Halloween Spooktacular Giveaway (Part 8)


We have reached our last Halloween Spooktacular Giveaway! This has been so much fun and We are so excited to start picking winners! I am sure you all are just as excited. 
For our last post we have authors Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz sharing their thoughts on Halloween with us. Enjoy!

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THE MANY FACES OF HALLOWEEN
By Laura J. Burns & Melinda Metz
We love the paranormal! Together, we've written about vampires, demons that can only be killed with compliments, sea monsters, aliens, angels, people with assorted psychic powers, and the apocalypse.  Naturally, we both adore Halloween.  But when trying to figure out what to write a Halloween blog post about, well, we almost had to throw down. It turns out that while we always think we share all the same tastes, we were tragically wrong in this case.   Apparently, we love Halloween for completely different reasons.

Melinda is all about the scares, the screams, the gross and the gore.  Laura is all about the fun, the fantasy, the sparkly, and the sexy.  (We both enjoy the candy, though. Way too much.)  The more we thought about it, the more sense it made.  Melinda counts Stephen King among her favorite authors. Laura read one Stephen King short story in high school and never looked back.  Melinda still has nightmares about when she sawThe Exorcist as a kid. Laura vaguely recalls watching Nightmare on Elm Street at a sleepover party once, but thinks she fell asleep before the end. On Halloween Melinda decorates her yard with skeletal flamingos (formerly pink).  Laura has spiders and ghosts, but the spiders are cute and furry, while the ghosts are of the Casper-the-friendly variety.

As a kid, Laura always dressed up as a princess, a butterfly, a fairy, or a bride. Except in high school, where she tended to simply wear pajamas and bunny slippers to class. Melinda preferred going out as some sort of ghoul.  She did wear a nightgown once, but only after splashing it with green puke made of corn syrup, food coloring, and flour (The Exorcist made a really big impression).

And the trend has continued into adulthood. We thought about our favorite Halloween memories.  Melinda's fave was the year she won Berkley Publishing's costume contest. (She was an editor there at the time.)  She dressed up as Carrie, post the prom-night dousing in pig blood.  There aren't many costumes that involve more gore.  Fake blood was splattered over the silky nightgown that was subbing for a prom dress, spattered over her wrist corsage and tiara, dripping down her face. The top of her head was drenched.  It was all very fabulous (in her opinion, not Laura's), and she got to pull out her shooting-psychic-powers-at-you stare, which is definitely something worth seeing. And the best part of being Carrie for a night was when the party was over.  She got to (well, had to) reenact the scene from the movie where Carrie washes off the blood after the prom.  Watching all the fake blood run down the drain? Unforgettable!

Laura is horrified by even the idea of a costume that would make her walk around with her hair drenched in goo.  She sees Halloween as an excuse to look even better than usual.  Perhaps her favorite costume ever was Jessica Rabbit, because of the elbow-length gloves (which even Melinda concedes are quite glam) and the fabulous long red hair. Plus, sexy red dress!  And it was funny, which is equally important.  And her favorite Halloween memory took place in a New York City cab on the way to a party. Laura and her friends were dressed in vintage Star Trek uniforms--you know, short, tight dresses and go-go boots with big hair and retro makeup. They had, of course, phasers (set on stun).  At a red light, they spotted a bunch of Klingons on the sidewalk, rolled down the cab windows, and proceeded to have a huge gunfight.  Starfleet totally won.

So how could the two of us agree on a reason that Halloween is so awesome and blog-worthy? Um...we couldn't. But it doesn't matter! Because we realized that it's why we're so good at writing the paranormal together. Melinda comes at it from the horror/gore realm--the scary, the spooky, the gross.  And Laura comes at it from the sci-fi realm--the action, the sexiness, the otherworldly.  Put all those things together and you've got the makings of all kinds of imaginary craziness.

Our conclusion is this: Halloween rocks because it can be fun and grotesque and terrifying and silly. There's something for everyone. And no matter what, there is always candy.
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For more information on Melinda Metz and Laura J. Burns check out the links below:

MUCHA GRACIAS to Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz for sharing their thoughts on Halloween with us. 


And now for the giveaway....


Melinda Metz was kind enough to donate two copies of her book Echoes to our Halloween Spootacular giveaway. So that means two lucky winners will win a copy of Crave by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz and a Copy of Echoes by Melinda Metz.

TWO CHANCES TO WIN, TWO BLOGS (Once Upon a Twilight and Good Choice Reading), TWO DIFFERENT FORMS! 



 To ENTER:
  •  Must Answer Inara Scott's Question in Comments
  •  Must be a follower of both blogs - Once Upon a Twilight and Good Choice Reading
  •  Must fill out this FORM
Note: This giveaway will run until November 5th. We feel since all other giveaways were open all month it is only fair we run this one for about two weeks.
 
Make sure to check out all the other GREAT guest post/interviews and giveaways we have still running for our Halloween Spooktacular Giveaway! 
All other giveaways except Crave by Laura & Melinda, will be open until the 29th of October. 

CLICK HERE for a full list of all Halloween Spooktacular giveaways!



