Guess what time it is...

Anderson Mancini from Sao Paulo, Brazil /
CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

 ...if you guessed that it's time for

Spook Out! 2020

then you are

CORRECT!!!

Why "Spook Out?"

Because le freak c'est chic, mes ami!

Last year I reviewed a different horror movie every day of October (more or less), and had a great time doing it. Given what 2020 has wrought, I reckoned a bit of fun was sorely needed. It's not the writing I should be doing, but nothing's ever wasted (or so I've read on inspirational tumblr posts).

I'm reviewing newer flicks, older flicks I've never seen, and keeping re-watches to a minimum. As well, I'm streaming on platforms to which I'm already subscribed so I don't have to dish out too many extra monies (Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, & Shudder). You work with whatcha got, n'est-ce pas?

So tune in tomorrow for Day 1 of

IF YOU DARE

Iiiiiiit's BAAA-AAACK!!!!!!! (Resurrection Blogfest III)

Today is the day! My third bloggiversary! AND my...

RESURRECTION

BLOGFEST

III!

YES! Today, participants in this blogfest will BRING OUT THEIR DEAD!

Posts, that it. If you require further elucidation, clicketh hither.

But if you're ready for some reanimated blog posts, read on.

To celebrate my third year of blogging (!!!), I'm resurrecting my Valentine's Day post (published on 2/10/14), in which I wax poetic about "What love is." I was going to bring back a post in which I bitched about crimes against grammar but reckoned that, as an author of romance dark and whimsical, I might be best served by accentuating that which is warm and fuzzy. But if you'd rather read a rant, thither thou goest. Anyway, hope you enjoy, and please do be sure to check out the other participants' resurrected posts (see linky list all the way down). The three qualifying bloggers who'll be selected at random to win either a $20 Amazon Gift Card OR my book and some book swag will be announced on Monday, November 10, 2014 (God willing). (If you're just learning about this blogfest, it's not too late to sign up ~ you've got till 11:59pm on November 7 to do so and follow the rules to qualify!)

And now...onto the revivified post!

*          *          *

What love is...
 

By Durdana shoshe (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

In a previous post, I bitched about how ruinous loving is. And it is.

But that's not all it is.

In my late 30s, I began to draw parallels between romantic and paternal love. Not in an Oedipus/Electra kinda way, 'cause that's gross. The love my parents (who are not perfect people) show me and my sis, and even more, the love I feel for my son, is straightforward and manifests in obvious ways:

1. Love looks out for you, as regards basic needs and comforts (food, rest, shelter, chocolate*).
2. Love needs to see you well and happy.
3. Love wants you to feel better ASAFP when you're not well, whether it's from physical, mental, or emotional trauma.
4. Love shares with you, without conditions or expectations.
5. Love laughs with you.
6. Love does for you.
7. Love accepts the feelings of anger, disappointment, and sadness you engender, but will always want to hold you close again (eventually; but the wait shouldn't be too long).
8. Love waits for you to get your head out of your ass and apologize for whatever heinous fuckery you've perpetrated.
9. Love understands that you may never apologize and forgives you anyway.
10. Love may hurt you, but it'll want to fix that hurt, too, even when it doesn't understand WTF your problem is (see #2).
11. Love wants to touch you (to the degrees appropriate to your relationship).
12. Love wants you to want its touch (see parenthetical statement in #11).
13. Love recognizes and respects that you are your own person.

But the critical factor of real Love: You don't have to work for it, you don't have to earn it; it's just always there for you. Always.

Now, in my early 40s, I feel that's what I should expect, when it comes to romantic love: obvious demonstrations of love that don't demand anything extraordinary of me, and a well of that same feeling within me for the other person, one that never runs dry.

And lots of exhausting, mind-annihilating, earth-shaking, God-revealing sex. Of course.

Maybe romantic love won't happen for me.

But I believe it happens.

Wishing you all Love, now and forever.

*chocolate is totally a basic need.

*          *          *

Resurrection Blogfest III Participants!

