Very Special Announcement

Usually I only blog once a day, but I just found out that not one, but TWO of my Veil books have been nominated on The Romance Reviews for Best Erotic PNR of 2011!! OMG!! I’m up against some very stiff competition, of course. Each book in the categories I’m in are ones I’ve read and enjoyed, so I feel like…well, flabbergasted would be the perfect word.

Ruby: Uncut and on the Loose has been nominated for Best Erotic PNR of 2011 – Vampire

And Lifestyles of the Fey and Dangerous has been nominated for Best Erotic PNR 2011 – Shifter.

Voting begins today and ends November 30th. I’m so honored to have been nominated, especially in light of the awesome authors who’ve been nominated along with me. I’m positively gushing happiness right now and don’t really know what to say other than Please Vote!!

 

Cajun French: Gris-Gris

Before I get to the post, the winner of yesterday’s giveaway for my release day is KAK. Drop me an e-mail, KAK at danica(dot)avet(at)gmail(dot)com with your physical address. Thank y’all for the support on such an important day!

I waffled about what today’s post would be about.  I’m not lying! I spent a good 30 minutes flipping through words in my brain on my morning drive when Godsmack’s Voodoo came on the radio. That decided me. Today’s word is gris-gris.

It isn’t a Cajun French word. It’s an amulet used in Voodoo which can either bring the wearer good luck or bad luck. In Cajun French though, a gris-gris can also be a bit like the evil eye. It’s kind of like a spoken word or even a thought you have towards someone. The first time I heard this word used was when one of my childhood friends used it in reference to a girl she didn’t like. “I could put a gris-gris on her!”

Now, I don’t know how much y’all know about Voodoo (and I can’t claim to be an expert), but there are many people, especially in this area, who are terrified of it. I remember a story my mom told me about an older lady she lived next to when she was first married. It seems that the woman had upset someone else and one morning she woke up with a gris-gris on her doorstep. The older lady closed her front door and wouldn’t go out of it. In fact, she wouldn’t touch the amulet, going so far as to have her house moved so she wouldn’t have to cross it. That’s some serious believing.

Putting the evil eye on someone, the gris-gris, is almost like a spell in itself. Every time I’ve talked with someone who said this word, their hands will come up and perform some complicated gestures. It’s never the same between people, but the intent is understood. Of course, Cajuns talk with their hands. Seriously, y’all. I don’t know if I could have a good conversation with someone if my hands were tied. So maybe it isn’t an actual curse you’re placing on someone, but the emotion behind it that makes us wave our hands around.

Now for the pronunciation. It looks pretty straight forward, doesn’t it? But if you want to get the full experience of the gris-gris, you have to put some effort into the saying of it. It isn’t just a gr sound like groan or grain. It’s more like a guttural gr with a little rolling of the r. I wish I could figure out a way to explain it, but imagine if you’re trying to clear your throat and you might get it. It sounds more powerful with this pronunciation than saying it phonetically.

And since I’m on this topic, tomorrow I’ll be over at Marsha A. Moore’s blog talking about legends and death omens of this area. I won’t go into it in-depth, but I will glance over a couple of supernatural things in this area. I’ll be giving away prizes, so I hope to see you there!

So what did you think of today’s lesson?

This Is Thriller

I was seven years old when Thriller came out. I was a huge Michael Jackson fan at the time and trust me, I had to listen to this entire album. I distinctly remember jumping on a mini-trampoline with P.Y.T. playing in the background.

Then the video for Thriller came out. At the time, it was the scariest, coolest video ever. EVER! Vincent Price’s creepy voice over, the zombies, the awesome dancing…it was fantastic.

I couldn’t think of a better way to end Horror Music Week than with this song and video.

What did you think of it? Did you have trouble sleeping at night because of Vincent Price talking about creatures crawling in search of blood?

Real or Fake

Well, this is the last of the movies I’ll be discussing for Horror Movie Weeks 1 and 2. I hope you’ve all enjoyed remembering old movies and have discovered new movies you may want to scare yourself with.

Today’s movie came out in 2009. I saw it at the theater at the insistence of my godson. Remember I said he’s the horror movie hound? He’s the same kid who made me watch The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I should have known this movie was going to be a real frightfest. What I didn’t expect, was that I’d spend more than half the movie staring at the ceiling tiles of the theater because I didn’t want to throw up.

Yup, you got it. Paranormal Activity scared the bejesus out of me. At first,  you go into the movie thinking Yeah okay, it’s so not real *insert eye roll*. It’s a movie, of course it isn’t real! But when you’re in the theater…and it’s dark…and the movie starts with no opening credits other than the time, date, and location you start to doubt yourself. Hm. Okay, so that’s a new way to start a movie. I gave a mental shrug and prepared to be scared.

