It's October, after all

I'm in the mood for spooky movies/books. 

A million years ago, I watched a movie called The House That Would Not Die that stuck with me all these years. It was based on a Barbara Michaels book called Ammie Come Home. I tracked the made-for-tv movie down a few years back while I was writing Epitaph as reference for the seance Amy and Kevin sit through. Recently, as I work on my next series devoted more to haunted houses than ghosts, I've been thinking about it again, this time from the angle of the angle of the ghosts rather than the seance. Like I said in my post last week, they don't make scary movies the way they used to anymore. They're all about killers rather than tickling your imagination with the things beyond our five senses-- that sixth sense (anyone remember a show starring Gary Collins by that name?)

After watching the movie above, I tracked down the book to read, and have to say the movie was fairly true to the book. I went on to read several Barbara Michaels books, but they didn't all have that same punch. I went on to read other scary books - Bram Stoker's Dracula was one of my favorites, and of course no one does horror quite like Stephen King. Do you know, when I read 'Salem's Lot he had me guessing for half the book about what was going on? And this, from a devoted horror fan. I love the way he can keep you guessing. And then, of course, I read The Amityville Horror. That is the one book I couldn't have in the same room with me when I'd finished it! 

Do you have a favorite horror movie or book that sticks with you?

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If you want a spooky book to read, try one of my first-in-series-free books.

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More on haunted houses

It is October, after all.

As someone who grew up fascinated by ghost stories and “Creature Features” I think haunted houses have always been at the top of my list. From the old black and white movies - The Haunting, The Uninvited - to the next generation - The House That Would Not Die, The Amityville Horror - it wasn’t a huge leap for me to want to write about haunted houses, starting with LIVING CANVAS. I’m a little sad that more modern interpretations turn into slasher flicks, as if the only thing that can scare us now is being sliced and diced. I prefer to stick with the fear of the unknown.

As I write my next haunted house book, I’m trying to stick to “the rules” that I have established for my ghosts, which is often colored by the rules of other authors and screen writers over the years. Ultimately, I come back to my own limited (and probably questionable) experiences, and the experiences of “sensitive” people I’ve met. Those seem to be supported by the ghost hunter shows I’ve also been watching to get the mood. At a recent author event, a reader asked me if I’d had any encounters in the cemetery where I started the EPITAPH series. The simple answer is no, although I walked the cemetery in the middle of a crisp September afternoon. 

Which asks the question, why do ghosts only show up at night? And why do the ghost hunters only work in the dark? I suppose the easy answer is because it’s easier to see a “manifestation” in the dark. The hazy, misty, amorphous shapes that make up a ghost. However, the sensitive person I spoke with in my recent research saw her manifestations in broad daylight. So what are the rules?

1. The dead can’t speak. This is supported in the Bible when a dead man wants to go back to warn his family to straighten up. Similar to what Dickens references in A Christmas Carol. The Lord tells the dead man those he wants to warn have the information they need, the same as he did. The result is in what we do with that information.

2. In order to see a ghost, you need to be open to the possibility. As much as they need to expend energy and intent to be seen, we need to expend energy and intent to see them.

3. When a person passes, their energy remains. Sometimes only for a moment, and sometimes as residue, like seasoning in an iron skillet. 

Finally- do ghosts really exist? The answer is very subjective. For me, its a matter of entertainment. When my parents talked about dying, I asked jokingly if they would come back and be my guardian angels, which earned me a resounding “no.” I read a book not long ago about a woman whose little sister died, and she was so overwhelmed with grief that she wouldn’t let the spirit go. As a result, the dead sister’s ghost couldn’t move on and grew more grisly as time went on. When we keep the people we lose dear in our hearts, they always walk with us, whether we see them or not. More memory than ghost.

For more about spirits and haunted houses, I stumbled on this blog that you might enjoy. 

https://samanthagentry.blogspot.com/2022/10/7-signs-your-house-could-be-haunted.html

If it's Wednesday, it must be... Bread Pudding?

Funny, but I've only just realized I've used bread pudding in not one, but two of my books. So following that thread... (2 recipes, so make sure you read all the way to the end!)

We've spent the last few weeks "taking care of business" upon the death of my mother-in-law. Busy days. Sad days. Hectic days. Family days. With the time sensitive part of our personal business addressed, I'll be back to business as usual. 

While I was combing her cookie recipes, I came across a gem for "Bread Pudding for Two," which I'm sharing with you today. I haven't tried it yet, but you can believe I will VERY SOON. Consider this a gift from Madeleine in ENCHANTED MEMORIES.

Oh, and in case you forgot, there was apple bread pudding, a/k/a Opfenschlupfer, in MIST ON THE MEADOW. I originally posted a recipe when Mist on the Meadow came out (you can find it here). 

If you are on Kindle Unlimited, you can read all three of the MIST books there.

Recently, as luck would have it, a recipe popped up on my Facebook feed, so now I have to try THAT recipe. It's attributed to Lisa Walker, and while I'd love to link you to her website, I couldn't get there when I tried. So I'll just share it here.

APPLE PIE BREAD PUDDING

INGREDIENTS

8 cups bread, cubed

3 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped

4 eggs

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1 cup milk

2 tsp cinnamon, divided

½ tsp nutmeg

½ c sugar + 2 Tbsp

½ cup raisin

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk, eggs, 1 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, and ½ cup sugar.

Stir in the apples, raisins, then gently fold in the bread cubes. Pour into the prepared pan.

In a small bowl, stir together 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.

Sprinkle on top the bread pudding. Bake 30-40 minutes until puffed and golden brown.

SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Unsalted Butter

1 cup Heavy Cream

1 cup Brown Sugar

DIRECTIONS

In a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, stir together the butter, heavy cream, and brown sugar; bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low, simmer until the sauce thickens, for about 5 minutes. Pour over bread pudding to serve. Top with vanilla ice cream.