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Resurrection Blogfest, the Third

So, like, as of November 7, 2014, I'll have been blogging for three years. That's some shit, huh? (Be a sport and pretend it is.)

Brace yourselves—it's time for...

RESURRECTION

BLOGFEST

III!

For this blogfest, participants will resurrect a blog post that they initially published between November 8, 2013 and November 6, 2014 (or, since my second Resurrection Blogfest, whether they participated or not) which they believe merits one more glance before it gives up the ghost for good. In addition to this being the easiest friggin' blogfest around...

...there will be PRIZES!!!

Here's the dealio, yo:

1. Sign up by entering your blog's name and URL on the linky-list, below. The linky-list will close after 11:59pm EST* on Friday, November 7, 2014.
2. Upload the blogfest badge in this post to the sidebar of your blog and link it back to this announcement post, to help spread the word. (It's not a "button" and there isn't a code for it; you'll have to download the image, upload to your blog's sidebar, and manually link it back to this post.)
3. Follow me on the Twitter (@GothMomLite) and re-tweet anything with this tag: #ResurrectionBlogfestIII. (Folks without Twitter accounts are welcome to participate, but must promote the blogfest on some other social media platform.)
4. On November 7, your blog post must feature the blogfest badge as well as your resurrected blog post. Be sure to include the date on which it was originally posted. (Do give the title of the original blog post but please do not make readers have to click back to the original post—copy/paste it into your November 7, 2014 post.)
5. I'll review all entries to make sure they fit the above criteria. Failure to have the badge on your sidebar, in your post, the resurrected post, and/or the date and title of the original post will disqualify you from the drawing (see #6 below).
6. Three qualifying participants (see #5 above) will be selected at random to win EITHER A) a $20 Amazon gift card OR B) a print copy of my book and some book swag (see image below). The three winners can take their pick of either prize A or B (and I won't be hurt if you opt for A). (Probably.)
7. Winners should be announced on or around Monday, November 10. (God willing.)

Prize Option B: Book and Swag!

Participants should know that:

• *All days/times are based on EST. 
• Subject matter is up to participants but whatever the topic, the post must have originally appeared on your blog on/since November 8, 2013 up to/including November 6, 2014.
• It's OK to sign up if you've just started blogging and have only a few posts in your bloggy repertoire.
• It's also OK for participants to enter more than one blog, however, in the spirit of Highlander—THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE prize per participant.
• Participants whose Resurrection Blogfest III posts are not up by 11:59pm EST on Nov. 7 will be removed from the linky-list.
• Topics/blogs with adult themes should have the appropriate preliminary warning before any participants or readers see your blog/post. Any participants' links that take the clicker to adult subject matter without warning will be removed at my discretion. And don't give me any crap about not knowing what I mean by "adult themes," 'cause you totally do.
• Participants are expected to read and comment on other participants' entries beginning November 7 and on through that weekend (based on previous years' sign-ups, this should not be an unmanageable number of blog posts to read through/comment on over the course of three days).
• Winners who opt for the $20 Amazon Gift Card will receive it via e-mail; those who choose the book/swag package will have to provide me with a mailing address (I'm happy to ship the book and swag-s-swag anywhere mail can be delivered).

Dudes, you don't have to come up with any new content for this blogfest, so whatareya waiting for? Sign up and Tweet the hell out of this blogfest already, gosh.

(Whether you choose to participate or not, please help me get the word out by sharing this post on the social media platform of your choice. You can do this easily by clicking one of the icons just above this post's tag: "Posted by Mina Lobo at 2:00 AM." THANKS!)

The image used for the Resurrection Blogfest III badge was taken from a pic snapped pour moi.

Remember to enter your blog's name on the linky list below!

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July Fever is nearly here!

1 blog + 31 authors = 31 Days of Hotness

Sofia Grey is hosting July Fever (in which I am participating), with giveaways every day during July, AND weekly prize bundles too.

