Halloween Haunts: Tricks Before Treats: Our Halloween Tradition By Robert E. Stahl

Halloween Haunts: Tricks Before Treats: Our Halloween Tradition By Robert E. Stahl   Every October I start dreaming of my favorite annual tradition—scaring the heck out of trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. It’s my favorite thing in the world. Well, except for peanut butter. My husband and I have been doing it for years. We’ve perfected the set up by now. A few weeks before Halloween, we get the yard looking all spooky. Ghosts flapping everywhere. Cobwebs in the bushes. Inflatable spooks lurking near the sidewalk. Then on Halloween night, we go hard. Spooky music. Strobe lights. Fog machines. The works.…

Halloween Haunts: Hounded by the Dead By Heddy Johannesen

Halloween Haunts: Hounded by the Dead By Heddy Johannesen   The supernatural is the last unexplored frontier, as mysterious as the Marianas Trench. The realm of the dead is challenging to explore. One would have to die and then come back to life to be able to report on it. I had a unique experience in my life. The supernatural haunted me, whether I liked it or not. When I was a child in grade school, some mean kids convinced me that Bloody Mary haunted the third stall in the girls’ bathroom. Something was off about that whole red brick…

Halloween Haunts: Against the Fog: Halloween by the Sea By Juno Guadalupe

Halloween Haunts: Against the Fog: Halloween by the Sea By Juno Guadalupe Every October, I make a pilgrimage to Salem. It has become a tradition, not just for the theatrics of Halloween but for the way the town itself seems to breathe history. In Salem, the sea is never far away. You feel it in a creeping chill, in the salt carried on the wind, in the damp cobblestones... At night, the harbor fog drifts in like a costume, covering the streets in something otherworldly. Standing by the coast, you understand why so many horror stories linger in places like…

Halloween Haunts: In Search of Ghosts and Happy Haunts by Cecilia Kennedy

Halloween Haunts: In Search of Ghosts and Happy Haunts by Cecilia Kennedy   I once entered a haunted saloon in town, sometime around Halloween. But nothing really happened. I drank a beer. It was good—cold, refreshing—everything I’d hoped a beer would be, but I was expecting something otherworldly, based on the lore and legends on the restaurant’s website. The Oxford Saloon, established in 1900 in Snohomish, Washington, is famously haunted—all documented online. And I believe it all: ghostly sightings of women who worked in the bordello on the second floor, a policeman who died when a fight broke out at…

Halloween Haunts: Aren’t You Too Old for This? Really…? By James Ryan

Halloween Haunts: Aren’t You Too Old for This? Really…? By James Ryan I remember how hitting puberty meant being told that I was now too old for Halloween. Back in those barbaric days, Halloween was confined to kids. The holiday never went as all-out as it does now, with celebrations back then geared for the 11-and-under set. An outfit from Ben Cooper Costumes, usually one of those horrible (and flammable, we’d discover later) one piece affairs with a plastic mask that would suffocate the wearer if the flimsy thin elastic band actually held the thing in place, a bag from…

Halloween Haunts: Headless Halloween By Steve A. Wiggins

When the first breath of autumn touches the air, thoughts turn to colorful leaves, cinnamon-scented goodies, and pumpkins.  Halloween can’t be far away.  And each Halloween the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow rides.  Most of us don’t stop to think how closely related Halloween and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” actually are.  They grew up together. Many of us in the Boomer generation likely learned about Washington Irving’s classic through Disney’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, or perhaps through the shortened version shown on television, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  We grew up with that scary song, “Headless…

Halloween Haunts: Am I related to Dracula? Or, Prince Patrick’s Perennial Halloween Costume by P.F. Roquelaure (pen name of Patrick R. Field)

Halloween Haunts: Am I related to Dracula? Or, Prince Patrick’s Perennial Halloween Costume by P.F. Roquelaure (pen name of Patrick R. Field) I was born with a prominent “widow’s peak,” the triangular shaped hairline on the forehead in which the apex lines up with the mid-sagittal line (middle) of the skull, projecting towards but never reaching the space between the eyebrows. The term “widow’s peak” originated from the triangular point of the hood of mourning that was worn by widows in the 1800’s…From my earliest baby pictures through the buzz cut years, my widow’s peak was very evident…Like most young…

