Buzz Girl on CNN.com!

Just had to do a quick buzz by to post this link to CNN.com where I was interviewed in a story about ghost hunting...along with the experts! Whooohooo! Be sure to check out the "slideshow" for pictures and sound files I've captured!

Thanks!
Marley = )

Halloween Costumes: Homemade or Store bought?

While chatting with one of my b/f/f's the other day she reminded me how she used to scrounge together what she could around the house to make a costume every year. I cracked up when I remembered her hobo/clown/punk rocker/Dolly Parton costumes. Back then the only costumes for sale were the plastic outfits that tied in the back with the cheesy masks. We would have killed to get our hands on them. Thankfully my mother wouldn't give in and buy me one and dressed me in a skirt made of tulle, a turtleneck, and handed me a wand made of aluminum foil. I looked adorable. One year she made ears out of cardboard and my cousin and I went as Mickey and Minnie Mouse (I was Minnie, of course. There was NO way I was dressing like a boy!). The only time I remember actually buying a costume was in college when I dressed up like a rabbit with my roommate and someone tried to set my fur on fire at the bar we were partying at (I vaguely remember smacking the guy and telling him my costume was a rental. Ah, good times!).

When my little guys came along I instantly started buying them adorable outfits off the Net. So far we have done Elmo, a Dalmatian, a chili pepper, Frankenstein, monkeys, and cowboys (I bought these authentic cowboy outfits in Dallas at RWA. I'm sure Tera remembers how I lost my tiny Dooney and Bourke wristlet in a store absolutely filled with crap and nearly had a panic attack!) Every year our town has a Halloween parade and then everyone goes to the firehouse for donuts and chocolate milk. They have a costume contest and I've, I mean, the boys have won several years in a row,except for last year, when everybody and their dog had to dress their kid as a cowboy. I'm getting kind of psycho about it. My husband loves to remind me that I usually spend AT LEAST a hundred dollars to win THREE! I remind him that it is the prestige, not the cash.

But this year we are on a serious budget. No Pottery Barn kids costumes here. I knew that I was going to have to think of something spectacular. I tried to think of something really great that NO ONE else would think of. Most of the year my thoughts have been with my little brother. He is a Navy diver and has been on an aircraft carrier in the middle of nowhere most of the year. So, as a tribute to my little brother, the boys are dressing up as scuba divers! Brilliant, right? We are going to wipe the firehouse floor with all those Batmans and Indiana Jones. Since we are in IL, and you never know if it is going to be twenty degrees or ninety degrees, I started out with a pair of blue long johns. I topped that with a surfer shirt, swim trunks, those weird looking water shoes, fins made out of cardboard to go over the shoes, two-liter bottles sprayed painted silver for tanks. We ran plastic tubing out of the tanks and attached them to those things football players wear in their mouths, and got them some awesome goggles with sharks on them. They look awesome and it didn't even cost very much! This isn't the best picture (something is wrong with my camera and I can't find my stupid manual)because you can't see half of their costume but you get the idea. Aren't they cute dressed as Scuba Shane's?

So tonight is the big night. Wish us luck! What was your favorite costume??

Still reading Killer Cruise...it's been a crazy week!

xo,

Stephanie

http://www.stephaniehale.com/

For Halloween...my television debut!

Sorry for the late post...been a bit under the weather today.

I am completely jazzed though to post that my husband, Mike, and I will be making our television debut tomorrow night! We will be on the premiere episode of a new show called MY GHOST STORY on The Biography Channel. It will be on at 10:00 p.m. ET tomorrow and on at 9:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, November 1st.



I hope you'll tune in to watch our interview and witness the extraordinary video we captured while we were visiting Waverly Hills Sanitarium in Lousiville, Kentucky.

Also, I was interviewed by CNN.com on a ghost hunting story they have coming out on Friday. I'll be sure to post the link when I have it.

Hope everyone has an awesome Halloween!!