Look who’s featured for the first 6 days:

1-Jul    ALLYSON LINDT: $20 Amazon GC, Holding Her Close & Toeing The Line (ARC)

2-Jul    JENNAH SCOTT: Scrap Metal e-book & swag

3-Jul    ZOE YORK: 4 copies of What Once Was Perfect e-book

4-Jul    LAURA KAYE: Copy of South of Surrender

5-Jul    MINA KHAN: a signed paperback copy of A Tale of Two Djinns, a book tote, & some swag

6-Jul    LISSA MATTHEWS: an e-book from my backlist

Everyone who comments goes into a draw for the giveaway that day, AND also a draw for the 6-day gift bundle:

Remember, the more you visit, the more you might win! 

Check out this video for all the participating authors (of which I am one)!

Lunar Lovin' Hop! (A Blogfest, Yo!)

So, like, this one night (about a year ago, 'cause it totally took place in January), my dad was driving me and the Kid home from somewhere and I looked up at the sky and became entranced. La lune was big, luminous, and full, and more beautiful than I remembered ever seeing her. I was so stunned I remarked on it aloud.

My Dad checked the moon out and said, "In Portugal, we have a saying:

Não há amor como o primeiro,
nem luar como o de Janeiro.
Mas lá vem o de Agosto,
que lhe dá no rosto."

The best idiomatic English translation for this I can think of is:

There's no love like the first,
nor full moon (or moonlight) like that of January.
But later comes the one in August,
Which smacks January's right in the kisser.

That's kinda romantic, right? No? Gosh, picky, picky...

So I was thinking (unlikely though that seems): how about we put this old saying to the test? Here's what I propose:

1. Sign up on the linky list below (where it asks for "Your name" please enter your blog's name).
2. Use this badge on your blog's sidebar and Tweet or whatever to spread the word about the hop. If you don't use The Twitter, don't sweat it; join in anyway!
3. On Sunday, January 27, 2013, snap a pic of the full moon.*
4. Post that sucker up on your blog on Monday, January 28.
5. Go check other folks' pics!

C'mon, this is easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, folks!

Are ya with me?????

*One of the comments below references the possibility of poor lunar visibility. If that's the case wherever you are in the world, just take a picture of the night sky and post that instead.

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A Blogfest, A Challenge, & A Tune

The Blogfest

Y'all, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and check out this groovalicious blogfest hosted by the creative and prolific L.G. Keltner at Writing Off the Edge. January 9 will be her one year blogiversary and to celebrate she invites fellow bloggers to post about stuff like (and I quote):

• events that inspired you to start blogging
• that first awkward blog entry where you tried to introduce yourself to the blogging world
• what inspired you to embark on your career path
• where you were born and what the times were like
• the origins of a favorite book, movie, artistic movement, or pretty much anything else

You've got seven days to whip something up and can either swipe the above badge or the one I've got on my sidebar, over to the right, there. So click here to sign up for it, already! (At the very least, you should go check out her nifty new banner, gosh.)

The Challenge

Like, I totally signed up for Goodreads' 2013 Reading Challenge. What attracted me about it was that I could set my own goal of how many books I want to read this year, regardless of genre (some of these book challenges get very specific, which is fine, only I need the freedom to fly my freak flag in whatever bloody direction I like, at any given moment). (So to speak.) According to Goodreads, I read about twenty-ish books last year so I thought I'd see if I could swing 50 this year (about a book a week, giving myself a couple weeks' leeway, 'cause I'm kind to myself like that). Click here if you'd like to learn more about how to participate in this Challenge yourself. Or not, whatevs.

The Tune

I'm shocked, chagrined, and otherwise appalled that the first time I heard this righteous, "unofficial cover" of Berlin's Sex (I'm a...) was only just last week, especially when the Bollock Brothers recorded that shizz back in 1988. It's an "unofficial cover" 'cause they changed the title of the tune to God Created Woman, which was pretty crafty of them...wonder if they'd be able to get away with that nowadays. Anyway, I've always thought the original Berlin version to be smokin' hot, but there's something about this cover that really turns me on. It probably won't do a damned thing for most of you, but what the hell—it's my blog and I'll link the hell out of it, if I wants to.

