November's ROCKIN!!!!!

The Coming Attractions for November are absolutely amazing!


Wow, how can it POSSIBLY be November already!!!????! I don't know where the year's gone. Sigh.

Oh well...it's here! So, hellllllooooo November!

We've got an exciting month in store for you, so fasten your seatbelts. As always, along with the delightful and always fun Romance Bandits who'll be here giving thanks and talking turkey, we have some fabulous guests this month.


On November 2 it's the ever-popular, totally fab Terri Garey! This Rita-award-winning author will be joining us to celebrate the release of the fourth and final book in her brilliantly popular Nick Styx series. In Silent Night, Haunted Night, a sexy spirit sets her sights on Nikki's boyfriend, Joe. The unwilling ghoulfriend to the dead will have to fight to be sure this Christmas isn't her last!


On November 3, science fiction and fantasy author Ann Aguirre makes her first visit in the Lair to celebrate the release of Skin Game, her romantic suspense debut under the pen name Ava Gray.

Just the cover alone on this one should have everyone stopping by!








Speaking of cool covers.....

On November 4, award-winning and best-selling author Karen White makes her first visit to the Lair to chat about her southern set novels. We'll look particularly atThe Girl on Legare Street, which features a real estate agent confronting ghosts and the past--and hoping she doesn't have to dig up her own.


Now, I don't know about your area, but here in the US, it's also voting day - Nov. 4th that is.

So I'm going to be celebrating November 5th that all the stupid political ads on television will FINALLY be gone! Woohooo! :>

(Edited note: Limecello pointed out that it's actually Nov. 3 for voting so I'll celebrate on Nov. 4 AND 5 that the ads are over!)






Along with that minor celebration, on 5th November, multi-published author Cathleen Ross (www.cathleenross.com) visits us to talk about her course, Writing Category Romance, which is available all around the world on CD.



She's also giving away a copy of the Harlequin anthology, THE NAUGHTY BITS: SHORT EROTIC FICTION, which includes her story "Psychic Sex".


Gotta say that I adore the title. Grins.




November 6, Julie Kenner returns with Tainted, the first volume of her new urban fantasy series, the Lily Blood chronicles.



Check out the sword-wielding heroine on the cover! Whew! You GO girl!








November 11 is a day to celebrate all our Veterans! Let's make sure no matter what country we're in, that we either say a quick prayer for those who serve, or thank a veteran you know!

On November 16, Dee Davis pops in to discuss her wonderful new matchmaker novel, Setup in Soho.


What a cool cover on this one too! :>









On November 18th join the marvelous duo of Anthea and Lawson, writing as Anthea Lawson, who'll be with us to talk about their new book.

"This husband-and-wife team’s second romance sweeps from the shores of Crete to the streets of London.…readers will enjoy the characters and the beautiful descriptions in this nice tale."

– Romantic Times

A brooding hero with a mysterious past meets the only woman who can bring him out of the shadows and into the light. Not what he expected... but ALL HE DESIRES.

That just sounds delicious!!


On November 21, we celebrate the launch of a brand new book blog, The Romance Dish.

The blog may be new, but the names aren't - The bloggers, Buffie Johnson, Gannon Carr, Andrea Williamson, and PJ Ausdenmore will join us for the party - and you already know how much these Bandit Buddies and FABULOUS reviewers love to party!!

WOOHOO! Party in the Laaaaiiiirrrr!

November 23rd Susan Heino is with us to promote her debut Regency release, MISTRESS BY MISTAKE which is a December release. You won't want to miss this one, Susan's a great author and a lot of fun to chat with!

Now in the States, November 27th is the best day of the month....

THANKSGIVING!!! WOOHOOO!

This day is one where Americans use the holiday as the perfect excuse to eat turkey, pie and other delicious stuff, watch football and either enjoy their families or spend time telling stories about them. Ha!


On November 27, another amazing day in the states, affectionately referred to as Black Friday - the first official shopping day in the Christmas season - we'll have debut author Lori Brighton with us.

Lori will join us to chat about her Victorian paranormal, Wild Heart. So if you're one of those who's going out on Black Friday to do your Christmas shopping, finish up quick and join us for a FAB day!







And last but not least, check out the cool prizes and fabulous contests on our very own Anna Campbell's website:

Christmas with a CAPTIVE OF SIN!

OK, that title is slightly misleading. Anna Campbell wants you to tell her your new year’s resolution. Extra points for saying ‘read CAPTIVE OF SIN’. OK, maybe not! Her two favorite answers receive signed copies of CAPTIVE OF SIN plus a couple of mystery books from her prize cupboard. Just email Anna on anna@annacampbell.info with your answer. The contest closes 31st December, 2009, and Anna will draw the winner soon after that.

For more information, please visit her contest page: http://www.annacampbell.info/contest.htmlSource URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Verrrrrrry Scarrrrrry....

by Jeanne Adams

BOOO!!!