Good luck!! :0)

26 comments:

  1. I love to be scared...but as I have gotten older, I am a little less adventurous in that arena! I still like a little fright but not enough to keep me up all night LOL

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  2. Mary D

    Halloween is the perfect opportunity to step outside yourself and pretend at being somebody (or some THING) else! :D

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  3. I agree with Laura...I like to look better on Halloween. I always go as something sexy...lol. I've never dressed scary. I like to decorate my house scary though. great contest. I've been wanting to read Crave.

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  4. I love the excuse to dress up like something I'm not. Scary is always better that cute I think. And the candy rocks!

    bchild5@aol.com

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  5. I'm not as into scary things as I used to be. I get scared much more easily:)

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  6. I"ve never really been into the gross aspects of costumes (I agree, one Steven King is enough) I will go glamorous and/or sexy, thank you.

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  7. I really enjoyed their post. I can see why they can write together. They are nothing alike in the way they think, but putting both aspects together, they make great reads. I also agree about Stephen King books:)

    The main thing I agree with is the CANDY!!


    Judy
    magnolias_1@msn.com

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  8. I always had nightmares as a kid. So Halloween just sort of brought all that spookiness out. I like to read spooky books now, but I still have trouble watching scary movies.

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  9. Steven King definitely creeps me out! :/ I used to get so scared when I was younger that I couldn't stand to watch or read anything scary but now I absolutely love everything scary. Especially Paranormal Activity 2 :D

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  10. I like to be scared. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors.Because I have always been around alot of kids on halloween, I always go out in kid friendly costumes. My dream costume would be very glamorous.

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  11. Should I answer again? I'm a total scaredy cat. Can't watch scary movies at night. Can't even watch those discovery channel shows about supernatural.

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  12. I think what's great about Halloween is that it brings the kid out in all of us. Plus, it can be fun to get scared and then have a good laugh about with friends afterward. I used to love getting a bunch of my girlfriends together and having a scary movie marathon; we particularly loved watching the original Nightmare On Elm Street movies and Gremlins, etc. I haven't dressed up in a costume for a couple of years now, but I always liked making my own costumes...one year a put together a rather cool 80's Cyberpunk ensemble with a faux mohawk to match.

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  13. i'm with melinda - i'm all about the scary! we have a horror movie marathon and play the creepy music, and we try our best to scare the neighborhood kids! i used to have to tone down the spooky for my younger siblings a bit, and i'm sure when we have kids someday we'll have to make sure to keep it more cheery, but for now, i'm having fun with it! bring on the horror!

    k_sunshine1977 at yahoo dot com

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  14. I'm a candy freak:) This is the best time of the year for that and I don't feel as bad when I eat. Don't really dress up though... I just enjoy seeing what everyone else is wearing. I know, no fun right?

    yadkny@hotmail.com

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  15. I Love Scary but like to Dress Sexy for Halloween.But Have not Dressed up for a few Years now.Just hand out Candy.
    sasluvbooks(at)yahoo.com

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  16. I totally dig scary!! Although, I don't dress up that way. More sexy. or sexy-ish if I take my my daughter trick-or-treating. (like a ballerina or bumblebee) She and I like to dress up together. We also decorating the house super-spooky!

    Thanks for having the giveaway! It's great. :)
    amydelrosso@gmail.com

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  17. I used to be more into scary stuff but I just can't handle anymore because I get so paranoid (must have lights on, jumpy etc.) after just watching a scary movie. Thanks for the great giveaway!

    lilazncutie1215[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  18. I love getting scared on Halloweeen... that's what it's for. Plus, it's not everyday we get to dress up like freaky characters and people not look at us as if we're weird.

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  19. I don't think I've ever been into anything scary. Just wanted to have fun. I'm a girl, scary for me freaks me out LOL I use to be into the sexy Halloween costumes until I had kids. Now, I'm more into the adult kid approved costumes

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  20. I like it but Im a big baby sometime about scary movies and stuff. I still love to watch them :) Great giveaway thank you very much!
    tishajean@charter.net

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  21. I've never really done well with scary stuff. I love things though that just border the edges of scary. Though I also like things that are cute, lol.

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  22. I love scary and everything else thathas to do with Halloween. I plan a month in advance what gets docorated and what new scary monster goes into the graveyard. I alternate costumes each year choosing sexy then scary and occasionaly I will do a dress down year and make my sister up real crazy for work. I try to watch at least 3 scary movies before the big day. Last night was 13 Ghosts & Hannibal :) Thanks for the giveaway, Happy Halloween.
    Stephmartin71(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  23. I don't like scary, movies or haunted houses.
    This is the first year I've dressed up for Halloween since I was a child. I went for something sexy, but appropriate for my age (grandmother). Candy is not a big thing for me. We're not usually home; gone to a party so don't buy anything for trick or treaters.

    andrea.infinger@gmail.com

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  24. I am a HUGE wuss!! I don't do scary movies and I DEFINITELY don't do haunted houses! Having the crap scared out of me is NOT entertaining! That's not to say I don't like ghosts, vampires, witches, etc. I just don't like to "jammed down my throat"! :-)

    BornajhawkATaolDOTcom

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  25. I haven't dressed up in years, since I was a kid. If I did dress up it'd be as a sexy witch or vamp.
    lovemybabysquid@yahoo.com

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  26. I absolutely love being scared. It always makes me feel young again. And I always end up giggling once the scare is over with :)

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