Hugs,
Marley = )

GHOST HUNTRESS: THE AWAKENING (Coming May 2009, Houghton Mifflin)
GHOST HUNTRESS: THE GUIDANCE (Coming October 2009, Houghton Mifflin)
SORORITY 101: Zeta or Omega? (Available from Puffin Books)
SORORITY 101: The New Sisters (Available from Puffin Books)

It's the Spook-Spookiest Time of the Year

I. Love. Halloween.

It has to be my favorite holiday of the year. Think about it. No presents to buy. No day-long meals to prepare. No date-or-dateless worries. Scary stories. Lots of mini-sized candy. Plus, you get to dress up. And call me a total girl, but I looove playing dress up.

(I think boys secretly like playing dress up, too, but they have to act all cool like it's beneath them.)

Anyway, when it comes to costumes, I seem to do less and less in the way of clothing each year, and more in the way of makeup. My costume last year consisted of me dress in black with lots of glitter on my face and curlicued purple pipe cleaners in my hair.

So it stands to reason that enamored of those brilliant makeup artists who can turn a regular person into a fantasy with just a box of cake makeup and a few brushes. Here are some amazing examples I've culled from the internet (along with attribution, whenever possible—beware that many of these makeup artists also do body painting, which means there are some borderline racy images on their sites).

From Pashur at Canvas Alive:



From Jinny Make-up Artiste:





From Carolyn Roper:



If you want to really get your socks blown off, check out the latest Ben Nye catalog or Make-up Artist Magazine or search "bodypainting" on Flickr. Makes me and my glitter feel pretty pathetic.

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS. (available now!)
GODDESS BOOT CAMP (coming June 2009)
teralynnchilds.com

PS—I'm holding a Halloween costume contest over on my blog. Prizes are my books and one of these. In pink.

Teen + Tina = Teena

I took some heat from the very scary Tera Lynn Childs last week for putting up “fake” high school photos. =) So without further adieu, here's a few I took from an album. But apologies for the quality, for not only are they from the dark ages, but they sat all those centuries inside a sticky page album, which, in the case of the outdoor shot, robbed the photo of most of its color...

Here, a photo booth shot at about thirteen:



Now, sixteen, and remember the top well--it was a favorite and take my word for the fact it was lavender--and the locket, which I loved, and probably still have buried in my jewelry box.


And here’s my yearbook picture from about a year later. I am wearing my friend’s blouse because for some reason, I decided the day before that I hated everything I owned. This was, for the record, baby pink, and I don’t think I returned it for months afterwards. (The friend and I are still very close all these years later, so I think she forgave me.)


Anyway, the slightly amusing story to this yearbook picture is that my head is much bigger than anyone else’s in the yearbook. Some yearbook staffer blew my photo up to crop out a hint of cleavage. Even the signature locker is mostly gone. Puh-lease!

Okay...everyone is now free to laugh at me. My wild hair, my baby face, and what’s up with my eyes in that yearbook pic? Except for Tera, who made me do this. She has to say something NICE. =)

What I’m Reading: Sixpence House, Paul Collins

Tina

Tina Ferraro
The ABC’s of Kissing Boys - releasing January 13, 2009
How to Hook a Hottie
Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress
www.tinaferraro.com

The End of HS Picture Week...

I am the last Buzz girl to post on High School Picture week -- yikes! This little photo (sorry so small) comes to me by way of my HS friend Todd, who so kindly posted the treasure on Facebook. Awesome.... thanks!

Most of my photos are in storage, so I'm actually thankful he put this photo up.

So, here I am at age 14, going into sophomore year with my little new wave do and my vintage-y outfit. Back then, I loved the Smiths, the Cure, Depeche Mode, Yaz, etc. Back then, there was no "alternative" or "goth" there was just new wave, and then there were the kids in all black that in Seattle we called "bat cavers" -- the forerunners of goth, to be sure.

Anyway, so there's me! Love those bangs! :)

Happy Sunday!

hugs,

Heather

Heather Davis is the author of
Never Cry Werewolf - HarperTeen April '09
The Clearing - HMH - Graphia Spring '10


http://www.heatherdavisbooks.com/
http://www.publishersweekly.com/enewsletter/CA6607902/2788.html

HS Reunion!

