I am happy to announce the launch of HalloweenRadio.com

This site has been re-launched as a professional Halloween and Horror 24 hour a day/365 Days a year online radio station.

We are fully licensed by BMI, ASCAP and SESAC. This means that we legally stream the music that you want to hear.

We are launching with a decent library of Halloween classics and will expand with listener requests and other types of programming.

We want to play what you want to hear! Visit HalloweenRadio.com and click on “Listen Now”.

Halloween Stats for 2007

I recently launched the site: http://www.HalloweenCountdown.com

Go there to get your own counter.   There are many to choose from.

I have one on this blog, it is at the top.     

I am in the process of expanding the network of sites.

I recently launched http://www.horrorforum.com (great domain huh?)

Please check it out.   I want to get the site jammin.

Thanks all!

I have not been here in ages!  I have dropped in everywhere else, but it's tough to spread one's self around.  At any rate, I'm here now and that's all that matters.

Just a quick report to say that The Scream Extreme 2006 was a success!  What does "success" mean?  If it means making a financial profit, then no, it wasn't a success.  BUT, we raised more than 2005 and our attendance was up as well.  Our days were up, also -- from three days in 2005 to 11 days open in 2006.  So, naturally our profits and attendance were up.  It was very tough being open for so many days.  We more than tripled them and my body and mind were feeling it.  I was quite on edge and grumpy many nights due to having to get the actor's roster together every time as well as doing the makeup.  Most nights I had to juggle the actors around as there were always actors who flaked on the schedule and only had one night where all the places were filled.  Me being an actress, I have always favored actors over animatronics as they have perfect timing (if the actor is good) and can execute a scare at the right time.  However, by 2006's end, I had decided to incorporate more animatronics into the haunt and not be so dependent on actors.  I have kept to my word as now I have five animatronics as oppose to the one we had last year.

If you contribute success to how many people we absolutely terrorized, then YES, we where quite successful!  We had many to take the emergency exits and one lady to even faint on us.  One young man came out having an asthma attack.  I would have normally been quite concerned, but he had his inhaler with him and was warned before entering that anyone with a respiratory illness should not enter.  And get this....We even had to two EMTs, a man and a woman,  to park their ambulance in the front and go through.  I thought for sure they could never be scared as they see the real stuff everyday --- They screamed and jumped just as loud or louder than everyone else.  LOL!

If you think a successful haunt is one where no one gets hurt, again a huge YES.  Even though we are always insured, it is always great when no injuries are reported.  I and the crew go through the haunt with a fine tooth comb every night we're open to make sure there are no stumbling hazards or any other type of problems that could cause an injury.  Some feel I am overly cautious, but I say there is no such thing.

I am looking forward to next year.  There will be a few changes, one of which I will tell you about in my next blogging......

So, how was your day?

Peace!

Volunteer online reporters/writers wanted!

We are preparing to re-launch HalloweenNews.com!

The site has been implemented to include modern facilities to accommodate the changing online world.

We are seeking reporters/writers to collect Halloween, Haunt, Horror and Goth related news from around the net.

What type of news?

Industry Events, Haunts, New Products, Promotions and Sales, issues, articles.   If it is newsworthy….we want it.

We ask that you have decent grammar and spelling abilities. Copyrighted material may not be submitted.

At this time, we are not in the position to pay for these positions.   However, I am sure that it will be beneficial to you.  We appreciate any and all help!

If you are interested or have any questions, please send me a private message on HalloweenForum.com. (user name= larry)

You may also send me a private message with any press releases that you wish to have published.

Thank you,

Larry

What a month this has been.

I cannot tell you how many private messages and emails that I have received with praise and pleas not to retire from the industry.  I really appreciate each and every one.   It made me re-think my plans.

MY PLANS HAVE CHANGED!!!  

Plans for 2007:

- I will NOT retire from the network and the community.

- Major features will be added to HalloweenForum.com, SinisterSpace.com and other sites.

- All sites in the network will be upgraded.

- Halloween Society to be implemented.

- Will work with other sites to better the community.

