Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Blogtoberfest – Five Scary Movies – Mya Lairis

My top five scary movies are: 

 

1. Trilogy of Terror– is my all time scary movie. There is just something about that damn doll, like maybe it gnawed my ankles off in a past life or something but I have only watched this film once. Trying to get up the nerve to do it again, but…that doll!

2. Squirm– I have no issue with snakes, at all…they are tasty in fact but earthworms, shrieking, no-eyes having, able to be cut into pieces and still live, burrowing under the skin…Hell naw.

3. Event Horizon– When I first saw this film it scared the crap out of me. Dimensional terrors usually hit home with the terror mark in me and that the space ship had breached the dimension to Hell and was inescapable…yeah. I have been able to watch this a few times however and still, its a shitty deal for those on board.

4. Evil Dead Remake– This was an excellent remake and one that I winced a couple of times at but enjoyed all the same. That razor blade though….

5. Beloved– Yup, actually now that I think about it, this could be one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen. The notion of slavery is frightening enough but this film did emotional damage to me as it made me question the notions of anger, vengeance, and self. Creatures are scary and all but the human psyche can be far worse.

Bio: Mya Lairis is a monster and kaiju  fanatic who writes paranormal romance and erotica but who reads mostly extreme horror and heart racing cyber punk sci fi.

Website: www.myalairis.com

 

 

Horror Movie Review – The Vault

Title:   The Vault

Summary:
Two estranged sisters are forced to rob a bank in order to save their brother. But this is no ordinary bank. (from imdb.com)

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Opinion

To say this was a pleasant surprise is an understatement. I didn’t expect much. I didn’t realize James Franco was in it until halfway through. This means that I kept looking at this guy and thinking that I know him from some movie. Like I said, it was only mid-movie that I said to myself “That’s James Franco! What’s he doing in this movie.”

My silly epiphany aside, The Vault was an interesting movie. It started out as one thing, then after a cliche line, it turned into something else, which I was completely fine with. I won’t go any further with the plot. Suffice it to say, the movie held my attention all the way through. I wasn’t tempted to look away, except for the bloody parts, and the acting was quite good for the genre.

While there is nothing new under the sun for me, having seen a huge amount of movies, I always relax and let the movie entertain me. Unless the movie is completely terrible, I try to let it roll out like the writers meant it to be. By doing this, I tend to enjoy a lot more movies.
Yes. The setup of The Vault has been done many times before. However, the actors were good, the special effects very effective and the back story scary and convincing.

Rating – B

Want more Horror Movie Reviews?  Click HERE.

5 Gifts for Writers

It’s that time of year again. Shoppers are hitting the stores and the Internet to look for the perfect gift for that special someone. Some of you lucky dogs out there have some stellar writers in your lives. I’m going to tell you what writers REALLY want for Christmas. Well, at least me.

Pens and Journals: Most writers love pens. Though we tend to dither between our beloved writing software, a writer almost always comes back to the pen and the paper, especially if experiencing a bout of writer’s block.  Pens make us feel like REAL writers, with a cigarette clenched between our teeth and a glass of bourbon at hand. Debauchery aside, the physical aspect of forming letters and words often is a trigger for ideas. Often, we get more words flowing on paper than we do sitting in front of the screen. In addition, pen/paper keeps us from the distractions of the Internet, and is portable. Sure, we can compose on the phone in our car, but it’s so much more lovely to write in a beautiful journal with a great pen.

Some of my favorites:

InkJoy Pens – The name says it all.  I simply love these pens.
Leatherette Journal with Magnet – Doesn’t have to be fancy to be useful.
Cherish You Journal – Pretty and practical
Moleskine Journals – Can’t go wrong with these.

Banned Books Mug – Out of Print

Beverage Containers: Not all writers drink coffee, true, some of us have Coca-Cola as their breakfast beverage (not me, of course, I have both!) However a beverage container is the writer’s true friend. We don’t have to get up to get our hydration/fuel/liquid courage to keep pushing forward in our work. Plus, the little sayings make us feel important.

