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Halloween Haunts: The Phases of Halloween by Peter Adam Salomon

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Salomon_cvr‘Baby’s First Halloween’ This entails adorable costumes, miniaturized, and usually pumpkin shaped. While there’s no need for candy, there’s an intense desire on the part of parents to show their little bundle of joy off. This particular phase is more pronounced with an only child. A second child will be shoved into the same pumpkin, a couple obligatory photos will be taken, and then the younger child will be buckled in a stroller while their older sibling collects all the candy.

‘Baby’s Second Halloween’ Baby no longer quite fits in the adorable pumpkin costume, plus it says ‘Baby’s First Halloween’ on it, probably in glitter. But there’s all these happy memories, mostly of strangers saying ‘awww…’ so the parents, in trying to recapture the adorableness, will either shoehorn their bundle of joy into a year old costume or buy a new adorable costume. A ghost, for instance. This will bring a whole new chorus of ‘awwws…’ Again, mileage may vary, especially for younger children.

By the toddler years, the child has a lot more say in the costume, turning the annual pilgrimage to the store into a struggle along the lines of brides waiting in line to be the first into the discount gown store’s after-summer sale. There will be gnashing of teeth, wailing, screaming…all over the last currently trending superhero or princess costume in their size. Even though you can order the same thing for $15 less online, with free shipping, it has to be bought now or life, as they know it, will end.

The costume will not survive the first washing, never mind lasting until Halloween as the child will insist on wearing it every minute of every day. About forty-five minutes before you plan to leave to go trick-or-treating, your child will decide, without any hope of ever changing their mind, that they absolutely can not be seen in public in whatever passé costume you wrestled away from a three-hundred pound Olympian in order to ensure your child got exactly the costume they absolutely had to have.

They will end up going trick-or-treating in your best bed sheet, with two holes cut out of it, holding a pillowcase full of candy they won’t let you eat. Well, except for the granola bars one house gave that they’ll never want to visit again.

Skipping ahead, there are the ‘Adult Halloween’ years. These are mostly filled with two distinct phases: 1) Parenting. See the above phases. And 2) Partying. A) ALL costumes for women will have the word ‘naughty’ in them. They will pretty much look mostly the same. None of them will fit. B) Trick or treating means drinking.

Here’s what I skipped, and what I wanted to discuss:

‘Halloween: The Teen Years’ So, you’re too old to dress up as a superhero and collect candy? Mostly because you’ve outgrown every costume and don’t really feel like shaving and all your friends are complaining about having to take their younger siblings trick-or-treating.

Don’t let them fool you. They want to get candy too. It’s free candy! But Halloween is so much more than that.

And what Halloween most definitely is, is a holiday for teens. Sure, there aren’t really going to be any more crowds of people saying ‘Awww…’ and there’s not going to be the drinking and ‘naughty’ of an adult party. But, and I’ll let you in on a little secret here:

All those adults, in their ‘adult’ size costumes, drinking their ‘adult’ beverages? Go, on look at them. See? Know what they’re thinking? They’re thinking that they’d pretty much kill to be a kid again…

I know, you don’t believe me. Just remember I told you, so that when you’re older and dressed as a ‘naughty nurse’ because the ‘naughty doctor’ costume is only made for men despite how often you’ve written to tell them that women are doctors too, you’ll realize ‘hey, that guy was right.’ I live for that.

Anyway, as I was saying…you’re a teen on Halloween.

In addition to taking your siblings out to collect some candy wearing your latest attempt at a makeshift costume (white t-shirt, write Pizza on it, and, boom, you’re a deliveryman. Or ‘borrow’ another sheet off your parent’s bed. Sure, you could cut two holes in it but then you’d be grounded, so just tie it around you and say the word ‘toga’ every so often) you get to discover, after all those years thinking Halloween ended when you dumped the pillowcase of candy on the floor to sort through it for the good stuff, that Halloween is only just getting started when the candy is sorted. There’s so much more ‘good stuff’ than candy on Halloween!

The candy sorting only means Halloween is over for your younger siblings. Not for you. For you, the candy is an appetizer. After all, it’s only just gotten dark and October 31st doesn’t end for hours.

Know how many horror movies you can watch back to back after your little siblings go to bed and your parents leave you and your friends downstairs as they get ready to go drink watered down cocktails?

Well, it’s time to find out!

