Wednesday, November 6, 2019

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. 


Vintage illustration of Quadrilles published in 1820-1820 by Sidebotham.
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.





_________

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


22 comments:

  1. That Pennywise pumpkin looks awesome! I don't get trick-or-treaters so all the candy is always for me.

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  2. How beautiful. Plus your pumpkins are excellent. It's been years since we carved one.

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  3. Wow on all of those pumpkins!

    I keep saying I want to play tourist in my town but I never get to it. Maybe next year! :)

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  4. Wow! You have a family of talented carvers. It must be a fun family event.

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  5. Your research sounds truly captivating! Love
    The pumpkins! Love the pictures on your walk. Happy IWSG day :)

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  6. On the plus side. Our searches are for research for our writing at least. Our crimes are penciled. :)

    Love the pumpkin carvings.

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  7. I really like your pumpkins! We didn't put forth a lot of effort for Halloween this year, but the kids had fun trick-or-treating. Maybe next year, since Halloween will be on Saturday, we can do more fun things for it. :)

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  8. I used to keep lists of the odd things I had to research for my books. :) I still have them, too.

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  9. I haven't done a pumpkin carving in years. When my family did them, they were nowhere near as detailed as yours. It's also amazing to see the kinds of intricate designs professional pumpkin artists can do.

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    1. Sometimes we borrow ideas from pumpkin carving kits or I go online and find stencils. There are a lot of inexpensive pumpkin carving knives available as well, which helps.

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  10. Hi,
    I didn't celebrate Halloween. In my village here in Germany, most people haven't heard of it. It's nice to see that your family had a great time.

    Shalom aleichem,
    Pat G @ EverythingMustChange

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  11. Think there are few areas in our county that I haven’t visited many times, usually with a large number of school children doing environmental studies 🤗

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  12. Our Halloween was pretty quiet. Storms cancelled trick or treating and we weren't home for the rescheduled time on Saturday, so I didn't get to overbuy candy so I had some to keep.

    Your kids are very talented! Yours is nice too, but your kids? Wow. Impressive artwork!

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  13. I often find the video searches the best. Maybe I'm just being lazy, but seeing a cotillion would make it far easier to understand and write about.

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  14. Our Halloween was one of the worst I can remember. Terrible rain and wind storm. Nice pumpkins. And gorgeous rainbow picture.

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  15. That Pennywise pumpkin is terrifying! Nice job on all three, though. Really well done!

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  16. Great pumpkins!
    I also did a research on home-made bombs once. It's amazing what you could find on the internet.

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  17. What great Jack-o-lanterns! I'm impressed. For the Menopausal Superheroes, I learned a lot about fire proofing. :-) @samanthabwriter from
    Balancing Act

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  18. Your jack-o-lanterns are fantastic. To not have a lot of leftover candy, I told the kids to take handfuls. lol It worked. We love to visit local tourist spots, although in 6 yrs we have missed quite a few. We need to do more.

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I will do everything in my power to visit commenter's blogs unless I've been abducted by aliens or my children get sick. (If my children get abducted by aliens, I will be very busy, of course, catching up on my sleep.)