We're Getting with the Times

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted in a REALLY long time.

Full disclosure, I'm in the process of updating, refining, and eventually moving this blog into the real deal.  What I'm saying is, I'm starting two websites:

The first is a traveling and photography website.  The domain is already up (wafflesabroad.com), but the website itself is still being put together and refined.  This website will consist of adventures, photography, advice, and whole heaps of culture.

The second is an author website.  I'm still playing with names...possibly something like idiosyncratic scribblings or intrepid authorings.  This website will host all novel and book news, updates on series, poems, and other fun writings.  It will also play host to a section with advice and reassurance for new writers, because writing is hard.  I haven't bought the domain yet, but once I do, I'll be sure to post here the official name and web address.

That all being said, I'm also hard at work on the last Sightless novel.  I just wrote a scene that I may have cried in.  No spoilers, but here's a quick teaser:

“Grace, please!”  Holly screamed, every ounce of terrified love shrill in her voice.

That same terrified love reflected in Grace’s face, frozen in her eyes, as she lifted the necklace and brought it crashing down, smashing it against the rocks.

Heart pounding, Holly’s eyes jerked back to watch.  The vampire’s form fell away, the carcass turning to dust, and leaving behind only a pale wretched creature.  It was the ghoul that had cursed the body for so long.  The knife was still clutched in the creature’s spindly hand.  

An agonized cry started to rip from Holly’s throat, as the knife descended towards Connor’s chest.

Halloween Reads

A few years ago my sisters and I started reading a scary or horror book around Halloween.  It was sort of an unofficial book club.  Last year, we missed out picking a book, and this year I went a little overboard in my personal attempt to find scary books to read.

The list this years includes (from left along the top, to the bottom):

• Obscura by Joe Hart
• Thriller, suspense, and science fiction all in one novel!  Dr. Gillian Ryan travels to a visit a NASA team in space that has been stricken by an inexplicable psychosis similar to dementia.  Her journey turns into a nightmare of violent and unexplainable events, that lead to her not only questioning the sanity of her fellow crew mates, but also herself.
• Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger
• A mystery thriller that takes place in the Hollows, New York.  Tagline: "Only one thing is clear: The Hollows gets what it wants, no matter what."  Cue dramatic music.
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• A classic children's novel that I somehow missed reading as a child.  It's never too late to play catch up, right?  This book is about witches who hate children and turn them into mice...sort of like a Grimm's Fairy Tale gone wrong.
• Fear the Drowning Deep by Sarah Glenn Marsh
• A Youth Fiction book that follows sixteen year old Bridey Corkill.  She lives on a small island and something sinister lurks deep in the sea...oh, and also there's a handsome stranger who shows up.  This has the makings of Loch Ness Monster turned human and may have too much romance to be scary.  I'll let you know after I finish reading it.
• The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
• Adult Mystery: mysterious deaths?  Unexpected inheritances?  A tarot card reader as a main character?  Yes, please.  
• A Midsummer Night's Scream by R.L. Stine
• This book looks so interesting...not only is a play on Shakespeare, but the main characters themselves are actors.  I can only assume that means there will be lots of lying and duplicitous deeds.  And it's R.L. Stine, so we know it will be creepy.
• The first two in "The Bailey School Kids" series by Debbie Dadey and Marcia T. Jones
• Okay, these were just for a fun callback to my childhood.  I think we owned about 20 of these books and they were really fun to read, especially around Halloween.

Of course, I also bought a few on Kindle to read, too, as if these weren't enough:

• Maggie by Mya O'Malley
• Naomi moves into a house that borders a graveyard...not everyone in that graveyard rests.  She makes it her personal mission to help one spirit by the name of Maggie to find rest, only to discover that some secrets are closer to home than she's comfortable with.
• The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates
• Being bequeathed an ancient house doesn't mean that Adrienne believes in ghost.  Of course, not believing doesn't mean that something evil and twisted doesn't live in that old house.  
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• Monsieur Hercule Poirot comes out of retirement to investigate the death of one of his friends.  This is one of my sister's favorite Agatha Christie's, so it was an easy inclusion.
• Pride and Prometheus by John Kessel
• Just like the title sounds, this is a mash of Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein.  It follows the story of Elizabeth's sister, Mary, who becomes friends with Victor Frankenstein and possible also friends with the creature?  Unclear on that element.  Either way, I'm intrigued as these are two books that I love on their own.

