Goat Herpes and Other Problems on sale!

I'm doing a Kindle Countdown Deal for Goat Herpes and Other Problems, so it will be on sale for 99 cents on June 29th and 30th, then $1.99 on July 1st and 2nd.  Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Herpes-Other-Problems-Crystal-Smith-Connelly-ebook/dp/B00KNDYRXA/

And here's the description:

It's Willow's first day on the job at Godly Acres, the world's premier rehabilitation facility for gods and goddesses, and she might be in over her head. Sex addiction, alcoholism, eating disorders, goat herpes...you name it, there's a Greek god who has it. Will she be able to help these gods and goddesses work through their issues? Find out in Goat Herpes and Other Problems! (Goat Herpes and Other Problems contains the plays "Godly Acres," "Godly Acres: Bitch Session," and "Playing Doctor.")


If you get it, I hope you like it...it's the best book you'll ever read that has "goat herpes" in the title. ; )

Movie Spotlight: Jennifer's Body

Jennifer's Body is a 2009 movie starring Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Chris Pratt (love him!), Johnny Simmons, J.K. Simmons, Adam Brody, and Amy Sedaris.  I haven't heard much positive talk about the movie, but since I like Diablo Cody's other movies, and I like Chris Pratt and Amy Sedaris, I decided to give it a chance.  The movie begins with Anita (Amanda Seyfried) in solitary confinement in a mental institution, and she begins to tell the story of what led her to that point.  She flashes back to the night of a concert where a fire breaks out and kills some people.  Jennifer (Megan Fox) leaves with the band, despite Anita's protests, and then shows up at Anita's house hours later, covered in blood.  She eats some food out of the refrigerator, then spews thick black vomit everywhere and runs out of the house.  The next day, Jennifer acts like she's fine, but she soon begins killing  people, so she is definitely not okay.

Jennifer's Body isn't a great movie, but it's not as bad as I'd heard it was, and I don't feel like watching it was a waste of time.  My only real complaint is that Chris Pratt and Amy Sedaris didn't have enough screen time. : )

My rating: 6/10

Paranormal Witness: The Manson Curse

Paranormal Witness airs on the Syfy channel, and the episodes I've seen have been pretty creepy.  I recently watched an episode called "The Manson Curse," and it was no exception.  When David Oman found out that he could buy a lot in Beverly Hills for only $40,000, he couldn't pass it up.  Three years later, David and his father finished building the house on Cielo Drive, and David decided to have a housewarming party; hours before the party was set to begin, David heard a knock at the door, but when he answered it, no one was there. At the party, Lawreen Yakkel entered the kitchen to get a bottle of wine and saw a dark-haired man pass by window that no one could walk by...because it was at least twenty feet off the ground.  Later, a glass on wine flew across the room and smashed against the wall (this spirit is a real party pooper).  Lisa Rigsbee, David's girlfriend at the time, went up to bed early one night and heard the bedroom door open as she tried to fall asleep; she thought it was David, of course, but instead she saw a man she didn't recognize who soon disappeared.  

Since David used to be a private investigator, he decided to find out what was going on in his home.  During his research he discovered that the Manson murders took places four houses down the street from his house. David invited his friends Jeff Mandel and Kashmir White over to watch a movie that night, and they heard strange voices coming from the intercom, which you have to be inside the house to use. While David searched the house, with his rifle for protection,  disembodied voices began traveling around the room Jeff and Kashmir were in.  Jeff decided to search the house, and though he didn't find anyone, he heard a raspy "death rattle" just before a blast of air almost knocked him over.  Jeff convinced David to set up filming and recording equipment to help them find out what was going on; apparently, the spirit didn't like it because it tried to take the video camera out of Jeff's hands one night.  When he played the video back, he heard a voice saying "Jeffrey, don't shoot me." (Creepy!)  Later that night, David was awakened by the sound of footsteps and went to investigate; all he found was the projector still running, even though he was sure he'd turned it off.  He went back to sleep, but he soon awoke again, and this time he saw...a man standing at the foot of the bed! (That would be the last time I slept in that house.)  The man pointed out the window at the driveway and disappeared after David heard a loud bang.  Jeff came over the next day and showed David some of the footage they'd shot, convincing David that there was indeed a ghost in his house.

David called his friends at the LAPD, and they let him look through the evidence from the Manson murders. That's when he realized that Jay Sebring was the man he saw at the foot of his bed and that the bang he'd heard must have been a gunshot.  When  David found a picture of Steven Parent, who had been shot in Sharon Tate's driveway the night of the murders, he realized that must be why Sebring's spirit had pointed at the driveway.  David called in psychic Alma Carey to check out the house without telling her anything that had happened; at one point, the temperature dropped and she felt a strange energy...and that's when she saw the ghost of a blonde woman downstairs.  Alma went downstairs to find the woman and ran into David, who said no one else was in the house, so Alma suggested they hold a seance.   During the seance, the lights flickered and a flame on one of the candles bent in half when Alma asked if anyone was there, and when she asked it if was Sharon Tate, all the lights and candles went out.  Something tried to take the camera out of Jeff's hands, then Kashmir's chair started moving.  Alma asked, "Why are you here?,"  and they heard "heartbreaking" screams.  Alma began clutching her stomach and felt like she was being stabbed, and David realized that they were "having a shared experience of the victims who were killed down the street at the hands of Charles Manson and his followers."  David couldn't figure out why his house was being targeted when it was 150 feet from where the murders took place and wondered if the victims had tried to escape the house and ran to the neighbors' for help.  David still lives in the house (WHY?!) and the paranormal activity is still going on.

