OH MY GOD I AM SO THERE YOU GUYS SO THERE.

It’s about time they had another female icon! I personally thought that last year’s theme was just OK. This looks like more thought was put into it. It evokes memories of HHN 2008, which was my favorite year. Here are the attractions:

Houses:
Nightingales: Blood Prey – WWII and Banshees.
H.R. Bloodenguts: Holidays of Horror – H. R. Bloodenguts transforms holidays into horror films.
Saws n ‘ Steam: Into the Machine – A steampunk haunted house.
The Thing – Based on the upcoming movie.
Nevermore – Enter the insanity of Edgar Allan Poe.
The In Between – A 3rd dimension. This house is in 3D.
Winter’s Night: The Haunting of Hawthorne Cemetary – Vengeful spirits will haunt you.
The Forsaken – Based on the 4th ship and the vengeful souls that sank and died during Christopher Columbus’ voyage.

Scare Zones:
Nightmaze – A morphing, changing maze of darkness.
Grown Evil – A spooky garden.
Canyon of Dark Souls – A canyon full of..well..evil souls.
Acid Assault – A post-apocalyptic scarezone.
7 – Temptress monsters – based on the 7 deadly sins.
Your Luck has Run Out – Lady Luck’s scarezone

Shows:
Death Drums – A drumming show.
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure

The drumming show concept reminds me of the Monster Stomp show Busch Gardens Williamsburg does every year. I am not sad to see Rocky Horror go. I never went to it. I can see RHPS any time I want where I live. I think this is a good addition.

Both Busch Gardens Tampa and Universal Orlando have a “Nevermore” house this year. I have no idea what’s going on with that. Nightingales: Blood Prey does seem really cool. I’m a sucker for 1940s stuff. I do have to say that in general military-themed haunts are not something I have liked in the past. They are often done (in my opinion) to cut costs. Since this one is based on the 1940s it might actually be really awesome. I am interested to see if I’ll like this one or not.

In summary: THIS LOOKS AWESOME AND I CANNOT WAIT TO GO OMG YOU GUYS.

I cannot wait for my haunt blogging season to begin. I’m working on a landing page so that you guys can see all of the haunts I have done and submit your own reviews. In the meantime, this Haunted Attractions category on the left nav bar is how you can see all of my haunt stuff.

To be honest, I have been to so many that it’s also helpful for me – I can’t remember which ones I’ve been to any more! I’ve been to hundreds!

I’m more than ready for Halloween. If you want to see something awesome, turn on your sound and click here. Scroll down.

I missed this last year at the Howl O Scream event, but allegedly this pumpkin cheesecake is epic.

I’ll have to look for it when I go back this year. They actually posted the recipe so you can make it yourself here.

Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for photo processing, and also for much of the fantasy art and cartooning industry. Stupid and Insane and a few of my fantasy paintings were done in Photoshop – not with watercolor and inks. For example:

The GIMP is a freely distributed piece of software for things like photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It looks kind of like this, and is similar to Photoshop:

The GIMP has a bit of a learning curve. While it is similar to Adobe Photoshop, it’s isn’t exactly the same. However, GIMPshop changed all that. GIMPshop is a modification of The GIMP to replicate Adobe Photoshop’s look and feel.

GIMPshop does not support Photoshop plugins but all GIMP’s own plugins, filters, brushes, etc. remain available. This isn’t a huge deal in my opinion – I don’t think I have ever used a Photoshop plugin to make any of my art.

Many Photoshop tutorials can be followed verbatim, and most others can be easily adapted for GIMPshop users.

So now you have no excuse not to be able to use my art tutorials. :)

Costuming and design of all types has always fascinated me. I don’t know many people in NJ who own full houses because the cost of living is so crazy here. We all have apartments with strict regulations about what you can do to it. (No nailing anything to the walls, no bike racks, no BBQing, etc.) I actually expect that the day I can get a place that I love is the day I move out of NJ, but that could just be my cynicism acting up again.

Till then, feast your eyes on these videos about costuming and interior design on True Blood. (Yes, I found Season 1 to be annoying as all get out, but 2 and 3 hooked me. This is now one of my favorite shows. Lafayette FTW!)

I spent some of yesterday doing CEO-type stuff for Intervention and drawing a comic about a farting rabbit. As hilarious as this sounds, the rest of the year is going to be filled with so much teaching, speaking, and book writing. I’m getting significant press for it, too. It’s really exciting. The idea of going to far away places and releasing my books…wow you guys wow.

When I was little, I used to feel like I was broken somehow. Perhaps I am. Somehow along the way, I got this idea that I should stand up for what I believe in, no matter what. A lot of people thought that the things I did were cute or funny, but I never really had much support when it came to becoming the person that I really am. I think some kids have a natural inclination toward certain vocations. The best parenting pushes a child toward discovering who they really are and doesn’t try to make them into something they aren’t under penalty of death. I can’t blame parents, though. It would have been much easier for me if I were like the other little girls in Catholic School. I stood out for 2 reasons – I was really poor, and my mocha skin color didn’t match the pale color of the rest of my family.

I learned really early in life that people are assholes.

“That’s not your Mother.” teachers would tell me. I wasn’t the take-no-shit girl you all know today back then. I’d just put my head down and say, “That IS my Mommy!”. I saw inequality right away, and it pissed me off.

I always had a sense of right and wrong. Even when I really needed food and didn’t have anything, I never once stole anything. I’d be the kid that brought the extra 10 cents that the cashier gave me all the way back to the store or cleaned up the soda that I spilled in the department store. I looked at the world logically, but the world failed to follow logic. Hating things and people that look different from you just isn’t logical. The fact that teachers would encourage other kids to make fun of me because I didn’t “match” the family I lived with was just insane. The fact that the kids that stole things were patted on the head because they matched a certain archetype and I was treated like dirt just didn’t parse.

I think I carry my damage around with me as a way to motivate me to do what’s right. I haven’t been through the worst crap, but I haven’t been through the best, either. The reason I never stop – the reason I always am there for people – the reason I built and am still building this empire – it’s because I have to. When I was really little I had a cough. I got hit in the face every time I coughed because I was allegedly annoying, so I learned to turn the coughs into yawns. As horrible as that sounds, I’ve used the same type of concept to get over all of the bullshit. If I feel sad or depressed, I ask myself what I can do about it and do it. I turn the pain into positive action. Failing that, I drink a coffee and repeat.

It’s doesn’t sound as theatrical as putting on a jaunty crab hat and lighting my ass on fire while running down the street, but I hope the impact is more resonant.

Don’t think that you have to be a perfect person to reach your dreams or make a difference.