Is Halloween Candy Tampering a Myth?

By and large, yes. Despite a very few well-publicized cases of alleged Halloween candy tampering during the 1960s and 1970s -- nearly all of which were found to be false or unverifiable upon further investigation -- no child has ever been injured or killed as a result of ingesting adulterated candy, apples, or other treats collected on Halloween.

Nevertheless, what sociologist Joel Best dubbed "the myth of the Halloween sadist" became so firmly entrenched in the American psyche from the 1970s on that aspects of the holiday were fundamentally changed. Most crucially, it became everyone's urgent priority to protect young trick-or-treaters from the malicious acts of strangers. Parents were warned by law enforcement officials to thoroughly inspect Halloween treats for tampering before allowing children to consume them. Hospitals offered the free use of x-ray facilities to detect foreign objects such as razor blades, pins, and needles. And though the moral panic that gave rise to these measures began to subside during the 1990s, parental accompaniment and supervision had already became a widely adopted addition to the trick-or-treat ritual.

This is not to say that parents needn't watch out for their children's safety on Halloween, or that inspecting Halloween treats is never warranted. The point to be gleaned from the research of Best and others is that these dangers were considerably overblown when they first came to light and created an atmosphere of fear and paranoia which, for a time, tainted everyone's enjoyment of the holiday. More recently we have seen an easing of this regime and a welcome change of emphasis in the direction of reasonable concern and due caution.

Happy Halloween to all of you!

Sara Amos gripped the steering wheel tighter. She was nervous because she was starting a new job and had already pissed her new boss off.


Pretty bad, uh? What's mising?

The paragraph is bare bones. We learn about our world through our five senses. Knowing this, it would make sense that we learn about our character’s world through their senses. Writing vivid, sensory details will engage your readers. Great writing integrates all the senses in a way that they blend and harmonious with the rest of the prose. So how do you that?

First we need to reach into ourselves and embrace our senses. Here is an exercise my professor suggested. Grab a pen and pad. Go sit outside on this autumn day and immediately close your eyes. The sense of sight is the easiest of all the senses to write, using only it is lazy.

Now without opening your eyes concrete on your four other senses, one at a time. Again, without opening you eyes, scribble on you pad. Reach deep. Don’t just write the first element you recognize.

What do you hear? If you hear a sound you don’t recognize, what does it remind you of? Is it a sharp or clanky or soft sound? Think out of the box.

What do you feel/touch? Not just through your fingers tips. Does the ground under feet feel spongy because of the downpour last night? Etc.

Smack your lips together. Stick your tongue out. What do you taste? Be Emil or Rachael Ray of words.

What do you smell? Smell is the most powerful of senses to bring back memories. You don’t want to forget it. If you have a memory write it down.
Finally, open your eyes. Now what do you see? Really look at the world surrounding you. Look for the details. Details that will make your reader say, “Hmmm..I never looked at the old house down the street that way. It reminds me of a tired old boot, sort of sagging. It’s chimney leaning like the tongue away from the boot.”
Okay, we’ve got our senses sharp. Now let’s put them to the page.

Take the bare bone paragraph above and make it your own. Please post it in your comments and let’s learn from each other.

Come on one little paragraph. There is no right or wrong.
I will guarantee once you try this, you will grab your current wip and start editing.

Let’s have fun.

Yes, I did. For a full 30 seconds, I spoke with her:

"I think, out of all the times I've seen Young Frankenstein, I enjoyed it the most tonight," I said as I handed her my DVD insert and program. "Yes, it's one that seems to last," she agreed, picking up a silver Sharpie and slanting a left-handed signature across the sheets. She handed them back to me. "Thank you." I turned away to join my son and his lady friend.

Our tete-a-tete was over.

On Friday, October 16, the 35th anniversary showing of Mel Brooks' homage to Mary Shelley's many-times-films horror classic was shown at the Joslyn Art Museum's Witherspoon Hall in Omaha. It is the 25th film event celebrating a classic cinematic comedy, presented by Bruce Crawford. To date, there have 116 incarnations of the famous story (the first Frankenstein movie was made by Thomas Edison), both as straight horror films, pastiches, satires, or comedies, as well as "guest appearances" by the Frankenstein Monster in various animated and live-action films. Even cereal boxes. The musical Young Frankenstein opened on Broadway this year.

Besides having a stellar cast of Gene Wilder (who also co-wrote the screenplay), Marty Feldman, Madeleine Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Gene Hackman, and Teri Garr in her first starring role, the movie was filmed in black and white, using some of the old movie techniques, such as the iris effect. Several actors who were in the Original Universal "Frankenstein" series were used in the film as was the laboratory set from the original James Whale movie of 1931. Sadly, besides Ms. Leachman, only Gene Hackman, Teri Garr and Gene Wilder remain of the original cast. In the film, Ms Leach plays Frau Blucher, the "girlfriend" of the hero's grandfather, an austere character whose very name sends any horse-onscreen or off-into a frenzy. (In German, "blucher" means "glue.") It's through Frau Blucher's machinations that Federick Frankenstein decides to carry on the monster-making tradition with unexpected, somewhat hilarious results.

