Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Blogtoberfest – Dark Country Songs – The Legend of Wooley Swamp

Blogtoberfest 2015More Dark Country for your October.  Who doesn’t like a good ghost story? The South carries a rich history of legends and tales of the supernatural and revenge.  Charlie Daniels tells one such tale in this song,  “The Legend of Wooley Swamp.”

 

“Well, if you ever go back into Wooley Swamp
Well, you better not go at night
There’s things out there in the middle of them woods
That make a strong man die from fright…”

The song is set to a great southern rock groove that sets the scene for a scary story from the swamp.  As always, Charlie’s voice gives you the chills as he narrates the story of a greedy hermit who loves nothing but money and the robbers who try to take his stash.

 

Blogtoberfest – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Good Lord.
Good Lord.

In another life, I was an elementary school teacher, which meant nearly every holiday was a par-tay.  Valentine’s Day parties were the most stressful, because, as a teacher, you really had to sit on the “who likes whom” bit and keep it all nice and friendly.  Christmas was nice, but the overabundance of cookies was a little much.  The party that hit the perfect spot (besides the end of school party) was Halloween.

Between the Halloween-themed worksheets, coloring sheets, Halloween parade and Charlie Brown, the whole day was a whirlwind of costumes and candy.  The best part for me, and I hope the class, was when I read from Scary Stories to Read in the Dark.  First of all, take a look at this cover.  It’s the stuff of nightmares, sorry.  I’d keep the book face down on the desk if I had a softcover, and remove the dustjacket if I were using a hardcover that year.

Jeez.
Jeez.

Note.  Yes, I do write about zombies, but only before 2 pm. I’ll tell you a little story – when I was editing Loving Among the Dead, my first zombie book, I stayed up late at night, making sure everything was super scary and ended up giving myself nightmares!  So now, yeah, early afternoon is as far as I”ll go with working, watching or reading scary stuff!

Back to the the main story.  There is a story in the book called “The Big Toe” and it ends with a jump scare.  The story goes like this:  A boy digs in the garden and finds a big toe. He takes it to his father and the father cuts the toe up into three pieces so the family can have something to eat.  Later in the evening, a voice comes ’round saying “Who’s got my toooooooe?  Who’s got my tooooooooe?”

 

 

I would walk around the classroom repeating Who’s got my toooooooe? in a spooky voice until I jumped at one child and yell:  “YOU’VE GOT IT!”  The resounding screams, well, now I know a little of how satisfied Alfred Hitchcock felt when audience screamed during the shower scene in Psycho.

So, pick up the book.  There are three of them, but the first one has the best stories and weirdest drawings.  Like this one:

 

scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-3
She cut off her nose to….SPIDERFACE!!!

 

Pleasant dreams!

 

D

Blogtoberfest – Cocktails – Dracula's Kiss

Nothing says Blogtoberfest, at least on this blog, without the inclusion of something alcoholic. This drink recipe looked good and sounded better, so I decided to share. You’re welcome.

Photo Courtesy: © Shannon Graham
Photo Courtesy: © Shannon Graham

Ingredients

  • 1 ounce black cherry vodka

  • 1/2 ounce grenadine

  • Cola

  • Maraschino cherries for garnish

Blogtoberfest – Dark Country Songs – Lincoln Durham

LincolnCombining music and Halloween isn’t that hard – there’s plenty of scary music to go around.  However, in my Internet search, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Lincoln Durham a country (?) artist.

I say “country artist” because that’s the easiest category to drop him in.  In reality, he’s a combination of Gothic, dark country, blues, gospel….but in all, he makes some damn good music.  Even the title of one of his albums “Exodus of the Deemed Unrighteous” is enough to give you the down-home chills. Check him out.

 

Exodus of the Deemed Unrighteous – Ballad of a Prodigal Son

 

Blogtoberfest – It's Back!!

OCTOBER….OCTOBER…OCTOBER!!
Hang with me for …..

Blogtoberfest!

 

Blogtoberfest 2015

 

Terrible, isn’t it? But fun, right?

The month of October is special to me. It’s not because of Halloween, although that’s part of it. October marks the month in which I had my first e-book, “Kitty Wishes” published with Evernight Publishing.

In honor of this occasion as well as a personal challenge, I will be posting something Halloween related every single day of the month.  If I get frisky, I might post some snippets of the sequel to “Loving Among the Dead”…..”Among the Dead: One More for the Road”.

I certainly hope that you will join me for Blogtoberfest – keep me honest with these posts! Leave a comment!  Share!  Above all, read and have fun!

Dahlia