Happy Halloween! Today’s Best Of Halloween Haunts was originally published last year…..
When my father passed away in 2015, I received an unexpected and lovely inheritance: thousands of color slides, many of which featured me as a baby, a toddler, and a child. One of the reasons this was remarkable was because I really thought there weren’t many photos around of me as a kid. My mom only had a handful, and for some reason – even though I remained close to my dad after my parents split up – I hadn’t realized he had so many photos.
I …
Welcome back to Halloween Haunt’s! Today’s Best Of was originally published in 2017….
As a horror writer, it’s kind of expected of me that I’ll be enamored of the Halloween season. And it’s no secret that I am! But I loved Halloween long before I became a writer. Even as a little kid I looked forward to Halloween as much as I did Christmas.
The question is, why?
For a child, the reasons are pretty easy to figure out. Lots of candy. Lots and lots of candy! The chance to dress up in a costume and run around the …
If you are thinking of what to read this Halloween, consider unwrapping a richly sweet volume of dark verse. Dark and speculative poetry has been flourishing over the past few years and 2019 is nothing different. If you need a guide to appreciating dark verse take a look at these books currently on the Bram Stoker reading list as a starting point. These are presented in no particular order with no endorsement other than to READ …
From last year’s Halloween Haunts, here is today’s Best Of….
I believe I was seven years old the first time I went trick-or-treating. Before that I wasn’t much aware of the holiday, and I certainly didn’t connect it with anything scary. I remember kids coming to the door in costume and getting candy—not too many because we lived in a very small Appalachian town. I was in my PJs, peeking out of the bedroom I shared with my two younger brothers. But that’s what I did when anyone came to the door—I was a painfully shy kid, and outside …
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Today’s Best Of Halloween Haunts was originally published in 2017….
We watched with glee as a man scooped up a little girl and bolted for the door. The kid was kicking and screaming with fright. “Ah,” I thought. “Another successful show!”
I was a high school junior, and my esteemed institution was holding a Halloween-themed open house. The classrooms were crammed with the usual flaccid haunted house stuff: “Come inside kiddies, feel the witch’s guts.” (Bowl of cold spaghetti). Her eyeballs—hard-boiled eggs. Yawn.
My friends, Warren and Pete, and I had presented the school fathers with a proposal: we …
From 2015, here is today’s Halloween Haunts’ Best Of….
Whe
n I was seven years old, I saw a witch. I mean a real witch, not one of the politically-correct Wiccans we have now, or the evil glam witches Hollywood offers up, or the (mainly poor, old, single-by-choice, physically impaired, deranged or feisty) women of history who were burned at the stake because they were outside the collective in some way. No, this was a real witch, not pretty, not pleasant, not a herbalist in a conical hat, and she appeared on Halloween!
Halloween was always a fun time for …
Today’s Halloween Haunts was originally published last year…
Happy Friday All! Today marks the last interview spotlight as Halloween Haunts welcomes writer, artist and poet Robert Payne Cabeen. At Stokercon this past spring, Robert was the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel for Cold Cuts (2017, Omnium Gatherum Media).
Halloween Haunts: Welcome Robert! You have worn a number of career hats over the years, having become an accomplished artist, poet and writer. Of the three, which came first for you?
Robert Payne Cabeen: Thanks for including me in Halloween Haunts, Michele. I’d …
From 2016, here is today’s Best Of Halloween Haunts…
You all know my tale of woe. I am forced to live without the true spirit of Halloween because I live on the other side of the world. 🙁
But instead of crawling into my coffin when October comes around and crying myself to sleep, I bring the Halloween alive through fiction and art – all year round.
I may live in a town without any bonafide haunted houses, or urban legends (yeah pretty boring right?), but that doesn’t mean I can’t create my own.
I paint and draw and write …
Happy Halloween Haunts! Today’s blog comes from 2016…
Every Halloween I follow certain traditions. A handful of movies I dig out to watch, some music I like to play, favorite candies to pick up at the store. But my favorite is diving into some classic horror comics. There’s nothing quite like the experience of reading a well-written, beautifully drawn, scary story. And my favorites and perennial Halloween reads are EC Comics. There’s something special to those creepy, old tales from the 50s that makes them resonate as much today as they ever have, something beyond their tightly plotted stories and …
Today’s Best Of Halloween Haunts comes from 2016…
When I was a girl, I loved the “B” horror films of the 1950’s. My dad introduced them to me and I enjoyed the terrible acting, cheap sets, and silly gimmicks. Even today, the letter B raises images of Vincent Price, The House on Haunted Hill, William Castle, and a myriad of other screen goodies. We always watched them on Halloween and they never failed to amuse me.
Until I lived one.
Did dramatic, spooky music run through your mind? Did a chill run up your spine? It didn’t? Humph! You’ve been …
