{"id":4577,"date":"2011-10-27T18:01:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-28T00:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alannacoca.com\/?p=4577"},"modified":"2014-08-01T02:38:20","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T08:38:20","slug":"ripped-roaring-halloween-hop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/ripped-roaring-halloween-hop","title":{"rendered":"Ripped Roaring Halloween Hop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome! I’m not sure if you noticed, but I changed my website up a little bit since the last JustRomance.Me hop. What do you think? \u00c2\u00a0Tweaking my website is one of the easiest ways to procrastinate on rewrites or new works! \u00c2\u00a0I’m glad you found the Ripped Roaring Halloween Hop. If you need help finding the beginning, just head on over to JustRomance.Me<\/a> to get started. At the end, you’ll find an entry form where you can enter to win a plethora of prizes, including a Kindle! Who doesn’t need a Kindle?<\/p>\n

For this post, I used the Scene Generator, and got the following prompts:<\/p>\n

These are your characters: Ghost, Nurse, Bank robber<\/span>
\nThese adjectives describe them, one per character. Picky, Exhausted, Beautiful<\/span>
\nThis is your setting: Salon\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

****<\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

“Hail Mary, full of grace…”<\/p>\n

Lara closed her eyes so no one would notice them rolling. Heather sat in her scrubs, rocking in a fetal position\u00c2\u00a0 like a four-year-old in\u00c2\u00a0time out. If she heard the Hail Mary one more time, Lara was going to scream. “How about some coffee?”<\/p>\n

The nurse looked at her, brows knit together and mouth agape. “Coffee? At a time like this?”<\/p>\n

Lara shrugged. “We’ll be here for a while. Might as well get comfortable.” Lara had never spent any amount of time on the floor of her salon. While the nurse she’d been blow drying sat praying, Lara made a mental note of the dust and gum beneath the chairs.<\/p>\n

“I only drink Starbucks. Caramel latte with fat free milk. And I won’t drink out of a Styrofoam cup.” Heather went back to praying, but at least now it was under her breath.<\/p>\n

“Will you two keep it down?” The man who held them captive groaned. Lara knew he wasn’t going to hurt them. In fact she could swear that the gun he kept waving around wasn’t even loaded. Marvin Milquetoast<\/em>-turned bank robber. If this wasn’t her salon, she’d probably just stand up and walk out. Maybe take that black duffle bag with her.<\/p>\n

“The police left an hour ago. I’m not sure what you’re waiting for.” Lara brushed hair clippings from her jeans. She’d been awake since four o’clock this morning, and after three color appointments and two squirming toddlers, Lara couldn’t help but be a little grateful for the break.<\/p>\n

Marvin scratched his head with the barrel of the gun. “I’m waiting for a sign. I want to make sure it’s safe.”<\/p>\n

Lara smiled. So he wants a sign.<\/em> She took a deep breath and focused on the entity. \u00c2\u00a0Shireah was a beautiful ghost who’d kept Lara company on slow days in the salon. She was also a bit mischievous, and loved to play tricks on Lara’s clients. She seemed to know which human she could mess with, and which to leave alone. Take Heather–Shireah would never show herself to the skittish nurse, but there were a few clients on a first name basis with the ghost. \u00c2\u00a0None of them could communicate with her the way Lara could.<\/p>\n

“What the…” Marvin stood up so suddenly, the folding chair he was perched upon clattered to the floor behind him. “What’s going on?”<\/p>\n

Lara opened her eyes. Shireah stood before Marvin, her usual pearly visage had taken on a dark red hue. Very nice.<\/em> Lara covered her smile with one hand. The ghost moved toward the bank robber, floating over the tile in the fluid yet creepy way that Lara wished she could do herself. Marvin backed away, mumbling and shaking his head.<\/p>\n

“That’s her!” Heather’s mouth dropped open. Rather than screaming in terror like Lara imagined, Heather was in awe. She’d even unfolded herself and relaxed for the first time in an hour. “That’s your ghost!”<\/p>\n

Lara shrugged as she watched Shireah all but push Marvin out the front door. “She’s not really mine.”<\/p>\n

“But I’ve heard about her. Everyone says your salon is haunted. I never believed them, but…”<\/p>\n

“What should we do with the money?” Shareah’s voice was as beautiful as her spirit. The soft whisper floated through the room and caressed Lara’s ears.<\/p>\n

Marvin was gone. Through the window Lara saw him running through the street screaming. She stood up, stretching her cramped muscles. “Thanks for your help, Shareah. He was getting on my nerves.”<\/p>\n

“You should have called earlier. I thought maybe you had a crush on him.”<\/p>\n

Lara laughed, then shook her head. “Shareah, this is Heather. A nurse at Burry Memorial Hospital.”<\/p>\n

Shareah floated over toward the nurse, who closed her eyes and smiled as the spirit swirled around her. Lara didn’t think she’d ever seen the woman so at peace.<\/p>\n

“As for the money,” Lara raised one eyebrow, “I’m sure the \u00c2\u00a0bank wouldn’t miss a few dollars. How does Starbucks sound?”<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0****<\/h1>\n

I really wanted to write a scary post for Halloween, but I guess I’m just not cut out for that. Thanks for stopping by. Good luck in the drawing, and I hope to see you Sunday night in Gem Sivad’s Chat Room!<\/a> I’ll be there posting excerpts and talking shop with the other authors.<\/p>\n

Happy Halloween!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome! I’m not sure if you noticed, but I changed my website up a little bit since the last JustRomance.Me hop. What do you think? \u00c2\u00a0Tweaking my website is one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3WdCY-1bP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alannacoca.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}