Win a Date With Chris Baker! (And Rev, and Johnny Thunder, and the Rest of the Scream Team..).

Some of you may have heard by now that there's a slim possibility that Hauntcast may be coming back.


Talented Scary Lady Terra made a suggestion that a bunch of folks get together and pitch in to bring back the show. No, none of The Scream Team have engineered this behind the scenes; this is an entirely fan-based---um, movement? I guess you could call it that. :o)


Chris called me yesterday, told me he spoke to Rev and JT, and that they and our New Jersey Devil, Grimlock, are all on board to come back, and that he's going to contact Ed Gannon and see if he's interested in coming back, too. Due purely to our personal economics, we all let Chris know we need to actually get paid this time. (I think Grimlock asked for his own trailer, and a jar full of brown M&Ms, too, but that could just be a rumor.)


Terra suggested a goal of 250 subscribers at $100 each, which breaks down to $8 a month, less than the cost of a West Coast movie ticket on a Friday night. The cutoff date is March 8th, at which point the show will either go forward, or stay dead and all the money will be refunded to whomever donated. Head over to the Hauntcast blog to get the particulars or go to the Hauntcast Minions Facebook page to stay up-to-date.


Again, this was instituted by some of our hard-core and loyal fans, so it's the fans who will decide whether the show is coming back. If you want it back, please blog and post about it wherever you hang out in Cyberland. We already have our first subscription (thanks to Chris G.!), and I've received a nice note from JustJimAZ, which I'll share here:

I hope your current campaign to get 250 subscribers by March 8 is a success. 
I have posted links on Facebook and AZ Haunters and some of the forums too.
My subscription $ will be coming this weekend when I get paid, and I'll hit up everyone at our Make&Take in a couple of weeks too.

Some of us never extinguished the ghost light.

Best of luck!

Regardless of whether the show is resurrected or not, I'd like to thank all who have supported us in the past. You guys rock!

Season of Shadows Update

It was great to get this update from Goldie, John Wolfe's friend and watcher of his blog. I've been dealing with some pretty doggone petty bullshit from some quarters of my life and boy, does this man put everything in perspective! I feel very honored that I've helped to make a small-very small-difference in this man's life at what is most definitely a stress-filled time. John Wolfe is, and will continue to be an inspiration to me, and I hope, to the Hallowe'en community. So without further adieu, the update:

Hi Everyone,


John has been feeling very relaxed naturally and he truly is wrapping up his affairs, of which are just about complete.  At times he feels well enough to have the laptop near him so he can get online.  He has received everyone's emails privately and is overwhelmed by the response.  In addition, he also received the booklet I made for him of all of your messages to him privately threw me.  He is absolutely speechless.  He's actually truly shocked that so many people care that much about him.  (Again an OCD thing for John which has plagued him all of his life.)


He wanted me to make certain to let you all know how much this has moved him.  So much so that he's unable to read everyone's letters and emails because the emotions overwhelm him and he has to come back into a strong place to finish them.  He also wanted me to tell you all how much your friendship has meant to him over the last few years.  He's made some of his best top friends from the Halloween Family and all of your letters proved to him how much so.  He thanks you all for caring so much, for all of your prayers and best wishes....he can feel them and believes that's part of what's helping to keep him strong.  He also wants each of you to know how much he considers YOU the teacher for him.  It's because of everyone support and positive energy that he was so passionately inspired to create as he did.  You all were/are a huge part of John's life and he thanks you all in that it was in the last 5 years of his life.  He loves all of you very much, he misses everyone badly but he's tremendously enjoyed the ride with us all.


He's down to 115 pounds now. He's so dehydrated that his eyes are giving him problems because they all don't have enough liquid in them to maintain proper function.  He's officially no longer eating anything and only has 1/2 of cup of cranberry juice.  At this point he's "willing" his body to stay here so he can wrap up business on a few levels.  His last birthday is coming up on March 19th and he wants to see it through.  Then with his uncle's passing 3 years ago on March 21st, he wants to avoid that date as well.  After such time he feels he'll go rather quickly.  Knowing John as I do, I feel confident he's intuitively feeling this and I can feel it from him.


