Continental DIY at Search Magazine (and MOAR!)

 

It's not too late to get your copy of the #GoingGlobal Issue of Search Magazine featuring my DIY Vintage Trunk How-To! Be sure to stay tuned for upcoming issues with more of my quarterly articles at @SearchMagSF.

Simply put, I haven't done as many DIY crafts and lengthy sewing video series because I've had so many other deadlines this year thanks to writing work, podcasts, and several guest appearances. It keeps me busy and away from projects, but I'm grateful for the opportunities I continue to have. If you're an outlet or website looking for written and audio or visual collaboration, my 2025 is already getting full! Here's a short bio detailing my expertise:

Kristin Battestella writes articles, editorials, and reviews for several websites, magazines, and print publications including I Think, Therefore I Review, Search Magazine, and Keith Loves Movies. Previously a traditionally published author of speculative fiction and the Fate and Fangs vampire novels, Kristin's DIY Halloween how-tos and Kbatz Krafts articles have been featured at HorrorAddicts.net and in two Horror Addicts Guide to Life anthologies. In addition to sewing and @KbatzReviews Youtube vlogs; Kristin can be heard on the Women InSession podcast at InSessionFilm.com alongside her written classic film discourse. For Kristin's latest happenings, follow twitter.com/vampfamwriter.

There's more to come, but in case you missed everything at I Think, Therefore I Reviews, here's a quick rundown of my guest Podcast and Video Appearances in 2024:

The Jay Days YouTube Channel – Jack Irish, Bound, The Convert

Bubba Wheat's Podcast – Bedtime Stories

Making Tarantino Podcast – House of Dark Shadows

For more trash to treasure crafting adventures, visit Kbatz Krafts on Instagram or for step by step progress photos of our DIY Vintage Trunk, follow our Kbatz Krafts Facebook!

Peruse our Kbatz Krafts Archive for more upcycle projects including:

Autumn Chandelier

Cardboard Halloween Banner

Halloween Shoe Wreath

Re-Purposed Black Topiaries

Crafts, Capes, and Carols, Oh My!

Tis the festive season my friends, and that means like most of us, it is the busy, busy, busy time of the year for me. Most of that I brought on myself in making Christmas gifts, baking, baking, and doing yet more baking, and did I mention there's more baking yet to come? Pizzelles, people, pizzelles. 

Some of my efforts, however, can be found at HorrorAddicts.net, as I've taken my crafting skills from Halloween into the merriment with some kind of pseudo Victorian ensemble featuring an outrageously tacky bonnet, shiny red cape, and a goofy little muff made with the leftovers. Oh, there's a bell brooch, too, so I can jingle all the way. What I thought was going to be a day's worth of hot glue and done turned out to be a quadruple fold project that took more than a week. You can head over to our Horror Addicts Facebook Group and discuss how I rolled with the sewing punches and made my lemons into some spicy ye olde wassail or you can laugh at my video of the glue gun drama. Whenever I actually get to finishing the video and putting it on Youtube, that is. It should have been today!

Naturally, this means a lot less of priority number one aka writing has gotten done this month. For me the point of documenting projects and making crafts, videos, audio, and all the other bells and whistles is to notify each audience of the writing behind it – the how to article, reviews, and essays. So, it's tough to balance doing everything in December when all the happy festivities intervene moreso than the rest of the year when real life obligations always push the pen and paper to the back burner. My fellow authors know exactly what I mean! Will the craziness chill by time we get to the next Horror Addicts.net Online Writers Conference in February 2020? I hope so.

And did I almost forget about our Horror Addicts special holiday Pumpkin Podcast? Yes I did. 

Fortunately, for those two of you who have missed my literary events, author panels, and speaking engagements, I will be taking part in A Christmas Carol reading alongside a Carol Hymn Sing at the FUMC Hammonton! If you are looking to belt some old time Christmas tunes or are just local Dickensian trash like me, feel free to join us 6 p.m. Sunday December 15. My spats, pocket watch, and top hat are ready!

"Wake Me on Christmas Morning."

More July Appearances and Events!

Greetings fellow Literary Enthusiasts and Horror Mavens! 


We still have a few more summer dates for you to come say hello, talk author shop, and pick up your copy of Horror Addicts Guide to Life! 

First, the New Jersey Authors Network is making another visit to the Millville Public Library July 15 to talk "Writing By and For Teens and Young Adults."  If you missed the NJAN panel June 27 at the A Novel Idea Bookstore in Vineland due to our freak torrential weather, never fear you can stop by at A Novel Idea again August 8 for the "Which Publication Route is Right for You?" seminar. So that's...

NJAN Panel July 15, Millville
NJAN Panel Aug 8, Vineland

njauthorsnetwork.com



Whew! Can't make it to South Jersey? Don't forget you can catch Yours Truly chatting Movies, Television, Cinema, Streaming, and More 10 a.m. Fridays on RadioVisionNetwork.com's Morning Coffee Talk Show. You can watch and listen live, check out the video archive for previous episodes, or visit I Think, Therefore I Review to read yet more film articles and essays. 

Hold on, I'm not done!! Remember you can also hear my scary self on the Horror Addicts.net podcast talking terrifying television, and on the latest episode, you can also hear an electrifying excerpt from Fate and Fangs: Tales from the Vampire Family! Hot diggity!