My Say What Blog Archives - Page 29 of 53

Oct 8th Halloween- Do you Suffer from Samhainopobia?

Do you have a fear of Halloween? Then you suffer from Samhainopobia. I don’t fit in that category! Do you?

This week the focus is on Halloween traditions. We had an absolute blast. My characters being demons, witches, vampires, and faeries livened up the bash. A great time was had by all. Oh, did I mention, I’m a paranormal romance writer and have intimate knowledge of the things that go bump in the night. Bawaawaa!

My point is that Halloween isn’t just for kids, anymore. Today Halloween is attracting adults in a masquerade type atmosphere, much like Mardi Gras. Their costumed antics mock, challenge and tease the mysterious, possible malevolent forces of the night. The otherworld becomes our world on this night of enchanted possibilities and transcendence. Are we reaffirming death as a part of life in an exhilarating celebration of magic for an evening? Or like me, just enjoying the air of celebration on a night the veil between the living and dead is purported to be the thinnest. Every year with the help of my hubby, I decorate our house to the hilt on the first day of October and revel in Halloween décor the entire month.

Did you know Jack-O-Lanterns originated in Ireland? People placed lit candles inside hollowed out turnips to keep away spirits and ghosts on the Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween) holiday. Boy, did we do a role reversal on that aspect of Halloween. Instead of chasing the spirits away, we tend to invite them in. In fact, if you are considering visiting Ireland, you have to check out its newest festival, which celebrates the country as the birthplace of Halloween.

Most present day Halloween traditions are traceable to the ancient Celtic day of the dead. Halloween consists of mysterious customs, but each has a history, or at least a story behind it. Take wearing costumes, and roaming from door to door demanding treats. This behavior can be traced to the Celtic period and the first few centuries of the Christian era, when it was thought that the souls of the dead were out and about, along with fairies, witches, and demons. Offerings of food and drink were left out to placate them. As the centuries wore on, people began dressing like these creatures, performing antics in exchange for food and drink. This is where the practice of trick-or-treating began. To this day, vampires, witches, ghosts, and skeletons are among the favorite costumes. Our Halloween also retains activities from the original harvest holiday of Samhain, such as bobbing for apples and carving vegetables, (pumpkins) as well as the fruits, nuts, and spices for cider associated with the day. Although at my house, hot chocolate is pretty popular, since Halloween almost guarantees the first snow of the year.

Well, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to don my vampire costume, custom fitted fangs and pull up a stool in the shadows of my front door, candy bowl on a stand beside me. I sneakily turn on the fog machine and out of the mist greet the little trick or treaters or scare the bejeebers out of the older ones with bats hanging over head and screeching on my command. Won’t you join me? Happy Halloween!

The next three weeks on this blog will focus on hauntings. Make sure and mark your calendar, you’ll not want to miss them!

Posted in For Fun, My Say What Blog and tagged Celtic, Costume, Halloween, Trick-or-Treat by Tena Stetler with 2 comments.

Oct 1st Colorado Hauntings – Mines, Mountains and Mysteries!

Full of old mines from the Gold Rush Days, Mountains and Mysteries, no wonder Colorado has an abundance of paranormal sightings. From the famous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, to the Cliff House in Manitou Springs spirits abound. As we learned in previous weeks, Cripple Creek, Colorado with its wild and turbulent past has a history of unexplained, supernatural occurrences earning it the reputation of one of the most haunted towns in America.

Let’s take a quick look at a few:

cliff-house The Cliff House in Manitou Springs was built in 1873, before Colorado was even a state. Through it’s many renovations, paranormal experiences remain, including disembodied footsteps, ghostly voices when no one is there and white orbs floating through the hallways late at night. Could these be spirits of the old American West? The Cliff House was known as only The Inn was a popular stagecoach stop in route from Colorado Springs to Leadville? Hmmm….

How about Emma Crawford Coffin Races in Manitou Springs? 12187909_10156228888785008_109156638325622110_n The story goes, that Crawford moved to Manitou in the 1800’s to heal her tuberculosis. She succumbed to the disease and was buried on Red Mountain. A favorite spot of hers. Construction on the mountain forced relocation of her coffin to the south slope in 1912. Unfortunately, heavy spring rains washed her coffin down the side of the mountain, where her ghost is said to still roam today. Participants of the race, held in downtown Manitou Springs, claim they feel her presence every year. See for yourself, this year the coffin races are October 26, 2019. See you there!

The ghost of Maggie, haunts the Colorado Grande Casino & Hotel and Maggie’s Restaurant in Cripple Creek, Colorado. At night, voices (Maggie’s lilting Irish soprano) and music can be heard from the ballroom, slots clinging and clanging after hours. The hotel’s security cameras have caught Maggie in her turn-of-the-century clothing, only to have the tapes mysteriously disappear. The scent of her rose perfume lingers even if she chooses not to make an appearance.

Want to know more about the Ghosts of Cripple Creek Mining District?

Speaking of Ghosts, if you are looking for a fun Halloween read. A Witch’s Journey has meddling ghosts, shifters, stolen magic and a handsome Navy SEAL who has a dark secret. Available at Amazon.com, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble.

Every Tuesday throughout the month of October I will have Colorado Hauntings we’ll take a look at The Stanley Hotel and the Halloween traditions. Mark your calendars, you don’t want to miss any of these Halloween Celebrations!

Posted in For Fun, Holidays, My Say What Blog, The Pikes Peak Region and tagged A Witch's Journey, Colorado, Cripple Creek, ghosts, Halloween, Haunted by Tena Stetler with 9 comments.