A Blogfest Is Announced!

Resurrection Blogfest Badge #1

I'm coming up on my first anniversary of blogging on November 7, y'all! W00000T! To celebrate, I'm hosting my first, to-be-annual (if we all survive my birthday this year), blog par-tay and I'm calling it my:

RESURRECTION BLOGFEST!

In this first year of bloggery, before I'd connected with other bloggers and attracted regular readers, I posted stuff which never got the attention I felt it deserved. I was sure I couldn't be the only blogger who felt that way. Only, you might feel kinda bad about just trotting out an old post, fearing accusations of laziness (if you're neurotic, or, in fact, lazy). (Like I am.) So I thought I'd just host a blogfest so I could resurrect a piece from my first year of blogging. (Yeah, I know there's Linked Within, but there's no certainty folks'll click on your older stuff to check it out, now is there?)

Fellow bloggers, you're all invited to join in the fun! (PLUS there will be PRIZES!!!)

Resurrection Blogfest Badge #2

Here be the rules and procedures for me RESURRECTION BLOGFEST!:

1. Sign up by entering your name and/or blog's name and URL on the linky-list, below. The linky-list will close after 11:59pm EST* on Wednesday, Nov. 7.
2. Upload one of the three blogfest badges in this post to the sidebar of your blog and link it back to this announcement post, to encourage participation.
3. Follow me on the Twitter (@GothMomLite) and re-tweet anything with this tag: #ResurrectionBlogfest. (Folks without Twitter accounts are still totally welcome to participate.)
4. On November 7, 2012, your blog post should prominently feature the blogfest badge as well as something from your first year of blogging that you believe deserves some TLC, or that you're especially proud of and wish to showcase, or simply has sentimental value for you.
5. I'll review all entries through to the weekend and by noon on Monday, November 12 and will post a list of seven semi-finalists (based solely on my own preferences and tastes, such as they are) ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10.
6. Fellow participants and readers alike will be invited to vote from among the seven semi-finalists, up until 11:59pm EST* on Wednesday, Nov. 14 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12.
7. By high noon on Thursday, November 15 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, I will announce the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners. I reserve the right to break any ties by flipping a coin, or reading chickens entrails strewn about the backyard, or maybe picking petals off a gerbera daisy till it's nekkid.
8. Yes, I'm totally serious about all the rules. No, I'm not serious about the entrails. Gross.

Resurrection Blogfest Badge #3

Participants should know that:

• *All days/times are based on EST. 
• Subject matter is up to participants but whatever the topic, the post must have originally appeared on your blog in your first year of blogging!
• It's OK to sign up if you're still in your first year of blogging and want to use something from the past few months.
• It's also OK for participants to sign up more than one blog, however, in the spirit of Highlander—THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE prize per participant.
• Participants whose Resurrection posts are not up by 11:59pm EST on Nov. 7 will be removed from the linky-list.
• Topics/blogs with adult themes should have the appropriate preliminary warning before any participants or readers see your blog/post. Any participants' links who take the clicker to adult subject matter without warning will be removed at my discretion. And don't give me any crap about not knowing what I mean by "adult themes," 'cause you totally do.
• 1st Prize = $20 Amazon Gift Card; 2nd prize = $15 Amazon Gift Card; 3rd Prize = $10 Amazon Gift Card, to be sent to the respective winners via e-mail.

OK, y'all; this has to be one of the easiest blogfests going, seeing as I'm not making you come up with any new content for it. Sign up and spread the word, already, sheesh. ;-)

(Whether you choose to participate or not, please help me spread the news of this blogfest by sharing this post on the social media of your choice. You can do this easily by clicking one of the little icons underneath this post's tag: "Posted by Mina Lobo at 12:00 AM." THANKS!)

The image used for the Resurrection Blogfest badge was taken from a pic snapped by my Sis, with her kind permission.

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