Did I scare you? BWAH-Ha-Ha-HA!!! It's Halloween! Tonight is Trick or Treat! Tomorrow, All Soul's Day...Are you ready?

Oh, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Grins.


All of you know, by now that I ADORE Halloween. Almost every year we have an annual Addams Family Halloween party - in hiatus this year because I was on deadline, alas.

*huge, long-standing pout*

However, it is an event like no other. We've had up to 65 people in our house and garden for this affair. One year, early on while it was still just "Jeanne's Annual Halloween Party" (i.e. Pre-DH) I did a scary movie fest.

That was a strange one - not that they all don't have their strange character! - but this one struck me as odd because half the group was in the family room of my then-condo watching the scary movies, devouring popcorn, beer, and cupcakes with the same abandon as the monster on the screen devoured people.

The other half were in my miniscule kitchen talking as loudly as they could so as not to hear the scary noises or gasps of the populace from the TV screen.

Hmmm. I drew a frightening conclusion. Some people are really frightened by scary movies! Imagine that!

Did I mention that I'm REALLY missing the party this year? Can you tell? So I thought we could have a Virtual Halloween Party here.

Let's talk about Scary Movies! And Scary Books, Shaaaaall we?

The scariest movie I ever saw (nightmare producing scare and I was an adult!) was Aliens II. The one on the ship. *shudder* Something about that one just gave me the flat out willies. I literally did have fall out of the bed nightmares after that one. Could'a been the cold medicine too, but jumpin' heebie jeebies, Batman! That one was a doozy.

Second to that one in the "gives Jeanne the collywobbles" category is American Werewolf in London. Now before you go all Hollywood Critique on me and tell me it's a parody, I'll say that yes, I do know that. Doesn't matter. That scene, where the werewolves are dressed as Nazis and bust in the house? Huh-uh, oh no you dinnna!?! I truly did walk out of the theater. Well, run on wobbly legs might be a more writerly description. Ha!

Others that were on the "Sleep Disturbing" list are : Jagged Edge; Body Heat; and Wait Until Dark.

Alien (the first one) didn't get me. The Halloween movies didn't bother me. Neither did any of the Elm Street movies. Frankly if you are boneheaded flat out stupid peabrained enough to get yourself IN to that situation? Damn if you don't deserve to get dead. Snork!! And hey, Jamie Lee Curtis? If you go in the house to get something, come back out and the car doors are locked and the windows fogged?

GET. THE. HECK. OUT. OF. THERE. Yeeesh. Too Stupid to Live. Seriously.

What really seems to get me are not the slasher/gore movies. No, it's the pscyological ones. Hitchcock. The Birds.

I still have an unnatural fear of things that flap.

Gaslight. Are you mad, or are you being "gaslighted?" Grins.

Then there's the books and movies-from-books like The Exorcist and The Omen and Rosemary's Baby. Oh, and all the Anne Rice books.

Ohhhh yeah. Scarwy.

So I knew what scared me. I figured I'd ask some of the Banditas.

For Suz, it's the old school thriller - Rear Window; Midnight Lace; Charade; and the aforementioned Gaslight.

For our own AC, The Talented Mr. Ripley made her shiver, along with the end of the world flick 28 Days.

Nancy says Wait Until Dark had her covering her eyes. She also cited Dead Again and Terminator as among the collywobble films. (Now, with passing time, she's decided Michael Beign made all the Terminator fear worth it.)

Joan, despite her love of blood thirsty Romans, assures me she does NOT watch scary movies. Of course, she went on to list three....Exorcist (the mere discussion of it had her worried); Jurrassic Park (especially the part with the raptors in the kitchen...but you know, she doesn't watch scary movies); and What Lies Beneath. I'm sure she saw this for Harrison Ford, never THINKING it was a scary movie. Right JT? Grins.

Our own Anna says the first Halloween scared her to death, along with The Shining. "Daddy's home!" *shudder!* Anna likes thrillers. Movies like Fatal Attraction, Dressed to Kill, Sleeping with the Enemy, Seven, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Suspect. Suspect's one of my favorites, but Anna says Notorious is one of the best.

Tawny too refuses to see the scary ones, but says her kids think the REAL scary movies are: Dead Alive, Sixth Sense, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Quarantine, The Grudge and the Evil Dead.

So what about you? What's YOUR scary movie?

Any of them give you nightmares?

Do you get more frightened by the psychological stuff - Jagged Edge, Mr. Ripley, Gaslight, and so on - or the blood guts and gore, like Saw, and Halloween and Elm Street?

What about books?


Lisa Gardner's Say Goodbye had me seeing spiders everywhere. *shiver!!* and I certainly wouldn't want to meet any of Linda Howard, Karen Rose Smith or Lisa Jackson's villains in MY town!

Last but not least...I always buy at least three new Halloween books for my children each year. This year, the best is:

Tell Me Another Scary Story by Carl Reiner
Now....last but not least, for all my Pagan Pals...

Blessed Be and HAPPY SAMHAIN!!!!Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Have a fun weekend.

