2021 WMG Publishing Halloween Spectacular

If you like the Halloween season the way I do, you're already anticipating a bit of a let down come November, when it's over for another year.

But what if I told you that you could continue to enjoy the thrill and fun of the Halloween and Harvest season with a handy little

THE HALLOWEEN SPECTACULAR CALENDAR 2021

Get a daily dose of spooky fun delivered straight to your inbox. 

Or. give the literary equivalent of trick-or-treating to yourself or a loved one. A magical virtual harvest hayride of reading pleasures and treats.

For only $15 USD.

Every day, starting on October 25, 2021, and running through November 2, 2021, you will get an original short story sent to you (or the recipient of your choice) via email.

Each seasonally themed tale is accompanied by an introduction by me, the editor of this selection of delightful tales and publishing by WMG Publishing.

You will get each story in ebook format (epub and mobi), so you can read them daily on your own device, anywhere, anytime you choose. Or you can store them up and binge on a weekend.

As an added bonus, all subscribers will receive the Halloween Harvest anthology (cover below), which includes all nine stories, plus two bonus stories! Halloween Harvest will be released just two days after the calendar ends, on November 4.

 

 

364 Days Until Halloween 2021

If you're like me, you've already begun to count down the days until Halloween 2021.

I know, I know. It's Nov 1st. There are other holidays to look forward to.

Okay, I'll give you that. There ARE other holidays. But I'm still going to pine for the next Halloween. The most wonderful time of the year.

And in the meantime, I'm going to share a pretty cool Kickstarter project that I'm honored to be a part of. It's WMG Publishing's Holiday Spectacular 2020.

Imagine an original holiday story delivered to you every day during the holidays? But not just the regular "the holidays" - on top of the Christmas themed tales, you can get Valentines and Halloween tales for 2021.

It's the story gift that keeps on giving, almost all of the way through 2021.

This project was born out of Kristine Kathryn Rusch's combined love for short fiction and holiday countdown calendars.

Subscribers to this project will get the first story on November 26th, 2020 and then a new story EVERY DAY through January 1st, 2021.

That's right! A Brand New Original Holiday Story Every Day, following three distinct themes. Mysterious Chrismas, Fantastic Christmas, and Sweet Holidays.

But wait, there's more!!!!!

Because (and you'll see why I related this to my eagerness for Halloween 2021) there are two more wonderful projects:

•  From February 7th through the 14th, 2021, you can get eight original Valentine stories delivered to your inbox. One each day. This Sweet Valentines collection is edited by Annie Reed.
• From October 25th through November 2nd, 2021, you can get nine original Halloween stories delivered to your inbox. This Halloween Harvest collection is edited by yours truly.
  

All of the stories are fantastic. I've had the privilege, as one of the series editors, of reading them all. But I'm a little biased about the ones I selected for my combined Halloween and Harvest themed anthology.

The stories are available to be delivered on those calendar dates but will also be available in book format.

And you can get in on the action and check it all out before this Kickstarter runs out in another 16 days.

What's your favorite time of the year?

There Is No Monster Mash

Ever since someone pointed it out to me, it has really bothered me that The Monster Mash is a song about a song that you never get to actually hear.

 Before you start to argue, yes, I understand the the Monster Mash is a dance move. But it's also a song.

Check out this set of lyrics from the 1962 song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett (written by Bobby Pickett and Leonard L. Capizzi)

The scene was rockin', all were digging the sounds
Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds
The coffin-bangers were about to arrive
With their vocal group, 'The Crypt-Kicker Five'

 

They played the mash, they played the monster mash
The monster mash, it was a graveyard smash
They played the mash, it caught on in a flash
They played the mash, they played the monster mash

 

 

The song, which was the number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for Oct 20th through the 27th that year has been a perennial Halloween favorite ever since.

But you never do hear the actual song that is referred to.

Just sayin'. Or, perhaps I should say, "Just singin'."

Halloween 2018

Every Friday since early April 2018 I have been doing a thing called #FreeFridayFrights.

