Who let those rockstars into the neighborhood?

I've got nothing writerly this month so have some Christmas lights & Holiday Wishes to slide you into 2012 :)

Halloween Treat

Halloween was pretty much rained out in these parts and we've got a ton of candy left--not that I'm complaining, mind you. I thought I'd share the treat I gave out as part of the trick or treat blog hop I participated in.

My treat is a free short story (Pdf format)called SATANSTORM

The members of the metal band Satanstorm have been trying to put their days as child singing sensations “Band of brothers” behind them. They hope their next video will propel them to the top. All they need is the right spooky place to film it…




If you'd like a copy Click Here to pop on over to the handy dandy form on my site and drop me a line.

Haunting of Winchester House

HAUNTING OF WINCHESTER HOUSE
2009
Asylum
90 min
Directed by: Mark Atkins
Written by: Jose Prendes and Mark Atkins

Official Blurb: A family moves into the mansion to act as caretakers, but when a malevolent force abducts their daughter they discover why the house deserves its reputation as one of the most haunted places in America.

This took me back to my youth in the dark ages of the 1970s before the Internet and Cable TV when many a Saturday night was spent staying up late to watch the locally hosted Chiller Theater. In fact, the no-name actors in this film looked as though they’d pretty much stepped out of that era–especially the father’s hair.

The story starts with a promising bit of supernatural havoc wreaking then officially opens with a family (mom, dad, teenaged looking daughter) leaving their home, evidently to get away from bad memories of a tragedy. We know this because of the lack of baby and infant car seat left with the trash on the sidewalk.

They head out of the city and drive along some desolate winding mountainous roads where they have a near fatal collision. But tragedy is averted and they reach their destination of the fabled Winchester House (or a craptacular facsimile thereof. It was pretty ho hum and almost didn’t pass my daughter’s “20 minute rule”–if it doesn’t get interesting within the first 20 minutes it never will.

I was looking at the clock as the minutes inched on but the promise of horrific goodies via the semi spooky music kept me watching. And once the mom had freaky visions/dream while trying to sleep I was determined to stay with it until bitter end. ^_^

The costuming was laughable, the general production values sparse, the acting, well, nonexistent, and while that’s not much of a recommendation, there were some things of interest. Unintentional chuckles with the bad continuity giving us “magic” growing/shrinking candles, the “Paranormal Investigator” who didn’t seem to have even one clue on what to do and the supposed teenaged daughter who acted like an ten year old.

I know what you’re thinking: Total waste of time and you may be right, but things did sort of pick up a wee bit with the appearance of some ghosts–some tragic some downright nasty– and a sort of surprise ending. Unlike The Village which hit all the big theaters this one didn’t make me long for those two hours of my life back, so that makes it a fairly worthwhile watch in my book.

Movie Time

I've been a vampire fan for ages and since I've been revisitng my love of bad boy vamps on film I thought I'd share some of my favorites.

Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula (made for TV 2000) Love, love, LOVE this! Mixing history with a touch paranormal.

Check out Rudolf Martin as the ultimate Vlad in this trailer for Dark Prince

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) Love this version. Oldman is spectacular. Hopkins a neat Van Helsing, Keanu is hot in a frock coat. If we could cut out Winona it would be even grander :P

Nosferatu (1922) Ewww ewww, creepy! Get him away!

Count Dracula (Made for TV 1971)Nice adaptation of Stoker's book with French film legend Louis Jourdan being so suavely chilling.

The Night Stalker (made for TV 1972) Lots of fun with a pain in the butt reporter /vampire hunter.

Love at First Bite (1979) Lots of fun with a cute romance.

Dracula (1979) Played a bit fast & loose with Stoker but Langella was to die for as the sexy count.

Vampire (made for TV 1979) Ranks up there with Night Stalker on my list of TV faves. I'm a sucker for arrogant vamps and no one does arrogant like Richard Lynch.

Salem's Lot (made for TV 1979)Creepy

Fright Night (1985) Creepy and fun. I hear the new remake is good.

Lost Boys (1987) Fun, fun FUN with some thrills

Innocent Blood (1992) Not the best movie but they shot the opening near my house.

John Carpenter's Vampires (1998) Action adventure vamp hunting

Shadow of the Vampire (2000) Ironic & creepy story of the filming of the above Noseferatu.

Dracula 2000 (2000) Gerard Butler is yummy and it has a neat spin on Dracula's origin.

Lost Boys: The Thirst (Direct to video 2010) Not the best sequel but it captures the spirit of the original by reuniting the awesome Frog Brothers.

So, what are some of your faves?

Mixing fiction with history

Hello YA fans and welcome to the blog. I'm excited to help promote YA fiction in Digital First format and hope it becomes "the next big thing".

Yes, there's a lot going on in paperback/hardback YA releases but for the "niche" stories--books that are too short/too long or too "different" for traditional corporate publishers to invest in, e-publishers will be the go-to places much as they were for the adult romance readers who craved the type of stories it took the "Big 6 publishers" a long time to embrace.

Enough blathering on business models, let's talk cool book characters ^_^

I've loved all things history and paranormal ever since I can remember. The most fun I have in writing is being able to combine the two the way I did in Falling Through Glass with Emmi & Kae (names presented in western order firstname, lastname)

Emiko (Emmi) Maeda

A descendant of the powerful Maeda family who once ruled over the Kaga-han, the most wealthy domain in Japan. Historically a family's wealth was measured in the amount of rice they could produce and sell. This was measured in units called koku. Kaga-han was known as the Million Koku domain. The Maeda estate in Edo (now Tokyo) was so vast that their mansion contained an indoor lake.

The Maeda of Kaga were allied with Japan's rulers from the days of Toshiie Maeda who was a general under warlord Nobunaga Oda.

The family would eventually align itself via marriage with both the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Imperial Court. It was Maeda money from the dowry of the bride of Prince Toshihito which funded the completion of Kyoto's Katsura Imperial Villa where Emmi stays with her ancestor Takehito. Emmi wears a gold dragonfly pendant in honor of the dragonfly which adorned the front of Toshiie Maeda's war helmet.

Kaemon (Kae) Nakagawa no miya

The son of Prince Asahiko, adopted brother to Emperor Komei as well as his closest advisor. The Emperor said that he and Asahiko were like "two different branches that had grown together". Not wanting his son to be merely a "useless longsleeves" court noble, Kae's father would have sent him to be educated in a domain like Aizu-han which boasted the Nisshinkan school for boys of Samurai rank. There he would have studied not only martial arts but also astronomy, Confucianism and medical science from both Japanese and Dutch sources.

While Emmi, her ancestor Takehito, and Kae are fictional Falling Through Glass does include many real historical figures such as Kae's father, Emperor Komei and his son Prince Sachi who would later become Mutsuhito, the Emperor Meiji.

A few members of the Kyoto patrol group The Shinsengumi also play a part in Falling Through Glass.

A major historical event was also used as a backdrop in the book. The Ikedaya Incident (also known as the Ikeda Affair).