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Elizabeth Fais

Monthly Archives: October 2012

Famous Haunts in Historic Hotels

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Ghosts, Historic, Paranormal

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Celebrity Haunts, Famous Hauntings, Frank L Baum, Ghosts, Historic Hotels, Hotel del Coronado, Jack Lemmon, Kate Morgan, Marilyn Monroe, Roosevelt Hotel, Some Like It Hot, Tony Curtis, Wizard of OZ

Beneath the glitz and glamour of some of the ritziest historic hotels, a spectral current runs deep. The Hotel Del Coronado and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel both have legendary haunts that are more famous than their living residents.

A Victorian Ghost at the Hotel Del Coronado

The Hotel Del Coronado (The Del), located in sunny Coronado, California, has been a destination spot for the rich and famous since it opened in 1888. Frank L. Baum, lived at The Del while writing The Wizard of OZ. Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon stayed at The Del during the filming of the famous screwball comedy, “Some Like it Hot“. Presidents and royalty have also frequented the luxury resort over the years. But…

The most famous resident of the Victorian resort is a ghosT:

Kate Morgan checked into the resort on November 24, 1892, and never checked out. Ghostly happenings in the room where she stayed have been reported ever since.

You can read the ghostly details in the book dedicated to this famous Victorian ghost: Beautiful Stranger: The Ghost of Kate Morgan and the Hotel del Coronado.

Kate Morgan’s suicide at the Hotel del Coronado in November 1892 generated publicity throughout the state. Little was known about her identity, so she was dubbed the “Beautiful Stranger”. It was later discovered that Kate had checked into the hotel under an assumed name, increasing her mystique. She became instantly famous. People everywhere wondered why she had traveled to the Hotel del Coronado only to kill herself. To this day, her story is famous at The Del. [image credits: Wikipedia]

Celebrity Haunts at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is the historic Spanish-style hotel located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, in Los Angeles, California. Its doors opened on May 15, 1927, and immediately became the meeting ground for the brightest stars in Hollywood. Some of whom stayed on long after their deaths.

Take Marilyn Monroe…

Marilyn Monroe regularly stayed in room 246, which overlooked the pool. A mirror which once hung in her room, is said to be haunted by her spirit. In December 1985, a maid was dusting the mirror when she saw a blonde woman standing directly behind her reflected in the glass. She turned to speak to the woman, but no one was there. When she turned back, the reflection was again behind her. [image credit: Wikipedia]

Marilyn’s Monroe’s ghost doesn’t appear to be limited to haunting the mirror that once hung in her room, however. Numerous people have reported spotting her spectral image in the Blossom Ballroom dancing or posing.

Don’t believe me? Check out the video.

Or better yet, pay a visit to the Roosevelt Hotel and meet Marilyn yourself.



have you Ever had a spectral encounter?

Do tell!

We’re dying to know.


The Paranormal Scary-Fun WINNER!

29 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

First of all, a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by Fabio Bueno’s YAmondAY blog last week. Each and every one of you rock!

Fabio Bueno did the honors of selecting the winner for the free GIVEWAY, one of the three YA paranormal novels featured in that post. Winner’s choice. For those of you with an attention span as  short as mine, here are the covers:

And the WINNER is….

Drum roll please…

~*~

Tosses copious amounts of sparkly confetti!

*********

!!! BRITTANY !!!

~*~


YA Paranormal Scary-Fun GIVEAWAY!

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Paranormal, Young Adult

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Fabio Bueno, Hex Hall, Kiersten White, Meg Cabot, Paranormalcy, Rachel Hawkins, Scary Fun, The Mediator, YA

Today I’m hanging out with the illustrious Fabio Bueno for YAmondAY, and we’re having some scary fun with YA paranormal reads.

Stop by for laughs, chills, and thrills. After all, ’tis the season… Halloween is just around the corner!

A Treat of a GIVEAWAY!

Leave a comment on today’s YAmondAY blog before MIDNIGHT Friday, October 26th for a chance to win a FREE copy of one of the following books … YOUR CHOICE!


No tricks, only treats. Promise!

