Our world began in passion
and words of romantic intrusions
that never should have been spoken.
Once the words were uttered,
we so entered a desperate and dire
state of unrestricted love.
Mutual respect, kindness, and understanding
that I have never known before
were ours in abundance.
And love, a feeling I thought was dead in me,
returned to aide my shriveled, dying heart
back to life.

~Kryson

I love you, Shroud. Happy 12th Anniversary!

The Exorcist scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.

While slow paced compared to the movies produced today, The Exorcist still stands out as one of the scariest movies of all time. The Exorcist changed the genre and scared several generations of movie watchers. Even at 37 years old, The Exorcist still scares and entertains.

Other Movies Considered:

The Shining, The Silence of the Lambs, Poltergeist, Psycho, Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, Drag Me to Hell, The Grudge, 28 Days Later, The Complete Omen Collection (The Omen – 1976/ The Omen – 2006/ Damien: The Omen II/ The Omen III: The Final Conflict/ The Omen IV: The Awakening), Zombieland, Creepshow, Tales From The Crypt Presents – Demon Knight, Jacob’s Ladder, Twilight Zone – The Movie

Grey Squint

Who hasn’t received this look at least once from a cat? Whether he’s half asleep, saying get out of my face, or stop flashing that thing at me, this grey squinter is sure to please.

Remember, you can contact me with any customizations you’d like.

NaNoWriMo challenges participants to write 50,000 words during the month of November. This can seem like a daunting and time consuming task and when you have a house to run as well, it can seem almost impossible. With some preparation, you can make November run more smoothly.

I’ve looked at quite a few prep lists for NaNo and noticed that mine was a little different. I decided to share it in hopes it might help someone else. I know this is a little late. I’ll try to repost the revised version of this list a little earlier next year.

Plan all meals for the month of November. Make sure to keep #2 and #3 in mind while making your November menu and consider doing a search for quick meal ideas. I’ll try to post a few of my favorites during NaNo.

Freeze leftovers for easy meals in November. My Food Saver is one of my best friends all year round, but it’s particularly helpful for stocking up meals for November.

Dust off that crockpot. Your crockpot can be a time saver and is for more than just making roast. You can find a ton of crockpot recipes online and I’ll try to post a few of my favorites during NaNo.

Detail clean the house. I have spring-cleaning and then NaNo cleaning. If the house is freshly detailed, those quick room cleanups go even faster. Besides, a super clean house can make you feel more comfortable with putting things off for a day or two longer so you have more time to write.

Schedule blog posts. If you have a blog, write a few blog posts in October and schedule them to post in November to squeeze out a little more writing time.

Jot down notes or make an outline. While there are many people that can sit down to a blank screen and just start typing, I’m not always one of them. Faced with a deadline, I feel more comfortable with some kind of direction in mind.

Do any research needed ahead of time. Frantically researching while trying to finish NaNo can be a word count killer.

Fill out your calendar with appointments and obligations. Make note of these. What days are you not going to be able to write? If there are five days in November that you cannot see a way to fit writing in for whatever reason, adjust your daily word count accordingly and aim for that.

Let your friends and family know what you’re doing. They might scoff, but knowing ahead of time can ward off an explanation later. Listening to the scoffing while you’re doing NaNo not only takes time away from writing but could also damage your flow with negativity and drama you don’t need.

Make a playlist. A playlist of music that fits your genre or in some way fosters your creativity can help drown distraction and get you in the mood to write. Use headphones for best results.

For those of you participating this year, write like the wind! I’d love to hear/read how you’re doing so feel free to comment on a post or drop me an email.

Trick ‘r Treat (2008) was the first Halloween movie I was excited about in a long time. While the actual release wasn’t exactly what I expected, it was a fun romp for a Halloween and horror/thriller movie fan. Several stories are weaved together and if you pay close attention, you can see things in the background from one of the other tales. While I didn’t find Trick ‘r Treat (2008) scary, it was enjoyable and certainly put me in the Halloween mood.

If you read critic reviews and commentary on Night of the Living Dead, you could be left with a sense of wonderment on what the movie is really about. It’s almost like poetry in that people interpret it’s meaning and purpose in ways that the original creators may not have intended. No matter what you believe it’s about in the end, Night of the Living Dead is a pivotal part of horror history.

I suggest the original black and white version. Something about the black and white makes it creepier and the color version ruins some of the “filling in” your imagination does of it’s own accord.

