Dahlia DeWinters – Author – Page 67 – Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Blogtoberfest – Halloween Cat Craft

I have three little ones. In an alternate life, I was a teacher. I can sense when it’s time to put away the books and the science experiments and take out the construction paper, pipe cleaners and the googly eyes.

Crafts are a stress reliever. Coloring, cutting, pasting and putting things together can be a welcome respite from sweating over a keyboard. Especially where googly eyes are involved.

I couldn’t do this any better than this blogger, so here is a link to her page:

Halloween Cat Craft

http://jennwa.blogspot.com/2008/09/halloween-paper-plate-crafts-black-cat.html

Evernight Blog Hop – Happy Birthday!

Welcome to the Evernight Publishing birthday blog hop!

Evernight Publishing opened its doors two years ago. In those two years we’ve signed over one hundred and sixty authors and published over three hundred books. From paranormal to contemporary, we’ve had more best sellers than we can count and made thousands of people smile, sigh and gasp. So, as a thank you to all our readers and everyone who has supported us, we’re holding this blog hop and we have a whole lot of prizes to offer you.

Here’s how it works… the more blogs you hop to (shown below) the more chance you have of winning prizes. Each author on the hop is offering a prize and Evernight is offering the following grand prizes, a Kindle, a $100 Amazon gift certificate, two Evernight swag bags (which includes a tote, a tee, vouchers, a mug and other coolness) and a personalized Facebook banner. To be in with a chance of winning the author prize simply follow the blog you’re visiting and leave a comment which includes your email address. Each entry on each blog is then counted towards the grand prize draw. The more entries you have, the better your chance of winning a grand prize! You also get extra points for liking the Evernight Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/evernightpublishing. Just make sure you let us know in the comments that you’ve done so.

Good luck and happy hopping!

I’ll be giving away a copy of my book Kitty Wishes, the story of a woman who woke up….as a cat.

Blurb:

Curses, spells, fairy tales…no thanks! Sakaria Thorpe prefers the reality of running a café over the nonsense of make believe. But is it really make believe?

When she finds herself cursed to be a shapeshifting cat, she becomes a believer. Good thing she’s able to fit shapeshifting into her schedule. Life’s fine until she discovers she will be cursed to be a cat forever if she doesn’t find a man to break the spell by midnight on Halloween.

Desmond Fields sticks to routines and cold hard facts. He falls for the beautiful but quirky Sakaria the minute he sees her behind the counter.

Now Sakaria must convince Des of the improbable, that the woman he’s falling for needs him to recognize her inner feline in order to break the spell. Time’s running out and Sakaria is getting desperate…will true love save the day?

Hop around to my other Evernight Author friends and see the cool books they’re offering.

Remember the more blogs you hop to and comment on, the more chance you have of winning prizes. I am offering a copy of “Kitty Wishes” and Evernight is offering: a

Kindle

$100 Amazon gift certificate

two (2) Evernight swag bags (which includes a tote, a tee, vouchers, a mug and other coolness)

a personalized Facebook banner.

Leave your comment below to be entered and good luck!

Blogtoberfest – Maple Cinnamon Spider Webs

Total Time: 40 min Prep: 10 min
Cook: 30 min Yield: about 30 webs

Ingredients

Vegetable oil, for frying
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon maple syrup, plus 1/4 cup for brushing
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
Jelly spiders, orange or black nonpareils, for garnish, optional

Directions

Pour enough oil in a large skillet so it’s about 1 inch deep. Heat oil over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers between 280 to 300 degree F.

Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center; add the milk, egg, and 1 tablespoon maple syrup. Whisk the dry and wet ingredients together until smooth.

Transfer batter into a large size pastry bag with a # 3 or 4 open tip. Carefully squeeze batter in a circular pattern and then back and forth into the oil, to make a free form spider web-like design, about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Cook until bottoms are golden, about 2 minutes. Using tongs or slotted spoon, turn fritters over and cook until golden on other side, about 1 minute more. Transfer the fritters to paper towels to drain briefly. Brush lightly with maple syrup and dust with confectioners’ sugar. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve warm or at room temperature alone or with the garnishes.

*You may use a zip bag instead of a pastry bag. Snip a corner to the appropriate size and you’re good.

Courtesy of the Food Network

Blogtoberfest- Scary Movies – The Shining

I’ll be honest, I saw the movie “The Shining” before I read the book. Saw it on channel seven, ABC’s channel here in the New York area. I’m not sure how old I was, but I must have been in high school because the movie was in the theatre in 1980.

That movie frightens me to this day, even when they show it on the Arts and Entertainment channel. I’m not sure if

I’ve ever seen the theatrical version and I’m not sure I want to.

The whole idea of being snowbound and trapped while the “strongest” of your party goes slowly mad and there’s nothing you can do about it is frightening enough. The fact that the HOTEL itself is making it impossible for you to escape from him is even scarier.

The scene that scared me the most was not the famous and too-often-quoted “Here’s Johnny!” scene, but it’s the scene where Jack is menacing Wendy on the stairs and says:

Wendy Torrance: Please! Don’t hurt me!
Jack Torrance: I’m not gonna hurt you.
Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me!
Jack Torrance: Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I’m not gonna hurt ya. You didn’t let me finish my sentence. I said, I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just going to bash your brains in.
[Wendy gasps]
Jack Torrance: Gonna bash ’em right the fuck in! ha ha ha

[amazon-product align=”left”]B000UJCALI[/amazon-product]

The miniseries remake with Steven Weber (from the show WINGS of all places) didn’t half faze me. I mean, this is the dude from Wings against Jack Nicholson for heaven’s sake. It’s a no brainer.

The movie was made in 1980, but I’ll say SPOILER ALERT anyway.

The Shining is an example of chillingly great horror movie. The final shot of Jack Nicholson frozen in the hedge maze…that haunted me for quite a few nights after that!

So what’s YOU’RE favorite scary movie????

5 Most Common Phobias

People are afraid of a lot of things. In fact, most people are afraid of something. I don’t trust anyone who says they aren’t afraid of anything, because then I’d just be waiting for the lighting bolt to strike them from above.

Let’s take a quick look of what scares most people – the top five most common phobias.

1. Acrophobia – Fear of heights.
Heights make me weak in the knees, but I force myself to look over the edge of wherever I happen to go to try to

overcome it. Doesn’t work. Cliffhanger gave me heart palpitations on the television for goodness sake. When I rode the Skyway at Great Adventure, I almost left bruises on my husband’s biceps. Heights are not for me.

2. Claustrophobia – Fear of Enclosed Spaces
If you have this, don’t ever watch The Descent.

3. Nyctophobia – Fear of the Dark
Keep a flashlight handy.

4. Arachnophobia – Fear of Spiders
Stay away from the movie of the same name. I can’t even watch it on network TV, it gives me the ever-loving creeps.

5. Ophidiophobia – Fear of Snakes
They’re very slithery, aren’t they?

So…what scares YOU?

Dahlia