HAPPY 2011!

MAY YOUR 2011 BE FULL OF BRIGHT PROMISE!

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY-Happy New Year's

The last one for 2010 asks about New Year's.

1. When did they first celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square in New York City?

2. What should someone do first thing on New Year's Day morning for good luck?

3. What are you doing for New Year's Eve?

4. What legend about New Year's do you know.

WEIRD WEDNESDAY

Very weird flip flops--looking like fish. Would you wear them?

MERRY CHRISTMAS--A Writer's Christmas Poem to the Tune of Night before Christmas

A Genre Writer's Christmas

It was the night before Christmas,

And this writer was busy plotting

When all of a sudden--

Her characters came to life!

There was the monster from her novel,

Chomping down on a tasty victim.

The hero appeared, stunning in purple;

Well, that's the writer's favorite color,

What did you expect: white?

He grabbed a sharpened pencil to duel with the fiend

When the heroine popped in midair and dropped down,

Into a container overflowing with paper clips.

Drowning, a clip in her mouth, she cried out for help,

And who do you think rescued her?

Not the hero, oh no!

He was trying to make time with a statue of a gargoyle,

That stood guard over the writer's laptop.

For he had a thing for beings made of stone.

The monster rushed right over in a flash,

Not to kill her or eat her,

No, with a gentle paw, he helped her up.

And arm in arm, both vanished to the monster's lair

Where in chapter eleven, they got it on hot and heavy.

The writer just shook her head

And with a click of the mouse, saved the story.

The hero dissipated, no more to be seen,

Well, not until chapter twelve anyway.

With a sigh, the writer stood, snatching up her coffee cup,

Time to join the family and reality,

The story could wait for another time.

Because it's Christmas after all:

Merry Christmas to all and to all, a magical night!

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY-CHRISTMAS PLANS

Four Questions Friday asks about your plans for this Christmas weekend. Merry Christmas!

1. Which day do you celebrate with family--Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

2. What is one tradition you do at Christmas only?

3. Do you plan to wake up early Christmas morning?

4. Are you going away or staying home for Christmas?

Interviewing Deborah Painter

Today, I am interviewing fellow author and good friend, Deborah Painter about her and her new book, Forry, the Life of Forrest J. Ackerman.


Pamela: Please tell us about your latest book.


Deborah: Forry: The Life of Forrest J Ackerman, from McFarland & Company, Incorporated, Publishers, was published in November 2010 and sold out its first printing before December. More will be printed. I credit that to the immense popularity of the loving, kind, funny and tremendously intelligent subject of the book. It was intended as an intimate biography of Mr. Science Fiction, the guy who coined the term “Sci-Fi:”

If Jules Verne is the father of Science Fiction and Mary Shelley is the mother, Forrest J Ackerman is definitely one of their children. A collector extraordinaire, an author, agent, editor, archivist, historian, public speaker, actor, and promoter, Forry’s influence on generations is inestimable. He was wearing costumes to conventions when no one else was; literally, he and his girlfriend Myrtle Douglas invented science fiction convention costuming for the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939. Forry was the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, published by James Warren’s Warren Publishing Company, among four other magazines. He was the recipient of the “Grimmy” from the televised Horror Hall of Fame in 1990, and he was the first person ever to be awarded a Hugo Award in 1953 at that year’s Worldcon. He received the award for Number One Fan Personality. He created “Vampirella”.

I could go on about the amazing things this man did. But instead of just talking about him and writing articles about him, as I have done for many, many years, I wrote this book.

McFarland’s book description is: “Forrest J Ackerman (1916-2008) was an author, archivist, agent, actor, promoter, and editor of the iconic fan magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland; a founder of science fiction fandom; and one of the world’s foremost collectors of sci-fi, horror and fantasy films, literature, and memorabilia. This biography begins with a foreword by Joe Moe, Ackerman’s caregiver and close friend since 1982. It documents Ackerman’s lifelong dedication to his work in both literature and film; his interests, travels, relationships and associations with famous personalities; and his lasting impact on popular culture. Primary research material includes letters given by Ackerman to the author during their long friendship, and numerous reminiscences from Ackerman’s friends, fans and colleagues.”

Pamela: What can we expect from you in the future?

Deborah: In the near future, I am finishing a book on horses in film; a critical examination of what the horse symbolizes. Also, plenty of magazine articles and books!!

Pamela: What motivated you to start writing?

