Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Guest Post & Giveaway with Jillian Chantal


Today I want to welcome the awesome  Jillian Chantal... take it away Jillian


First I want to say thanks to my awesome hostess for letting me guest blog today. I love to check out this site and see what’s up and I’m thrilled to be here again as a guest.

Halloween is my favorite time of year. I love everything about it. The crispness in the days(well, some of the days anyway as I live in Northwest Florida), the colors changing, the scary movies on all the channels (so many to choose from), the corn mazes, haunted houses, caramel apples, and all that other good stuff. 




Speaking of scary and creepy, I learned a really funny thing about my hometown when my son started driving. He found a short-cut to his best friend’s house and was telling me about it. He described how dark and creepy this road was at night because there are no street lights and there’s one house that has a green glowing light somewhere on it that’s all he can see as he drives around the curve of the road. When he told me the name of the road, I thought it was awesome and had this picture in my head of a raven or black crow swooping around the area.

The other day, I asked him to show me this road I’d never been on or heard of before he told me about it. I want to write a story with this road and the scariness he talked about and I needed to visualize it so I could have the whole picture in my head. I was delighted when we got there to take the photo I’m attaching here. I love it. Could it be more appropriate?

Leave me a comment about your favorite part of Halloween or your favorite costume you’ve worn and I’ll pick a winner to receive a Halloween surprise package from me.  

You can find me on the web here: http://jillianchantal.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/JillianChantal

Thanks for letting me come by to visit. 

Jillian is giving away a Halloween goodie package to one commenter. Good luck and thanks for stopping by again Jillian :) 

29 comments:

  1. Thanks again for having me. I love hanging out over here.

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  2. Great Post, Jillian!

    My favorite part? The chocolate (of course)!

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  3. Ha! That is a very well placed sign, and the name of the road fits in so perfectly! Not so sure I would willing drive on it though...kudos to your son for trying it in the dark!

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  4. Thanks Connie. And yeah, chocolate is a good byproduct of the holiday. Lol
    Lexi- it is such an awesome sign. This is the son who at 14 when someone broke in our door, he came in from school and got his rifle and searched the house for the criminal. He was home alone. He's got balls of steel. Scary.

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  5. I love scary movies. Chocolate is also awesome but since the kid is too grown up to trick or treat and we don't get trick or treaters there's not much of it. Love the sign.

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  6. I like scary movies, too- not the gory ones so much, but the suspense ones make me shiver.

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  7. I follow Foxes all over the place.
    So, Gallows Road is a real road sign?
    Very, very cool. And, naturally it has to be a dead end. Is there any local history that this place used to be involved in hangings by the local judiciary?
    In the renovated courthouse -- which became the library I worked in for 26 yrs -- my office was formerly a holding cell for the prisoners awaiting trial.
    Just down the hall, formerly, was the hanging room. Yep. They used to hang prisoners right there in the courthouse.

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  8. Jillian, since I'm in your neck of the woods, I'm going to have to check that street out. In broad daylight of course. I'm a wimp, but I love Halloween. I think it's the festivities and the abundance of caramel. (Love caramel apples!) I love the excuse to wear a costume. (My Medusa costume from last year is one of my favorites.) The fair always comes to town around Halloween and I totally dig an excuse to watch Ghostbusters. One last reason I love this time of year? I got together with my husband on October 30. For me, Halloween is a romantic holiday.

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  9. Jeff- yeah. it's a real street. The funny thing was when my son said he took gallows road to his friend's house, I'd never heard of it and I've lived in this town since I was a jr hih kid. It's actually in a neighborhood of houses built in the 70s. It's in an area that garrisoned troops way out of the city (thus the name Cantonment)- I have no idea if they hung people there. I've never heard that they did. We DO have the old jail/courthouse combo that is now the local theatre (for plays) and it's haunted by the last guy who was hanged there.

