Halloween Haunts 2013: Opening the Vein by John Palisano

Halloween Haunts 2013: Opening the Vein by John Palisano

We've heard for years how to write. We've learned three-act structure, possibly subconsciously, through countless hours of movies, television shows, and novels. We've read articles about sentence structure, grammar, what kind of dialogue tags to use, point of view, how to format the best of our best for submission. You name it. But there's something else that I feel is equally as important as all the above. That's opening the vein. Ripping open your heart. Spilling your guts on the page. Making the emotional connection. But what will make the difference? How does one connect to other people? How do…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Trick or Treat by Kristina Stancil

Halloween Haunts 2013: Trick or Treat by Kristina Stancil

Should Halloween not be a case where the parent is the boss of what their child does without it being considered evil? Hypocrite or actual devout Christian can find some way to make sure their children are not ostracized this Halloween by their classmates because peer pressure among adults is one thing. For the most part we as adults can handle the snide comments concerning how we choose to celebrate Halloween but why punish our children? Halloween and Christmas, while in a base sense reflect two different religious views, are paramount to young children.  They view them on almost the…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Stoker Spotlight Interview with Lisa Morton

Halloween Haunts 2013: Stoker Spotlight Interview with Lisa Morton

Lisa Morton is the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel for Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times co-written with Rocky Wood and drawn by Greg Chapman as well as the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a Nonfiction for Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween. 1. How would you describe Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween and Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times? Trick or Treat is both a comprehensive history of Halloween and an overview of the way the festival is celebrated…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Five Films You Should Be Watching This Halloween Season by Brad C. Hodson

Halloween Haunts 2013: Five Films You Should Be Watching This Halloween Season by Brad C. Hodson

If you’re anything like me, your interest in the horror genre explodes every October. You set aside the Michael Chabon or Nick Hornby you’ve been reading for Stephen King or Peter Straub. The indie or classic rock of summer that’s been playing from your speakers is slowly replaced by Phillip Glass or The Dead Can Dance. And your movie viewing returns to the old standbys: The Shining. The Exorcist. The Amityville Horror. And why not return to those films? There’s a reason that the classics are the classics, after all. But even the most diehard Halloween horror movie viewer can…

Midnight Echo Issue 9 by HWA Member Geoff Brown

Editor: Geoff Brown Midnight Echo Issue 9 features more than 100 pages of fiction, art, interviews, book releases, and more! All based on myths and legends, including a novella by Jonathan Maberry and non-fiction by Robin Furth. TOC: Literature Changeling by Jonathan Maberry Black Train Blues by James A Moore Black Peter by Martin Livings The Road by Amanda J Spedding Coffee Rings by Kristin Dearborn The Wee Folk by JG Faherty From the Forebears by Steven Gepp Little Boy, Little Girl, Lost in the Woods by Mark Patrick Lynch The Fathomed Wreck to See by Alan Baxter Poetry ganesh…
Halloween Haunts: Halloween—What First Comes to Your Mind at the Thought? by John G. Rees

Halloween Haunts: Halloween—What First Comes to Your Mind at the Thought? by John G. Rees

Summer’s bright days are still upon us: the joys and laughter stronger, louder, as if the earth’s bounties now ready for harvest rail us with delight. As the days begin to grow shorter, summer screams one last time in a desperate display of color so powerful, it seems as if life would spring forth from the natural palette of yellows, gold and orange. But in our hearts we know the hues to be that of decay. Not only the decay of the natural cycle, but also of men’s minds; when they turn from the business of day to the fallen…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Halloween as a Kid by Michael J. McCann

Halloween Haunts 2013: Halloween as a Kid by Michael J. McCann

When I was a kid, the excitement leading up to Halloween night was second only to that of Christmas Eve. The leaves had fallen and made a wonderful noise when you tramped through them; summer was a memory but hockey season had begun; and it was cold out there with just a costume, but somehow as a kid I never noticed. The really rich kids had store-bought costumes, but I had more fun dreaming up my own. My mom and dad were always great sports: helping me out and proclaiming that this year's costume was even scarier than last year's.…
Halloween Haunts: Stoker Spotlight Interview with Rocky Wood

