October is just a few days away, and the fall TV season is almost in full swing. That means it’s the perfect time to check in with Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime for next month’s streaming selections. If you’re looking forward to “Huluween,” there’s no shortage of horror flicks to be found. Truthfully, all three of the major streaming services are playing up the horror genre this month. It was a quiet summer, but the pace of original series is picking up again with a few that we’ve been eagerly anticipating. Before we jump into the full October lineup, we’re throwing the spotlight on five can’t miss shows. Into the Dark: The Body Is Into the Dark a film or a TV series? Blumhouse’s new original show may be a mixture of both. Each extra-length episode of Into the Dark will be spread across 12 months, as each installment offers a horror tale inspired by a particular holiday. “The Body” hits first, arriving this October with the tale of a contract killer on Halloween night. To get his payday, the killer will have to carry around a body on the spookiest night of the year. Let’s just say that avoiding detection may not be…

HOTEL CALIFORNIA (aka Mission Inn) in Riverside, CA How many of you know the cover of the Eagle’s album Hotel California? That’s actually a picture of the Mission Inn located in Riverside, California. It’s a fabulous hotel with lots of interesting nooks and crannies. I went there for the Historical Romance Retreat and joined in the scavenger hunt. The organizer (Renee Bernard) did a great job, and the hotel staff members were wonderful as they directed us around the hotel, former abbey, and former mission. I don’t have room here for all the pictures I took, but I’ll give you an idea. First off, here’s the scavenger hunt list. Here’s items 2 and 3—the oldest bell and the biggest bell. You can’t read the plaque, but it says this bell of Spanish origin dates from 1247 AD and is considered the oldest bell in Christendom. Item 4 – Napoleon and Josephine were the two birds. We searched a long time for Item 8 – the smallest door still in use. The tiniest one pictured isn’t still in use, but the other two were. Item 11 the Glockenspiel was huge. It’s hard to see here, but there are two figures inside,…

10. The world. The planet Dion is absolutely breathtaking! Although my characters are confined to a small piece of land protected by energy shields (the result of a terraforming experiment gone wrong), the outside planet is characterized by brilliantly colored streams of water. As Vela says, “If a nebula broke off and fell into the water, this is what it would look like.” In addition, when the rain falls on the energy shields, the water explodes into different colors depending on the weight of the drop. 9. The food. Land is scarce, so there’s not enough food to feed the colony. Enter the Aegis, who have accepted a genetic modification so that they may convert food into energy more efficiently. The nutrition is then extracted from them via a pill and distributed to the rest of the people. However, when eating becomes your duty, and you must imbibe food all day long, it is no longer pleasurable. Thus, the food preppers’ task is to produce the must luscious, mouth-watering spreads possible, in order to entice the Aegis into taking one more bite.  8. The sacrifice. An Aegis may get to experience the taste of real food, and they have the…

When I was about 15, I remember sneaking into a bookstore with my best friend and peeking around aisles to make sure no one was watching us. We would wind up in the baby book section to take a peek at naming books. We knew that we were only there for research, after all, both of us loved to write, but we worried what others would think. Finally, she got up the courage and the cash to buy one those naming books. We spent hours on her bedroom floor, huddled over this book learning about which names were recommended for boys and girls. It even had a nifty little section at the bottom that gave suggested sibling names that were cute with the one you selected. Naming characters and places has always been one of the most important parts of my process. A name informs what a character is going to be like. I usually start out with a personality sketch, who I want this character to be, what they are to the story and from there, I try to select a name. Since I write a lot of fantasy that is informed by history, I try to select names…