My Childhood Monster

{Link to blogfest sign up}

Christine Rains is celebrating the release of her new book Fearless with a blog fest!  I thought I’d join in, since a) I haven’t posted in a while, and b) the topic sounded like fun!

From her blog:

I'll be hosting a blogfest that will go from August 7th to the 9th. You can post on any one of those three days. (I like it when blogfests give you an option of which day to post on!) For this blogfest, all you need to do is write about your childhood monster. Did you have a beast living under your bed? Or was the scary clown in your closet? 

My childhood monster?

My first instinct is to say witches—when I was really young, I thought that witches lived under my bed and in my closet, and I could see their shadows creeping up on me.  But that pretty soon switched to the Basilisk, in Harry Potter.

That thing terrified me.

It probably had something to do with the fact that I would listen to Harry Potter with my sister, as we were going to sleep.  We would put in the tape (we have all the books on cassette tape, except for Deathly Hallows, and I still listen to most of them on tape), and go to sleep as it was playing.

The thing about Chamber of Secrets, is when you read the book itself, it’s not actually all that scary.  At least, it wasn’t to me.  But when you listen to it, especially as you’re going to sleep, you can just imagine the basilisk coming to find you and paralyze you.  And in the tapes, past tape two or three, I’m not actually able to listen to them anymore.  Because once Harry starts hearing “Deaaath, deaaath!” being hissed from the walls, I start to get thoroughly creeped out, and stop listening. 

I don’t know why it was the basilisk in particular that scared me—I didn’t have a problem with dementors, or even Lord Voldemort, but it was the basilisk that terrified me.

I was also afraid of graveyards, and zombies/ghosts, until I was about seven, when I voiced this fear to my dad.  He then took me into a graveyard near my house one evening, and showed me that there was nothing to be scared of.  I was terrified and almost in tears, but once we were inside the graveyard, I realized there was nothing scary about it.  Just sad, really.

~~~

About Fearless

Abby White was seven years old when she killed the monster under her bed. Now she slays creatures spawned by the fertile imaginations of children, and the number of these nightmares are on the rise. Neither she nor her guide - a stuffed hippo named Tawa - know why.

When she rescues Demetrius from an iron prison, he pledges his life to protect hers until he can return the favor. She doesn't want the help. And how can she concentrate on her job when the gorgeous wild fae throws himself in front of her during every fight? No matter how tempting, she can't take the time to lose herself to him.
To save the children and all she loves, Abby must be truly Fearless. 

Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and Create Space.

~~~

So, my friends, are you doing the What Was Your Childhood Monster blogfest?  If not, what was your childhood monster?

The Dandy Lioness

The Evil Genius Blogfest

Hey all!  I'm participating today in the Evil Genius Blogfest (even though I'm jumping on the band wagon a tad late, and didn't get my entry in on time.  Whoops!) hosted by my lovely, and long-time blogging buddy The Golden Eagle, for her two-years of happy blogging.  So, without further ado, here is my entry!

“It’s all prepared?” asked the woman in a long, white lab coat, striding into the room.

“Yes ma’am,” said the scientist, handing her the vial of clear liquid.  She smiled at it, then pocketed it.

“Perfect,” she said, smiling cruelly.

“May I ask what you’re to do with this liquid, ma’am?  It’s dangerous.”

“I know that very well,” she said, smiling even wider.  The scientist got a confused look on his face.  “And I think you, my friend, know that a little too well.”

Confused, the scientist glanced at her.  “What do you—“

Bam.

A look of shock appeared on his face as he toppled backward, and fell to the floor, dead.

“It’s always such a shame to see such a bright young mind go to waste,” she said.  “But no matter.  I have what I need, and he was expendable.”

She turned, and left the room.

***

A tall, slender woman entered the hall, and after mingling for a few minutes and introducing herself as a reporter, she wandered over to the water table.  She slipped a small vial of clear liquid out of her pocket, and after looking around the room to make sure no one was watching her, poured it into the water.