Most television viewers may be familiar with Ms. Leachman through her portrayal of the landlady on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the 1970's. This role won her two Emmys and her own sitcom. She also won an Oscar for her performance in 1971's The Last Picture Show, and appeared in three Mel Brooks comedies. To date, she has been awarded eight Emmys and a Daytime Emmy for her television work. Last year, at age 82, she was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, for which she received some harsh criticism by the judges-in spite of some fanstastic choreographic maneuvers-but kept the audience's favor as well as making them laugh. This lady has come a long way from the young woman who headed to the Actors' Studio after competing in the 1946 Miss America pageant!

Last Friday night, having flown in from Pennsylvania where she's just finished a movie, she appeared alone onstage, answering questions and speaking individually with members of the audience who walked up to the stage to shake her hand. She kept the audience laughing with her quick retorts and risqué anecdotes. Loud guffaws were the mode of the evening, both then and during the movie. When the remastered movie was shown, the audience applauded loudly as her name appeared in the credits and when she made her first appearance onscreen. Afterward, she signed autographs while her son (a very handsome chap, by the way) sat nearby, fretting that his 83-year-old mother might be exhausted after both the entire showing, which lasted around two and a half hours, and then writing her name for 90 minutes. The mother, however, appeared to be going strong.

I was one of the last in line. I hope she got a good rest after it was all over. She deserved it.

Thank you, Ms. Leachman, for a wonderful and memorable bit of movie entertainment!

Some of this might seem familiar to many of you for a reason, but please bear with me.

From an older post.
As I grow older, time seems to move by at warp speed. It seems as though January was only weeks ago. I had goals and plans and, of course, I modified many of them. While I seldom make detailed goals lists, I do have goals. I need them as much as I need flexibility.

I should have two books completed by the end of the year. The second one will probably need editing, but then I’ll have something to work on into 2007. (Not a misprint. I'm making a point, I hope.)

In 2006 I started a new book and completed it. I’m working on another one. Several false starts resulted in partials that remain partials , for now. (I finished two of those and created more partials.)

With Thanksgiving a recent memory, I’m ready to start decorating for Christmas. This year I’ll have a head start because I never took the tree apart to put it back into its box.

It is now 2009 and Halloween is around the corner, barely. I still have leftover goals, though not the goals above. I have completed books and acquired rejections since 2007, but I still have some projects hanging over my head, different ones, of course.

What can you do when you can’t make yourself write?

1.Form a group based on goal setting. Set a regular time to report accomplishments . This isn’t about critiquing. It’s a time to be accountable. You don’t need to beat yourself up if you fall short of your goals, but reporting to others can motivate you to keep working, even if you don’t love what you’ve written.

2. That brings me to activities like the Book in a Month that motivates writers once a year. You might do your own version within your chapter or with a group you organize or join.

You can start an online group at Yahoo or somewhere else that works for you. Such an activity can let you get the story down if you don’t worry about editing, and if you give yourself permission to write crap. You might have a lot of telling now that you can go back and refine later. There might be scenes represented by a few sentences to be fleshed out later. If you could average as much as fifty pages a week, you’d have a good portion of a book done. Maybe you can average twenty -five pages a week. Set a goal you can reasonably meet and adjust as you need to. If you’re a good typist or very motivated and disciplined you could do more, even complete a short contemporary novel.

3. You might have one writer who exchanges emails or calls with you to report to each other. Accountability helps some of us.

4. If you have no partner you’ll need to depend on yourself. Only you know how much time you can make or steal to write. If you can’t set aside large blocks of time, set short ones. If you really want to finish a book you might not have time to edit it as you go along. Keep in mind that a first draft/rough draft means rough. Even if you write tight and clean, you can go back and add details.

5. Keep in mind that if you want to write for a living, treat it like a job. If it’s a hobby, you can treat it like one. People spend lots of time with their hobbies. Some of us even spend less time writing than we do on our hobbies. Guilty? What do you plan to do about that?

6. While I’m so not good with things like time sheets, even I can count pages or words. If you write five pages a week, that’s five you didn’t have before.

7. Consider that if you edit as you go along, you might end up cutting pages you worked hard to perfect.

Organized people plot and organize and might have no scenes to cut. Those people probably don’t need suggestions from those of us who aren’t..

I do recommend learning something about your characters before you move into a serious draft. There are many methods for a writer to get inside the heads of characters.

Read about writing. There almost as many websites with articles as there are published writers. Some of them don’t write articles on writing and some of the unpublished in our midst do.

