HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: A Tribute To Shocktober by Michael Subjack

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: A Tribute To Shocktober by Michael Subjack   “Shocktober…on New York’s Movie Station!” Nothing signaled the arrival of the Halloween season for me more than those immortal words. These days, Spirit Halloween stores act as the unofficial start of the season when they open on August 1st. In the early nineties, however, it was Shocktober on WPIX, when the sky above Western New York was gray and ominous, and the colorful leaves had fallen, peppering the sidewalk like oversized confetti. The Shocktober commercial lives rent-free in my head. I watch it whenever I need a quick nostalgia fix,…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Unsolved and Endless ~ Or How My Body and My Bicycle Became Cursed by Sumiko Saulson

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Unsolved and Endless ~ Or How My Body and My Bicycle Became Cursed by Sumiko Saulson   In horror, death is dust and rot, but ancestor spirits live and breathe, a part of nature. Our DNA, the building blocks that create us, carries them. Surrounded by magic, we skip and dance through little puddles of it as we wander down the street, forgetting, or never knowing, what clings to our feet. The blood in my veins declared me pre-diabetic with an A1C of 6.0, while that in my poop demanded a colonoscopy. A mysterious shadow haunted my mammogram.…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: The Carnival by Sarah Faxon

Halloween Haunts: The Carnival by Sarah Faxon   As a child, I would count down the days until the Bay Park Elementary School Halloween Carnival. Christmas aside, the Saturday before Halloween was the most magical day of the year. Over the course of one weekend, my entire elementary school transformed. The dark skeletal hand of Halloween would stretch over the beige-toned single story halls, casting a magical shadow upon the lands. The PTO, teachers, staff, and parental volunteers stormed the halls with rolls of shimmering black garbage bags, concealing any hint of classrooms hiding behind the crinkled plastic walls. White…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: The Beauty of Blood by M. Brandon Robbins

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: The Beauty of Blood by M. Brandon Robbins   Blood is a universally revered symbol, representing life (when in the body) and death (when outside of the body) as well as passion and anger. Localized increased blood pressure (such as a throbbing in the head) can be the symbol of distress or sickness. It can the source of powerful magic, such a tome with text written in blood or as the catalyst in a sorcerer’s spell. Blood can repulse or shock. Think about a zombie crusted in dried gore, its yellowed teeth protruding from a jagged mouth, blood…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: An Excerpt from the Novel Servant by Patrick R. Field

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: An Excerpt from the Novel Servant by Patrick R. Field   Gladys greets me in her usual loud, delightful soprano shrill, “Hello, Mitch! Happy Samhain!” “What is Sahween?” I ask. “Samhain is the original name for October thirty-first in the Gaelic calendar, the festival celebrating the end of the harvest. and the beginning of the darker days of the winter. Halloween is a combination of the pagan word Samhain and the Christian observance of All Hallow’s Eve. The pagans believed that this night was when the veil between the world of the dead and the living was the…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: There Was a Hand in the Darkness by Sharon Wagner

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: There Was a Hand in the Darkness by Sharon Wagner   “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” ~ Neil Gaiman   My hand grazed the doorframe, sliding over the smooth stubble of the painted wall as I reached for the light switch, finding it and flipping it on. Only darkness greeted me. I stepped into the room with an outstretched hand, fingering the air. Moonlight filtered through the curtains above the kitchen sink, glinting over the dishes piled high like a spoiled child’s toy box. Shame washed over me, but I didn’t…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: How to Kill a Hip-Thrusting Frankenstein by Suzanne Mattaboni

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: How to Kill a Hip-Thrusting Frankenstein by Suzanne Mattaboni   I realize that pitchforks and torches are the traditional method for ousting the Frankenstein monster. Not at my house. We’ve always been a Halloween family. When my kids were tykes (now married or touring Europe), one of our favorite fall activities was trolling Party City to check out the multitude of screaming and bloody animatronics on a weekly basis. Each we showed up, my five year-old son Louis would test his muster by stepping closer and closer to a seven-foot tall, motion-sensitive grim reaper that played creepy Vincent…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Coming of Age in Costume by R. Ruhl