The Mountain Behind Us

There's this mountain that sits behind me

And the first snow embraces the grass

The rivers and streams hurry onward
While I stand still beside

Amidst an upward climb, 
droplets of life, hidden below

While others had fallen, a spot of color amidst the road.

Is that all we can ask for along our journey?

Some pass in pairs

Others pass alone

Once finished, never finished, there's a road ahead.

I guess brief moments, from specific angles, 

are gifts from above.

Evermore

The Gate is Open at Evermore

So, Evermore Park.  You know the one.  That park that people in Utah have been seeing and hearing about on the outskirts of nerdom and yet no one really knows what it is?  Yes, that one.  It's finally open!  And I have officially been.  Okay, I only went to the soft opening, but it was enough of a teaser, that I am legitimately curious and I plan on going back.  

A couple things I wish I had known and that all guests should know:

1) You don't have to dress up - buuuuut, if you do dress up, you'll finally get to wear those awesome earrings that you've been holding onto because they're too wild to wear to work.  And it just makes the experience feel more fun.  Not that I really dressed up...unless you count Viking hair and make-up. #VikingHeritage

2) You don't have to be in character - thank heavens, because even though I attempted to dress up (and I mean this loosely...I did my hair and make-up and wore a poncho hoodie), I do not have a fantasy character on retainer in my repertoire.  

3) You do have to assume the characters/actors are actually residents of Evermore - while I appreciate that I didn't have to talk in an accent all night (that would have been disastrous), you do have to talk to the workers like they are actually their characters.  The workers are really good at not breaking character, even when visitors get a little snarky (I'm looking at myself here...I'm not good at this LARPing thing, okay?).  But I actually know one of the girls who works there and I got all excited and went to talk to her...she shut me down fast and totally stayed in character the whole time, which was impressive.

4) My key phrases for navigating Evermore - Asking the characters who they are is always an easy ice breaker.  Make some small talk with, "How are you doing?"  "What do you think of what's going on here?"  And basically just try to get them to tell you their little snippet of backstory.  Then go in for the key phrase that saved me a lot of bumbling, "I'm so sorry it's been so hard.  Can I do anything to help?"  And bam.  You've got your quest.

5) It's really fun to wander, but know that you might be walking into the middle of a quest - Evermore is a beautiful park with great scenery and by golly, there were several times we'd be walking and I'd see something and we'd have to deviate.  This might be because I'm impatient and curious all wrapped into one.  The point is, it's okay to do that, no one is going to get mad or anything, but chances are you'll be doubling back later when you realize that there's actually a specific quest to go talk to the vampires in the catacombs and you missed that quest earlier because you decided that walking into a creepy building seemed like a good idea.

6) Hit up the archery fast - that place gets a line fast, probably because its the easiest thing to navigate.  Oh, and it's just fun.  Time it right, though, and you can shoot several times and even get pointers from the Ranger who runs it.

7) Try to remember the names - maybe write them in your phone?  Morgan and I were taking lots of videos, so we could go back and reference them when we needed to.  However, I did make the mistake of calling Sloan the Satyr by the wrong name (can we all agree that Faldo the Faun has a better ring to it, though?  I knew it had alliteration, I just went with the wrong term...), and boy, he seemed irate about it.  Also, people you meet will reference people you've already met or people you should meet, so it gets confusing if you don't take a moment to refresh on names occasionally.