As many of you know, I recently got a Mac Mini to replace my PC. The PC had Windows Movie Maker; the Mini has i-Movie. Recently, I made a trailer for Tony-Paul de Vissage's novel Dark God Descending, using both programs because they both have features I like. I can't decide which trailer I like best, so I'm appealing to the Fuzzies and their readers for help. I've posted both here. Please view each and give me your opinions. Which is better? Which should Tony-Paul use to promote his book? (Believe me, your opinion counts!)

Thanks,
Toni
(With a Merci from Tony-Paul, too)

PC Version:




Mac Mini version:

What Is the Origin of Bobbing for Apples?

Some say the custom of bobbing for apples dates all the way back to pre-Christian Ireland and the festival of Samhain, though there seems to be little documentary evidence to support this. It has also been associated with Pomona, the ancient Roman goddess of fruits, trees, and gardens, in whose honor a festival was supposedly held each year on November first. That, too, appears to stand on shaky historical ground, as some question whether such a festival even existed.

We can say with more certainty that the practice of bobbing for apples goes back at least a few hundred years, that it originated in the British Isles (Ireland and Scotland in particular), and that it originally had something to do with fortune telling. British author W. H. Davenport Adams, who attributed belief in the prognosticative power of apples to "old Celtic fairy lore," described the game as follows in his 1902 book, Curiosities of Superstition:

[The apples] are thrown into a tub of water, and you endeavour to catch one in your mouth as they bob round and round in provoking fashion. When you have caught one, you peel it carefully, and pass the long strip of peel thrice, sunwise, round your head; after which you throw it over your shoulder, and it falls to the ground in the shape of the initial letter of your true love's name.

Other divination games traditionally played on Halloween included "snap apple" -- similar to bobbing for apples except the fruit is hung from the ceiling on strings -- and naming nutshells after prospective love interests and placing them near a fire to see which would burn steadily -- indicating true love -- and which would crack or pop and fly off the hearth -- revealing a passing fancy. Accordingly, in some parts of Great Britain Halloween used to be known as "Snap-Apple Night" or "Nutcrack Night."

Why Do We Wear Costumes and Go Trick-or-Treating on Halloween?

Some historians link the present-day Halloween custom of wearing costumes and going trick-or-treating with the medieval practices of "mumming" and "going a-souling" on the eves of All Saints and All Souls Days (November 1 and 2). Mumming took the form of wearing costumes, singing, play-acting, and mischief making, while souling entailed going door to door and offering prayers for the dead in exchange for treats, particularly "soul cakes."

Another likely progenitor was the British custom, dating from the 1600s, of youths wearing masks and carrying effigies while begging for pennies on Bonfire Night (also known as Guy Fawkes Night), the November 5 commemoration of the so-called Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament in 1605.

Despite the obvious similarities, however, there is little to no evidence of a direct line of succession or process of evolution from those earlier practices to the Halloween customs we know today. By the mid-1800s, when Irish immigrants brought the holiday to North America, mumming and souling were all but forgotten. Most Americans had no idea who Guy Fawkes was, let alone why anyone should go begging for "pennies for the Guy." And although Halloween had earned a permanent spot on the American calendar by the turn of the 20th century, one finds no mention of trick-or-treating or anything like it in published sources earlier than 1939.

One does find mention -- many mentions, in fact -- of unrestrained pranksterism and vandalism in connection with Halloween festivities from the late 1800s on, thus one current theory holds that trick-or-treating was contrived by adults to provide an orderly alternative to juvenile mischief.

Whatever its precise origin, trick-or-treating was an established Halloween tradition by the 1940s and remains so to this day.

Let's all bob for apples! Halloween can be so cool!

“A heart well worth winning, and well won. A heart that, once won, goes through fire and water for the winner, and never changes, and is never daunted.” ~ Charles Dickens

Through the Fire ~ Finalist 2008 Golden Heart ® Contest

When I wrote my historical romance novel Through the Fire I felt as though I’d been through the flames. My hero and heroine certainly had. This adventure romance with a strong The Last of the Mohicans flavor and a mystical weave was born in the fertile ground of my imagination, fed by years of research and a powerful draw to my colonial roots.

My fascination with stirring tales of the colonial frontier and Eastern Woodland Indians is an early and abiding one. My English/Scot-Irish ancestors were among the first settlers of the Shenandoah Valley and had family members killed and captured by the Indians. Some individuals returned and left intriguing accounts of their captivity, while others disappeared without a trace. On the Houston/Rowland side of the family, I have ties to Governor Sam Houston, President James Madison and Malcolm 1st of Scotland (that last one’s a stretch).

Family annals list early names like Beale, Jordan, Madison, and Hite (a German connection I discovered). A brief account of my grandmother (six times removed) Elizabeth Hite, says her sister Eleanor was taken captive and sister Susan killed, though not by which tribe. Their brother Jacob was killed by the Cherokee.

