Halloween Haunts: A Kiwi Halloween by Marty Young

Growing up in Hastings, New Zealand, we never really got to enjoy Halloween. It existed—for me, anyway—as some kind of weird holiday I got to see on TV and in movies. Halloween was so far removed from my world that it might as well have been as make-believe as the shows I was watching. It sure looked like fun, though, dressing up as ghosts and goblins and monsters and ghouls, and decking out your house with bats and Jack o’ lanterns and spiders and such… I remember going to the Hastings Library one day and looking up Halloween in the…

Halloween Haunts: The Gift of Fear by Rebecca Cantrell aka Bekka Black

Halloween is about scaring the crap out of kids and then giving them sugar. Tricks. Treats. Making little lions and Spidermen and pirates and kittens happy while giving them nightmares. It’s my favorite holiday. This year we’ve moved, but last year and for the ten years before that, we were a little insane about Halloween at our house. Here’s how it went: We start early with the silhouette of the pregnant lady stabbing her unsuspecting husband as he reads. Maybe he should have gone to the store to get pickles and ice cream after all. Then we raise the home-made…

Halloween Haunts: Dead Mann Talking by Stefan Petrucha

In an initial draft of the first book of my zombie detective series, Dead Mann Walking, a group of peacefully protesting undead, pushed too far by the living, go feral, fulfilling the zombie stereotype. As dead-detective Hessius Mann helplessly watches the mess, he broods on the fictional history of the walking dead. Ace editor, Jessica Wade, felt it pulled the reader out of the story. I agreed, lopping it out quicker than Ash with a chainsaw-hand. To celebrate the release of the sequel, Dead Mann Running, and the Halloween season, what could be more appropriate than restoring it to half-life?…

Halloween Haunts: Stoker Spotlight Interview with Rocky Wood

Rocky Wood is the recipient of the 2011 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Acheivement in Non-fiction for his book Stephen King: A Literary Companion. 1. How would you describe Stephen King: A Literary Companion? Stephen King: A Literary Companion is a comprehensive review of all Stephen King's fiction. It starts with a broad twenty page introduction that puts into perspective the many themes that King has explored over the years - particularly hope and redemption; and the 'worlds' in which he operates, such as the Dark Tower-universe and the many stories set in Maine. Then we review all his fiction,…

Halloween Haunts: Why Horror? by Cher Green

I’ve wanted to be a writer for as far back as I can remember. Emily Dickinson led me into poetry, and V.C. Andrews opened me up to fiction. My reading habits include poetry, short stories, long fiction and everything in between – romance to horror, sci-fi to suspense. If the words grab me, the story shall be read. Yet, when writing, I stick close to my heart with paranormal and horror. Why, you may ask, would a nice girl like me want to write Horror? I blame it on my fascination with fear and the authors who create it. These…

Halloween Haunts: Why Horror Should Be Its Own Genre by Annie Neugebauer

“Horror is not a genre, like the mystery or science fiction or the western. It is not a kind of fiction meant to be confined to the ghetto of a special shelf in libraries or bookstores… Horror is an emotion.” --Douglas E. Winter If you write dark fiction, you’ve probably come across this quote often. In fact, it appears in the very well-written essay “What is Horror Fiction?” right in the FAQ section of the HWA website. The essay makes some excellent points that I whole-heartedly agree with. And yet, several things over the past year have gotten me thinking.…

Halloween Haunts: A Halloween Primer for Horror Writers by Lisa Morton

As a Halloween expert, I’ve been asked to do a lot of interesting things. I’ve been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal about the proliferation of sexy Halloween costumes, I’ve jabbered away on the supplements for the Blu-ray release of the movie Trick ‘r Treat, and I’ve been asked by writer and editor friends to fact-check works of Halloween fiction. Most horror writers love Halloween (of course!), and I’m betting most of them know more about the holiday than the average joe. They’ve seen the yearly documentaries, they’ve read enough Halloween-themed fiction to fill a haunted house, and maybe they’ve…

