Faith's Blog: October 2013

Monday 28 October 2013

The worst Halloween costume ever?

Here in England we didn't really celebrate Halloween when I was a kid. There's more now, costumes for sale in the shops, tacky bits of plastic that are meant to be bats or cauldrons or… some of them are so cheaply made I'm not quite sure what they are meant to be. Now there are parties, children dressing up and 'spooky' recipes in magazines but back then there was nothing.

Late one October we children were off school for the half term holidays and the weather was glorious. Crisp, bright days perfect for walking – kicking – your way through piles of leaves in the woods or playing on the beach with your coat on. So, my mum decided to take us away to a cheap and cheerful holiday camp.

Of course, by the time we arrived the weather had changed and it was raining hard. The sort of rain that soaks you right down to your undies. What made it worse was the camp didn't allow cars on the site so we had to carry the entire luggage across a big muddy field from the car park. We were wet, . Very wet. The only thing that cheered us up was the poster my brother had spotted. There was going to be a Halloween fancy dress competition that very night in the club house.

We had to go. We insisted.

Poor mum.

She had nothing with her and nowhere to buy anything. But my mum is an amazing lady and very resourceful. She would find something.

To this day, when I think back, I'm not sure exactly what I was meant to be but I felt amazing in my costume. I had a pair of my mum's black tights on, with my dad's black briefs over the top and a black t-shirt back-to-front to hide the Barbie picture on the front. Then came the really creative bits. A black bin bag scrunched up round my neck as a … Cape? Scarf? Ruffle? Chopped up bin bags stuck round my waist with sticky-tape Hawaiian-hula girl style and yet more bags on my feet for… I have no idea why.

Next she turned her attention to my face. Mum didn't have much make up with her so she put flour all over my face, butter - yes, butter – in my hair to make it stand up, the black ash tip of a used match round my eyes and lashings of her bright red lipstick. Oh and she drew on 'scars' all over my face with an eyebrow pencil.

I really wish I had a photo.

Needless to say I didn't win; a boy in a shop bought costume got that honour, which I think is a bit unfair. There's no effort in that. But I did get a toffee apple for being plucky. I didn't know what plucky meant back then, I just enjoyed the apple, but I think it might have something to do with the big nappy pins my mum had used to hold up dad's over-sized underpants!

Win a copy of my new book Knights and Butterscotch in either epub of pdf format. I'll draw a winner from the folks who commented on my blog on Saturday 11/2/13. Good luck everyone!

Sunday 27 October 2013

Cover Reveal for me good buddy Iyana Jenna

I'm off to France for a few days. We're driving to Mont Saint Michel - which is a lot further than we realised. When do we get the boat over? Oh yes, of course, during the super storm that's due to hit the south coast tomorrow morning! I get sea sick in the bath.

So, as I won't be here to post on Tuesday as I normally do, I'm posting now.

COVER REVEAL

Coming on November 17, 2013, from JMS Books LLC.

Blurb

Actor Sean O'Reilly received a bouquet of roses that at first he thought was sent by his boyfriend, Nate Matthews. Alarm bells rang when Nate said that he hadn't sent them. Sean panicked when he kept receiving flowers over the next days, and what worried him more was that there was always a single black rose in the middle of other colored ones.

Together they tried to find out the meaning of all this. They found no answers. Sean and Nate didn’t realize that a wicked plot against Sean had been set up by an obsessed fan who was helped by a brother who had promised to always take care of him.

Author Links

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Is this a mission statement I see before me?

Yes, kind of, it is. If not a mission statement then it’s a general reflection of how I feel about things.

A fact that is undoubtedly true.

There are shitty people in the world that will do shitty things to you because they either want something for themselves or they just don’t see you as important.

I can’t argue with this because there are too many example that prove it to be true.

I told you so.

My significant other keeps telling me to remember this fact and act with it in mind. His case has been proved (again) recently. A new colleague was employed where I work to ‘help’ me. Right from the start the significant other kept saying she was only out for herself. But I insist on seeing the best in people (unless I’m in a bad mood – but that’s for another post) and stayed friendly and positive.

Slowly she has…manoeuvred me to the sidelines and taken over.

