Pumpkin Party

At one of our RS activities, we had a masseuse come and teach us how a back rub can relax a lot of tension.

She also gave us some tips to relieve the tension.

Hope these pics will help someone else. They are doing it for me.

Then we had some healthy and un-healthy snacks.

Cute ghouls

These little ghouls are actually laides taking bubble baths with their skin masks on.

What’s more scary than the after affects of a party when your date reveals their true self.

Bwahaha!

Pumpkin Party

We had to have pumpkins show up at a scary party. Didn’t we?

What could be better than healthy pumpkins.

Oranges with celery stalks.

Boo! Fooled ya.

Happy Halloween!

Learning a new skill. Never finished.

Fore edge painting

Well it’s about as done as I’m going to get it. All I’m doing now is adding more paint if I want to fix my mistakes.

What I learned so far:

Don’t paint your first fore edge painting on thin pages.

You can’t easily fix mistakes so plot it out better.

I can’t copy my own works worth a darn. Lol

Use the dryest brush possible with water colors or it wrinkles the paper if too wet. And let it completely dry between each addition of paint.

It is fun to do!

I enjoyed painting again.

And I’ll try it again.

The hardest part is separating All the pages when dry, both after gilding the edges and after painting.

Don’t over paint. If you use too much paint it builds up and cakes off when pulling the pages apart.

This last one really hurt my painting. I used too much paint. I tried to go back and touch up the gilding and it adhered to the water colors and blurred the painting at the end.

After touch up

For a first try I am still pleased. Need to work on perspective more as well.

Frogs!

kissing frogs

It is Spring in North Carolina and the rains have hit hard.  This much rain brings out the tree frogs and I get chirped to sleep every night.  It is a wonderful chorus unless they get in the house or too close.

One small frog decided that my stove vent makes a great megaphone for calling its mate.  And this frog seams to stay awake all day as well as at night.

I can’t figure out how to get him out of the vent.

Just think, I have my own prince just waiting to be kissed if I can get to him.

Frogs! Yuck!  I think I’ll wait.

Sondi

Marketing Roses

A Rose by any other name...

Marketing has always been an enigma to me and I still feel that way.

I had  my highest monthly sales report last month and still can’t quite figure out why.

The only thing I can attribute it to was my readers.  So I sincerely thank all of you and wish you the best.

For a monster maker, it becomes apparent that as long as you have a rose, it doesn’t matter what you call it.  A rose by any other name is still a rose.

Thank you once again dear readers.  May the wind howl at your heels and push you into the wildest ride of your life. May the monsters part at your coming and bow down to your screams.  May the bats fly free of your hair and scare those that would trample you into dust.

May rose pedals sprinkle before you in the path of your life.

Sondi

Friday the Thirteenth

Monster Valentine

I’m home from a month long tour around the states.  I have been to Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Nevada, and Utah!  In the car and on the plane.

One more to go!  Back up to Maryland and back.

I feel like a Road Monster.  Travel seems to bring out the worst in me.

BTW, All family visits!

I found a link change for marketing and wanted to post it so that others will have a chance to read some of this great material that will help them market their books.

There are several articles that help.

http://www.authorhouse.com/AuthorResources/Marketing/Plan.aspx

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Friday the Thirteenth!

I hope you have a Monster-ous day!

I dare you!

Sondi

Monster Video

New Video for the Monster Love Book.

It is now available from Amazon.com in both paper edition and on the Amazon Kindle.

Enjoy Love Monster Style.

I dare you!

Sondi

Mummy’s Valentine

Monster Valentine

 I finished another drawing for the Kindle edition of my book The Monster Love Book.  Only 20 or so more to go.

Here is a Preview of my new Monster Love Book Comming Soon for Valentine’s Day

Attack of the Love Bugs

They crawl in at night,
A terrible sight.
Teeth, claws, and hairy,
Eyes, spikes, and scary,
With kisses and hugs,
From our little love bugs.
Under, over, they scurry,
Then leave in a hurry.

Mummy’s Valentine

You touched my heart,
With finesse, no lack.
Then stole my heart,
Please give it back.
Mummy

Sondi Miller
Author of
There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch dp/B001G0N5CI
How Do You Sign an E-Book dp/B001CNG4ZY
Recipe for a Book Trailer dp/B001NXC19G
and the Monster Classics:
Mother Ghoul’s Curses and Rhymes dp/B001AA0162
The Three Little Trolls dp/B001BMQEYC
The Night Before Halloween dp/B001BOPJ2I

Paper edition
Mother Ghoul’s Curses and Rhymes dp/1440436614
The Night Before Halloween dp/1440487561

Psycho Monsters

Psycho Monsters Everywhere!

