Spend Christmas With A Half-Vampire! Giveaway!

Let's have another book-and-swag giveaway!  (Hey, it's Christmas.  Why not?)

Of all my books, the Half-Vampire ones have remained the most popular.  I guess there's just something alluring about a vampire....
Fortunately for all of you, I still have some Half-Vampire swag left to give away with books.  Let's start with this bundle here:

This prize pack will include a copy of Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire by Lisa Shafer (that's ME!), a "Just another average half-vampire" tee-shirt (size XL), a bookmark featuring Confessions on one side and the sequel, All in the Half-Vampire Family, on the other, a button featuring the blood splatter and the Half-Vampire logo, and the "Vampire's Lair" scent pack from Adventure Scents tucked into a "frosted blood" jar with a silver lid.
(To learn more about the books, click on the titles or visit my "books" page.)

Are you age 13 or older?  Good.  You can enter.  Here's the giveaway:




a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Review of Dracula at the 2015 Fall Utah Shakespeare Festival

I really don't like the new bard.org website.  It hates Safari users, for one thing.  But one of the worst things is that it will not allow the use of photos, not even when properly credited.  Thus, to find a photo to advertise one of the plays, I had to use one from the Salt Lake Tribune.
To see more photos (which you can't use) and to buy ticket, go to bard.org.

So, I love the novel Dracula, written by Bram Stoker and published in 1897.  I teach the novel every year to my GT 9th graders, and I know it well.
Naturally, I've seen quite a few vampire movies in my time, but I had never seen a live theatre version of Dracula until this week.  It may have been worth the wait.

Do you love vampires?  Halloween?  Dracula?  You need to see this play!

My one gripe was that the chosen script (Dracula is public domain, so there are plenty of adapted versions out there) changed way too many things about the book.  Yes, I understand the need to shorten the story, but so many things were changed that weren't necessary.  Why, for example, have Lucy refuse Dr. Seward's marriage proposal for no reason because Arthur (the guy she accepts in the book) is cut out of the script?  That made no sense whatsoever.  Also, in the book, Mina marries Jonathan.  But in the play she doesn't.  And there's no reason why.  In fact, the horrid, rape-like scene wherein Dracula hypnotizes Jonathan so he can force Mina to drink his blood had to be changed -- and it lacks quite a bit because of it.
Now, the end of the play changes the end of the book -- but it may be for the better.  The end of the novel Dracula is a bit too much chase and then a way-too-quick end to the vampire.  I almost liked the stage version better.
Also, the script adapter clearly didn't understand that the English were mostly Protestant at the time of this story and that Catholicism and its mysterious rites were all part of the Gothic.  His blunders with that are pretty glaring.
However, the acting is fantastic!  (or fangtastic, if you prefer). Tyler Pierce is a sexy, creepy vampire.  Lucy and Mina are very well done.  Van Helsing is good.  Renfield is convincing.  Seward is very believably in love with Lucy.
The costumes are wonderful.  I especially loved Dracula's look as the "old" count before he comes to England and grows younger with fresh blood.  I'd never pictured him the way he's costumed and wigged for this show, and I really liked it.
The set!  Oh my goodness!
Huge projections make ghostly backdrops!  The spurting blood!  The blood transfusions with blood actually appearing to travel through the tubes!  The fangs!
I would definitely pay to see this again if I had the time.
Seriously, if you're a vampire fan, get tickets and go!  It runs until the end of the month.  Don't waste time deliberating; just plan your trip!

Book Review: Silver In The Blood by Jessica Day George

Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
Society girls from New York City circa 1890, Dacia and Lou never desired to know more about their lineage, instead preferring to gossip about the mysterious Romanian family that they barely knew. But upon turning seventeen, the girls must return to their homeland to meet their relatives, find proper husbands, and—most terrifyingly—learn the deep family secrets of The Claw, The Wing, and The Smoke. The Florescus, after all, are shape-shifters, and it is time for Dacia and Lou to fulfill the prophecy that demands their acceptance of this fate... or fight against this cruel inheritance with all their might.