Halloween Haunts: The Wolf of Woodlawn Avenue by Ricardo D. Rebelo

Halloween Haunts: The Wolf of Woodlawn Avenue Ricardo D. Rebelo I have a Halloween animatronic problem. Not the “Oh, I really like spooky stuff” kind. The drive three hours north to buy a 12-foot-tall skeleton kind of problem. Last year, I scored a seasonal job at Spirit Halloween solely to get a 30% discount and give the company back all my earnings for merchandise. So, I spent the whole summer building displays to feed my addiction. When I was done, there were enough animatronics to build my own haunted attraction. Still…it wasn’t enough. After Halloween was over, I scoured Facebook Marketplace in…
HWA ELECTION RESULTS 2025

HWA ELECTION RESULTS 2025

  HWA Election Results 2025 The Horror Writers Association (HWA) held its annual election in September. We had a number of amazing candidates for the four open positions of Trustee. Offices of Vice President and Treasurer ran unopposed. Our members have voted, and we are pleased to share the results. Please welcome back our Vice President, Lisa Wood, and Treasurer, Marc Abbot. Congratulations to Lisa Kröger, Brian Matthews, and Patrick Barb on being re-elected as Trustees; and welcome to new Trustee, Sèphera Girón. The elected officers shall hold their respective offices for terms of two years, beginning on October 31st at midnight.…

Halloween Haunts: Creepy Cat’s Guide to Entertaining By Katherine Kerestman

Halloween Haunts: Creepy Cat's Guide to Entertaining By Katherine Kerestman Whether one is an armchair traveler or is infected with the wanderlust, she will occasionally wish to enjoy the pleasures of darkness within her own home. Several festive seasons lend themselves to macabre celebrations and entertaining at home: the summer and winter solstices, All Hallows Eve, Walpurgis Night, and Creepy Kitty’s favorite St. George’s Eve. Creepy Kitty offers her suggestions for an evening of creeping out one’s friends: St. George’s Eve is the night preceding St. George’s Day. St. George’s Day is May 6 in the Gregorian calendar, although some…
Halloween Haunts: SETTING THE STAGE & THE BROWN COUNTY JACK-O-LANTERN

Halloween Haunts: SETTING THE STAGE & THE BROWN COUNTY JACK-O-LANTERN

Halloween Haunts: Setting the Stage & the Brown County Jack-o-Lantern by K.A. Schultz   It is not terribly late, but the sun is about to set, its last lighted dregs trickling out from beneath the gathering wall of clouds. The rays tint the air a pinkish gray, imbuing the autumnal dusk, the wet leaves, and the shiny sidewalks with a quick-fading warmth. From my second-floor apartment, I see costumed children making their way down the block; the youngest ones have already finished with their rounds. I see patches of candle glow on porches and in windows below, lopsided grins and sinister…
Halloween Haunts: THE PERSONAL NATURE OF HORROR

Halloween Haunts: THE PERSONAL NATURE OF HORROR

Halloween Haunts: The Personal Nature of Horror Eugen Bacon   As writers of horror, there are many motivations that spur us to write this kind of fiction. Some, perhaps like Eric LaRocca, there’s a certain glee in unsettling the reader. But in an interview on their book This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances, he shares that horror is, to him, a form of healing. There’s blood and brutality, the Lovecraftian in cosmic horror. In the horrific is a certain truth: ‘awful things happen to everyone’. This is one reason I write horror—it reflects reality. You have only to…

The Seers’ Table October 2025

The Seers’ Table, August 2025   Kari J. Wolfe, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Committee You can see any of The Seers' Table posts since inception (March 2016) by going to the HWA main page and selecting the menu item “HWA Publications / Blogs / Seers’ Table”. Nicole D. Sconiers recommends: Lucy Rose is an author and award-winning writer/director with an interest in the gothic, girlhood, and horror. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in Dread Central, Mslexia, and other publications. Rose’s films have visited BAFTA- and Oscar-qualifying film festivals internationally. She is also a Forbes 30 Under…
Halloween Haunts: HAVE A BLUETOOTH HALLOWEEN