Another ancestor, Mary Moore, is the subject of a book entitled The Captives of Abb’s Valley. A Moffett forebear captured as a child became a boyhood companion of the revered Shawnee Chief Tecumseh. When young Moffett grew up, he married into the tribe and had a son, but that’s the subject of a different novel. A Pennsylvanian ancestor on the Churchman side of the family was invited by the Shawnee/Delaware to help negotiate a treaty with the English because he was Quaker and they were more sympathetic to the plight of the Indians.

Many accounts are left unrecorded, though. Historian Joseph Waddell says we know only a fraction of the drama that occurred during the Indian Wars. I invite you back to a time long forgotten by most.

****

Hear the primal howl of a wolf, the liquid spill of a mountain stream. Welcome to the colonial frontier where the men fire muskets and wield tomahawks and the women are wildcats when threatened. The year is 1758, the height of the French and Indian War. Passions run deep in the raging battle to possess a continent, its wealth and furs. Both the French and English count powerful Indian tribes as their allies. The Iroquois League, Shawnee, and others bring age-old rivalries to the conflict—above all the ardent desire to hold onto what is theirs. Who will live, and who will fall?

For more on my work please visit: www.bethtrissel.com

The French and Indian War, a Shawnee warrior, an English lady, blood vengeance, deadly pursuit, primal, powerful, passionate…THROUGH THE FIRE.

As many of you know, Through the Fire was the grand winner in the Grab A Reader Contest, thanks to my faithful friends and fans, and consequently is the subject of discussion at Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction’s Book club, Lost In A Good…Book from 10/20/09–10/30/09.
At: http://blog.elceepublishing.com/

Also featured are the two other winners, Margaret Tanner with Devil’s Ridge and Susan Macatee with Erin’s Rebel. I am delighted to be in such fine company. So, get your books and get on board!

Discussion Leader - Author Annette Snyder says:

“As I sip my Chamomile brew wearing my favorite fall sweater, I’m reading our October, Lost in a Good Book Selections. Margaret Tanner takes us to another era with Devils Ridge. Reading Through the Fire, Beth Trissel transports us to the French and Indian War and Susan Macatee sends us on a journey in time with Erin’s Rebel. So, join Lynda Coker, me and three talented authors while we discuss their work here during the October session of Lost in a Good Book, WRDF’s online book club.”

A bit more on all three novels:

Erins Rebel
Philadelphia newspaper reporter, Erin Branigan, is engaged to marry and up-and-coming lawyer, but dreams of a man from the past change those plans and start her on a journey beyond time. After a car accident, Erin wakes to find herself living in the 1860s in a Confederate army camp. Captain Will Montgomery, the man of her dreams, is now a flesh and blood Rebel soldier who sets her soul aflame. But the Irish beauty holds a secret he needs to unravel before he can place his trust in her. Can she correct a mistake made long ago that caused his death and denied her the love she was meant to have? Or is she doomed to live out her life with nothing but regret?

Devils Ridge:

Set during the 1st World War.

By the time Ross Calvert discovers Harry Martin is in fact Harriet Martin she has fallen in love with him. Realizing she has failed in her final effort to protect her shell-shocked brother, she puts a desperate proposition to Ross. Marry her and she will give him an heir. Ross accepts. However, he is tormented by the betrayal of his former fiancée Virginia. On his honeymoon he meets her again and is still infatuated. With the army recalling him to the Western Front, he faces a terrible dilemma, taste Virginia’s passion before he heads to the trenches of France, or keep his marriage vows to Harry. With the spectre of war hanging over them, there are even bigger obstacles for Ross and Harry. Ross returns to the trenches, and a man seeking wealth at any cost, endangers Harry’s life in a way she had never imagined possible.


THROUGH THE FIRE

At the height of the French and Indian War, a young English widow ventures into the colonial frontier in search of a fresh start. She never expects to find it in the arms of the half-Shawnee, half-French warrior who makes her his prisoner in the raging battle to possess a continent––or to be aided by a mysterious white wolf and a holy man.

~The French and Indian War, a Shawnee warrior, an English lady, blood vengeance, deadly pursuit, primal, powerful, passionate…THROUGH THE FIRE~

For more on my work please visit: www.bethtrissel.com

Through the Fire is available in both digital download and print at The Wild Rose Press, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, (online) and other major online booksellers.

We are gathered here today to welcome Patrice Wilton to our blog. Dedicated and sincere we right wrongs, we inform, we support, we know a good sale, have the best recipes and are a group of dedicated writers. We write because we have to, we can't stop ourselves. We are authors!!
We are The Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers!!!

Dressed in these cloaks, (Linda's idea, kind of Gothic really), the pile of coupons we carry, (Joanne's idea), the ceremonial Indian masks, (Beth of course), the organization of the whole ceremony (MM, naturally), the men that carry Patrice in, (Toni), even the night creatures, (Dayana), well you get the idea we each have contributed to your special initiation. All of us have joined in happiness to greet a new member. So the secret ceremony over, the festivities begin.