With a gorgeous Romanian setting, stunning Parisian gowns, and dark brooding young men, readers will be swept up by this epic adventure of two girls in a battle for their lives.


So, George is a Utah author, but she's mostly written MG stuff.  When The King's English bookstore advertised she was doing a signing for this book, I really wanted to go.  But then I read some Amazon reviews, and thinking back to the last three local authors I've supported at TKE wherein it turned out the books were pretty crappy, I decided not to chance it.
This was a bad move because Silver in the Blood is pretty dang good.

Reviewers who influenced me wrongly said things like, "the author choose a way of writing that slowed the book and made it drag " and "This drag and repetition was especially noticeable because the narrative rotated between formats: letters, journal entries, telegraphs, newspaper notices and traditional story structure."

When I finally got the book from our school library and opened it to page one, I felt like shouting at these imbecile reviewers.  The idiots had completely missed the point: Jessica Day George, in writing a book about a Romanian family who has the hereditary role of serving the Dracula family, has set up the book like Dracula.  Duh.
It doesn't "drag."  The dual points of view are not repetitive.
What these uneducated reviewers missed is that Dacia and Lou echo Lucy and Mina in Stoker's original.  They are confused and kept in the dark by those who wish them to be in powerless positions. The reader is meant to know more than the girls do; it's called "dramatic irony."  (Even Shakespeare used it; don't assume George is the one who doesn't know what's going on here.)  Silver in the Blood is set up with multiple points of view and partly in epistle form because it alludes to Dracula.  If the reader is too stupid to realize this, it is not the author's fault.   It is not the author's fault if the reader is too under-educated to understand dramatic irony, multiple points of view, and literary allusions.  (Note: do not even try to argue that the book is YA and that kids aren't exposed to these things, for all three are standard in the junior high curriculum.)
This whole thing reminds me of a quote I once saw in a Readers' Digest (decades ago), "It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf."

That being said, I will also state that the book is not five-stars, in my opinion.  There were grammatical errors and modernisms in the dialogue that would simply not have occurred among the British upper crust in the 1890s.  And there is one whole scene where Dacia, the stronger of the two protagonists, does not defend herself when she is quite capable of doing so and it is in her personality to do so.  The whole purpose of her not defending herself appears to be because it allows the plot to move forward, but it's completely out of character for her.  That I did not like much.
However, it is still an excellent book and well worth the read.
I enjoyed much of the detail about Romania that the author includes.  It feels a bit strained, however, and it's clear that she's writing from recent research and not from long-term knowledge.  (For example, her description of Romanian folk dress is accurate to a point, but she seems unaware of the more elaborate variations on the costume for the girls and she neglects to describe the men's folk dress in any detail.  Since I've done Romanian folk dance for decades, met many Romanians at festivals when they were in costume, and own two Romanian dresses from this region, I can pick out these details.  Nevertheless, I like the fact that she at least did some research.)
The feminism of so many of the male characters in the book is anachronistic, but I liked it.  This book gets a thumbs up from me on showing girls thinking for themselves and solving problems.
Overall, I'd give it 4 stars.  It's appropriate for about age 13 and up.
(The book feels like it needs a sequel, but I read on Goodreads that George hopes only to write a "companion novel.")

Update: 5:30 PM.
The author sent me this tweet:

 

Jessica Day George‏@JessDayGeorge

@lisamshafer Thx! Though I have to point out: They don't talk like British upper crust because they aren't. They're American new(ish) money.

3:38 PM - 30 Aug 2015

Point taken, and I should have recalled they were American (I read the book a week ago.).  But I still think the upper crust would have used correct grammar.
Nevertheless, I urge readers to judge for themselves.

