3 Easy Steps to Getting into the (Halloween) Holiday Spirit

By Kate

I want to welcome my fabulous friend Regan Hastings to the Lair today! Regan is the dark alter ego of my equally fabulous friend Maureen Child. As Regan, she writes The Awakening, a series of sexy paranormal romances, in which a coven of reincarnated witches must atone for their actions 800 years ago, when their thirst for power led them to open the gates of Hell. VISIONS OF SKYFIRE, the second book of The Awakening is available now.

And now here’s Maur – I mean, Regan Hastings…



Christmas is taking over the calendar, and I resent it. Santa Claus must have a good press agent. Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas. I just want it to stay in December, where it belongs. I’m okay with a slight encroachment into November. The Christmas season has my permission to begin the day after Thanksgiving.

But in my opinion, Halloween should have exclusive rights to October. Unless Santa is dressed in a zombie costume, I don’t want to see him.



Let’s band together and take the fat boy down! Let’s reclaim October. This month, the “holiday” in “holiday spirit” shall be Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen!

3 Easy Steps to Getting into the (Halloween) Holiday Spirit

1. Eat candy. Buy a huge bag of miniature candy bars in early October. Brand name candy bars, the ones that kids really like. You want those tiny goblins to tell their little friends to be sure to go to your house. Test one, just to be sure they’re okay, then put the bag in the freezer. Out of sight, out of mind. It won’t hurt if you sample one every now and then throughout the month, though, right? On Halloween, check your supply, realize that there are only two bite-sized candy bars remaining, and they’re unlikely to procreate. (Even if one does have nuts, and the other doesn’t.) Rush to the store to buy whatever meager pickings are available at the last minute, hoping desperately that they’re good enough to keep kids from toilet-papering your trees.




2. Decorate your yard. In October, you can always tell where the really cool people live by the number of tombstones in front of the house. Freak out your neighbors even more by putting their names on the tombstones. Add a zombie arm clawing its way out of the ground, and you’re Halloween gold, baby.




3. Read a book filled with witchy goodness. I was thrilled when I learned that VISIONS OF SKYFIRE would be released in October, because I knew that diving into the dark paranormal world of the Awakening would help put readers in the Halloween spirit. (Take that, Santa Claus!)

As VISIONS OF SKYFIRE begins, Teresa Santiago can feel that her powers are on the verge of Awakening. Since she was young, her abuela has told her that she’s destined to become one of the most powerful witches who has ever lived. If the Bureau of Witchcraft gets its way, she won’t live for long. In this modern day world, witches are hunted and killed. The instant her powers Awaken, the BOW will detect her magic… and they’ll come for her with every weapon in their arsenal.

Her only hope is that her Eternal warrior-protector will get to her first. Rune was forged from the sun to be her mate. With him by her side, she’ll find her piece of the artifact that will save an ungrateful humanity from the demons of Hell… or die trying.

Click here to read a free excerpt: VISIONS OF SKYFIRE



How do you get into the Halloween spirit? Do you decorate your house? Do you dress in costume? Do a lot of trick-or-treaters come to your house? What is your favorite kind of Halloween candy? If you’re from another country, how does your Halloween tradition differ from what we do in the U.S?

Kate here again! Another great thing about October? Well, I can't tell you. It's a secret. But it's good, and you'll love it, and... okay, I better stop now before I spill the beans. All will be revealed later this month!

Regan Hastings, Author of VISIONS OF MAGIC - Giveaway!

Although VISIONS OF MAGIC is the first book by Regan Hastings, it’s far from the author’s first book. Under another name, her contemporary romance novels number in the double digits, and she has been nominated six times for the prestigious RITA award from the Romance Writers of America. Her romance novels have appeared many times on the USA TODAY bestsellers list. She’s holding a contest for readers to guess her true identity for a chance to win a Federal Bureau of Witchcraft fleece jacket. Enter at http://www.reganhastings.com/. The contest ends February 1, the release date of VISIONS OF MAGIC, so enter immediately!



Kate: I know who Regan is, but I'm not telling! I'll give you a hint, though. She's fabulous, and I love her and her books. Welcome to the lair, Regan Hastings!

Thank you for hosting me, Kate!

Modern Day Witches

Ten years before the start of my book, VISIONS OF MAGIC, the world discovered that witches are real. Reaction was volatile and violent. Women were imprisoned without trial if they were even suspected of witchcraft. Some – including the heroine’s aunt – were burned at a stake erected on a high-tech, gas-powered grid.

The truth is, I believe that magic is real, and witches do exist. But there’s no reason for paranoia because, like humans, witches can be good or bad.

I’ll give you a few examples.

Bad witch: Martha Stewart. Magical power: Making perfectly competent women feel like failures. Not only can Martha fashion the julienned strips of a butternut squash into an amazing centerpiece, she can win the public’s admiration by going to prison.