Halloween Haunts: Specialty Press Award Spotlight–Roy Robbins and Bad Moon Books

Roy Robbins and Bad Moon Books received the 2011 HWA Specialty Press of the Year Award. 1. How would you describe Bad Moon Books? We are a bookseller and publisher who specialize in horror and dark fiction. 2. Tell us about how Bad Moon Books came into existence. I am a big fan of the genre. I started out as a collector and was buying from some of the existing small presses in the late 70’s such as Dark Harvest, Scream Press, Ziesing, and the like. I figured out that if I purchased 5 copies of a title, and sold 4, I could…

Halloween Haunts: Making Halloween Mean Something by J.G. Faherty

Well, our favorite holiday of the year is fast approaching, and as always my writerly mind turns to thoughts of promotion. Or at least it did, back in August, when I started looking around for themed events in the local area where I could sign and sell books. I've done this before, appearing at fright fests and books stores, either alone or with other writers. Then something happened that changed my focus. I did a young adult reading at one of our local libraries. Now, at the time, I was just getting started in putting together some ideas for articles…

Halloween Haunts: Fright Club by Kenneth W. Cain

Being the sort of person who never did care much for sweets, Halloween has always been about the surprise for myself. This is the one day when being weird is fully accepted, when wreaking havoc is only kids being kids. This is a day when shock and awe are the norm, and being socially acceptable falls to the wayside. It is a night for ghosts and ghouls and Frankenstein, horror movies past midnight, spooky noises that keep you awake long after everyone else has gone to bed. For these reasons the day suits me. I've never been one for dressing…

Halloween Haunts: Halloween Dog by David B. Riley

Halloween was always a wonderful time when I was growing up. Though, as an adult, it really stopped being much of a holiday. As time went by, I sometimes was in Arizona, where my dad lives, and sometimes not around Halloween. One year I remember my dad wanted me to walk his dog because he wanted to stay home and hand out candy. That was fine. I decided, since it was Halloween, to put Zero (named thusly because he really liked cold weather) in a Bart Simpson T shirt. One thing about golden retrievers is they’ll pretty much go along…

Halloween Haunts: Stoker Spotlight Interview with Allyson Bird

Allyson Bird is the recipient of the Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel for her book Isis Unbound. 1. Tell us about what inspired you to write Isis Unbound? I've always been interested in Ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire. So I combined the two in an alternate history. I knew that there was so much to be explored if Anthony and Cleopatra had actually won the battle of Actium. Add to that Egyptian gods who lived on earth and the aim of one to be superior over her sister (interwoven with what happens to mortal…

Halloween Haunts: Celebrate the Bad Times by John F.D. Taff

Halloween.  It’s trite that this holiday would be the favorite of a horror writer, but there it is.  Halloween is my favorite holiday, better than that blissed-out full feeling at Thanksgiving.  Better than a pile of presents at Christmas or rockets red glare on an Independence Day evening. Why?  Well, it’s unlike any other holiday.  Whatever its original intent, it isn’t celebrated today to honor anyone or anything’s birthday.  It’s doesn’t honor a deity, usher in a new year or even give thanks for anything.  In fact, what it celebrates is something that people spend their entire lives studiously ignoring;…

Halloween Haunts: Be Careful Who You Scare: A Halloween Cautionary Tale by Laura Benedict

We had a marvelously terrifying basement in our house in Western Virginia, a perfect setting for a Halloween party. The room at the bottom of the kitchen stairs was unsettling enough: a blocked-off fireplace, peeling vinyl flooring with a slick, unearthly sheen, flimsy paneling that hinted at having been hastily installed to hide bloodstains on the walls. It was damp. Always cold. The adjacent laundry room had spider-filled, broken cabinets, a cracked concrete floor, and an open closet which still held the dusty hunting clothes of a previous occupant. But the third and fourth rooms truly completed the Silence of…