This is where, on my website, I offer up either a free short story or a free non-fiction eerie/ghostly article read. I also do a Facebook live video that is often also posted to YouTube and other places.

For this past Friday (Oct 26, 2018), because it was the last Friday before Halloween I talked a bit about the origins and sources for Halloween customs as well as some trivia related to Halloween.

Since the Free Friday Frights articles only appear for a week and then are replaced by new content every week, I thought I'd share this past week's article here. If you'd rather see the video based on this written content, scroll down to watch it.

Friday Oct 26, 2018

NON-FICTION:  Halloween

A look at the tradition of All Hallows Eve (Halloween) as well as some interesting trivia associated with it.

Halloween appears to be a combination of traditions and folklore derived from Pagan, Celtic, ancient Roman and Catholic traditions.

Originally a pagan festival of the dead, All Saints’ or All-Hallow’s Day is November 1. The day is also known as All Saints Day, All Hallows Day, and All Souls’ Day. According to the original pagan custom, the celebration of the dead is meant to begin as the sun sets the evening before, and that is usually when the souls of the dead are said to begin to get up and roam around the earth. This original festival has, of course, survived to the present day in popular culture as Halloween, a night of trick-or-treating by children dressed up in costumes.

 

In the 17th Century, the catholic church used the same day as a way to honor and celebrate the known and unknown saints and martyrs of the church. It had originally been celebrated on May 13, but was moved to November 1st in the eighth century.

The ancient Celts refered to the festival surrounding this day as Samhaim and used it to celebrate the onset of winter and the begining of the Celtic New Year. Samhain translates to “end of summer.” In Ireland, the same celebration was known as Samhein, or “the feast of the sun.” In Scotland, the term Hallowe’en was used.

The act of children dressing up and going door-to-door to collect treats was likely adapted from the Gaelic practice of giving cakes to the poor (aka “soul-cakes”) in return for praying for a good harvest, prosperity and protection against bad luck. The concept of the trick is likely to have been derived from an English Plough Day custom where Ploughmen went door to door begging for gifts, and if they did not receive anything they would threaten to damage the grounds with their ploughs.

There are numerous folk customs associated with this festival. Here are a few Halloween related bits of trivia:

• THERE IS NO ESCAPE: Harry Houdini died on Halloween. It’s true. I even wrote about it in Macabre Montreal (yes, that’s a bit of shameless self-promotion). One of the world’s most famous magicians died on October 31, 1926 in Detroit at the age of 52 in Detroit. He died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix. It is commonly stated that Houdini died due to repeated or unexpected blows to the abdomen by a McGill University student in Montreal. This proposition might be partially true, as it is possible that the pain from the blunt force trauma Houdidi received might have masked the fact he was suffering from appendicitis, and, had he been treated earlier for that, he likely would have survived.

• NOT SO HAPPY JACK: One of the traced origins involving the carving of jack-0-lanterns is believed to have come from Ireland with the carving of turnips and the legend of a man named Stingy Jack. The miserable old drunk enjoyed playing tricks on people. After playing a trick and trapping Satan, Jack made a deal to release him, so long as Satan promised not to take his soul. When Jack died, he was denied entrance to heaven, but also banned from hell. Satan gave Jack a single burning coal, which he placed into a hollowed out turnip. He then spent eternity wandering the earth with this lantern hopelessly looking for a resting place.

• GIMME SOME CANDY:  According to the National Confectioner’s Association, one quarter of all of the candy sold in the United States every year is purchased specifically for Halloween. In addition, a majority of all candy given out on Halloween is chocolate. Three out of every 10 homes will pass out lollipops or other types of hard candy. Candy Corn was created in the late 1800s. The three colors are meant to look like the colors in kernals of corn. More than 35 million pounds of candy corn is produced each year. According to a 2017 Forbes article, Candy Corn is among the most hated of all Halloween candies (second to Circus Peanuts) and Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups were the most favored