I, unfortunately, don't have my HS pictures with me in Seattle (still at home in Michigan), so I pulled a Tina Ferraro and used the hilarious Yearbook Yourself site to generate me some!

1960

(LOVE the glasses!)

1962

(am digging the flip!)

1974

(this one is my favorite!)

1982

(This one is truly horrible!)

1998

(the year I graduated! And I do have to be honest and agree that my hair did look kind of like this!)

A month ago, I had the chance to attend my HS reunion and to be honest, everyone looked great! The girls were even more beautiful than they were in HS (no more big hair!) and the guys looked like grown-up men. So, kudos to the Novi HS class of 1998, you guys are even better 10 years later!

-------------
Dona Sarkar-Mishra
HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI
SHRINK TO FIT
both out now!

Who is that girl?

Okay, so I guess it's my turn to humiliate myself. The picture below is from my freshman year. I had just gotten my braces off, after like ten years of assorted head gear (so not kidding) and braces. As you can see, I coordinated my electric blue shirt with electric blue eyeliner. I'm not sure what I was thinking with the kinked bouffant bangs. And for some ungodly reason I used to pull out the sides of my hair with a comb and then spray tons of hairspray on it. My motto used to be: the crunchier, the better. Yikes~

This picture was taken about a year later. I used to go visit my dad in Colorado every summer and one summer my friend, Tonya, came out to visit me. My dad took us to this really cool restaurant in Boulder called Bananas. Notice the pink Guess T-shirt and the guy's class ring that I lovingly wrapped in outfit color-coordinated angora every day. I'm pretty sure I liked the ring more than I liked the guy. I was sporting sort of a feathery hairdo, and yes, that is a banana clip holding my hair back. Back then I lived for the back of the head mohawk!

Here I am again with Tonya. This was our sophomore year when we went to another school's prom with a couple of guys. We didn't really like the guys that much, but didn't want to wait a whole year to get to go to prom. They rented a limo and took us to the fanciest restaurant in town where I proceeded to tuck napkins in the top of my strapless dress and chow down on BBQ ribs. KC Masterpiece, baby. That's how I roll.This picture is from my junior year. My hair is looking considerably better. I had finally figured out that crunchy was not a good look for me. I switched to violet eyeliner, which I still use to this day. I have no idea what happened to all of my hair. It is very depressing.
Here is one of the poses from my senior pictures. This picture actually makes me kind of sad. Although I envy this girl's hair and measurements, I don't envy the inner turmoil she had at the time. I wish I could write this girl a letter and tell her that someday she is going to meet the most amazing man that was put on this earth just for her. I would tell her that he wouldn't be threatened that she was intelligent, so she wouldn't have to dumb herself down. I would tell her that everything will work out, because with this man's love, she will finally realize that it wasn't that she wasn't good enough for the others, they simply weren't good enough for her. I would tell her that all this crap she is going through is just going to make her stronger, and that someday, two adorable little boys will kiss her and tell her they love her every day, which will make everything worth it. I would also tell her that she won't have to wear that dorky smock and work at True Value for the rest of her life. Here I am at my high school graduation with my friend Kristin. I was really looking forward to striking out on my own in college. My nose got broken about four weeks after this picture was taken and even though the surgeon did an awesome job rebuilding it, I just never felt like I was same.
So, there you have it. For the most part, high school was a blast but I wouldn't want to relive it for anything!

What I'm reading now...Killer Cruise by Jennifer Shaw

xo,

Stephanie

http://www.stephaniehale.com/

Most Likely to...make you laugh at my pictures!

What a fun week we're having, sharing high school photos and remembering back. You'll have to forgive my grainy pictures as I had to scan the yearbooks for pics from back then. Most of my memoribilia is in storage at my parents' house.

Let's take a look at Sophomore year...circa 1983. I was a varsity cheerleader and recovering from a summer spent in the hospital overcoming bone cancer. Thanks to some pretty radical chemo and radiation, I lost all of my hair. The funny thing was, the football team shaved their heads that year to look "tough." Rival schools just thought one of the cheerleaders had that much school spirit, too. LOL!!