We throw off our cloaks and head to the beach, where Patrice likes to hang. Some of us are following her to the tennis courts, some of us are hiding inside her air conditioned home, drinking Pina Colada's or lemonade. No matter, we are all here to celebrate you.

Patrice moved to sunny Florida and she enjoys the beautiful beaches . Relaxing in her lovely Florida homw.
Thanks for joining us Patrice, we look forward to your blogs and comments and we are so happy you decided to participate. I hope you have fun with it. Welcome my friend!
Blog well.

Patrice would like to share some quotes with you.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. - Ray Bradbury

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia - E.L. Doctorow

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out - author unknown

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. -Elmore Leonard

Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning. I wanted to know what I was going to say. - Sharon O'Brien

Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very", your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. - Mark Twain.

Enjoy!

Patrice

So let's leave a comment to support Patrice. She is what my grandma would call a good soul.

Play by FoxSaver®

Hi Everyone,
I have two great deals today, and they're both free!

First, check out http://www.freenightoftheater.net

The site lists the free nights of theater available in your area by state. These tickets are absolutely free. In some states, they issue new tickets every Monday, so keep checking.

Second deal is for a free 8x8 20 page custom hardcover photo book from Shutterfly, (a $29.99 value) although you have to pay for shipping and tax. We are writers--so become a travel writer and write a review for www.tripadvisor.com for any of the categories listed. I wrote a review for a small southern town close to where I live--York, SC.

Note, you do have to make a free account with them to post a review.

Happy writing!

Favorite quote: "I can't afford to save any more money."

More good deals for the beginning of the work week, borrowed from other forums.

I love my wireless computer mouse, and Staples has a great deal on the following:
Item: 797229
Model: KY620AA#ABA
It's $9.99 (regularly $24.99) with free shipping to your store.


If you are thinking ahead to the holidays, Buy.com is offering a great deal on a digital photo frame, which I admit I have a weakness for. This is a 9" and comes with a calendar, clock, alarm, MP3 music playback (OK, I'm not sure what that is--but I'm sure my techie sons can show me) and a remote. Regularly $199.99, the frame is on sale for $59.97 with free shipping.
Type in America Action Digital Photo Frame - AXN-9905

Happy Shopping!
Favorite quote: "I can't afford to save any more money."

Hi Everyone,
Barbara posted 2 delicious recipes yesterday, so I'll share a couple of deals with you today, borrowed from another forum.

First, check out Sears online for the Craftsman 7.5 amp Electric Blower
Item# 07174820000 Regularly $39.99, it's on sale for $19.99. Shipping is expensive at $7.50, but if you choose in-store pickup, you will save on shipping.

If you are looking for gifts for yourself or someone else, Yankee Candle is having a sale this Columbus Day weekend sale online.
Small jar candles, room sprays, and electric home fragrancers are 3 for $15.

Here are some coupon codes for an even greater discount:

For $10 off of $25, use code H4XFOP
For $15 off of $45, use code CAT9H1L

Happy Shopping!

Favorite quote: "I can't afford to save any more money."

The heroine of one of my historical novels is from Lancashire, England, and despite her mother’s prohibitions, she loves to bake and learned in secret from their cook whenever her mother wasn’t around. The obvious choice was the delectable Lancashire specialty, Eccles Cakes. My heroine only bakes in one scene of the book, but still, I decided to try making them myself, because I wanted to get it right.

I didn’t. In fact, I made a major flub. (Fortunately, no one has bought the story yet, so whew! I have plenty of time to fix it.) Eccles Cakes are made with puff pastry, which is not quick or simple to make; in fact, it’s quite a lengthy process. My heroine can’t merrily roll out the dough and bake Eccles Cakes in an hour or so. But I still wanted to make them – hadn’t had any for years and years – so when I found an old package of puff pastry in my freezer, I thought, woo-hoo! Eccles Cakes today!

Here’s a recipe for the filling:

6 tablespoons butter

7/8 cup brown sugar

1 cup currants, raisins, or a mixture of the two

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

Rind of 1 orange, grated. Theoretically, this is optional, but I think the orange rind is what makes the filling absolutely superb. I used one of those big, juicy navel oranges with thick, tasty rind. Yum!

Melt the butter and mix in the rest of the ingredients. The filling is so delicious that I kept sneaking spoonfuls.

To make Eccles Cakes, you’re supposed to cut rounds from the pastry, put a dollop of filling in the middle of each round, moisten half the edge with milk or water, bring the sides to the middle (i.e., enclosing the filling), and press together to seal; then turn the cake over and roll it ever-so-gently and pat into a round shape. I put in too much filling, and then, when the edges kept coming apart, gave up and just dumped the pastries on the pan (greased, by the way). You’re supposed to brush them with egg and a little sugar (I'm pretty sure I remember the sugar from my childhood) and cut a few slits in the top of each cake. Which I did, but my cakes had so many holes they didn’t really need the slits. Bake them at 425 degrees for about fifteen minutes.

