Update: The winner is…Jillian! Congrats, Jillian!

One of the fun things about Halloween (to me, anyway!) is the spooky food.  During the rest of the year, folks strive to make food pretty. Not so with Halloween. At Halloween, it’s the yuckier (and scarier), the better.

A few of my favorites?

1. Mummy dogs–this one is so easy.  It’s like a big version of pigs-in-a-blanket.  You wrap hot dogs (franks) in crescent rolls (this is my method, but others have different tips).  Wrap the rolls around the dogs as if you were wrapping up a mummy. Put the wrapped treats in the oven and bake as per the directions on the roll package. Then, bam–your own mummy dogs.

2. Dirt cake is another favorite at my house.  Get a great chocolate cake mix. Bake. When it’s all done, use a thick, chocolate icing and cover that baby with gummy worms. Your result? Super tasty dirt cake.

3. Rebecca Zanetti told me about these very interesting brain cupcakes. They’re so cute–I’d almost hate to eat them. (Hmmm…maybe cute isn’t the right word!)

4. Want to make some yummy, edible eyeballs? Check out this video to see all the fun details.  Cause you know you want to go and munch on some eyeballs today.

5. And, of course, what Halloween celebration would be complete without some punch? I like to pour kool-aid inside a clear, plastic glove and then let that glove freeze overnight.  The next morning, I cut away the glove, and I have the perfect shape of a bloody hand (or, as I like to think of it, a flesh-free hand).  I put that hand right in the middle of my punch, and the hand slowly melts during the party. Awesome.

Have I mentioned how much I love Halloween?  🙂  If you’ve got a favorite recipe, please share!  I’ll pick one random commenter to win a Cynthia Eden book of her/his choice!

It’s so fun to be here to kick off Cynthia’s Halloween Blog Party!

I am a huge fan of October – the trees are changing, leaves are falling, weather’s cooling and I have an excuse to break out the jeans, sweaters and snazzy boots I’ve been missing since winter.  And then, of course…there’s Halloween! Who doesn’t love Halloween?  The costumes, the candy, the trick-or-treating fun. I even like a good monster now and then. Oh, I’m not one of those people (like Cynthia!!) who likes to be scared senseless, but I do love a good creepy monster.

There’s something about a scary monster on the big screen that stays with you long after a movie is over. Some of my favs include:

Jaba the Hut from Star Wars – Okay, yeah. He looked like a big giant turd, but he was twisted and that made him memorable.
The orcs from The Lord of the Rings – Nasty looking creatures with really bad teeth. For some reason I couldn’t look away from the teeth.
The bug from Men in Black – Especially when it turned into the giant cockroach at the end and ate Tommy Lee Jones. Ew.
The Kraken from Clash of the Titans – Thank God that thing isn’t real or I’d never set foot on a boat.
Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park – I nearly came out of my seat when he flashed on screen.
King Kong – A classic that just can’t be ignored.
The aliens in Independence Day – Creepy ESP abilities.
The alien in Alien – No one but Sigourney Weaver could have fought this thing.
The genetically twisted human monsters in I Am Legend – This movie gave me nightmares for a week. I vowed to stop avoiding the doctor and get every immunization I needed.

How about you? Who are some of your favorite monsters from movies or books? In honor of Cynthia’s Halloween bash I’ve got a book to give away today! Since I write about my own twisted monsters from the Underworld, I’ll give one commenter their choice – either a copy of MARKED, book one in my Eternal Guardians Series or ENTWINED, which just released in August.

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A previous junior-high science teacher, Elisabeth Naughton now writes sexy romantic adventure and paranormal novels full time from her home in western Oregon where she lives with her husband and three children. Her debut release, Stolen Fury, heralded by Publisher’s Weekly as “A rock-solid debut,” was recently nominated for two prestigious RITA® awards by Romance Writers of America in the Best First Book category and the Best Romantic Suspense category. When not writing, Elisabeth can be found running, hanging out at the ball park or dreaming up new and exciting adventures. Visit the author’s website at www.elisabethnaughton.com.

My Halloween Blog Party kicks off tomorrow!!  I can’t believe it, but tomorrow is October 1st. Ah, October, one of my very favorite months. A time for haunting and monsters and just…fun.

For my Blog Party, you can expect lots of fabulous guests…some fun prizes…excerpts, recipes, costume guides–for the month of October, my blog will only be about the paranormal or about Halloween. So get ready to get that Halloween groove on!

And, for the last five days in October, I will be posting a paranormal round robin story. My wonderful friends (and very talented authors) have joined me in creating this tale–so you’ll get to read a story by me, Shelli Stevens, Juliana Stone, Jess Granger, and Rebecca Zanetti.

So please check back in during the month of October.  Come join the party!

And wait! There’s more fun coming, too…

October will be an awesome month!

It’s book release day! My holiday anthology, THE NAUGHTY LIST, should be available in a bookstore near you (or it should be shipping for your fave online retailer).

Here’s the back cover blurb

“Naughty But Nice” by Donna Kauffman

Businessman Griffin’s never believed in luck…until sassy-sweet small-town baker Melody turns his world around. Except there’s a catch: There’s no way he’ll be able to build his empire and hold on to her. His new “lucky charm” could destroy all his dreams…or make this Christmas better than he ever imagined possible…

“All I Want for Christmas” by Cynthia Eden

Good girl toy inventor Christie takes a walk on the naughty side when she sparks a no-strings fling with Santa—actually, sexy cop Jonas in a Santa suit. She loves her new “bad girl” persona, except as the holidays approach, she starts falling, and hard, for this known “love ’em and leave ’em” ladies man…

“Tattoos and Mistletoe” by Susan Fox

Charlie returns to her hometown to fix up her aunt’s B&B, but she doesn’t count on LJ handling the renovations. Nerdy LJ pined for her in school, but now he’s grown into the town’s hottest bachelor. Charlie’s been burned before and won’t let him get close. But LJ’s determined to break down her walls and make her dearest Christmas wish come true.

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I loved writing “All I Want For Christmas”–the story really put me in the holiday mood (I wrote it last November, so I was all about decking the halls then).  It was also fun to write about a city that actually received snow during the holidays–a totally alien experience for me!

You can check out an except from THE NAUGHTY LIST here.

Thanks!  I do love release days!

My lovely editor recently let me know that the first two books in my Midnight trilogy (HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT & MIDNIGHT SINS) sold to Japan!  Can’t wait to see  those covers!