Deborah: I can’t remember a time when I did not write. I was dictating stories to my parents and older siblings when I was six. When I learned to actually write, I would create little stories illustrated with crayon and bound together with yarn. Oscar the Owl’s Life is a very early, unpublished work.

Pamela: What kind of research do you do?

Deborah: For my day job, I research wetlands, streams, topography and soils for wetland delineations and water quality permitting purposes, and do detailed reports on the environmental impacts of a project on its human and nonhuman surroundings, for Federal documents. For my freelance writing, I research film history, film technology, animals, equitation, geology, history and paleontology.


Pamela: Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?

Deborah: I just go with the flow.


Pamela: Where do your ideas come from?

Deborah: Everywhere…..people I talk to and places I visit.


Pamela: Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?

Deborah: My father, Floyd Eugene Painter, my mother, Kay Sewell Painter, and Forrest James Ackerman, all wrote. My mother was a poet (unpublished, I am sad to say) and my father wrote journal articles for archaeological publications and wrote several books on archaeology. Daddy and Mama nurtured my love of books, bought plenty of them for me, and encouraged me to write. I used them as role models in my writing. Forry Ackerman helped me get started in magazines and kept on featuring my works in his magazines and I used him as a role model as well.


Pamela: Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Deborah: Yes!


Pamela: What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?

Deborah: Sharing what I have discovered and finding out that there are others like my subject matter as much as I do!

Pamela: Please tell us about yourself (family, hobbies, education, etc.)

Deborah: I grew up in the Navy town of Norfolk, Virginia and my father was a marine engineer and archaeologist. My mother was a homemaker. I have a brother and a sister. I earned two degrees in biology from Old Dominion University and my hobbies are photography, rock and fossil collecting, horseback riding, monster movies and studying metaphysics.

Pamela: Are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?

Deborah: There will be people in your life that will not understand your writing or why you want to do it; will resent the time you spend doing it, and will say your writing is stupid or that there are better things you should be doing with your time. Ignore the criticism. Keep on working and believe in your work and yourself. Do your homework; find out about markets and connect with the publishers.

Pamela: Tell us your website, MySpace, Blog, any urls so the readers can find out more about you.

Deborah: I talk too much about myself in Deborah Painter’s Writing News, which is my web site, http://www.deborahpainter.webs.com/ and I also have a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/people/Debbie-Painter/1379491366. Look for me with the sunglasses standing next to a motion picture actor, also in shades.

13.) Now for something fun:


Pamela: Chocolate or vanilla?

Deborah: Chocolate.


Pamela: Favorite thing to do?

Deborah: A walk in the woods or comfy indoors front of a fire? A walk in the woods. Hey, I’m a wetland scientist!! My problem is that I like to eat chocolate before and after the walk.


Pamela: All time favorite book?

Deborah: Cases of the Reincarnation Type: Twelve Cases in Thailand and Burma by Ian Stevenson.


Pamela: Favorite color?

Deborah: Green.


Pamela: Do you like science fiction, fantasy or horror?

Deborah: If I did not like them, I certainly would never have written so much coverage of science fiction, fantasy and horror conventions and films/television over the years, and would never have heard of Forry Ackerman. Perish the thought!!


Pamela: All time favorite actor?

Deborah: Lon Chaney Senior.


Pamela: Actress?

Deborah: Jean Harlow.


Pamela: Favorite TV show?

Deborah: My Favorite Martian. A fun and underrated series well acted by Bill Bixby and Ray Walston. There is a lot of wisdom in that TV program.


Pamela: Favorite Movie?

Deborah: Gee, there are so many great films. If I have to pick just one, I will go with King Kong. I mean the 1933 RKO Radio version with Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong. (Is there another version?) I love the picture for its intrinsic qualities… it’s just an excellent piece of cinema. It’s a perfectly paced adventure movie with a magnificent score. I feel a personal connection to it, too, through the many times I visited the stop motion animation models used in the film, the brontosaurus, pteranodon, stegosaurus and one of the Kong models.


Pamela: What makes you laugh out loud?

Deborah: Stupid (clean) jokes and funny animal antics.


Pamela: If you could go anywhere in the universe where would that be?

Deborah: I want to go to Los Feliz Boulevard near Griffith Park, Los Angeles, and look at the mountains looming up in front of me as I head east toward Glendale.


Pamela: A secret desire?

Deborah: That’s what it is! Secret.




Buy the book at McFarland

Second Weird Wednesday

While out taking pictures for current ghost book I am working on, I saw this at Jefferson Hotel. An alligator decorated for Christmas. Very weird.

Weird Wednesday

How weird for Christmas is this? A frog dressed in Dickins attire?

