Spooktacular Day 25: Spooky Interview & Giveaway with author Caris Roane

What kind of Halloween person are you? Dress up and party every year, give out candy maybe dressed up, or hide inside your house with the porch light off?

Caris:  I love giving out candy to the kids and looking at all their costumes. It takes me back to being a kid and loving to go from house to house.

Do you decorate outside for Halloween?

Caris:  I usually put up a lot of Autumn decorations, like wreaths with fall-colored leaves, some tall scarecrows, and swags.  I also add a string of little pumpkin lights and a few signs like a black cat, a big ‘boo’, some spiders hanging around, that sort of thing.  But basically, I don’t want to scare the kids!  

Are you a master pumpkin carver?

Caris:  I never spent much time carving pumpkins; my DH was always in charge of that.  But one year, I found a picture of what looked like a hedgehog in which holes had been drilled and small white lights jammed into each hole.  I showed him the picture and he nodded.  He took on the challenge and did a great job, but of course I forgot to take a picture.  However, I found a similar one that I’ve included here.  Another year, he made a serpent out of one larger pumpkin for the head, and a bunch of smaller ones that curved for a long tail, then strung lights through it.  Again, the picture isn’t ours, but the serpent he created looked very much like this one.  

Name 3 costumes you’ve worn and at what age.

Caris: Though I don’t have any pics from childhood, at nine, I was a ghost and at eleven, I was a witch.  But my favorite costume was when I was fourteen.  One of my friends and I dyed two white sheets orange, created drawstrings for a neck for each as well as drawstrings lower so that the costume hit us each mid-thigh.  We stuffed the orange sheets full of crumpled newspapers until they were as close to pumpkins as we could get, donned black stockings, black heels, and made green stem-like hats out of felt.  We thought we were the best pumpkins ever!  This was my last trick-or-treating and of course the usual spoil-sports had to say to us, “Aren’t you a little old for this?”  Uh…no!  Of course the pic I’ve shared is a much more sophisticated version of what we did…but close!

Find a picture of a costume you love.

Caris:  I saw this witch-picture on Facebook and I thought, if I was a few years younger I’d take this pic and turn it into a costume.  Of course it would be more suited for my daughter but I think it’s a lot of fun, besides being super-sexy.  

What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Caris:  I think you can tell that trick-or-treating is my absolute favorite Halloween tradition.  It’s when a neighborhood comes together for a brief moment in all our busy lives and we give candy to a bunch of kids we might only ever see racing up and down the street the rest of the year!  Love it!

What is your favorite Halloween movie to watch or are you a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown sort? 

Caris:  Though I haven’t watched them in years, my favorite scariest movies are the Freddy Krueger, Nightmare on Elm Street, flicks.  I don’t really know why.  I think they were super-inventive besides being terrifying.  And yes, most everyone dies, while dreaming, but it’s not a bad way to go, mua-ha-ha-ha!

Happy Halloween!

Caris Roane has published over fifty Regency romance novels and novellas under the pen name, Valerie King.  In 2005, Romantic Times gave her a Career Achievement award in Regency Romance.  Having had a long-time love affair with vampires, Caris tackled the paranormal genre and built a unique vampire world based on ascending dimensional earths.  Her series is called Guardians of Ascension. 

Her most recent self-published project, The Blood Rose Novella Series, launched in May of 2012 with the first title:  Embrace the Dark. 

Caris lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her two cats, Sebastien and Gizzy and she really doesn’t like scorpions!

Website:  carisroane.com

Email:  carisroane at gmail dot com

 

 Just in time for the scariest season of all, three popular paranormal authors come together to tell original tales of romance where anything can happen under a Halloween moon . . .

Tempers flare and passions rise in Jocelynn Drake's Of Monsters and Men as the local werewolf pack clashes with the Winter Court's Wild Hunt . . .

In Terri Garey's The Ghoul Next Door, a witch and a warlock battle it out for possession of a haunted house, but the ghost may have her own agenda . . .

And, in Trick or Treathen by Caris Roane, a master vampire struggles to stay away from the mortal woman who enflames his very soul.

International, a bracelet of replica typewriter keys that spell out ‘dream’, a $10 gift card to Barnes & Noble (or compensatory prize if the winner is international), RTC cards, and bookmarks.  Please leave a comment and your email address like this:  carisroane at gmail dot com.  I’ll select the winner on Sunday October 28th, using Random.org.  And tell me what your favorite Halloween memory is!

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