• HALLOWEEN 2018: THE TRIVIA OF MICHAEL MYERS: Jamie Lee Curtis was considered for the heroine for the original 1978 Halloween by John Carpenter as a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock. (Janet Leigh, famous for the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho, is Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother. The movie, produced in 12 weeks, was shot on a shoestring budget of only $300,000 and went on to make $47 million. It was the most profitable independent film ever made until The Blair Witch Project in 1999. John Carpenter was paid $10,000 for the film, and Nick Castle, who played Michael Myers, was paid only $25 a day. The sound of slashing flesh was created by stabbing a watermelon. Myers mask was another side effect of a low budget. It was derived from William Shatner’s likeness because they purchased a Captain Kirk mask, peeled off the eyebrows and some hair, and spray painted it white.

---

This article was originally composed for Mark Leslie’s weekly #FreeFridayFrights

You can also watch the video on my Facebook page, where a fun POLL has also been embedded.

Scared In Studio

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being in studio on Barry Shainbaum's FaithFM radio show Perspectives.  It was a one hour show in which we talked about how I'm afraid of everything, how that fear of my own shadow led to the writing of horror and, of course, my new book Haunted Hamilton.

Yorick, of course, joined me in studio.  :)

Mark and Yorick - Photo courtesy of Barry Shainbaum

The show is broadcast to folks in the Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Brantford area, but it was also broadcast via a live web stream.

It was a fun hour and you can listen to it via podcast by right-clicking here or going to the online radio show archive.

Mark, Yorick and Barry

The Grinch Who Stole Halloween

My son went out the front door this morning to discover that somebody has stolen two of the "Gruesome Greeters" that have been a part of our annual Halloween decor in the front yard for several years now.

A pic from last year - stolen "greeters" are circled

They were attached two a couple of plant stands that Francine uses - including the wonderful "bunny" plant hanger that we had for years - those were stolen too.

It's not the cost of these items that bothers me, but rather the effect it has on my son.


It was a fun morning - the family was happy, heading out the door to drop him off at school, only to discover this.  He burst into tears of frustration and was determined to go hunting through the neighbourhood, convinced we could find them.  Going to school and learning and seeing his friends and teachers was the furthest thing from his mind.

The incident has been reported to police - it's not the first time items have been stolen from our front yard -- this is perhaps the fifth or sixth time.  Honestly, I have lost count.  And, like in the past when his fun things were stolen (a statue, a fountain, planters, Halloween and Christmas decorations), Alexander is going to obsess with trying to find these items we'll likely never see again.


It's interesting - I'm often asked why I write horror stories.  One of the reasons might be that at least the bad things are fiction. At least, there are opportunities in the horror I write, for good to triumph over evil. And sometimes, when the evil does win in the story (becomes sometimes in horror, the monsters win), at least when you close the book, the bad stuff is over.

But these thieves haven't just stolen some decorations from me and my family. They've also stolen a bit of fun that has become ritual in our neighbourhood.  We enjoy putting out fun decorations - this time of year, kids walking to school enjoy pausing to check out the decorations -- adults often stop to take pictures.  It's a small thing that brings fun and seasonal spirit to people. A little bit of that is now taken away.

I would just love to find the jerks who did this and force them to stand in front of my son and apologize.

Music With Halloween Spirit

Alexander & Francine's Jack-o-Lantern for Halloween 2011

I always feel the post-Halloween blues kick in at about the same time I go to blow the candle out in the Jack-o-Lantern for the night on the evening of October 31st. A strong part of me wants to keep that candle lit for a few moments more as I peer down the street hoping for just one last trick or treater to come calling.


That's usually when my mind starts trying to conjure ways to bring back that beautiful Halloween spirit that the rest of the world shares but which I seem to hold in my heart for most of the year.

This time, I began composing a list of songs I'd love to mix together to celebrate Halloween. Sort of a virtual "mixed tape" like the ones we used to make when we were younger.