Sit around a bonfire with your friends and read ghost stories. Or, better yet, make up your own ghost stories.

It’s Halloween. It’s not Candyland. The candy is only a part of the holiday, not the be all and end all of it. It’s a day to explore the darkness, to scare your friends, to be scared, to study the shadows, to search the unknown. To be a teen, on Halloween! The scariest day of the year! Which makes it the best day of the year!

Let the young have their adorable and the old have their naughty. The teens get the best of both worlds.

Now hand over a Kit Kat, start the Nightmare on Elm Street marathon and share the popcorn. It’s going to be a long night and I don’t want to miss a thing.

TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: Peter is offering one signed copy of All Those Broken Angels. Comment below to enter or e-mail membership@horror.org with “HH Entry” in the subject line.

Peter Adam Salomon graduated Emory University in Atlanta, GA with a BA in Theater and Film Studies in 1989. He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Horror Writers Association, the International Thriller Writers, and The Authors Guild and is represented by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. His debut novel, HENRY FRANKS, published by Flux in 2012, was named one of the ten ‘Books All Young Georgians Should Read’ by The Georgia Center For The Book in 2014. His second novel, ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, was published in 2014 by Flux. His short fiction has appeared in the Demonic Visions series and he was the featured author for Gothic Blue Book III: The Graveyard Edition. His poem ‘Electricity and Language and Me’ appeared on BBC Radio 6 performed by The Radiophonic Workshop in December 2013. In addition, he edited the first book of poetry released by the Horror Writers Association, Horror Poetry Showcase Volume 1. He was a Judge for the 2006 Savannah Children’s Book Festival Young Writer’s Contest and served on the Jury for the Poetry Category of the 2013 Bram Stoker Awards. He was also a Judge for the Inaugural Horror Poetry Showcase of the Horror Writers Association and is the Chair for the Jury for the First Novel Category of the 2014 Bram Stoker Awards. He also serves as a Judge for the Royal Palm Literary Awards of the Florida Writers Association. Peter Adam Salomon lives in St. Petersburg, FL with his wife Anna and their three sons: André Logan, Joshua Kyle and Adin Jeremy.

Links:

www.henry-franks.com

www.allthosebrokenangels.com

www.peteradamsalomon.com

www.facebook.com/peteradamsalomon

Twitter: @petersalomon

 

Salomon_cvr2Excerpt from ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS:

Chapter One

On what would have been her tenth birthday, my best friend was declared legally dead. Only one witness was called to testify. Me. “I, Richard James Harrison, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God.”

I’ll never forgive myself for being the last person to see her alive. I just can’t remember what I saw.

I remember what I had for breakfast, maple and brown sugar oatmeal. And orange juice. I remember what she was wearing, red shoes and blue jeans and a pale pink shirt she’d just spilled soda on. A sparkling barrette in her long brown hair.

We were playing hide and seek in the bright Georgia sun. I counted to one hundred. I turned around.

I never found her.

We were six years old, together as always. I remember everything: a dog barking, the cars passing by, the smell of freshly cut grass. I counted to one hundred and then I turned around.

No one ever found her.

I tried to remember more but every time I closed my eyes I would finish counting and I would turn around and she was gone. I closed my eyes and I was turning around and turning around and screaming her name. The dog barked. A car honked.

I counted to one hundred and turned around but I never found her.

And now, years later, I keep turning around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Only there’s nothing but the dog and the car and the smell of freshly cut grass. They questioned me about the last time I’d seen my best friend, about what happened on that terrible, lonely day. I placed my hand on the bible. I swore to tell the truth. The whole truth. Nothing but the truth. So help me God.

But I lied.

The day after the Probate Court Judge declared Melanie Anne Robins dead, her parents buried a small box that held nothing but a dress. The one with polka dots she’d worn the first day of first grade. The matching socks, too. They told me they were moving away but the words were meaningless. My parents told me they loved me but the words were empty and hollow.

Nothing mattered anymore. No one understood.

Not at that miserable excuse for a funeral. Or the night after I counted to one hundred. After I turned around and never found her. That terrible, lonely night I first met the ghost of my best friend.

So help me God.

2 comments on “Halloween Haunts: The Phases of Halloween by Peter Adam Salomon

  1. Wow. That sounds like a good book. I can’t wait to read it! Will be adding it to my want collection. 🙂

    Happy Halloween and here’s to all the candy corn we can eat.

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