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY

Four Questions Friday asks questions about what you know about Christmas.

1. What is the scariest legend or myth you know about anything to do with Christmas?

2. What year did Rudoplh first appear and in what?

3. Since there was a real St. Nicholas bgehind the Santa Claus legend, what good thing did he do, and what was his occupation?

4. What can you tell us about the mistletoe?

WEIRD WEDNESDAY

Now this is warped. A man with a gun, obviously a hunter, has bagged Santa Claus!

Santa's Evil Twin

Christmas is more than a holly jolly time. It can also be a scary time of the year, just like Halloween. Spirits and monsters haunt this time of year as much as at the end of October. Like at Charles Dicken's The Christmas Carol.

One of these is "Santa's evil twin." I'm talking about Krampus. In many areas of the world, it is said that St. Nicholas has a companion. This companion is Krampus, though another version is Black Peter, or Zarte Piet or Zwarte Piet. Black Peter is associated with the Netherlands. Black Peter may be do to the Muslins--hence the dark skin.

But Krampus isn't a man though. He has horns, goat hair, hooves, and claws. Just like a demon. His job is to accompany St. Nicholas and to warn and punish bad children. He is said to carry a basket on his back where he will place the bad children and take them to Hell to be tossed into the pit.

Krampus originates from Krampen--meaning claw. Youg men dressed up in goat skins and masks they spend two weeks making and on December 5th go out to scare all and carry out "birching," mainly on young girls.

Tonight, when you cuddle up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and popcorn before your television to watch "Christmas Story," or A Christmas Carol," or any other Christmas flick, make sure all the windows and doors in your home are locked tight. For that shadow cast upon the glass may not be from the tree outside, but something waiting. Waiting to toss you into a basket and take to Hell.

Have you been naughty or nice?

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY

Four Questions Friday asks about your favorite Christmas songs.

1. What is your ultimate favorite song?

2. What is one Christmas song you hate and wish you never hear again?

3. What is one subject you never heard used in a Christmas song?

4. Where is the one place you wish they would not play Christmas songs?

WEIRD WEDNESDAY

What cats would like to be doing--bundle up and make snowcats. Not my cats! They rather be indoors, nice and warm.

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY

Christmas is fast approaching and Four Questions Friday asks you about gifts and what the holidays mean to you.

1. What does the holidays mean to you?

2. If you could have anything at Christmas or Hanukkah, or whatever you celebrate, what would you like?

3. What book as a gift do you like to see under the tree come Christmas morning? Or do you want to see an ereader, and what kind?

4. What gift to the world would you like to give if you had magical powers and could do so?

WEIRD HOLIDAY WEDNESDAY

Christmas is coming and yeah, we all want to see Santa Claus, but not this one!

Interview Today at Paranormal America BlogTalkRadio Show

It will be today, November 28th, from 5:30 to 6:30 P.M. at Paranormal America

I'll be talking about Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales. After a weekend of Thanksgiving craziness and Black Friday insanity, come relax and listen.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I'm thankful for many things,

Like friends and family,

While pets and books also top that list.

How about simple things?

A butterfly on a spring day,

Or a lit Jack-O-lantern on Halloween night?

Crying over a beautiful love story,

Or laughing over a silly joke?

But most of all, I can say

I'm thankful for life and what it brings each day.

Poem copyrighted by its author, Pamela K. Kinney

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

WEIRD WEDNESDAY

Nothing weird, but humorous. Of course, it could be weird. Happy Thanksgiving.

My Book Signing Saturday, Nov. 27th in Virginia Beach, Virginia

I'll be doing a book signing at the newly opened Cozy Corner-Haven for Readers and Writers bookstore this upcoming Saturday, November 27th from 1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. Not only my two ghost books, but Spectre Nightmares and Visitations, and some of my paranormal romance I've written as Sapphire Phelan. Signed books make great Christmas gifts, plus check out the rest of the bookstore.

Their address is 613 Virginia Beach Blvd. Virginia Beach, Virginia 23451 Their phone number is 757-233-0996.

http://cozycorneronline.com

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY

Since I am seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I today, Four Questions Friday asks about Harry Potter and what you think of this phenomenon.

Next week, there'll be no Four Questions Friday as I will be doing shopping on Black Friday and when not, working on my NaNo book since the end of the month is near. Four Questiosn Friday returns December 3rd.


1. Have you read the books, or just seen the films only?

2. Not counting the new one, which is your favorite of the Harry Potter films?

3. Favorite of the books?

4. Which Harry Potter character do you feel is most like you (this can be one of the secondary or ones that been in a book/film once)?

