Click Here for the full story! Why do bats, which are basically mice with wings, live 10 to 30 years??

Five days ago, six houses stood in this very spot, just over our back fence (the green house in the background is due to be removed today). They were vacated (a few of them forcibly) and destroyed to make way for a new CVS. Never mind the Walgreen’s right across the street. One elderly gentleman held out until the last minute. His family had built and lived in those houses for close to a century, and his in particular was in immaculate shape. But they enforced eminent domain and kicked him out. He took most of his belongings, including old trophies, etc., and just put them in boxes by the curb and left them there for whoever wanted them. It was very sad. I have no idea where he went.

I shot this last summer, riding home from Kickapoo State Park. A little scary holding on one-handed (there's no "sissy bar" on the bike)!

From the back of the Harley...

Final Stoker Ballot 2009

Superior Achievement in a Novel

COFFIN COUNTY by Gary Braunbeck (Leisure Books)
THE REACH by Nate Kenyon (Leisure Books)
DUMA KEY by Stephen King (Scribner)
JOHNNY GRUESOME by Gregory Lamberson (Bad Moon Books/Medallion Press)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

MIDNIGHT ON MOURN STREET by Christopher Conlon (Earthling Publications)
THE GENTLING BOX by Lisa Mannetti (Dark Hart Press)
MONSTER BEHIND THE WHEEL by Michael McCarty and Mark McLaughlin (Delirium Books)
THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS by David Oppegaard (St. Martin's Press)
FROZEN BLOOD by Joel A. Sutherland (Lachesis Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

THE SHALLOW END OF THE POOL by Adam-Troy Castro (Creeping Hemlock Press)
MIRANDA by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)
REDEMPTION ROADSHOW by Weston Ochse (Burning Effigy Press)
THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. ZACH by Gene O'Neill (Bad Moon Books)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

PETRIFIED by Scott Edelman (Desolate Souls)
THE LOST by Sarah Langan (Cemetery Dance Publications)
THE DUDE WHO COLLECTED LOVECRAFT by Nick Mamatas, and Tim Pratt (Chizine)
EVIDENCE OF LOVE IN A CASE OF ABANDONMENT by M. Rickert (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
TURTLE by Lee Thomas (Doorways)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

LIKE A CHINESE TATTOO edited by Bill Breedlove (Dark Arts Books)
HORROR LIBRARY, VOL. 3 edited by R. J. Cavender (Cutting Block Press)
BENEATH THE SURFACE edited by Tim Deal (Shroud Publishing)
UNSPEAKABLE HORROR edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Chad Helder (Dark Scribe Press)

Superior Achievement in a Collection

THE NUMBER 121 TO PENNSYLVANIA by Kealan Patrick Burke (Cemetery Dance Publications)
MAMA’S BOY and Other Dark Tales by Fran Friel (Apex Publications)
JUST AFTER SUNSET by Stephen King (Scribner)
MR. GAUNT AND OTHER UNEASY ENCOUNTERS by John Langan (Prime Books)
GLEEFULLY MACABRE TALES by Jeff Strand (Delirium Books)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction

CHEAP SCARES by Gregory Lamberson (McFarland)
ZOMBIE CSU by Jonathan Maberry (Citadel Press)
A HALLOWE'EN ANTHOLOGY by Lisa Morton (McFarland)
THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR by Amy Wallace, Del Howison, and Scott Bradley (HarperCollins)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

THE NIGHTMARE COLLECTION by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions Press)
THE PHANTOM WORLD by Gary William Crawford (Sam's Dot Publishing)
VIRGIN OF THE APOCALYPSE by Corrine De Winter (Sam's Dot Publishing)
ATTACK OF THE TWO-HEADED POETRY MONSTER by Mark McLaughlin and Michael McCarty (Skullvines Press)

I think I'm supposed to tag someone with this, but I'll just put it here and people can redo it or ignore it.
:)

25 Things You Might or Might Not Know About Me (and really...do you care?)

1. I always wear my watch on my right wrist.

2. I carry a rosary and holy water with me everywhere I go.

3. I won't leave the house without wearing makeup and perfume.

4. I wanted to be an archaeologist for years, and still think it would be an awesome profession.

5. I'm left-handed.

6. I can write longhand backward and it's perfectly legible when held up to a mirror.

7. I cry every every time I see the Prince put the glass slipper on Cinderella's foot in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical version of the show.

8. The first concert I ever attended was Alice Cooper in 1972.

9. The first time I saw Bob Seger in concert (1975), he was the back-up artist for Queen and nobody I knew had ever heard of him.

10. I am blood-related to Wyatt Earp and Edwin Hubble.

11. I hitch-hiked across the country when I was 16 years old.

12. My favorite mixed drink is an Amaretto Sour (with 2 cherries).

13. I'm a very good pool player and always call my shots.

14. I can't swim.

15. My eyes look brown and that's what's on my driver's license, but if you get up close, you see they are very dark, olive green.

16. I am 1/16th Native American and believe in spirit guides.

17. I was raised by an Atheist father and non-practicing Protestant mother.

18. I am terrified of looking into dark mirrors.

19. I type 96 words per minute and used to be a Secretary for the Indiana Attorney General.

20. One of my favorite movies is The Martian Chronicles (yea, I know it's hokey).

21. I almost drowned when I was five years old.

22. I have a secret vendetta against a person and have vowed to myself to make them pay for what they've done (don't worry, it's nobody here and it wasn't even me who was wronged).

23. My two oldest grandchildren both belong to my son and were born eight days apart from different mothers who knew nothing about each other. (They'll be 12 years old in June.)

24. My dream vacation is a Bering Strait cruise.

25. I sometimes have very vivid memories of things that happened thousands of years ago.

Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

"For many years she tried to locate the Negro that carried the message but she died never finding him."

I've read and responded to a number of writing blogs recently, and felt a need to post my own.

One blog discussed storytelling--writing what you like at all costs, damn the torpedoes and all that. There were many responses, and most writers seem to agree that we all *want* to be writing what's in our hearts. My response was: Writing what we don't enjoy just for a few $$ sucks major lemons, I can vouch for that. I've sat here at the keyboard writing an "assigned" story for the newspaper and just cried my eyes out. It's as unsatisfying as a baked potato with no butter, salt or sour cream. And it's the same outcome. It will fill you up, but you won't savor it. And that's what we truly want to do when we write, savor every moment, every word, every scene and character and emotion we create. So, I understand paying the bills, but I understand that's not what we're truly about, either.

I'd like to add here that it's up to the readers more than anyone else what they'd like to see on the shelves. And as most writers are also avid readers, it only makes sense that we're writing what we enjoy reading, right? Then why is it so difficult? Perhaps the publishers aren't dictated by the readers' tastes, and it's the other way around. Maybe the readers see a genre filling up the shelves, decide that must be what's good, and that's what they buy, without question or complaint. Now, I'm not saying readers are automatons or anything like that, only that they do with books the same thing they do with movies. They see the trailer and it looks good and they only realize after they've forked over the money and sat to the very end that it maybe wasn't as satisfying as they'd hoped.

I know I'm rambling, but I believe some of the best tales are born of a rambling mind. My biggest problem is I know what I *want* to write, but no matter how hard I try, it's not coming out the way I envision it. I wonder if I'm stymied by what I think will be accepted or "marketable," and that's stifling my creativity and therefore, my story.

I shouldn't blog in the wee hours. It makes me too philosophical, and I think I'm making sense when I'm probably not lol. I'm going to sleep now. See you on the flip-side. ;)