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  10. Micki- I love Halloween and yeah, your Medusa costume was wicked cool! I love that you met your spouse this season. I'll take you to Gallows Road anytime. The first sign where you turn on the street, doesn't have Dead end on it- when I was going to get out and take a picture, an old man was walking by and the son wouldnn't let me out- embarassed. But then we drove on down and I bounced out of my seat when I saw the DEAD END part. PERFECT!!

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  11. Not sure I'd want to live on that road. And for sure wouldn't want to have to put it as my address. I love to see the little ones out on Halloween night. They are so serious. And, their parents who are freezing out behind a bush. We live so far off the road now we rarely get Tricker-Treaters. But we always have plenty of candy. JUST IN CASE.

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  12. Lavada. I always have candy too and no one comes. We used to get tons of kids but none sice we moved. Makes me sad as I love that part too.

    I'd not like that as my address either.

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  13. And Lavada, I know it's a sacrifice to have to eat the candy. It always is for me. Lol

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  14. I love the Gallows and Dead End road. I wonder if the highway department saw the poetry when they were putting them up?? :)

    Gotta say, one of the best things about fall are the caramel apples! :D Completely agree with ya on that!!

    rachie2004 AT yah00 D*t c-m

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  15. Brunette librarian. I would bet not. I would hope so. It's too fun to miss.

    Love caramel apples, too.

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  16. Great picture.

    It was all about the candy when I was a kid and it hasn't changed since. I'm surprised how much I like it when the kids ring the bell and I hand out candy. It's probably because I get so few, maybe 2 kids a year if I'm lucky. If the door rang 100 times a night it would probably be different. I always live in apt. buildings which were my favorite places to trick or treat, many opportunities in one spot with no bad weather, so I don't know why we don't get more, even more kids from the building.

    acm05atjuno.com

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  17. Thanks Anne. I loved it.

    I'm wondering if because of all the mall and church activites kids can attend that they've just stopped trick or treating so much. Seems like a lot of us have none or very few come now.

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  18. I live in central Florida and enjoy going to Mickey's Not-Very-Scary Halloween Party AND to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights each year. Thanks for the contest!
    lindalou(at)cfl(dot)rr(dot)com

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  19. Hey Linda. I love both of those. Universal is sometimes too gory for me. Lol. I'm in Pensacola so I have to go a fer piece to get there.

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  20. I love decorating for Halloween. I love setting up our graveyard in the front yard. Thanks for the giveaway!
    jepebATverizonDOTnet

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  21. Decorating is such fun. We have a full size coffin, Jen. Glad you came by and commented.

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  22. I love all the **BUZZ** on the Internet. There is a world of Ghouls, Goblins & Gore just waiting to be found.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  23. Marybelle, awesome choice for favorite thing. You are right about that. For sure.

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  24. Jen b is the winner of the Halloween surprise. I'll email you, Jen for your address or you can send it to me at jillianchantal at gmail dot com

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  25. My favorite costume was one my bff wore when we were children. She wore solid colored footed pajamas and a motorcycle helmet covered in aluminum foil with antennas. She painted her face and and green and was a little green spaceman. well she was a 6 ft little green girl rofl.

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  26. Hi, Jillian.
    Even though I'm past "celebrating" Halloween, I still enjoy the seasonal candy corn (Brach's is best!) I usually only allow myself 1 bag a year, but this year, I'm totally stressed out about my job security, so I said what they hell. Bring on the sugar!! So I'd love to win your Halloween surprise!
    MJB
    msmjb65 AT gmail DOT com

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  27. Great signs! My favorite things about Halloween are the scary movies and, of course, the candy corn. Thanks for the giveaway.

    e.balinski(at)att(dot)net

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  28. I love watching movies but I've never really been into the gory or slasher types of movies that usually go with Hallowe'en. Instead I'll turn off the lights and watch "The Bad Seed".
    cwilliams127 at gmail dot com

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  29. My favourite part of Halloween is the costumes and candy. I love seeing what some people think to dress up as (and how well they do it) and candy is just the best :)

    jessicamariesutton(at)msn(dot)com

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