The big wick end!

I mean, this is the big week-end! My wife, Jane the Voodoo Queen (who hoodoo-ed me one Halloween) comes back home from family business after NINE 1/2 WEEKS.

Yeah, she'll look like Kim Basinger to me-- and I'll look like Mickey Rourke to her...from The Wrestler!


I'll be glad to see her, but her familiar won't:

She's been queen of the house while Jane's away.

And-- this is the weekend that the Rondo Award voting results get announced! (On Sunday.) IF YOU HAVEN'T VOTED, YOU HAVE UNTIL TOMORROW, SATURDAY APRIL 3RD AT MIDNIGHT. And if ya haven't, FOR THE LOVA GAWD WILL YA?

TDSH is nominated for "Best Blog," and I'm also nominated for "Best Magazine Article" (for "The Art of Linda Miller," SCARLET, issue #3.)

You can see an online version of my article-- which I'm very proud of-- HERE.

If you'd like to vote for me in either the blog or article category, here's how to vote.

You may see the ballot and instructions HERE

OR HERE.

You do NOT have to vote the entire ballot. Just the categories you are familiar with or care to vote for. Write up an e-mail. Make sure you include your name for your vote to count.

If you know anyone who might enjoy my blog or article, let 'em know about the vote! ("Please," he said, with sad doe eyes looking intently at the reader.)

The latest addition to my back yard

When the snow falls heavily and covers the ground well , I feel afraid of what might lie beneath it, lurking. Well, the snow got pretty deep in places in here in Pittsburgh this month--a pretty, silent, white blanket piled up over everything. It was so beautiful and picturesque that it seemed to make the outdoors seem so, well...safe.

But hoo boy, was I wrong!

By late last Saturday afternoon, the top few inches of snow had melted away. As the sun started to sink below the horizon, I began hearing faint "crrr crrr" sounds in my back yard. What was it, I wondered? Hibernating groundhogs stirring? (I have seen a few here last Spring.)

But then I began hearing what sounded like soft chuckles--

I called for my wife Jane to protect me, of course. (A severed head has no choice but to be a coward, being defenseless.) Thank Cthulhu she knows powerful voodoo!

She went to investigate. Fortunately, she took our camera, and so was able to capture a rare picture of a Fossor Non Mortuis (or "ghoul clown," as some of the locals around here call the murderous pests) as it was breaking free of the snow:

She quickly hexed the hell out of it (with a charm involving circus peanuts, seltzer water, and eye of newt), and it died before getting free of its confinement in the cold, crusty cover.

The thing's still out back, and I'm leaving it there as a pleasant yard decoration. I'm sure the littlest youngsters in the neighborhood will get a kick out of its festive face. I know I do, now that it can't won't eat me! I sure I hope it doesn't start stinking anytime soon. (I'd have to douse it with alcohol, and I don't wanna share.)

It lifts my spirits to see it there--now I'm whistling John Phillips Sousa tunes around the house!

Hey, wait-- something just occurred to me: can dead ghoul clowns become zombies?

Art by the Voodoo Queen

My bride of nearly four years, Jane the Voodoo Queen, decamped to sunny Florida a coupla weeks ago on family business, and I am lonely.

And overwhelmed by housework! When you're just a head, it's rough as a cob, as my grandmother used to say. (She grew up in an era where people in the country had outhouses.) Have you ever tried sweeping a floor with a broom handle in your TEETH?)

Anyway, Jane is an artist, but hadn't done portraits in ages. But has taken up her long-unused pencils and sketch pad this past year and a half, and I thought I'd share the results with you here. All were of actors with notable horror credits. Click on the picture to see it in a larger size.

Irving Pichel and Gloria Holden from DRACULA'S DAUGHTER:


Sir Christopher Lee:


Peter Lorre from MAD LOVE:


Christopher Walken:

I like the expressiveness of the eyes in her drawings.

And I like the expressiveness in her eyes--and I want her to get done soon and come home!

To tide you over--

The Voodoo Queen and I on a recent outing with some friends we dig.