Laura Whitcomb's Blog, page 10

Tea & Ghosties

I tried to carve the smile to match Binny's.

My annual Supernatural Tea Party marked its two-year anniversary with the traditional Halloween Tea.

 Cyn decorated the rest of the house with her fabulous Halloween toy collection, but I decorated the living room and dining room with spooky style tomb stones, ghosts, gargoyles, skeletons, and other long-leggity beasties.

We told ghost stories and discussed the history of the holiday, mysteries unseen, and other fascinating tidbits.

Some of Cyn's Halloweeny "dolls" on display.

We served fresh scones with Devon cream, pumpkin/gingerbread tarts, lemon curd sandwiches, and trick-or-treat sweets.

I also turned green "snowballs" into cemetery cakes — fun.

Bin as a duck for the Halloween fair on the 30th.

We heard the recording of Vincent Price teaching how to conjure a demon (don't worry — we didn't take his advice — but it was vintage entertainment on a dark Halloween evening.)

At the fair with a scary clown -- oh, my!

(By the way, I always protect our meetings with the Light of God so that no subject we might touch on can bring us any negativity.)

Binny was the only one who wore a costume, but he looked spiffy as Pierrot.

After the tea we had a movie clips party where Cyn, Don and I showed some of our favorite spooky scenes — Don also showed part of a documentary about the origins of All Hallows Eve.

Bin chats with Susan Fletcher.

Sadly, no trick-or-treater ever comes to our door — no street lights, no sidewalks, and too much land between each house out in these parts.

Max as a bat and Binny giving Don a funny look -- hey, kid, Don's making sure you don't topple off the table!

The night was delightful ~ Bin loved his first Halloween.

How to enter . . .

I forgot to tell my blog readers how to enter the monthly Give-Aways. So sorry.

Go to my website (there's a link on the right side of this blog) and email me using the link that says "email Laura Whitcomb" then leave me your name and physical address so I can mail you the prize if you win.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. I love Oregon in the fall

November Give-Away

Linda of San Mateo, California is the winner of the October Give-Away — congratulations, Linda. I'll send you (and the winner of the June Give-Away) copies of the soft cover FETCH now that I have them in stock, as it were.

In honor of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) the November Give-Away will be a signed (by me, at least) copy of YOUR FIRST NOVEL, co-authored with my fabulous agent Ann Rittenbrerg.

Praise for YFN ~

Harlan Coben:

Superb advice on writing a great novel and getting it published.

George Hagen, author of The Laments:

This book offers the spark of inspiration that gets a writer both mentally and physically geared for the task. Then it delivers something equally vital: clear-headed, positive advice about the business side of writing a novel. It'll inspire you to create, challenge you to be great, and bolster you with the wisdom of two seasoned professionals.

~Happy Halloween~

My mother taught me this song — does anyone else remember it from their childhoods?

"Tonight is the night

When dead leaves fly

Like witches on switches

Across the sky

And elf and sprite dance through the night

On an eerie sheen –

It's Halloween."

Glimpses of THE FETCH

 

In honor of the softcover of THE FETCH this month, here are a few excerpts with some Fetch-ish images.

(from Chapter One) Calder was a Fetch, a death escort, and had been since his own death at the age of nineteen. He had been a Fetch for 330 years, and so had seen many women in the Death Scenes to which he had been sent. He'd watched women drowning, one with seaweed twisting her gown into a mermaid tail, another in a pond surrounded by lilies that glowed like funeral offerings about her floating hair.

He'd seen women lost and broken in ivy-choked woods and in open fields where they lay fallen in the snow, half covered like gravestones. Some died safe in their downy beds, some forgotten in alleys.

He had also seen many women who tended to the dying – this one washing her sister's face with lilac water, that one praying and weeping with her father. Some had been nursing soldiers, others dreaming beside husbands they did not realize had ceased breathing.

For the last 330 years Calder had seen thousands upon thousands of mortal women, so he did not understand why, on this day, the sight of this particular woman afflicted him.

(from Chapter Two) . . . for a Fetch, Calder was young. The Order of the Fetch, on the other hand, was old–it began when the ruins of the first garden could still be found hiding in the desert beside a river, a blanket of green vines having grown over her like a shroud, and, in this moist cave that was once Eden, at the heart of her darkness, the Tree of Knowledge bowed to the earth.

Abel, the second son of Eve, the first to die in Eden, became the first Fetch–he was there, in a rocky field east of the garden, standing over the body of his father as Adam took his last breath.