My lovelies, what are you up to this weekend? Our friend Tasha (of gorgeous wedding fame) just opened a new restaurant, Tipsy Parson, in Chelsea, and we're really excited to try it out. (The menu includes mac n' cheese, deviled eggs and sweet potato beignets. Yum.) Have a wonderful weekend, and here are a few great posts from around the web...

Glitter pumpkins.

French brand Petit Bateau just released this adorable swimsuit. Too bad it's October!

A fabric resume, pine needle embroidery, and pretty stationery.

I'm so impressed by this DIY Audubon paperweight.

A plaid shirt for cyclists.

Pretty wedding photos (especially the couple wrapped up in a quilt!).

Alex and I get spooked in big houses. This little one would do just fine.

Ew, a meat hand!

Love the graphics in this Swedish house.

A documentary about WASP culture.

Knitting for British soldiers.

Nicole and Evan's new Parisian artwork.

Damn, Mike Perry can draw.

Have a great weekend! xoxoSource URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Smile in Milan

The bangs + the bow = too cute.

(Photo by The Sartorialist)Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Antique jewelry

Gorgeous antique jewelry at Erie Basin.Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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City vs. country

I love Manhattan, but sometimes the garbage trucks are too loud and the mice are too in-our-living-room. Emersonmade makes me want to move to the countryside and hang out on haystacks.

Are you a city girl or a country girl?

(Photos by Emersonmade)Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Sarah Stephens - Japanese Vogue

Sarah is a vampire in the new Japanese Vogue...Photographed by Thomas Lagrange.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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What are you going to be for Halloween?

What are you going to be for Halloween this year? (This Oeuf animal costume kills me.)

P.S. We got engaged last year on Halloween!Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Halloween Tricks and Costumes

by Jo Robertson

Halloween isn’t really an official “holiday,” but you wouldn’t know that by the antics of high school and elementary students during the week of the big event. They come to school dressed in all kinds of getups and engage in all sorts of antics as they prepare for the Big Day.

I always got a kick out of my seniors getting in the spirit. Since they were high on some kind of pre-Halloween candy anyway, I figured I’d try to turn the holiday into a learning lesson.

Orson Welles’ classic radio broadcast of HG Wells' “War of the Worlds” went over like a lead balloon.

Tron-Gen Kids don't believe that people actually committed suicide or took to the hills with their cars loaded with emergency supplies because they believed aliens from another world had landed on earth. I mean, listen to those special effects sounds. Pretty hokey compared to what today’s whiz masters can produce.

I tried using Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds” based on a Daphne du Maurier short story as a writing springboard. The movie terrified me as a college student. Probably because someone let loose a frightened bird into the dome-ceilinged old theater and scared us all nearly to death. Talk about crying "fire" in a crowded room! I passed birds very gingerly for a long time after that.

What worked fairly well happened during the years I taught drama in addition to English and had a stand-alone classroom that literally had no windows. I could close the doors and create utter darkness. Mawhahaha, so conducive to Halloween antics!

I held a flashlight under my chin to give my face an eerie cast in the pitch black room. Then I read Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” all the while fingering several squishy, wet, seeping items on a covered plate on the desk in front of me.

At the end, with the narrator’s words, “'Tis the beating of his hideous heart!” I flung off the cover and lifted several pounds of raw liver into the air.







Oh yeah, that should’ve gotten me fired.





But my favorite part of Halloween is the costumes!



One of the most interesting costumes I’ve seen was when my daughter and her husband dressed as golf balls (right). How clever!




Children are cute no matter what costumes their parents put them in.










Power Rangers Sydney and Max rule! They jumped off a balcony and pretended they died!










One year, Annie was a butterfly and Max was Ash from Pokemon. Tweenie Corinna decided rhinestone cowgirls are fun. Or maybe she's Brittany Spears!


Cutest cheerleader ever!





Of course, Darth Vader (Jake) is popular any time.















This year's most popular Halloween costumes, according to those in the know, are dead celebrities, kinda macabre, but I'll bet we'll see a lot of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett costumes.














The spike (pun intended) in interest in vampires with Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries should give us a lot of child and adult vampire costumes this year.






It's always so much fun to wear those pointy incisors, you know!

What about you? What's the most interesting or favorite costume you've ever worn? Or favorite Halloween trick or experience?

A $15 Border's gift certificate goes to the person with the most original sounding costume, scariest or funniest Halloween experience, or best Halloween trick.





Mwahhhhhhhaaaaaa, and let the games begin!






Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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Lucky Winners

Thanks to Berta Platas, we have three books to give away to commenters on her blog, Life, Love, and the Lottery.




One copy of Lucky Chica goes to Eilis Flynn, and one copy goes to Joan Kayse!

The lone copy of Berta's rare debut book, now out of print, Miami Heat, goes to p226!

Please email Nancy via the link on the blog page and put "Berta's winner" in the subject line.



Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone who stopped by.Source URL: http://gbejadacosta.blogspot.com/2009/10/
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