Here I am at a pep rally, handing over the microphone to one of the senior captains of the football team. Yes, I know...it's a short skirt. Live with it.



Here's the group shot of our group. Talk about big hair! I had a LOT of hair before I lost it. Too bad the pics of me pre-chemo can't be found. I had Farah Fawcett wings and all. Very chic for back then.



And, my individual shot. I stood in front of the tree to make it look like I had more hair. LOL!! Always thinking...



Moving on to Junior year, here I am with my cheerleading partner, Laura, sitting in the hall. Yes, I have on a skinny tie. It was a fashion statement. And I'm wearing a Reagan/Bush '84 button. I know...I know...but it was 1984. I didn't know what I know now. I was young and naive. = )



Here I am on Punk Rock Day. I loved that dress. It was awesome. A purple polka-dot mini dress. Soooooo Cyndi Lauper.



Every year, the Juniors hosted a haunted house at the school's Halloween Carnival. Check out the skeeeeeeery vampire. Hmmm...maybe a preview of my future in the paranormal?



I was in tons of clubs in high school including the Pep Club, P Club (letterman), Who's Who Among American High School Students, Society of Distinguished American High School Students, Anchor Club, Patriot Post (newsletter), Drama Club, Concert Band (first trumpet), and most notably, I was head photographer of the yearbook. Check out that Izod sweater! Too bad you can't see the colors...pink and blue!



Ahhh...1985...senior year...the rock and roll hair cut (not a girl mullet, thankyouverymuch) was very much my look, with crazy earrings to match. Check out these in this pic...my best friend always called them my "roaches." Gag! This is me keeping the books for the basketball team.



(And no...those aren't blemishes...it's schmuckus on the scanned picture.)

I was also a class officer. Man, I loved that outfit. Casual Corners. And the boots rocked. I bought a pair similar to them just yesterday.



Another Halloween Carnival and another vampire costume...I remember it took like three washings to get that red crap out of my hair.



Senior portrait time...not a bad pic, but thank God I learned how to pluck my eyebrows! LOLOL!!



Senior Who's Who pictures...oy, what a day! For Most School Spirit, they made us climb up onto the football goal posts. Easy for my friend, Mark Goodson, who was tall and athletic. Me, I had to stand on Charlie Senn's Monte Carlo T-tops while he hoisted me and Mark pulled me up. Of course, being the Grace that I am, I didn't get down gracefully, but fell into Charlie's car. At least it's a great pic!



And it shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me that I got Most Talkative, as well...



Finally...graduation day. There was a tradition at my school that in every yearbook, there was a picture of one senior blowing bubble gum. Since I had been the yearbook photographer for years and usually snapped off those shots, people thought it was only fair that I should have the bubble gum picture...



There you have it!

Oh...and as an add on, it wouldn't be a complete 80s-ish blog post if I didn't mention my experience last Friday night. In 1981, I met and fell in love with Rick Springfield. Okay...I didn't technically meet him, but there he was on the TV screen. He had me at "Jessie is a friend..."



I have had a long love affair with the man, with my hubby's permission. LOL! Last Friday, we went to see him in concert here in the Boston area. We were on the fourth row and I took my digital camera. I got sooooooooo many amazing shots! Check him out...59 years old and still looks phenomenal and rocks the house!















At one point, he dons a wireless mike and ventures out into the audience. He came right to our section. At this point, I hand my husband and tell him that these are about to be THE MOST important pictures he's ever taken in his life. Seriously. I would have left him if he'd screwed this up. LOL!!

Here's Rick moving towards me...



And here he is right in front of me...



Swoooooooooooon...he came right up to me and stood on my chair. He held on to my shoulder and stroked my cheek. I, in turn, cupped his...ummm...errr...cheek. No, not that one...THAT one. WHAT? He was right there! It was a chance of a lifetime and I took it. Yes, I touched Rick Springfield's butt!!!

Hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane! Can't wait to see the rest of the Buzz Girls' pics!

