by Sarah | Mar 25, 2014 | All About Me, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect, Story of Me, The Geek, Top Ten Tuesday
I’m a total ghost geek.
I admit it.
Have been for…wow, at least since middle school.
I believe in ghosts, I believe I’ve seen several.
Also, I DREAM of being able to go to a haunted location.
Even my hubby, who doesn’t believe in ghosts, has talked of taking me to one just because I want to go SO.BAD.
So this top ten list – wasn’t easy. Narrowing it down to only 10 locations, but I did. There is no particular order in place here, because there isn’t one I’d want to go to more than another. I want to see them all-fully equipped with cameras, evp recorders, and video. Yeah, totally obsessed.
10. The Bird Cage Theater – Tombstone, Arizona. So much life, and death, passed through here and the tales of hauntings are pretty long standing.
9. The Stanley Hotel – Estes Park, CO. I wouldn’t be a ghost geek if I didn’t want to go to this one.
8. Myrtles Plantation – Francisville, LA. A ghost that shows up in lots of pictures? Uh, yes please.
7. Whaley House – San Diego, CA. Rumors of a man (Yankee Jim), a woman, a small child, and even a small dog have been reported haunting this home for years. It was declared the most haunted house in the US by the Travel Channel.
6. Eastern State Penitentiary – Philadelphia, PA. Gives me the shivers just thinking about going…but that wouldn’t stop me.
5. Villisca Ax Murder House – Villisca, IA. Hundreds of years later the mystery of this house remains. It would be interesting to see what you could find there.
4. Lincoln Square Theater – Decature, IL. Evidence abounds out of this theater. I’d love to add to the stockpile.
3. Winchester Mystery House – San Jose, CA. Another one where I wouldn’t be a ghost geek if I didn’t want to go.
2. Lemp Mansion – St. Louis, MO. I was right near this one a couple of years back. Unfortunately, I was there on a mostly planned weekend and didn’t have time to get to the Lemp Mansion, but next time I go to St. Louis, I AM going to Lemp.
1. Waverly Hills Sanitorium – Louisville, KY. ‘Nuff said.
~The two most likely to happen are the Lemp Mansion and Waverly Hills, because those are within close driving distance. We’ve also talked about doing Waverly Hills since they have a way to sign up and do it. It might yet happen…
~One house is notably absent, and I have many many reasons for it. That’s the Lizzie Borden House. I couldn’t add it to the list for personal reasons.
~Also not on the list are any places from Salem, MA or Gettysburg because…well, there isn’t any ONE place in those towns I could choose over another. I would want to go an experience the whole towns…so it didn’t feel right to add whole towns to the list. 😀
And that’s my list and caveats. 😀
What about you? Are you a ghost geek? Tell me I’m not alone!!
by Sarah | Mar 24, 2014 | Book Spotlight, Guest Authors, Saturday Spotlight, Writing
Like all of us here, I love romance, but like happiness, romance can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. As I get older I feel more comfortable with examinging my need for romance and what I like when I like it, and particularly how my needs for romance change. I loved Valantines Day when I was young, for example, but my opinion on that has changed somewhat, and I’d prefer something more spontaneous at this end of a long term marriage.
However, and this is the difficulty with romance, discussing your romantic needs seems antithetical to receiving them. Seeing hubby walk through the door with a huge bunch of roses is completely different to getting a bunch after telling him I’d like him to bring flowers home more often. Romance can be a delicate thing and nuances, attitudes and circumstances can completely alter the same gesture. I don’t expect my husband to just know what I need in any area of my life, and at the same time, the most romantic moments for me, are when I’ve done nothing to solicit his romantic action.
So, part of romance, is learning how to receive what he is offering as well as getting what I want. My husband likes to make me mix tapes of music he is listening to. We don’t always share the same tastes, but I love those music collections, because I feel as though I have been invited into his secret world, as if he is reaching out to me and bringing me close. They’ve also become a map of our marriage, as we tend to play his latest gift for a solid week or so after he gives it. If a new partner asked me what I like romantically, music mixes might not be at the top of the list, but when they come from my husband, my heart bursts with joy.
So, in the spirit of trying to communicate what our best romantic gestures are, I thought this Top Ten Tuesday on Sarah’s Story Lines will be a ten favourite romantic gestures, in the hope you might make your own, and start the conversation in a gentle way that wakes us up to the romance we need, as well as the romance that might already be all around us.
10. Public declarations of love.
Like everyone, I get insecure every now and then. I love it when my husband, rather than enjoy my insecurity, seeks to reassure me by telling a pretty woman who is trying to flirt with him, how much he loves me, or reaching for me to introduce me to her. These petty rivalries exist (sometimes) between women, and I love it when my husband chooses me, over and over again, above all other women.
