Halloween Haunts: Celebrating Halloween when “Every Day is Halloween”
By Raven Belasco
I’m not just a goth girl, I’m a vampire author.
This means that by two “lifestyle choices” I’ve made, the lyrics to “Every Day is Halloween”—that Ministry song from -1987 that all “children of the night” have danced to at the goth night at their local nightclub—are doubly true for me.
What then to do on Halloween itself? For me this is a strangely vital question, every year.
On the goth identity level, Halloween can be seen as “amateur night.” When you dress up in a way that might have people staring at you—depending on where you live, obviously—all year round, putting on a costume might seem a bit done or trite. For myself, I’ve never felt that way. Any excuse to take it up to the next level is a good excuse for me, so while I do have some disdain for people who dress goth on Halloween when they are “normal” all the rest of the year, October 31st is for me a perfectly valid reason to wear full-on Victorian garb, or dress like a “witch” or a “pirate” or other costume. Why? Because playing dress up is always fun, and I’m not missing out on it!
My second chosen identity, that of the author of an ongoing vampire series, means that I’ve been promoting my books extra hard since summer in preparation for “Spooky Season” so as an indie author, this truly has meant that “every day is Halloween” for me on the business level. But by the time Great Pumpkin Day rolls around, I’ve been dressing up in Halloween costumes and vending or doing interviews for two months and I am honestly a bit drained—vampire pun intended!— and what I need more than anything else is self-care.
This has led to a Halloween tradition for me. When I wake on All Hallow’s Eve, the self-care begins. I get up late and have a leisurely morning. The marketing and social media have been set to run without needing anything from me; I have a true and complete day off. (A rare and special thing, as all indie authors know.) I walk the dog and enjoy the fall foliage.
A huge pumpkin awaits me. It’s always huge, because I just can’t bring myself to buy anything less that then most impressive pumpkin at the local farmstand. This is going to make my efforts take longer, for I will be spending the day carving the most intricate design I think I’m capable of pulling off into this gigantic gourd, but it’s always worth it.
I’m no master pumpkin carver. I do it literally once a year, and there is no practice between Halloweens, so the level I top off at is “intermediate” and I likely will never attempt an “expert” design, like the ones you see in glossy lifestyle magazines in the checkout aisle at the grocery store. But this is less about the final result than about the “Zen and the Art of Pumpkin Carving.”
When you commit to three or more hours of any activity, you had better be able to find some focused tranquility in it, but the reason I so look forward to this every year is that the hands-on aspect of it is rewarding: from cutting the top opening carefully (so that it will sit well on the finished jack-o-lantern and not fall in), scooping the squishy insides out, through the careful artistry of putting the design onto the curving orange sides, and then delicately slicing through the hard exterior to remove the negative space of the design, so that the flickering light inside the pumpkin makes the art come alive.
By now I am experienced with every step of the process. I may not be an expert carver, but I do know lots of little tricks along the way to ensure a satisfactory outcome. The final result may not be the entire goal of the day—the mediative aspect of making art with your hands that is what I’m really there for—but still, having a jack-o-lantern you are proud to put out on your porch is a true reward for the hours of effort you’ve put in.
I have a Halloween playlist which is long enough to inspire me through the afternoon of carving, and I have seasonal treats like spiced chai and a candied apple to get me through the struggle of carving an intricate design on an oversized squash.
No matter how difficult it is to get my design painstakingly perfect, it must be done in time to give the dog—who has gone from watching me with curiosity to outright boredom as the carving progressed—his walkies before the sun goes down, and then to revive this year’s costume one final time—because the people who will appreciate it most of all are the trick-or-treaters.
Once I am fully costumed, I can sit down to dinner and a rewatch of a favorite vampire movie or other horror flick. Pausing regularly to answer the doorbell is the best part of the night: the adorably costumed neighborhood children saying “Trick or treat!” after which I praise their costumes, the candy being handed over—and even sometimes, a kid telling me what a great jack-o-lantern I have. There are not many finer rewards in this world than that, let me tell you.
After my special day of celebration, I go back to work on November 1st reenergized and ready to tackle projects with refreshed momentum (as the ancient Celtic world viewed Samhain Eve as the end of the old year.)
This is where I add a message to my fellow authors: whether you are like me and need an excuse to take a day off, or if you are more sensible that self-care is regularly required, being any kind of author right now (indie, small press, trad-pubbed) is an incredibly hard job, and even though you are pursuing your passion, you still need to take time off and take care of yourself: being off screens and doing something that brings you immediate joy and satisfaction. Spending a day carving a jack-o-lantern gives me a project that requires my full attention but which will be done in a manageable chunk of time, without the stress of deadlines or other #authorlife pressures.
You are welcome to join me in making Halloween your Day Off Celebration, but if you cannot, I hope you have a wonderful Great Pumpkin Day, Samhain Eve, Hallowe’en, Día de Muertos, All Saints’ Eve, or whatever you celebrate, and I hope you are able to tap into the dark energies of when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead are thinnest to charge your horror writing for the year to come.
Raven Belasco has been described having as both “a dark, lyrical writing style” and at the same time “an easy, breezy writing style; a more colloquial and relaxed John Scalzi.” A degree in Comparative literature and a lifetime devotion to genre fiction fused into her unique style: constructed with the same dedication as literary fiction, yet easily accessible for any reader.
Belasco wanted to be an author since she was a little eight-year-old bookworm. When she turned seventeen she became chronically ill, and reading and writing “saved” her. After college, she had success with many published articles and short stories, but she always wanted more. Her first novel, Blood Ex Libris, was a genre-blending mix of dark fantasy, horror, historical, and action-adventure. It turned out to be very hard to get an agent to consider that, and it was only through dedication and a stubborn refusal to quit that Belasco finally found a publisher who understood her fresh voice and message.
Belasco writes about the complexities of being human as viewed through a dark mirror. She is known for her dedication to keeping the monstrous aspects in vampire fiction, for exploring themes of love and resilience, immersive world-building, nuanced character dynamics, and diverse perspectives.
Raven Belasco is also known for a deep connection with her readers through a very personal newsletter, regularly asking for their input in the upcoming stories. Her Blood & Ancient Scrolls Series has a deeply loyal fan base who are equally enthusiastic about both the characters and their author.
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Find Raven and her vampires on http://ravenbelas.co/
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