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Oct252010
All Hallows Eve – Guest Author & Giveaway: What is your best Halloween memory? by Lydia Dare
by Carolyn • Posted in Uncategorized
I am very pleased to welcome Lydia Dare to the blog today. In fact Lydia Dare is the writing team of Tammy Falkner and Jodie Pearson. Both Tammy and Jodie live near Raleigh, North Carolina and are working together on their next paranormal historical trilogy as Lydia Dare, which will be released by Sourcebooks Casablanca in 2011!
I also have a fantastic giveaway of all four books in the ‘Westfield Brothers‘ series, so make sure you enter at the end of the post!
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I adore Halloween. It is my most favorite holiday. I love the spooky decorations. I love handing out “trick-or-treat” candy. I love seeing little kids in their costumes, both cute and creepy. So I suppose it shouldn’t shock anyone that I write books with werewolves, vampyres and witches as main characters, huh? I guess one could say, I always have Halloween floating around in my mind no matter the time of year.
But when Halloween is actually upon us, it always brings back memories of my grandfather. When I was young, I spent every Friday night at my grandparents’ house, and I would always stay up late to watch the scary midnight movies with my grandfather. Not scary movies by today’s standards. Nothing like Saw or Jason vs. Freddie. But movies from the 50s and 60s. You know, the ones staring Vincent Price. Or Christopher Lee. Anything by Alfred Hitchcock. And Roger Corman’s low budget creepfests.
I don’t know if it was my impressionable age at the time or if those particular movies were just scary in a different way; but a lot of those stories have stayed with me through the years. I can’t go to a wax museum without images of Price’s House of Wax flashing in my mind. I just got shivers writing that. Flocks of birds make me shiver too. But I will never forget the final scene in The Pit and the Pendulum. I’m not claustrophobic, by nature – but I am when I think about Price’s ill-fated wife trapped and gagged in a hollowed out iron maiden, unable to call out for help. Yikes!
These days, those old movies are hard to find on TV and certainly not every Friday at midnight like they used to be. Now there’s a plethora of adrenaline-induced movies filled with gore and special effects; but in October, TV programmers get desperate for spooky shows to fill their time slots and eventually they dig up those old classics. (At least they’re classics to me.)
All it takes is a few minutes of Price’s House of Usher to transport me back to when I was ten, watching those movies for the first time with my grandfather. I would jump and scream and he would smile and tell me it was all right. And it always was.
Even though my grandfather has been gone many years, Halloween always brings his memory back to me. I do so love this time of year.
What does Halloween make you think about? What is your best Halloween memory?
Thanks Lydia!
You can find out more about Lydia and her books here:
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Now onto the fab GIVEAWAY!
Thanks to the wonderful people at Sourcebooks I have all the Lydia Dare books to date to giveaway – that’s 4 books!
1. A Certain Wolfish Charm
2. Tall, Dark and Wolfish
3. The Wolf Next Door
4. The Taming of the Wolf
All you have to do to enter is the following:
1. Read BCC’s giveaway policy
2. fill in this form
3. Leave a comment for the author answering their questions
4. One entry per person please
This giveaway is open to UK & US residents only (publisher’s request) and ends 31st Oct!
GOOD LUCK!
34 Comments
Halloween never fails to make me think of my dad since it his birthday on 31st October. Great excuse for a big party and lots of dressing up. In fact, when I was (much) younger I used to think everyone who dressed up was celebrating my dad's birthday! *grin*
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Halloween always makes me think about when I was small and my brother and I would go trick or treating everywhere in town. It was a small town and everybody knew everybody so it was safe to do that then, you can't now. It was always so much fun.
seriousreader at live dot com
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Halloween makes me think of parties and silly games.Water up my nose bobbing for apples, holding jelly spiders on the end of my nose as long as possible
For myself and then for my children and now my grandchildren. You are never too old to keep a spider on your nose !!
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One of my favourite Halloween memories is of going to work in official Star Trek starfleet uniform. (Live long, and prosper!!!)
- Nancy Gazo
1bookwyrm@bellsouth.net
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Halloween makes me think of cuddling up on the sofa with some scary movies to watch and eating loads of halloween themed sweets.
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Magemanda ~ What a great birthday to have! It's kind of like everyone is celebrating right along with you. My grandfather's was New Years'. So he got fireworks and champagne every year.
Linda ~ I loved trick-or-treating and it seems like it has kind of fallen out of fashion these days. But I have some great memories of those old costumes and pillow cases.
