Upcoming Blog Halloween Parties!

IT'S HALLOWEEN PARTY TIME!!

Got your costume? Let's go trick or treating!

Don't forget to stop back here tomorrow, Weds. 10/20, for my 12 Days of Halloween in Miniature.

Comment during the party and you could win two of my handmade mini medieval books. (Dollhouse size in case you didn't know!)

Then how about some party hopping? See some more great stops below!









My friend Courtney over at Haunt Jaunts, a travel blog for restless spirits, is having a boorific Halloween Party all October!

Knowing Courts, she'll have all kinds of weird stuff (she's already posted on gruesome masks, (Ick!) and match your dog costumes! ha!), plus she's having some great giveaways, and all kinds of Halloween fun!







** Mark your calendar for next Monday, 10/25 for the Open House at Karin's blog, Mini Ramblings and Musings. Karin's gonna have the punch out, so stop by and say hi! Make sure you follow her and comment for a chance to win your very own mini Jack O'Lantern (not sure if it's haunted or not!)



** After that, let's go across the pond where Kat the Hat Lady in England is also having a party from Oct. 30-Nov. 2! Visit her party blog and post a comment with your Halloween link and join the fun!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Miniatures Monday: New Wizard Boxes

After seeing the amazing magic and amulet boxes made by members of the Mini Doll List (I'll share the link later when I find it again), I was inspired to make some magic boxes for my wizard.



















The room is done in paper clay but needs to be painted and decorated yet. I thought it would look neat to have some shelves and cabinets filled with various boxes and potion bottles. I wanted it to be slightly different from the fortune teller's house, which will have an assortment of crystal balls and other items.

New Cool Webcode from Google

Thought I'd share this new (well new to me) code I found from Google to generate a changing feed you can put on your website. Pretty neat...

I'm going to try linking my blog on my site... The nice thing is it's not linked to ads like other feeds I've tried and it will find the links automatically.

See easy-to-follow directions here.

Coming: 12 Days of Halloween in Miniature 2010!

Don't forget to stop by Wednesday, Oct. 20 for the kick-off to this year's 12 Days of Halloween in Miniature party!

Great creepy food, spooky guests, and unique miniature stuff!!




Bonus Contest! Comment on the posts beginning Wednesday for a chance to win two of my handmade miniature medieval books, perfect for a haunted, witch or wizard scene!

** And Happy Pink Saturday! Stop by Beverly's blog and say hello!

New Video for Searching for a Starry Night mystery

Finally! I've wanted to do this for a loooong time, but every program I tried I just couldn't get it to look right. Well, this was like video-for-dummies. I don't think it came out too bad, but tell me what you think?

* Read more about the book and download chapter 1 of Searching for a Starry Night. #1 on Kindle for miniatures! (If video fails to load, refresh page or see at website.)

New Story Coming in DAW Steampunk Romance Anthology

Yay! Just got word that my latest story, now renamed, "Kinetic Dreams," has been accepted for a steampunk romance anthology coming from DAW Books...

The new story continues the saga of Alva Edison, "sister" of Thomas Edison, that appears in the first anthology, STEAMPUNK'D, coming out Nov. 2, also from DAW Books.

In the first story, "Edison Kinetic Light and Steam Power," an ailing Alva Edison helps rescue her inventor brother, Thomas, and helps him find the answers to Mr. H. G. Wells's kinetic time traveling flying machine.

In the new story, Alva still marvels about not only finding relief for her crippling arthritis, but being married to her handsome doctor. Her happiness, however, is soon threatened by her brother Thomas's strange claims about traveling through time, even as a future threat draws near. Will she face the unimaginable and help her brother find a solution, or is her family doomed?

I must admit I have really enjoyed writing about the Edisons and I'm thinking of a new storyline for a novella to continue their stories. Maybe that can be my NanoWriMo project once I get the zombie book finished. Hmm...

Writing Opportunity: New Kindle Singles

Amazon announced a new program, "Kindle Singles," for novella-length stories, 10,000 to 30,000 words described as "twice the length of a New Yorker feature or a few chapters of a typical book."

The stories will be sold in their own Kindle Store section, be priced for less than typical books and be readable on the Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices. Stories also Will be backed-up online in a reader's Kindle library on Amazon.

To be considered for Kindle Singles, contact digital-publications@amazon.com.

Read more about the program here.

New Poll: Mysteries Top Reading Choice over Romances - Finally!

Well, looks like pollsters are finally catching on to what many of us already know - that mysteries and thrillers are favorite reads.

A recent Harris Poll cited in Publishers Weekly noted that mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels beat out chick-lit and romance novels by a large margin; and that more women than men read mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels.

The August online poll of 2,775 U.S. adults found that of those who read at least one book in a year (only one?):
* Nearly half (48%) read mysteries, thrillers and crime novels
* Science fiction was read by 26%
* "Literature" (?) was read by 24%
* One in 10 read graphic novels (11%) in the past year.

Top nonfiction reading choices were history (31%), biographies (29%) and religious/spiritual books (26%).

By age, 61% of readers 65 and up -mostly women - were more likely to read mystery, thriller, and crime novels.

Guess I'm a statistic; mysteries -mostly cozy or a thriller - are my first reading choice, along with some horror and occasional sci-fi.

** That said, what are your reading choices?

Miniatures Monday: Celebrate National Dollhouse & Miniatures Month! Halloween Miniatures

This has to be my absolutely favorite celebration!! Despite doing miniatures for (mumble-mumble) years. (ha! - yes that long!), I haven't tired of working on small things!

For fun, I thought I'd include some new Halloween miniatures I got from a swap with the Yahoo Groups' Half Scale Group. Perfect since I'm working on a half scale Halloween scene (deciding which house to use - it keeps wanting to be bigger since I keep collecting stuff. The original clock case may not be large enough!)



I made a smaller version of a "hand" snack and a small Halloween cake.



A bunch of cakes! You'll never guess what they're made of - small wood furniture plugs that are painted and topped with slick paint, glitter and Halloween confetti, then glued to a small button. It's fun coming up with new color combinations. Now I have to make a bunch more again for my 1/2" bakery.




** And what have you been working on??

Miniature Eye Candy: Mexican Corner Room

Thought I'd share a few older rooms and photos that I haven't shown in awhile. These may be familiar to some readers and new to others.

I made this corner room of foam core board covered with tinted lightweight Spackle. I liked adding the small roof and thought it added something to the room. The floor is mat board, which I painted and cut lines for tiles. Many of the items were from a miniatures group swap. I love the colors! Sometimes a smaller project is fun as you can fit a lot in, but actually get it done. (My problem. ha!) Ole!

* See more of minis at the Verstraete Miniatures Gallery.