Acceptance. In simple terms, accept who you are. If you are an artist, let yourself be an artist. People try to force you to “grow up,” to give up your dreams, to do whatever it is they think you should be doing while your inner artist is screaming. Don’t let people tell you that your dreams are wrong, bad, not worth pursuing. In the end, it’s your life and your happiness that’s at stake. Do, be, create and surround yourself with supportive people.

I’ve had to walk away from more than one situation and friendship because I was being told what to do with my life, but there’s another aspect to this. I’ve often tried to be what I’m not. Writing what I thought people wanted to read, forcing myself to start projects for the sole purpose of approval when it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. Doing things with my life that other people wanted me to do. It’s important to write and write what you’re itching to write. Placate the artist and it will let you write other things, like blog entries for example.

Back to simple. Write because you want to and what you want to. Allow yourself to suck. Don’t base your success on approval from others. Don’t base your success on a paycheck, size of a paycheck, or lack of a paycheck. Create and be rewarded by creating. If you’re in this to get rich, turn back now.

Lots of talk about movement and exercise. I agree that movement, getting out there and walking, running, horseback riding, and the like can help to break those blocks, solve plot problems, and be inspirational. I’ve come up with a storyline or two and solved a plot problem while walking, but I hadn’t thought much about it. The weather here doesn’t always lend to walking and being comfortable enough to free the mind. Sweating profusely and shivering uncontrollably do not do much for thinking anything other than, “Hot, hot, hot!” or “I’m turning into a momcicle!” I have to look for other ways to exercise or other places to walk. Maybe I’ll become a mall walker, but only if I can convince myself I have the self-control to not spend money while I’m there.

Freddy Krueger has always been a favorite movie monster. The ability to terrorize people in their dreams is one of the scariest concepts out there. A Nightmare on Elm Street has plagued a few generations with nightmares of Freddy.

Wes Craven creates something in the Freddy series that is rare and exactly what I look for in a horror movie. Actual fear and scares instead of a gore fest. Sure, there’s blood and guts and gore, but many movies today forget about fear and go for the disgusting. I think maybe A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the reasons movies don’t scare me anymore. Nothing tops the bastard child of 1000 manics.

I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the remake yet. To me, Robert Englund is Freddy. Remakes can be fun and different takes on a movie are interesting to me, so I’ll watch it someday.

Unlike most people, I enjoyed the entire A Nightmare on Elm Street series. Sure, I liked some better than others, but I couldn’t get enough of Freddy. If they were still making A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s with Robert Englund as Freddy, I’m sure I would still be watching them. I might be wondering why, but I’d still be watching.

You could make an entire marathon out of just A Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

If anyone watches the remake, let me know what you thought of it. I’m interested to see something other than critic reviews since I seem to rarely agree with the critics.

Here’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 1-4 and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5-8 for the full Freddy experience.

Ghost Storyactually began my love for the works of Robert Bloch (author of Psycho). With an all-star cast list (Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman, Alice Krige, Patricia Neal) and haunting storyline, Ghost Story has remained one of my all-time favorite classics.

Ghost Story was released in 1981 and is limited by the technology of the time, but I’ve always thought it stands the test of time better than many movies from that era. I haven’t seen it in ages, but when I started compiling my top ten list, this was one of the first movies I thought of.

• @Mornaric Beautiful work. #
• @Mornaric Cool. Can't wait to see it. #
• @Mornaric Thanks, it's one of my favorites. RE: http://www.cafepress.com/crescentmoonhab/2614463 #
• RT @thecreativepenn: Creative Destruction, or How to Survive the Ebook Apocalypse thx @dsawyer http://ow.ly/19zVgEhttp://ow.ly/19zVgE #
• Fixed. Sorry about that. RT @thecreativepenn: Creative Destruction, or How to Survive the Ebook Apocalypse thx @dsawyer http://ow.ly/19zVgE #
• @Mornaric Love the new image! in reply to Mornaric #
• I'd love to know who stole my motivation today… #
• NaNo RT @NaNoWriMo: 7 Novel-Writing Tools for NaNo @flavorpill November is getting close! http://bit.ly/9IuCph #
• @kimidreams Need a few clones myself. in reply to kimidreams #
• RT @randomhouse: Think we can get 300 fans in 2 hours? Please keep the RTs coming and get Random House up to 100K fans. #free #books #ff #
• @JaneJournal Haven't seen it. #
• @JaneJournal I didn't suggest that, so don't get me in trouble. #
• @JaneJournal Doh! #