This episode was pretty creepy...Paranormal Witness is a great show, and I'm glad I have three more episodes on my DVR.

My rating: 8/10

Last August I wrote about an episode of Ghost Hunters where the TAPS team investigated David's house...you can check that out here:

http://paranormalcrystal.blogspot.com/2013/08/ghost-hunters-henson-studios-and-manson.html

Afterlife with Archie: Escape from Riverdale

I loved Archie comics as a child, and I started reading them again when Archie Marries... was published in 2010.  I love The Married Life series that followed Archie Marries..., and when I heard that Archie would be entering the world of zombies, I was pretty excited.  I don't read many graphic novels, but my favorites are the Archie ones and the graphic novels that are based on Stephen King's The Stand, which are written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, so when I found out that the same author would be writing Afterlife with Archie, I was even more excited.  Afterlife with Archie: Escape from Riverdale begins with a desperate Jughead Jones begging Sabrina the Teenage Witch and her aunts to help his beloved dog, who has been hit by a car. They do what they can, but tell Jughead that Hot Dog is beyond saving; however, Sabrina feels so bad for Jughead that she agrees to try to bring Hot Dog back to life...and that's when it all goes to hell.

Afterlife with Archie: Escape from Riverdale was hard to put down, and I can't wait to read Afterlife with Archie: Betty R.I.P., which comes out in February (that's so far away!).  This graphic novel is very entertaining, but it is also dark, heartbreaking, and devastating; this is not the Riverdale we grew up with.  I loved Afterlife with Archie, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the story and more of Francesco Francavilla's wonderful, creepy illustrations that perfectly capture the feelings of fear and despair the residents of Riverdale are experiencing.

My rating: 10/10

http://afterlifewitharchie.com/

Cool Website of the Week: Paranormal, (new)

This week's cool website is actually a Facebook page: Paranormal, (new).  I go to the page every day or two to see what new funny pictures and cartoons are up, and I share many of them in my paranormal Facebook group.  If you like paranormal humor, you should check this page out. : )

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paranormal-new/215446198587259

Movie Spotlight: Urban Legends: Bloody Mary

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary was released in 2005 and is the third installment in the Urban Legends series; I loved the first one and thought the second one was good, so I thought I should watch the third one.  The movie stars Kate Mara, Robert Vito, Tina Lifford, Ed Marinaro, Jeff Olson, Michael Gregory Coe, and Lillith Fields, and it's about the spirit of a dead teenager coming back for revenge.

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary starts out at a homecoming dance in 1969, where a girl named Mary (Lillith Fields) is accidentally killed by the captain of the football team.  Thirty-five years later, Samantha (Kate Mara), Martha (Hailey Evans), and Mindy (Olesya Rulin) are telling Mary's story at a sleepover; they chant "Bloody Mary" three times, and when Sam's brother (Robert Vito) goes to check on them the next morning, he discovers that they're gone.  When the girls return hours later, they say that they woke up in an abandoned mine and don't remember how they got there; the sheriff tells Sam's parents that the girls had traces of rohypnol in their systems.  Things get really weird after that, and if you have a spider phobia, you should probably skip this movie...there's a scene where spiders come out of a teenage girl's face, and it might give you nightmares.  ; )  Urban Legends: Bloody Mary isn't as good as the first two movies, but I've seen much worse.

My rating: 6/10

Movie Spotlight: All of Me

All of Me is a 1984 movie starring Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Richard Libertini, Victoria Tennant, Madolyn Smith Osborne, Dana Elcar, Jason Bernard, and Selma Diamond.  Edwina Cutwater (Lily Tomlin) is dying  and plans on transporting her soul into her stable hand's daughter (Victoria Tennant) at the moment of death.  Something goes wrong, and Edwina's soul ends up in the body of Roger Cobb (Steve Martin), a lawyer who thought Edwina's plan was ridiculous and stormed out of her house instead of updating her will.  Edwina takes over the right side of Roger's body, and Steve Martin is hilarious when Roger takes on Edwina's feminine traits. I've wanted to see this movie for awhile, so I'm glad the library finally got it...and I'm pretty excited to be able to write about a Steve Martin movie for the blog.  All of Me isn't the best Steve Martin movie (that would be The Jerk) I've seen, but I really enjoyed it and thought it was a great concept for a movie.

My rating: 8/10

Roswell UFO Festival Guest Speakers

The Roswell UFO Festival has released its list of guest speakers for this year's festival, which will take place July 4th-6th.  I won't be able to go this year, but I went last year and had so much fun...and it inspired me to start this blog!  Here's a link to this year's guests (there's also a schedule showing the names of all of the lectures):

http://www.ufofestivalroswell.com/ufo-festival-guest-speakers/

If you attend this year, go see Patty Greer if you get a chance...I went to her lecture about crop circles last year, and it was fascinating.  Travis Walton is probably a good bet too...I didn't get to see him last year, but I really wanted to because his story is incredible.  I really wish I could go this year...I only went to one lecture last year, but next time I'll go to a bunch, so I can write about them for the blog.  Oh well...maybe next year!