November IWSG

Did you survive the Halloween Storm of 2019? What timing! At least it was great for candy lovers. If you bought for trick-or-treaters, you got to keep 90% of it, and if you had a trick-or-treater, they got tons. Too bad it's hard to write when you're in a constant sugar coma. 

Anyway, it's time to put down the KitKats and thank our host, Alex J. Cavanaugh, and his awesome co-hosts this month: Sadira Stone, Patricia Josephine, Lisa Buie-Collard, Erika Beebe, and C. Lee McKenzie!

This month's optional question: What's the strangest thing you've ever googled in researching a story?

Oooo, what a cool question! I wish I could remember all the crazy stuff I've googled over the years. My first book involved terrorists and a bomb threat, so I was looking up all sorts of things that probably put me on a security watch list somewhere. 

Image: Rawpixal Ltd

My second had me delving into all things 19th century. I once watched YouTube videos of people dancing a cotillon in period dress. 

In my current story, the setting is a college campus. I found a Wikipedia page that lists all the hazing deaths experienced by members of fraternities and sororities going back to 1838.

Speaking of the macabre, here are some pictures of our Halloween Pumpkins:

Here is my older daughter's version of Pennywise, from the movie It. All the rain dribbling down this pumpkin's many teeth made it look like it was drooling--how appropriate! Just don't look into the deadlights, folks.

The pumpkin on the right is my younger daughter's--a mummy. And the one on the left is my interpretation of a Japanese bonsai tree, crane, and water flowing under a bridge. 

My husband took me on a walk last Saturday after all the rain, and we have a huge waterfall, not twenty minutes from our house. I couldn't believe it! Rochester's Lower Falls is like a small Niagara Falls.

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How was your Halloween? Are there places near your home that you've always meant to visit, but never found the time?