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Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life
AUTHORBUZZ: Discover new books, "meet" the authors and enter to win: Goto: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
Dear Reader,
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and today's guest columnist, Laura Griffin, is all dressed up and has a fun place to go this Halloween. No tricks, just treats today. Email Laura, say hello, and you'll be entered in her Halloween giveaway. She has three signed copies of her brand new book, SCORCHED. Email her at: laura@lauragriffin.com
Some families go all out for Christmas, but our family's favorite holiday is Halloween. Just picking out the pumpkins is a daylong event. We pile into the car and drive to a pumpkin patch in Marble Falls, Texas, where they have an amazing selection of pumpkins and gourds in every imaginable shape and size. This year in addition to our standard orange pumpkins, we picked out a few white ones--which my kids are now expecting me to carve into skull-shaped jack-o-lanterns.
After the wagon is loaded with pumpkins, we head over to the corn maze, where we chase each other through the eight-foot stalks. I love the maze, but it's always a little creepy getting lost in there. If you read the Stephen King story Children of the Corn, maybe you know what I mean.
Halloween night is the big event and everyone on our block gets into the spirit. People hang ghosts and spiders from the trees. Our bushes are decorated with orange and purple lights. Spooky music plays from speakers tucked behind headstones.
We drag a fire pit into the middle of the cul-de-sac and gather around with our lawn chairs as kids scurry back and forth for the pot luck dinner (our futile attempt to get some real food into them before they binge on candy).
Then we light our jack-o-lanterns, put our black cat safely inside the house where she won't be bothered by pranksters, and send the kids off trick-or-treating. When they get home, everyone dumps the candy in the middle of the table and starts bartering.
Halloween was never much of a deal for me growing up, but now it's a favorite tradition. And yes, I love to dress up, too!
What are your favorite Halloween traditions?
My new romantic suspense novel comes out Halloween week. The time of year seems appropriate because the book's heroine happens to be a forensic anthropologist, who unearths skeletons and analyzes bones to find clues for investigators. Sound creepy? It is, I guess, but I had so much fun researching this story.
I'm giving away three signed copies of SCORCHED.
--Laura Griffin
Email: laura@lauragriffin.com
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
* The following lucky winners will each receive a copy of Guest Columnist Shelle Sumners' new book GRACE GROWS and a companion soundtrack by her husband, singer-songwriter and Broadway actor Lee Morgan: Nancy Reynolds, Karen Terry, Ray Arnett, Pam Bean, Sheryl Hand, Pam Coughlin, Lauri Gaudet, Jenn Doyle, Diane Wittik, and Melissa Friedrich.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
www.muffinsandmayhem.com
AUTHORBUZZ: REFLECTED IN YOU (Fiction) by Sylvia Day
Reflected In You, the sequel to Bared To You takes us deeper into the tumultuous and erotic relationship between Gideon Cross and Eva Tramell, exploring more of the dark issues that define them. Their love faces tremendous obstacles, but both are fighters as well as survivors.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on REFLECTED IN YOU to find out more about the book and the author, Sylvia Day. Send her an email, she'd love to hear from you.
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