Of Masquerades, Lusting After Nuns, And Handcuffs

“I’ll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Hallowe’en.” ~ Anonymous

Tomorrow is Hallowe’en, the traditional night before All Saints Day, when little ghosts and goblins walk the street, dashing from door to door in search of chocolates and candy (none of that impossible to chew taffy, thank you very much). Homes set up decorations for the holiday, including traumatic ritual slaughtering and carving of perfectly innocent pumpkins into garish jack o’lanterns. And for adults like Scarlett and I, it’s an excuse to get dressed up in something a little different (though no less sexy), just so we can get ourselves out of those slightly different clothes...

I refuse to harm a single pumpkin! I do, however, love getting candy. What will you make me do for those cherry cordials I love? You know I love to perform...to please you....

Just the thought of what you can do with a cherry cordial has me hot and bothered... hmm, let’s see, the thought of you throwing your head back and wailing in ecstasy comes to mind...

In previous years, Scarlett and I have tended to go for different choices in our Hallowe’en costumes. A couple of years back we decided to go to the mayor’s masquerade ball as Adam and Eve. Our costumes simply consisted of strategically placed fig leaves, and, well, we got a little carried away with ourselves, the fig leaves were quickly tossed aside, and we were having our way with each other on top of the grand piano in front of two hundred guests.

Sufficed to say, we’re banned from the mayor’s home forever.

I loved those costumes! They were so...liberating! I don't know what everyone was so upset about. Unless they've been living in a monastery—which, given that they're in politics, is highly unlikely—we weren't doing anything they hadn't seen and done themselves!

All right...maybe not as publicly as we do, but....

We’re kind of uninhibited. Most people aren’t.

This year, among children and among adults who partake, there are certainly some popular choices for costumes. The Hunger Games has created a bit of an appetite for archers dressed like the characters in the books and movies... or some of the more garish characters who look on while young people spend their time slaughtering each other for entertainment. There’s also quite a market for superhero costumes this year, what with the success of films this summer from the Batman, Spider-Man, and Avengers franchises. That’s been reflecting in what’s been out there in the costumes you can find for kids, and something for the adults too.

We actually have all the Avengers costumes. We use them for our, uh, role playing. I've had passionate encounters with Thor, Captain America, Iron Man...playing Tony and Pepper was especially enjoyable.

Yes, wasn’t it?

And yes... role playing is a pretty good term for it.

Though I have to admit that I liked turning you into the Incredible Hulk. And you were incredible!

You were beyond spectacular!

Oh...you were saying?

I was? Oh, yes, well, I got distracted by all sorts of thoughts of the two of us all... ahem. Blog first, lust afterwards.

Scarlett tried on a Catwoman costume. Turned me on in all sorts of ways, and well, we just couldn’t help ourselves. I’m sure the costume shop owner must have been wondering what those sounds were that we were making. Let’s just say we bought the costume for play at home, but we decided to go with something else.

Purrrrrrrrrfect!

It was!

This year we’re sticking with the Avengers theme instead. I’ve gotten myself a Hawkeye costume, just like Jeremy Renner’s look.

And Scarlett went with that black leather jumpsuit for the Black Widow. Shows off all the right curves too. She looks smashing. Oh my. Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?

Oh, I do like this...but I feel like it should come with something to restrain my opponents...say, a pair a handcuffs? But then, the Black Widow takes no prisoners.

I love it when you put me in handcuffs. I also love it when we get ourselves cuffed to each other. Just as long as we don’t lose the keys behind the bed, like we did that one time in the bed and breakfast....

I know that you like dangerous women, darling. Goes back to that Catholic school you attended as a boy, doesn't it?  You got turned on imagining what those nuns were wearing—or not wearing—under their habits. Even as a boy, you were so naughty!

I couldn’t help it!

And now I get to spend all my naked time with a naughty woman!

We love costumes...but we don't restrict them to Hallowe'en. No...we love to get into character, then get out of the costume.  Remember the time we did hooker and vice cop? I think the man who ran that bar thought that bust was for real....

The look on his face was priceless!

So, from both of us to all of you, Happy Hallowe’en, and whatever costume you’re getting, make sure it’s something you can get out of quickly with your significant other. There’s nothing quite as annoying as a knot that can’t be untied...

Six Sentence Sunday

Today we have another Six Sentence Sunday blog for you, from Same Time Tomorrow. This passage is from early in the book, introducing one of our two main characters, Gabriel Miller. He's on assignment in Norway when we first meet him, photographing high on a slope overlooking the scenic Sognefjorden on a cold day, feeling quite isolated and on his own. And so, without further ado, here we have it:

Sognefjorden, Norway

Gabriel zipped up the bag, hoisting it on his shoulder, glancing once more to the west. The clouds continued to move closer, dark and brooding. There might be snow coming; certainly there was enough of it still on the slopes. Starting down the path he had come from, he was careful, mindful of the slope, not wanting to take a bad step. After all, I’m supposed to attend that party in New York next week. Wouldn’t do to show up in a cast, would it? 

Secondhand Shoes & Wedding Disasters

We thought we'd take a bit of time today to point out a book that's in its final stages, written by a dear friend of ours. Secondhand Shoes, by Shelly Arkon, is a blend of comedy, drama, and finding the strength inside to stand up for oneself. It also has a liberal dose of paranormal mixed into the lot. We've had ourselves our own look at the book, which is currently being formatted for release, and it's a great deal of fun- with the occasional fright thrown in for good measure.