9. Saving for a romantic holiday.
I’m a traditionalist in this department. I love Paris, Rome, London and New York. When we decide we’re going to go to one of these cities, and we plan it, get excited, gather resources and set up a fund account, I get so excited and every little moment is like a huge romantic gesture. (We’ve only done this twice, but I’m hoping there will soon be a third.)
8. Long slow deep kisses.
Especially when either of us walk though the door at the end of the day. No further explanation required.
7. Food and Wine gifts
He doesn’t do it all the time, but one of hubby’s romantic gestures I’ve come to love and appreciate, is when he is home late, he brings something to contribute to dinner, like a bottle of wine, a loaf of excellent sour dough, or two delicate pastries. It’s his little way of acknowledging I work too and I had to steer our ship alone today.
6. Looking at our Wedding Photos Together.
This is one I asked for, but he now knows that we do it each year on our anniversary. We snuggle up in bed and go through the wedding album. He focusses and engages with me and we talk about the year we’ve just had. I love these moments, and they end up being the best part of every one of our anniversaries.
5. Booking a beautiful restaurant for no reason
Confession time. I’m still working on this one. For some reason I am always the one who suggests the restaurant and the night out. But I’ll get there! I have to think of a way to let him know this is something I would like, without feeling like I forced him.
4. Sitting and Chatting about our day
This one he does quite a lot. If he comes home and I am cooking, he opens the wine he bought and we sip and chat. He doesn’t run off somewhere else, and I am always so grateful for that. We both work hard, so we have a lot to chat about in our day. It’s never dull and we both feel a close part of it all when we do settle down to eat or get on with something else.
3. Note and Pics
For some reason, my hubby likes to leave me photos. I’m still not completely sure what this is about, but he will change my desktop or photocopy images and leave them around for me. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they are just something nice he saw. I have grown to love these little cartoons, jokes and other images, even though I confess, sometimes I wonder where his head is at.
2. Buying me a book or Journal.
Being a writer books and journals are my very favourite gift. This is one I taught my husband, but he’s really good at it now. He just keeps an eye out and about once a month or so there is a new journal and about every two months, he pops home with a book for me. The best thing is, they’re not always books I would choose, but I try to read every single one. It’s my way of saying thanks.
1. Mixed tape.
This has to be my number one, because my digital mixed tapes are such a big gift.
What are some of your favourite romantic gestures?
Barbra Novac is a writer of erotic romance, and erotica. Spellbound is her new book, coming out in April 2013.
Blurb:
When struggling film maker Connie Berringer goes to her local to drown her financial sorrows in cheap wine, mysterious stranger Jack Sinclair offers to buy her a drink claiming she’s beautiful. She begrudgingly accepts to ease her wallet, but is too smart to be fooled by the line. When the drink arrives, it’s not a beer, but a fifty-thousand dollar bottle of Grange Hermitage. Connie’s interest in Jack Sinclair dramatically changes, only to find he’s vanished.
Over the next few days Jack will turn up at the most unexpected moments rapidly becoming a crucial part of Connie’s world, and soon, an exciting adventure in the bedroom. Connie discovers a self in Jack’s arms she never knew, including the depths of passion she is capable of and the lengths Jack will go to stimulate that passion. Jack sees something in Connie he wants, but his search for it in the past will come back to haunt him, resurfacing as a threat to the new relationship he’s found.
Sophisticated, erotic, witty and tantalising, Spellbound reaches into the broad sweep of the soul from the suspenseful drama of a homage to Hitchcock to the slow ticklish thrill of a completely romantic romance.
You can find our more about Barbra Novac at www.barbranovac.com or www.barbrawrites.com
by Sarah | Mar 24, 2014 | All About Me, Redefining Perfect
Back in December I finally had surgery on my much-despised, and often painful, foot.
Without going into too much detail, a genetic quirk makes my big toes point in toward my pinky toes. I’ve had this issue since birth and it wasn’t always painful, but as I reached adulthood, and the bunions this quirk caused grew, and the toes moved further outward, pain became a regular companion.
So after hemming and hawing and delaying for years, I bit the bullet and told the podiatrist “Let’s do it.”
Right out of surgery everythign looked GREAT.
My toe had never, in my entire life, been so straight.
It was awesome…despite the levels of pain I was in, the extreme levels of cabin fever I was going through and the inability to do anything for myself (which I despise). I was able to say “It was SO worth it.”
And then…
And then…
Shortly after I started walking again, and the swelling started to go down, my toe began “drifting.”
Back toward the position it was in pre-surgery.
Back…
Back…
Back…
I’ve been back to the podiatrist, had another x-ray, had everything checked out – and there’s no clear explanation.
We don’t know why.
