Halloween Haunts: Creating Halloween by Norman Prentiss

Recently I was invited to contribute a story to a project sponsored by Cemetery Dance Publications—a series of eBook singles focusing on Halloween. A “theme” invitation is always fun, since it challenges you to write a story that you might not have written otherwise. This one should have been especially easy: I’ve always loved stories that take place on Halloween, and I always wanted to write a Halloween story of my own. Halloween is such a rich subject because of the shared trick-or treat memories—with your parents and then, when you’re old enough, with your friends—and the iconic images of…

Halloween Haunts: The Ten Movies That Should Always Haunt Your TV On Halloween by Benjamin Kane Ethridge

1. Young Frankenstein From the lovely violin score, to the great performances, to the authentic sets, to one of the single best comedy dance numbers I’ve ever seen, this movie is a Halloween gem. My favorite line: “Open this goddamn door or I'll kick your rotten heads in! Mommy!” 2. Beetlejuice A couple years back I watched this Tim Burton classic with my wife, who had never seen it before. I appreciated the film in a completely different lens. The first part of the movie suggests almost a haunted house comedy—this would have probably been routine and forgettable, and even a safer…

Halloween Haunts: Peculiar Genius–The Ghost Stories of M.R. James by Brad C. Hodson

“The peculiar genius of M. R. James, and his greatest power, lies in the convincing evocation of weird, malignant and preternatural phenomenon... It is safe to say that few writers, dead or living, have equaled him in this formidable necromancy and perhaps no one has excelled him.”  -Clark Ashton Smith When the leaves change color and the wind cools, we find ourselves imagining what could be lurking in the shadows, what could be waiting in closets and under beds and inside dank, dark spaces. It’s a time that, whether through tradition or the influence of pop culture, begins to conjure…

Halloween Haunts: Samhain Stories by Frazer Lee

Samhain Publishing launched its Horror line this time last year, and was proud Platinum Sponsor of the Bram Stoker Awards® in Salt Lake City. Readers visiting the website http://www.samhainhorror.com will know that the roster of authors (including some HWA members) and diverse titles have grown month-on-month, with no sign of slowing down. Samhain Horror authors have been spotted at conventions like Horrorfind Weekend and KillerCon, signing copies of their books and reading their stories to horror fans. All such events have taken place in the USA—until now. When the time came to put together the first ever UK Samhain Horror…

Halloween Haunts: A Lucero Haunt by Brick Marlin

Twisting the doorknob and carefully peeking behind a few doors in my mind (As a writer, I have learned the hard way by “things” jumping out at me in the past; so, yes, I am very cautious!), I remember my parents dragging me off to different haunted houses. Whether it was witches holding skillets filled with human eyeballs inches away from my nose, stepping into a room where a mad doctor is severing the leg away from a woman whose guttural screams scurried down my spine, or perhaps walking along a five-foot wide path, people dressed in rags behind prison…

Halloween Haunts: How the Application of Corn Starch Prepared Me for Novel-Writing by David Annandale

Halloween taught me the virtue of suffering for one’s art. Right. That sounds insufferably pretentious. That’s because it is. But there is a grain of pragmatic truth I’d like to try to tease out of that statement, if you bear with me for a little bit. Horror stories and monsters have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My first Halloween costume consisted of a plastic Frankenstein Monster mask (and I was still too young to have even heard the word “Frankenstein”), along with a crepe-paper crown and cape my mother had fashioned for me.…

Halloween Haunts: Fight for Your Right to Halloween by Jennifer Harlow

As I’m sure all of my fellow HWA members can claim, Halloween is my favorite holiday. Horror movies on every channel, pumpkin seeds roasting in the oven, slutty cats and nurses trolling the street galore, and those are my least favorite things about the holiday. (Hello? Candy! Children!) But once I went to college, then moved back home into our rural suburb, I never got a single trick or treater. It was so depressing. I missed seeing the smile on mini-Spiderman or a fairy princess’ face. And it’s just pathetic if you’re an adult dressed in costume alone eating candy.…