Fiction Fatalities: The Serial Plot Killer

13 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Fiction Fatalities, Story

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Beat Sheet, Blake Snyder, Fiction Fatalities, Serial Plot Killer, Story, Writing

Mistakes that Murder Stories

Sit through enough critique sessions with a group of writers and you’ll soon see that we all make the same mistakes. Eventually.

But here’s the rub…

It’s always easier to spot mistakes in someone else’s story. In fact, it’s the mistakes that jump out at us in someone else’s work that we are most prone to make ourselves. I should know. Been there. Done that. And went back … more than once. And I’m not talking about misplaced commas, either. These mistakes can literally murder a story. Exposing these hooligans for what they are–fiction fatalities–is the only way to stop them.

Today’s smack down is with my own worst offender … The Serial Plot Killer.

When More Isn’t Better…

The old adage that “more is better” doesn’t work so well with fiction. The Serial Plot Killer is proof of that. Multiple main plots competing for the attention of the reader ends up killing the overall story. This happens when each plot is strong enough to be its own solid story, and the results is like a yelling match: “Follow me! Follow me! Follow me!”

No way is this kind of “more” better. It’s just more confusing. Readers won’t be able to figure out who or what to care about. Then you lose them.

An example of a personal plot faux pas was when I pitched a logline to Blake Snyder (in one of his Beat Sheet Workshops), and Blake just shook his head. I was bewildered by his negative reaction until he explained, “It’s Turner & Hooch or Miss Congeniality. You can’t have both.” He was right too. I was trying to tell two stories at once. I wasn’t the only one in that class who made that mistake either. A fellow sitting next to me admitted to adding his extra plot during revision, because he thought it would make his story more interesting. I’ve done that one too. In fact, it’s what I’m fixing in this revision of my current work in progress (WIP), hence this post.

This Fiction Fatality is hard for me to shake, because it dazzles and promises to make the story sparkle like the Emerald City. This is especially true during a second or third revision, when I’m way too familiar with the story. It’s easy to think that a new plot idea will be just the zing the story needs to make it bright shiny again. It might … but watch out. It’s more likely to be the Serial Plot Killer ninja-ing its way into the story to ensure it meets a murderous end.

This is why I feel critiques and beta reads are vitally important. They’ll expose the Serial Plot Killer for what it truly is … fatal confusion.


What story problems keep ninja-ing your writing?

You might be surprised at how many of us encounter the same problems!


Cartoon Laws of Physics

02 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Animation, Cartoons

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Cartoon Physics, O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion, Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote

A Laugh That Goes Around, Stays Around

I wish I could take credit for the cartoon laws of physics, but I can’t. This list was originally known as  “O’Donnell’s Laws of Cartoon Motion”, published in Esquire, June 1980. It’s been circling the internet ever since, proving the previously unwritten (at least until now) law: A laugh that goes around, stays around.

10 Immutable Laws of Cartoon Motion

  1. Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation.
  2. Any body in motion will tend to remain in motion until solid matter intervenes suddenly.Cartoon Physics
  3. Any body passing through solid (or less than solid) matter leaves a perforation conforming to its perimeter. The threat of skunks or matrimony often catalyzes this reaction. Though, falling from extreme heights also works.
  4. The time required for an object to fall twenty stories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it off the ledge to spiral down twenty flights to attempt to capture it unbroken.
  5. All principles of gravity are negated by fear.
  6. As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once.
  7. Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot. Especially the one who painted the entrance (read Wile E. Coyote) to trick an opponent (read Roadrunner).
  8. Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent. Cartoon cats can be decimated, spliced, splayed, accordion-pleated, spindled, or disassembled, but they cannot be destroyed. Ever.
  9. Everything falls faster than an anvil.
  10. For every vengeance there is an equal and opposite revengeance.

That’s Not All Folks … See The Laws in Action!

I wasn’t able to find one cartoon that demonstrated all 10 Laws of Cartoon Physics. However, you can enjoy watching most of them in action in the following Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner shorts.

And by the way …

Who’s your favorite cartoon character?


The Fast and the Furry-ous


Soup or Sonic


Whizzard of OW


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