Irene ~ I host a Halloween party every year and make my friends dress up if they want entrance. But I've never put a jelly spider at the end of my nose. I'll have to give that some serious thought.
Nancy ~ Star Trek starfleet unifrom at work? YOU are brave.
Kulsuma ~ That sounds like so much fun. Dark house, popcorn, old scary movies. I wonder when I can schedule that in.
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My best Halloween memory is when I was teenager (in angel costume)~walked with my friends and of course my parents and my best dog (buffy) also wore angel costume too. We walked around in our community and collected lot of candies. Also stopped by and have chat in our friends' houses. It was the best Halloween. It was last time when all of us went to college. =( I missed them.
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I love Halloween. I get to pull our my Edgar Allen Poe and enjoy many suspenseful short stories.
I too remember those old Hitchcock and Boris Karloff movies. I think one reason they are still scary is because they knew how to build suspense. They didn't rely on special effects but good old fashion building tension and suspense.
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Halloween makes me think about when I was younger and out trick-o-treating with my dad. We would hit up all the "hot" spots and bring back loads of candy to show my mom. Those were some of my best memories ever during Halloween.
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October 30th is my dad's birthday, so on Halloween we'd all trundle over to his parents' house (Grandma's) and celebrate his birthday with everyone in the family (since they'd all be over for trick-or-treating).
Then we'd all go out and go trick-or-treating (taht is the cousins) real early (like 5pm) for about a half hour before heading home and I'd go with the neighborhood kids for about four hours. I'd come home with four or five pounds of candy and then spend about four hours meticulously sorting them by type, how much i like them and what I would trade out or use as bribes with classmates/friends/my brother.
Lexie C.
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I like Halloween because it's all about fun. No matter what you do, it usually has fun in mind. How many holidays are like that?
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Kelly ~ I love the vision of your dog in an angel costume. My dog would not go along with that.
Beth ~ No Halloween would be complete without Poe!
Jeanette ~ What constitutes a Halloween "Hot" spot? What have I been missing out on?
Lexie ~ That's great! And I so remember sorting the candy in piles. "Keep" "Share" "Give away".
Melissa ~ I'm in complete agreement! It is all about fun and being silly. I love this holiday!
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Whoa, my most memorable Halloween moment that I can remember is when I was young and we lived out in the country and I wanted so bad to go trick or treating. It started that my mom did not want to drive me into town nor buy me a costume so I made a whale costume out of a heavy duty trash bag and cardboard. Dude I was free willy ok ?! So for back up I brought a sheet (a ghost in case the bag broke) and walked a mile to my friends house to get a ride into town. It rained so the trash bag survived and I ended up using the sheet for candy storage. It was a very productive Halloween that I persevered through to be able to go. That and I had a candy stash for Months!
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I love Halloween too! I love dressing up and decorating! Love giving out candy to ghosts and goblins! My kids are following in my love of Halloween too. My oldest had been preparing for her costume since last halloween! LOL! She is going to be Ariel! One of my favorite Halloweenswas when I took my neice who was in grade school to the school carnival. It was very fun and I won my first cake walk! I won the cake my sister had made which was the best one there! I was so thrilled. I have lots of good memories of Halloweens past! It's hard to pick just one! LOL! Thanks for sharing with us today!
evjochum@aol.com
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Halloween makes me think of haunted houses and going out to stand in the cool fall air to go in and scream with my friends then go out for coffee or apple cider afterward.
Jase
vslavetopassionv(at)aol(dot)com
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Halloween makes me think of all the googlies that go bump in the night. I try to determine which spooks are real and wich are just really good makeup jobs. lol.
All Halloween memories are my favorites, they all hold something special about that time.
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Halloween makes me think of all the fun times I had dressing up when I was little. I think I was usually a disney princess lol.
apk1princess@live.com
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Halloween always makes me think about how cute little kids are all dressed up in their costumes waiting for you to give them candy or other treats. One of my fond memories is when I was in grade school and we were allowed to wear a costume to school on Halloween. We would parade around the neighborhood in our costumes and then go back to school and have a party! Fun times!
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Teril ~ That sounds like an insane Halloween!
Johanna ~ OMG! I can't even think of the last time I heard the words "cake walk". Definitely a blast from the past. Great story.
Jason ~ Apple cider! That sounds so good right now.
Jessica! You think some of the spooks are real? Now I'm going to have nightmares.