Significant other said ‘I told you so.’ I stayed calm and smiled.

Recently she was made my boss. It was like a kick in the teeth.

Significant other was right and I was wrong. I could have slapped him just for *always* being right.

Here comes my predicament/argument/stance.

Yes, there are shitty people out there but should I let it affect how I think/act/live my life?

The significant other says I should or I’ll get hurt. I know it’s good advice but I think it does something to me, something that isn’t worth the cost.

Decision, decision, decisions.

It’s partly that I think what goes around, comes around. If you’re shitty it’ll only come back to bite you on the bum. Although, when I look at some of the villains (and bankers) in the world, I have to admit this doesn’t always work. But it’s also I want to be nice.

Nice is a very maligned word but I do try to be it, even if I don’t always succeed. It’s very unfashionable to try and be ‘nice’ but I was never one of the in crowd – Boy, doesn’t that phrase show my age!

Perhaps I’m childishly optimistic but what’s the alternative? Look for the bad in people? Even worse, except them to be horrible, anticipate it? No, that would only harm me and make me miserable. Plus it would mean the shitty people would have won and brought me down to their level, and I can’t let that happen.

Welcome to my fairytale world.

So I’m going to deliberately go on living in my fantasy world and assume everyone is decent and kind. Even if they aren’t. But, I think, there’s too much misery in the world to be any other way.

Does it count as being ‘nice’ if I think nasty things about people? I don’t act on them or ever say anything but if people could hear what I was thinking they’d probably think I was Queen of the evil bitches.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the adorable Iyana Jenna!

Please welcome my good buddy, Iyana, who was come to tell us about her new story, A Midnight Caller.

Thank you so much for having me on your blog again, Faith! I’m so delighted about my new release, an m/m short story published by Bitten Press. It’s just a little story but I like it.

Let’s play those 10 Things, shall we?

10 Things You Shouldn’t Do Before You Get Attracted to Someone

1. Don’t be an actor.

2. Don’t star in a popular series.

3. Don’t have an eye on another actor.

4. Don’t ask for their telephone number.

5. Don’t call them at the number.

6. Don’t call them up every night.

7. Don’t ask to meet them.

8. Don’t pretend to be someone else.

9. Don’t go jump on the actor.

10. Don’t kiss them.

Curious yet? Check out the blurb and excerpt below.

Blurb:

Actor Ashley Ferguson had received several mysterious calls for the past couple of nights. The caller said he was also an actor. Ashley tried to find out who he was and guessed it was Colt Harper, a young actor whose show was also playing on TV. Ashley thought of reporting the calls to the cops several times but he kept delaying doing it.

One night after Ashley was finished shooting someone grabbed him in the parking lot. The man said he was the midnight caller. Ashley was afraid that his earlier guess was wrong and his decision not to report to the police would end up really bad for him.

Excerpt:

“Hey, I’m sorry, man…”

“And you said you’d call the next day but you didn’t.”

“Oh, were you expecting that? Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Shut up. I’m just so stupid. Get out of my life, okay?”

“Hey, wait. Please, I didn’t mean that. I’m so grateful you want to talk to me.”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Yeah, I know. I mean, thanks for giving me the chance to talk to you. By the way, Ashley…”

“Listen. You sound like a good kid. Why don’t you tell me your name and end all this weirdness?”

“And then we can meet?”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Don’t you want to see me?”

BUY LINK: http://www.amazon.com/A-Midnight-Caller-ebook/dp/B00FRL6CYU/ref=sr_1_1

About the Author:

Iyana lives in Jakarta, a city famous for its traffic jams, a lot of cars and motorcycles, and people selling stuff on the roads. You can spend two hours on the road going to a place you can reach in half an hour in a normal situation. Thanks to the traffic jams, though, Iyana can come up with a lot of stories, mostly shorties, as she prefers to spend the time during her trips writing into her cell phone rather than sleeping.

Another thing Iyana loves is kitties. Right now she has five of them. Their names are Larva, Nyil, Cil, Mermood, and Horus. When she doesn’t write, she plays with them, or they would play with her when she writes.

One thing you SHOULD do, check out these links: