Practical Magic Blog Party with Giveaway

Welcome to the Practical Magic Blog Party here at Authors By Authors. I was so thrilled to be able to participate in it this year!

If you asked me why I loved the movie Practical Magic, or what I loved most about it, you would have to sit and watch it with me as I gave you a play by play! LOL It’s everything from the advice and beautifully written lines, to the clothes (aunts and Sally’s) and the conflicts, to the music and the margaritas, to the sisters (old and young) and the spells (both right and wrong)… like I said, I would have to point it all out as I went along. My husband likes to ask, each time he catches me watching it just how many time a person can re-watch a movie. For this one, an endless number of times!


I have always been a huge Stevie Nicks fan, so I do love her song “Crystal” being in the movie. I found this great fan-made youtube video which plays the song along with some great clips from the movie. Sharing of course.   

To show you how much I love this movie, here is an excerpt where I mention Practical Magic a few times, from a short story called, “Samhain’s Visitors,” published in the Just Another Paranormal Halloween Anthology with Mojocastle Press:  


     The movie always got to her no matter how many times she watched it. Ripping at her heart, causing it to soar, making it long…Practical Magic just gave her a good emotional work out all around.  As a solitary witch and a single gal in her early thirties, October thirty-first had followed the same timeline for years now.  First there was the handing out of candy to the neighborhood children where she ate almost as much as she gave.  Then when the streets quieted down and her porch light was out, she popped in the movie and ate popcorn to try to counteract the sugar and fat induced queasy feeling in her stomach. Once those traditions were accomplished, she centered herself before moving onto whatever Samhain ritual she had chosen for midnight.
      Sarah was a sucker for a good happily-ever-after romance any day.  Add in some magic and suspense, especially with a sprinkle of horror, and man she was hooked.   Once again this holiday, by the end when the fully costumed witches jumped off the roof of the beautiful East Coast Victorian house, she found herself smiling making the dried tears pull on the skin of her cheeks.
      However, tonight instead of jumping up and rushing to her prepared alter, she sat, arms curled around her legs, hugging her knees to her chest, wanting for something.  She gently searched for the source of the ill feeling inside of her, something more than just a stomach protesting her over-indulgence in food. This was more like an intense longing for something or someone lost. It was so unlike her, and she knew herself enough, respected herself enough, not to ignore it.  Sure everyone wanted for things in life, but tonight was different, more consuming to the point of a physical ailment. 
      With nausea rising, her limps heavy and her breathing coming in small pants, words from the film sang out in her head as unfounded tears fell…Sometimes I feel there is a hole inside me... An emptiness that, at times, seems to burn… And the moon tonight, there's a circle around it --- A sign of trouble not far behind. I have this dream of being whole... Of not going to sleep each night wanting… I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for. I just want someone to love me. I want to be seen… but there is no man... Only that moon.  She did move finally, drawn to the window, toward the only thing she knew she wanted but didn't quite have, at least not in the sense she wanted him.
      Pushing aside the curtains about an inch, something along the lines of butterflies, no bats, beat their wings inside of her stomach.  It was a warning she knew she needed to heed, but from what, she didn't know.  So her eyes could not play tricks on her, she blinked hard twice to clear her vision of tears.   There was nothing around the moon out there, no red-tinged circle like in the movie.  The thing wasn't even full.  Besides, such a halo effect didn't really mean anything other than a meteorological event caused by rain clouds to the best of her knowledge anyway.  She was just being silly now, letting the emotions the movie stirred up combine with whatever else was going on.
      However, there was a man there outside her window, just one she was not sure she could have…

The main site for this party is at http://pmparty2011.blogspot.com/ Stop by to see all of the participating blogs. I plan on hopping around to visit each of them today, then use the party as an excuse to pop in the movie once again, and maybe drink a margarita in celebration!

Giveaway

To enter, all you have to do is comment on this post today about the movie. If your profile doesn't have an email I can see, then please leave me a way to contact you in the post. I will pick a winner Sept 25th. The winner will get a hand-knit, by me, witch hat and broom book thong, along with the anthology quoted from above, Just Another Paranormal Halloween, just in time to read in October. So you are aware, the stories in this anthology are for those over the age of 18.