The movie centers around two characters. There are only five characters who appear in the entire film, three come and go and help add to the suspense of what’s happening, but you don’t care about that. You want to know what the hell is going on! What’s happening is strange…things. Noises in the night, things like that. The hero is a skeptic. He doesn’t believe in ghosts or demons or whatever, so he records everything with a home video camera.

I can’t tell you what really happens when the camera was moving (cause he was walking around and the motion sickness…meh), but when the camera was stationary, that’s when the scary stuff happened. You see them in bed (not having fun…he turned the camera off for those times) and then you see the sheets being pulled off of Katie. Hello! I’d have left after that. I don’t care what the hell my boyfriend said. If I’m the one being targeted, I’m so not hanging around…things become increasingly worse. Katie gets up in the middle of the night, walks around the bed and stands over Micah’s sleeping form for HOURS. Okay? That was creepy. Beyond creepy. My godson and I looked at each other with a Holy. Crap. expression on our faces.

I’m not going to tell you everything, but I will say that after a while you forget it’s a movie. You forget that this isn’t real because it…feels real. It feels like you’re peeking into someone’s life and you want to shout at them not to stay there. Of course Micah, being a man, won’t believe there’s actually anything wrong until the very end when things are so bad even he can’t ignore them any longer. Stupid man. In the end he learned his lesson…and Katie disappears.

I distinctly remember someone several rows behind me saying, We’re all going to Hell for watching this. Then there was the big, manly man sitting two rows ahead of us who jumped with a little…dare I say scream? Yeah, it was scary. I haven’t watched it again and I’m not sure I will despite my godson’s urgings.

A couple of months ago, my godson came over with his girlfriend to propose a Paranormal Activity movie night. His girlfriend is adamant that she can’t watch it because she’ll have nightmares. Smart girl. However, a little while later, my nephew (the boy I love like a son) leaned forward and said:

Nanny…Katie’s back!

Oh no. Oh HELL no…I’m not going to see it! It comes out next Friday…and I’m tempted. No, I won’t see it. It won’t be as good as the first one, I know it won’t. *looks at the calendar* It might be scary too…sometimes sequels are good. No, I won’t go see it. I don’t want to get motion sickness again. *think* But where did Katie go? What happened to her? Who’s going to suffer for their stupidity this time? Gah!

Okay, so I might see it. I’ll just take some Dramamine before I go…Oh, man, I feel sick to my stomach already.

Have you seen Paranormal Activity? Will you ever see it? I suggest you watch it with all the lights on. Seriously. What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?

Scared of the Dark

Trust me, I’m not finished with my posts about demonic possession, but I have to post about this movie. Yesterday I mentioned how my brother can fall asleep watching The Exorcist, but how I couldn’t.

You’d think he wouldn’t be scared of anything, wouldn’t you? I mean, falling asleep listening to a little demon possessed girl speaking in tongues isn’t for the faint of heart. Well, I found out that there is something my brother is scared of. It’s this movie:

This movie is about the Tooth Fairy. Scary, huh? Actually, it is. She takes children’s teeth and leaves money behind, except if you see her, she’ll chase you the rest of your ever-lovin’ life to kill you. How does she do this? Well, she can move in any shadow, anywhere. That’s scary. Do you know how many shadows there are? No matter how much light you have around you, there’s a shadow somewhere. So where does that leave you to hide, huh? Huh?

That’s the argument my brother uses to avoid watching this movie. Oh, yes, he saw it. Once. But every time it came on afterwards, he would whine about how much he didn’t like it.

Personally, I think it’s a rather good horror movie. It has just the right amount of jump-out-of-your-seat scary parts and anticipation to make it interesting. I wouldn’t say the acting is the absolute best, but I’m not exactly an expert.

If you’re looking for a good scary movie about a childhood fairy tale…well, I’d recommend this one. If you’ve seen it, what did you think? Do you sometimes wonder if there really is a tooth fairy and she doesn’t want just one tooth, but all of them? All I can say is I’m glad I didn’t see this as a child. *shudders*

Feeling Brave

It came out in 1973. I was born in 1976. My mom saw it at the theater and thought it was hilarious. I’ve told you before how sick she was. Who else would watch Rosemary’s Baby while pregnant and think it’s funny? Am I talking about Rosemary’s Baby? No. I’m talking about The Exorcist.

Yesterday, I talked about how much I hate the idea of not being in control. I won’t beat that idea to death. No, I’ll just tell you about my experiences with this movie.

When I was sixteen, this movie was still considered one of the scariest movies of all time. I hadn’t seen it, of course, because it wasn’t appropriate for  younger kids. A show that played every Saturday night when I was younger was hosted by Morgus the Magnificent. He was a mad scientist and along with his silent sidekick, Chopsley, he terrified generations of kids by showing horror movies and conducting experiments. I remember one week when the previews for his show revealed he would be presenting The Exorcist. I was thrilled. I’d finally be able to see it! I made plans with my brother (who was 10 at the time) that we’d stay up late Saturday night and watch it.