Up until now I have gladly faced the monsters that have led my imagination from thought to print. An enjoyable hobby of mine for the last couple of years has been Chasing and observing monsters. It culminated in a specialized monster behavior book that included the legends and myths of monsters from all over the world, Mother Ghoul’s Curses and Rhymes.

What could be more risky than Monster watching? I felt as though I had expanded my horizons and risked my life in authoring this book. Then I started to Market the book and realized that I face a whole new set of monsters. Leaving my comfort zone, being the Boogieman of monsters.

According to Wikipedia, one’s comfort zone refers to the set of environments and behaviors with which one is comfortable, without creating a sense of risk. A person’s personality can be described by his or her comfort zones. Highly successful persons may routinely step outside their comfort zones, to accomplish what they wish.

From an Evolving Times article about 51 ways to change your comfort zone (www.evolvingtimes.com) I read, “In order to have more money in our lives we must expand our comfort zone.”

In other words, in order to achieve any kind of success with my books I need to face the big time Psycho Monsters out in the real world.

There are more monsters?

Here I thought monsters were lovable only to find out that there are more that I haven’t faced yet.

AAACH!

I managed once this week. That’s enough for now.

There I go rationalizing my actions.

Oh, do I need to see a shrink! All this psychoanalyzing is making me see monsters everywhere I look.

No wonder I started to write about them.

Too much internal debate, I think I’ll go back to living with the monsters I know.

Do you have a pet monster?

Sondi

Monsters, Monsters, Everywhere! But not in sight.

 

Monster Valentine Heart (in Progress)

It is past bed time.   I can feel the monster under the bed just waiting to jump out.  The house is quiet as a cemetery, including all those creaks and groans!

So what, might you ask, am I still doing at the computer?

I am waiting for the monster muse to hit me upside the head, or the monster in the closet to chase the ghouls down the hallway.  Anything, at all, would be an improvement over sitting at the computer waiting for words to come out of my fingertips.

“What’s that you say?  I’m supposed to use my brain? I think the mummy in the spare bedroom ate it.”

While I am waiting for the muse to sneak in, when I least expect it, I will keep my fingers nimble and exercise them a little. Up, down, up, down. That’s right, write away you little goblins.

Never being an organized person in any way, shape or form, I have never set a schedule for writing. Plenty of times I have read instructions and suggestions from popular Authors telling me to set aside at least ten minutes a day at the same time for writing.

About the only thing regular about my schedule is the fact that I work best in the quiet.  And that is usually when the family is away, my hubby is at work, early morning before anyone else rises, or late at night when everyone else is asleep. The only ones awake tonight are me and my monsters.

The best advice I have ever received is to write! No matter what you write, sit down with paper and pencil, or computer and write. Write what ever comes in to your mind or in my case, what ever comes to my finger tips, since my mind seems to be missing.

Ooooh, there goes the Bogart. He just peeked out from behind the T.V. and ran across the floor. Ah, never mind that was a mouse.

I thought I might have something important to write about there for a minute.

Is that a ghost I hear? No, just the wind blowing through the trees.

I guess even my monsters are asleep.

I’ll try again another night.

Sleep tight,

Don’t let the monsters bite,

Try not to scream tonight,

E’en during the ghostie’s flight,

Try not to take fright,

Good Night!

Sondi

Monster Style

Monster Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is Feb 14, 2009

Are you prepared for the Romance, the Music, the Love and the Valentines?

Wait until you experience it Monster Style.

The Valentine:

Roses are red,

Blood is too,

Roses smell sweet

And so do you.

The Love:

They crawl in at night,
A terrible sight.
Teeth, claws, and hairy,
Eyes, spikes, and scary,
With kisses and hugs,
From our little love bugs.
Under, over, they scurry,
Then leave in a hurry.

The Music:

You smell just like a treat,

You make me wish for brandy.

Your life blood tastes so sweet,

You’ve eaten too much candy.

You make my meal complete,

You’ve never been so handy.

I could have dined any where that I wanted to,

I chose you,

The way you taste the way you do.

Temptation

And Last but not least the Romance:

Ten romantic dates, Monster Style

#1

As the fog settles in for a full moon evening, take a romantic stroll through the cemetery. Surprise your love with introductions to your relatives. Uncle Gus should be floating around Aunt Millie’s Tomb. Don’t trip over Mummy’s grave. For that special touch there is always dancing on the mound.

The Monster Love Book

By Sondi Miller

Coming to your nearest Kindle for Valentine’s Day