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.

Find The Crossroads:

Facebook | Twitter

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Crossroads Blog Tour Day 6

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

When I was twelve, my neighborhood friends and I set up a “haunted house” in our basement. Lots of cheesy tricks and flashing lights, but the local kids seems to appreciate it. As one of the effects, I borrowed my little sister’s Barbie Make-up Head and turned her into “Bloody Mary” using red nail polish. Unfortunately, after the fact, I was unable to get the stuff off the life-sized doll head! Susan was … upset. It’s been forty years, and she still hasn’t let me forget that!

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

At a retreat with four other writers a few years ago, I found myself spending three nights in a haunted house in New York’s Catskill Mountains. One morning, I woke up to feel someone climb onto the bed beside me in my empty room and whisper “Daddy” into my ear. Scared the crap out of me! Later on, I found out I wasn’t the only one who’d experienced things that weekend. It remains the only time I’ve ever been come into direct contact with something I couldn’t explain.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

I can’t remember how old I was, but probably ten, since I remember my little brother trick-or-treating with me, and he had to be about six at the time. We were out in our masks ringing doorbells and whatnot, when we happened upon a house with fog rolling along the lawn. Now, I know nowadays plenty of people rent dry ice machines for Halloween, but back then, it was really rare. My brother approached the house and were coaxed inside by a skeleton. There was a sort of maze we had to wander through, where long black sheets or curtains were hung to create a spooky atmosphere. Creepy music played, with sound effects of howls and shrieks. It was awesome!

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

If we’re talking haunting as in memorable (seeing as I don’t think I have any spooky haunting experiences I can remember, really), then it would have to be this: Where I live, there’s a lot of public transportation. We have subways that run both above and under the street (the end stations are above, then it goes under the city). This experience took place when my daughter was in kindergarten and I had to catch the subway (above ground) to take her there. My son was a baby and in his stroller. I was across the street from the station and rushing to make the train on time. There was a car parked illegally in my path, the driver standing outside his door, making me late. But what I hadn’t seen, was the train going in the opposite direction headed for the station. If that car and that man hadn’t been there to slow me down, I could have, in my haste, ran across the tracks, and the train could have hit the stroller with my son in it. My heart raced like never before as the realization of what could have happened washed through me. I then believed that the man parked illegally must have been a guardian angel looking out for me. He saved my family. After that day, I always believed that things happened for a reason. Remember that next time you’re being delayed somehow or things don’t go the way you planned. There might be another reason for it. One that could save lives.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but it’s the one that stands out the most. When I was very young, nearly all of my Halloweens were spent trick-or-treating with my best friend, Dorothy. She and I have been friends since third grade and are still close twenty-five years later. One year, she went as a jester. I actually can’t remember my costume…maybe a mime? It was raining and turning to sleet, and Dorothy and I had gone quite far in our trick-or-treating. It was late, and as we were coming back to my street, we could see the jack-o-lanterns being blown out. We could see the porch lights shutting off. Not very many kids were left on the sidewalks. All of a sudden, a dark car pulled up beside us and followed us. We got scared and ran into this park-like boulevard that stretched up my road. The car kept coming! It was so terrifying! Dorothy fell. I laughed (I laugh when I’m nervous or scared). Candy went everywhere. And the car stopped. It turned out to be these boys who knew my older sister playing a prank. Oh, it was just awful! And yet pretty much what Halloween is all about--the idea of dark things coming out at night and scaring the devil out of you.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

Our last house was haunted. My husband won’t talk about it. It was mostly in my daughter’s bedroom, which was a guest room before she was born. We should have known something was up when we did our initial walkthrough on the house and that room was mostly empty but for a rickety, old wheelchair that looked like a prop from a horror film. The previous owner’s mother often stayed in the room. She didn’t pass away in the house, but she was there a lot and liked things a certain way. Once I asked the neighbors about it, and they told me the old woman who had stayed with her son loved long hair and often enjoyed braiding their daughters’ hair. When that room was a guest room, people would tell us it was cold all the time and felt uneasy in it. One of my friends was shushed when he was rummaging through his suitcases. It was also felt a lot in our kitchen. I could be working in the kitchen and would feel someone behind me, playing with my hair.

