Weird Wednesday

Keeping with the scary, Halloween theme until end of October for Weird Wednesday, here is some scary smoke stuff. I think alien in dark way, or even demonic presence. What do you think?

Books in the Park and Paranormal Virginia

Above is the photo of dark fiction author Jim Bernheimer (it was his camera), me on his left and SciFi/fantasy author Catherine Asaro at the Books in the Park. They were nice people to share tables with and chat with. I have copies of their books and plan to read them. Even reviewed them here on this blog. So stay tune.

Surprising the festival wasn't as busy as last year's, which was the event's first year. I could figure out why. Maybe the economy?

When Romantic suspense author Katheryn Mix and I got into Norfolk and parked her car at the garage we were told to go to, it began to rain. Until noon, it rained off and on, mainly in downpour. But right on cue, maybe couple minutes late, at Noon, the sun came out, blue skies showed and the clouds went from dark to white. By 4PM, it was definitely about 80 degrees.

By the time I got home, it was about 7PM. Traffic was congested and slow, even at a standstill sometimes, so it took longer than normal. I suspected many people took the opportunity of warm weather to go to the beach that day.

Outdoor signings now finished, from here on you will find me indoors. First one, Get in the Know presents Paranormal Virginia will be this Thursday at the La Prade Library 9000 Hull Street Rd. Richmond, VA 23236-1304 (804) 276-7755, 10:30AM to Noon.

The event is free. I am also pretty sure you must be a senior citizen for this. Call the library for more details on it. I will have afterwards a book signing, so this will be a good tie to get copies of either Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales and Haunted Richmond, Virginia, or both. It will be either cash or checks since it will be me selling them.

FOUR QUESTION FRIDAY

It's almost the end of September. Few more days and it'll be October. How time flies.Speaking of time, here's four questions for you to leave an answer in the comments.

1. Do you think time really flies or crawls?

2. If you could earn a whole day's time for yourself what would you do with it?

3. Being close to the end of the month, are you looking forward to October, or do you wish there were more days to September?

4. Do you think time travel can be possible?

I'll be Speaking at Life Through Literature in Petersburg, Va. Saturday, Sept. 26th

Join me as I speak at Petersburg Public Library's Life Through Literature September 26, 2009, 3:30PM to 4PM. The event will be held at Poplar Lawn Park in Petersburg Petersburg, Virginia 23803. For map of where the park is:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Poplar%20Lawn%20Park%2c%20Petersburg

For more information on the whole event held Noon to 8PM: http://www.ppls.org/ The event is free.

Weird Wednesday

Since it is about seven days to October and Halloween is on its way, I will be posting spooky, weird pictures on Weird Wednesday. Enjoy the first one today.

Henricus Park's Publick Days

Yesterday, my husband and I went to the second day of Henricus Park's Publick Days in Chester, Virginia. It was a nice Sunday, sunny and not too hot as the day wore on. In fact, it started off pretty cool when we got into our car to drive to the park.

As you can see from the photos, they reenacted even more so than normal the Citie of Henricus in the 1600s. It is the second settlement after Jamestown. This is where they say Pocahontas and John Rolfe married. Usually it costs something to do something like this normally, but not this weekend.

The place was crowded after a while. But when we arrived to park, we got to do so in the first lot, right next to the park's entrance. When we left, we saw buses bringing in people who had to park in lots farther away. But we both felt that Saturday had to be way more crowded.

Not all reenactors were from the 1600s. There was a group of Civil War soldiers, as you can see from one of the photos. There was supposed to be others from WWI and WWII too, but we never saw them. Bill figured they were there only on Saturday.

Also the Godspeed (this is not the original one--Godspeed was one of the three ships that brought John Smith and others to New World) had came up river from Jamestown for the two days. So we got to go on board.

I also got to aim one of the replicas of a gun they used and I even took a picture of Bill standing next to some tobacco plants, which was one of the primary farming they did in Henricus back then.

Just as nice, though not historical, was being able to look over the river and see in the distance the bridge that is part of 295. We had been over that bridge many times since lived in Chesterfield. Though not as much since 895 was opened.