Here's the list I came up with:

Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
Running with the Devil - Van Halen
Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show
Witchy Woman - Eagles
Clap for the Wolfman - The Guess Who
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Boris the Spider - The Who
Devil with a Blue Dress - Mitch Ryder & Detroit Wheels
Welcome to my Nightmare - Alice Cooper
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osborne
People Are Strange - The Doors
Thriller - Michael Jackson
Tubular Bells (Exorcist Theme) - Mike Oldfield
Let's Go Crazy - Prince
Witch Doctor - David Seville
Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Iron Man - Black Sabbath
Black Magic Woman - Santana
Witch Hunt - Rush
Highway to Hell - ACDC
Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
Monster Mash - Bobby "Boris" Picket

Maybe if I put together a playlist like this I could bring back just a bit of the Halloween spirit. Or at least, when I hear some of these songs throughout the next 364 days, it'll help rekindle the dying embers of that wonderful feeling of Halloween.

What songs would you add?

Bizarre Halloween Nightmare

I normally don't blog about dreams that I've had - however, I've been working on the latest draft of my forthcoming novel I, DEATH and recently going back and doing touch-ups on scenes in the first third of the novel where the main character Peter O'Mallick - a teenager convinced he has some sort of supernatural death curse because the people around him are dropping like flies - is blogging about nightmares he has been having.

Because I'm trying to spend every free moment working on the novel, it's the first thing I think about when I wake up.

So last night, I had a very vivid dream about being woken up by a noise in the house.

It seemed normal and natural, because at 1:30 AM, I HAD ACTUALLY awoken to a strange BUMP in the night.

For real. It was no dream. A loud noise coming from downstairs woke me.

I sat up, heard another loud thump. Then another. I wasn't frightened though, because I recognized the sound immediately. It was our dwarf rabbit, Earl, thumping his back paw. He does this when he's particularly pissed off about something. And when he does it in his cage (with a plastic bottom that reverberates quite loudly off the tile floor), you can hear it, quite loud, through the entire house.

I figured that Earl had run out of food so I went downstairs to check on him.

He had plenty of water, pellets and hay (he even had half a tortilla chip - a treat we'd given him before bedtime). So he wasn't annoyed about the food situation. I reached into his cage and petted him, thinking maybe he was lonely. But then he thumped a couple more times.

I thought maybe he was thumping to alert us of something (a common reason why rabbits thump is to warn other rabbits of danger), so I peered out into the back yard - nothing. Then I went to the front to check the front yard and our quite elaborate Halloween decorations (always leery of vandals) - everything there was fine.

Earl thumped one more time. I told him to knock it off, got a glass of water, gave him a small handful of Cheerios, then went back up to bed.

He ceased the thumping and I went back to sleep.

Some time later is when I had the nightmare. In the dream, I woke to a strange noise. I, naturally, assumed it was Earl "voicing" his displeasure to the rest of the house. I sat up, shook my head and then threw the covers back, thinking I might as well head downstairs and continue work on my novel. I was annoyed to be woken, but didn't feel tired - so was actually feeling pleased with the thought of having some time to work on the book.

As I walked over to my dresser and leaned down to pull out a pair of pajama bottoms from the bottom shelf, I saw a shadowy figure standing quietly and motionlessly in our bedroom doorway.

I shook my head and did a double-take. It was a dark, very tall figure, obviously not Alexander coming in from his room. My heart leapt into my throat.

There was someone in our house!

I scrambled to grab the mag lite that I keep on my side of the bed.

"Get out!" I tried to scream at the dark figure, and at the same time I tried calling out to Francine to call 911; but my voice was breaking, I could barely push any words out. I lunged toward the door with the mag-lite raised high, ready to strike, and the figure turned around and quickly started moving down the stairs. I began to chase him.

As he moved down the steps, he moved through a beam of moonlight coming in from outside. That's when I saw the unique black with white smudge pattern of the robes he was wearing and realized the figure walking through our upstairs was the grim reaper from our front lawn Halloween decorations.

The Grim Reaper who stands at the front left side of our yard this Halloween

That's when I woke up for real.

Wow! Strange dream. But still pretty cool.

I still find it interesting that I wasn't as afraid of some strange dark figure that broke into our house (remember, I was prepared to chase after him and whack him with my mag-lite) as I was of an inanimate lawn decoration stalking through the house. The fact it was a "monster" is what scared me so much I woke from the dream.