Find The Crossroads:

Facebook | Twitter

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Crossroads Blog Tour Day 5

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

When I was six years old, my (military) family moved to the United States from Germany, where my father had been stationed for most of my life. My mother, who is Japanese, didn’t understand a lot of American customs, and my dad wasn’t at home for our first Halloween. So when the first trick-or-treaters showed up at our door dressed in scary costumes, my mom was terrified. She took my sister and me into a closet and we all stayed there, cringing whenever the doorbell rang, for hours.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

When I was a child, I woke up in the middle of the night to see a glowing blue-green figure in the hallway outside my bedroom. I was scared, but I managed to calm myself and go back to sleep. But the next morning I discovered that our dog had died… in that hallway, on the spot where I’d seen the unearthly apparition. Wooo…

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

Oddly enough, it was when I went skydiving my sophomore year in college. Jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet is definitely scary, so it was appropriate that my friends and I went on Halloween.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

I was getting in bed one night and right after I turned off the lights and got under the covers, I saw a figure at the foot of the bed. It was a man, and he cocked his head at me. I yelled for my husband, thinking someone broke into our house. Then the figure was gone. Just vanished. It was the freakiest thing.

In a short paragraph or two:
What is your favorite Halloween memory?

My favorite Halloween memory would have to be the year I dressed up as a headless woman. My mother wrapped me in an old, floral house coat that dragged on the floor and came up to the top of my head. She cut two holes for my eyes that were well hidden in the intricate design of the coat, stuffed the shoulders of the coat with newspaper, and placed a paper plate on my head that she covered with “gore”. I don’t know where she found it, but she gave me a mannequin head to carry around as well. It looked awesome! I ended up coming home with an overflowing bag of candy that year.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

I’m semi-convinced my house is haunted. When we moved in five years ago, we started having trouble with electronics. Batteries drained quicker than they should have. Things kept inexplicably breaking. We went through three car stereos, five CD players, two cameras, and two laptop computers in about 2 years. And those are only the things I remember.

In addition to writing, I am a nurse and I work night shift. It is difficult for me to sleep on my nights off, so I often find myself awake and writing. I started to notice that around 3am every night, there’s a loud bang in the attic that I can’t explain. Then we got our dog. He sometimes barks at the same spot in the ceiling for no reason, which totally creeps me out.

There’s also creepy stuff that happens when I try to sleep. I’ve seen shadowy figures in my bedroom. I’ve felt ice-cold drafts on my neck and head like someone is blowing on me or touching me. My bed has shifted and shook, and I’ve felt like someone, or something is sitting on the edge of the bed when no one is there.

Lucky for us, the “activity” has settled down in the last two years. I keep my fingers crossed it stays that way.

Find The Crossroads:

Facebook | Twitter

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Crossroads Blog Tour Day 4

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

I grew up in Chicago, in a neighborhood where most people lived in brownstone-ish apartment buildings and high rises. So my Halloween memories are of an urban nature. Like the time a group of us got stuck in an elevator while trick or treating. An old elevator – the kind that used to have an elevator operator back when it was new in like, 1920 or something! Floors 2-5 we collected candy like bandits! On our way to floor 6, we rocketed up somehow, stalling between 6 and 7. Each time we’d press the button we’d end up not quite at a floor. Eventually, we jumped, screaming, avoiding the gap and landing on floor six. Okay, it was like a 2 inch leap. Not that horrible. But it was HALLOWEEN, people! Let’s just say we skipped the rest of the floors and thundered down the stairs. Cause you know – it was haunted right? At least that’s our story.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

I’ve told this one before, but it still reigns as the only true haunting experience I’ve ever had. I’ll give you the brief version. My mom died of a sudden heart attack – on my son’s birthday, which added to the trauma. We had talked on the phone almost every day around 5 PM when we both had gotten home from work and were making dinner or whatever. So here’s the thing: After I returned from her funeral in Chicago, every night around 5 PM for a solid week or more, my phone rang. There was no one there when I picked up – no number on caller ID. Yeah. I wouldn’t have believed it, either. But that’s how it happened. Was she calling me somehow? I’ll leave that up to you!

