Halloween Haunts: Sparkles: A Haunted House Story
by Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar
When I imagine a haunted house, my mind conjures up broken windows, sagging floorboards, and cracked ceilings. I picture cobwebs in the corners and old-fashioned, dust-covered furniture. Rodents skitter about the hallways, their scratching claws punctuating the deathly silence.
Halloween Haunts: Writing Horror For Comic Books
By Jonathan Hedrick
Long before the now defunct Comic Code Authority was slapping their seal on funny books left and right, the medium was no stranger to the macabre story telling of horror. Spinner racks were jammed packed with titles like Witches Tale, Chamber of Chills, and The Haunt of Fear. Even now, the modern-day comic book reader can still find a plethora of spooky graphic novels at their local comic shops. From The Autumnal to The Walking Dead, this sequential art form remains a breeding ground for horror stories. But beware! Before you set out to write your next hair-raising script, heed the following tips, if you dare.
Halloween Haunts: A Halloween Scare for the Ghost Tour Host
By David Allen Voyles
Halloween has always been a thrill for me, even as an adult. Without a doubt, it’s the main reason why I write horror. For over forty years, my wife and I, garbed in our October aliases of Mr. and Mrs. Dark (raising a glass to you, Ray Bradbury), have hosted an annual over-the-top, themed, Halloween party. The popularity of our “Dark Ghost Tours” party in 2014, when I took guests all over our property to tell stories about the little scenes of horror we had created, actually inspired us to throw caution to the wind and take out a loan to create our own small, family ghost tour business, Dark Ride Tours. Talk about scary…that was VERY scary! We were both in our sixties, for crying out loud. DRT featured a renovated 1972 Cadillac hearse, retired from actual funeral service, in which we took our paying guests to various haunted sites.
Halloween Haunts: A Night at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia
by Nicole M. Wolverton
We clustered in groups at the hulking gray-stone entrance of the prison. Twilight deepened, purple to gray. Nothing stirred beyond our nervous laughter. We waited for what came next, shivering in the late October cold.
From October 1 through October 31, the Horror Writers Association will host an online event to celebrate the month of Halloween and help horror readers and horror writers connect at the eeriest time of the year.
All HWA members are invited to participate in this series of daily blog posts, book excerpts, and more. Halloween Haunts offers HWA members a place to share Halloween anecdotes and stories to connect with new readers, spread the word about members’ new works, and raise the profile of the horror genre and the HWA.
Halloween Haunts: Halloween Reading
by Kevin Wetmore
My non-horror friends always get a little excited that they can relate to me better for a few weeks. “We’re watching some scary movies this week,” I am told. Or, “I’m going to read a horror novel.” And I am genuinely happy that they are willing to embrace the dark even for this brief period. I am happy to give recommendations and congratulate them for watching a scary movie in October or picking up a horror novel around Halloween.
Halloween Haunts: How to be Safe in the Cemetery
by Loren Rhoads
One foggy summer day, I explored the historic cemeteries a mile outside of Pescadero, California. The grass was ankle-high on the Protestant side, but over my knees on the Catholic side. Holes the size of juice glasses riddled the ground, but I never saw a mouse or gopher poke his head out.
Halloween Haunts: Our Love Story as Told by Halloween
by Jessica Hobbs
As my husband and I approach our anniversary of seventeen years together – an unusually long time for a pair of artists still in their 30s – I can’t help but look back on all we’ve been through, from touring gigs to Hollywood dreams to a broken marriage healed through tenacity and witchcraft, and notice how Halloween tells the story of the people we’ve become.
Halloween Haunts: The Ghost with the Ruby, Ruby Lips
by Naching T. Kassa
A few years ago, during Halloween Haunts, I shared one of my most favorite scary stories with you. It was, “The Ghost with One Bloody Finger.” https://horror.org/halloween-haunts-the-ghost-with-one-bloody-finger-by-naching-t-kassa/). In that post, I talked about my love of scary stories and how the kids in my small, rural elementary school loved it. I also mentioned two other stories. The first was an oldie but a goodie, “The Man with the Golden Arm,” and the other was today’s story, “The Ghost with the Ruby, Ruby Lips.”
Halloween Haunts: Licensing on Halloween
by Rosemary Thorne
Children are not the only ones going door to door setting up dealings on Halloween. There are sorcerers too, knocking on the darkest gates of all realms to renew their practicing licenses. If you pay the right attention, you will see us running up and down not as cheerful as candy-holders: the endeavours we must carry out on that night are hideous, hair-raising, abominable. Those are the mandates of the Ones behind the veil in its thinnest.
Halloween Haunts: All The Treats!
by Linda D. Addison
Halloween has been one of my favorite holidays my whole life. As a child the idea of dressing up that one day and going house to house to collect candy was magical. Back then, no one worried about being poisoned or razors in fruit. I felt stronger and magical in costume then in regular clothes. The thin awkward kid who read books all the time and didn’t talk much could become a powerful witch, one of my favorite costumes, and no doubt the easiest for my mother to create, since there were nine of us.
HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: INTERVIEW WITH A HORROR-LOVING CHILD
by Eric J. Guignard and Devin Guignard
I sat down to write this blog post, and—as I do before any writing—I read a bit on the subject matter, what others before me have written about. I wanted to put out something different that hadn’t been covered by other HWA members, and so as I skimmed through the blog posts I noted similar themes, many looking back at Halloween myths and family traditions and sweet memories. Man, I’ve got a lot of those too, and reading of others’ past experiences brought a number of flashbacks about trick-or-treating (sticking my head in the bag after collecting all the candy and just inhaling!) and family get-togethers in the suburbs of Los Angeles (my uncle from Mexico and his side of the family always had the wildest creep-shows set up in their front yard, with purple-lighted skull cemeteries and animatronic werewolves).
Halloween Haunts: Thing That Make You Go “Hmmm…”
by L. Marie Wood
We speak of the dead in past tense and positives. We dress for them in ceremony and as protection. We offer them food, plant trees in their honor, name celestial clusters after them. We ameliorate, machinate, gyrate, lie prostrate in the hopes that we can appease them, calm their souls so they favor us, smile on us… do any and all so they don’t haunt us.
