And the winner is...

Happy Hallowe’en! The Coffin Hop winner for 2012 is Eileen Wiedbrank. Princess grabbed your cookie first. So please DM on twitter and I can send you a email to get the address you want the Halloween Prize sent to!

I hope you had fun tonight and scared the world. I did!

We had fun and went through all the candy before 8 p.m.

Thank you for the support and I will see soon. Guy Fawkes Day is coming and we have a doll to burn.

My Hallowe’en fun tonight.

Sorry so late, very tired!

Princess and I had fun.

Halloween fun for all.

Well, we are winding down Coffin Hop for another year. You don’t have to miss all the lovely writers and creepy stories. You can visit them anytime. I do hope you will stop in and visit me too. So on Halloween at 5 p.m. PST Princess will pull a name from a bag. 

I always look forward to Halloween all year round. I dress up for the whole day, after all you get a good costume might as well wear it. This is the first year I am going as a ghosts. I have a few Halloween traditions. Breakfast and then dress up. I make a nice spicy chili for tea. I bake cookies or cupcakes in ghost shapes too. I give gifts also to my loved ones and friends. I find fun things to make them smile and pop in some yummy candy. My Halloween Village will be on and the garden will be lit up. We will read nice spooky stories before bed too. I will post pictures of Princess and I dressed up.

Do you have any Halloween traditions? I would love to hear about them. I want to Thank you also for visiting my blog and all the kind words. I am writing and hope to have a new book out by the first of the year.

Princess and I will see you Halloween after she picks a winner.

Coffin Hop and Storms

Just a quick note for Coffin Hop Blog. I hope all that are in Storm Sandy's way are safe and out of harms way. 

I think some of the supplies were forgotten by officials. Water, food, cash,
Flashlights aka torches, batteries, wood for fire places, Blankets, warm clothes,  medicine and the like people get. So I say how about board games like Clue, cards and books. Lots of books to read. To me I would want to be stranded in a library so I could read. Reading can take you away from the problems and to new places.

Its Halloween time and reading ghosts stories can be fun. So time to hop so many blogs go check out this list.

http://coffinhop.wordpress.com/

I will see soon Princess can't wait to pick a winner. She is a Fairy Princess, saying Hello.

Hallowe'en because you should get presents!

Have you enjoyed visiting all the lovely blogs? I have seen loads of prizes to be won. Mine will be won from All the comments. They are going in a bag tied to a doggy cookie. The first cookie Princess pulls out wins! All the cookies will be the same. We will pull the name on Hallowe'en 5 pm PST. So what could you win, a signed paperback book Haunted Bedtime Stories paw signed too, bookmark, fun socks, skull earrings, glow in the dark disk and some Yummy candy. Because Hallowe’en you should get presents and have fun. I say tell or read ghosts stories, eat too much candy and dress up in fancy dress. 

Why do I love Hallowe’en? It is one holiday no family fights. Sad but true. As an adult I decided I was going enjoy life and leave drama behind. I have and I love Hallowe’en, I love dressing up, decorating the house and garden. Princess likes to dress up too. We have fun and that is what one should do in life, have fun. I love spooky good fun year round.

So here is what I have done, I have a Hallowe’en Village. Yes, it’s massive and lights up with sounds. This takes me three days to put together. I have a dear friend she has one as well and you can hop over to her when you finish seeing my Hallowe’en Village.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKDjYJUeYmU

Well, off to visit Rachelle and see what she has in store for you...

http://dimestorenovel.blogspot.com/ 

I will see you soon, so keep hopping.

Coffin Hop stop at RAF Chicksands...

Grab your cup of tea and settle in now. I do hope you are enjoying Coffin Blog Hop. So many spooky fun writers so little time. Please be sure to enter their contest. 

So now I want to take you to an out of the way spot in England. When I lived there last I visited a small RAF Base called RAF Chicksands. On this Base was a Priory it was used during WWII and was being turned into a small museum at the Base. It has quite a history. I do love history filled places, they always have ghosts. 

The Priory is also mentioned in the doomsday Book 1086. It started out as a Catholic Priory built about 1147. Henry the VIII sold it after he de-solved the church. It was a home and used during WWII. The tale doesn’t end there. 

There is a tale that a Num was walled up in the Cloisters. She can be seen on the 17th day of each month. The day I was there was the 17th June 1994. It is said that you can see other ghosts there too. Monks, nuns and horsemen have been seen as well.

