Walmart Encounters

It's been a long time since I shopped at Walmart. Last night my daughter was mall shopping with friends putting together her Halloween costume so I killed time walking around the big box store and mostly people watching.

I swear if I'm ever at a loss for characters to put in my books I'm heading for Walmart. I don't know if it's our particular store, the fact that it's near Halloween, or that it was late evening but I saw some weird, odd and strange things. Here are just a few:

- A forty-something man was frantically running around carrying a birthday cake. I saw him 3 times in the hour I was there and each time he was bolting around like he was terribly late clutching a large white birthday cake with blue flowers. Weird.

- There were a family of mullets. What I assumed was the mom, dad and son all had mullet hair styles. Last time I saw this many mullets I was in Dallas and it was the mid-1990's. And, no, this didn't appear to be a Halloween idea gone horribly wrong they were just walking around filling their shopping cart with Doritos. Odd.

- There was a skinny, skanky looking woman in her early twenties who had a large white rat in her front pocket. Strange.

I could seriously write any one of these people as a character in a book.

I did end up making a purchase at Walmart. I bought Jodi Picoult's book Keeping Faith. Has anybody read this one yet?

What is your favorite place to people watch?

Feeling Spookified

I love Halloween!
We spent the weekend carving pumpkins and decorating the house and I hope to have some pictures this week to share.

The first decorations are up but we'll add more gruesome carnage as the week goes on. Some things we'll leave until Halloween night ... like the the body under our garage door and the one under the front tire of the car.

It's great that Halloween falls on a Friday this year. It gives parents and kids alike the chance to recover from the sugar buzz!When the kids were little we had Pooh Bears and Princesses. This year we're having Zombie Rock'n Rollers and Flesh Eating Monsters LOL.

Do you do any preparations for the great big Boo? I'm a sucker for the mini chocolate bars. Any favorite candies?

Bed, Breakfast and Murder?

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.

If you're ever in Fall River, Massachusetts, you may want to check out Lizzie Borden Museum. Oh and if you ever want a good laugh, try and get me to say the state name Massachusetts. For some reason, it always comes out Massachewet or Massachewssis, but I digress.

For about $225 a night you can stay at the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast and stay in Lizzie's room. In the morning you'll be served food that's similar to what Lizzie's mom & dad ate before she killed them. Bananas, jonny-cakes & sugar cookies - a breakfast to die for?

People are apparently willing to spend big bucks to visit the home of a murderess. Would you be willing to take a whack at it?

I've been meaning to put this up for the last couple weeks. A reminder that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Have you had that thingamaboob called a mammogram lately? I usually have mine in March around my birthday. It's not what I would call a fun present but it helps me remember to get the job done :)

Early detection is key so if you're overdue for your mammogram, please don't wait!

Bouchercon

I got back from the Bouchercon conference yesterday afternoon. Overall, the conference experience was great but the travel side of things wasn't. However, this being Canadian Thanksgiving I'm going to focus on the great side of things and do any bitching and complaining later LOL!

I was on a fabulous panel called, "THANK THE LORD FOR THE NIGHT TIME -Why is the supernatural so damn fun?". In the picture above I'm standing looking star struck because I am, in fact, with stars. I felt truly honored to be on such a star studded panel. Left to right in the photo is:
Heather Graham
Myself
Elena Santangelo, and
Alex Sokoloff

Missing from the picture was our fabulous moderator Cathy Pickens

The panel winners were truly the fans in the audience who asked intelligent and fun questions that kept the panel lively and informative.

I returned home to a crowded house and Thanksgiving dinner almost fully prepared thanks to my fabulous inlaws. I hardly had to even wash a dish.

Usually when I go away to a conference I can immerse myself in the writing world and enjoy the moment, however, the last four days I missed my children terribly and was glad to be back home.

Charmed to Death

Tomorrow I leave for Baltimore to attend the Bouchercon Mystery Conference. I've never been to Baltimore so it should be a treat ... if I actually ever leave the hotel room. Sometimes the conferences are sooo wonderful inside, you never actually get outside.

On Tursday I'm doing on a panel called "THANK THE LORD FOR THE NIGHT TIME - Why is the supernatural so damn fun?" Together with me are Cathy Pickens, Heather Graham, Elena Santangelo & Alex Sokoloff. Doesn't the workshop name alone sound like a hoot?

One of the best things about being on a panel like this (besides sitting next to such obvious talent) are the questions that come from the audience. If you had to ask a supernatural-type question of these panelists, what would it be?