Book Review: Prudence by Gail Carriger

Author Gail Carriger began her steampunk paranormal world of tea and parasols with Soulless, which is book one in the Parasol Protectorate series.  (The whole series is a delightful blend of steampunk, espionage, vampires, werewolves, and Victoriana.  It has references to sex -- straight and not-so-straight -- in it, but no real descriptions of anything. It's probably a bit much for the junior high crowd, but a high school kid ought to be just fine with it.)  Carriger then jumped back in time in her fictional world with a 4-volume (the fourth not yet released) series of prequels, beginning with Etiquette and Espionage.  (This series is definitely YA, and it does contain some of the same characters as the Protectorate, as werewolves and vampires are immortal.)  Most recently, Carriger has released Prudence, which begins what appears to be at least a duology set 20 years after the end of the Parasol Protectorate series and featuring the daughter of the two main characters therein. Below is my review thereof:

This was less YA than Etiquette and Espionage, but much more so than Soulless and the rest.  There is a bit of talk about making love, but no actual activity other than a bit of kissing.  There are some humorous nudity scenes with not much description of bodies.  Overall, I think only the most strict parents would disapprove of this.  I certainly wouldn't have found it shocking when I was 14 or so.
As for the rest, the characters are fully developed and delightful, as usual for Carriger.  (I was disappointed that she never tells us what's become of Tunstell, Primrose and Percy's father.)  And many of our old favorites (Professor Lyall!!) appear again.
The plot moves along trippingly and with much fun, but the book does end on a mild cliff-hanger, with a couple of big issues obviously waiting for the next book, which I believe is called Imprudence. :)  (I hope it's out soon!)

E-Book Sale! Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire

Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire is just 99¢ right now for the e-book.

Lurking in the nuclei of a few rare human cells is an as-yet unstudied gene. It is a gene that makes the inheritor crave mammal blood and faint in bright sunlight. It is a gene that prevents the bearer from appearing normally in digital or mirror images.
It’s a gene that makes your life heck if you’re in junior high and trying to fit in.

Eric Wright is a half-vampire with a problem. Several problems, actually. He can’t tell his bloodlust from his rollercoaster adolescent hormones. The cutest girl in first period English wants him to become a vegetarian. And the assistant principal suspends him when he refuses to explain why his skin appears translucent in a school security video.

Then Eric’s non-vampire mom, who’s definitely not telling everything she knows, takes him with her on a business trip. To Scotland, where it never stays sunny for very long. The perfect hang out for a vampire. Or several. If only Eric can find one to talk to before he makes any more stupid mistakes....

 

Want a copy?  Want to give a copy to a friend?  Just click right here.

Fang Marks -- And Other Hazards Of Springtime

It's that time again.
Hot weather is coming.  My grass is already drying out.  Yuck.
Today, Dad and I tackled one of the most depressing tasks of spring: turning on the sprinkler system.  Back in the manual days, this was no big deal.  It meant wrestling the huge sprinkler key onto the tiny lever some 10 feet down a hole and turning the key.
Nowadays, however, with the "improvements" of an automated system, it means that some new electrical problem will occur every year.  Usually, one of the stupid little valves will refuse to shut off.  Last year, the control box gave up the ghost and had to be replaced.
And this year?  The Return of the Rat.
In the autumn of 2011, as I was opening the valves to winterize the sprinkling system, I found a rat in the backyard valve-cover box.  He'd made a nest of dead leaves and acorns and looked majorly pissed off at me when I ripped the roof (lid) suddenly off his home.  In fact, I had to poke him with the screwdriver to get him to leave.  I spent 20 minutes with a bandana over my face and leather gloves on, digging out his nest.  I then put DeCon out everywhere and hoped Mr. Rat would eat it and crawl under some bush and die.
I was very pleased last autumn to find the sprinkler box empty.  But that little bugger fooled me and moved in AFTER I'd shut everything down.
So today, while there was no rat in the box, there was a nest.  AND the little vermin had chewed through a wire and gnawed off one of the plastic screws, making it so we couldn't shut off that valve.  This means, of course, that the whole system must be shut down in order to keep it from running continually.  Groan.
Oh, and it also meant another 20 minutes with a bandana and gloves, digging out a nest.  Gross.
But this is not all.
No, as I was moving the large sprinkler key out of the corner of the garage, I accidentally hooked the handle against a manual edger hanging on the wall, and the tool came crashing down onto my arm.  Since an edger has "teeth," I was "bitten" on the right forearm.  Due to the triangular shape of the "teeth," it truly looks like something with fangs has chomped into me.  In fact, Dad's first thought when I showed him was that the rat had bitten me (although the marks are an inch apart, so that would've been ONE BIG rat).
So, the day is now over.  My sprinklers do not yet work (no surprises there; it's never easy), as we have to replace parts and wires.  I have extra laundry to do, washing all the clothes and towels from the rat nest clean up.  I had to buy new garden gloves (too risky to keep the old ones after that).  I may have been exposed to hanta virus and tetanus.  And, my arm looks like I've been spending some time with my own half-vampire creation, Eric.
This is why I dread the yearly job of readying the sprinkler system for summer.