Good witch: Pink. Magical power: Levitation. Did you see this chick at the Grammy’s last year? First of all, only a witch would feel comfortable in an outfit made of masking tape. Then she rose above the crowd, belting out a song with her powerful voice, and performing Cirque d’Soleil acrobatics all the while.

Bad witch: Lindsay Lohan. Magical power: Destroying her own career (aka, wasting her talent). I keep pulling for Lindsay. Beneath all the addictions, she’s a very talented actress, and I truly want her to get clean and move us again to some emotion other than distaste.

Good witch: Ellen DeGeneres. Magical power: Opening minds, and making even the least coordinated of us get up and dance. Who can resist her joy for life? Portia is a very lucky woman.

Bad witch: Kathy Griffin. Magical power: I don’t know, but she is just plain mean. Wicked… and not in a good way.

Want to play? Name a modern day witch and her magical power. I'll give away a copy of VISIONS OF MAGIC to a random commenter.

Kate: Thanks for visiting with us today, Regan! What a fun post! Except ... Kathy Griffin makes me laugh. Does that mean I'm a bad witch, too? Or am I just under her power?

A Haint in the House

posted by Nancy

Today's guest is a debut author and one of my buddies from Georgia Romance Writers, a past president who has sometimes been mistaken for my twin (and vice-versa). This only happens at National, not in Atlanta, where we're both known much better, so be warned if you think you see either of us in Orlando.

Although Maureen Hardegree concedes to having all the usual baggage of a middle child, she is NOT a ghost handler. She does, however, believe in connecting with her inner teenager and in feeding her active imagination—it likes Italian food and chocolate. When she’s not writing, she’s working on costumes for the Northeast Atlanta Ballet . . . or doing the bidding of her husband, daughter, and cats Pixie and Turnip Ann. Welcome, Maureen!


We love call stories in the Lair. Will you share yours?


My offer took place via e-mail! I’ve been published with BelleBooks since 2005 in their Southern Stories Collections and Mossy Creek Hometown Series, but hadn’t yet made the leap to a sale in novel-length fiction. When Bellebooks expanded to the Bell Bridge Books imprint, I noted that they were looking for YA. I believed Haint Misbehavin’, which won the Children’s/YA category of the Sandy Writing Contest as A Ghoul Just Wants to Have Fun in 2007, would be a good fit for their YA line. I changed the title because I wanted something that reflected the story better, and I knew Deb Smith liked a good pun. Besides my ghost is truly a haint (Southern for ghost), not a ghoul. I also revised it extensively, cutting it down and giving the sister relationships more subplot thanks to some suggestions from contest judges and editors.

I also felt comfortable querying editor Deb Smith about my middle grade YA in the fall of 2008 because we’d worked well together in the past. She liked the partial enough to pass it onto Deb Dixon, who asked for the full in January of 2009. I saw Deb Dixon at a Georgia Romance Writers meeting in the spring of 2009, and she told me my manuscript was toward the top of her YA to-be-read pile.

In the meantime, I’d started a different book, which I’d hoped to sell to Harlequin American. In June of 2009, I had an e-mail from Deb Smith in my inbox about Haint Misbehavin’. My heart pounded as I opened it, expecting a rejection. Having almost sold several times to other publishers with several other books, I keep my expectations low. ☺ I think my daughter can attest to the squeal of joy that forced her from her bed that morning. It was similar to a recent squeal I let out when Deb let me know also via e-mail that Bonnie Bell’s Lipsmacker Lounge was going to offer a review of Haint.


Tell us about Heather, your heroine, and her friends.

Heather, who will be a high school freshman in the fall, wants nothing more than to be perceived as normal. Since pre-school, she’s been plagued with the nickname Princess and the Pea because she’s hypersensitive and often breaks out in hives. Actually, she has two additional goals for the summer: one is to have her popular older sister like her and the other is to gain the positive attention of the hottest lifeguard on the planet—Drew Blanton. She gets along with her younger sister Claire, who’s a bit of a ditz. Her older sister Audrey finds Heather an embarrassment and doesn’t stop her popular friends from making Heather their favorite object of ridicule. Heather’s best friend is Tina Wilson, who can’t keep a secret and is a boy magnet. Tina’s popularity hasn’t rubbed off on Heather, unfortunately. During the course of this story, Heather reluctantly befriends geeky altar boy Xavier Monroe.


How does life change when you can interact with ghosts?

For Heather it means constantly having to hide her ability so that no one else knows. When ghosts are around, she’s on edge. She doesn’t want her weirdo status to expand exponentially. It means seeing or feeling entities as she goes about her regular life, which can make shopping at the mall or sunning at the neighborhood pool complicated. It also means having to put someone else’s needs before her own.


What's keeping Heather and Drew apart?

At the beginning of the book, Drew doesn’t even know who Heather is. As the story develops, what keeps them apart is her reluctance to stand up for herself and that he sees her as the funny girl sidekick, not as girlfriend material. During the course of the series, I’ve set up a love triangle. Will Heather ultimately get together with Drew or with geeky altar boy Xavier?

