Monthly Archives: October 2017

Happy Halloween! Meet Jack…

Each year on Halloween I drag out Jack. Let me tell you a little something about Jack. He’s actually a photograph I took in 1974, for one of my photography classes when I attended Cal State University of Fullerton. Back in those days we didn’t have digital cameras, and we certainly didn’t have Photoshop. That meant when we put a pumpkin on a guy’s head, we REALLY put a pumpkin on the guy’s head!

The good natured college student behind the pumpkin (actually half a pumpkin because after I carved it, I had to remove the back half of the pumpkin to fit on his head) was one of my neighbors at the apartment I lived in at Fullerton.

After carving the pumpkin, conning my neighbor to wear it, taking the picture, I had to personally develop the film and then make the prints in a dark room. This project took hours to complete.

These days, I could make a similar photograph in a matter of minutes–with the miracle of my iPhone camera app and Photoshop.

But really, would the picture have the same character as Jack?

Happy Halloween! Stay safe!

 

Book 14 – The Ghost and the Bride

The Ghost and the Bride is the last Haunting Danielle release–yet it is not the final book in the series. The 15th Haunting Danielle Book, The Ghost and Little Marie will be released before Christmas.

As for this book…

Family and friends gather at Marlow House for Ian and Lily’s wedding.

When an unexpected guest shows up Danielle tries to figure out who he arrived with and why.

Did I mention the unexpected guest is a ghost?

 

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How do you do at Halloween?

Back when our kids were growing up, off the rack Halloween costumes always seemed tacky to me. I believed Halloween costumes should be homemade, which usually meant something thrown together at the last minute.

If you ask my daughter Elizabeth, she will tell you that didn’t always work out so well. She’s still annoyed about the Halloween we spent in Bishop, California, with my sister’s family. I made her a Jasmine costume that year.

She looked adorable, until it started to fall apart—while she was trick or treating.

Yeah, she wasn’t happy about that. Basically, when it came to Halloween, I rather sucked as a parent.

My grandkids always look adorable on Halloween. Elizabeth does it much better than I did. It’s probably because I traumatized her that year in Bishop.

As for my childhood Halloweens, I remember getting sick a lot on Halloween, which meant no trick or treating for me. And when I wasn’t sick, the only costume I recall wearing was a gypsy costume.  Seems like my mother dressed me as a gypsy each year.  Now we know why I sucked at Halloween.

(My older sister and me, one Halloween.)