WEIRD WEDNESDAY

So is this the new style in hats this November?

Answers for Four Questions Friday November 12, 2010

Here they are:

1. The word not.

2. "B."

3. None! If you don't believe, try writing down all the numbers in words, you won't find the letter "A" in any of them. This is 1-100.

4. Larry.

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY

Four Questions Friday has some brain teasing trick questions to see if you know the answers to. (I'll post the answers Monday on the blog, but do leave your answers in the comments until Monday at midnight.)

1. What is the answer to this: forward, I'm heavy, but backwards I am not?

2. Which letter of the alphabet flies, sings and stings?

3. Which numbers from 1-100 have the letter 'A"in their spellings?

4. Larry's father has five sons named Ten, Twenty, Thirty, Forty. . .Guess the name of the fifth?

WEIRD WEDNESDAY

Is this cheesecake turkey? LOL

You Can Listen to My Latest Radio Inrterview Online

I did a radio interview yesterday at XTRA 99 in Gloucester, Virginia. If you were not local to that area and didn't hear it live, you can listen to it online at http://is.gd/gO28p

Just scroll down the page--I will be the last author interview. And do check out the other authors, too.

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY

Four Questions Friday asks about chance encounters with wild animals, since my husband and I had ours with a black bear on Blue Ridge Parkway, which we were on this past Wednesday.

1. Ever had a chance encounter with a wild animal?

2. What wild animal would you like to see one day in the wild that you never had yet?

3. What would you do if you were hiking in the woods and ran into a bear (we were in our car, but bears are in the mountains here, so it has and can happen)?

4. Do you like watching National Geographic or Animal Planet shows?

WEIRD WEDNESDAY

A weird Thanksgiving picture.

Writer's Workshop by Chesterfield Writers Saturday, November 6th

I am one of the panelists for the all-day Writer's Workshop, being put on by the Chesterfield Writers.It will be from 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. this Saturday, November 6th, at the Meadowdale Library. It'd only $10 to attend all day and you can preregister at Writer's Workshop or pay at the door. The address of the library is 4301 Meadowdale Blvd. Richmond.

Happy Halloween-A Free Scary Tale For You!

Trick-Or-Treat

By

Pamela K. Kinney

Enjoy this new story by me. It is copyrighted to me, so please do not copy it and put it wherever you post or in a pdf file to give away free, as I own all rights to it. Just let your friends know the link so they too, can read it.

Janie and Bobby dressed in costumes, trudged up the sidewalk as they passed other similarly dressed children. It was Halloween, their favorite time of the year. Where all children could go door to door, knock, and candy were poured into their waiting bags after yelling, ‘trick or treat.’ If the adult refused, the kids could play tricks on them and get away with it.

Janie and Bobby loved the treats, but they loved doing the tricks even more. They loved doing nasty, terrible tricks.

“It’s tradition,” Mama told them. If the adults gave them candy, then fine and dandy, don’t do anything. But for that one who said, “No treats here, now go away!” they could go ahead and do what their family had been doing since the early 1900s.

Janie and Bobby couldn’t wait. The past couple of years they hadn’t been able to play any of their tricks, as every door they had knocked at the owners handed over candy, fruit, popcorn balls, and money. But when they woke up this morning, they sensed that this night would be different.

Nothing happened so far. Both of their bags laden heavy with the fruits of their labor, they stopped before the white picket fence that surrounded the yard of a pretty white Cape Cod home. It looked so normal and so . . . suburbia.

This was it. They felt it. They would finally get what was owed them.

Janie and Bobby looked at each other, shark grins flashing on their sweet, chubby faces. Then they pushed the gate open and wandered up the leaf strewn path to the front door. No Halloween decorations shown anywhere and no lit Jack-O-Lantern greeted them, just the closed door, painted a cheery blue.

They knocked and waited.

The door opened with nary a creak, and a little old lady stood on the other side. Her white hair was swept up in a bun and she wore a cheerful flowered print top and white pants. She peered at them, her eyes blinking behind glasses.

“Sorry,” she said, “but I forgot to buy candy to give out tonight.”

Bobby grinned. “That’s okay. We rather not have any treats. Tricks are oh so much cooler.” He threw aside his bag and sweets scattered across the front stoop.

He lifted his real axe. He had dressed as serial killer on purpose this morning. His sister was garbed as Lizzie Borden, her own axe gripped in her fist. She dropped her own bag and raised it high above her head.