For the record, this morning, once the sun came up, I went outside to check to make sure the grim reaper was still standing where I left him. He was. So I took the picture posted here.

After I snapped the shot, I could have sworn that he offered me a wry grin and a quick wink.

But then again, my imagination often gets the best of me.

HNT - Decorations Moved

It's been pretty busy around our house since Halloween, so I haven't had time to completely put the oodles and oodles of Halloween decorations away. I did have time, however, to get them moved off the front lawn and front of our house and into the garage.

But that just makes for a really weird experience when you're in our garage. Particularly at night when you look over your shoulder because you get this strange feeling that someone is watching you.

It's a little eerie.

Francine isn't a fan of it, but I kind of get a kick out of the new temporary look of the garage.

Alexander, on the other hand, has all these grand plans about how it's time for us to get the Christmas decorations up.

Post Halloween Blues

The day after Halloween always brings with it a bit of melancholy.

Oh, who am I kidding? The blues start to kick in at about the time that more than fifteen or twenty minutes pass without any trick-or-treaters having coming to the door. I look at the time and realize that it's simply too late for the younger kids to be out there.

So, with a forlorn sigh, I step outside, take one last look at the decorated yard, and then unplug the lights, turn off the fun special effects and blow out the candle on the jack o lantern for one more year. The slightly charred smell that the flame has left on the inside of the pumpkin still lingers in an eerily comforting, yet mocking scent.

I feel, perhaps, like Linus when yet another year passes and the Great Pumpkin has taken a pass on his pumpkin patch.

All the talk about ghosts and goblins, the decorating, the pumpkin-carving, the fun, the ghost stories, the costumes, are put aside and packed away for another year.

But, like Linus, my faith is still strong, and I can start counting down the days until next Halloween.

All Hallows Read - Give A Book This Halloween

I absolutely love Neil Gaiman's idea of giving books for Halloween.  The concept, as suggested, is simple. In the week of or on the night itself, you give someone a scary book.

It's being called All Hallows Read and there's an FAQ on the website and a suggested hashtag of #AllHallowsRead. It's not about having to buy a new book, it's just about giving or sharing a book with someone else -- adult or kid's book, it's about celebrating the love of reading.  Have I mentioned that I love the idea?

I launched a collection of my previously published horror stories, One Hand Screaming, back in October 2004.  Over the years I've received a lot of great feedback from people who have enjoyed it. Even today (with the expansion of it's availability into ebook and via the Espresso Book Machine at retail locations around the world), I continue to get comments from people who read it and quite enjoyed the tales included within.

Thus, in the spirit of giving someone a book this Halloween, though I will be giving someone a hard copy book with a recommendation, I thought I'd share, right here, a free copy of my book with as many people who want it.  Given that it's a backlist title, the ebook has still sold nicely through Apple, Barnes and Noble, Diesel, Sony and Kobo - the price of $0.99 is a pretty decent one and a low risk.


But I thought I'd post a code here that would allow people to download it directly from Smashwords in a variety of formats, for free.

Consider it a Halloween treat from me and a way of being inspired by the great All Hallows Read concept.

So, if you'd like a free ebook version of ONE HAND SCREAMING, simply go to Smashwords and use the following code: WX78G   (Like Halloween candy that you don't need to consume immediately, the code will be good until November 15, 2010)  The book is available in 10 different formats, including ePub, Kindle, Sony, Palm, etc -- so you should be able to read it on your computer/laptop or whatever ereading device you prefer.