I anxiously awaited the weekend, making plans to enjoy the movie and finally see what it was all about. Saturday night finally came and I can still feel the giddiness of knowing I was going to watch the one movie that was supposed to be the scariest of all time. My brother and I piled into my room with the massive console television with our blankets and pillows. You remember those televisions, right?

Anyway, it was 9:58 p.m. and the house was quiet. Our parents had gone to bed and Phil and I were going to watch this movie. We were all set. We waited and waited for the show to start. Morgus came on to do his thing. I wasn’t impressed or frightened of Morgus at all. I wanted to see the movie! Then he said something like, “And here’s just a preview of the horror awaiting you”. And the screen flickered to the scene in The Exorcist where the bed levitated. Then to the scene where Regan’s head spun around.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the television and I felt the frissons start at the base of my spine and travel all over my body. My eyes watered. My heart pounded. I reached a shaking hand out…and turned off the television. I looked at my brother and he looked just as scared as I did. We didn’t watch The Exorcist that night. And I was so glad.

It was another six years before I braved it again. My brother was 16 by then and I was a world-weary 22. I could handle it. And I did. I watched the whole thing through, even managed to enjoy the fear I felt. I was in college at the time, living at home with my family, so I had nothing to be scared of. Until my brother bought the movie and played it every single night.

Have you ever tried to go to sleep to the sound of Linda Blair speaking in tongues? Or those demonic voices wailing as Father Merrin performed the exorcism? I went through this for three months because my brother insisted on watching The Exorcist every single night. He went to bed watching it. I held the covers to my chin and stared at the darkness. He doesn’t do this anymore, thank God, but for those three months (and the occasional night years later), I was afraid to close my eyes.

So, have you seen The Exorcist? I’ve actually seen the entire series, always with my brother. The second one isn’t very good, but the prequel was…astoundingly scary. We saw that one at the theater and I will say this: if I had been around in 1973 and seen The Exorcist at the movies, I’d have had a heart attack.

The Chill of a True Story

This week, I’ll be discussing movies that truly scare me.

I suspect a lot of it has to do with my Catholic upbringing. Growing up, it was nothing to hear about ghosts and the like, but the stories that scared me the most, were the ones of demonic possession. You got it, I’m terrified of movies involving possession. I still watch them though, for some reason.

Today’s movie is The Exorcism of Emily Rose. My godson, who is a horror movie buff, told me to watch it.

When this movie came out, I wasn’t interested in watching it. Most of the time, I find modern horror movies to be less than worth my time. Oh, sure, the special effects have improved drastically over the years, but I want a good story.

Eh. For me, this story was just too good, I suppose. Apparently, it’s loosely based on the true story of a girl whose parish priest performed a series of exorcisms after which she died of malnourishment and dehydration. 

Jennifer Carpenter portrayed Emily Rose and let me just tell you…the things she did in this movie scared the ever lovin’ crap out of me. Seriously. Every time she was in the grips of the possession, my body froze, my eyes watered, and my nose dripped. Why? Because she did a damn good job of acting. And I suppose, also because I took those stories I heard throughout my childhood as truth.

I suppose it might even boil down to an even more base problem: I like to be in control. To me, being in control of myself, of my safety, is paramount to breathing. The idea that something could take over my body and/or mind and make me do things against my will scares the hell out of me. So watching movies in which the hero/heroine has absolutely no control over their lives just drives me batty.

It didn’t hurt that Jennifer Carpenter, as I said, did a hullva job of convincing me she was possessed. Even now, in the bright morning light, when I remember some of the scenes of her possession, I break out in the frissons (pronounced free-son). It’s easily one of the scariest movies and okay, I only watched it once. I won’t watch it again. *shudder*

Have you seen this movie? What did you think? I read that it didn’t receive very good reviews because it wasn’t gory enough. Do scary movies have to be gory to be scary, or is it the psychological fear that you go for? Me? If I’m going to watch a scary movie, I want it to have some substance to it.

Monday – NaNo Day 2

Don’t worry, I’m not planning to give ya’ll a day-by-day word count or anything. I’m just proud to say I completed today’s goal of 5k words. I didn’t get as much written yesterday as I’d originally planned. What can I say? I was too tempted by the Vikings/Packers game to write.

I hate time changes, but I prefer this time than the other. I enjoy knowing that when I go to bed at night, it’s NIGHT TIME. I like waking up and actually seeing the sun shortly after. Call me crazy, but this is my favorite time of the year. I just hate the transition because just when you get used to it, it changes again.