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Coming of Age in Costume by R. Ruhl   The autumn season is a time for reflecting on change and the connections between the past and present. I can trace a distinct narrative thread through my own life through the lens of remembering each year’s Halloween costume. Life started in costumes sewn by my grandma, a woman who inspired my mother’s love of horror and Halloween and thus my own. Every year since I was 8, my mom has hosted a Halloween party. I can trace times and changes throughout my life along with annual costumes. A princess…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Punk Rock Cemetery by Dean Cade

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Punk Rock Cemetery by Dean Cade   When I was a wayward teenager in 1986, my best friend, Sean, and I discovered a cemetery. I was traversing two worlds at the time, suburbia and the streets. We’d become fast friends upon my release from the institution, and both of us had a penchant for trouble. Sean had a violent stepfather, so we had run away earlier in the year and were expelled from school. In the chaotic aftermath, he was living in motels with his mom, and I was bored at home until our paths crossed again. Our…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Homemade Cemetery Oracle Cards by Heddy Johannesen

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: Homemade Cemetery Oracle Cards By Heddy Johannesen   Greetings darklings: Today's post is about my homemade cemetery oracle cards. I volunteered for the Horror Writers Association by taking photos in cemeteries in Halifax where I live. I sent the photos to the newsletter staff for the Horror Writers Association and they placed the photos in their monthly newsletter. Over time, I collected many photos of cemeteries. Recently, I got the idea that since I now have an impressive collection of photos that I should make my own oracle deck. The deck is something I have always wanted to…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: ONE HUNDRED HOURS OF ROTTING SOLITUDE by Rosemary Thorne

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: ONE HUNDRED HOURS OF ROTTING SOLITUDE Rosemary Thorne   It is thus, by the transformation of the body, that I have learned to become spirit. Zosimos   ONE She woke up to light and felt part of the jungle, breathing through it. An explosion of exotic colors. Mesmerizing leaves and petals with unusual shapes.  Somewhere, water fell over stone. Birds sang in the most fabulous language. Unapologetic beauty. She smiled to it. The smile awakened the pain. It did not come all at once. It grew slowly, like another being waking up inside her. She tried to move…

Halloween Haunts Postscript: 364 Days to Go Until Halloween by Kevin Wetmore, Halloween Haunts Curator

Halloween Haunts Postscript: 364 Days to Go Until Halloween By Kevin Wetmore, Halloween Haunts Curator   Chicagoland artist, actor and poet Tony Fitzpatrick, who sadly passed away on October 11 of this year, once said, “Few memories evoke as much giddy joy for me as Halloween. For myself and the collection of miscreants, juvenile delinquents and future felons that comprised my peer group, Halloween meant that we owed our community some smashed pumpkins, obscene renderings, trees full of toilet paper and of course the odd flaming bag of dog shit  on the front stoop. Halloween untethered us. It was the…

Halloween Haunts: Halloween People Forever & FTW! by Angela Yuriko Smith

Halloween Haunts: Halloween People Forever & FTW! by Angela Yuriko Smith I’ve always loved the name Halloween People, the title Kevin Wetmore’s wife gave us a few years ago. It somehow fits better than any academic label or literary genre ever could. It speaks to something beyond horror or fantasy, beyond books or films. It speaks to us: the people who live for the magic between the shadows, the ones who find beauty in what others fear. To me, the Halloween People represent the kindest genre of them all. We recognize that in Halloween Town there is room for everyone no matter…

Halloween Haunts: HALLOWEEN, MY PAL MERV, AND THE SHADOW BEHIND THE WHEEL By Cullen Bunn

Halloween Haunts: HALLOWEEN, MY PAL MERV, AND THE SHADOW BEHIND THE WHEEL By Cullen Bunn   Damn it, Merv. You nearly got us all killed. On Halloween night, 1980. As ya do. Back in those days, my friend Vardell threw these awesome Halloween parties. Vardell was the son of a reverend, and he lived in this sprawling old house with far too many rooms, some of which were secret. He would invite dozens of kids, all dressed in homegrown costumes or Ben Cooper masks or sometimes a clever combination of the two, to celebrate the spookiest of nights. Some years,…

Halloween Haunts: A Pre-Halloween Tradition Thankfully Extinct: Moving Night By Ray Van Horn, Jr.