They tasted great, but they looked awful. The picture (above) makes them look much better than in real life. (Kind of like professional author photos, but that’s another story.) I don’t know if the puff pastry was too old, or whether it was just my laziness in not following the directions carefully. I’ll try again some other day. If I screw up again... Well, they taste wonderful, which is all that really matters.

Back to my heroine, stuck in a scene that didn’t work. I decided to have her make Chorley Cakes instead. They’re another Lancashire specialty, and they’re a lot like Eccles Cakes except that they’re made with regular pastry instead. Easy!

Well, not really. My pastry turned out all right, but again I probably put in too much filling, and I didn’t even try rolling the dang things ever-so-carefully into a roundish shape. (My heroine will do everything perfectly. She’s a screw-up in many other ways, but not in the kitchen.) I just cut the pastry into squares and, using the same filling, made turnovers. I baked them at 350 degrees for longer than the Eccles Cakes. I didn't write down how long they took, but it was probably closer to half an hour. If the pastry looks done, that's good enough.

Bingo! Checcles Cakes or Chorcles Turnovers, scrumptious by whatever name.

They were delicious, but I think they’d be even better with more thinly-rolled pastry. Laziness is again to blame, but it gives me an excuse to try again (because needless to say, all the Checcles Turnovers - or maybe Chorcles Cakes - are long gone).

Origins and History of Halloween

The ancient Celts of Ireland and Scotland observed an annual harvest festival on November 1 known as Samhain (pronounced sow'-en or sow'-een), which marked the end of summer and was thought to be the time when the souls of those who had perished during the year journeyed to the "otherworld." During Samhain, it was believed, the dead were able to mingle with the living; ghosts, demons, fairies, and other supernatural beings literally walked the earth. Bonfires were lit and ritual sacrifices were made to honor and appease them.

When the peoples of the British Isles became Christianized during the early Middle Ages these customs and beliefs were transformed, though not abandoned. The Church designated the first and second of November All Saints Day (or All Hallows Day) and All Souls Day respectively -- some say in an effort to eradicate the holiday's pagan trappings -- and October 31 came to be known as All Hallows Even, or Hallowe'en for short.

Among the pre-Christian traditions that survived was the belief that spirits of the dead commingle with the living on the Eve of All Hallows. Related customs arose, or perhaps evolved from existing ones, such as "mumming" and "souling," which entailed the wearing of masks and costumes -- often in imitation of the dead and otherworldly beings -- general mischief making, and knocking on doors to offer prayers in exchange for treats called "soul cakes."

We know little of how these traditions evolved in the intervening centuries, but by the mid-1800s Irish immigrants were bringing the observance of All Hallows Eve to North America, where, combined with homegrown customs, it eventually morphed into the secular, intensely commercialized holiday we celebrate today.

I do think I will skip some of the customs, but I wouldn't mind a soul cake. So now we know why.

The small Southern city of Staunton Virginia, my birthplace and prominent in the latest novel I’m writing, is very historic and the site of a ghost tour.








To quote The Shenandoah Vally Paranormal Society website:

http://www.valleyghosthunters.com/svpi1.htm

“Staunton, Virginia known as “The Queen City” of the Shenandoah Valley was founded in 1747 and named after Lady Rebecca Staunton, wife of the colonial governor of Virginia, William Gooch. Staunton is located in the heart of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and is rich in history, some prosperous and some tragic. Often times with history, left behind are many ghost stories and hauntings that still exist to this day. From civil war haunts, a train wreck disaster of 1890, to unsolved murders, Staunton has had its share of traumatic events that continue to haunt us.”

For more about the ghost tour visit:

http://ghostsofstaunton.com/welcome.html

“The first stop on the tour is the train station where (Myrtle) Knox was fatally wounded after the sleeper car where her opera troupe was napping derailed. One of Knox’s legs was cut off below the knee, her left arm broken, her right shoulder dislocated and a piece of wood was buried in her thigh, severing the femoral artery and causing her to bleed to death. Knox’s spirit reputedly haunts the tracks and many eyewitnesses have reported seeing her peer in through the windows at the now-closed Pullman Restaurant, which also is an alleged paranormal hot spot.”

For more pics and info on the haunted train station:

http://www.spectralreview.com/2008/10/16/ghosts-of-staunton/
The Staunton Train Station

I’ve dined with my husband in the Pullman Restaurant and didn’t see any ghosts, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t overlook someone. Haven’t noticed anything unusual on the train tracks either, but there is an odd feel to the place, difficult to put my finger on it. Let’s just say Staunton came naturally to mind when looking around me for the ideal Virginia town to set my next light paranormal in.