8) Smile and laugh - seriously, you're going to attempt to get in character and say something ridiculous, like, "His blood probably does taste weird because he's been drinking some weird stuff."  Just go with it.  You'll have fun if you just laugh.  Don't worry too much about doing every little quest, just do what seems fun to you.  I saw some people have been complaining about how expensive it is (we paid the early bird pricing of $29 a ticket), but for the experience, that's actually pretty cheap.  I mean, a lot of haunted houses are that expensive.  Goodness knows, there are plenty of theme and amusements parks that far MORE expensive.  So let go, laugh, and go back.  I know I plan to.

Best Lines of the Night

"Why did you give me earrings that attack me?"

"She has Viking heritage.  That's why her hair's so awesome."

Morgan: "She has good ears on her." 
Me: "Can you even see her ears?"

"That dead guy wants to dance with you."

Because FALL

The leaves are starting to change up in the mountains and I'm LOVING it.

That is all.

Timpanogos Cave

“We are not meant to spend the rest of our lives underground. 

We need to go home and tell a strange story 

that no one will believe.” 

― Courtney M. Privett, Cavelost

Mount Timpanogos, or Timp, is the second highest mountain in Utah's Wasatch Range.  To get to the top is a grueling hike that takes massive amounts of energy and will-power.  Luckily, we didn't go to the top.  To reach the famous-to-those-who-know-about-it cave on Timp, you only have to hike 1.5 miles up and the trail is paved with lots of rest points.

To get a tour inside the cave:

First, it's apparently popular and even when I was looking for tickets three weeks in advance, most the tour times only had a couple slots available.  Soooo, get your tickets in advance.If you decide last minute that you need an adventure, get up to the visitor's center as EARLY as possible and you might be able to get 1 or 2 people into a tour.  

The rangers give you one and a half hours to hike the trail.  The average person shouldn't need that long.  We stopped more times then necessary just to enjoy views and we still made it within an hour.  However, as you can see from the next picture, while its a nice, paved trail, it is a constant incline, so for people who struggle with uphill, it could become difficult.  Or for children.  If you have children, you can take a lot of rest breaks thanks to having a whole hour and a half to hike.

The good news for those quick and slow hikers is the rangers are pretty good about asking for people from other groups if there are extra slots available in the cave tour times.  So whether you're early or late, they'll try and get you in as soon as possible..  Our tour time was 11:30, but we were up there by about 10:50 and the ranger let us in the 11:00 time.  This was pretty lucky because they go in order, so they'd asked for anyone from the 11:15 tour and then for people from our 11:30 time.

The inside of Timp Cave is pretty awesome.  Yes, it sucks that you can't go off the path and YES, it was very difficult for me to not touch anything.  Buuut, I get it.  It's an incredible monument and we need to protect it.  There are stalactites and stalagmites and even helictites, which are like distorted stalactites that look like little branches or twigs.  There's also some areas where there's cool coloring because of minerals and there's some places inside where there are pools of water.

Overall, I'd say it was perfect inspiration, especially for the underground scenes I'm working on for my novel.  If you're a novelist or anyone who needs a boost to your imagination, or even if you just like to be inspired by the world around you, this is a must stop.

Renaissance Fair Part 2

Everyone who knows me probably knows that I love a good Renaissance Fair.  This year was fabulous, complete with jousting, fire performance, armored combat, and homemade cream soda.  But the overall highlight had to be the ax and knife throwing place.  

Turns out, I'm awesome at ax throwing (which was very invigorating), but knife throwing is a bit harder.  My friend may have hit the target more than me when it came to the knives.  So, I immediately insisted we wait in line so I could reclaim my title.

What can I say? I'm not competitive at all when it comes to medieval weapons.

Also, my favorite overheard lines are from when we went to use the restroom, which had about ten stalls in it.

Mom: "Are you in the bathroom?"

Daughter (who's pretty young): "Yes."

Mom: "Do you need help?"

Daughter: "Yes."

Mom: "Where are you?"

Daughter: "In the bathroom."

Me, dying of laughter, internally thinks: Aren't we all...aren't we all...