female geek bloggers

Blogtoberfest -Swallow that Sweet Fear: Halloween Cookie Recipe

It’s cookie recipe day!

If you’re like me, you plan way ahead for any type of party or treat fest because you’ve just GOT to be sure that everything is going to go right.

I worked with my daughter this summer in perfecting her cupcake and frosting recipe so she would have the most lovely cupcakes to take to school for her birthday.

Mind you, I can’t stand everyday cooking, but baking is my thing. I like the fact that it’s fun, short and you get a sweet treat at the end.

Now, I’m giving you this cookie recipe early enough so you have time to experiment with it, mess it up and start again.

Halloween Bat Sugar Cookies – Recipe courtesy of Domino Sugar

YIELDS

3 to 4 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS

Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed Domino® Light Brown Sugar
3/4 cup Domino® Granulated Sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Icing

3 3/4 cups (1-lb pkg.) Domino® Confectioners Sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
6 tablespoons warm water
purple food coloring
1 tube black decorator gel icing

Click HERE for the rest of the recipe.

Happy Baking

Dahlia

Horror Movie Review – Exhibit A

Title: Exhibit A

Genre: Thriller/Horror – Found Footage

Synopsis: The timely story of a normal family disintegrating under financial pressure, eventually driven to the unimaginable. We witness the terrifying events unfold through daughter Judith’s video camera, which subsequently becomes Exhibit A.

I watched this movie on the recommendation of Overthinking Horror Films. For some reason, I really enjoy “found footage” horror films and was looking for something that was found footage but wasn’t littered with profanity and super shaky cam. I mean, the jitter cam is fine, but when it’s 80 percent of the movie, it’s more annoying than atmospheric.

I’d seen Exhibit A in my travels through the websites that listed found footage, but never really paused to examine it more closely. First of all, it’s a British film and either I didn’t want to fight with the accents, or the description didn’t grab me. However, since I trust OHF’s taste in films, I took a chance and watched it.

I’ve seen reviews which poo-poo the film or say that it’s over the top. They’ll say the acting was terrible and how could the daughter film all through this. Let me just say this. The film got me by throat and didn’t let go until the end. I even gasped in some parts.

The basic premise is a regular old family of Mom and Dad, and two teens, a girl and a boy. I was a little annoyed when thirty seconds in , the girl filmed herself in the mirror so that we could see who she was. Ugh. However, I stuck with it and while I can’t say I was rewarded for my perseverance, I was served a good film.

The father’s performance was one that stuck with me the most. Early on, I could see something was amiss and the little things just kept piling up. The film became more painful to watch as it went on, not because the performances were bad, but you could see where the train was going. You just wondered where exactly it was going to wreck.

And wreck it did. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more harrowing to an ending in recent years. At one point, I had to look away from the screen to relieve the tension. I just didn’t want to bear witness to it any more. Yes, it’s a movie, but the actors sold the story and I was right there with them.

This is not a gleeful horror film. While it’s stylized up to a point, it’s a little too close to the bone to be laughed at.

Rating: B+ Recommended.

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.

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 – Poor Fellas and Gals: Dog Halloween Costumes

I have a dog. I think she’s a rather judgy dog. She doesn’t like it when I dress her in her winter coat, even though as a pit bull, she has zero undercoat and needs the insulation in the colder weather. Still, the eyeballing she gives me as she stands there in her Land’s End insulated doggy coat. I mean, come on, what dog can’t look good in Land’s End outerwear? Not Athena. She hates it, and makes it clear she hates me for putting in on her.

However, I won’t be a party to dog Halloween costumes. I find them unwieldy, a pain to put on and something that can really be only worn once a year. The dogs, themselves, seem so….pitiful yet revenge filled when you snap that picture. After one year of one of my dogs dressing as something or other (I really don’t remember), I’ve learned my lesson. However, some humans never learn. Let’s take a look, shall we?

All Pictures courtesy of PartyCity.com, except where noted.

Yoda’s looking like he could drink from the toilet at any moment.

This TinMan looks sad enough to be the REAL TinMan.

Oh yeah, this Superman dressed dog is totally JUDGING you.

This dog has just decided to give in and roll with it, baby.

Blogtoberfest – Not Just “IT”: More Creepy King Stories

From what I’ve heard is that the new IT movie is pretty scary. I have to say “from what I’ve heard’ because I haven’t seen it yet. Nothing like seeing something scary on the big screen to scar you for life and I’m not as young as I used to be.

While being scared on the screen is fun, being scared from words on a page can be even more fun. Yep, I just touted reading above movie watching and you all know how I LOVE reading. Following this, Stephen King has written just a tad few more stories than IT that are guaranteed to take you over the creepy/scared line. Here are five of my favorites.

From Nightshift

Graveyard Shift – Whose nose doesn’t twist at thethought of working in a mildewy, dark, damp basement? Bonus points: it’s hot and there’s rustling in the walls. This is a story that will make you wash your hands after you’ve finished reading it. Don’t forget the hand sanitizer.

Grey Matter – Strange things can grow in beer – something about those hops – and when you guzzle one down without thoroughly examining the contents, bad things happen. I promise you’ll pour your beer in a glass after reading this one. Gross, scary body horror.

Sometimes They Come Back – Like a little melancholy with the heebie-jeebies? Well, this story is perfect for you. A man gets revenge for something that happened in his childhood, but remember, the devil is hell to pay.

Skeleton Crew

The Raft – Those of you who’ve seen Creepshow 2 are familar with this story. Yes, the charactersare archetypes and the whole thing reads like a B-movie script, but you won’t be so eager to jump into the lake next summer, now will you?

The Monkey – Short, but gets under your skin. A haunted toy monkey does….bad things, for lack of a better term….to those who find it and wind it up. I’ve always found those mechanical toys weird anyway, so to find out this monkey was haunted was no big surprise.

And just like that, we;’ve come to the end of our Blogtoberfest visit! Check out some of these King shorts that I mentioned.

Dahlia