The historic train station is picturesque and home to quaint businesses and The Depot Grille. Several movies have been filmed there, among them the HallMark Hall of Fame production, The Love Letter. I appeared as an extra, wearing a poke bonnet and waving, while standing behind the hero and heroine as they kiss goodbye .

The Depot Grille’s outstanding attraction is a 40 foot Victorian bar from a turn-of-the century luxury hotel.

The present Trinity Episcopal Church, built during the mid-1850s, has an extraordinary collection of stained glass windows; many created by Tiffany Studios.

“Staunton has one architectural advantage over most of other small towns in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia: it escaped the Civil War unscathed. Many of its 18th and early 19th century homes and buildings still stand and are wonderfully preserved. Scottish-Irish immigrant John Lewis and his family built the area’s first homestead in 1732, and most of Staunton’s early settlers were Scots-Irish.”

“The area of Staunton surrounding the railroad station is known as The Wharf, a curious name for a neighborhood that is nowhere near a wharf! In fact, the name is an historical one dating to the 19th century. The warehouses in this neighborhood reminded people of buildings that you might see along a wharf. In Staunton’s case, the railroad acts in same manner as a wharf, and in fact, the neighborhood’s old warehouses really do look like those that one might see along the waterfront of a port city…since 1972 the Wharf Historic District has been on the National Register of Historic Places.”

Another little known tidbit about Staunton: "For 17 days in June of 1781, the Virginia State legislature met in Staunton, after being forced by British troops led by Major Tarleton to flee Richmond. The building that served as Virginia's capitol stood on the present site of Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Staunton. While meeting on this site, the legislature elected a new governor to replace Governor Thomas Jefferson. Members of the state legislature who were present included Patrick Henry and Daniel Boone."

From: http://www.visitstaunton.com/history.htm

*Staunton is the site of the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace.

What Is Halloween?

As observed today, Halloween is a secular holiday which takes place on October 31, combining vestiges of traditional harvest festival celebrations with customs more peculiar to the occasion such as wearing costumes and disguises, trick-or-treating, pranksterism, and decorations based on imagery of death and the supernatural.

Though it was regarded up until the last few decades of the 20th century as primarily a holiday for children, in more recent years activities such as mask wearing, costume parties, themed decorations, and even trick-or-treating have grown popular with adults as well, making Halloween a sportive occasion for both young and old.

Harvest Festivals

Harvest festivals originated with the ancients, who made sacrificial offerings to the gods at an appointed time each autumn to show their gratitude for a successful harvest and sustenance for another year. The ensuing feast, part ritual and part seasonal blow-out, usually culminated in a communal banquet with music, dancing, and harvest decorations.

Traditionally, harvest festivals were held on or about the arrival of the "harvest moon," the full moon occurring closest to the autumnal equinox in what is now the month of September. Samhain, the Celtic harvest festival thought to be the forerunner of Halloween, was one exception to that rule, taking place on the day following what the Celts regarded as the last day of summer, October 31.

What Does the Name 'Halloween' Mean?

The name Halloween (sometimes spelled Hallowe'en) is a contraction of "All Hallows Even." The word hallow, which means "to make holy" or "to revere as holy," was once also used as a noun to mean "holy place" or "holy person" -- e.g., a saint. Thus, in Catholic liturgy October 31 is designated All Hallows Eve because it's the day before the Festival of All Saints, or All Saints Day. It may seem strange that Halloween, a secular celebration associated with goblins, ghosts, and witches, got its name from a holy day devoted to Christian martyrs. That came about because long before the Church consecrated November 1 as All Saints Day it was a pagan observance marking the end of summer -- a time, it was believed, when the dead wandered the earth and supernatural forces reigned. The Church evidently hoped to replace these lingering beliefs with ones more suitable to Christian teachings, but as is plain to see the effort wasn't entirely successful.

Who knew?

So many of us know few people who understand us as artists. We create stories from deep inside us. Our characters do not exist until we listen to the voices in our heads and then allow them to be real.

I can't paint or do any other art forms, so I can't speak for artists or photographers. I do know that my photographs don't capture my subjects' souls the way the pros do. Wonderful photographs and art works incorporate a part of the creator's heart and soul to make us feel. We see and we admire and we feel.

Writers share a part of themselves when they write stories. Our characters and their stories means something to us and we want them to have meaning to our readers. We want readers to identify with the fears and joys, the anger, the hope, and every smile and tear of our characters. We want things non artists can't understand and most of our families don't really identify with that part of us.

I want my stories to have impact. Each character speaks to me in ways a lot of folks don't get. Even some other writers don't identify with some of the people inside my head whose stories make me feel. That's fine. I still want the emotions to come through.

If your stories or images don't make someone smile or cry or want to hit something, why not?


Can you feel the love here?








Is there any doubt what these
kids are feeling?


Do you share the fears or just tell about them? Make my gut ache, or put a tear in my eye or make me fight feelings I don't want to face. Make me feel love and pride and passion.

