Happy Halloween, everyone! This is the FIRST year I am not taking anyone out to go trick or treating. I started doing it in 1977 with our first child, Sara. I dressed her in an angel costume. Actually that’s not true - one year Tom did it by himself when Emily was a new baby, and I stayed home to get ready for the baptism dinner which was the next day. Another year Emily took Amanda when they walked the streets of Owensville. Amanda isn’t happy about it. Btw, Amanda was born with Down syndrome so that’s the reason she continued to go while in high school, but now she’s graduated.

I don’t usually post on Saturday but want to share a Halloween excerpt from one of my favorite books. I wrote A Fiery Secret in first person. This excerpt is about my feisty investigative reporter, Catherine Steel, attending a Halloween party. Miranda, a secondary character, was inspired by Amanda.

Enjoy!

Miranda and Kevin were waiting on the porch for me, so I didn’t get out of the car. Mrs. Carter waved from the doorway. I thought it was cute when Miranda didn’t get in the front seat with me, but got in the back seat with Kevin.

I turned around and smiled at the young couple. “You two look great. I love your costumes.” Miranda, dressed in a bodysuit with an attached light green skirt and wings, made an adorable pixie Tinkerbell. Kevin looked good as Peter Pan, wearing a jagged tunic with a rope tie, matching tights, and a hat with a red feather.

“Thank you, but I wanted to be Wendy instead of Tinkerbell. Mom couldn’t find a Wendy costume.”

I put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway. “Sorry you couldn’t be Wendy. I’m surprised Tinkerbell wasn’t your first choice. I do like you as a little fairy.”

“But Wendy gets the guy.”

I nodded. “You have a point.”

Twenty minutes later, we were at the Michaels’ house. After I put a small mask on my face, we got out of the Civic. “The band is outside and there’s going to be dancing on the patio. If you get too cold outside, you can go in.” Fortunately, it’d been a warmer day than yesterday.

“The graveyard is so cool,” Kevin said.

Miranda and I agreed while we stared at several tombstones in the front yard. A blue flood light illuminated the graveyard. Fog slowly drifted over the ground around the tombstones.

We walked around to the back where a good size crowd was already dancing. An orange flood light shone over a table loaded with food, punch and other drinks. Several strings of decorative lights hung from the tree branches and on the fence surrounding the yard. Skeletons dangled from tree branches, swaying in the wind. When I saw the outdoor patio heaters in different spots, I realized Mr. and Mrs. Michaels and their sons had thought of everything to have a successful party.

While Kevin and Miranda went to dance, I searched the group of costumed people, trying to see Scott or Jake. I picked out a pirate with his back turned talking to Hilary, a Bengal cheerleader, and Keith, a Bengal football player. Both were dressed in the team’s orange and black colors. Hilary’s auburn hair was pulled back on the sides with an orange scrunchy. Before I could go talk to Pirate Jake and tell him about Scott, I saw Batman in full costume moving towards me. It had to be Scott. Although I thought it a shame for him to have half of his handsome face covered with a black mask, there was something so sexy and thrilling about a man disguised as a superhero.

I took a deep breath when he stopped next to me and said, “Well, Poison Ivy, I’ve been watching for you.”

“I’m glad you’re Batman. How did you know I’d be Poison Ivy?” I’d never told Scott I was going as Poison Ivy.

“I have my sources.” He groaned. “Seeing you in that costume is making me want to kiss every inch of you. I think we better dance.”

“Okay, Batman.”

He drew me into his arms and I put my arms around his neck. Thank God, it was a slow dance. I loved being pressed against him, feeling his manly strength.

“Everything looks great,” I said, “but I especially like the fog around the graveyard.”

“Chad built the fog maker.”

“Was he trying to redeem himself after his accident?”