If you'd rather listen to some of the stories in audio format rather than read it, feel free to download one or more of the following episodes of my Prelude To A Scream Podcast, where those, too, are free (Although, as of this writing, not all the stories are yet available in audio -- the free audio is a work in progress)

Browsers (a haunted bookstore tale - free audio link)
Distractions (a disturbed writer's attempt to free up more writing time - free audio link)
Nervous Twitching (nobody here but us chickens, running around with heads cut off - free audio link)
The Bogeyman Can (an over the top "control your kid" product for parents - free audio link)
Almost (an urban legend tale from a different POV- free audio link)
Phantom Mitch (a bereaved man's ability to scratch at love beyond the grave - free audio link)
Erratic Cycles (a lonely man is lost on a deserted highway after midnight - free audio link)
That Old Silk Hat They Found (a different way of looking at snowmen - free audio link)
But Once A Year (a man's best friend returns from the grave on Halloween - free audio link)

Enjoy.  And Happy Halloween.

HNT - Great Little Pumpkin

My son has been having trouble getting to sleep at a decent time. Sure, we get him to bed early enough, but he tosses and turns, quite restless.

It seems that, like his father, he's pretty excited about Halloween coming.

Yesterday, at breakfast, the two of us debated over whether or not we'd be writing letters to The Great Pumpkin (referring, of course, to The Great Pumpkin Peanuts books, "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and "The Great Pumpkin Strikes Again" that we'd been reading at bedtime lately -- since, oh, about the end of August . . .)

In any case, I thought I'd post a picture of Alexander and I on his first Halloween, when he was dressed up as, you guessed it, a great little pumpkin.

I think the little guy is eyeing the 6 foot skeleton that I had standing in front of the garage. And though he might look a little wide-eyed in the picture, he has never been afraid of the decorations and Halloween themed displays (unlike his old man, who is afraid of virtually every shadow) -- he has always loved romping around and helping me set everything up.

But I really love the grip that he had, even back then, on his trick or treat container.

The Little Things

My wife has this wonderful way of making the little things around our house more fun and seasonal -- a little something extra she does to make things just that much more special.

Case in point: Halloween. It's one of our family's favourite celebrations. And it's not just the decorations that are put up, both inside and outside the house, but it's the little things, the extra touches, that make things special. It's the wonerful giant jack o lantern cookie jar in the kitchen, the Halloween hand-towels, dish cloths table runners and table cloths; it's the glow-in-the-dark spider-web pillow case on our bed, it's the festive tea-light holders. It's even the hand-soaps in our bathrooms.

Okay, the ghost and pumpkin hand-soaps are seasonal - the foamy frog soap is just a standard, year-round thing.  But, notice the "house of usher" style tea light holder in the background?

Yes, it's just another one of those little things that Francine invests into making things just a little extra special.

Little things that make a huge difference.

Eight More Days Til Hallowen

Halloween III - Season of the Witch came out in 1982 and was unrelated to the previous and following Halloween movies which featured Michael Myers.  (Warning: This blog post contains Spoilers - so if you haven't seen the movie and intend to, proceed with caution, as I'll be giving the ending away)

And although, once I started watching it, I was disappointed with the fact that Michael Myers wasn't in it *, the movie won me over.

* (I should note that, although Michael Myers wasn't in Halloween III, there is a cute scene where there's a TV playing in the background featuring an ad for one of the other Halloween movies)

The basic story involves a plan by the evil owner of a mask company to kill children all over the U.S. on Halloween using specially developed masks with embedded computer chips that interact with a high frequency to be broadcast on a special program on network television.

The beauty is that the horror is about mass consumerism and seems to take the evil scheme of a sinister adult putting "razors in apples" and the associated fears of Halloween to a whole new level.

For those reasons, though critics despise the fact that the movie diverted from the rest of the franchise, to me, it's a more interesting film that says a lot about our culture and society.

One of the most annoying "ear worms" that live in my head to this day (and was the genesis of the title of this blog post) and replays itself in the days leading up to my favourite holiday, are the television commercial jingles advertising for the Silver Shamrock Halloween Marathon.


Thus, the "Eight more days 'til Halloween" as seen in this YouTube clip.

 

Of course, one of the more wonderfully kinds of moments for me, involves something seen in this YouTube montage.  "It's almost time. Don't forget to wear your masks!"  What a wonderful sense of foreboding and dread.

