Last weekend I was at my brother Max’s home in the city, San Francisco. My husband Teddy and I were there. 15 year old Clara was at her grandparents who live within walking distance from Max.

Note: Halloween is almost here (along with my birthday) so I should be writing some laugh out loud posts. Thank you to everyone who IS writing funny things because I truly appreciate it. Thank goodness for those funny quilt blocks I posted earlier today. Anyway, it has been a long and busy and emotionally draining month… but we managed to take a break. Yes, even Modern Vampires like us need a break. We’re not disgusting blood sucking machines like in the movies. And please forgive any typographical errors or less than wonderful writing. I’m writing fast just to get this down before the idea escapes my head, like a ghost in the night.

Max, for…

On a crisp October night,

Eve, a girl of singular beauty and spirit,

refused as the 5th daughter to marry

a man

not of her choice.

It was a good match,

for someone else,

but not for her.

The thought of living under his roof,

be it in luxury,

made her think that she was

nor more than property

or a child

or something other than herself.

The idea of him touching her

or going dying in childbirth

like her sister

made her ill.

All Hollows Eve

So lovely Eve, the dark eyed girl with the musical laugh, walked out into the night to the old church yard. There she met the nephew of her neighbor, a young man with golden hair and happy blue eyes. He dried her tears with a rose scented handkerchief and told her that her fate was hers.

Eve said she would marry him…

Let’s have some Halloween FUN!!!!

More cut and color paper dolls from Vampire Maman.

Today we have PUNKIN-HEADS ready to get dressed up for a night on the town!

~ Juliette aka Vampire Maman

I walked through the massive building feeling like I was in a cattle yard or an insane house of horrors or just lost.

The years have taken me through market places all over the world. Places of odd smells and sounds with weird paths and turns that have had me lost for hours.

Yesterday I was in a fog under ceilings with strange gray light, thick air, narrow isles and too much for me to take in or want to take in.

I was bringing flowers to a friend in the hospital. I needed a vase. I stopped at a HUGE Wal-Mart by the hospital. It was two stories and it was nuts. I never get hot. In fact I tend to be cool and level-headed at all times, but with the temperature almost 100 degrees F outside and me… well, me being a creature who naturally shuns the bright lights…

Please welcome Alicia Benton from Imperfectly Perfect with a story of surviving domestic violence. It was originally published on Black Box Warnings, but since that site is gone, we’re reposting it here.

Trigger warning: this post talks about domestic violence. This is not an easy post to read, but it’s an important one and there is a happy ending since she’s still here to talk about it.

He is screaming at me so close to my face that I can feel his spit. I close my eyes and hold my breath.

He is wrapping his hands around my neck and squeezing tighter and tighter. I start to see spots.

He is grabbing my hair and shoving my head in the toilet. I try not to breathe, but I have to gasp for air.

He pulls the car over to the side of the road and demands that I get…

Don’t cross a Werewolf.

Like my brother Max always says, “I have a dog. Why the Hell would I want to date one?” OK that isn’t his exact words. He says “Why the Hell would I want to fuck one?” I like to at least give the pretense of being polite.

When it comes to the subject of WEREWOLVES  we’re all over the place. We meaning Vampires. By all over the place I mean that we accept them, we live with them and from time to time we’re even friends with them but NEVER are we romantically involved (not that we know of). And of course we don’t have big battles in dark woods or dark caverns with cosplay type costumes. We talk out our problems. Otherwise we’d be like Regular Humans, and heaven forbid we be like them. Of course there might be a little occasional growling or biting but…