- Other major enhancements that cannot be disclosed at this time.

This network is awesome, but you have not seen anything yet!
  
If you are a Webmaster and have ideas about working together in a mutually beneficial relationship, feel free to contact me to discuss possibilities.

If you have any suggestions for the network, please feel free to send me a private message.

Look for more big announcements soon!

Thank you all!

Larry McKenzie

It is been a little to long.    I have been swamped with Halloween stuff and came down with the flu in the middle of it.    Feeling much better now!

I recently did major script updates to this site and many others.  So make sure to check them out.

Whoohoo.  Download.com accepted our Halloween Toolbar for download. 

Check it out:
http://www.download.com/Halloween-Toolbar/3000-2379_4-10572668.html

I'm sitting here thinking of all that has to be done and all that is on my plate.  Here's how I see it:

1) I need to write to the businesses on the three corners about a block from me to get them to agree as they did last year to donate their parking lots for our haunt.  Due to zoning, this is the only way we will be able to have our haunted attraction here.  I need to stop procrastinating and do that this week.  In fact, I AM going to do that this week.

2) We are going to be airbrushing our makeup this season.  That means less masks, less messy grease makeup and happier actors.  I purchased a Paasche Airbrush along with an airbrush compressor from Harbor Freight.  I've had it for a week, but have only practiced with it once.  I need to get a wiggle on learning how to use this as August 30th we will be debuting our creature makeup to thousands of baseball fans at Raley Field.  I have yet to receive the airbrush makeup I ordered, but he said it should have been shipped the last part of last week.  If I don't receive it in a few days, he will definitely be hearing from me.

3) Speaking of Raley Field and not hearing from someone...

I've left several messages for the head of marketing of the Sacramento River Cats, our baseball team.  He and I had agreed that I would call him the first of August so that we could finalize our plans for August 30th.  I've left him two messages last week and he has yet to return my call.  I'm getting a bit concerned....

4) The two avenues we thought would be certain to bring us a bus to put on our haunted trail have gone cold.  One has completely closed and we doubt the other avenue will come through.  So, I'm doing all I can by putting up ads in hopes that someone will have a bus that they can either loan or donate to us.  We begin building August 26th and we must have the bus in place by then or forget it.  Once the walls go up, it will be impossible for any vehicle to pass to get to the back for the trail.  I'm getting so desperate that I'm even thinking about having my son in law park his big klunker of a car to replace the bus.  We will have the front, side and back windows concealed by black material and view the from the backseat to the front concealed by a black curtain.  Each person will have to crawl in the back seat and exit the other side.  A monster will be in the front seat behind the curtain, of course.  This could be a great scare since it is in such close scaring quarters.  However, it will definitely slow down traffic and I'm not sure the fire inspector will approve it.  Oh, well.  We'll see.....

5) We bought 600,  22" glow necklaces as a fundraiser to get items we need for the haunt.  We have yet to be successful with selling them.  I'm going to our drive-in on Tuesday and see if they will give us permission to sell them there.

6) As I mentioned earlier, construction begins August 26th.  The haunt will go up much quicker this season as we dont' have to build the walls this year for the expection of a few and we have an actual construction team this time around.  Two guys on our crew who build for a living have friends they say owe them favors and will be happy to pitch in and help.  Wooohoo!  I'm hoping they will have it up and solid in four days.  That comes out to two weekends.  That will leave us with four weekends to get all scenes, decorations and tweaking together before Media Night on October 6th.

There's so much more on my plate that I could write about, but I'll keep it for another day.

So, how has your day gone so far?

PEACE

Emp

I have been busy...busy...again/still.

Recently launched http://www.SinisterSpace.com Social Community for the Halloween, Haunt, Goth, etc communities.

Spending time working, dealing with community issues, enhancing things and doing what I can.

My girlfriend makes sure I take a little time for relaxation too.

I have neglected my Blogcrypt long enough! 

Every so often, I will write happenings and going ons in my Myspace Blog, but I feel as thought this is the place that I can truly put down what is going on and not just on the outside, but on the inside, as well.

