Tag: Halloween

5 Books Like Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’ To Add To Your Spooktober Reading List

Halloween’s my favorite holiday, but this year it looks like it’s going to be a little . . . different. But that doesn’t mean it has to be disappointing!

And if there’s one author who never disappointed, it’s the Queen of Mystery herself, Agatha Christie! And my personal favorite? You guessed it!

Here are 5 books to add to your Spooktober reading list if you’re looking for something like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None!

If you’re looking for more spooky books to add to your reading list, check out:

5 Gory Books For Your Spooktober Reading List

5 Atmospheric Books For Your Spooktober Reading List

5 Fun YA Books For Your Spooktober Reading List

Click the links to friend me on Litsy or Goodreads and unite our bookish communities!

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5 Gory Horror Books For Your Spooktober Reading List

Halloween’s my favorite holiday, but this year it looks like it’s going to be a little . . . different. But that doesn’t mean it has to be disappointing!

Here are 5 books to add to your Spooktober reading list if you’re looking for a little gore with your horror!

This YA book is SO good. It has heart. It has horror. It has carnage.

This YA book reads just like a slasher flick!
This adult horror brings some serious ick factor.
This YA book takes a weird turn, but it’s still good and delivers some gruesome scenes!
I haven’t read this author in years, but if you’re looking for seriously sick, he’s your man.

Check out more ghoulish reading recommendations:

Fun YA Horror Books

Atmospheric Horror Books

Click the links to friend me on Litsy or Goodreads and unite our bookish communities!

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5 Atmospheric Horror Books For Your Spooktober Reading List

Halloween’s my favorite holiday, but this year it looks like it’s going to be a little . . . different. But that doesn’t mean it has to be disappointing!

Here are 5 books to add to your Spooktober reading list if you’re looking for a creepy, atmospheric escape!

The book that got me back into reading ghost stories! This one delivers all the chills, thrills!
I couldn’t put this one down! There’s a lot going on here, and it gets wrapped up in a neat, creepy package.
Creepy house? Check. Vulnerable female lead? Check. Something wicked afoot? Check.
Slow burning gothic horror that culminates in a chilling climax!
This one goes off on an odd tangent, and I wasn’t the biggest fan, but there’s no denying the eerie atmosphere in this one!

Check out more ghoulish reading recommendations:

Fun YA Horror Books

Click the links to friend me on Litsy or Goodreads and unite our bookish communities!

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5 Fun YA Books For Your Spooktober Reading List

Halloween’s my favorite holiday, but this year it looks like it’s going to be a little . . . different. But that doesn’t mean it has to be disappointing!

Here are 5 books to add to your Spooktober reading list if you’re looking for a fun escape!

And Then There Were None but with teenagers. At a house party. On a remote island. Need I say more?
Yes, same author as above, but good is good, and this book is . . . awesome! What would make a reality TV show about prisoners in jail forced to fight for their lives against eccentric assassins better? If the prisoners were teenagers, of course.
I don’t know how anybody who’s read this series who hasn’t loved it. A dual mystery, hidden passages, secret tunnels, a kidnapping, a game and a murderer. If you haven’t read this one, you’re missing out!
Clue. If that doesn’t say enough, I’m afraid I don’t have the words.
A girl gets sucked down a sink hole into an underground cavern. But is she down there alone? Yikes! This one made my toes curl!

Click the links to friend me on Litsy or Goodreads and unite our bookish communities!

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Poll ~ What Do You Find Scarier??? 👻☠️🧛💀🦇               

👻 ☠️ 🧛 💀 🦇 👻 ☠️

In the spirit of Halloween, I want to know what you find scarier:

 

Thanks for your participation, and if you have an idea for a poll that you’d like to see posted, please let me know in the comments section below!

The results of last week’s poll are:

Who is the best female villain? 

  1. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates in Misery) 33.33%
  2. Other: View 33.33%
  3. Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl) 16.67%
  4. Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar – Cruel Intentions) 16.67%

👻 ☠️ 🧛 💀 🦇 👻 ☠️

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Who is the Best Female Villain?

It’s my favorite time of year and I wanted to do something Halloweeny (it’s an actual word, an adjective-who knew!) for this week’s poll. Naturally, I started think of the best villains. Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Leatherface . . . notice a theme here?

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The most common villains are from horror movies. If you do a Google search, you’ll also get plenty of other villains, from gangsters to terrorists, but they’re almost all male. If you search specifically for female villains, they’re mostly from fairy tale, Disney, super hero and comics movies.

What’s going on here? I don’t think we as a culture shy away from portraying women as villains, but it does seem that they aren’t taken as seriously as their male counterparts. So this week I’m asking who you think is the best (realistic) female villain. Feel free to add your own if your pick isn’t represented!

 

The results of last week’s polls:

Which situation would you least like to find yourself in?
* On the side of an empty stretch of highway miles from anything with a broken down vehicle and no cell reception. 45.45%  (5 votes)  
* Any location where I was isolated and by myself with no way to communicate with others. 45.45%  (5 votes)  
* Spending a night in a derelict house believed to be haunted, all by yourself but with a working cell phone. 9.09%  (1 votes)  
* A ski lodge cut off from communicating with the outside world by a blizzard. 0%  (0 votes)  

* An Island resort cut off from communicating with the mainland due to unknown circumstances. 0%  (0 votes) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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(More) Adventures in Pumpkin Carving

3d-dinosaur-pumpkin-carving.jpg (600×450):

Every year when I see those big, round, orange pumpkins hit the stores, I feel so happy. I have such big plans for what I’m going to carve. Intricate masterpieces, works of art, carvings that are downright spooky!