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

My favorite Halloween memory is of trick or treating when I was in fourth grade. It was the first year my parents let me trick or treat with my friends on my own. I can remember running around the neighborhood, my breath fogging out in front of me and my candy bag slapping my thigh feeling exhilarated and joyful. I just remember hitting every house there and in the development next to ours too and then running back to my friend’s house to watch a scary-ish movie with our candy spread out in front of us. It wasn’t especially different from any other year; it was more that I felt different, bigger, older.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

I actually lived in a house that was haunted when I was about eight or nine. It was over one hundred years old and the view from my bedroom window was of the graveyard across the street. My family rented the house while we looked for a more permanent one and it was pretty creepy from day one, but also completely awesome. There was a secret passageway leading upstairs hidden in the kitchen pantry, an old horse drawn carriage in the barn behind the house and acres of farm land to play in. It was a pretty interesting place to explore, but at night…and sometimes even during the day, I would feel watched by some kind of very, very angry presence. There was one room upstairs in particular that was always freezing and so completely creepy that we never even put furniture in it. I used to listen to the stairs creak like someone was walking up them, but no one would be there. I could go on and on, but someday I plan to write a ghost story about it, so even though it was terrifying at times, as a writer it was totally worth it to live there.

In a short paragraph or two:
What is your favorite Halloween memory?

My favorite Halloween was spent in a haunted house in college. I had a mad crush on the guy I went with, and it gave me ample opportunity to cling to him. The haunted house? Not so scary. The boy? Cling-worthy.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

One time I was sitting on the couch with Hubby, and the wine glass next to me exploded. I mean, it just…exploded. There was no booze in it, and the stem was still sitting straight up after the bulb shattered into a middle pieces. It was nuts.

Find The Crossroads:

Facebook | Twitter

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Crossroads Blog Tour Day 3

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

Probably my daughter’s first Halloween. She was a Dalmatian in this darling little spotted sweatshirt and we put a black dot on the end of her nose. So cute.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

When I was 6 years old I was trick or treating with my older brother and sister and this was when the original Addams family was on TV. Morticia (the mom) had long hair and this white face and always wore this slinky gown, but on TV you never saw her feet. Well, we went to this one house and Morticia opened the door. For the first time I saw her feet and they were like an octopus with 8 legs. It scared me so bad I turned around and ran (and I could run fast, even at age 6) and my brother and sister had to chase me all the way home. I can still remember how scared I was.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

My favorite Halloween memory was when my kids were little and we used to throw these huge Halloween parties. For one of them, my dad dressed up as fortune teller, “Madam Olga” and gave all the kids these really wacky fortunes to the kids. Everyone loved it. It was a huge blast.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

We bought this marine soldier figurine for my grandfather-in-law. It’d play the “Taps” song when you wound it up. After he passed away we kept the figurine in a curio hutch in the front room. The day of 9/11 I panicked about my husband coming home from downtown where he worked at the time and prayed for him to make it home safely. I sat in the bedroom, waiting to hear from him, waiting to hear if he was okay. Out of nowhere, that’s when the marine soldier started playing his “Taps” song right in the curio. It startled me at first. Not a soul had touched it in a long time and it was safely in its glass case. Right away, it just clicked. I knew my grandfather-in-law was keeping my husband safe and played that song to let me know everything will be okay.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so it’s hard to pick one favorite memory. I grew up in Michigan, so trick-or-treating was often hampered by snow or rain, and I hated having to wear my bulky coat over my costumes. I suppose one of the best Halloween moments was in high school. I was still trick-or-treating, but because I was “old enough”, I opted not to wear a coat. I froze the whole night, but I thawed out at the first Halloween party I ever attended. We watched scary movies, ate most of our candy, and had a pumpkin carving contest. It was awesome!