She quickly moved away from the water, and began mingling again.  It wasn’t long before a change came over the chattering crowd, water glasses clutched in many of their hands.  Hacking coughs replaced mindless chatter, and soon, water glasses were tumbling to the floor as people clutched at their throats, unable to breathe.  Within minutes, the tall, slender woman was the only one left standing.  She walked over to a woman standing near a podium, and turned over her body.  “Hello Alice,” she said to the dead woman.  “So we meet again.  This time however, I seem to have won.  I will miss our little skirmishes.”  She removed the woman’s wallet, and flipped through it, before removing a slip of paper.  “I have what I want now.  You thought I’d never find you.  Well, too bad.  Because now, I’ve won.”

And with that, she stood, and left the room of corpses behind.

(359 words)

So, what do you think?  Evil-genius-y?

The Dandy Lioness

Origins Blogfest

So, I'm linking up with Alex J. Cavanaugh, DL Hammons, Matthew McNish, and Katie Mills today for the Origins Blogfest.  Basically, it's talking about your writing origins.  Where or why did you start writing?

I've been writing for practically as long as I can remember.  It really started when I was about six, and staying at my friend's grandparents house for a weekend.  We were both very obsessed with Harry Potter at the time, but we felt that in Harry's world, there just weren't enough girl characters.

And that's how GP began.  Technically, GP stands for Girl Power, but we discarded that title years ago.  The nickname however, stuck.  We still work on this silly little (or maybe not so little...) project of ours, whenever we can, and are determined to finish at least the first book.  Yeah... we're still not done.

Over the years, since GP began, I started working on other things.  My wonderful creations included stories such as "Zoe and her Pet Cat", and "Bluebell the Fairy".  And then... I hit my Warrior's faze.  I don't know if any of you have read the Warriors series, but basically they're a whole bunch of books about cats who live in a forest, in their own little clans.  Okay.  That's a really bad explanation.  Here's a link to the website.  And... well... from there, my writing exploded.  I created probably hundreds of characters, I started story after story, and I got into roleplaying online.  For about three, four years, that was basically what my writing world revolved around.  Then, it kind of started falling off my radar-- I got bored with it, and eventually stopped doing all of those things.

And then... my friend, O, the one who I write GP with, got me interested in NaNoWriMo.  I had been writing a lot more by that time, and had about 15k on my (now finished) wolf novella.  So, I thought, 'What the heck?  Why not?' and I tried it.  And... I loved it.  That was China Roses, my NaNo10.  I completed NaNoWriMo with just close to 52,000 words.  Ever since then, I've been writing like crazy.

So, those are my writing origins.  What are yours?

The Dandy Lioness

Halloween Hop!

Hello all!  Here is my post for Jeremy's Halloween bloghop.


1) Add your blog to the list below.
2) Over the Halloween weekend (October 28-31) visit as many of the other blogs listed below as you wish.
3) Be sure to mention your favorite monster movie or book and your Halloween costume this year.
4) If you like the blog, follow it!
5) Grab the badge here and stick it on your blog for a few weeks to spread the word! (If you scratch it, it smells like pumpkin).


Hmm... my favorite Halloween/monster book or movie?  
The Nightmare Before Christmas... That counts, right?

And my costume this year?

I'm going as a Who from Whoville.  

I'm going to the Halloween carnival for my elementary school in a few hours.  I'm excited-- it should be really fun, as four of my friends are coming with me, and I'll see other friends I haven't seen for a while as they go to different schools.


The Dandy Lioness

Casting Call Bloghop

Hello!  Here is my Casting Call bloghop post!  It's hosted by Carrie, Melodie, and Lisa, and you have to represent your story or characters in some sort of visual way.  So, here I go.

Meet Princess Ryeland, or Ria as she is known in the circus.

{Via}

I chose this picture for Ria because she is leading a masquerade.  Though in truth she's a princess, she is pretending to be someone she's not.  So here's a photo of her with a mask.

Name:  Princess Ryeland/Ria

Age:  Fifteen

Height:  5'4"

Profession:  Princess/Circus worker (I don't know what she will actually be in the circus yet.  Acrobat, maybe?)

Project she's a part of:  NaNoWriMo '11

The Dandy Lioness