Halloween

By Meghan Arcuri   The fathers always took us. That’s just how it was. Maybe the dads liked it more. Maybe they thought they’d get extra candy. Maybe that’s the way it was done in my neighborhood. Regardless, most of my memories of trick-or-treating involve my dad. One year, my older brother tried to argue that we didn’t need Dad to come with us. Only in 4th grade, I wasn’t so sure I was old enough for that. Fortunately, my dad said no. I was old enough, however, to be aware of the shaving cream wars my brother and his…

by Amanda Trujillo Halloween is horror movie season. Actually, I enjoy horror movies year-round, but when Halloween draws near, I marathon my favorites. As a child, I’d watch my favorite films (mainly Universal) throughout October to get into the spirit of the season, sorting them by categories and devoting entire days to vampires, werewolves, haunted houses, etc. Nowadays, I need to begin watching my extensive collection in August and usually don’t finish until early November. I’ve also switched to viewing the most recent releases first and working my way backward to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Doing so allows me…

by Robert P. Ottone As long as I can remember, Halloween has been my favorite holiday. This isn’t an original concept, right? Every horror writer champions Halloween as the best night of the year, but for me, my affinity for the spookiest of all nights connects directly to my dad and our special way of celebrating the night. The last time I went Trick or Treating was in fifth grade. I dressed as Michael Meyers and went out with my friends Shawn and Chris, and came home with a large assortment of deliciousness. After that, there was no time to…

Dracula. Frankenstein. The Mummy. The Wolfman. Posters covered his walls, as did cotton cobwebs, rubber tarantulas, and bats strung with elastic. Dribbles of wax added authenticity to the gold-painted candelabra on shelves covered with Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror comics and antique Aurora monster models. Layered across this display fit for a wax museum was the season’s own finishing touch, stark claw-like shadows of brittle, bare branches cast through his window by the flickering streetlamp outside. As he stood gazing down at Marlborough Street, Jeff wished he were twelve again—old enough to go even a block ahead…

by Nicole M. Wolverton Hundreds of pairs of feet pounding on Millennium Bridge, the sound of it ricocheting off the River Liffey, was like being inside an enormous beating heart—the chaos and fury mirrored in my own chest. That we all blindly followed a massive puppet toward Wolftone Square to meet up with two other parades led by two different giant puppets didn’t seem strange at all. Neither did the wind rising eerily off the Liffey, nor the howls of Macnas’ street performers cavorting amongst us in the dark. The Summoning had begun. That was the scene in Dublin, Ireland…

By Jo Kaplan These are strange and terrifying times, my friends, but not the good kind. Not the kind of strange and terrifying when a full moon shines down on twenty-five hours of Halloween mayhem as the bars fill with grotesque creatures and the streets fill with hungry little monsters. Who knows what Halloween will bring us in this, our year of the pandemic? Perhaps the streets will be empty and hauntingly quiet; perhaps you would prefer to be safe in your home. Even so, let us not mourn the loss of this year’s Halloween, but find creative ways to…

by Tim Waggoner Excerpt from WRITING IN THE DARK Years ago, a student asked me why I write horror. “You seem like such a pleasant person,” she said. I looked into her eyes and smiled a slightly wicked smile. “Writing horror is what keeps me pleasant.” We all have a dark side that whispers to us, a side that we struggle against and ultimately need to make peace with if we don’t want it to destroy us. In many ways, that’s probably the most primal story of humanity. Horror fiction gives us a safe way to explore and – hopefully…

Welcome! Come in!  Welcome, foolish mortals! Is everyone sitting comfortably?  Good.  I'll begin. {cue spooky music & creepy lighting} It is my honor and pleasure to welcome you to HWA's 2020 Halloween Haunts - a month of blog posts on all aspects of horror and Halloween for those of us who find this to be the most wonderful time of the year.  Be sure to check back daily as new posts from members of the Horror Writers Association will share Halloween memories, tips for making Halloween special in quarantine during a global pandemic, Halloween fiction, advice on writing scary, brief…