My name is Dane Jackson and I want to help promote your books, music, movies, video games, apps, podcasts, businesses, etc.
I like the idea of the long-standing Friday Five series that appears on blogs across the web, but I think it’s cooler to ask you Five Questions. That way, my readers know that every Friday, I’ll be featuring a really cool person on my blog talking about something they care about.
Most of my readers know me from my days in the book world as well as my more recent stints writing about music and movies (in October, they know me for my awesome posts about Halloween).
If you’re in the entertainment industry, I can help promote you.
If you’re interested in being featured in my Friday Five – “5 Questions With…” series, please leave a note in the comment section below or fill out the form below.
Well, this was a successful Halloween if you ask me. It’s almost ten o’clock and my daughter is still awake from all the excitement (no candy tonight though…seriously) and my wife and I are mellowing out in front of the TV before we get ready for bed. In case you don’t remember, my daughter and I went with the themed costume this year. In fact, I’m going to dress up with her every year until she gets sick of me. So, here’s Poppa and his little monkey.
Lily Monkey is hungry!!
I can’t believe 31 days are already over. Things just flew by this past month. Thanks so much to all of you for sharing your time with me this month. I really hope you continue to come to the blog regularly because I plan to keep on going.
So, what’s next you ask you ask?
Well, you can definitely expect to get a healthy dose of pop culture, movie, music, and books on the blog. I’ll also throw in some other content (contests perhaps?) and guest posts from time to time. Plus, personal stuff and recipes and writing will also make appearances…stick around why don’t you?
No matter what happens next, Halloween Hijinks may be over for this year, but the regular hijinks continues!
Day Thirty: New Devil’s Night Traditions (and a free Batman pumpkin stencil or two)
Tonight is the night before Halloween, which is also affectionately known as Devil’s Night (or Angel’s Night in the Detroit area). Up until tonight, most of my thoughts of Devil’s Night revolve around mischief-making, The Crow, and Detroit burning itself down. That’s not a very positive way to think of an evening (well, The Crow is a good graphic novel/movie), so this year, I decided to make Devil’s Night something new. Now, for our family, Devil’s Night will include cupcakes, pumpkin carving (and if I have my way, Chinese food).
First, we have the cupcake eating…
Mmmm, this is a yummy new tradition.
Then, we have the pumpkin scooping…
Scoopin' out the pumpkins with Momma.
Momma's pumpkin gut bowl is fuller than mine.
Now, we apply the stencil on the pumpkin…
Daddy, I think you're doing it all wrong.
Then, we have the final product…
La La La La Elmo's World...
The new Dynamic Duo...all lit up!
If you’re interested in the Batman pumpkin stencil, follow the break where I’ll post the link to that stencil (and some of Joker and Catwoman as well).
We’re getting closer and closer to Halloween. My wife and I took our daughter to an event at the mall today to let the kids trick-or-treat. She’s been a bit under the weather, so we thought this would be a good way to lift her spirits. At first, she was a bit overwhelmed, but she got the hang of it and put a smile on her face. But, the older kids (and crazy parents) were treating the event like it was kill-or-be-killed-zombie-armageddon-we-need-the-candy-to-live. In the process, we all got bumped and shoved. I couldn’t believe how people were acting – it was a free candy feeding frenzy. So, since no one cared about the well-being of a 21-month-old cutie dressed up as a monkey, I thought it was time to drop some safety tips. And, if you don’t follow the rules and traditions of Halloween, all you have to do is look to the movie Trick ‘r Treat to see what happens when you break the rules.
To help you with the rest of the safety tips and rules, here are some cheesy safety videos I found on YouTube.
Sadly, we only have two days left. Tomorrow will be a post about Devil’s Night, and Monday will be a Halloween post. My wife also mentioned today she was bummed I didn’t do a post about fun sitcom Halloween episodes, so if I can squeeze a double post in, I might just do that. Have a great night!