 

And I just love the way the movie ends. After struggling to put a stop to the whole event, Dr. Challis, the movie's main character, is on the phone with a station manager, attempting to get the program pulled off the air.  He succeeds in getting two out of the three taken off the air.  But the third station continues playing the program, and the screen strobes between Challis yelling "STOP IT!" and the flashing Silver Shamrock pumpkin.  Roll credits.

Most Hollywood movies tend not to end in such a way, with the bad guy succeeding. (Okay, except perhaps for horror films where one last quick and final scene reveals that Jason or Freddy or Michael Myers is seen to still be alive at the very end)

But that's one of the things I loved about this film.  I think I'll watch it again some time this week.

While wearing my Silver Shamrock mask, of course.

A Chilling Halloween Treat

Usually, on the evening of October 31st, by the time that my son is in bed, and Francine and I are shutting the lights off and unplugging the power leading to the front yard decorations (typically a haunted graveyard scene with plenty of tombstones, scary figures either popping out of the ground or lurking among the graves, blue and red floodlights a strobe light and fog machine), I get that same feeling I used to get when I was a child and Christmas was over.

A little bit sad.

The thrill and excitement of Halloween is over for another year.

Since Halloween is the one time of year that most everybody else is in sync with the types of things I most adore (yes, I have a bit of inkling towards the macabre), I'm that much more sad.

I'll go on believing in ghosts and goblins and monsters lurking in the shadows, while the rest of the world moves in into other seasonal celebrations.

Sigh.

I've always wished that Halloween could be extended and not just culminate in a single night.

I mean, wouldn't it be neat if Halloween celebrations could last throughout the week?

Well, in my own little way of trying to extend the Halloween spirit, I'm offering a special Halloween treat.

Starting today and ending six days from now, I'm offering free copies of CAMPUS CHILLS, the anthology of terror stories set on campuses across Canada which I edited. The contest appears on Goodreads.com.


With original stories from some of Canada's finest horror authors, this wonderful collection is certain to offer you a special chill for reading during a dark and creepy fall evening.

There's one copy available for each of the seven days the contest is open.

For a chance to win, simply register your name at the Goodreads contest site. A random selection will be done, and the winners will be sent a copy of CAMPUS CHILLS. No strings attached.

Of course, I'd love if it the seven people who win a copy would be so kind as to write a review of it on Goodreads, on their own blog, on Facebook, or tell some friends if they enjoyed it -- but other than that hope, there's no catch.

Simply, it's a Halloween treat -- starting today and ending at the end of the week. The contest is open to people in the US and Canada.

So, if you're looking for a special Halloween treat and something to offer you some special chills beyond the Halloween season, go sign up for a chance to get your copy of CAMPUS CHILLS.

Best of luck to you if you enter. And if you're not a winner, please note that the book is available at a number of retail locations in Canada -- many of which take online orders and can ship to you. Ask for it at your favourite local bookstore. Tell them to check out www.campuschills.com to find out how easy it is for them to special order a copy in for YOU.

Happy Halloween! Here's hoping that the Great Pumpkin is good to you this year.

It Hurts Really Badly

Alexander and I spent several hours Saturday and Sunday setting up the front yard for Halloween. Basically, we transformed it into a graveyard scene, adding one or two new elements to it and switching it up just a little bit from last year. (Pictures forthcoming)

As always, my son was right beside me, participating every step of the way in the creation of this annual masterpiece. He is such a hard worker it amazes me. I'd like to think it's something he gets from his old man.

Of course, there's something else I'm pretty sure he gets from me.

It's his use of adverbs and adjectives. At one point, when he was helping me hammer some boards into the rickety graveyard fence we were putting up, he caught one of his fingers under the business end of the hammer. Yee-owch!

As I was trying to console him and inspect the damage, he kept saying. "Oh, Dad, it hurts really badly." Lately, it's a phrase he often repeats when he is hurt beyond the normal fall and scrape that five year olds are prone to. And while it disturbs me when he is injured, I also find the way he says it so absolutely cute and adorable.

Then it strikes me. Cute as the statement is, he's falling into one of the traps I can sometimes fall into when writing. Tossing out adverbs and adjectives like there's a massive "going out of style" sale going on.

