Halloween Haunts: I Dare You to Play (Paranormal Games for Halloween) by Brooke MacKenzie

Halloween is that time of year when the veil between our world and the next, the natural and the supernatural, becomes virtually non-existent.  What better way to celebrate, and gather real-life inspiration for some excellent horror writing, than by invoking the paranormal? For centuries, the brave (or foolhardy) have been summoning the supernatural through various rituals, or “games.”  During the Edo period in Japan, samurais used to play a game called “Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai” as a test of courage.  During the game, the players would sit in a room together, and one person at a time would tell a frightening ghost…

Halloween Haunts: Frights For a Good Cause by Robert P. Ottone

I got to write about my family’s connection to Halloween last year, which was very cathartic, and resulted in tears when I talked to my mom about it. This year, I thought I would talk about the importance of fundraising as it relates to engaging with haunted attractions. As I’ve gotten older, I do my very best to be political with how I spend my money. An extension of this relates to charitable organizations. Growing up, we often put on haunted houses on our front lawn, with multiple rooms, scares, designs, effects, all that good stuff. Typically, we would have…

Halloween Haunts: Halloween: The Holiday That Made Me by Samantha Arthurs

Most every child loves Halloween, for the obvious reasons. Costumes, candy, classroom parties, and a little dash of mischief thrown in for some razzle dazzle. We’ve all been there, and I’m sure that we all had an undeniably great time, but for me Halloween always meant just a little bit more. I was born on November 2nd, and while I always bemoaned my arrival on All Souls Day instead of All Hallows Eve, my feelings on the matter were often soothed by Halloween themed birthday parties. Sometimes my guests and I wore costumes, and other times the coinciding of my…

Halloween Haunts: I’ll Carve A Smile Into You by C.C. Adams

This Halloween, I’m going to do something I never did before. It starts with the biggest, sharpest knife I can find. The darkness and quiet of night over the neighbourhood. A single candle. And a pumpkin.   Because, for the first time, I’m going to carve a jack o’lantern.   As someone born and raised in South West London, I’ve seen how the neighbourhood has evolved. Where I live in the city is mostly quiet; a residential area. I’ve seen it become more progressive. Back then, it was a newsagent or two, a fish and chip shop, a stationery shop…

Latinx Horror: Interview with Isabel Cañas

Isabel Cañas is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, and Turkey, among other places, she has settled (for now) in New York City, where she works on her PhD dissertation in medieval Islamic literature and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage. To find out more, visit www.isabelcanas.com. What inspired you to start writing? I remember that I started dictating stories to my older sister when I was about 4, before I could write. I really kicked off writing with Lord of the Rings fanfic when I was about 11 and started…

Halloween Haunts: Why Do We Like Being Scared? by Marlena Frank

When I was little, my father used to have a creepy rubber mask that he wore every Halloween. It wasn’t a monster mask or a werewolf mask or anything like that, it was just a creepy looking guy’s face. He wore it with a tan, nondescript jacket with a hood that he tightened around the mask to make it look real. When it got near Halloween, he would put it on and chase me and my sisters around the house, and we would all three squeal and run, having an absolute blast. Then when he got tired, he would take…

Halloween Haunts: Halloween Memories in the Basement by Cecilia Kennedy

In a stunning feat of magic, my father, who was rehearsing his role as a terrifying Merlin the Magician for the local YWCA Halloween party, burned a hole in my mother’s underpants. I remember his excitement when he called my mother and me to the rec room basement to announce his latest trick that he was perfecting: passing a lighted cigarette through a handkerchief, but he couldn’t find a handkerchief. Mom’s underpants were the next best thing. We held our breath when we saw the smoke, hoping the white cloth underneath would get by, unscathed. It didn’t. It was the…

StokerCon Souvenir Book Publisher Announced

StokerCon2022 is pleased to announce the publisher for our Souvenir Book: Burial Day! Cynthia and Gerardo Pelayo have already been hard at work with some amazing ideas. We are thrilled with this partnership. Learn more about Burial Day here: https://burialday.com/

Halloween Haunts: I Hear Dead People: Communicating with My Father (and Others) in Spirit by Valerie E. Weich

  My father was a Halloween baby—born on All Hallow’s Eve 1934. So Halloween was extra special in our household—Dad’s birthday and Trick-or-treating. Talk about your sugar high! As a smartass teenager, I used to tell Pop he was a trick instead of a treat. He had no snappy comeback for that one. Our church’s All Hallow’s Eve celebrations for the kids doubled as my father’s annual birthday party. No doubt he would rather have been partying somewhere else. But the party ended on July 2, 2016 when Stage four lung cancer claimed my father. It’s an ugly way to…

StokerCon Scholarship from Hell Open to Submissions

The Scholarship From Hell is the only scholarship offered by HWA that puts the recipient right into the intensive, hands-on workshop environment of Horror University. Horror University takes place during HWA’s annual StokerCon. The winner of the Scholarship From Hell will receive domestic coach airfare (contiguous 48 states) to and from the StokerCon venue, a 4-night stay at the convention, free registration to StokerCon, and as many workshops as you’d like to attend! Be sure to follow us on Facebook or Twitter so you don’t miss out! Membership in HWA or StokerCon is not necessary in order to apply. The…

