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September/October 2019 Fly-By Status Report – My First Tattoo Experience! (I’m a Grown-Up Hobbit, Part 2)
Posting a month late, twice in one year? Hey, come on, I always have a good reason! This time, I was waiting til a very specific wound healed so I could get a good photo. That is, I took my temporary tattoo idea I mentioned in my January Fly-By Status Report, and made it permanent! I couldn’t shake my desire for one, even though I had some reservations, but finally decided I should just go for it! So I got my first real tattoo the year of my 33rd birthday after all! (If you’re confused or feel like you’re missing context, read the post here.) So what does the tattoo…
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NaNoWriMo 2015 & 10 Twilight Zone Eps. I Want to Adapt as Flash Fics
Happy Halloween! And for all you writers out there, Happy NaNoWriMo as of Nov. 1st! It’s time for my annual Twilight Zone Episode list, you can read 2013 and 2014 here, but this year I want to do it a little differently. My plan for NaNoWriMo this year is to write a set of 30 short stories, each at a minimum of 1666 words. Longer flash fics, if you will. I’ve been wanting to write an anthology of re-written fairy tale stories and myths, but I’ve been really hankering to play with story ideas from Twilight Zone episodes. I’ve thought seriously about doing this since I saw Come Wander With…
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10 More of My Favorite Twilight Zone Episodes
It’s just a few days away from Halloween, so you know what that means. It’s time for my yearly Twilight Zone episode review extravaganza! Check out my first one here. I also want to take this moment to say, happy 55th anniversary, Twilight Zone! The first episode, “Where is Everybody?” originally aired on October 2, 1959. Man, I can’t believe I watched the whole thing. In my last post, I’d only seen up to Season 3, but I sat down and finished the whole dang thing! There are very few shows that I can say I’ve watched all of, and even fewer that I’ve watched a few times, at least…
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10 of My Favorite Twilight Zone Episodes
Imagine if you will, a rented out room in a cozy bungalow in Franklin, TN. The young, rather pretty young woman sitting on the bed, channel surfing and eating ice cream out of the carton is Miss Christina Nelson, aged in her mid-twenties. Right now she’s lamenting her single status and just wanting to unwind after a long day at a job in the city. But soon, she will run across a channel running a marathon of an old 1960s black and white TV show. Miss Nelson doesn’t know it yet, but she’s about to stumble right into…The Twilight Zone. I could probably talk forever and ever about the awesomeness…
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“Paper of Pins” Folk Song
HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEN! BWAAHAAHAHAHAAA! Betcha thought I was done blogging this week, huh? Well, not on your life! Because I’ve enjoyed writing and researching this Freaky Fairy Tales series SO MUCH, I’ve decided to do another folk ballad dissection, like I did for The Twa Sisters in honor of creepy Samhain. “You listen to Grampa’s story or no candy!” As I mentioned before in the Twa Sisters post, “If you know your folk songs, it’s very rare to find a story song that is sung exactly the same if you compare different versions.” Naturally, “Paper of Pins” is no exception, but it gets interesting to compare the songs depending on the area…
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The Death of the Little Hen – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Well, friends, Halloween is almost upon us! And that means this is the last Freaky Fairy Tale of October 🙁 But I saved you a good one for last. It’s one of the wackiest and most morbid-for-no-reason fairy tales I’ve probably ever heard. Are you ready? BEHOLD! Day 1 + Day 2 + Day 3 + Day 4 + Day 5 Sweet and silly piece by Ross Sullivan-Wiley THE DEATH OF THE LITTLE HEN [Original source] – I’ve added punctuation and fixed formatting here. You don’t expect it. It builds with the sunny, round-faced optimism and sweetness you’d expect in a 1940s Disney short. And for the record, an old-fashioned term for a rooster…
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The Iron Stove – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Good day, fair readership. Is that a mug of hot cider I see next to your mouse? Enjoying the season, I see, as you should be! Thoughts of colored leaves and warm pumpkin pie will make the Mondays go away. Come on over and cuddle up next to the hearth, kids, it’s time for another Freaky Fairy Tale! Today’s tale….rambles. It sounds like it’s about to end, and then it goes on to a whole other story arc, and then it looks like it’s going to end, but goes on to another one! It’s more bizarre and amusing than it is Halloweenish, but I give you an iron stove, err, ironclad…