Hugs,
Marley = )

GHOST HUNTRESS: THE AWAKENING (Coming May 2009, Houghton Mifflin)
GHOST HUNTRESS: THE GUIDANCE (Coming October 2009, Houghton Mifflin)
SORORITY 101: Zeta or Omega? (Available from Puffin Books)
SORORITY 101: The New Sisters (Available from Puffin Books)

My (High School) Life In Pictures

It's embarrassing high school pictures week here on the Buzz Blog, and boy do I have some photos for you. Some people (*cough* Tina and Chuck *cough*) might be too chicken to share their actual school pics, but I'm not. Here, in all its early 1990s glory, is my high school life in pictures.

Starting off chronologically, here's my freshman yearbook picture. I'll give my hair a B and my unfortunately overly-floral outfit a D. Don't worry, it gets better. Eventually.


Next is my freshman swim team picture. My hair didn't change much over the year, but I did get bigger earrings. (Nothing can compare to the great plastic peace signs of eighth grade, though.)


This is a picture of me on my summer swim team. Note the lack of hairspray and curls and the excess of blonde. Summer was much more laid back (plus I was swimming with upperclassmen and college boys who didn't care about teased bangs).


On to my sophomore yearbook pic. A cute chin-length bob with just a hint of bang teasing. I actually made(!) the dress I'm wearing. It was adorable (and those big floral pattern dresses are totally back in right now).


Here's the sophomore swim team pic, in front of a fountain-y lake. Note the blunt bangs and the black scrunchy poised on top of my head. Classic.


The summer after sophomore year I went to an academic summer program called Missouri Scholars Academy. This is me and a few of my friends. I forgot to photoshop in a circle, but I'm the one in the striped polo. My volatile crush is in the pic. Guess which one he is. (Hint: It's one of the three boys.)


Junior year class pic. Very little hairspray and virtually no bang teasing. I am, however, now wearing makeup. Maybe there is an inverse relationship between bang teasing and makeup usage.


Junior year tennis pic with my pal Lori--isn't she beautiful? I was never very good at the "look casual" pose. That's why Lori looks way more relaxed than I do.


Spring of my junior year I went to the National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, DC. Tex here was one of my buds. I bet he'd be proud to know than I'm an adopted Texan now. (Note the scrunchy on top, but this time without bangs.)


Finally, the goods. My senior pictures. The one on the left was my official headshot, the one that's in the yearbook. I took it a few weeks before the other two. Once I saw it I hated how the smile made my cheeks pooch out, that's why I'm barely smiling in the later photos. I wasn't too fond of the 80s-perm-flashback curls, either.

My senior swim team photo. (Note: there was no junior year swim team photo due to idiocy on the part of my coach. I'm sure he regretted it once I started winning races senior year.) This was the year we had a college-boy assistant coach. That was definitely a YA book in the making.


My prom picture. My date was just a friend (actual, a friend of my best friend's younger bother) but we had a lot of fun. Believe it or not, my mom made my dress! It sure helps to have a former costumer for a mom.


Here's my official graduation picture. My Kickapoo High School classmates (nearly 400 of them) and I graduated in the main arena at Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University). The button on my gown says "Stacy Sherrill Suzie" in honor of the three women (two graduating Kickapoo seniors and one's mother) who went missing the day after graduation two years earlier. They've never been found.


Because the three women went missing after a non-sponsored graduation party, our school really pushed seniors to attend Project Graduation (a school sponsored all-night party at a local college rec center). It was a blast. And I just want to point out that the hottie in the background is perfect YA hero material. He was one of the nicest guys I knew, kind of a loner, and didn't seem to realize how truly hunky he was. Dreamboat. (Hi John!)


There it is. My high school life in excruciating detail. Maybe that was more than you wanted to know, but once I started in on the nostalgia train I couldn't stop. (I even renewed my Classmates.com membership last night. Sigh. I'm hopeless.)

Hugs,
TLC

OH. MY. GODS. (available now!)
GODDESS BOOT CAMP (coming June 2009)
teralynnchilds.com

PS — If anyone is in the West Houston area this afternoon (Tuesday, October 21st) I'll be signing and chatting at the Kendall Neighborhood Library from 4:00-5:30pm. Friendly Buzz Readers welcome!