Halloween Haunts: Stoker Spotlight Interview with Rocky Wood

Rocky Wood is the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel for Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times co-written with Lisa Morton and drawn by Greg Chapman. 1. How would you describe Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times? It's a warning about the dangers of ignorance and intolerance. We've taken the historical background of the witch-hunting era and put it in context for readers. They are entertained as they learn - the get to meet some of the nasty individuals who drove this evil period in history and…
Halloween Haunts 2013: A Feast of Fear by Frazer Lee

Halloween Haunts 2013: A Feast of Fear by Frazer Lee

Halloween is hungry, thirsty work. All those seasonal book signings and live readings can really take it out of you, not to mention the effort it requires to fish all of the bodies out of the moat in time for the traditional midnight game of “wake the dead.” It is an industrious time where family comes together to create costumes, to transform the house into a set from a horror movie—and to cook up a feast. Ah yes, the feasting; for an army of the undead cannot march on an empty stomach. In fact, October truly begins in my home…
Halloween Haunts 2013: ‘Tis the Season by Ed Erdelac

Halloween Haunts 2013: ‘Tis the Season by Ed Erdelac

  The Halloween season is upon us, when the trees shed their leaves like scraps of yellow-orange construction paper that shuffle beneath your feet, every pumpkin spreads a butter-yellow grin, and every porch light becomes an invitation to fill your bucket with candy. I must admit, at the risk of sending the gentle reader clicking off to some other corner of the web, Christmas is my favorite holiday, but Halloween is a close second. But I got to thinking, one of the things I always looked forward to on Christmas as a kid were the proliferation of holiday-themed animated specials…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Comment Ça? Rencontrez Dracula en Français pour (Dracula: Entre l’Amor et la Morte)—A Film Review by James Dorr

Halloween Haunts 2013: Comment Ça? Rencontrez Dracula en Français pour (Dracula: Entre l’Amor et la Morte)—A Film Review by James Dorr

Dracula in French?  And Canadian French to boot?  And with songs!  Yes, all that and more is available to those who enjoy a delightful shiver on seeing a bat’s silhouette against a full moon, as nights grow chill and days shorten to herald the coming of Halloween. And it’s on DVD, “inspiré du roman de Bram Stoker, le spectacle musical Dracula:  Entre L’Amour et La Mort.”  Yes, the musical version of Dracula -- in French. Actually produced in Quebec where it ran from January 13 to December 16 2006 (with the DVD version filmed in November that year according to…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Stoker Spotlight on Marge Simon

Halloween Haunts 2013: Stoker Spotlight on Marge Simon

Marge Simon is the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in Poetry for Vampires, Zombies, and Wanton Souls.  1. How would you describe Vampires, Zombies, and Wanton Souls? A concoction of poetic and artistic supernatural works that strikes terror even in the hearts of the staunchest horror fan. "In her eyes, an ephemeral light, and her stomach screamed for flesh" doesn't begin to share the dreadful fun. 2. Tell us about what inspired you to write Vampires, Zombies, and Wanton Souls. This collection was an extension of the first book, The Mad Hattery (a Stoker finalist).  Inspired…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Night Terrors by Heather L Reid

Halloween Haunts 2013: Night Terrors by Heather L Reid

Nightmares are the stuff of dreams­­-the subtle edge of darkness that creeps across the sleeping mind, evoking inner demons to dance macabre behind the shuttered windows of the soul. I don’t remember when they started, the dreams of faceless entities, of black figures standing by my bed whispering in the deep shadows of my childhood room. Sometimes I would wake from their dark grasp and find my six-year-old self standing at the end of my parent’s bed, or in the kitchen, or walking down the hallway. Other times I would suffer from sleep paralysis, trapped between dream and reality, a…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Beware of the Jersey Devil by Carol MacAllister