Sep 18th What is Your Superpower? #L&SR #WednesdayBlogChallenge 9-18-19

Welcome to #L&SR’s #Wednesday’s Blog Challenge, What is Your Superpower? Mine would be the ability to spin a tale and sweep people out of their ordinary world into a magical, romantic, fantasy adventure. Sprinkled with a little determination to get the job done. Strange combination huh?

I’ve always been a very determined person. I like to make things happen and I want it to be right. That wasn’t always a popular concept in the male dominated world of law as a paralegal. But when you can’t tell the attorneys from the criminal, it’s time to leave. Then as an IT manger in an electronic contracting firm, well let’s just say fudging to make it look right wasn’t my strong suit.

Now, as an author of paranormal romance with a touch of mystery I strive to take my readers on a fantasy adventure they’ll never forget. Hopefully my stories will make then forget their stress and problems of the real word behind, if only for a few hours. I think I’ve found my niche.

Four years, ten books published with The Wild Rose Press and abundance of happy readers, I’m a thankful author! What will the future hold? Even my tale spinning and determination can’t control that. So… what is your superpower? I’d love to hear about your superpower in the comments.

Alas, I need to get back to my writing cave where deadlines loom, so let’s see what the other authors in this blog challenge claim as their Superpower. L&SR

Click on cover to read more or purchase.

Pssst… While you’re here, don’t forget to check out my paranormal romance/mysteries click here. Don’t miss my Autumn Sale! Another of my award winning books, AN ANGEL’S UNINTENTIONAL ENTANGLEMENT, on sale now for 99¢! Be swept away in a magical, romantic, fantasy adventure that you’ll never want to leave! download your copy today!

Teaser from An Angel’s Unintentional Entanglement – Where Warrior Angel, Caden goes, trouble follows until he discovers a badly beaten woman barely clinging to life. Unprepared for the entanglement she brings to his doorstep, will he move heaven and earth to save her?

During my walk, I discovered a couple of men searching the area where I found you. It sounded like they were involved with what happened to you. Feel up to looking at a couple of sketches to see if you recognize them?”

Her eyes rounded, and she drew her bottom lip though her teeth. “I don’t know,” she said wincing again, her voice trembling.

He considered her response for a moment. “Well, I’m afraid, you really don’t have a choice. Someone wants you dead and enlisted the help of the two men I saw to make sure the deed is done.”

Any color that had returned to Mystic’s face drained away.

Next week on the blog challenge Authors I Wish More People Knew About. LOL Do you have one? I’d love to hear from you.

Posted in My Say What Blog and tagged #L&SR #WednesdayBlogChallenge 9-18-19, An Angel's Unintentional Entanglement, determination, Mystery, Paranormal Romance, Superpower, Tena Stetler by Tena Stetler with 7 comments.

Sep 10th Wow, in RMNP Mother Nature Continues to Thwart our Plans

You’ll remember back in June we traveled to Lake Tahoe to find three inches of snow at our camp ground and snow flurries during our stay. Heck we left Colorado the end of May amid 10 inches of snow. Well, Mother Nature continues to frown on us.

Mueller State Park as the fog lifts

Don’t get me wrong, our camping trips this year were still wonderful. A time to unplug and relax, but sometimes it was harder than others. Trips to Mueller State Park and Cheyenne Mountain State Parks were fantastic. However…

RMNP camping site view from behind our fifth wheel

For Labor Day Weekend, we packed up the new fifth wheel and hit the road for Rocky Mountain National Park. Usually one of our favorite camping trips. It’s a dry camping destination, in other words no power, sewer, and water is only available at several locations within the park but not at each campsite. Which is normally just fine with us. We have solar panels on the fifth wheel which meets our needs. The only thing not available by solar is air conditioning. Now who would have thought you’d need air conditioning in RMNP in September at over 9,000 feet? We sure didn’t. However, we would be wrong. The weather forecasters predicted 70 for the highs. Wrong. It was 88 to 90 degrees at our camp site during the day. We arrived Friday evening at dusk. The day time temp was cooling down, so we opened the windows in the fifth wheel, started a campfire, and relaxed toasting marshmallows and making s’mores.

Mystic, Wow would you look at this view!

We spent the following days of the holiday weekend driving the roads in RMNP in the comfort of our air conditioned truck. Why you ask? Because the sweltering heat inside the fifth wheel (no AC) was just to dang hot until evening. Hiking early, early morning was okay, but once the sun was up for a few hours, too hot for humans, dog, parrot and turtle. Yep, we became nocturnal campers. LOL

The drive up Trail Ridge Road was interesting, not nearly as many sightings of elk and other wild life as previous years. Too dang hot. They were bedded down somewhere in the shade below timberline. Even at the top of Trail Ridge Road, around 12,200 feet in altitude it was still warm enough to be comfortable in shorts, flip flops and tank tops. Weird. Usually coats, jeans, and shoes are required up there in September. Not this year.

The evenings were cool and the elk, deer, and other wild life wandered the meadows and crossed the creek in the moonlight.

Mystic checking out our picnic site

Even though we were inconvenienced by the heat, RMNP is still spectacular. But next year, we’ll try scheduling our RMNP camping trip for later in September. A bit of snow and cold, we can handle—heat, not so much.

Just one more camping trip left this season, then heartbreak of winterizing the fifth wheel and putting it in storage until next year’s camping adventures.