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The Three Snake-Leaves – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Hello, darlings! It’s time for another Freaky Fairy Tale! BETRAYAL! Betrayal most cruel! Frailty, thy name is woman! And as a woman myself, this story makes us look crazy, and I resent that! WE AREN’T CRAZY, YOU GUYS ARE THE CRAZY ONES!!! *coughs* Sorry about that. Let’s just start, shall we? BEHOLD! Day 1 + Day 2 + Day 3 + Day 4 + Day 5 THE THREE SNAKE-LEAVES [Original source] – I’ve added punctuation and fixed formatting here. So, a father can’t take care of his only son anymore because he’s so poor, and the son decides to go seek his fortune. He’s sad to leave, but he knows that…
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The Singing Bone – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Happy Monday again, readerlings! Well, we’ve been enjoying autumn, getting pumpkins for carving and going costume shopping. Hope your first week of October was as fun as ours! So! Are you ready for another *thunderclap* FREAKY FAIRY TALE? I hope you are! (If you’re confused about what the heck I’m talking about, visit the first entry for some background.) Cuz I’ve got a tale so weird, so morbid, it’ll make your bones sing with fear! BEHOLD! Day 1 + Day 2 + Day 3 + Day 4 + Day 5 THE SINGING BONE [Original source] – I’ve added punctuation and fixed formatting here. OooooooohoooooOooooOooooohhh…..it’s, it’s the sound of a singing bone…it’s….it’s…
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Writing Throwbacks | “Just Dracula and Me”
Cleaning through the old family books and files at my parent’s house a few years ago, my mom came across a bunch of my old stories I wrote in the early to mid 90s. I plan to present these stories in their original glory, with no added punctuation or corrected spelling or grammar. This is the first in what I hope to be a fun tradition, and serve to remind that all authors have to start somewhere 🙂 I figured this one would be perfect for Halloween! This is supposed to be a conversation between me and Dracula, and I definitely had the writing bug, but I hadn’t mastered the…
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The Hare’s Bride – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Ahh, October is upon us again, and you know what that means! That’s right, Halloween! As I’ve said before, Halloween is basically a holiday revolving around stories, particularly creepy ones. For good or for ill, I’m a sucker for a good scary story, but invariably I’ll be up late thinking I see shadows or hearing ghosts making weird noises…which just end up being an overactive imagination and an old apartment building. But you know where some of the weirdest, goriest stories come from? Fairy tales. Seriously! If you read the original versions of some of your favorite tales you’d be surprised what has been conveniently removed over the years to be more…
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Join the Jamboree!
Take a ride through the Disney Haunted Mansion in honor of this ghoulishly delightful day! Happy Halloween! Hope everyone has an awesome time tonight! Be safe, and hope you gather lots of candy and books!
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Halloweek 2010: 4 More Classic Spooky Stories (Guest Post)
I hope you guys don’t mind a 5th guest post in one month! My dear friend Rosie is somewhat of an expert on the creepy genre, particularly for teens and young adults, and she always adds a wonderful dash of librarian knowledge to all of her reviews, so I asked if she’d do a little follow up on my post earlier this week on books of her choice (though I gave a few suggestions). Hope you like! ~CAN At the behest of my former roommate and very talented, dear friend, the authoress Christina Nelson, I bring to you a few reviews of my favorite scary stories in time for Halloween.…
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Halloweek 2010: 6 Classic Spooky Stories
This is the promised blog post! Wooo! In six days it shall be Halloween! Other than Christmas, Halloween is probably my favorite holiday, because of the costumes and the candy, but also because there’s so much to DO and have fun with! I love a good story, and Halloween is FULL of them! Just look at the old ghost stories and creepy tales you find tacked on houses or buildings in old historic towns: they all talk about people who used to be alive, and there’s something dramatic about the idea of spirits hanging on. How many stories have focused on ghosts over the years? But I digress. As you know,…
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Halloween Approacheth! And HIATUS!
“And a ship, a black freighter with the skull on its masthead…” Hallo, all! It’s already the second week of October, and already the air is filled with ghost stories and candy bowls are filled with candy! And my life is full of events and busy things which are really dragging on my ability to write good posts, so I’m definitely thinking a hiatus is in order. I’m planning at least one vlog, so I won’t be totally silent, but no blog entries until closer to Halloween. Thanks for understanding, guys. I love autumn, and I’ve been collecting–at my own mental peril–crazy murder & mayhem stories and ghost stories about…