Vampires Still A Threat In Serbia

I'm not sure if I find this funny or refreshing, but a handful of Serbian villagers are sticking to their 19th Century beliefs as firmly as anyone in a small town in Utah.  It's just that these Serbs are terrified of vampires (whereas in a Utah town it would be Democrats).
Check out this article from Good Morning America by Dragana Jovanovic (from 11/28/12)

For the people in a tiny Serbian village there is nothing sexy or romantic about a vampire. In fact, they are terrified that one of the most feared vampires of the area has been roused back to life.

Rather than 'Twilight's' Edward, the people of Zorazje fear that Sava Savanovic is lurking in their forested mountains of western Serbia.

They believe that he is on the move because the home he occupied for so long, a former water mill, recently collapsed. Savanovic is believed to be looking for a new home.

"People are very worried. Everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people," Miodrag Vujetic, local municipal assembly member, told ABC News. "We are all frightened."

Vujetic said villagers "are all taking precautions by having holy crosses and icons placed above the entrance to the house, rubbing our hands with garlic, and having a hawthorn stake or thorn."

"I understand that people who live elsewhere in Serbia are laughing at our fears, but here most people have no doubt that vampires exist," he says.

According to legend, Savanovic would kill and drink the blood of the peasants who came to grind their grain at his watermill on the Rogacica River. Tour groups from around the Balkans would come to see the mill. But even tourism had its limits.

"We were welcoming tourists, but only during the day. Nobody ever overnighted there," said Slobodan Jagodic, whose family owned the mill for over 60 years.

"We were too scared to repair it, not to disturb Sava Savanovic," says Jagodic. "It's even worse now that it collapsed due to lack of repair."

Traditions die slowly in this part of the world. "In the dark forested mountains of Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia, many people still believe in vampires and take them quite seriously," says Dr. James Lyon, Ph.D, a noted Balkan historian who has done extensive research on the folklore behind vampires.

"In local folklore, vampires are not potential boyfriends. Rather, they are hideous, blood thirsty creatures with red eyes and iron teeth that bloat when they feed, and are able to shift their shape," says Lyon, author of "Kiss of the Butterfly," a historical thriller about vampires in the Serbia.

Savanovic has maintained his notoriety in modern Serbia. He was featured in a 19th century book "Ninety Years Later" written by Milovan Glisic, whose book inspired a 1972 horror film "Leptirica" (Butterfly), widely watched throughout all of former Yugoslavia. More recently, Savanovic appeared in an award winning book "Fear and Its Servant" written by Mirjana Novakovic.

The Balkans have long established itself as Ground Zero for vampires when it comes to fanged folklore, and Serbia is a leader in this, according to Lyon.

"Vampires originated in Serbia, not Romania," says Lyon. "The word vampire entered western languages from Serbia in the late 1720s."

Austrian forces returning from conquests in Ottoman Serbia in the early 1700s brought back vampire stories, which circulated throughout Europe, later inspiring Byron, Keats and Coleridge, he claims.

