Halloween Haunts: The Highwayman By David B. Riley

Halloween Haunts: The Highwayman By David B. Riley

One of the first stories I ever had published is "The Highwayman." I've actually managed to get it reprinted some 10 times over the years at various anthologies and such. It's very short, kind of whimsical, and I tend to dust it off every October. I debated whether to use it for Halloween Haunts as it's not really horror.  But it definitely is a Halloween story.  I hope folks enjoy it.    "The Highwayman" by David B. Riley Kalcouldn't tell for certain no one had seen him, but there weren't any sirens screeching through the night. He opened the hatch and…
Halloween Haunts: The Last Night of October by Marge Simon

Halloween Haunts: The Last Night of October by Marge Simon

The Last Night of October   The last night of October is one of crickets, loud and soft, blending with a yellow gray sky, a chill wind rising,   while down the street children in costume parade from house to house. But ours is dark.   A door slams. My wife's thin face, distorted with hate, breath stinking of gin, that shy pretty girl I took to the altar so many years ago, out she goes to the car.   (about the brakes - I'd fixed them just for her)   She revs it up, and charges into the rush…
Halloween Haunts: Halloween, Horror, and Death by Leigh M. Lane

Halloween Haunts: Halloween, Horror, and Death by Leigh M. Lane

The best Halloween I ever had occurred a little over a decade ago. I was living with my sisters in a large house just outside of Las Vegas, and we’d joined efforts to transform the front yard into a terrifying treat. We’d constructed elaborate gravestones for the lawn, adorned the porch with spider webs and multiple Jack-o’-Lanterns carved with devilishly scary faces, set out a cauldron flooding over with the sublime of dry ice, and compiled hours of spooky MIDI files to finish the mood. The finished product had been horror-film worthy, the reactions it evoked worth every hour we’d…
Halloween Haunts: Monster Squad: An Appreciation by Patty Templeton

Halloween Haunts: Monster Squad: An Appreciation by Patty Templeton

Halloween, to me, is about watching movies. Yeah, yeah, costumes and candy, too, but it’s mostly about the MOVIES. A hella fun flick I revisit nearly every Halloween is The Monster Squad. 1987 was not kind to The Monster Squad. The New York Times said, “The Monster Squad looks like a feature-length commercial for a joke store that sells not-great, rubber monster masks.” The Washington Post was even harsher saying, “…the movie plays like it was written with a power tool.” It cost 12 million to make and yet recouped only 3 million at the box office. Geez. But this…this…
Halloween Haunts: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Jim Pyre

Halloween Haunts: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Jim Pyre

I’ve loved Halloween. It seems passé I should, but before I read my first bit of Lovecraft. I was crazy for the holiday. It was different, not the same tick-tock ritual as the others.  Thanksgiving, I sat at the same table until I was sixteen.  Christmas, sure it was the mother load, but how long can you pretend Uncle Fred is the jolly old fat man.  Halloween was always different. Always on my terms. I wanted to be a pirate. Bam, I was a pirate. Same goes for a mad scientist, or even a Ghostbuster. I also picked where I…
Halloween Haunts: Real Horror on Halloween by Billie Sue Mosiman

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…
Halloween Haunts: Why Halloween Is the Best Holiday by Tony Peak

Halloween Haunts: Why Halloween Is the Best Holiday by Tony Peak

For horror writers, Halloween is the most anticipated holiday of the year. It’s not hard to imagine why: many dress up like their favorite monsters or villains, and it’s easier to find black lipstick in a department store. The holiday is observed in the middle of autumn, when there is less daylight, the night is chillier, and the landscape has shriveled up in preparation for winter. There is a vague sense of impending excitement, as the year draws to a close. Perfect setting for a gothic novel—or a celebration of who we really are. What places does Halloween have in…
Halloween Haunts: Halloween Changes Through The (My) Ages by JG Faherty

Halloween Haunts: Halloween Changes Through The (My) Ages by JG Faherty

As a writer with a strong leaning towards horror and dark fiction, it's only natural that I'm a huge fan of Halloween. In fact, it's my favorite holiday. The fact that you're reading this means it's probably one of yours as well. But I loved Halloween long before I ever thought about putting pen to paper. As a kid, it was the third-best night of the year (coming after Christmas and my birthday), and as I grew older, my love of all things spooky only grew. However, time has a habit of changing how we look at things. While at…
Halloween Haunts: From Soul Cakes to Bones of the Holy–Halloween European Style by Catherine Cavendish

Halloween Haunts: From Soul Cakes to Bones of the Holy–Halloween European Style by Catherine Cavendish

I suppose, in some ways, I had a somewhat deprived childhood. Oh, nothing serious, but when I grew up in the northern English town of Halifax, nothing really happened on Hallowe’en. There was no Trick or Treating and no kids ran the gauntlet of their mother’s anger by tearing holes in her best white sheets to make ghost costumes. There were precious few Jack O’Lanterns. In fact, I don’t recall seeing many pumpkins around anyway. I do have a vague recollection of bobbing for apples round at a friend’s house, but that’s about as Hallowe’en as it got. So I…
Halloween Haunts: Sweets in the Darkness by James Chambers

Halloween Haunts: Sweets in the Darkness by James Chambers

Around this time of year, an image of Halloween comes to my mind. It’s a Halloween that never quite occurred and likely never will. It lives in my imagination, defined by oblong shadows stretching beneath Bradburyesque October skies, cast by comic book haunted houses stacked with impossible, Gothic architecture, cobwebbed porches, and ominous, arched windows. Children disguised in costumes worthy of a Hammer horror film—or at least a Corman sci-fi flick—rush along leaf-blown streets, clutching candy-swollen sacks. The chilly breeze lifts their voices, crackling with excitement. Hearts enflamed with celebration, they rush freely through the gloom. Jack-o-lanterns outnumber street lamps.…