With that said, here's what's happening....

First off, I'm feeling so much better!  As long as I take my iron and eat liver occassionally , I'm okay.  Yeah, I eat too much junk, consume too much salt and suck up too much alcohol, but just as soon as I can get this season's haunt under my belt, I'm going to start treating my body better.  At least, that's what I keep telling myself and promising my 14yr old son.  We're (me and my two sons) are planning on taking our first vacation together during the week of Thanksgiving.  We've spoken of Disneyworld and even received their DVDs on what they have to offer and how to go about planning your vacation.  But, there's something that just doesn't sit right with me on being there.  It just doesn't seem like a REAL vacation to me.  I'll have to come back home to rest after being there, I just know it.  After this season is over, I'm gonna need to relax and be pampered and catered to instead of it being the other way around.  I've thought about taking a cruise, but I'm not sure how my little Emilio would fair on one.  To cast all doubts aside, I'm going to call my old travel agent, Francine from Galaxy Cruises and see what she has to say.  She has always directed me in the right direction.

Onward to Haunt Business....

All interviews and auditions are over.  At least the main ones.  We are still getting new people who want to be a part of the haunt.  Our 1st meeting last week had 13 people to show with six of them being new.  I just hand them an application with liability waiver and give a quick interview and they are good to go.  Our next meeting is this Saturday with more saying they'd like to join.  That's great since the more the merrier!  We have lots of ground to cover in this haunt and trail and that means lots of people.  Speaking of ground....

Last year, we had lots of room to work with in my backyard.  BUT THIS YEAR...we have THREE times as much!  Why?  Because there use to be a fence that seperated what I was using as a backyard and oodles of trees, bushes and what have you behind it.  Well, the fence has been torn down as well as all the trees.  That means we have just that much more room to play with.  And when I say "room" I mean an area large enough to put another three or four bedroom house WITH a front and backyard.

I've been pondering as to what to do with all this extra space since my current floorplan was drawn without knowing about the impending area.  Scenes like Jeepers Creepers 2 and the first part of the Dawn of the Dead remake popped in my head and that was when it hit me that I should park a bus back there.  After brainstorming with my sis, we thought the best place to find a bus would be through my niece's former school.  The owner of the school loved my niece (she passed away two days after this past Christmas ) and told my sister at her Memorial that if there was anything he could do to let him know.  Well, I gave him a call yesterday and he said he's going to help us get a bus.  HOORAY! 

Now comes the part of creating several powerful scares using the bus.  It shouldn't be much of a problem seeing as a good scare starts with a good prop and the bus within itself is enough to make folks panic.  I'm gonna have fun with this part of the haunted trail! 

BUT, there's still a great portion of the area left.  The ground on this portion is rather bumpy with tree roots and rock poking up from the ground.  Too dangerous for any customers to walk on, but......perfect for a graveyard!  I've never been one to really jump on the graveyard bandwagon, but the area, with it's ivy covering the surrounding back gate and sides of the shed next to it and the rough terrain cries out to be one.  I'll have to come up with an idea of a scare for this area.  But, again, the atmosphere lends itself to being scary, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

At our meeting this coming Saturday, we will be getting the cars and ourselves ready for our first appearance in a 4th of July parade.  I'm pretty excited about it and nervous at the same time.  I'm sure they've never had a haunt to participate in one of thier parades and I'm just wondering how we will be accepted.  We'll be throwing candy at the onlookers as well as passing out flyers, coupons and advertising postcards.  We also hope to scare a few, too!

I've been chatting with Kane Hodder, Jason Vorhees from Friday The 13th, off and on for several months.  He's an awesome man!  I thought that I might would be able to get a hockey mask out of him for our Yell Like Hell Screaming Contest, but  he sent us several autographed pictures instead..which is GREAT!  In fact, he and I are talking about bringing him here to our haunt in 2007!  Since we are planning on this being our last year here at this location and residing in a building, bringing him here would be great.  We will definitely have to look for a location with lots of parking since Kane is a huge public draw.