Halloween Haunts: A Pre-Halloween Tradition Thankfully Extinct:  Moving Night By Ray Van Horn, Jr.   Commonly, it was known as Mischief Night.  Detroit hellraisers called it Devil’s Night.  In Michigan, New York and the Dakotas, it was referred to as Gate’s Night.  All around the American northeast, you heard it riotously called “Goosey Night” or “Cabbage Night. In my native area of Baltimore, Maryland, two words during the Halloween season struck palpable fear amongst adults and teenagers who’d sacrificed their summers working long hours to buy their first wheels. Moving Night. Pranks, sabotage and vandalism abound the night before Halloween. …

Halloween Haunts: Celebrating Halloween when “Every Day is Halloween” By Raven Belasco

Halloween Haunts: Celebrating Halloween when “Every Day is Halloween” By Raven Belasco   I’m not just a goth girl, I’m a vampire author. This means that by two “lifestyle choices” I’ve made, the lyrics to “Every Day is Halloween”—that Ministry song from -1987 that all “children of the night” have danced to at the goth night at their local nightclub—are doubly true for me. What then to do on Halloween itself? For me this is a strangely vital question, every year. On the goth identity level, Halloween can be seen as “amateur night.” When you dress up in a way…

Halloween Haunts: From Trick or Treater to being THAT HOUSE for Trick or Treaters, a Horror Author’s Growth Arc By Brooklyn Ann

Halloween Haunts: From Trick or Treater to being THAT HOUSE for Trick or Treaters, a Horror Author’s Growth Arc By Brooklyn Ann   Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Spooky decorations, dressing up as anything you wanted to be, and roaming the streets at night collecting candy and scares, I love it all. And because I’m short and have a babyface, I was able to trick or treat much longer than many. My best friend and I were diehards who’d be out until curfew, patrolled the richest neighborhoods across TWO towns, and came back with pillowcases almost overflowing with…

Halloween Haunts: A DREAM OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD Rosemary Thorne

Halloween Haunts: A DREAM OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD  Rosemary Thorne The first night Lucy slept in the independent town of Cazalia, (Toledo, Spain), she dreamt of a blue bird. Cazalia, my birthplace, is seldom found on maps; its ancient buildings and narrow passageways sit regally on a desolate plain where it guards a dam and a mind-blowing portion of cloudless sky. Lucy’s dream was not surprising, as many birds fly over Cazalia. “What a wondrous jewel!” Lucy exclaimed on her first morning, having mounted the garden ladder. “The horizon is so wide I can cover the whole northern hemisphere with…

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: KINDNESS ABOVE ALL By Naching T. Kassa

HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: KINDNESS ABOVE ALL By Naching T. Kassa   Just before my mother passed in June of 1998, she asked me what I wanted to do with my life. At the time, I didn’t understand the importance of the question. I had no way of knowing she wouldn’t be there to see my life unfold. When I told her I wanted to be a writer, it was more dream than reality. After my mom’s death, I told my father of our exchange. My dad understood the value of words and often advised me to keep mine. It was then…

Halloween Haunts: Three Generations of Halloween and Horror Love By Arin Ruhl

Halloween Haunts: Three Generations of Halloween and Horror Love By Arin Ruhl   A love of horror is my inheritance on my mother’s side, and Halloween is a family extravaganza. We own more Halloween than Christmas decorations, and perhaps the first time I learned what a vampire was came from an old Dracula movie poster that has hung proudly in our dining room every October for as long as I can remember. Since I was eight years old, we’ve hosted an annual costume party for friends and relatives we don’t often see otherwise. As a kid, I got to chase…