Heat Activated Banned Books Mug – You can’t get any more writerly than this.

Inspiration Assistance: Sometimes our best ideas come to us when we’re in the shower, seriously! Well, yes, we DO get ideas OTHER places, but let’s keep it PG and simply suggest Aqua Notes, a little doodad that sticks to the wall in the shower.  Handy note taking at it’s finest, for sure!  The pencil is also included.  When I saw this little cool thing, I couldn’t resist putting it on my list. Writers will love this!  Aqua Notes

 

 

Totes, T-shirts, and Hoodies:   Working from home doesn’t afford us much chance to flex our fashion muscles. We do, however, enjoy cool accessories related to writing. And those accessories include T-shirts and hoodies, so we don’t get too cold as we hunch over our keyboards in the basement. Visit Out of Print for more goodies.

Where the Wild Things are Tote

Organizational Software:   Next to writing, the biggest task is research. How far can an eagle see? How much blood is in the human body? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? We search every day for answers to these types of questions in order to make our writing as realistic as possible. Well, some writers do. (Yes, I’m throwing shade.) How do we keep all those links and cool websites in one place? Why Evernote, of course! Evernote has two levels – free and premium. Be a doll and gift your writer person a year of premium. They’ll have a year to figure out if they like using it, and if they do ,then they can pay for it themselves!

Evernote Premium

With a list like this, there’s no way you can go wrong with your writer gift giving this year.  Order early!

1Love

Blogtoberfest – My Bloody Vampire Sangria

Hello again!  So glad to see y’all along with me for the ride Halloween blogging, or, as I call it……BLOGTOBERFEST……..

Today’s recipe is not a mocktail, but a straight up liquor fest.  It was a choice between this and chocolate martinis.  I chose this because it looks like fruit punch.  (What, me drinking?  Nah, this is fruit punch.)  And I love sangria.

You can find the basic recipe here, but I added my own twist.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 (750 ml bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja reds, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
  • 1 Lemon cut into wedges
  • 1 Orange cut into wedges
  • Strawberry or Kiwi slices
  • 3 Tbsp sugar
  • 2 shots brandy
  • 1 shot gin
  • 2 cups ginger ale or club soda

Preparation:

Pour wine in the pitcher and squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon and orange into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and add sugar and brandy. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving.

If you’d like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice.

 

Blogtoberfest – Urban Legends – Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine

By Chris C Jones (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
As part of Blogtoberfest and the season of Halloween in general, it’s always fun to take a look at the urban legends which stay a part of our pop culture.  Every state seems to have their own, and some states have more than one.  Some of the urban legends have found their way onto as in this case.

The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is a legend, that, much .like many legends, is steeped in fact.  It is, obviously, a gold mine located in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona.  As legends will go, there are many stories that circulate around how to find the mine, leading to people actually trying to find it.  And, yes, some have perished on their quest for the riches.

A little history:  The mine is named after a German immigrant names Jacob Waltz who found it and  kept it a secret. Interestingly enough, despite the lack of information we have about it, it might be the most famous “lost mine” legend in American history. 

I was tricked into watching an “entertainment program” that I thought was a documentary about the mine.  Called Legend of the Superstition Mountains, it  resembled a factual program until I found out it was a six season “fakumentary”.  Also, it was pretty boring, which is the real crime.  I mean, if you’re going to fake something, please, make it interesting.

The film based loosely around this legend is called Dark Mountain, and to be honest, I tried to watch that one too….but wow, a snooze fest it was. I couldn’t finish it.

So there, you are, a taste of the urban legend, the Lost Dutchman’s Mine.  If you plan on going to look for it, be sure to bring plenty of water.  Arizona’s pretty hot and dry.

 

Dahlia

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Dutchman%27s_Gold_Mine