We only know my stubborn-fool body is reverting back to the odd quirk.
And now all I can do is pray that the pain doesn’t return.
But my hopes to have straight feet, and the ability to get whatever job I want once I’m healed are gone.
So disappointing.
All that pain.
All that healing.
All for nothing.
by Sarah | Mar 23, 2014 | Books, Morgana Chronicles, Tuesday Tales, Writing
Welcome back to Tuesday Tales! This weeks prompt is to be inspired by that picture.
I interpreted the image as a mirror…and although it doesn’t match the mirror I have in my head for my Urban Fantasy/Fractured Fairy Tale/Steampunk story “Into a Mirror Darkly”, I used it for that anyhow.
Red (aka Red Riding Hood/Rose Red) is my badass bounty hunter. Solange is not the fairy tale character you’d expect her to be…she is Beauty, i.e. Solange LaBelle. And this moment happens…oh, mid-story. This is a tale I have been working on on-and-off for a little over a year. I want it to be right & have my full attention so I’ve not been able to focus on it yet. I have two (smaller) stories to finish and send off for edits, then this baby is coming out to shine again:
It couldn’t be. The Crone had seen to the destruction of nearly all the mirrors in Morgana years ago. So far as Red knew only bits and shards still existed across the lands. While she herself had shards on her person, she’d not seen a full, true mirror in many years. Not since Morgana became a virtual wasteland.
“I found it in the dungeons.” Solange spoke in a hushed voice, and in an eerie tableau the scarred half of her body lingered in shadow. Light from her lantern shimmered and reflected off the mirror. In the half-light her good eye glowed almost as white as her dead eye. “I don’t know what the beast used it for, but in the few glimpses I’ve got it almost seems like you could spy on others with it.”
“It carries a lot of power.” Red drew closer, but avoided touching the reflective pane. Gran had taught her well enough to know to avoid strange mirrors. The magic was untrustworthy if it hadn’t your energy within. Red circled to face the mirror dead on.
In the reflection she noticed Cassandra, Solange’s golden clockwork cat. The infernal creation affected a false purr, the rolling links of its tail curling back in forth in a steady motion along the dirt floor of the dungeon.
Red hazarded a glance toward Solange. Unease rippled through Red’s belly and she set a hand on the dagger at her side. A movement in the mirror drew her eyes back. A shadow passed just on the other side of the glass, she was certain of it.
Solange flicked her hand.
The cat leaped, and while Red reacted quick enough to defend herself, Cassandra managed to throw her off-balance. Red tumbled toward the mirror, and the world swirled around her as she fell down, down, down …
*~*
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by Sarah | Mar 22, 2014 | Books, Holiday, WeWriWa, Writing
Welcome back to the Weekend Writing Warriors!
Tag is still discussing his possible job at The Midway with his aunt Myrtle. He admits that Michaela seemed skeptical about giving him the job. Myrtle teases him and says all he has to do is charm her, he’s good at that.:
“I’d rather get hired because I can do the job, not because I can charm someone.” Although he didn’t imagine with Michaela it would take much-he could still picture her deep red blush that had so easily filled her cheeks and seeped down her elegant neck.
His aunt was right; he was in a heap of trouble.
The doors to the kitchen swung open with a bang when Myrtle walked back into the kitchen. “Just remember to dress right and shave that scruff off your face,” she yelled over her shoulder.
“I like my scruff.”
“Fine, be a ragamuffin,” she hollered from the back.
He laughed and finished off his drink-after a moment he brushed his fingers along his chin and wondered if Michaela liked the scruff, “Yeah, I’m in a heap of trouble.”
*Creative editing used to fit this into the 8
*~*
| Amazon | SCP | BN | ARe |
Michaela O’Keefe is in over her head with her restaurant, The Midway. Her ad for an assistant manager brings Owen “Tag” Montague to her doorstep. With an impeccable resume and dozens of letters of recommendation, she has little choice but to give him a chance. Ten years her junior, Tag sets her long-dead libido humming, but she gave up on love and her instincts on men years ago.
Tag has had a crush on his new boss since his youth, but he’s determined to prove he can do the job. Still, he can’t resist the urge to make her blush down to her toes as often as possible. He knows her rough past in life and love makes it hard to trust, and he’s wary of crossing the line he so desperately wants to.
Just when they manage to figure out how to work and play together, Michaela’s ex does all he can to destroy their budding love. When push comes to shove Michaela’s inability to give Tag the benefit of the doubt might destroy everything.
Learning to trust herself again is the hardest lesson Michaela will ever have to learn – and by the time she does, it may be too late for love.
*~*
Head back on over to the Weekend Writing Warriors to read many more wonderful offerings!
I’m a total ghost geek.