The weekend was okay. I did my weekly shopping, laundry, house cleaning on Saturday and scared myself spitless Saturday night watching Ghost Hunters. Yeah, it wasn’t my proudest moment. I should’ve turned the television off and gone to bed, but Nalini Singh’s latest book and the prospect of seeing grown men scream was too much for me. I stayed up until the last episode played and the last page of Blaze of Memory was turned. Good book, good shows.

In fact, I picked up 5 books this weekend and I only have 2 left. This is what happens when  you have a reading addiction: you buy books and read them so fast you end up depressed because you then have nothing left to read. It’s a vicious cycle.

So anyway, on to NaNo. Yesterday I cranked out 2k words and today another 4k. I’m almost at my total goal for the day and it’s cool. I fear I might be on a tangent right now, but it’ll work out, I think. NaNo isn’t about quality, but quantity after all. Hopefully I can keep up the momentum.

So anyone else fall down the stairs in their snuggie? Watch Ghost Hunters? Read any good books this weekend? Sorry I don’t have more than that. It is Monday after all.

Ghost Lab and Ghost Stories

Back again, folks and I’m feeling better. Just a little sinus infection combo cold thing (at least that’s sort of what the doc said. I never really pay attention cause he has pretty eyes).

Anyway, last night I commenced to watch Dirty Jobs. I love Mike Rowe. He’s got such a great sense of humor and hello! that voice! So I watched Dirty Jobs and after it was over, picked up Alyssa Day’s ‘Atlantis Rising’ to re-read it when I saw this show called Ghost Lab. Now what I found really interesting, was they were at the Haunted Mortuary in New Orleans. This is a place I’ve heard of over the last couple of years, but haven’t visited yet.

I’m the kind of person who really does believe in the paranormal in terms of spirits, ghosts, etc. and as much as I’d love to go to the Haunted Mortuary, or House of Shock, or 13th Gate, I haven’t done so. I need to remedy this. Except part of me thinks, ‘Girl are you out of your ever-lovin’ mind?!’ Yeah. But that isn’t the point!

This Ghost Lab goes around all over the US to prove/debunk paranormal activity in some of the country’s most haunted houses/places. I’m thinking…this is pretty cool. I’ve got to see the next episode. Which was Tombstone. People…watching some of the things that went on in those buildings and the graveyard of Tombstone gave me the creeps. I’m talking at one point, I had actual tears in my eyes. It might’ve been me staring at the screen so hard, but I think it was a hint of fear. Ahem. But you know what really creeps me out? The EVPs. I think this is called electronic voice phenomena and it’s downright freaky.

I’ve heard…gah, so many stories growing up. My mom talks about a house she lived in that was once a plantation home in town but was converted into apartments and how one Christmas Eve, it sounded like a party was going on when no one was in the house. My aunt’s current home has some weird crap going on in it like shadows moving, banging on the walls, doors shuddering and trying to open. In my current home, for a while after my stepfather died, my brother’s stereo would turn itself off and on. I’m talking go from complete no power to on and playing a song, then shutting itself off after a couple of minutes. I always thought it was a clock alarm, but no. It was a little crappy radio that you had to manually push a switch to turn on. Then there’s the feeling you get walking down the hall, like something’s waiting for you. Yeah. Is it any wonder I freak?

So how about you guys? Do ya’ll have ghost stories to share? Do you even believe in ghosts? Have you seen Ghost Lab?

Scary Movies

Saturday I went to Baton Rouge with my nephew to see the latest scary movie phenomenon, Paranormal Activity. Let me just start off by saying if you have motion sickness or tend to get ill while watching cameras swing rapidly, don’t watch this movie. I spent about 1/4 of the movie staring at the ceiling so I wouldn’t be sick. The important parts were still, but it didn’t help me get in the ‘mood’ of the movie.

Right, so it wasn’t scary in the sense that people screamed or jumped a lot. To be honest, it was just really creepy. Maybe it’s my Catholic upbringing (but more than likely it was all the ghost/demon stories my mom told us as kids) but nothing is scarier to me than having no control over myself. Movies where regular people become possessed and do awful things tend to really freak me out.

That’s what this movie was about. There were a lot of moments when I though ‘Holy crap, don’t go in there!’ and of course they always do. It wasn’t what I expected, that’s for sure. I’m not saying it was bad, just not as scary as I thought it would be. If what you’re looking for is a good scream fest, I wouldn’t recommend it.

So this got me to thinking, what movies scared you the most? For me, it was mostly the older movies like The Exorcist, The Omen, Halloween, and a new movie, The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Do you sense a common theme? Oh sure, I jump for monster movies, I’ll scream when something unexpected happens, but those are easily overcome. The movies I listed are the ones that stick with me.

What about you? What movies really get your goat? The gore fests like the Saw series? The teen horror movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street? What’s scary to you?