* If you can, leave bread cubes out for a few hours so they get nice and dry. If not, just place them on a baking sheet and bake them at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until they’re dry but not toasted.

* You can make this the night before and pop it in the oven for breakfast – it actually gets better if it sits overnight!

Come say hello

A shout out to let you know I'll be at the Gail Borden Public Library on Sunday, October 9 from 2-4 pm. Hope to see you there! (Click the picture to find out more)

Newsletter goes out Saturday! Make sure you're signed up to get it.

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Requiem

Taking a moment to reflect on the loss of a loved one. 

Dear Husband's mother “closed her account with God,” and now he and I are both orphans. We were  blessed that we had our parents for so many years. We have years of fond memories to reflect on.

One of the things I'll remember most about my mother-in-law was the way she liked to bake. At one point in time, she worked for a caterer making pies, and she always baked fresh bread. In later years, she reverted to "bought-en" bread part of the time. Dear Husband made cutting boards for everyone for Christmas one year, and she used to brag about how she bet no one else used theirs. One of my brothers-in-law also likes to bake bread, so he uses his frequently, but the joke with my other sister was "you mean I can actually use this?" (because it was so pretty). Years ago when we visited, we could always expect homemade cinnamon buns and sticky rolls for breakfast. She was an avid gardener, so there were always fresh vegetables for lunch and dinner, and fresh raspberry treats from her famous raspberry bushes. She used to sell her berries by the quart, and I'm pretty sure she even had a deal with one of the local stores. Even in the winter, she would break out fruits and vegetables she'd canned over the summer. 

She was a quick learner with a curious mind, and very resourceful. She taught herself how to play the piano (and how to tune a piano!!) and played an accordion. She was industrious, never one to sit idle as long as she was able to move, and in her later years, she liked to enlist my help with the crossword puzzles and jumbles in the newspaper. 

A life well-lived.

To honor her, I'll be going through her recipes (although many things she made by rote). While cookies weren't her specialty, she had several recipes that I definitely want to hold onto. Her baking knowledge will go on...

Rest well, Betty.

Grandma's cookbook

Whenever we went go visit Grandma B, she always had cookies ready for us. Back in the day, women wrote down recipes, often in a notebook. Later, my mother had a recipe box which became the norm for her generation. I had a box for several years, and then a looseleaf notebook filled with recipes I'd photocopied. Now we live in the age of computers, and most of my recipes are digitized or snagged online. (Pinterest anyone?)

Grandma also had a wire egg basket that folded into a million different shapes. Entertainment for hours when one is a child. 

Then there was the cupboard with the toys my dad had growing up - antique steel trucks and cars. My grandparents lived almost 400 miles away, and my sisters and I -- four of us -- were all jammed together in one bedroom, a double bed with army cots on either side. Alternatively, the neighbors had a camper that my grandparents borrowed, and we camped in the backyard.

Grandma B's cookbook

When my Grandma died, I asked for her recipe book. Mostly, it has stayed in the same place all these years. I've pulled it down a time or two mostly to reminisce. Recently I've decided to digitize some of her recipes for my cookie page. 

Dear Husband's mother also has a drawer full of cookbooks and recipes. On our recent trip to visit, I'd thought to grab some of her recipes as well, but we had other things to do while we were there, so I'm hoping to grab them (or photograph them) next time we visit.

Do you have recipes that have been handed down through the generations? Are they still in an old notebook, or a recipe box, or have you digitized them? 

You can search Grandma B's recipes on my cookies page!

Haunted House vs. Abandoned

Dear Husband and I took a trip up to his hometown last week, and while we were there, he took me to several places I haven't seen in all the years we've been married and visited there. We also walked "out and about" around the neighborhood, and as in most neighborhoods these days, there was a house that was empty. I stopped and took a picture for my "haunted house" files. We're back home this week, and while we were driving to the gym to exercise, we passed the same old empty house we pass every time we go that direction, one that never struck me as haunted. The property has several buildings that are falling down and in severely bad shape. It's more an eyesore than anything else. 

That got me to thinking. What's the difference between an abandoned house and a haunted house? Are there criteria?

One of the reasons this struck me this time, I think, is that the house where DH's grandparents lived was in sad shape for a long time, and while it wasn't abandoned, it housed some shady people for a while. There are "those" types of houses that don't strike you as haunted, just ill-used. Let me just say that the current residents in his grandparents' house bought it as a fixer-upper and have fixed it up. It's beautiful now, restored to some of its old glory (although they closed off the old coal chute and ice chute).

Back to the "haunted house." Even in our neighborhood, we had a house that sat empty for a long time - abandoned. Haunted? No. Ill-used. With that being said, the neighbor who lived next door pointed out the difference one day, telling us how "vampires" lived in the house on the other side of them. A creepy vibe, as opposed to the abandoned vibe the empty one gave off. 

There's a certain aura around a "haunted" house, to my way of thinking. Character. The most recent example on our walk had a clearly abandoned feel to it, not the least of which was a satellite dish still on the roof and a boarded-up front door. But there was something more. Maybe because it was an older neighborhood, an older home. Maybe it was the balcony over the front porch, where I envisioned a ghost keeping watch. A big, welcoming front porch. The sense it had been recently occupied. Whatever it was that perked up my imagination, I stopped to take the picture as inspiration for "what comes next."

When I was growing up, we had a big old Victorian up the street that we always designated as the haunted house. It had been subdivided into apartments, and while we were playing in the yard next door one day, one of the tenants came out on the balcony and did an "Igor" impression to scare all of us. We all screamed with delight, but it also took away some of the haunted feel after that.

Do you have a "haunted house" in your neighborhood?