The old lady stepped closer and smiled. “I know. I’ve been waiting for you, my dears. Human killers are not very smart. Not when inhuman ones have perfected their own bag of tricks for eons. My kind has been hunting their prey the hard way for centuries. Many still do. Not me, I found a much easier way. Usually I decorate my place to attract regular human children on this night, but when I moved here and heard of the murders that been going on in this town for a long time, I devised a different tactic.” She giggled. “It’s only justice for the humans in this town after all and delivery food for me.”

Her face cracked and it split, falling to the floor. The rest of the body followed. A giant shaggy wolf-like creature stood on clawed hind feet and with its upper paws, snatched both children to its breast. Bobby and Janie screamed, but were cut off when the door slammed shut.



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

FOUR QUESTIONS FRIDAY

Halloween is almost here. Four Questions Friday asks about what are your plans for it.

1. What are you doing on Halloween?

2. Do you plan to wear a costume?

3. Do you have children, and will you take them trick-or-treating, or an alternative?

4. Do you have plans to go on a ghost tour, do a scary haunted house, hayride or something likie that, or something else?

Book Signing Tonight in Richmond, Book Talk/Signing in Virginia Beach Saturday, Oct. 30th

Tonight, I will be signing copies of Haunted Richmond, Virginia and Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales 6:00 to 8:00 PM at Barnes and Noble @ Chesterfield Towne Center 11500 Midlothian Turnpike Richmond. For directions orn if can't make it but want a signed copy to be held for you, call the book store: 804-794-6640.

Saturday, October 30th 1:00 to 2:30PM I will be doing a book talk about the hauntings of Virginia at the Virginia Beach Central Library 4100 Virginia Beach Blvd. Virginia Beach. Afterwards be selling and signing copies of Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales and my fiction book, Spectre Nightmares and Visitations. Since it will be me selling them, I accept checks and cash only, no credit. Sorry.

You will need to register by phone for this free event:757-385-0105.

Weird and Scary Wednesday

It's the last Weird and Scary Wednesday as Halloween is in four days. Isn't this car bizarre, scary and of course, just plain weird?

Jack-O-Lantern-Truth and Folklore

We carve jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins around Halloween. People carve monstrous faces to hopefully scare kids approaching doors during trick-or-treat. Sometimes, they are friendly faces, or famous characters from movies, TV and books--like the stormtrooper one my husband carved in one craft pumpkin we have. And yes, you don't have to use the gourds you find at the supermarket or grown at pumpkin farms, you can use craft pumpkins found at craft stores, too. You can also paint pumpkins even. This is safer for children to do, rather than using casrving implements. They can use their own paints to paint cool faces or by using stencils, faces or scenes on the flesh of the pumpkin.

This tradition stated back in Ireland. A turnip was used then. The Irish carved these vegetables and left them on doorsteps to ward off evil spirits. But it did not become part of Halloween until 1866. That was in America and not in Ireland or Britain. There is no documented proof to substatiate that the jack-o-lanterns were ever part of Halloween before this date.

There is folklore behind the jack-o-lantern.In one version of the story, Stingy Jack was a miserly old man who runs into the Devil. He asks if the Devil would turn into a coin he could use to pay some Christian villagers he owed to. These Christians would fight over this coin, which in actually is the Devil. The Devil agreed, thinking how fine a joke this would be.

But Jack pockets him and there's a cross in the pocket, too. The Devil is stuck, unless he promises he will not take Jack's soul when he dies. The Devil agrees to the deal and is set free.

Jack finally dies. He goes up to Heaven, but the gates are closed to him. He has too great a stain on his soul for Heaven to allow him inside. And thanks to his agreement with the Devil, he is barred from Hell, too. The Devil tosses him a turnip and an ember made from Hellfire, and he tells Jack to carve the turnip and put the ember inside. With this lantern his only way to light his way, Jack wanders the earth searching for a resting place. Jack became known as Jack-o'-Lantern.

There are other versions of this Irish tale, even an African-American one. There's even one with the Grim Reaper in place of the Devil, who takes Jack's head to Hell with him. Jack uses a pumpkin to replace his head. No doubt, this is mixed up with the Headless Horseman story.

When you carve that pumpkin and place a lighted candle or bsttery-run one inside it, then stand on your porch and watch the costumed children wandering the street, helped by lit flashlight, think of one man doomed to roam the earth forever.

Will you take pity on him if he comes to your door?

Top sites to find jack-o-lantern carving stencils: http://is.gd/ghLAr