Please enjoy the photos, and if you're ever this way, or even live in Richmond or Virginia, but never been to Henricus Park, here is their website: http://www.henricus.org/

Cool News!

I am very excited. Not gotten the contract yet, but I received the news that my poem, "Dementia," was accepted for the Terror at Miskatonic Falls anthology. This will be published by Shroud Publishing. I had to share the cool news!

Arrrgh! Talk Like a Pirate Today!

Yes, it's that time of year again. Naw, not bloody Halloween or autumn. I be talkin' about "Talk like a Pirate International Day." Why, there even be an official site for it: http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html
Kinda like ya wanna blow ye hronpipe for joy--right-o, me mate? So, today gits yer piratey hat on and swagger, cause its time to talk like a pirate. If youse don't, I'sa gonna lams it to you, right-like.

Four Questions Friday

Today's Four Questions Friday will be about autumn since it will soon be that.Please leave your answers in the comment. Let others know about this so they too, can leave their answers. Thank you.

1. What part of autumn do you like?
2. If autumn isn’t your most favorite time of year, tell us which season is.
3. Do you have a tradition of something you do every fall?
4. Since both Halloween and Thanksgiving are holidays of autumn, which one is your favorite?

Weird Wednesday

Did someone carve this tree into a figure, or did it grow like this. Very strange tree. Maybe it's a dryad. Kinda creepy, besides weird.

My Birthday and Four Questions for Friday

Today is my birthday. Yes, I am a 9/11 baby, though being older than the 9/11 incident it was my birthday before that.
Today, I will start Four Questions for Friday on my blog. Unless I have something like a book signing to report (like I have one tomorrow 1-4PM at Creatures and Crooks BookShoppe3156 West Cary Street Cary Court Park & Shop Richmond, VA 23221 804-340-0277 or toll-free 888-533-5303 Saturday. http://www.cncbooks.com)I will do this.

1. Being my birthday, do you celebrate your birthday?

2. What was your most favorite gift that you received?

3. Which one was the worse?

4. Of all your birthdays, which year was the best one for you?


Now it's up to you readers to leave a comment and answer the questions. Let's make this something I feel I can do every Friday.

NEW VOICES--Writing Competition for Students 11-18

New Voices

As a child, I dreamed of being a famous author. I secretly wrote poetry and short stories that are still in some of my diaries (and never to be seen by anyone’s eyes but mine). In high school, I won a few of my high school’s poetry contests. Needless to say, I was excited, but never considered pursuing writing as a career. Had I been given the chance to submit my work to professional authors and receive positive feedback with recommendations on how to improve my work for free as well as the possibility to win publication and a prize, perhaps my chosen career path would have been different. Regardless, I know the encouragement would have meant the world to me.

Well, that’s exactly why New Voices was started: to encourage young writers to write and to read. A writing competition open to students in public, private, or home schools and ages 11-18 years of age (6^th-12^th grades) around the world, New Voices offers what few other writing competitions offer: encouragement and comments from professional authors, editors, publishers, teachers, and librarians on every entry received, not just finalists. It’s an exciting and wonderful opportunity for young writers interested in pursuing a publishing career.

Run completely by volunteers, New Voices has no entry fee. Matter of fact, entrants need never pay for anything involving the competition. PDF versions of the winning entries are available as a free download -- http://www.newvoicesyoungwriters.com/anthology.html -- on our website. However, they can attend the New Voices’ tract at EPIC’s yearly conference in New Orleans this year. The fee to attend is $40, which covers the workshops and lunch. The attendees will even have an opportunity to sign up for a “practice” pitch session with publishers, editors, and published authors. For more information about what we’ll be doing at the conference, you can visit our conference page -- http://www.newvoicesyoungwriters.com/conference.html.

Prizes in the past have included money orders, checks, ebook readers, gift certificates, and cash.

Entering is as easy as following this link -- http://www.newvoicesyoungwriters.com/enter.html and following the submission guidelines posted on the page. New Voices is looking for short stories, poetry, and essays.

Entries are accepted up until October 20, 2009, at midnight. Finalists will be notified toward the end of December.