Pumpkin Carving:

Yet every year, that nasty, horrible thing called adulthood takes over. So many things to do, so little time, and the procurement of said pumpkins gets put off time and again until it’s the last minute and I only manage to get some decent gourds because I have unnaturally large arms and can reach the gems hiding deep in the center of the pulpy, rotting orange mass. Sigh.

Dinosaurs800x600_zps61cbff5f.jpg (800×533):

This year I didn’t scoop and carve until the night of Halloween itself. It was late, I was tired, and instead of enjoying what is one of my favorite once a year pastimes, I just wanted to get it over with. Double sigh.
It’s time to get kraken!… and carvin’!!!!:

So now that I’ve shown you all the awesome carvings in all their pumpkin glory that I wanted to do, it’s time to reveal my (lame excuse for a) jack o’lantern, while diverting your attention by telling you how it’s really quite a calculated move because I saw a picture of a moose eating a pumpkin and I figured that a moose wouldn’t be able to resist eating a pumpkin with a moose carved in it, so it’s all a part of my evil plan bwahaha. (Did you buy that story? Yeah, I didn’t either.) Once again, my dreams of pumpkin carving splendor must wait until next year.

moosecarving

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More Adventures in Pumpkin Carving

pump4Every year I promise myself that I’m going to carve out more time to create a pumpkin masterpiece, and every year it gets harder just to find twenty minutes to get it done. I buy the pumpkins. A few days later, I’ll scoop them. And a few days after that, I finally manage to wrangle my husband into a chair, make him pick what he wants to carve, and draw the pattern for him.

pump5The funny thing is, once I get him in the pumpkin carving frame of mind, he becomes much more ambitious about the project, and is willing to dedicate more time to it than me. Each year I pick the pattern that I want to do – the one I would carve if I had more of that nonrenewable resource called time. Then I pick a sad imposter that takes much less time and effort, and carve that.

pump1pumpThis year, I wanted to carve a kraken. Don’t ask me why, I was going to go with Sloth from Goonies, but I woke up with my mind filled with awesome images of a kraken wrapping long, murderous tentacles around a pirate ghost ship, slowly dragging it down to the depths of the sea, never to be seen again. What I ended up carving was an angry octopus 😦

pump2pump3My husband decided to go with a headless horseman. So I drew a template for him, and he went to work. He ended up creating a masterpiece that puts my angry octopus to shame. He’s won his gloating rights, and I’ll have to wait until next year to reclaim my best in show pumpkin carving glory. I suppose it serves me right, but you better believe that it’s all the motivation I need to bring my A-game next year.

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Pumpkin Carving Adventures


wppumpkin1It’s my favorite season of year and as usual there’s a shortage of time to enjoy it. Every October I continue to insist wppumpkin3on carving pumpkins. Even though it turns into a stressful orange cloud hanging over my head, I still somehow strangely enjoy the process. I
buy two, scoop them out, then struggle to find the time to wppumpkincarve them. This year is no different. I managed to get them done at the last moment.

Every year I also pick the image I would carve if I had the time, skill, and patience to create it. The celtic horse is this year’s winner.

 

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Adventures in Pumpkin Carving!

 

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Halloween is my favorite holiday. I can’t help but love it. It’s a time for candy, dressing-up, and letting your inner child out for some fun. For me, Halloween just wouldn’t be complete without carving a pumpkin.

Pumpkin carving is a form of art. I’ve tried improving my skills over the years. I’ve spent hours looking at some of the spectacular creations that some people make with pumpkins. I want to be one of those people.

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saw

Last year I carved a Gremlin in reminiscence of the 80s movie I enjoyed as a kid. I also was the ‘artist’ behind this pumpkin featuring the creepy puppet featured in the SAW movies.

 

jaws

In 2011 I was so proud of my JAWS pumpkin – until people kept asking me what it was. Apparently it’s not as easy to see as I thought.

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And the year before that, I made a werewolf. My dogs chose that one.

This year I wanted to do something grand! Something fantastic! I narrowed it down to three options – a cobra, a Tyrannosaur, and a shark.  I chose the shark, since my JAWS pumpkin failure left me feeling a little blue. I spent an hour lightly drawing my design onto my pumpkin. I don’t use a stencil, I look at a picture online and freehand the design. Maybe that’s my problem.

shark

I was really excited, because this year I was choosing a pattern that required both carving and peeling – removing the outer orange skin layer of the pumpkin, but not cutting entirely through it. It’s a way of creating shading for a more 3D, detailed design. This is the shark image I chose.

shark1

I failed, however, to realistically consider my time constraints. It had taken me a week to get around to gutting my pumpkin. Then another 5 days to sketch it out. Now, my time was up, and I had very little time left to actually carve the pumpkin. I HAD to get it done before Halloween. But, thinking over my schedule, I had only about a ½ that I could dedicate to my creation. It’s not something I can multitask, like typing a blog on my phone while in line at the grocery store. So, much to my dismay, this is my last minute masterpiece.

I promise myself, next year…..

 

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