Halloween Haunts: Arachnid Teachers

Halloween Haunts: Arachnid Teachers

By Heddy Johannesen

I recall a night many years ago when I passed by a cemetery as I was walking home. Something was odd about the cemetery. Cemeteries are naturally spooky places. The streetlights lit the headstones in the eeriest glow I have ever seen. It inspired me to write a horror poem which did get published later.

I have seen many other odd and creepy things in my life: a deceased dog that washed up ashore, insects crawling over rotted apples in a different cemetery, the shadow person that appeared and vanished in my kitchen. I don’t know why I see these weird things but it does have an impact on me and my writing.

I guess I am meant to find inspiration in the oddest places. Every August, my yard and garden is rife with spiders. I find them in the shower stall, above my bookcase and at the window sill above the kitchen table. The best spot for studying spiders outside is at the top right corner of my window space in my bedroom. I watch spiders weave their magnificent webs, ensnare unwary insects and trap their hapless victims in cocoons.

Spiders can teach writers about the patience to weave stories. They craft their webs whether circular or orb like. Spiders are patient and cunning. They unnerve people because they move with an eerie grace and can fit into the tiniest spots and are so quiet. When their web unravels, they repair it. I love to see dew dropped webs when I stroll through my garden.

My novella, The Cult of the Spider People, which is scheduled to be published this October is chock full of spiders. I have learned a lot since I began writing the book. I learned what it takes to write a complete book and what it takes to edit it. I know that my manuscript looks nothing like it did when I wrote my first draft. A first draft is not publishable; a second, third or fourth or fortieth draft is. I learned how to be patient once I signed the contract and waited for the book to be turned into an actual book.

I learned a ton from the editor Stephanie Ellis. By the way, if anyone wants a good editor, I highly recommend her. She transformed my manuscript and taught me the real art of editing. My book would languish in obscurity if it weren’t for her. She knows how to breathe real life into a story.

I am grateful for everything I have learned and accomplished. I am grateful for everything I have learned from the HWA. I have learned so much that I am sure I am a better writer for it.

This coming Samhain will have a much deeper meaning to me. I love October so much and my first book will be published. October is the season of the Witch and werewolves, ghosts, zombies, vampires and serial killers? Now we invite my spider people characters to the party and have real fun.

Maybe we can all learn how to weave dew dropped webs to trap readers in to our macabre tales, like our eight-legged arachnids do.

Heddy Johannesen is a horror writer who loves to write gothic fiction and poetry. She likes to take photos in cemeteries, drink too much coffee and write in artsy blank journals and watch horror movies. Her fiction has appeared in The Horror Zine, Yule Cat Codex, Halloweenthology: Trick or Treat, Polar Borealis, Wax and Wane: A Gathering of Witchy Tales, Ghosts, Spirits and Spectres Volume 2, Handbook of the Dead, Samhain Secrets, One Night in Salem, Feminine Macabre, Paranormal Chronicles and Untimely Frost: Poetry Unthawed. She’s a member of the Horror Writers Association and co-chair of the Horror Writers Association chapter for Atlantic Canada. She attended the virtual Horror Writers Association annual convention StokerCon, in 2021, 2022 and 2023. She participated in the online From Idea to Finished First Draft Masterclass with  Jonathan Maberry in June 2023, the Three Prime Rules of Writing Horror Webinar with Mort Castle in October 2020 and a mentorship with Tim Waggoner. She graduated from a Copy Editing Certification Training at Writer’s Digest in July 2020 and a Bachelor of Arts degree. She’s a writer with a fascination for the paranormal.

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