He ignored my comment and squeezed my butt. “Of course, I don’t know for sure, but this costume has to be better than your belt skirt.”

~~~~

I didn’t do my Wednesday post because we left in the morning to get away for a day and night. I had to get several things done before we could leave. My sister-in-law, Mary, came Wednesday afternoon to be here when Sara and Amanda came home from their programs. She stayed with them on Wednesday night and got them off for us on Thursday morning. We really appreciated her doing this for us, and it was nice getting away. The only bad thing was that Emily got sick on Tuesday night with the flu at college. I kept thinking of driving to Dayton to take care of her, but she managed to see a doctor and get prescriptions. It wasn’t easy though since she lives off-campus and had to drive around late at night to find a drugstore open. She didn’t want me to come anyhow and was afraid of giving the flu to me. We were relieved she was feeling better yesterday.

I took pictures where we stayed but it was cloudy. Also I tried to transfer them to computer but for some reason, they are not loading. I’m going to share the park site’s pictures instead. We stayed at the lodge at Burr Oak Resort which is located in southeast Ohio, close to a town called Gloucester. We still saw many pretty leaves but probably the peak season was two weeks ago. We ate in the Cardinal Dining Room where we could see spectacular views from our table. Tom wants to go back next fall because he really loved it. I reminded him that he always says this when we go to a state park, but he insists this one is his favorite with the beautiful views of the lake and valleys. The lodge’s architectural design makes it a perfect location for weddings and receptions, many of which are held at the lodge year-round. I kept thinking how pretty it’d be to have Lea and Bart’s rehearsal dinner there but it’s too far away.

We did a bit of hiking and went swimming. We were the only ones in the pool on Wednesday evening, so that was pretty neat and romantic.

Have a glorious weekend!

I’m at Anne Patrick’s blog today! I hope you visit me there and leave a comment! I’ll draw a winner tonight at 10 p.m. EST for a giveaway of one of my Samhain ebooks. So if you leave a comment, you’ll have a chance to win! The winner may choose the Kindle format or pdf. format from my backlist. The titles for the winner’s choice are: No Greater Loss (inspirational romance), A Fiery Secret (chick-lit mystery) OR Never the Same (women’s fiction).

Good luck! And here is Anne’s blog link: http://suspensebyanne.blogspot.com/

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Ebook Readers:

Fellow Desert Breeze author, Shawna Williams, loves her Kindle reader. Another author friend and Samhain author, Jennifer Shirk, raves about her Sony ebook reader. Marianne Arkins commented here last week about the research she’s done and decided to order the Nook reader! I’m totally confused now. I think I’ll forget about an ebook reader for now. I better concentrate instead on our upcoming son’s wedding.

My daughters, Christina, April and Emily gave a bridal shower for Lea at my house yesterday. I’m glad I hosted it because now the house is CLEAN. I told Sara and Amanda they better help me keep it clean! It was a lot of fun and the girls fixed lots of yummy food.

I don’t have a dress yet to wear to the wedding. I hope to find something this week. I wanted to lose weight before I bought anything but really can’t wait any longer. Tom’s going to get measured for his tux today.

Before I post something fun for today, I want to mention that my profile was hacked into on Facebook, so I changed my password last night. Hopefully, it won’t happen again. I was shocked when I saw two things posted that I never wrote. I guess it’s happened to others on MySpace and Facebook.

Have a great weekend! Apparently the week went by quickly for Amanda. She kept insisting it was Thursday this morning and that she needed a packed lunch. I told her it was Friday and on Fridays they cook. She said that tomorrow was Friday. She pointed to the date to show me it was Thursday and I was wrong. I finally convinced her that it is Friday.

Enjoy these Real 911 Calls

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is your emergency?
Caller: I heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the brown house on the corner.
Dispatcher: Do you have an address?
Caller: No, I’m wearing a blouse and slacks, why?

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is your emergency?
Caller: Someone broke into my house and took a bite out of my ham and cheese sandwich.
Dispatcher: Excuse me?
Caller: I made a ham and cheese sandwich and left it on the kitchen table and when I came back from the bathroom, someone had taken a bite out of it
Dispatcher: Was anything else taken?
Caller: No, but this has happened to me before and I’m sick and tired of it.

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 Fire or emergency?
Caller: Fire, I guess.
Dispatcher: How can I help you sir?
Caller: I was wondering…..does the Fire Dept. put snow chains on their trucks?
Dispatcher: Yes sir, do you have an emergency?
Caller: Well, I’ve spent the last 4 hours trying to put these chains on my tires and… well, do you think the Fire Dept. could come over and help me?
Dispatcher: Help you what?
Caller: Help me get these chains on my car!

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What is the nature of your emergency?
Caller: I’m trying to reach nine eleven but my phone doesn’t have an eleven on it.
Dispatcher: This is nine eleven.
Caller: I thought you just said it was nine-one-one
Dispatcher: Yes, ma’am nine-one-one and nine-eleven are the same thing.
Caller: Honey, I may be old, but I’m not stupid.

Dispatcher: 9-1-1 What’s the nature of your emergency?
Caller: My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart.
Dispatcher: Is this her first child?
Caller: No, you idiot! This is her husband!

And the winner is………

Dispatcher: 9-1-1
Caller: Yeah, I’m having trouble breathing. I’m all out of breath. Darn..I think I’m going to pass out.
Dispatcher: Sir, where are you calling from?
Caller: I’m at a pay phone. North and Foster.
Dispatcher: Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Are you an asthmatic?
Caller: No.
Dispatcher: What were you doing before you started having trouble breathing?
Caller: Running from the Police.

Well, I missed posting on Wednesday because we were busy cleaning the house. All the carpet has now been cleaned. We rented a carpet steamer and picked yesterday to do it because of the warmer weather. We opened all the windows and ran fans. I’m hosting a bridal shower on Sunday so glad this spurred us into action. Tom and I also rearranged the furniture slightly in the great room. I like the change - the room looks bigger. Is anyone else doing any fall cleaning?

I have an article published in WritersWeekly.com this week about contracts. The title is “Before You Sign That Contract…” Here’s the link: http://writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/005665_10212009.html

Barnes and Noble have a new ebook reader so check it out, but I heard it’s the same price as the Kindle at Amazon. An author friend, Rita Hestand, has the Ebookwise reader and it sells for $135.95 so is cheaper than the other ones on the market. She said that it has a light and holds lots of books. Here is a link about this ebook reader: http://www.ebookwise.com/

I need to finish answering author interview questions. I’m going to be at Anne Patrick’s blog on Monday!