Halloween Haunts: Diary of a Horror Writer–Entry 62 by Russell James

“What is that monstrosity in the driveway?” I knew those would be my wife’s first words when she got home.  I went to kiss her hello.  Her eyes burned through me. I paused at a safe distance. “It’s a hearse,” I said.  My enthusiastic grin bounced off her like rain on granite. “I know it’s a hearse.  Why the hell is it here?” A hell-oriented pun of a reply died on my lips.  “We own it,” I said. “Oh no.  We don’t.  What were you thinking when you bought it? ‘I’ve always wanted a car that transported dead people.’?” “I…

Halloween Haunts: Tricks, Treats, and Chainsaws by James Chambers

I’m certain I’m not the only horror writer who’s ever wondered what they would do if they found themselves in the real-life equivalent of a chainsaw slasher flick. I’d venture, in fact, that this is something horror writers spend far more time considering than the average non-horror writer. We probably spend slightly more time thinking about this than figuring out our survival plan for a zombie apocalypse but not quite as much time as we spend imagining what we’d do if we were vampires. However, I think it’s also safe to say not many horror writers ever get to learn…

WITCH HUNTS: A GRAPHIC HISTORY OF THE BURNING TIMES by HWA Member Rocky Wood, Lisa Morton (authors) and Greg Chapman (illustrator)

Author: Rocky Wood, Lisa Morton (authors) and Greg Chapman (illustrator) For nearly three centuries, as the Black Death rampaged through Europe and the Reformation tore the Church apart, tens of thousands were arrested as witches and subjected to trial, torture, and execution, including being burned alive. This graphic novel examines the background; the methods of the witch hunters; who stood to profit; the brave few who protested; and how the trials finally faded as Enlightenment replaced fear and superstition with reason and science. The book examines famed witch hunters Heinrich Kramer, architect of the infamous Malleus Maleficarum; Matthew Hopkins, Englandâ…

THE DONORS by HWA Member Jeffrey Wilson

Author: Jeffrey Wilson A powerful and evil force is at work in the Hospital where little Nathan is recovering from injuries at the hands of his Mom's abusive ex-boyfriend. Demonic looking men with pale faces and glowing eyes lurk in the shadows and, worse, it appears that someone is harvesting skin and organs from living-- and awake-- donors against their will. In his dreams, little Nathan can see these demons in their true form-- evil creatures who feed on the fear and hatred they help create in their victims. Nathan's only ally is the young Doctor who cares for him.…

THE HAUNTED MANSION PROJECT: YEAR ONE by HWA Member Editor E.S. Magill

Editor: E.S. Magill In the fall of 2010, ten horror writers met at a real haunted mansion to spend four days together. Joining them were a group of paranormal investigators who studied the house and reported their findings. This anthology is a collection of the fiction, poetry, journals, real impressions, and investigative conclusions created at or inspired by that weekend. Find out what scares horror authors: E.S. Magill, Rain Graves, Nikki Boscia, Loren Rhoads, Sephera Giron, Kim Richards, Yvonne Navarro, Weston Ochse, Christian Colvin, Dan Weidman, and S.G. Browne. Proceeds from this anthology go toward future Haunted Mansion events. TOC:…

SOUNDTRACK TO THE END OF THE WORLD by HWA Member Anthony J. Rapino

Author: Anthony J. Rapino A suicidal nudist strolls into traffic. An eccentric Buddhist claims he can occupy other people's bodies. All the while, whispers of a new form of entertainment blow through town. Prompted by these strange occurrences, Marty Raft, a not-so-gentle giant, investigates and discovers underground clubs peddling music that induces an out-of-body experience. Marty and a wannabe comedian, Corey, set out to prove these special frequencies are nothing more than a hoax, or at worst, a mass-drugging. Instead, they uncover a secret with world-ending possibilities. If you can hear the music, it's already too late. An impressive debut.…