Here's a video peek:


Wow, how cool! Would you like to share an excerpt?

Sure! Here’s a sample:

“We’re playing. Now.” Amy sounded as miffed as Audrey does when someone leaves two Pringles at the bottom of the canister. I swear I don’t do it on purpose . . . most of the time.

The little girl balled up her fists like she wanted to hit me, and then, I swear to God, she levitated off the ground. My heart drummed in my chest.

There had to be a logical explanation for it. I must be having a sunstroke for real. I felt my forehead. My skin was sweaty, but normal, except for that tingle I feel just before I erupt in hives. I backed up to gain a little perspective. Amy followed. I don’t think heatstroke manifestations can do that.

That left me with three options. I was insane, I was still in bed sleeping, or this Amy girl was playing some kind of cruel trick on me.

She looked real; she wasn’t all filmy, so she had to be real, right?

I steeled myself and focused on her arm. Slowly, I extended my pointing finger. My skin cooled, then crawled as my fingertip touched her sleeve, which suddenly lost its substance, yet remained three-dimensional. I poked right through her like she was some hologram, but no hologram was dimensional.

Oh, my, God. I was crazy. My pulse sped so fast I could barely hear anything else. I stumbled back away from her, dropping the jar of dead beetles.

If I wasn’t insane? Then this kid who could levitate and turn translucent was magic, or she was dead.

My legs no longer worked. I was stuck, planted just like the vines that surrounded me. I tried to swallow, tried to remember how to breathe. “What are you?” I managed to croak.

“I done told you, I’m Amy.”

She levitated higher—as if I needed any more convincing of her ghostly nature at this point. Her little ankle boots rose nearly a foot off the ground. She came eye to eye with me, only her brown eyes didn’t reflect back my image.

The elastic in the waistband of my underpants started to itch, and then I felt the two metal hooks in my bra and the elastic in the bra band rub against my skin along my rib cage, like it always did when I was nervous. I started scratching the top of my head, then at the bumps rising on my neck.

The temperature of the air around me turned frosty. I rubbed my itchy arms against the chill. “I’m not sure what you are, Amy. I’m not even sure that I’m awake. For all I know, I could still be in bed, and you’re some bad dream. But just in case I’m wrong, could you please go away?”

“Nope.”

I prayed that if she was truly a ghost that she wasn’t like Geneva’s, who according to my aunt, was bent on sticking around. “Why not?”

She shrugged. “I wanna play Hide and Go Seek.”

Okay, this had to be a dream. Ghosts in movies don’t play cheesy kids’ games. They wanted to go toward the light or something like that.

“If you don’t play with me, Heather, you’ll be right sor-ry,” she sang.

That’s when one of the galvanized wires training the grape vine closest to me pinged and dropped its burden like someone had snapped it with cutters. The whole vine arm with its spurs and large leaves slumped, nearly touching the ground. It was rust, not Amy, because Amy didn’t exist, because I was in bed having a nightmare, because fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to stick me with a whiny kid ghost after years of trying to live down a nickname from preschool that wouldn’t die.

What do you do when you're not writing?

Well, I can assure you I’m not cleaning my house unless I’m stuck on a plot point or company’s coming. ☺ I spend a lot of time at my daughter’s ballet studio as a costume committee chair. While she’s in dance class every day after school for a couple hours and most Saturdays, I’m often in the company sewing room altering costumes for the next production or fitting dancers. The pre-professional Northeast Atlanta Ballet performs an average of three full productions each season, and the company owns their costumes and most set pieces. Last year we did four productions, but that’s highly unusual. During productions, we perform up to six shows in a weekend plus two school shows for students from title one schools.

I’m there at the performing arts center working in the Green Room, fixing costume issues, helping dancers into and out of tutus, making certain all costumes and their headpieces and other accoutrements are accounted for at the end of each show. Who knew learning to sew in high school would lead to this? It’s a big commitment, but I’m happy to make it for my daughter. Plus, I’m around the audience I hope books like Haint Misbehavin’ might appeal to. I hear how the girls talk to one another. I learn what music they like, what their biggest conflicts are. I’m immersed in YA culture with a bunhead slant, you could say.

What's next for you?

I’m working on Book Two in the Ghost Handler series Hainted Love, which takes place during the family vacation to Jekyll Island, Georgia. I have another short story “Sister Knows Best” included in Book Eight of the Mossy Creek Hometown series Homecoming in Mossy Creek that’s coming out in the fall. I’ve been working on a novella and have also been revising another novel that I’d like to send out soon.

As to ballet, this dance season includes The Nutcracker, Cinderella, and Little Mermaid with pieces from Anchors Away and Paquita. So I’ll probably look at some of those costumes over the summer to see what repairs can be made prior to fittings. The ballet season follows the school calendar, which means I have a lot more time during the summer to get projects finished.

Maureen is giving a book to one commenter today, so tell us: What's your favorite ghost story? If you could talk to ghosts, would that be a boon? If so, what would you ask?