"In 1730-31 the Austrian Army sent a military surgeon into Serbia to conduct autopsies on suspected vampires. He and other Austrian Army officers wrote of their experiences, and these records still exist today," Lyons said.

Documented reports of vampire-related activity continue to this day throughout the Balkans, the most recent having occurred in 2011 in Serbia.

Back in Zarozje, villagers will have to be on their guard for at least seven more months, because local legend holds that vampires are most active between Christmas and the Feast of the Ascension on June 7.

Half-Vampire Fans, Young And Old

I got some new photos for my readers' gallery tonight, and, although I didn't realize it while I was taking the photos, I got shots of a pretty wide range of ages in readers.

Okay, my youngest fan here is probably not a reader -- yet.

We'll get there, though.
He's one of my grandstudents.  (Both his parents are my former students, so he's my grandstudent.)
Here's a bit more of the family (the parents HAVE read the book):

And we have a few more soon-to-be fans (+ one more devoted fan and former student):

Actually, the older boy in this photo is very excited to read Confessions of an Average Half-Vampire and will probably start soon. (Uh, that extra leg there belongs to the little guy photographed above.  He decided to play peek-a-boo just as I clicked the digital shutter.)

And, on the other end of the age scale, we have some retirees having fun with the books as well:

See?  Half-Vampires are for everyone!

Would you like to have your photo in my readers' gallery?  I'd love to post it!  You can go to the Contact Me tab at the top of the blog or just click here for details.  (Anyone under the age of 18 must be pictured with a parent so that I can avoid legal issues.)

This Weekend's Contest Is Cancelled

...due to lack of interest shown in the first 24 hours.
Obviously, everyone is out shopping and my timing was bad.  We'll try again another time.

A Half-Vampire Thanksgiving Recipe

In All in the Half-Vampire Family, Eric discovers a new food he likes very much: black pudding.  (You can see it in the above photo; it looks like round beef jerky.) Of course, the reason he likes black pudding so much is that it's made with blood, sheep's blood, to be specific.  (In case you're wondering, yes, I've eaten the stuff before.  Several times actually.  It's okay, but I'll take haggis over black pudding anytime.)
So, in keeping with the Thanksgiving tradition of eat-all-you-can, I tried to find a recipe to share with you -- off a website presumably catering to *ahem* vampires, as it begins with this odd line, "Ever had that awkward moment trying to explain why you want two or three cups of blood from a butcher?"  (Okaaaay, then. Moving right along....)   However, this site only catered to Irish vampires (perhaps Patrick would like it) and insisted on using pig's blood.  So I found this recipe to share instead:

Scottish Black Pudding 1 pound suet, finely chopped 1 pound oatmeal 2 onions fresh sheep's blood (may be watered down) salt and pepper to taste Mix dry ingredients in a bowl with fresh sheep's blood. Stuff mixture into casing, tie well. Place in large pan, cover with boiling water, boil gently for 3 hours. Remove black puddings, allow to cool. Cut into slices as required, fry in hot fat. NOTES : Called 'Marag' (Blood Pudding) in Gaelic (it also means a fat, shapeless person!), this is one of the famous blood dishes that Scottish people love. It usually accompanies other fried dishes, such as bacon and eggs. While it might seem shocking to eat blood, don't forget that all meat dish contain blood and it's the basis, with fat, of gravy. Blood dishes are popular all over Europe, especially in Transylvania. If serving to children, experience shows that the ingredients are best left undiscussed at the table. Black puddings and mealie puddings are usually stuffed in larger sausage casings of the size used for garlic and other specialty sausages.

Happy Thanksgiving -- vampire style!d that awkward moment of trying to explain why you are asking for a few cups of blood from a butcher?

In Which Max Proposes A Toast

Max found this and thought of me.  :D

But I can't help but wonder why it isn't RED wine.......???
(PS. No, I don't drink.  The pic is of Max's table and glass, not mine.  I just like the picture and the idea.)