Halloween Haunts 2013: Beware of the Jersey Devil by Carol MacAllister

October 31st - Halloween night: A lonely drifter wanders on a dark sandy road through the scrubby New Jersey Pine Barrens. Clouds mask the full October moon. A screech is heard from a stand of pine. Running footsteps cut through dried leaves. Night air turns chill. Heavy breathing rumbles. Something demonic approaches the drifter who trembles with fright. Earlier words echo in his thoughts: Beware of the Jersey Devil. And, the legend continues for nearly 300 years. Mrs. Leeds, so the story goes, wanted no more children. While delivering her 13th child, she shouted, "I am tired of children. Let…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Stoker Spotlight on Lucy Snyder

Halloween Haunts 2013: Stoker Spotlight on Lucy Snyder

Lucy Snyder is the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction for her story "Magdala Amygdala." 1. How would you describe "Magdala Amygdala"? I'd describe it as a soft apocalypse story. I used it to explore the natures of self-identity and memory along with the fears of disease and loss of self. I also employ an unreliable narrator to provide the reader with a story that can be interpreted in a variety of different ways. For instance, I never actually specify the gender of the protagonist, although practically everyone reads the narrator as female, presumably…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Why I Write Horror by Carl Alves

Halloween Haunts 2013: Why I Write Horror by Carl Alves

I read pretty much every genre with the exception of Romance and Westerns. Nothing against them, just not my cup of tea. Although there are many things I find enjoyable about other genres, especially fantasy and science fiction, which are more or less cousins to the horror genre, when it is done right there is nothing better than horror. Horror has the ability to hit a nerve than penetrates the psyche unlike anything else in the world of entertainment. That is the reason why horror movies do well at the box office no matter how ridiculous the plot, or how…
An Interview with Amber Benson (Part 2)

An Interview with Amber Benson (Part 2)

By JG Faherty Read Part 1 Last month, actress and author Amber Benson talked to us about YA horror, literacy, her love of gory books and movies, and her writing process. This month we hit on those topics some more, plus some new ones as well. JG: Why do you think horror/dark fiction strikes such a chord with teen readers? AB: I think human beings like to be scared - and doing it within the framework of a book is the safest way to work up the adrenaline. JG: How do you keep in touch with the YA audience? While…
An Interview with Richard Christy (Part 2)

An Interview with Richard Christy (Part 2)

by JG Faherty, for the Horror Writers Association Newsletter Read Part 1 Last month metal drummer extraordinaire and horror fanatic Richard Christy and I spoke about his love of horror movies and novels, his metal band Charred Walls of the Damned, and writing songs vs. writing screenplays or novels. This month, the interview continues, with an emphasis on Halloween, naturally! JG: Let's talk about Halloween. I know it's your favorite holiday, and it's a safe bet that most people reading this interview feel the same way. What is it about Halloween that you like the best? RC: I think it…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Halloween Hootenanny! By Greg McWhorter

Halloween Haunts 2013: Halloween Hootenanny! By Greg McWhorter

Enter the Crypt of Forgotten Screamers! WwwwAAaaaRRrrrrGGgghhHHHh!!!!! It’s Halloween time again and that means you must have something appropriate spinning on the turntable, ‘natch. I don’t know about you, but I like to get my holiday discs out for aural pleasure to match the feeling of the season. Halloween is the best time to do this with all the great rock’n’roll themed spooks and howls. For this article, I decided to dig deep and unearth some forgotten Halloween oriented discs that you might want to give another spin. I’ve left out all the big names and well-known records like “Monster…
Halloween Haunts 2013: Stoker Spotlight on Gene O’Neill

Halloween Haunts 2013: Stoker Spotlight on Gene O’Neill

Gene O’Neill is the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction for his book The Blue Heron. 1. How would you describe The Blue Heron? The Blue Heron is a dark thriller, with perhaps a slight hint of fantasy. 2. Tell us about what inspired you to write The Blue Heron? I'd just finished writing Rusting Chickens. And I remembered an old Marine Corps incident. Also, a couple of writer friends suggested, I should write more about my military background. 3. What most attracts you to writing dark fiction? I studied psychology in college and have…