Halloween Haunts: Writing the Female Horror Body by Holly Lyn Walrath

Throughout pop culture, horror, poetry, and literature, we’ve been taught to both hide the female body and see it is horrific. Every October I rewatch some of my favorite horror films, and this year my goal is to watch as many body horror films as I can. As we face a renaissance of feminist horror, I have wondered if the popularity of this genre is tied to empowerment. By remaking the female body as horrific, women creators regain control over the narrative tied to the very skin and bones we inhabit on a daily basis. We creature the body, other…

The Seers’ Table October 2021

The Seers Table September 30, 2021 by HWAWeb Linda D. Addison, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community You can see any of The Seers’ Table posts since inception (March 2016) by going to the HWA main page and selection menu item: “Our Blogs / Diverse Works”. Kate Maruyama introduces: Nicole D. Sconiers is the author of Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage, a speculative fiction short-story collection that has been taught at colleges and universities around the country. Her short story, “Kim,” was published in the anthology Sycorax’s Daughters, which was a Bram Stoker Award® finalist.…

Halloween Haunts: The Pandemic Party by Naching T. Kassa

The chill of night filled the air. Shadows ruled the world and not even the plump autumn moon could keep them at bay. Halloween had come at last. The children donned their costumes and sat down to wait in the living room of the 1969 trailer home. The oldest, dressed as Blade, tapped his blue flashlight on the arm of the rocking chair, while his sister, a Day of the Dead Cutie, sat nearby. Their baby brother, clad in a Superman costume glared at them both. I, their guide, entered the room and announced the time had come. They all…

Halloween Haunts: Freakling Forever by T.J. Tranchell

We moved a lot when I was a kid—hell, I’ve kept moving even as an adult—so I’ve managed to lose touch with people quickly. Just before my fifth birthday (maybe just before my sixth?), I went back to one neighborhood to deliver a party invitation to my friend Scotty. His own mid-October birthday party was in full swing, and I was asked to stay. Cake and ice cream commenced followed by a trip to a haunted house. I had never been to a haunted house, but I knew the place we were going. The dilapidated structure sat next to the…

Halloween Haunts: Wicca is Alive and Well in Cleveland by Katherine Kerestman

Park your broomsticks on Broadview Road in the artsy, ethnic, and eclectic Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, and visit the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick, where museum owner Steven Intermill will tell you about the cache of artefacts collected by the founder of American Wicca, Raymond Buckland. Born in England to a family of Romani heritage and occultist leanings, Raymond Buckland had studied Wicca there under Gerald Gardner (1884 – 1964), the father of modern Wicca. Buckland collected occult objects, which were first housed in a New York City museum in his own basement from 1966 – 1976,…

Halloween Haunts: The Season Begins by Michael J. Moore

It's that stagnant, nocturnal air—nothing close to warm, but not so cold you need a jacket. Those thin clouds, strewn across a pitch-black sky. It's the moon, hovering just out of reach, a sinister grin beaming down from its pockmarked face. Autumn leaves, rotting by the road. It's that first step onto the dewy lawn, decorated with plastic tombstones and spiderweb-covered trees. Your bag bouncing at your side, nowhere near as full as it should be. It's different for us all, I'm sure. For this horror writer, however, Halloween has never had anything to do with ancient myths from far…

Latinx Horror: Interview with Richie Narvaez

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Richie Narvaez writes in multiple genres about Latinidad, Puerto Rico, urban culture, and social issues. His horror/spec fic story “Room for Rent,” from the anthology LATINX RISING was read by LeVar Burton on the LeVar Burton Reads podcast. Richie’s most recent novel is the historical YA mystery HOLLY HERNANDEZ AND THE DEATH OF DISCO, which received an Agatha Award and an Anthony Award. His latest work is the anthology Noiryorican. Visit him online at www.richienarvaez.com. What inspired you to start writing? I was an awkward, shy kid and there were things going on in my…

Halloween Haunts: Weird Women Take on Halloween: Five Early Halloween Works by Women by Lisa Morton

When we remember holiday ghost tales, we probably go to Charles Dickens and the most famous ghost story of them all, “A Christmas Carol”. Think about Halloween stories, and you might imagine that you’d have to wait until at least the mid-twentieth century, when Robert Bloch and Ray Bradbury rolled around. But here’s one of those historical bits that even the most knowledgeable horror fan might have missed: many of the earliest stories about Halloween were by women. That’s right, not long after Dickens tormented Scrooge with Christmas ghosts, his feminine counterparts were setting their spirits loose on Halloween. After…

Latinx Horror: Interview with Guadalupe García McCall

Guadalupe García McCall is the author of four award-winning YA novels, some stories, and many poems. Among the many accolades bestowed upon her works, her debut novel, UNDER THE MESQUITE, received the prestigious Pura Belpre Author Award and her second book, SUMMER OF THE MARIPOSAS, was an Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Finalist. Though she calls Texas home, she is an Assistant Professor of English at George Fox University and resides with her husband in the Pacific Northwest. Her next book, THE KEEPER, is due from Harper Collins on January 25, 2022. What inspired you…

Latinx Heritage in Horror: Interview with Romina Garber

Romina Garber is a New York Times and international bestselling author whose books include Lobizona & the ZODIAC series. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and raised in Miami, Florida, Romina landed her first writing gig as a teen—College She Wrote, a weekly Sunday column for the Miami Herald that was later picked up for national syndication—and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She is a graduate of Harvard College and a Virgo to the core. Find her online at: IG: @rominagarber https://rominagarber.com/about/ Twitter: @rominarussell FB: @rominabooks What inspired you to start writing? I was born in Buenos Aires, and I immigrated…