One of my short stories is being featured on "Books from Hale" !

 
   Books from Hale is the official website for Author Brandon Hale (author of "Day Soldiers" and the newly released "Purging Fires"). As part of Books from Hale's countdown to Halloween, they are featuring short stories every week from local contributors. I am extremely honored to be among those chosen. Every week I sit in anticipation of the next new story and I amazed that I would be counted among the great works of literature that have been posted there. Check it out HERE!

   While you are there it would be the perfect time to pick up "Day Soldiers" or "Purging Fires", excellent reads for this time of year. 

For a chance to win your very own signed copy of "Day Soldiers", enter my giveaway HERE. Keep in mind, Monday starts double entry week for any posts done!

Author and Blogger Annie Walls joins in as a contributor for the giveaway!

  Annie Walls, author of "Taking on the Dead" Sent me some goodies featuring artwork from her new book. These will be sprinkled into all the prize packs!
   If you would like to read her awesome new book, click *HERE* for details how you can grab it for your very own! While you're at it, check out her blog as well...just click *HERE* to be taken to it.
   As to the prize packs, there is still plenty of time to enter. Just head over via this link *HERE* and find out how you can win some AWESOME prizes.
  Also, as next week is the final week for entry, any posts, bogs, vlogs, interviews, pictorials, etc will carry DOUBLE POINTS! Enter often to increase your chance to win!

CLICK ME!!!!!

  Monday starts the Countdown to Halloween. 31 days of Halloween posts. Hope I can manage it with all that is left to do at the house. Make sure you check in often and check out all the great blogs that are participating. I was able to connect with over 45 blog last year due to this event and I am still a loyal reader of all.
  I will also be posting some sneak peek pictures of this years yard haunt on Monday to kick the season off right plus I have some projects I have completed over the last few days to post about.

Hope everybody has a wicKED weeKEnD!

Thirsty Thursday Thrillers!

We live in a glorious time where you can find Halloween themed adult beverages relatively easy. This post will deal with three pretty awesome looking libations. Lets start with the wine!

Taken from Daniel Brokstad website

Possession is a limited edition unholy wine collection, featuring “Evil Demon – Bloody Shiraz”, “Haunting Ghost – Spooky Cabernet” and “Old Witch – Cursed Pinot Noir”. All the wines comes in a solid coffin shaped glossy casing,  

Taken from Daniel Brokstad website

Taken from Daniel Brokstad website

Good luck finding these as I hear they are hard to come by.

Next we have Crystal Head Vodka. 

Website HERE

Despite being known as a smooth vodka with a unique and sought after bottle, it is made even more famous by it's owner, Dr. Raymond Stantz (“Ray”) from Ghostbusters, aka Dan Akroyd. 

His signed bottles are highly sought after and a favorite pastime of people who own a bottle is to decorate and photograph it after it has been emptied.

Last on the list, but not least is a rum with a grin so evil, it screams Halloween year round... I am speaking of 

PUMPKIN FACE RUM!

Website HERE

It comes in 3 falovors/color combinations.

For my money, I would want the green face/black bottle. I already tried to order this but they do not ship to Virginia! ARGH!!!!!!!!

Good luck in locating these leering libations for your Halloween Parties this year. If you do find them, remember to drink responsibly and to be a GREAT host by ensuring everybody drives sober and safely to and from your party.

How would you like to win one of these great bottles? We all would, but since we can't, enter *HERE*  for some great prizes!

They are crawling out of the wood works... literally!

Just added a skull and two skele arms to a manhole located at the corner of the property. There is a green strobe in with him. Going to add some sound effects and maybe a fogger for Halloween night.

It's simple and effective. Hope there are many more props to come, but I am saving most of my creations for October 1st! I plan on doing some sneak peeks into the cemetery this year.

Want to win this prop? Well, you can't, you can win some great stuff though! Link HERE!

Countdown to Halloween 2012

Something wicKED this way comes.... and The Wicked Woods Cemetery have officially signed up to be a  Cryptkeeper for The Halloween Countdown of 2012!

You may be asking yourself, "What is a Halloween Countdown and how do I participate?"  Below you will find the answers to these questions taken straight from the Countdown to Halloween blog!:

So what is this Halloween Countdown anyway...and what do I need to do in order to participate?
These are the two questions I've been most frequently asked about this endeavor.
The Halloween Countdown is something of a virtual neighborhood to go trick or treating in. Imagine a neighborhood where all of the neighbors really got into the spirit of the holiday and went all out with decorating their yards and homes and on top of that also handed out the coolest treats whenever some kid in a costume rang their doorbell. Well, you are that kid in a costume, and the participants in the countdown are the neighbors with the cool houses and candy. When you visit their blogs, you will essentially be ringing their doorbell and shouting "Trick or treat." rewarded by a solid thunk at the bottom of your plastic Halloween bucket which is their post for the day. In a way that's even better than the actual Halloween (no way! I hear you saying) you get to ring their doorbell and trick or treat every single day throughout October. Not only that, but there is bound to be over 100 houses for you to visit each day as well.
As a participant, I suggest thinking of the Halloween Countdown as something of a virtual Advent calendar, only devoted to Halloween. Each day, throughout October, a blogger posts something new pertaining in some way to Halloween, or something emblematic of the season. This can be anything, photos of you as a kid dressed up in your Ben Cooper costume, recipes, crafts, horror movie reviews, holiday reminiscences, board games and children's books of the past, artwork, traditions, anything at all. The daily aspect of this is something to strive for, but is not expected. Veterans of the countdown will tell you how grueling it can be to put together a daily post without much advance preparation. The goal is to have fun, and if you're spending every spare moment composing a daily post, you won't have any fun, nor will you have time to see what everyone else is doing. Do what you can.
Whether you are a blogger participating with a countdown of your own, or someone who just wants to trick or treat without having to decorate their own home, all are welcome. If you are not on the list of participants, but would like to be, just let us know, and provide a link to your blog. If you have more than one blog you'd like to include (you're insane) provide links for both (or more).
Dusk is upon us, and the Jack O'Lanterns are lit and being set outside. Nows the time to put on your costume, grab your trick or treat bag and head off down the street to ring the doorbell of the first house. Happy Halloween!

Last year was a lot of fun and since I post almost every day during the Halloween season, it was super easy to participate. Check out all of the great blogs that participated last year by clicking HERE.

I am already working on content and time is tighter than ever! I hope you will participate or at least cycle through all the great Halloween content daily!

In the mean time.... wanna win some wicKED prizes? Sure you do.....click HERE and enter often! 

Season Swap weeKEnD was a success!

 Seems like every year it takes me longer to take down all the summer stuff and put up all the Halloween things. Not sure if I am getting old or if we just keep getting more and more Halloween goodness! Probably a combination of both.

 We started the long process of transforming our otherwise warm and inviting porch to a gauntlet of doom for TOTs.

So hard to believe we enjoyed iced tea on warm summer nights just a few short weeks ago and now we have stripped it of all the warm lights, melodious wind chimes, and soft padded furniture and replaced it with pure wicKEDness!

While we did get MASS amounts done, we are a FAR ways off from being finished. I would say close to 35% complete.

Normally we would have the inside completely decorated by now but with Miranda and I both getting demanding jobs, it has been slow going. At least the walls are blank which is a sign that more sinister art is on the way in!

We did manage to locate a stud (other than myself) and get the spider chandelier hung. This thing is going to be so awesome with tea lights in it and the other spider's around it.

Working on some projects as well. After we get the majority of decorating complete, I will post some pictures of them.


I did manage to get the eye in the sky back up and functioning. HD, Infra Red, and there are two...this one watches the cemetery...the other watches this one!

 Even nature got into the decorating spirit. Found this monster spider doing some spiderweb art.

 He was a big feller!

 I did not have time to run the lights into the graveyard or get the zombies in place. I was able to snap some pretty good pics in the dying light.

On a more serious note, there is a monster in my backyard that I did not invite or create. It is large as a dinosaur and orange as a pumpkin. It is loud and roars in fury. It shakes the house and pushes over large trees as it gnashes at the ground and throws dirt all about. Every morning at the break of dawn it roars to life and starts it's relentless path of destruction as it ruins any chance of our peaceful sleep. I was able to catch a quick pic of it today as it seems to sleep all weekend long. Hope it leaves soon.

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Would you like to win a big old orange monster? Sure... we all do, but I aint giving one away. I am giving away some pretty darn good gifts though. Link HERE!

Who wants to win a Blog Makeover from RETRO-ZOMBIE?

Jeremy at Retro-Zombie is nearing his 500th follow and his 1500th post! To celebrate he is having a giveaway! If you want a chance at winning a cool prize pack, head on over to the Retro-Zombie blog and sign up.

 There are hints that there may be t-shirts, books and art prints as prizes as well! 

Who know what else the enigmatic Jeremy will throw into the mix. Head on over to his Blog HERE and become a follow and find out how to enter. You should also head to his Facebook Page and hit ye old "Like" button. The contest will run till his blog hits 500 followers so hurry over and enter NOW!

While you are in a giveaway mood... don't forget to check out my own giveaway HERE!

The first glowing orange grin of the season

Things have been super busy in The Wicked Woods over the last few days. I did manage to get one single giant pumpkin lit and grinning at me from the kitchen window. Lots of work left to do!

It's Fall Yall!

Autumn is finally here! Time to enjoy the most magical season of all!