The Crossroads Blog Tour Day 7

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

Well, my son was born on Halloween, so that pretty much trumps everything else, don’t you think? It’s always been my favorite holiday—I was one of those teenagers who kept trick-or-treating long after it was acceptable, and I still dress up and go out with my kids every year. So he wasn’t supposed to make his appearance until early November, but I kept hoping and hoping he’d be a Halloween baby, because that would give me an excuse to throw EMBARRASSING PARTIES for years and years to come. And sure enough, we made it. With about two hours to spare.

The only drawback to that is that I missed trick-or-treating that year, and I’d decided I was going to dress my pregnant belly up as a Magic 8 Ball. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get to do that.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

I can’t think of anything off the top of my head in which I got haunted, but I do remember doing the haunting. One year, I dressed up like a dead cheerleader for my best friend’s Halloween party, and I really went all out. I had prosthetics on to make it look like my throat had been cut, and I went full Carrie-at-the-prom and covered myself in blood. (A bit of advice: Cover your car seats if you do that. I’m lucky I didn’t get pulled over the day after Halloween, because the inside of my car looked like I really HAD killed a cheerleader in there!) Anyway, as I was driving down the highway, I passed an older couple on the road. They were so busy staring at me that they drove off the pavement and onto the grass.

This is only funny because no one was hurt. But let me tell you, their faces as I got out of the car to make sure they were okay? PRICELESS.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

My favorite Halloween memory. Hmm, it might be the year of the multiple Harry Potters, my son (about seven or maybe eight at the time) among them. Dark hair, blue eyes…he was a natural! He made friends with all the other Harry Potters, started a good-humored rivalry with the few Slytherins and generally had a wonderful time. So cute!

Or it might go back farther, to college when I was living in International House, which was where the exchange students and those of us who wanted to live among them dormed. We took Yukio, an exchange student from Japan, trick-or-treating for her first time ever, and she wore a traditional kimono with the wooden shoes. We were amazed she could walk all around in them, but walk she did, enjoying the whole thing. Instead of a pillow case or bag, she tucked the candy she was given into her squared-off sleeves. I was shocked the next day to see her giving away all the candy. Wasn’t that the whole point of trick-or-treating?! No, she just wanted the experience. That’s always stuck with me.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

That had to be a couple of years ago in Salem, Massachusetts when I was researching the fourth novel in the Vamped series, Fangtabulous. I was out on a ghost tour and our leader was talking about how a man named Philip English, who’d gone on the run after being accused of witchcraft and relieved of all of his worldly possessions. He returned after the witch craze had ended and took revenge on the dread and now dead Sheriff Corwin by stealing his body to ransom back to his family for reimbursement of his losses. As the guide was talking, directing everyone’s attention to the house in which the purloined skeleton was supposed to have rested for a time, I felt a presence behind me. Horribly malevolent, glaring at me through the huge vacant window of the building at my back. I turned several times, determined not to freak out, because I didn’t believe in ghosts, but I couldn’t make myself stay there. I had to move away from the window and put my back to the brick wall instead. I stayed freaked until we moved on.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

My favorite Halloween was in 1977, the year the original Star Wars came out. I was six years old and Star Wars was the first movie I ever saw in a theatre. I’ll never forget the moment when Luke Skywalker rescued Princess Leia from the Storm Troopers by swinging on the rope. That was the most awesome thing I’d ever seen and, of course, I wanted to be Princess Leia for Halloween. So my mom made me a white dress and put my hair into two side buns. I loved my outfit and felt totally cool!

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

I’ve never been haunted in a scary sense, but I have had some otherworldly experiences. We once moved into a house and the instant I walked in, I knew that the owner’s mother had died in the living room. I didn’t feel anything negative or creepy, but I just knew. And sure enough, my feeling turned out to be true. Another time, I walked into the lobby of an old hotel and instantly knew a female presence was hovering in the area. I glanced at some of the hotel’s paintings and saw a portrait of a dark haired lady so I asked the guy behind the registration desk if she “haunted” the hotel. He said, “Yes. How did you know?”

The most profound experience I’ve had was the night my grandmother died. She and my mom were living in Oregon at the time, and we were living in Colorado. My mom had called with the sad news that afternoon so I’d left work early. Later that evening, I was in the kitchen, hugging my kitty Bailey, when my grandmother’s spirit walked right past me. The time was 7:01. Bailey saw her too because she turned her head and watched her walk past us.

My grandmother was wearing her light pink nightgown with capped sleeves. We talked for a few seconds and she was happy that I’d hung one of her paintings (of Bailey) in our kitchen. She bid me farewell and then she was gone. I called my mom, who confirmed that she was indeed wearing that particular nightgown when she died. And my mom had stayed at the hospital for a while after my grandmother died. She finally left the hospital at 6PM her time, which was 7PM my time. So my grandmother waited to for my mom to leave before she came to say goodbye to me.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

Well, there was this time back in college when we used to stay up late studying quite a bit. And there was this creepy cemetery nearby. And I determined that on Halloween I was going to go into the cemetery at midnight and take a picture. So Halloween came and we went to the cemetery and I was scared to step over the fence and go inside. I had to seriously force every single step.

Long story short. I made it. After serious self-talking, I stood by a gravestone and had my picture taken, shaking the entire time.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

That would be The Haunted Mansion at DisneyWorld :)

No, seriously, I’ve never seen a ghost or had any ghostly experiences, so for now, DisneyWorld will have to do.

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How the Tour Works:

Each day of The Crossroads Blog Tour, a new research question will be revealed on The Crossroad Blog Tour main page: HERE and each day the answer to that question will be found within one of the different blog posts by Crossroads Tour authors. Your job is to get the question, read the blog posts, and collect all answers by the end of the tour.

This year the grand prize winner will be selected via a Rafflecopter draw open to everyone. However, the hunt for clues is a fun part of the Crossroads experience and we wanted to keep it alive. Sooooo, search for the answer somewhere on the participating blogs on THAT particular day of the tour. Answer all the questions correctly to enter a bonus prize draw for – separate from the grand prize.

Bonus question answers are to be emailed to judithgraves @ ymail dot com by October 26th at MIDNIGHT to enter the Bonus prize draw. Winner of the Grand prize and the winner of the Bonus prize will be announced on OCTOBER 31st – HALLOWEEN.

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