Talk to me! Tell me what you want in a story you read
or in what you want to get from a painting, a statue, a photograph?

Hi, there pink fuzzy ladies and guests! Scarlet is coming to you from the Hilton Hotel in northeast Atlanta where Georgia Romance Writers Moonlight & Magnolias Conference is in full swing. What a blast it is, you should be here.

MM and Scarlet arrived about 8pm last night and immediately began to renew friendships with attendees of the conference. Sitting in the hotel lobby we were joined the fabulous Jennifer St. Giles.

Getting an early start this morning, we were up and at it by eight. The first session was a cold read panel with Raylene Gorlinski, Becca Stumpf, and Monique Patterson. Brave souls had emailed the first pages of their novels to the coordinator ahead of time and sat breathless while their work was read aloud, then given the treatment by these editors and agents. It was interesting to hear how far into the first page they would have read before making a decision to pass or to request more.

Next was the editor/agent panel which focused on what they were looking for and how they required submissions to be made. I’ll report more later on what they were looking for and where they thought the market is headed.

There was a pitch workshop to sharpen a writer's skills in putting their best effort forth for their editor or agent interviews. I skipped this session, but having participated in it in the past know how valuable it can be.

We had a working lunch, which was a great idea! There were two sessions and both were great.

After lunch came an intense workshop on archetypical character types as the basis for characters in our novels. This was another great workshop and I took a ton of notes, which I’ll try to add to the blog at a later date.

We wined and dined at the welcome reception tonight, shared great fellowship, renewed old friendships and made new ones. The food was good, the conversation was inspiring, and the total atmosphere has been great.

Tomorrow there will be more great workshops, editor/agent appointments, and more great networking opportunities. Will keep you posted on how it goes. Scarlet is working diligently to keep MM out of trouble!

Thanks to everyone who voted for me, Through the Fire came in first with by far the most votes in the Grab A Reader Contest at Lost…In A Good Book, A Book Club for Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction (Lynda Coker and Annette Snyder) http://blog.elceepublishing.com/

Through the Fire and the books by the two other winners, Margaret Tanner, Devil’s Ridge, and Susan Macatee, Erin’s Rebel, will be highlighted for discussion at LOST IN A GOOD BOOK October 20th -30th. Readers please enter into this discussion. If you’re not already a member of this book club, consider joining.

Also, because Through the Fire was the supreme winner, the video for this novel is featured on the home page of Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction (WRDF). And I won a lovely complimentary banner! Come on over and take a look: http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/

Join this highly informative site (Free sign up) and enjoy browsing the excellent selection of books.

For more on my work please visit: www.bethtrissel.com

Hello Pink Fuzzies and all!

It's October first and autumn and getting cooler here in sunny Southern Florida. Well... Make that a tad cooler, LOL Isn't this a breathtaking time of year? I was born and raised in the north--Southern New Jersey to be specific and I am the first to tell you, you just can't take the seasons out of a northerner.

I love this time of year. The beautiful imagery. The bursts of gold, yellow, maroon, reds of the oaks and maples mixed with the hunter greens and the grey blues of the pines. The crisp bite in the air and most of all Halloween.


Yes! Halloween:)

I began pulling out my autumn and Halloween decorations three weeks ago. And I am gearing up for the celebrations on my website and blog as well. You know how most people celebrate the winter holidays--Christmas, Hannuka(sp), New Year's? Well, this is what I do for Halloween. I am a bit overzealous, but hey! I am a paranormal enthusiast and writer.

I dropped in today to tell you all about the Paranormal celebrations going on around the cyber neighborhood. I, of course, will be celebrating the ghostly hauntings and things that go bump in the night all month at my blog as well as with TWRP Black Rose imprint at their new blog. Please hop on over and meet the editors and us authors. We've been putting up introductions the entire month of September. And do we have some great things planned for the month of October in the darkest side of the garden.

TWRP is also having a bash for Paranormal month. And all paranormal books are on sale! You can't beat that, can you?

I know I will be party crashing all month. Keep an eye on my blog as well my website throughout the month. Also the Black Rose Blog will be offering all kinds of uncoming events, articles, holiday stories, legends, and traditions. I heard through the pumpkin patch that many of the authors are offering free copies of books and lots of other prizes.

I wanted to remind you that my newest blog feature, The Author Spotlight, which by the way has been very successful, is in full swing. We will have all paranormal romance authors this month to share the eerie mood of the month. Drop by on Thursdays and check out who's up.

If anyone is interested in participating in some free promo and would like to sign up for an Author Spotlight segment please email me at: gothscribegirl@aol.com. I am currently booking for January 2010 and further out.

Well, thank you ladies for having me today. I hope to see you venturing around this month in or out of costume:)

For more about me, visit any of the below links.

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Dayana Knight
Paranormal/Erotic Romance Author
www.dayanaknight.blogspot.com
www.romawolftales.com