(from Chapters Fifteen & Sixteen ) Calder saw and heard the men at the same moment. The crunch of leaves and twigs under foot. The glint of one man's damp forehead, the flash of the shovel blade. There were two of them, only a dozen paces down the slope. Calder spun around and threw his arms around Ana and Alexis, held them to his chest and kept his back to the men. Both brother and sister were perfectly silent. He stood as their shield and they trembled together under his chin.

He held his breath and could feel Ana and Alexis do the same as they listened to the soldiers tromping through the leaves below them. One coughed and wheezed as he marched; the other sighed as he swatted at bushes with the shovel.

"Maybe dogs had them," said one.

"Dogs? You're an idiot."

"Wolves, then."

And now higher up on the slope, above their hiding place, more footsteps and the swishing of branches and ruffling of shrubs. It seemed they were surrounded by searchers. Calder willed the men to overlook them. Ana hid her face against his shoulder. Calder tried to imagine a wall around the place they stood, making the three of them as invisible to the guards as he used to be before he'd borrowed a body. He imagined the men seeing the white of his tunic and their skin, and the black of his hair and the coat that Ana wore, as the dark and light of a gnarled and mottled tree trunk. The three were so still, they were rooted to the ground as steadfastly as any larch or fir beside them.

Wordstock 2010

If you're in Portland, Oregon this coming weekend (Oct 9 & 10) come hear me speak on a "Creature Feature" panel at 4:00 pm Sunday. For directions to, and more info on, Wordstock go to www.wordstockfestival.com and check out the list of other speakers, panels, readings, signings, and workshops. There are also food and publisher booths galore.

Joining me on my panel will be Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush) and Joey Comeau (One Bloody Thing After Another) — we'll be talking about the popularity of Supernatural stories in YA lit and how we make our paranormal characters so believable.

The Return of the Give Aways!

Happy October, everyone. In honor of the paperback release of THE FETCH . . .

. . . I'll be starting back up with my monthly Give Aways. The October prize will be a signed FETCH paperback. I just received my copies and will be mailing Robin, of Hollywood, Maryland, the copy she won in June, as well.

To enter, go to my website at www.laurawhitcomb.com and use the "Email Laura Whitcomb" link. Give me your name and address (it's open internationally) and let me know if you do NOT want your info kept for my mailing list.

I can't believe it's October already. My son is eight months old. The weather is turning crisp. Life is good.

Tea & Magic

Our most recent Supernatural Tea was on the subject of Magick – the artistry of magic tricks and the supernatural kind  – everything from conjuring to disapparation.  (Wait, is that a word?!)

We dined on Tillamook cheddar/apple/basil sandwiches, zucchini bread Pam made for us, figgy jam Cyn made for us, chocolates (ginger, cherry, and toffee) and a nice pot of Earl Grey.

Don did a few feats of prestidigitation using cards, coins, and a wee wooden guillotine. He's quite the illusionist. I don't know how he did it. (And I don't want to know — it's magic, after all.) As usual Binny was very keen to listen to our conversations and participate. Don and Cyn showed magic clips. We plotted a few treats for the upcoming Halloween tea. (Don promises to play a recording of Vincent Price supposedly conjuring up a demon – spooky, if campy, fun!)

While we're on the subject of magic, another of my "favorite things" is the magic stylings of my cousin magician/actor/filmmaker Scott Cervine. Here is the link to a 1985 recording of his legendary ring act.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIOHgCOOc0o

Oh, the artistry! I adore him and his contribution to the craft which will remain part of the history of magic forever, I'm quite certain of it.

These are a few of my favorite things . . .

One of my favorite performers is

the puppeteer Bruce Schwartz. Follow this link to see some of his magic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLyyBWsdbXo  

One of my favorite artists is

Burne Jones, a Pre-Raphaelite painter.

One of my favorite TV shows is 30 Rock — there are five epiosdes free to view on your computer at Hulu.com.

One of my favorite foods is

the BBQ chicken salad at California Pizza Kitchen.

My favorite designer is

Eileen Fisher — comfortable, classy, mix-and-matchy clothes.

My favorite...

Don't believe everything you see on facebook!

If any of you got a photo of a naked lady "tagged" with my name, it was most definitely not me. I've reported the incident. My apologies if that photo made it to anyone's computer. (The picture was tagged with dozens of people's names — how disturbing!) This is more my style . . .

A well-covered girl!