Haunted Open House-Over 600 Scared!

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Haunted Open House-Over 600 Scared!

One of the most fun and unique things I’ve done for promotion (or just for the heck of it!) has got to be my Haunted Open House (doors open from October 24 to October 28!). I can’t take credit for the idea. My virtual assistant Florence Price of My Girl Friday, built the house for Tell Tale Publishing author Sherry Ficklin for a one day launch of her book BORN OF BLOOD. Once I got a sneak peek and fell in love with the creepy architecture, Florence slyly hinted that the property would soon be available for someone else to move in. 

Now I’ve moved before, from apartment to house, to bigger house, back to apartment, from office building to old house office building. Not my favorite thing to do. If I’m going to do all that heavy lifting, I’m going to stay a while and get comfortable. So I told Florence I wanted to move on the 24th . . . for the week.


When you move, the first thing you do is decorate to your own tastes and needs. The structure was sound but I wanted to knock down some walls and add more room (hey, I watch HGTV!) I wanted more interaction and more content. If I was going to bring visitors back through the House, I’d have to give them something new each day. What do visitors like? Special guests, new topics, FREE STUFF!
 

It’s who you know. I shamelessly reached out along my network of Who’s Who in writing to tag some awesome party guests: my Pocket team of editor, publicist and marketing director, my agent, my editors at ImaJin, Tell Tale and Wise Words, my author friends, and my bling mistress (actually my D-i-L) who creates all my oh, so cool jewelry. I cornered my son with the promise of Halloween candy to be special advisor for the horrific details. ImaJin publisher, Linda Kichline generously offered a free download of the first book in my vampire romance series. My graphic art guru Patricia Lazarus whipped up an drool-worthy wallpaper featuring my six By Moonlight covers. And Saint Florence gave up her weekend to take my rapid-fire ideas and made them virtual reality. It truly takes a scary village to haunt a house properly!

The doors opened on Monday. 394 visitors wandered the spooky halls and left wonderful posts on Twitter. But would they return . . . with friends? 208 showed up yesterday for Pumpkin Pie-tinis and Candy Corn Cheesecake. The costume contest instructions were revamped to make uploading your own Avatar easier and it looks like a Diva-off is in the making for our Friday voting.


If you haven’t stopped in, you’ve got my personal invite to attend: 


http://hauntedopenhouse.blogspot.com. Go through all the rooms, play the games, grab up some freebies, comment for a chance at the daily win in the Party Chatter room (Rhianna took home the Monday prize and yesterday’s winner was Kathi H.).

Visit My Spooky Library

Today, I’m also visiting the Romantic Theme Party thrown by Marie Treanor for the Werewolf/shape-shifter event. How could I resist? Check out my take on werewolf vs shape-shifter and have a chance to win an advance copy of HUNTER OF SHADOWS.

Also check out my “10 Reasons We Love the Dark, Dangerous & Sometimes Undead” on Simon & Schusters website: 


http://www.tipsonlifeandlove.com/love-and-relationships/10-reasons-we-love-the-dark-dangerous-and-sometimes-undead

More cool news: BUDGETING TIME & MONEY (Available in Kindle, Nook and PDF), the new installment in my GETTING IT OUT THERE: PR and Social Media for Writers series for Wise Words Publishing, debuted this morning at #22 in the Writing section of the Kindle Store on the Top 100 list!

Happy Haunting!

1 comment

  1. The Haunted House has been a lot of fun. What a great PR tool--also, a lot of work. Great job!

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