Hop into this fun jewelry for Halloween!

Welcome to the October Blog Hop, where you can visit new blogs, enter to win prizes, and have a great time!

At the bottom of this post, you'll see a list of participating blogs. Just click on each link, check out the prize, and follow the easy instructions to enter. You can enter on each blog, so it's possible to win multiple times. It's frighteningly easy.

On this blog, you can win a piece of fun jewelry! This mysterious ghoul green and ghost white shell necklace.

You can change jewelry to fit your mood more easily than changing into a Halloween costume!

To enter, all you need to do is:

1. Become a follower of my blog.

2. Leave a comment on this post and tell me why you'd like to win this prize. If your e-mail address isn't visible through your Blogger profile, please also leave it with the comment so I can notify you if you win. You can enter until midnight MST on Saturday night, October 15th.

That's it! You are now entered. Now please go visit all my friends on the list below. It's almost like trick or treating!
October Blog Hop Participants

1. Tristi Pinkston 2. I Am a Reader, Not a Writer 3. Bonnie Harris 4. Michael D. Young 5. Misty Moncur 6. Debbie Davis 7. Mandi Tucker Slack 8. Mary Ann Dennis 9. Deanna Henderson 10. Laura Bastian 11. Kristy Tate

12. Kristy Wilson 13. Jennifer Debenham 14. Jenny Moore 15. Elizabeth Hughes 16. J. Lloyd Morgan 17. Close Encounters with the Night Kind 18. Billy Boulden 19. Scott Bryan 20. Maria Hoagland 21. Shirley Bahlmann 22. Shelly Brown

23. Marcy Howes 24. Lynnea Mortensen 25. Jaclyn M. Hawkes 26. Diane Stringam Tolley 27. Gail Zuniga 28. Betsy Love 29. iWriteNetwork 30. Canda's InkBlast 31. Stacy Coles

Learn more about October Blog Hop here.
View More October Blog Hop Participants
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Drive By Tuning

I was headed to the Literacy Fair to help my talented sister Loraine paint faces (see face paint blog below) when I noticed the back window on a car lettered with "PIANO TUNER." That is a rare breed in Ephraim, let me tell you, so I flipped a U-ey and screeched to a halt next to the startled man and his equally startled wife. With scarcely a fearful glance at one another to reassure themselves that they could watch each other's backs and safely deal with this crazy lady, they followed me home. (Aw, please, can I KEEP them?) My off-key piano was finally tuned, and we all lived happily ever after. What have you wished you'd done when the opportunity flashed past your eyes (or your car)? Did you do it? Why or why not?

Old...Uh...Well Seasoned Friends!

This is me and one of my best and oldest...uh...I mean most seasoned friends, Anita Young Wight! Ever since my six foot self moved to Utah from New Jersey in 1970, petite and pretty Anita has looked up to me. I admire her equally, impressed that she won our high school's English Sterling Scholar award. Since we are both exclusive mothers of sons, I had the joy of going to her son's reception in August, which resulted in this amazing uncropped photo of us. (I still expect her to have waist long hair, but otherwise, she looks the same!)
I love reconnecting with former friends and gathering in new ones. The variety of people is a never-ending source of delightful inspiration!
When was the last time you saw an old friend?

Does this look like a furnace to you?

Wow, look at that traction! In spite of a crunched hood, it's climbing a mighty steep grade! (Yes, someday I will learn how to rotate photos, or else take them with my phone so they're right side up!)
So, back to the question of the moment - does that image to the left look a furnace? Well, it is. Use your imagination - three years ago, we knew we needed a new furnace some time soon. Last January, the point was brought forcefully home when our furnace conked out. Patched together, it limped through the rest of winter, but would not survive another season. (The solemn sound of "Taps" plays in the background.) Sadly, we did not have a furnace fund. We began praying for help to get a furnace to get us through the upcoming winter. Then our son was in a non-life-threatening car wreck, totaling this car and bringing in enough money for a new furnace.
This whole thing reminds me of "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. What? You didn't read "The Monkey's Paw?" Why not? Oh, all right, you really should read it, but basically it is built around a mummified monkey's paw that grants wishes... at a price. In order to bring about wealth, loved ones die, generating high life insurance payments. It's creepy good. You should read it on a cold winter night. Go ahead. I dare you.
We're glad it was only the car that had to die so we could be warm this winter.
So what about you? What potential disaster has turned into a blessing in your life?

Creative Marketing - and partial photo success!

I finally figured out how to install my photos myself! (But the PhotoShop make-it-look-good technicalities are still pending...Bob turned the photo of me and my great-nephew right side up, but you'll have to tip your head for the one of my sister. I downloaded it all by myself! Yay-uh!)
So, I was at the County Fair painting faces next to a soldier booth raffling a rifle for money to send to troops. They were doing a fine business. One of the guys in uniform asked if I would give part of my face painting money to the soldiers if they sent business my way. Sure! So every person he talked to was directed toward my booth. Sweet! I gave a dollar out of five for each face painting from the soldier booth. That was creative of him, and it worked for me, too. It made me ponder on ways I could piggyback with other businesses to sell more books. Captivating thinking!
What piggyback marketing ideas have you come across?

Grrr, Grrr, and double Grrr!

I want to hibernate because I hate it when I have to change programs and can't figure out how to make the new ones work! I can do everything on the Dell computer that died (which death trapped my website with it), but this Apple staring me in the face and laughing silently at the funny faces of despair I make is unfathomable! I can't access the photos I have to illustrate blogs about a really WEIRD looking furnace, a mah-velous marketing example, and my green face, but I don't know how to get them where they need to go to download on this blog! Argh! Grrr! Burp! (Burp? Oh, excuse me!)
I will corner Bob for ANOTHER instruction on picture manipulation so you can revel in my photo brilliance next week. I WILL LEARN THIS, even if I have to turn this hard-drive-hearted computer to applesauce!
What frustrates you?

What's Your Hawaiian Name?

In doing research for a new book, I came across this delightful site that translates your name into Hawaiian (unless you already have a Hawaiian name.) Since the closest I've come to Hawaii is my complete collection of Magnum P.I. episodes on DVD, it was fun to spend a few minutes looking up my name, my husband's, sons', family pets... Try it! Click here: MY HAWAIIAN NAME!
Until I get there, I'll just have to dream up tropical island adventures.
Where is a place you dream of going?