Of course, given that at five, my son is already demonstrating he'll soon be surpassing me in various abilities (as sons often do to their fathers as they get older), he'll likely be a better master of words than his old man. I'll still be saying things like "This pain hurts really badly" and he'll be suggesting I be more concise like "it smarts" or at least more creative like "the agony I am experiencing is unbearable."

HNT - Death Of Free Time

When I was cutting the lawn this past week (something I had neglected to do for close to two weeks due to me being so crazy busy at work and on personal projects, combined with the fact that whenever I WAS at home, it seemed to be raining or an ungodly time to be cutting the lawn -- I'm sure the neighbours would freak out if I started up my mower at 2 AM) I left a small patch of grass in the middle. It's one of the "games" I play with my son while we're cutting the lawn. He enjoys seeing different patterns.

Based on how divided my attention and time has been lately, and hearing myself continually using the phrase "Oh gee, I'd better get home soon or my wife is going to kill me," I thought pulling out one of our Halloween decorations a bit early and sticking in the lawn might be a fun idea.


Symbolic, perhaps of the death of free time I've been experiencing lately?

HNT - Mark-O'-Lantern

The other night, Francine, Alexander and I had some fun carving a couple of different pumpkins.


Of course, I'm still not sure at what point in the creation the pumpkin goes from being a pumpkin to a Jack-0'-lantern. Is it the moment you first break the "skin" of the pumpkin? The moment you gut it? The moment you make your first complete "hole" in the face of it?

As we were looking through a bunch of different patterns, Alexander insisted we carve the "grim reaper" onto ours. Aren't four year olds supposed to want things like Winnie The Pooh, Bob The Builder or some other cartoonish-type character? I have nobody to blame but myself, I suppose.

Francine went for a creepy looking more traditional look to hers. It was a fun evening.

I always love how the jack-o-lantern looks before you add a candle and turn out the lights. Ho hum, nothing more than a large vegetable all carved up -- but add the candle and turn out the lights and voila it becomes a masterpiece.

Ah, the magic you can produce with simple lighting effects -- it has me fondly remembering those days back in university when I worked as a theatre lightning technician and did various lighting designs for plays.

Happy HNT and Happy Halloween!!!

HNT - Halloween Is An 11 Month Build-up

Earlier this year (July to try to be exact), we spent a fun afternoon at Science North in Sudbury.

It was a fun day, lots of learning and lots of hands-on activities.

Of course, Alexander and I couldn't resist posing with a skeleton. Sure, we were loving the July weather and having a great summer, but we saw the skeleton as a sign that Halloween was just a few months away.

Francine had to try to talk us out of putting up our Halloween decorations the moment we got home. (Of course, she loves the decorations just as much as us, so it must have been hard for her to play the role of "bad cop" in this particular episode) Societal norms, however, prevailed and we resisted pulling out the decorations for a few months -- but that doesn't mean we aren't still drawn to skeletons and the like . . .



Er, have I mentioned that I'm excited about Halloween coming?

Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday!

Not Spooky Enough, Dad

Oh boy. What have I created?

The other day Alexander and I were doing one of our favourite things: looking at Halloween decorations and costumes. Even though he already has two costumes for this year (one to wear at the pre-kindergarten party during the day and the other to wear when he goes trick-or-treating) he was still looking at different costumes and trying to explain to me that he needed another one.

It reminded me of the kind of thing I continually try to convince Francine. "But hon, I need another Halloween costume. One to wear the day BEFORE Halloween, you know, to properly get in the festive spirit" OR "But hon, I know I already have three cases of beer, but I should really get a keg too, you know, just in case we run out."

So we started looking at costumes.

But for every single one we looked at, including the werewolf, devil and vampire costumes, all pretty darned scary, particularly for a 4 year old to wear, Alexander said: "Nope, not spooky enough, Dad."

I was thinking of suggesting that he dress up as Stephen Harper getting in for another term and announcing yet another cut to arts and culture funding. But that would just be mean.