Halloween Haunts: HAVE A BLUETOOTH HALLOWEEN

Halloween Haunts: Have a Bluetooth Halloween By Lisa Morton   Bluetooth. Who could’ve predicted ten years ago that Bluetooth technology would be one of the major future advances in the art of the Halloween haunt? But it’s happened, and it’s fantastic. Bluetooth, that nearly-magical energy that allows us to connect our phones to other devices, first entered the Halloween haunt arena a few years ago by allowing haunters to use Bluetooth speakers throughout their mazes. The speakers, which are surprisingly powerful but may be no bigger than a hockey puck or a box of crackers, are controlled by phone apps,…
Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Carmen Baca

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Carmen Baca

    What is your novel about? My next book will be a collection of short stories and poetry of the supernatural horror variety. My Chicano roots are deep in the New Mexico soil where my ancestors planted them centuries ago. Living in the Land of Enchantment means opening our minds to possibilities that the supernatural exists, and the creatures, cryptids, monsters, and spirits our abuelas told us they encountered weren’t figments of their imagination. They were real then, and they’re just as real today. En las montañas, placitas, y llanos de Nuevo Mejico, they never left, and they always…
Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Clara Elena García

Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: An Interview with Clara Elena García

  What is your novel about? “What are monsters but men made wrong?” An age-old question brought to life through the lens of Paraguayan mythology, Seven Legendary Monsters is an epic poem retelling of Guaraní lore and legend. Steeped in indigenous horror and told from the perspective of the monsters themselves, this novel-in-verse explores the duality of good and evil, the weight of curses, and the enduring power of sacrifice. From the cruel pranks of the feathered serpent trickster, Moñai, to the self-loathing of the hideous lizard dog, Teju Jagua, to the feminist musings of Keraná, the Mother of Monsters…
An Introduction to Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: Cynthia Pelayo

An Introduction to Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2025: Cynthia Pelayo

    Writing is an isolated activity. Yet, there’s a quiet comfort in knowing that there are others out there who are too, staring at their screens, tapping away at keys, and scribbling in their journals.   We are not alone at this.   When you are writing, know that there is someone else, somewhere, wrestling with a scene, structure, or outline, at the very same hour as you.   Writers come to the horror genre for a number of reasons, nostalgia, the aesthetics, and the ability to explore spiritual, philosophical, and sociological questions, and so on. Each day, the…

Hearts & Wallpaper: Writing Short-Form Madness & Horror

Click the image or watch this video here. “Hearts & Wallpaper: Writing Short-Form Madness & Horror” brings together moderator L. E. Daniels with Lee Murray, Emily Ruth Verona, Kaylee Dobbs (Happy Goat Horror), and Stephanie M. Wytovich for intimate readings and a craft conversation on how short stories and poems hold lived experience. The panel explores using metaphor, humor, voice, and white space to approach topics like postpartum depression, OCD, body dysmorphia, rejection sensitivity, and stuttering while touching on Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Tied to the Flame Tree Press anthology This Way Lies Madness and the…
Nuts & Bolts: Actor, Writer, Director Nyasha Hatendi

Nuts & Bolts: Actor, Writer, Director Nyasha Hatendi

By Tom Joyce -- Accomplished actor Nyasha Hatendi knew that Black narratives had a place in the mainstream. He also knew he could craft a tale specifically for Black audiences that would have universal appeal, because a good story is a good story. It was a matter of finding the right medium. The result is “Sacrilege: Curse of the Mbirwi,” an original audio horror/drama that Nyasha created for Audible. Caleb McLaughlin of “Stranger Things” stars in the Afrocentric deconstruction of a classic horror set-up, where family members return to their ancestral homeland and awaken something evil – a monster emerging…

The Seers’ Table August 2025

Kari J. Wolfe, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community   You can see any of The Seers' Table posts since inception (March 2016) by going to the HWA main page and selecting the menu item “HWA Publications / Blogs / Seers’ Table”.   Kari J. Wolfe recommends:   Katherine Silva is an ace Maine horror author, a connoisseur of coffee, and victim of cat shenanigans. Her favorite flavors of the genre mix grief and existentialism which she combines with her love of the New England wilderness in her works. She is a three-time Maine Literary Award finalist for speculative…