in Columbus. I alternated living with their families and commuted to the campus. The third year I was able to live closer to campus in a rooming house. I really need to write a book about this experience. My senior year I lived in an apartment with two other girls. By the third year, I loved going to Ohio State.

The Bengals lost to the Pittsburg Steelers. We watched little of the game because we were attending a function at University of Dayton. Our daughter gave a speech, but I’ll tell more about it later when I have a picture to post. The one I took of Emily isn’t that great because I took it from an angle. I didn’t get a seat on the end in the center was part of the problem. I should have taken one of her afterwards with the former Governor of Ohio, Bob Taft. He was the keynote speaker. We enjoyed talking to him for a few minutes. I’ll get one soon I hope from the student who took pictures yesterday. Our daughter Christina watched Sara and Amanda for us while we were in Dayton. They had fun shopping for a Halloween costume for Amanda. Amanda wants to be Cinderella for Halloween so Christina found an adult size costume for her.

I have received around 500 contest entries for my website contest. I received several daily but within the last 24 hours, I’ve been shocked with how many emails I have for this contest.

I’ll post a recipe tomorrow which is a good one for Thanksgiving dinner!
~~~
Reminder: Blog contest for this month ends on Halloween night. Click here to see list of books! I’ll have Amanda pick the winner at 9:00 p.m Eastern time! Also a big thanks to Patty, Cherie, Hayley, Amelia, Denise, Chris, Robyn and Cathy! I appreciate all of you posting comments on the Samhain blog. I have put your names in twice as I promised for the October Blog Contest. By the way, Denise Patrick, is an awesome author and is receiving fantastic reviews for all her books.

This is an excerpt from the article Elmore Leonard published in the New York Times in July, 2001, titled: WRITERS ON WRITING.

Elmore Leonard’s top tips for writers:

1. Never open a book with weather.

2. Avoid prologues. (I do have a prologue in No Greater Loss but my editor never mentioned cutting it.)

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.”

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

I definitely don’t do 8 and 9 because I don’t like to give lots of description. I love to write dialogue the best.

Here are a few things from Sol Stein (he also wrote several best-sellling books) to keep in mind while writing:

1. Keep the action visible on stage as much as possible. (When I started writing, I did too much telling and not enough showing.)

2. Have something visual on every page.

3. Use sound, smell, and touch as well as sight.

4. In dialogue, change perfectly formed sentences.

5. Break up long speeches.

6. Are you sticking to a consistent point of view? (I did head hopping when I wrote my first novel.)

7. Characterize through speech. Give different characters different speech patterns.

8. Are you working on the emotions of the reader?

9. End scenes and chapters with kickers that make the reader curious about what happens next.

~~~
Reminder: Visit Samhain’s blog today and please leave a comment for me. I’m lonely over there. LOL

October Blog Contest ends soon!

Tomorrow (Saturday) I am one of the bloggers on Samhain’s site. Please visit and leave a comment. If you do, I’ll put your name in twice for my October Blog Contest which ends Halloween night!
~~~~

The hunt is on! Starting today through Halloween SRN is throwing a scavenger hunt and everyone’s invited to play! Authors, you too! Join in the fun!

Here’s the details.

SRN is throwing a Halloween party! Join us on a scavenger hunt. All the answers can be found through our main site. http://www.sweeterromanticnotions.com

It kicks off on Friday October 26th and will end on Halloween!!

There will prizes, books and goodies, and maybe some chocolate too!

Here’s the rules:
Answer the following questions and email the answers to sweeterromanticnotions@gmail.com with contest in the subject line.

The winner will be announced on the Group Loop October 31st and in the First Friday News Blast!

So, let’s get scavanging!!

1) In the October News Blast what was the title of Edita Patrick’s release from New Concepts Publishing?

2) Who has the picture of a dog on their cover art?
Elle Fredrix?
Kim Watters?
Adelle Laudan?
What is the title of that book?

3) What branch of the military is Sela Carson’s husband retired from?

4) Cindy Green is published by By Grace Publishing?
True or false?

5) Diane Craver has three titles listed on her author page at SRN?
True or false?

Good luck!!!!
Happy Halloween!