After today, I’ll only have five more Halloween posts left. I can’t believe how fast this has gone by. I’ve had a lot of fun and I hope you’ve all enjoyed my posts. I have so many more ideas to post, I just wish Halloween season was two months long. Hopefully you all decide to stick around after Halloween when I get back to my regularly scheduled blogging.
Enough pandering, on to the Halloween blog.
Today, I want to share with you with a few cool ghost-related activities.
This first one, from the MAKE Zine blog, tells you how to make a pretty cool looking ghost with…chicken wire.
Here’s the final product. Click on the picture for instructions and a few other ghost-related things…
ooooh....creepy!
But, if you want a ghost decoration that is a little more practical and fun, then check out this one. My wife found it while checking her normal blogroll and I think it’s absolutely darling.
The particular blog she pointed me to is called Everyday is a Crafting Day!
Here’s a picture of the finished product. Click on the ghost picture to learn how to make it (and you should…it’s awesome and super easy to make!)
Ghostly Good Times
And then, last but not least, here’s a picture of a craft my daughter made in daycare. Here’s what the did: They took white paint and black paper. They then took my daughter’s shoes off and let her get paint all over them. I think it’s best to use a mini paint roller and just roll them on your kid’s feet – but really, the choice is yours. It’s Halloween – go crazy.
Then, my daughter stepped on the black paper with her painted feet, waited for it to dry, added a few lines and dots with a permanent marker, et voila!
These ghosts are stinkin' cute!
For a little variety, it would probably be a lot of fun to do this with either black light paint or glow-in-the-dark paint. Either way, it’s a fun craft to do with your little ones.
Hopefully these crafts give you some last minute ideas.
Day Twenty Five: Healthy Pumpkin Spice Muffin Recipe
I’m going to say you’re welcome now, because after you try these Pumpkin Spice Muffins, you’ll be thanking me. Not only are they super easy to make, they’re healthy and damn tasty. My wife and I got the recipe from her Aunt, and since October is a month where pumpkins are in the forefront, I just had to share these instant Fall classics with all of you.
Day Twenty Four: LMFAO Halloween Party Rock Anthem House
I had another blog planned tonight, but after seeing this video, I needed to make sure you all got a chance to see it. While the first thing I thought after seeing it was “man, this person has too much time on their hands,” after seeing it all the way through, all I can do is rave about how catchy and awesome it is.
The video shows a house’s Halloween decorations that just happen to be timed and choreographed to LMFAO’s “Party Rock.” If you’re like me, not only do you hate the “Party Rock” song, but you hate it because it’s so damn catchy. My wife showed me this video earlier today and since then it’s gone everywhere. Please…enjoy, pass it on, and come back tomorrow for a ghost picture tutorial.
Also, as a bonus, here’s another video of a Halloween decoration gone wild (seriously – how do these people have the patience to do this?)
Day Twenty Three: 5 Questions with debut author Alma Katsu
Click the image to go to Alma’s website
One of the books I was really excited about this fall when I still worked for Borders was Alma Katsu’s The Taker. When a sales rep brought me a debut they were excited about, it was very important for me to read it. So, when The Taker was sold in, I took it home that night and immediately dug right in. I then found reasons to keep reading. I think I took about a two hour bath that night. A day later, I was done with The Taker and craving more. I then gave my copy to my wife to read, and as expected, the same thing happened. I’m not sure where my copy is any longer, because I know it’s been passed on again. With how much I loved the book, I just had to share it with the world. The rep sent me more copies and I passed them out to everyone I could. I even did some giveaways on the old Borders Sci-Fi blog, Babel Clash. So, it’s safe to say that I’m a huge advocate for this book. It looks like I was right too because Booklist has named The Taker as one of the best debuts of the year. That’s why I’m so excited Alma has agreed to spend some time on my blog during my 31 Days of Halloween Hijinks.
