Halloween Haunts: Real Horror on Halloween by Billie Sue Mosiman

I love the holiday. It’s dark, chilly October flying fast into November and the nights are full of ghosts.

Sometimes we become ghosts. Don’t we? Real horror is to face a life-threatening disease, facing it squarely, shoulders thrown back, and a mantra in the mind saying, “Go ahead, do your worst. I did my best. I’m not afraid of you.”

I saw several of my friends and contemporaries in the past year succumb to the Reaper and yet some of them overcame and rallied. I cheered for that, sending my love and healing thoughts to them. I rallied, too. The doctors didn’t think I’d last weeks or months, but I beat all predictions and speculations and made my comeback. I sidestepped the Reaper and my own ghostly self. It was sobering for we don’t sit around thinking we’re about to pass on. Faced with the possibility there are only two things to do–fight or give in. Do what you can to survive or simply lie down and let whatever threat it is take over. I fought. Hard. So far I won the game. I won’t win forever, as none of us will, but I won it this time like I did a couple of times before in my life.

When I do get to be a ghost, and if I get a choice, I think I’ll pick Halloween to come back to Earth for a little look-see and ballyhoo. I mean that has to be the best time of year for a ghost, right? I could fly, my white shrouds flailing, and call out to the partygoers and the trick-or-treaters and I could laugh and laugh and laugh on the wild, chilly, dark October night.

I don’t find death the worst of all events. Sometimes it’s destined and sometimes it’s needed. Until then all Halloweens have to be honored, all the ghosts need to be respected, and the night should rightfully be given over to revelry, laughter, and the utmost happiness.

For fictional horror, here’s an excerpt from my latest novel, THE GREY MATTER, from Post Mortem Press.

“John Grey lay in the muck of his own blood, flies blowing his skinned skull. For some hours he knew nothing, having fallen into a darkness near death. When he came to himself, he had to recall what had happened. Gunshot. The sting of buckshot. The blast that took off his scalp. The blacking out of the world and the bliss of unconsciousness. His head was turned toward the back door of the cabin. He opened is eyes matted with blood and yellow matter to blink at the too bright sunlight. He didn’t think he could move and he wouldn’t even if he could. They thought he was dead. He must let them go on believing that.

He lay unmoving the entire day. He didn’t move during the following night. His stomach shrieked with hunger and his tongue felt glued to the roof of his mouth from lack of moisture. He often swallowed and felt new saliva pour from the cheeks of his mouth onto his dry tongue. His hate grew, a squirming fat ugly thing wriggling like something mad in his brain. His hate was a living embodiment of his entire being. He was no longer a man of memory or a conglomeration of his past actions. He was a slab of meat drying in the sun, washed by the chill of sunset, covered by the dew of early dawn. He didn’t move, not a muscle beyond those of his eyelids. He was dead and it appeared the kids in the cabin were going to leave him to rot. They weren’t even going to the trouble to put him in the ground.”

Ed Gorman, crime and mystery fiction’s bestselling author, says of THE GREY MATTER, “I can honestly say Billie Sue Mosiman is one of the finest horror-suspense writers I’ve ever read. She has her own take, her own voice and such a broad range of skills I’m in awe of her talent.”

Mort Castle, award-winning Stoker author, says, “Billie Sue Mosiman’s GREY MATTER‘s got plot twists you aren’t predicting and characters made not of cardboard and cliché but flesh and blood, flaws and dreams—and courage. Above all, GREY MATTER is a story of ‘family’: It’s love and not surname or DNA cell tissue that binds us together to protect and save our own. GREY MATTER is a thriller with brains and heart, just like its author, Billie Sue Mosiman.”

TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: Billie Sue Mosiman is giving away one e-book copy of SINISTER-TALES OF DREAD, a collection of 14 horror stories. Comment below to enter.

Traditionally published author of novels and more than 60 books on Amazon, BILLIE SUE MOSIMAN is a thriller, suspense, and horror novelist, a short fiction writer, and a lover of words. In a diary when thirteen years old she wrote, “I want to grow up to be a writer.” Her books have been published since 1984 and two of them received an Edgar Award Nomination for best novel and a Bram Stoker Award Nomination for most superior novel. She’s been a regular contributor to a myriad of anthologies and magazines, with more than 160 short stories published. Her work has been in such diverse publications as Horror Show Magazine, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jamais Vu, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Find out more about her books: http://www.amazon.com/Billie-Sue-Mosiman/e/B000AQ0Z5E/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0