Monthly Archives: March 2017
Coming Soon: ‘A Cricket in the Wall’ in mystery collection MURDER AMONG FRIENDS!
I’m thrilled to announce that my short mystery “A Cricket in the Wall” will appear in the collection Murder Among Friends: Mysteries Inspired by the Life and Works of John Greenleaf Whittier. All proceeds will benefit the 327-year-old birthplace museum, which is a favorite educational field trip destination for students of all ages in the Haverhill, MA area.
For this collection, writers were tasked with Read the rest of this entry
TOT TERRORS: THE DEVIL AT 4 O’CLOCK
I often get asked about what influences my work as a writer. Inspired by the amazing website Kindertrauma–which is right up my alley–I’m compiling all of my childhood (and some adult) terrors.
The beleaguered refugees in THE DEVIL AT 4 O’CLOCK watch lava overwhelm the spot in which they’d just been standing.
I experienced many of my childhood terrors at my Grandmother’s house. We went down there every Sunday after church (and I do mean EVERY. SUNDAY!) for a large Italian meal and visits with the aunts and uncles, who would, after the meal, play cards or talked adult subjects.
I had two options: play with some ancient, seen-better-days toys (although I was good at bringing my own things to do), sneak into my cousin’s room to read off-limit Stephen King books, or watch anything I wanted on the kitchen television set.
When I say anything I wanted, I mean it. First of all, it was the 1970s. If your parents were busy, they didn’t give a crap what you were doing Read the rest of this entry
March Movie Madness, Episode 1: Transformers #MarchMovieMadness #movie #moviereview #Transformers
Fantastic series on bad movies for the month of March on Jennifer Allis Provost’s blog! Check it out!
A Minnie Birthday…
I went to a birthday party last weekend for my nieces. This is a video I made to share which I’m going to send everyone on DVD…it’s too big to upload to Facebook, and I’d like them to see it before I cement the discs. PS…how cool is this cake? Check out Sweet Rewards in Brookfield!
February’s Finale: Four Female Ghosts and Why They’re Scary
Just to show you how into this ghost thing I am…that’s me. The other features in the photo were added by my sister-in-law Maureen Schoonover.
I’m very thankful I could participate in the New England Horror Writers’ Women in Horror Month blog series! “Wandering Women: Four Types of Female Ghosts and Why They’re Scary” examines why creatures like La Llorona, the churel, preta and the noppera-bo send us running for the hills. You can read it here: http://nehw.blogspot.com/2017/03/women-in-horror-month-finale.html
“Wandering Women” is the final installment in the February series. The other six posts are here:
Part 1: Morgan Sylvia examines identity in Go Ahead. Make My Day. Read the rest of this entry
New release: Read “Roots” in PERNICIOUS INVADERS
This public domain illustration is from an 1886 book called Sea and Land by J.W. Buel. It depicts a person being consumed by the legendary Madagascan Man-Eating Tree.
My short story, “Roots” is available in the anthology Pernicious Invaders from Great Old Ones Publishing!
“Roots” is inspired by the famous legend of the Man-Eating Tree of Madagascar (read more on this here — but for a really in-depth fascinating look with lots of wonderful art, read this here), and I’m not saying more than that because it’ll ruin the story. Get your copy of Pernicious Invaders here: https://amzn.com/1539140008
Pesce Pix: White Spotted Bamboo Sharks
I volunteer at the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, and I always see something cool. This week it was a pair of White Spotted Bamboo Sharks in our Shark and Ray Touch Pool practicing a pre-mating ritual–quite beautiful to watch, as one shark bites the other’s pectoral fin and they swim (and sometimes twist) together.
Most reports I found indicated that it’s usually the male doing the biting[1], but in this case, the pale white one is the male, and the darker one is the female (I saw them turn over and could see clearly the male’s claspers, so yes, I’m sure I know which one was which). Since I don’t carry my cell phone on the floor, I had to wait until I was off-shift and on my way out to grab this photo. I wanted video, but there were too many kids around (normally when I’m heading out, the place is empty, but Sunday there was a special event after hours, so it was crammed).
Anyway…I think these pictures are still good.
[1] Motoyasu Masuda, “Mating, spawning and hatching of the white spotted bamboo shark in an aquarium,” Japanese Journal of Icthyology 45, No. 1 (1998): 29-35, accessed February 27, 2017.
