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Blogtoberfest – Halloween

A big thank you to those who stuck with me through my kind of blogging marathon. I didn’t make all my days as planned, but I’m pretty pleased what I did accomplish. Blogtoberfest was a huge help in getting my blogging off the ground, planning posts ahead of time and most of all, sticking to a schedule. Now, I feel I can roll into NaNoWriMo with some purpose and determination.

How did I do it? I pre-wrote a lot of the posts. Then, I decided, for it to be a true Blogtoberfest, I should make an effort to blog every day. At times, real life intruded, but to be honest, if I am going to be a writer….this IS part of my real life. Treating writing as a job rather than something I merely dabbled in, I learned, is the key to making it work for me. Your mileage may vary.

Anyhoo, Happy Halloween – I’m writing this on the Monday before, because I have no idea what the situation will be on Wednesday.

Again, thank you to all who commented, stopped by and clicked!

Have wonderful, safe day!

Blogtoberfest – Scary Stories – Survivor Type

Yes. It’s a Stephen King story. No, it’s not one of the ones that have been made into a movie. However, I will tell you right now, even thinking of the story…it is one that I’ve read twice and not one that I will come back to any time soon.

It’s a story about a shipwreck, just like Cast Away, but King grabs your hand and forces you down a path to make you closely examine the situation: You are stranded on a desert island with little hope of rescue…and little food. How far will you go to survive?

You’ll see what one man’s desperation will lead him to.

The story is not available as a stand alone, as far as I know, but as part of Skeleton Crew, an older selection of stories that are King at his best, at least in my opinion. (Not that it matters, really, right?)

Oh, and look at the creepy cover with the monkey with the symbols. (Shivers). That story, ugh. I can’t even.

Skeleton Crew also contains “The Mist”, “The Raft” (another ordinary day gone terribly wrong), the aforementioned “Survivor Type”, and “The Monkey”.

These older King stories are excellent for a howling night next to the fire. Just check the locks before you go to bed and put that stuffed monkey with the clanging cymbals in the garage.

Blogtoberfest – Magic (and not the Mike kind)

This is a movie that scared the mess out of me when I was a teenager. First of all, I am no fan of ventriloquist dummies. I can’t stand them, they scare the heck out of me. Give me a movie with a dummy and you’ve got me scared.

A looooooong time ago, back in 1978, there was this movie trailer that ran on television. Mind you, this was back in the fun 70s where the cars waiting in line for gas would queue in front of my parents’ house. This trailer wasn’t anything NEAR Silent Hill 3d (which by the way also frightens me with its grotesqueness) but was creepy just in the fact that it featured a dummy.

The movie was directed by Richard Attenborough, the kindly old John Hammond in Jurassic Park. You’ll also find Burgess Meredith, Ann-Margaret, and

Here’s the creepy trailer.

According to Wikipedia (that bastion of totally true facts) : “The trailer for this film was pulled from TV due to calls from parents who claimed that it gave their children nightmares.” Oh, most certainly.

Seriously, it may not scare you now, but imagine a 10 year old watching this on the late night movie or Chiller Theatre (remember channel 9 Chiller with the six-fingered hand?)

This was Anthony Hopkins before he was Hannibal Lector, a failed magician who is basically going off the deep end. Yikes!

The movie is on YouTube if you want to watch it. Warning, it’s 70s cheesy, but the story itself is disturbing.

Enjoy!