Upcoming Giveaway With Swag

Yesterday I went to Bath and Body Works and bought some fun things to add to my giftbags I'll be giving away to promote my next two books.  I've got several little piles of goodies now.
Here's one thing I bought yesterday:

It's cooler in real life.  The liquid is bright red, so a full bottle (which this pic does not appear to show) looks like it's filled with blood.  (Fortunately, it's plum-scented, so it smells a lot better than blood does!)
As soon as I can get All in the Half-Vampire Family ready to be published, I'll start posting the bag o' swag giveaway details.  I'm hoping this will be in September.

A Vampirically Boring Weekend

Let's see.  I've spent my weekend alternating between re-reading All in the Half-Vampire Family, looking for yet more typos and over-used words, and re-reading Dracula, creating a test on it for my 9th graders (lucky souls), and finding errors in the footnoted material in the Prestwick House version (I'm not trying to do this, but there are so many glaring errors that I can't help but find them.)  And in an hour or so, I'll go to church.
Basically, I haven't put up any fascinating posts because I haven't really done anything fascinating -- or anywhere near fascinating.  In fact, it's been in a completely different county from fascinating.
You get the idea.

Vampire Nibbles And Snacks

This was attached to my neck until about noon today, draining off all the blood from the wound.  (Now it just dribbles down my neck and oozes into the mummy-like bandage that's wrapped around my head.)  I couldn't resist taking this pic.  I wonder if Eric would find this tempting.  :)

I slept most of today.  I hope I can sleep tonight.  Obviously, I'm not getting much writing done right now.

Dark Shadows= Awesome!

A month ago I posted my interest in the then-upcoming Dark Shadows movie.
Well, yesterday, for the first time in my life, I actually went to a movie on its release day.  Of course, that movie was Dark Shadows.
Now, to prepare, I'd checked out a couple of different sets of DVDs of the old soap opera from the local library, for, after all, I'd last seen the show before I started kindergarten, and my memory of it was understandably mostly "dark" and "shadowy."  (Okay, baaaaad pun.)  Thus, I was prepared to find differences, so bemoaned on the internet, between the old soap and the new movie.
The main difference, of course, was humor.  The Depp/Burton creation is funny -- and genuinely creepy or scary in a few parts.  There is also more actual violence.  The old soap was mostly eerie and foreboding.  Like the vampire in the old Bela Lugosi Dracula movie, Barnabus was never really shown in the messy act of sucking out blood.  Depp goes around with blood streaked down his face in several parts of the movie, although the actual killing is still downplayed enough for PG-13.
There were changes to the storyline, too.  Angelique, the witch, comes from England, instead of Martinique, as in the original tale.  She also kills Barnabus' parents, while in the original version, it's Barnabus' own father who traps him in a coffin to keep him from harming people and because he cannot stand to put a stake through his son's heart.  In the movie, Angelique puts Barnabus into the coffin.  In the soap, a lunatic lets him out; in the movie, construction workers find him accidentally.
The acting is tons better in the movie, too -- especially for the female roles.  But, then again, the soap hung onto traditional, passive roles for women (who had to be rescued or otherwise acted upon), while the movie utilizes the early bits of the 70s women's movement to make the females tons more active and interesting.  (On meeting Victoria Winters, Elizabeth Collins asks her, "Do you believe in the equality of the sexes?"  Winters answers, "Oh heavens no!  Men would get out of control!")

And as for straight-up vampire sex appeal?  Well, it's Johnny Depp, for crying out loud!  Of COURSE he's sexy!

Click here to see a photo.

Okay, well maybe not so much in the scenes where he's out in the sunlight and he dresses up as Michael Jackson,

Click here to see a photo.

but other than that, he's awesome!

It is my sincere hope that at least a few of those silly women lusting after sparkly little Edward will have a look at a vampire that looks like a vampire and still find him as appealing as Lugosi was in his day.  :)
At any rate, THIS longtime vampire fan LOVED Dark Shadows.  In fact, I'm planning to go back to see it again!