Well, even though I have lots more to write, my fingers are tired.  I will write again soon and give you the skinny on what else is happening with me and The Scream Extreme.

So, how's your day going so far?

Peace!

...the 1st of the interviews for the 2006 season are over!

Five folks showed up and I liked every single one of them.

The guy that has a motor trike that says he wants to ride in the parade we're gonna be in on July 4th did not show up.  I was quite disappointed, but I'm hoping he will sign up for one of the other interview days on June 3rd or 4th.

If there is any indication how the haunt will be by the enthusiatism those that showed up had, WE ARE GONNA BE THE BOMB!

So, how was your day?

PEACE!

I was looking at someone's website the other day and noticed that they had created a group on Yahoo.  I'd thought of the idea of creating one myself before, but put it off as not having enough time.  But, after seeing this person's group and realizing that there needs to be a group such as the one I had in mind, I decided to give it a whirl.  So, introducing....

~Charity Haunted Attractions ~

Hello, Fellow Readers!

Can you tell I'm in a good mood?  Well, if you can you're right on because I'm feeling really confident about this season's haunt as you can tell by the subject of this blog.  Why am I so confident?  Well, let me lay it on ya...

First, for those of you who may not know, we're opening October 13th.  That's FRIDAY the 13th.  It's the last Friday the 13th in October for the next seven years and we didn't want to miss the opportunity of capitalizing on such a special day.  So, we have planned for opening night the one and only Yell Like Hell Screaming Contest!    Trust me when I say that there isn't another contest like this around.  It's not your ordinary screaming contest.  Besides being special within itself, the prizes sets it off from all other contest, as well.  Now, get this...  The top prizes are autographed memorabilia from Mr. Kane Hodder himself, better known as Jason from Friday the 13th!  WOOT!!   He has graciously donated items to our contest in hopes of bringing in more contestants to further our cause of helping the kids.  HECK...i outta enter the contest myself!  LOL!

Okay that's one piece of news down.  Here's another...

We have been invited to participate in the Carmichael's Gala Parade Celebration on July 4th!  Plans are already in the works to change my Ford Escort Wagon into an "Econo Hearse."  It will be carrying one of our Toepincher coffins in the back and will be all decked out to look like a mini hearse.  There will be monsters walking on both sides of the vehicle throwing candy and passing out flyers and coupons.  There will also be a motor trike driven by one of our actors decked out as the Grim Reaper.  We are gonna have sooo...Much..FUN!

And finally, the last piece of news....

Our baseball team here, The Sacramento Rivercats, agreed to let us attend their August 30th game...in costume!  This is the next to the last game so you KNOW it's gonna be packed.  The head of Marketing said that they can set a table up for us, we can walk around and pass out flyers and coupons PLUS..he said we can even do a small little skit with Dinger, the Mascot on the field!  Can I hear a "WOOT?!"   Dinger is scheduled to be here at the haunt on October 20th and this is a great tie into his appearance. 

We are gonna have so many folks here this season.  I'm almost scared that we may have TOO many people.  This will definitely be our last season here at this location as we will have outgrown it by the season's end.

I will keep you informed of any other developments that transpire.  At the rate things are going...I'll be writing again really soon!

So how's your day going...?

PEACE

I have updated the IE Halloween Toolbar at http://www.halloweentoolbar.com .

I started updating the IE Halloween Toolbar.  There are a few new features that I intend on adding such as the ability to search multiple search engines/sites from the toolbar.  A couple of other features I do not want to mention yet as I am still working out the bugs.

Go ahead and install the IE Halloween Toolbar and it will automatically update once the new features are available.

Recently updated blogcrypt.com with new and improved features such as:

• Private Messaging
• Better Mailing Lists
• RSS Feeds
• Ban IP Addresses
• Improved Pinging Of Blog Directories
• More Templates
• More Control Of The Design Of Your Blog
• Improved File Uploading System
• New Image Upload Feature Directly On WYSIWYG Entry Composer
• More Storage Space
• Owners Can Add Other Members (Co-Authors)
• Improved User Profile Page
• New Member Search Page
• Have More Than One Blog Under One Account.