Alexa ~ I was never a Disney Princess. But I was a Greek Goddess more than once. Hmm. I wonder what that says about me.
Annalisa ~ I remember those days too! We used to be able to go to school in our costumes if Halloween was on a school night and we'd do a parade too. Sadly, those days are gone now. I was shocked, shocked! when my son started elementary school and found out there were no Halloween parties or costumes. Life used to be more fun.
(And I never thought I'd be one of those people who said "Back when I was a kid…" LOL)
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I get freaked out about wax museum's too!
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Halloween makes me think of little kids out trick-or-treating with their parents when it's barely dark outside, the older kids have parties late at night and me sitting in house with my friends watch horror movies and eating the candy that were suppose to be for the little kids.
I remember when I was little (little enough that I still had to go trick-or-treating beofore it was dark), I was scared of getting candy from the houses. I didn't know what was going to jump out at me. It was the last house, and I saw that there was a figure on the porch, staring at you. I started to back away because I didn't want to get any closer. My dad laughed and pushed me forward. I started crying a little bit because I was scared, but I ended up on the porch anyways. I rang the doorbell, no one answered. I knocked on the door and still no one answered. Just whenI was going to knock again, the figured moved towards me and asked if I wanted some candy. I screamed as loud as I could and just ran. My parents were laughing so hard and they got my candy for me because I wouldn't go near the house anymore.
I think that was my last time trick-or-treating too…I can't remember.
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Jennie ~ I'm so glad I'm not the only one freaked out by wax museums.
Psykhe ~ What a traumatic Halloween! That's awful. I can well imagine that it was your last year trick-or-treating.
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Halloween always makes me think about all the great costumes everyone came up with. I'm not in the least creative and neither was my mom so my costumes tended to be pretty mundane and practical, but I loved to see what everyone else was wearing.
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I loved Halloween as a kid. I used to dress up as a witch and the best bit was getting all the sweets and not having to share them with anyone else. They were all for me!!!
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Halloween reminds me of running and giggling from house to house with my beloved cousins on a warm autumn night.
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I don't really have any favorite Halloween memories. Just getting to go trick n treat was a good memory. Tore923@aol.com
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My bet halloween memory is of my parents taking me around trick-r-treating…
-Brandy
brandyzbooks@yahoo.com
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Candy! I know, terrible, right? But I'm not much for dressing up and I do love me some chocolate
smaccall@comcast.net
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I love Halloween…you get to dress up as whatever you like and not look like a fool, you can celebrate all things spooky (well, except spiders…you should never celebrate spiders!), and people give you candy. How can you go wrong??
My funniest memory involves Halloween my freshman year of college…and my friend wanting to climb a tree because she thought she was a squirrel. The second funniest was the year I dressed up as a devil…w/ red vinyl pants and top…I had some much fun dancing around that night out that we almost had to cut me out of the outfit because it was glued to me! Good times on Halloween:)
This year, I'll be on a plane on Halloween…do you think they will let me trick or treat on the plane?? *L*
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Halloween makes me think about my kids
Before I had kids, it was all about the Halloween party and hanging out with adults 
Now, I get into the decorations every year because my kids enjoy it and I love seeing their faces light up when I pull out our orange and black halloween totes. My favorite memory was probably from last year when my daughter and last kid was old enough to walk to the houses on her own and I got a kick out of her saying "tick a teat" in her quiet mouse like voice. I enjoyed watching all three of my kids run from house to house in excitement, brings back memories 
june111@att.net
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Halloween makes me think about Happy & Sad memories. The happy ones are: Where am I putting all my haunted houses & What new item am I adding to the graveyard outside. Mouth watering anticipation of homemade, toasted pumpkin seeds & hot apple cider from the orchard down the road. Thankfully my mom is still with us & almost fully recovered but the sad part is from the pain she occasionally suffers from the idiot they never caught, for shooting her, for a stupid gang initiation. But then everything gets OK again when we get together. We order a pizza and give out candy and remember why we enjoy Halloween the best ;D
Stephmartin71(at)yahoo(dot)com
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I love dressing up so Halloween to me means spending a day being someone else and have fun doing it. My best memory is when my boyfriend and I decided to stay in for Halloween and watch scary movies and make Caramel apples from scratch.
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Halloween makes me think of candy! I've never dressed up and went trick-or-treating much, but I do love give out candy and getting some candy at discount prices!
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It means decorating and reading scary books.
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