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

When I was really young, my family used to go camping all the time. We had a pop-up camper, and we explored a variety of campgrounds in Michigan. One night, I remember sitting around the fire swapping ghost stories with another family, and that night, once I was snuggled up in the camper, my parents left me alone. They were just outside, chatting at the fire with the other adults, but they felt impossibly far...especially when I looked through the window toward the scraggly woods and spotted a pair of glowing red eyes!

Find The Crossroads:

Facebook | Twitter

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Crossroads Blog Tour Day 2

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

Halloween is tricky over here in Australia because it’s not a traditional thing so a lot of people don’t even know what it is, which can be embarrassing when your kids insist on knocking on everyone’s doors. Plus, because we’re in the Southern Hemisphere it’s actually Spring, which means that it’s very light and sunny. Not the stuff that creepy memories are made of!

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

Many years ago my husband and I were having a drink in a bar in New Zealand. The place was once a sports store and the restroom was down in the basement. Anyway, while I was down there I was overwhelmed with the sense of death. The whole room felt like it was covered in blood and I immediately went back upstairs and told my husband we had to leave. Later I discovered that the previous owner had killed himself down in the basement. I still shudder when I think about it.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

My favorite Halloween memory actually isn’t from my childhood, but happened more recently as a mom. I always take my girl’s trick-or-treating in a nearby neighborhood with their friends. On this particular year, my children each had pretty large groups of friends. They looked so cute in their costumes – Hermione and an Elfish girl (a la Lord of the Rings). They were so independent, not afraid of the night at all, no longer a young child. They were both on the threshold of young adulthood. And while I was a little sad acknowledging the end of their young childhood, there was magic that night as I embraced the young women they were becoming.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

Yes, haunting. I was 11 and my mom and her new husband were looking for a new house for us. After combing through the MLS books a realtor friend had left us, we found what sounded like the perfect house in a nearby town – old Victorian architecture, stained glass windows, vaulted ceilings. We were so excited to see it. Without waiting for morning, we decided to drive by the house, just to see it in person. The house was on a corner lot. We pulled up and my skin instantly turned cold, goose-bumps racing down each arm. My pulse began to quicken as I opened the car door. Something wasn’t right. Not even close.

My parents and I got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk, looking up at the sprawling house. Never in my life have I ever felt fear the way I did in that moment. Tears sprang in my eyes. I looked at my mom. Her skin was white, her eyes moist. We looked at each other, got in the car and drove away as quickly as we could. We never looked and the house and never spoke of it again. But the three of us knew in that moment that we had visited something haunted for certain.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

We tend to go all out for Halloween. My husband even built a coffin for our outdoor display. He dresses up in full creepy skeleton gear and waits in the coffin for young trick-or-treaters to make their way through our fully animated maze. (Kids work hard to get candy at our house.) We rigged a walkie talkie system so I could alert hubs to the kids too young for such a fright – but a couple of years ago, I missed the cue and a very young Spiderman got the scare of his life. He dropped his bag of candy and ran so fast he was just a blue and red blur. The best part? He came back the next year, walked right up to the coffin, banged on the lid and said, “I’m on to you this time. You can’t scare me.” My husband FILLED that kid’s bag with candy.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

My best friend has a sixth sense about “spirits”, and while I don’t know what I believe about all that, I trust her when she says something is a little off. My husband and I lived in a 100-year-old house out in the country for a few years. Big, open house with plenty of light. But the basement was cold, concrete, filled with cobwebs and according to my friend, host to a spirit.

Partly because of her warning, I refused to go down those rickety old stairs for anything. But the house had a sump pump and when the sewer backed up, the alarm would sound. My husband was out of town for the night when I heard that alarm for the first time. I crept down the stairs with my flashlight. Water dripped from a leaky tap. Spiderwebs caught in my hair, wisped across my face. The sump hadn’t backed up, and despite the distinct chill in the air, I spent 10 minutes looking for the cause of the alarm. Nothing. I went back to bed and was just nodding off when the alarm sounded again.

To this day, I have no idea why the alarm went off, but I’ll never forget the feeling I had walking down those stairs, as though someone was watching. * shiver *

Find The Crossroads:

Facebook | Twitter

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.

a Rafflecopter giveaway