Sunday, October 26, 2014

Halloween Book Recommendations and November Celestial Calendar

Thanks for participating in the Survive and Thrive Blogfest. This was the second one we did, last year's being the Get Healthy Blogfest. 

There were so many topics covering a wide spectrum of physical and mental ailments. Sharing personal experiences, encouraging early detection, and teaching lifestyle changes will help make a major difference for the better in people's lives. We'll do this again next year and I hope to see you all sign up. I'm shooting for 100 participants in 2015. 

Halloween Reads: Looking for a quick Halloween read or two? Here are two I recommend: 

The Horror 
By Randy Shaffer 
Genre: Horror 
43 pages 
$0.99 

A classic short story that is far better than ninety percent of short stories I’ve recently read. This is a fun short story I recommend to anyone who doesn’t have time to read a full novel but needs a quick rush. I love the idea of a madman serial killer using a Halloween haunted house to do his dirty deeds. 

Charley scans the line of people waiting to go though the house of horrors, looking for the perfect victims. He finds the perfect unsuspecting couple, and once its their turn to enter, he locks the doors and begins his killing spree which also includes hired actors inside the house dressed as monsters and zombies. 

A bit campy, but I highly recommend The Horror. Enjoy! 

Ghost Camera 
By Darcy Coates 
Genre: Young Adult 
118 Pages 
$0.99 

Jenine finds an old Polaroid camera. But this is no ordinary camera. It’s a ghost camera that has the ability to capture ghosts on film. 

Problem is, every picture she takes opens a portal into the dimension ghosts live in, allowing them to see the user. Each successive shot opens more portals and soon the ghosts come looking for Jenine to kill her. 

At first, only a few ghastly ghouls are after Jenine. But as the story unfolds and she snaps more images, hordes of ghosts spill out into our world and are hunting her down. Jenine has to take drastic measures if she is to free herself from the curse of the camera. 

A well written, original, fun read for adults young and old. 

November Celestial Calendar: November 5 - 12 South and North Taurids Meteor Shower: Unfortunately a full moon will obscure all but the brightest meteors. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Taurus, but can appear anywhere in the sky. 

November 6 - 30  Leonids Meteor Shower: The Leonids is an average shower, producing an average of up to 15 meteors per hour at its peak. This shower is unique in that it has a cyclonic peak about every 33 years where hundreds of meteors per hour can be seen. That last of these occurred in 2001. The Leonids is produced by dust grains left behind by comet Tempel-Tuttle. The shower peaks on the night of the 17th and morning of the 18th. The waning crescent moon will not be much of a problem this year. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Leo, but can appear anywhere in the sky. 

Finally: If you haven’t seen out my post last week on Jessica Bell’s latest release White Lady, scroll down to the previous blog and check it out!

21 comments:

  1. We had a successful blogfest!
    Will look for that second meteor shower.

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  2. I'm always trying to catch the Leonids Shower. Thanks for the reminder!

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  3. Hi Sephen - the Survive and Thrive blogfest was a very good idea .. lots of people looking at the different and difficult posts. Meteor showers I love them .. saw one as a kid .. but one day perhaps again .. cheers Hilary

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  4. Thanks for letting us know about the meteor shower. Really enjoyed being part of the Survive and Thrive blogfest.

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  5. We had a lot of good tips for the blogfest.

    I hope the night is clear so I can see the meteor shower.

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  6. I read several of the blogfest posts. It was great.

    I'm downloading the YA scary story. Thanks!

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  7. I saw a few meteors when my son and I were driving home from Colorado last week. I could watch the sky for hours.(Except I get cold)

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  8. Meteor showers are always fun to watch. I think its worth your time to pencil in certain celestial events onto your calendar. Investing in a cheap telescope or a good set of binoculars is a good idea for a cheap and fun nighttime hobby.

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  9. Hilary put together a complete list of the topics covered by Survive and Thrive. It was so impressive.

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  10. I thing horror short stories and novellas are better than full length.

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  11. Meteor showers are awesome! Haven't seen one in a while.
    I'm way too wimpy to read scary books any more - went through a Stephen King kick in high school and I still have nightmares about them!! :) These do sound deliciously creepy though!

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  12. Cool news about the meteor shower! Thanks, Stephen!

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  13. Nice red hand print, simple but effective! And a Polaroid camera- my grandparents had one, and I'd love to have one now that I have a kid. Snap your pic and out it comes. I'm horrible w/actually ever printing out pics!

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  14. I rarely read horror because most of it really freaks me out.. Happy Halloween :)

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  15. I don't usually read scary stuff, but right now I'm reading Dracula for the first time. It's plenty creepy for me!

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  16. great scary recs for those who love this horrific holiday =)
    and i love your celestial notes - i look forward to seeing some comets!

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  17. Hi Stephen
    Came looking for your Write...Edit...Publish post but I guess you haven't put it up yet. I'll be back, spoken with an American accent.
    Nancy

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  18. Ooh! Ghost Camera sounds awesome. If my TBR wasn't already three miles long, I'd totally be snatching this one up for Halloween.

    Unleashing the Dreamworld

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