The Taker
The Taker is equal parts tragic love story, epic historical fiction, and supernatural horror. Katsu has blended all of these elements together to form one of the best debuts I’ve ever read. The novel starts off during the night shift in a small Maine hospital. Luke Findley was prepping for another boring night in the ER, but this all changes as Lanny, a murder suspect who is being escorted by the local police, enters the hospital for medical care. She asks Luke to help her escape, and the decision he makes will change his life forever because Lanny is not quite what he expected.
Below, find Alma’s answers to my five questions!
1) Your debut novel is such a wonderful blend of historical fiction, tragic love story, and horror. What inspired you to take on such a layered project?
Looking back, The Taker seems to be the sum of my subconscious projected through a variety of stories, writers, and some films, that made an impression on me as I was growing up. I didn’t know it while I was writing it, though. I was most conscious of the influence of Interview With The Vampire because I used a similar present-day frame: in The Taker, Lanny, the protagonist, tells her story to a doctor, just as Interview starts with Louis telling his story to a reporter, but in both cases the majority of the book is set in the past.
The Taker is the story of a young woman—a girl at the beginning of the book—who is in a rush to grow up and become a woman, and mostly to be in an adult love relationship, before she really knows what that means. For most of us, the transition from child to adult was sort of mysterious, and very personal. Lanny tries to find the answers but being an independent sort, charges ahead and ends up making some mistakes, which have dire consequences. To some extent, I was influenced by books such as Moll Flanders and Fanny Hill, or modern counterparts Slammerkin by Emma Donahue or Fanny by Erica Jong, which are all historical novels, stories of women who are forced into prostitution or compromising situations in order to survive (or in the case of Slammerkin, leads to the heroine’s ultimate downfall.)
Lastly, a friend swears that she sees a heavy Dark Shadows influence (I should point out that there are no vampires in The Taker, despite the comparisons to vampire stories.) I watched Dark Shadows as a kid but have no memory of any of the plot lines, so if there is a similarity, I’m pleading amnesia.
2) Describe the feeling you had as a debut author when you finally saw your work in print and read all the wonderful reviews coming in.
I’ve been very lucky, from getting a wonderful agent, to selling at auction, the overseas sales and yes, some really nice reviews. Especially after working on The Taker for ten years, after all those times you think it’s never going to go anywhere. But like every author, I’ve gotten my share of bad reviews, too, and just as everyone says, those are the ones you remember.
The book came out in the UK first, in the spring, and so it was a bit surreal at first, with everything happening thousands of miles away. I remember when the UK proofs first arrived; I wanted to show it to everyone I met! Now there are boxes of the different editions all over the house, the Spanish, Polish, US hardcover, audiobook—the UK paperback edition just arrived today! And we’re starting to put together the second book, The Reckoning. It’s hard to believe so much has happened in less than a year.
3) While reading the book, I became pretty invested in the relationship between Luke and Lanny. Can you give us a preview of what’s next for them?
The Reckoning picks up where The Taker left off, so if you’ve read the first book you probably have a good idea what this means. Lanny will soon be in a situation that puts her relationship with Luke under quite a bit of stress and will force her to confront her motives for enticing Luke to run away with her. Luke will have to ask himself how far he’s willing to go to be with her.
4) Since this is appearing in my “31 Days of Halloween Hijinks” blog series, I have to ask one Halloween-themed question – what was your favorite costume as a kid?
Halloween was a makeshift holiday when I was a kid. When you were really little, your parents would get you these cheap costumes from Woolworth’s with the masks you couldn’t see out of. Once you graduated from these, costumes tended to be improvised, usually on Halloween day. Consequently, I don’t remember dressing up except as a witch one year.
What I do remember is the candy! This was before candy manufacturers came up with these “fun size” portions. Also, I grew up in a small but dense town, where everyone knew everyone else, and so parents felt safe letting their children roam all night, unescorted. We’d come home with a pillowcase filled—and I mean filled—with candy. It was like we’d robbed a candy store.
5) What’s next for you?