A Bit Of Something Pinteresting....

Pinterest amuses me.
It's not as time-consuming as blogging or tweeting, and I pick up followers without even trying.  I really like the visual aspect of it, and it actually had become a good place to post idea-starters for my writing.
(Of course, I follow my niece with all her wedding plans and kitties, so that part is getting a little inundating for me.....)
It's no surprise that one of my most popular boards is "Just Funny," which has nothing to do with my writing, but has a very broad appeal.  (It's also been the ONLY place where I've had to delete nasty comments, as two women did NOT like the fact that I posted a pic making fun of girls who think that they're too special to prepare for the future.)  You can check out my sense of humor here.  My newest pin is of Max's blue LTD flying over the supermoon last night.  :)
Equally popular are my boards about Creating Nerissa's Style for my WIP, The (Dis)Appearance of Nerissa MacKay, whereon I pin pictures of things that look like Nerissa might wear, and my Steampunk board, which is just a general  collection, as my steampunk ideas are all very much in the earliest stages.  Both boards have 63 followers.
Coming in right behind those two is my Celtic board, where I pin things related to Becoming Brigid, which is in editing stages.  This board has pictures of places that actually inspired the story, like The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney.  There are 62 followers for this board.  C'mon over and have a look at what I've got posted.
Then, with 61 followers, is my Vampire board, with lots of fun stuff, only some of which matches either of my Half-Vampire books.  Most recently, I pinned pics of vampire hunting kits.  :)  And naturally I have photos of Johnny Depp as Barnabus Collins.  (Mmmm...)
Last night I created two more boards, one about castles (as Nerissa lives in a castle -- plus, I just freakin' love castles!), and one about eerie/cool/odd places that might be good to use as story settings at some future point.  Here's the Castles board.  And here's the Places and Spaces board.
Pay me a visit and see if anything catches your interest!

The Importance of Knowing Barnabas Collins

Click here to see a photo.

My mother helped my father run our family business.  As a result, I spent a fair amount of time in my pre-school years at Grandma's house.  No doubt this was good for Grandma as well; she was blind in one eye and not terribly mobile by the time I came along, but she was supremely patient and an excellent and doting teacher.  I gave Grandma a sense of usefulness in her old age, and she was a superb caretaker.
Grandma loved soap operas and afternoon talk shows.  I'd sit and play with plastic toy animals while she watched such classics as The Mike Douglas Show, General Hospital, and One Life To Live.
But then she'd leave the TV running so I could watch Dark Shadows.
I never understood much of it, but episode after episode engrained into my preschool consciousness a sense of the gothic.  Long before I could read Dracula, long before I'd ever heard of The Mysteries of Udolpho, I internalized the concept of grim, lonely mansions trapping innocent young girls and holding the secrets of vaguely threatening but attractive older men.
In the original Dark Shadows, the wind blows all the time, rustling the bushes -- but never displacing a single hair of the characters.  The Collinwood Mansion on Widows' Hill always looks gloomy -- because the early episodes were filmed in black and white.  And isolation is a definite theme.
Is it any wonder I started writing vampire stories by the time I was eleven?
Honestly, people, I could identify Barnabas Collins as early as I could identify songs by the Beatles and the Monkees.  I was morbidly attracted to Barnabas -- only Robin on the Batman show held more wonder for my three-year-old mind.
And now Johnny Depp is going to turn it all into humor.
I can't WAIT!!!
The trailer is SO funny!  ("Reveal yourself, tiny songstress!")
In preparation, I borrowed DVDs of episodes 73 to roughly 90-something of the original show from the public library.  And those seem funny to me now.  ("My name is Victoria Winters....")  Barnabas hasn't even appeared in the story yet.
In any case, the new movie is a total must-see for me this summer.  I love Johnny Depp anyway, and Dark Shadows is just such a part of my past.....
I wish I could tell Grandma.  She just might have found all this amusing, too -- even if she preferred General Hospital.