Halloween Haunts: Specialty Press Award Spotlight–Derrick Hussey and Hippocampus Press

Derrick Hussey and Hippocampus Press received the 2011 HWA Specialty Press of the Year Award. 1. How would you describe Hippocampus Press? We are a small press specializing in the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and their circle. Each member of our team brings their experience and enthusiasm to the projects we undertake, motivated primarily by our own taste in horror and literature. 2. Tell us about how Hippocampus Press came into existence. Hippocampus Press was conceived to fill the gap created when Necronomicon Press more or less stopped its activities in the late 1990s. At that time,…

Halloween Haunts: Three Ways Anyone Can Have an Awesome Halloween by Lincoln Crisler

Halloween can be a galvanizing time of year for some. People who don’t go to church except maybe on Christmas and Easter suddenly RISE UP! against the blasphemous evil nature of the holiday. Others, who may be fairly apathetic though the rest of the year awake from their walking slumber sometime around mid-September, attacking a flurry of party arrangements, costume decisions, decorating opportunities and meal options with the drive and ambition of any ten normal people. To me, Halloween isn’t about the Hairy Goat Man (or any other deity, though as a student of many religions, I’m well-versed in the…

Halloween Haunts: Fort Fear–Writing the Origin Story for a Haunted Attraction by Adrian Ludens

“We want to build a haunted attraction and we'd like you to write a back story for it.” An origin story for a spook house? What a novel idea! More of a short story idea, really, but still an inviting challenge. One I readily accepted. Four summers ago, I sat in an Irish pub in Rapid City, SD with the creative team behind a new Halloween attraction. Fort Fear, as they called it, was to be set up inside a chuck wagon supper establishment that would conveniently be closed for the season. “We want an Old West theme.” “We have…

Halloween Haunts: Halloween Mom by Nancy Holder

For many years, I dreamed of having a daughter, but no daughter came. When Belle finally showed up, I couldn’t imagine anything better—except that she missed being born on Halloween by three days. I thought that would have been perfect. But turns out that Belle and I share a lifestyle that includes Halloween as a season (and pretty much a year-round pursuit) so we have a house filled with a black Christmas tree up all year round, pirate and horror-themed art (and dishes, and table cloths) and a general love for gothy goodness. I’ve hosted about a dozen Spooky Sleepovers…

Halloween Haunts: Could Vampires Be Real? by Carole Jahme

Dr Paul D Stewart (http://www.paul-d-stewart.co.uk) is a zoologist and multi award-winning wildlife filmmaker. After reading the new Darwinian vampire novel Worth Their Weight in Blood, by Carole Jahme, Stewart emailed, intrigued to know more about Jahme’s biologically credible vampires. Subject: from Paul Stewart Worth Their Weight in Blood is beautifully written, throughout the book you take 'vampire lore' and turn it to something more biologically meaningful. I'm not sure that has been done before. How did you come up with the idea?   Subject: from Carole Jahme Thank you. Perhaps all children wonder if vampires are real, I certainly had speculated on this notion and…

Halloween Haunts: Famous Monster (Hunters) of Filmland (and Beyond) by Ed Erdelac

The leaves yellow up and the pumpkins sprout faces, the monster movie marathons begin and the spooky books get their own prominent section up front in the library, where they’ll quickly be supplanted by the Turkey Day and Christmas selections, like a rapid succession of Billboard number one singles. Halloween’s come around once again. Blink and you’ll miss it. Since the nineties there’s been a trend in horror fiction and media towards depicting the sympathetic creature of the night. Nuance is never a trend I mind, but sometimes I do find myself pining for the good old days of the…

Halloween Haunts: Stoker Spotlight Interview with Linda Addison

Linda Addison is the recipient of the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry for How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend. 1. How would you describe How to Recognize a Demon has Become Your Friend? A science-fiction, fantasy and horror collection of short stories and poetry that explores the appearance of demons, inside and outside ourselves. The amazing cover is by Jill Bauman, who has worked with the top writers in the speculative field. 2. Tell us about what inspired you to write How to Recognize a Demon has Become Your Friend? With the passing…

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.…