I’m working with my editor to put the finishing touches on The Reckoning, the second book in the Taker trilogy. The third book, The Descent, has been started and I’m looking forward to getting back to it. Meanwhile, I’ve got a few short stories coming out that are sort-of outtakes from a previous version of The Taker that was written in multiple POVs. The Wedding Party, which is in the November edition of Portland magazine, is from Jonathan’s POV, and I hope to have a Kindle Single out soon which has Lanny crossing paths with Edgar Allan Poe. There are some projects on the horizon that are not related to The Taker, too, but the way things are going it will be a few years before I can get to them.
If you’re like me, now that we’re a little more than a week away from Halloween, you’re thinking about how to decorate the pumpkins on your porch before the squirrels get them. This year, I have an added complication though – my daughter who isn’t quite two-years-old yet. To be honest, I haven’t bought a pumpkin yet, but today at Target (while picking up a pair of fancy Missoni shoes for my wife), my daughter and I took a peek in the Halloween section…mostly because I think the way she says pumpkin is so damn cute. We bought her a Jack-o-Lantern pail for her trick-or-treating, but we haven’t actually bought the pumpkin yet.
Well, while we were looking at pumpkins, my daughter also said “Elmo.” Looking around, I saw this…
It was a Polyurethane pumpkin with Elmo pieces pushed into it. Target also had a few other designs (Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Mr. Potato Head) as well. I’m not quite sure what ones we’ll pick up, but I think the Polyurethane pumpkins and pumpkin push ins are perfect for families who aren’t ready to use carving tools with their little ones.
Example of one of the Target craft pumpkins
Also, here are some of the fun pumpkin push in sets I was able to find on the ‘net. Some of these were also at Target. Seriously though, just google “pumpkin push ins” and you’ll see lots of licensed and non-licensed ideas.
Mr. Potato Head Skeleton
Pirate Potato Head
Spider-Pumpkin
I also found this blog that talks about pumpkin push ins. It’s a year old, but still has some good ideas/designs.
Hopefully this blog helps out the families with young children as they prep for Halloween.
When this movie first came out in the theatres, it didn’t even hit my radar. Most modern American horror flicks these days (and back then) have all either been crap remakes, torture porn, or so by the numbers that it hasn’t been worth my time to even care. After finally seeing The Strangers on DVD a year or so ago, I’m glad I didn’t see it in the theatre. Not because it was crap and a waste of money, but because I would have embarrassed myself in front of a packed theatre because this movie scared the H-E-double hockey sticks out of me.
The movie starts off innocently enough: a couple heads to their vacation house in the middle of the night after attending a wedding. James (Scott Speedman) is also planning to propose to Kristen (Liv Tyler) that evening. Shortly after their arrival, they get a knock on the door by a blonde woman asking for someone. Kristen and James let them know she has the wrong house and go about their night. When James leaves to get Kristen cigarettes, the blonde woman comes back and starts to bang on the front door. Kristen tries to call James, but all the phones are dead. While Kristen is home alone, three masked people harass and intimidate her until James gets home.
The masked home invaders
From there, things go from bad to worse. The three masked assailants begin to terrorize Kristen and James (and even one of their friends who shows up about part way through the movie). I don’t want to say much more because I don’t want to ruin the movie, but just be ready to be completely scared, uncomfortable, and anxious while watching everything unravel for Kristen, James, and Mike. No lie, my wife and I watched this movie in the middle of the day, and I kept leaving her alone in the room to distract myself (I am ashamed to admit this, but it’s true – this movie scared me so much, I left my wife to fend for herself). Looking back on it, I don’t think the actual movie is scary, but the scenario and situations are scary and uncomfortable. The real horror lied in the complete and utter helplessness Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman portrayed with their characters. I just kept hoping they would persevere, but as the movie continued, I just didn’t know if they would/could (did they or didn’t they? watch the movie to find out).
So, it’s Friday and we’re getting close to Halloween. In most of the country it’s chilly, wet, and rainy, which means it’s the perfect time to bundle up in some blankets and scare the crap out of yourself. If that sounds like a good plan, I recommend the movie you watch to scare the crap out of yourself be The Strangers.