All inquiries can be directed to Marci Baun or Danielle Thorne at newvoices.chair@gmail.com.

Marci Baun
Publisher
Wild Child Publishing -- http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/
Break free...read wild!
Freya's Bower -- http://www.freyasbower.com/
Weaving passion into words...

Weird Wednesday

Is that a very big cow, or is the person really much smaller? Good question for today's Weird Wednesday picture.

Visiting Haunted Crawford Rd. Bridge i n York County

Yesterday, on way to a party in Virginia Beach, my husband and I stopped in York County at the reputedly haunted Crawford Road Bridge, for my new nonfition ghost book I am working on right now. I took plenty of pictures, front of it, back , and even while standing inside. This was Sunday morning of September 6th. I hope to come back at night, take few more pictures.

The road is a lot of woods on each side and a calm country one. The kind you like to drive down. Hardly any other vehicles.

As for the bridge, it looked like the one picture I got of it from off the Internet. Lots of graffiti all over it, on the outside and inside, on the walls. There were KKK and Nazi symbols, along with the normal graffiti you would see. There were a couple of creepy words on the back side, up at the top. Looked like someone wanted to write witch and below it, the word, dark. As for the hauntings? Good question.
I felt something while there. I did use my recorder. if got any evps, it will be in my book, so I can not mention them here. Nothing out of the ordinary in ay of my pictures. Maybe when do the night time version, I will get some then. We shall see.

On the ghostly legends about this bridge (this is from my book, Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales)http://is.gd/2ZZTx:

"There’s a bridge on a section of road where Tour Road crosses over Crawford Road that at night weird things happen. The legend bandied about it is that African-Americans were hung from it.

They say that an African-American woman in a white dress is seen standing on the bridge at the edge and then falls from it to dissipate just before hitting the pavement.

But the strangest stories that are told about this area that vehicles seem to stop running as they approach the bridge. Then the same vehicles start up again when they are pushed past the “haunted” spot. Not all cars need to be pushed though. Some say that their car shifts into neutral and will roll uphill some distance. Afterwards, they would check out their cars later and find hand prints all over it."

I know that the story of vehicles put in neutral and suddenly will roll forward, with even hand prints on the paint afterwards, is in many other such legends all over the world.I have another such story about a witch in the witch chapter of Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales, set in another part of Virginia. Fellow author and good friend, Theresa Bane has another tale like mine in her ghost book, Haunted Historic Greensboro. And I am sure there are many others in other books or that people heard of.
If you know of one where you live, do share about in in the comments, so others can read about them. And do tell us where this place is.

Please Vote for My Story to Win-Got Til 9/30

Please vote for my Lovecratian horror story, "Azathoth is Here."

As says here:

Have you read our first fiction issue? No? Shame on you, check it out here and then go vote for your favourite story.

The writer with the most votes gets $50 CAD and bragging rights. So do a little survey and give an author some extra cash. Voting is open September 1 to September 30. http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/?p=1545

So help my story to win.

Labor Day

Labor Day is almost here. For those outside of the United States, this holiday came about as the creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. Always the first Monday in September, it's a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the U.S.

Even to this day, 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there's still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday.

There are some records that say that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first one to suggest a day to honor the workers.

But his place in Labor Day history hasn't gone unchallenged. Others believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882. This was when he served as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.

Tuesday, September 5, 1882 was when the first Labor day was celebrated, and this in New York City only. This was because of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held the second one a year later, on September 5, 1883.

It was in 1884, that the first Monday was chosen to become the holiday. The Central Labor Union urged other labor organizations in other cities to follow their example. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. Next came state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. After that, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of that decade, Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania joined in. twenty-three other states adopted the holiday in honor of workers by 1894. Congress passed an act by June 28, 1894, making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

Parades happened during this day, followed by festivals. Over time the way it is celebrate has changed, to even now a being in many people's minds as the last official day of summer to grill or swim in the pool. As for being for the American worker's day off, many stores are open and workers working.
But still, it is a day we should all reflect on how all workers should have a day to celebrate the hard work they do.

Weird Wednesday

Today's Weird Wednesday picture is a squirrel unzipping himself and look what emblem is showing!