John absolutely adores all of the letters and comments and video mentions there have been of him.  He was surprised by the response but it's finally starting to set into him just how special he is to all of us and to our planet Earth.  He thanks you a million times over and it brings him to tears everytime he sees them all.  I thank you as well both for John and for myself.  Many of you have been great supporters of me and I thank you kindly from my heart.  SeasonofShadows has always been my addiction while awake and clearly we have the best Halloween family and friends out there!!!  Thank you everyone and I will keep you all posted of any changes.


All My Best, Cynthia

Once again, John, thank you John,  for who you are and have been to those of us whose lives have been touched by you one way or another.


If you are one of those who has read his blog and has not yet said goodbye and thank you to John and has wanted to, please don't wait any longer, as his time is very, very short. Go to this post to get Goldie's contact info.


Have an easy transition, my friend. See you on the other side!

Treasured!

Image by Fair Shadow, via KMK Designs, LLC

Since I've been unable to do much of anything because I'm still battling this stupid virus, I've been trying to entertain myself by window-shopping. To that end, I've put together a bunch of treasury lists on Etsy. I thought I'd share them with you. Just click on the title to be taken to that treasury. None of them feature my work, just other works that caught my eye. I LOVE the photography!


And the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth


The Geek Goes On


Gothic Valentine


Gimme RED!


Feel free to "admire" or comment, Tweet or Favorite any of them, or just enjoy them!

Note From Season of Shadows

Hello everyone, just a quick update while it's still online; John was well enough today to post some thoughts of his on the SeasonofShadows chat box. Please hop on over to SoS and read his comments before the chat box erases what he's said. He deeply appreciates everyone's love, thoughts, prayers and good intentions and he's at peace with his coming transition. Thank you everyone for your very loving letters to John as he's most overwhelmed by the kindess of our Halloween family. Thank you to everyone :-)

Unfortunately, it looks like the chat box has already erased what was said, but I was glad to hear that John felt well enough to be on his computer for a little bit. Please keep him and his loved ones in your thoughts.

News From the Nest - Operation Baking GALS and Haunted Air

A friend of mine has a nifty blog over at Kimberly Michelle daht calm. A little while ago, she posted about Operation Baking GALS, a group of ladies who bake cookies and brownies, etc. to send to troops in a war zone. (It's a little bit of home in a box, and lets them know they're not forgotten.) She later received a letter from the folks to whom she sent her baked yummies, and I thought, "How cool." I believe in supporting our troops, and what a great way to show support!


I looked into how to join up, and found out that joining Operation Baking GALS is pretty simple. I filled out the application form, and within a week or so, I was approved.


I have a bunch of girlfriends in the neighborhood I thought might be interested, so I forwarded the information to them and already have several interested in joining up. Since it's only a once a month commitment, most of us can reserve a block of time to bake some goodies for the troops. We may even start our own team!


I'll be putting the image and link on my sidebar for any of you who may want to join. Heck, getting a haunters group together for the troops wouldn't be a bad idea, either!

In other news, I was one of those poor people who missed out on the first printing of Ossian Brown's new book, "Haunted Air, which is a collection of vintage photos of people in Halloween costumes of their day." 


There were a bunch of people who bought copies, jacked up the price, and started to sell them on eBay and wherever else they could, but I wasn't willing to shell out the inflated fee, even for a first edition copy. Considering the popularity of the book, I thought I'd stick with Amazon and take a gamble that there would be another printing soon. I put in my order; Amazon always notifies you as to when your product may ship or if there are any changes to your order. Well-hooray for me!-I got notice that they expect to start shipping this fine book again sometime in mid-March! I can't wait!


Oh, and I've just added an Amazon widget to the side bar, (mostly) filled with Hallowe'en goodies for you! There are some movies, books, and music you may enjoy, many of which I've posted about in the past. I'll add to it from time to time, so check it every so often. Be sure to look for the little doohickey that lets you turn pages, 'cause I've added a bunch of things!


O.k., back to my plan for world domination!

Mourners

Image via Squidoo

Via The Cemetery Traveler Blog

Image by bricunin

Image by Xavier de Jaureguiberry

Really gives me some great ideas for the coming Season. I need to go back to my Chicago Graveyard post, part 1 and Chicago Graveyard part 2 for more. We're heading to Chicago in June, so look for more cool shots then!

Blank Canvas

Image via Nics Pics on Fotothing.


Lovin' the old stone walls and beautiful windows.