Here's the blurb:

The shoes didn’t fit. It was an omen.

Eighteen year old psychic-medium-germ-a-phobe Lila should have listened to ghostly Gram’s advice the morning of her wedding, “Take off that dress and those shoes. And run.”

En route to the honeymoon, she decides to listen after too many disagreements with her groom. It doesn’t pay to go along to make everyone happy.

Still in her wedding dress and shoes, she escapes out a diner’s bathroom window into the Florida woods despite her fear of snakes and germs with her dead Gram’s direction.
So she begins a journey of finding her inner strength that puts her on a deadly run from her psychotic groom and his deranged friends.

Will she ever get past her fear of germs and snakes? Will she survive her honeymoon?



And here we have a short excerpt:


A screen stood between me and my freedom. I pushed it. Nothing. I pushed it again. It was one stubborn screen. I took off a shoe, scraping a blister. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow,” I muttered.

I held my spiked heel like an ice-pick and punched a hole in the screen, ripping the rest with my other hand.

I didn’t want to, but I had to put my shoe back on and get it over with. I jammed my foot into it and stepped. “Ouch, ooh, ooh, ouch.”

The ledge was tummy high. I slung one leg over it, held onto the bottom of the window, got my other leg up and over and shimmied my way out.

There were woods beyond the alley holding the diner’s dumpsters, trees all the way to the interstate’s on-ramp to my right and on down behind the gas station to my left and beyond.

A light wind blew my hair across my face. I looked at the sky. Dark clouds coming up I-75. I looked at the woods.Probably a million snakes in there,I thought.

“Don’t be afraid, Lila,” Gram said.

A half-dozen sparrows flew from around the front of the diner, low to the ground, and into the woods. I followed them in through the ferns bordering the pavement and into the trees. My lacey arm caught on a cypress branch ripping a portion of my sleeve from me.
I walked for at least a half hour. When Max and I left the wedding, it must’ve been mid-eighty degrees. It warmed up since then like twenty more. That was a Florida July for you. The humidity made it almost unbearable. I was sweating, my bodice soaked. The money inside my bra stuck to my skin. It itched. The lace on my one arm and back itched more. I smelled no better than Max did when he got home from work and every winged insect buzzed around me. I smacked at them. A big, black horsefly really liked me. It wouldn’t go away. I thought of Max.

My blisters and toes screamed pre-, mid-, and post-step. The balls of my feet, too. The three inchers got caught in vines, branches, and mole holes. It took a lot to stay upright in the deep leaves. I considered taking my shoes off, but there might be hook worms or some jungle ameoba waiting to feast on my leg muscles, and I needed my legs to get me out of this mess. Mom scared me out of going shoeless when I was little, and I’d never gone barefoot except on Mom’s clean carpets and disinfected floors. I wore shoes or slippers at Cynthia’s. Her mother didn’t vacuum every day. Nor did I taste Pine Sol in the back of my throat at her house.

A hawk flew down out of nowhere and landed on the ground in front of me, tilted its head, and blinked its eyes at me.

The hawk jumped up and down, flitting its wings. He turned and squawked.

“You want me to follow you?”

It hopped onward, looking back at me every third or fourth bounce.

From not too far behind me a male voice bellowed, “Lila!”

Max.



You can find Shelly through her blogs (one of which is frequently hijacked by two bickering dogs). Have a look, start following her, and you'll find you'll really get to like her.

Secondhand Shoes

The Life Of A Novice Writer

Six Sentence Sunday

It's Sunday...time again for Six Sentences!

This Sunday, we have Chloe's friend Dana, a true city girl, who's having trouble adjusting to life on a farm. She's just been awakened by an owl...and her own screams have awakened everyone else in the house....

Dana was shaking. “Someone's being killed outside! I heard the screams!”

Gabriel went into the guest room and returned a few moments later, laughing. “Dana, what you heard was a screech owl,” he told her.

“The damn thing sounded like it was being murdered,” Dana said, embarrassed.

 

 

Without A Word: Is It Just Us, Or Does This Look Like...?

Six Sentence Sunday

Today we have another Six Sentence Sunday blog from Same Time Tomorrow, this set earlier in the book, with Gabriel meeting a friend and working partner in the Lake District of England....

Cumbrian Mountains, Lake District

“Hello there, Terry,” Gabriel greeted his friend.

“Hello yourself, you young bastard,” Terry said with a grin, his Scots accent as distinctive as ever. He rose from the chair, extended a hand, and Gabriel shook it, smiling. He made a show of looking at his watch.

“As punctual as ever, I see,” Gabriel remarked, teasing him.

"Some of us didn't have that far to come, so we left late," Terry replied with a straight face.

Six Sentence Sunday

We'll try to remember to do this every Sunday in the future. With Same Time Tomorrow nearly finished, we've had our hands full...and for once, not only with each other! And you can find us today as well at Beishir Books, where we're guest posting on writing erotica. One of our very favourite subjects....

***



Chloe knew she had to start thinking about funeral arrangements...but how could she, when she couldn't even wrap her mind around the reality of her mother's death?

Mom, you can't be gone. I can't accept that I'll never see you again, she thought as she went through Linda's closet, trying to decide what her mother should wear. What she'll be buried in. What she'll be wearing the last time I'll ever see her....

I couldn't get through this without Gabriel....