Guinea Pig Surprise - The Surprise

Be sure to see Episode 1 - The Plan and Episode 2 - One week away

Guinea Pig Surprise - One Week Away

Be sure to see Episode 1 - The Plan

The surprise is planned for November 18th, 2011

Guinea Pig Surprise - The Plan

See Episode 2 - One week away

Halloween Horror Poster Competition

I created this image for a Halloween Horror Poster Competition, on the Lyons New Media Centre Facebook page! I'm in need of votes and they have to be in before Oct. 31, 2011.

Click here to see it in full and vote : http://bit.ly/sKMMFO

JACK-O-LANTERNS - An Acrostic Poem

I've posted this acrostic poem before but I thought I'd post is again since it fits the occasion.

JACK-O-LANTERNS
by Madeline Barr

Jagged tooth grin
And nothing to say.
Candy he guards,
Keeping ghouls away.

Orange, cool armor he wears. His

Life, an internal light.
Armed with an eerie glow and the
Natural darkness of night.
Triangular, flashing eyes
Examine the area for miles.
Relentlessly protecting the sweet treats but
Never forgetting to
Smile!

Dream Soup

I had the strangest dream last night. I dreamed I received an acceptance letter in the form of soup. Yes, SOUP.

I got it from the mailbox and it was chicken soup with pasta words. As I stirred the soup the pasta words floated around with the chunks of chicken and carrots. The words started to surface so I could actually read them. YOUR was the first word, then SUBMISSION. As I kept stirring the word that had surfaced just bobbled around a bit but didn't move. HAS and BEEN joined the first two words. The next word was long and stared with an A.

ACCEPTED!



I kept stirring thinking it was a joke and waited for the word NOT to pop into place but it never did. I was so happy I stared to cry. 

Then I woke up.
I can come up with a few meanings for this dream but I want to know what you think.

Pumpkin Carvings

Quick post.

I love Halloween. One of my favorite things to do is carve the pumpkin. Usually we get 3 pumpkins; one for each of the kids and one for me. We have to get one for me or else I'm hovering over the kids telling them how to carve theirs and that's not good for them or me. I usually carve a fun cartoon character because I have young kids. As they get older I will move to more scary stuff.

Here are 2 pictures of pumpkins I have carved in previous years. I either make my own template or I don't use one at all.. I have also done Tigger and Dora - I'll have to see if I can find the picture of those.

2010 - Tinkerbell

2009 - Elmo

I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do this year. Maybe OSO? Any other suggestions?


UPDATE: November 2013's pumpkin carving was Dory from Finding Nemo.

UPDATE: November 2011's pumpkin carving was Handy Manny. Sorry about the picture quality.

Back In The Saddle and Accepted

For those of you who follow me on twitter (@MadelineBarr) know my family is number one and, for them, I would put my whole life  and everything else I love on hold. When life smooths out I pickup where I left off and keep on chugging.


I'm back into writing, editing and submitting and couldn't be happier.


I have recently received an acceptance email from Scifiakuest on a horrorku I submitted. It will be published August 2012 in their print edition and I'm pleased.


I'm now working on a cover letter and polishing 2 more poems for submission elsewhere. There is also a 
short story I want to beef up and trim down and get it looking polished for submitting.


I the words of James Brown, "I feel good!"

It's Funny Because It's True

Posted from http://www.xkcd.com/

Evacuation

Those of you who follow me on twitter @MadelineBarr would have noticed there was some excitement for me today. What happened? Allow me to start at the beginning.

I was at my day job at the university, sitting in my office at the computer, when there was a pounding on my door. As I spun my chair around I could hear the beep of a swipe card. The person at the door had access to my office and was coming in, so I didn't bother getting up. It was my coworker who wasn't smiling as she usually does.

She sounded a little out of breath, "We might be getting evacuated. Gather your things and be ready!"

We're being what? "Evacuated! What's going on?" I said.

"I don't know. I was just told to let everyone know." She looked a little worried. Of course now my brain goes into overdrive. Is this a drill? No, she looked too worried. A Fire? The alarm isn't going. A gunman? I didn't have a rationalization for that one.

"Ok, thanks." She closes my door. I stand up, get my purse out of the cabinet, grab my jacket and shutdown my computer. When I step out into the hallway I see a number of my office-mates in the hallway. "Are you guys leaving?"

"Um, ya. I'm not hanging around with that going on." That? What is 'that?' My office donesn't have windows so I realized he's seen something outside.

My adrenaline is running, hands are shaking and I can hear my heart beat in my head like it has replaced my brain. Fight or flight, my body was ready.

Then I see my supervisor. "C'mon everyone out. We're being evacuated! Start heading South to Main Street or to one of the side streets to the East."

"What's going on?" I ask as I sling on my jacket.

"I'm not sure but there are police outside with gas-masks telling us to get out. Go South or East. " She waves people to the stairs.

Gas-masks! Fantastic.

Down the stairs and out the front doors with 2 of my coworkers. We pass 3 officers with gas masks. There is a table setup outside with food from one of the university's 'Welcome Week' events. A police officer's comments are muffled as he talks through his gas-mask telling the coordinating of the event that all the food needs be thrown out. What's going on?

We head to the East to wait for further instructions. I send a couple of tweet but between walking and my hands shaking, I'm having a hard time typing on my BlackBerry. As we walk across the campus we can see all the university entrances are blocked by police cars. We see caution tape roping off parts of buildings and hear the sirens of at least two fire truck in the West. The rumours begin to fly. Nuclear leak from the reactor. Chemical spill from one of the science buildings. Clear, odorous, poisonous gas leak from a broken line. As we pass city bus stops on campus we kindly inform the waiting people no buses are coming on campus and they should walk to the next bus stop on the street. Finally, we are told it's going to be a couple of hours before we get back into our building and to go home.

It's a long walk to my car. I park in the West parking lot and I have to go around the roped off area. As I head to the car I see the police cars blocking the roads and the fire trucks at a one of the buildings. A normally busy street is naked.

Home and safe I watch the 6 o'clock news to learn it was a gas leak scare but everything was fine. A researcher was purging a tank filled nitrogen, as he should, and while doing this an alarm was sounded. The researcher, the university and police and fire services followed the correct procedures. I was please to hear that it was really nothing major and nobody was hurt. I know the ending isn't spectacular, but when the whole event is rolling out and we didn't know what's happening, it was pretty scary.

We fear the unknown.