Come Selahway With Me…

You may not realize it if you follow this blog, but I stinkin’ love Halloween. (heh. heh. heh.) There’s something freeing about this time of year, whether it’s walking through the leaves or wondering what’s grabbing your leg while you’re trying to rake them. (What? You don’t do that to people?)

I actually grew up quite the scaredy-cat, so it’s the joke of the universe that I’ve turned into a horror aficionado. I love all the possibilities, though. There are far less limits in horror than there are in a lot of other genres. It’s a chance to let the imagination run wild. Halloween’s a lot like that for me, too. I turn into a romanticist this time of year…everything is beautiful, everything is crisp and cool and happy and cuddly. Apples are snappy, doughnuts are cakey, the air is just right, and I get to make whatever costume my heart desires!

Still, I miss the days where kids actually trick or treated at night (I know, right?), and were encouraged to be creative in their outfits. I miss the days when specials were on every day up til Halloween and there wasn’t any fuss about whether Halloween should even be a holiday. Of COURSE it should! When else can we face our fears! When else can we laugh at skeletons and dance with vampires? When can we face our mortality head on and make a celebration of it?

I was lucky as a kid – we were encouraged to make our own outfits, help decorate the house (I used to run around imagining I was a witch for a full month), we participated in community events…it was a big deal. It was a lot of fun before winter set in, a chance to let your energy and imagination loose before we were cooped up for months and months. My mom had a special touch with crafts and could turn tights and stuffing and cloth into a life-size (well six-year-old size) mummy. We hung ghosts in the trees, made scarecrows, decorated the huge picture window with leaves that sparkled in the sun…it was awesome. It was a chance to see my parents as people who could have fun and not just Mom and Dad.

So how about you? What’s your favorite part of Halloween? Do you still wish you could trick or treat? Do you live for carving pumpkins? Are you a party person and have to rock the most elaborate costume ever?

Be sure to comment (and leave your email) for a chance to win a FREE PDF copy of my vampire/horror story, Mooner! PLEASE NOTE – Your comment has to be on THIS POST to qualify, which is why I’m making it sticky.

Like many young men at the end of the 1800s Bill has signed on to work in a logging camp to earn a fast paycheck to start his life. Unfortunately his role model is Big John, the camp’s golden boy known for blowing his pay as fast as he makes it. On a cold Saturday night they enter Red’s Saloon to forget the work that takes the sweat and the lives of so many. Red may have plans for their whiskey money, but something else lurks in the shadows, something that badly wants a drink that has nothing to do with alcohol. Can Bill make it back out the shabby door or does someone have their own plans for his future?

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