I visited on a cloudy rainy day. It was chilly and damp. I walked through the museum and saw many wonderful items from WWII. It is a beautiful building and grounds. I had the feeling I was being walked with as I explored the building. I took pictures of the Priory as I was leaving.  Well, you be the judge for yourself. Myself I believe it’s her. I think that is the Nun. My friend with me said after seeing them said must be her. I hope you enjoy the pictures I took them with an instant camera back in 1994. I do hope someday to return and revisit Chicksands. I understand it is all open now and I would love to see it all restored. If you are ever there go visit and call me to go with you. It’s in Bedfordshire between Hitchin and Bedford.

            The Priory Nun I think.

Now hop off to visit 

http://theflipsideofjulianne.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/coffinhop-day2-sixmillimeters/

http://redtash.com/post/34302486232/coffin-hop-day-2-todays-contest-is-so-easy

http://kimkoning.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/2663/

After I had written this I googled Chicksands and found it has a site and winderful pictures.

Chicksands website:

http://www.chicksandspriory.co.uk/index.html

Welcome Back to 2012 Coffin Blog Hop

Welcome back to Coffin Blog Hop. This year you will have some new writers meet. You will also get to revisit some you meet last year who have prizes to give. They may have a few tales to tell as well. So grab a cup of tea and lets go hopping.

Well, I would like to tell you about some ghosts that roam the halls of the San Carlos Hotel in Phoenix Arizona. If you read the online brochure you think it's a posh boutique hotel in a lovely downtown area. It is that and yet more. Beyond the lovely rooms each different and unique there are ghosts.

The San Carlos became a hotel March 20th 1928 it was the first hotel in the American South West with Air Conditioning and you got it for an extra one dollar a day. It had an elevators too. It has been the hub for the elite, social, political and Hollywood stars. Many of the top stars stayed there. Like Mae West and the beautiful Marilyn Monroe. Not only the ladies but Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart stayed here. 

The San Carlos Hotel was also built over an old school site. This school had a well dug in 1874, in the basement which is now capped. When it was a school it wasn’t capped off. So there was three little boys who drowned in. Now it's said that you can hear them playing ball down there still.

It seems that in 1928 a young woman named Leone Jensen jumped off the roof. They she was jilted by a bellman. I hear she appears at the foot of beds and fade to the hall. She seems to favor mens beds.

Now I have yet to spend the night here. This is on my list to do the first of the year. I hope I can see Leone. Sadly the Ghost Lounge is being remodeled and I couldn’t have a drink. I look forward to checking this all out in person. Haunted or not it seems like the perfect place to stay in downtown Phoenix. Anyone want to join in?

Well, its time to hop come back and I will tell you about Chicksands, UK and a nice ghosts I took a picture of.

Hop off to see my dear friends and fellow hoppers. Start with http://dimestorenovel.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-haunted-train-ride-coffinhop.html

Yes, I will have a Prize to give as well. Keep coming back to find out what's in the goodie bag. BAHAHAHA

Coffin Hop is coming!

Are you ready? Coffin Hop starts this Wednesday Oct. 24th. Like last year you can meet and read many wonderful writers. Some have great prizes and swag to win. 
Please join us you could win a book and have lots of fun too! 

This will help you get ready for Coffin Hop.

Taking the Plunge - Why I Entered America's Next Author

A few weeks ago, I learned about the America's Next Author contest. It sounded intriguing -- a writing contest based partly on social networking and partly on judges. So I took a look at the stories sitting around, gathering dust and chose The Big Hill, a story I wrote in 2009.

The reason I entered The Big Hill in the contest was because I felt it was a story that deserved readers. Sure, I had shown it to my husband and a few trusted friends back when the ink was wet. But a story that makes me cry each time I read it deserves more than a handful of readers. So I dusted it off (believe me, when you live on a dirt road even digital stories collect dust), read it through, cried again, made a few tweaks, and off it went.

At last, it is in the wild...ready for readers to see. I know not everyone will like it. I admit, there might be some who don't like it at all. But that's not the point. The point is that the story will be read and, hopefully, enjoyed by many. And that's why we do it, right? That's why we spill our soul on the page...for all the world to see.

Rachelle Reese is the coauthor of 7 books, including two short story collections: Bones of the Woods and Mind of a Mad Man, and theDime Store Novel series. She blogs at http://rachelleandjohn.blogspot.com. The Dime Store Novel characters blog athttp://dimestorenovel.blogspot.com.

Thanks for sharing Rachelle. I loved the story you wrote and think others will too.

Coffin Hop is coming...

Coffin Blog Hop

Well, you need to get ready Coffin Hop starts soon. You will have a chance to win books and maybe prizes from many of the bloggers. Even I have a surprise for Coffin Hop.  I have started getting ready for Halloween my fav time of year.

Are you ready for the Halloween?  I will see you soon. Cheers!