Halloween Haiku #4

Fog, blood and darkness
It's showtime!
Squirm, you victims, squirm



Halloween Haikus penned by vile poetess, Deborah.


Deborah lives near the glittering waters of Michi Gama in the City of Wind. She is a rabid Halloween and haunt devotee.

The Most Horrifying Thing About Halloween (Guest post by Jen D. from Not Now...I'm Reading!)

The Most Horrifying Thing About Halloween

By:  Jen D. @ Not Now…I’m Reading!

Most people would say that there are a number of horrifying things about Halloween such as haunted houses, grotesque costumes and the things that go ‘bump’ in the night.  Well fellow readers I’m here to tell you those things are mere child’s play compared to the event I’m about to tell you about.

Let me set the stage for you.  The year was 2001.  I was 21 and I had just moved back to Miami from Las Vegas.  My aunt called me and invited me over to go trick or treating with her and my cousins.  My answer, of course, was yes because my aunt’s community is one of the best places for scoring Halloween candy.  I was fresh out of the rave scene and decided I was going to dress up like a Kandi Kid raver (don’t judge me).  What?  I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and I wasn’t all that interested in squeezing into an outfit that left my behind feeling drafty.  I drove over to my aunt’s house, threw on a rainbow bright t-shirt, a pair of baggy pants, as many kandi bracelets I could squeeze onto my arms and slapped some glitter on my eye lids and took to the streets.

My cousin, who was the same age as me and who was dressed as some sort of weird cross between a baby and Raggedy Ann doll, and I led the way for our group.  Everything was going great.  We were scoring major candy hauls and everyone was having a grand ol’ time when it happened.  My cousin and I knocked at what seemed to be just another house containing yummy delicious candy.  ‘Trick or treat!’ we exclaimed loudly as the door was swinging open.  The hateful hag that opened the door took a look at us and turned to me and said, ‘Um, aren’t you a little old to be trick or treating?’  My jaw just about hit the ground.  I was mortified but, I wasn’t going to let her pee on my parade.  I looked her dead in the eye and said, ‘You’re NEVER too old to have fun with your family.’  I then proceeded to step aside and reveal the rest of my family who were standing behind me and had overheard her rude remark.  Oh sure, she was extra generous with the candy disbursement after being the recipient of my Aunt’s evil eye but, the damage had already been done.  That was officially the last year that I participated in the age old tradition of trick or treating.  Told ya it was horrifying….

Thank you so much Jen for participating in Halloween Hootenanny!   I remember going trick or treating in college with some friends.  Most people were pretty receptive, but there was one woman who put her hand on her hip and glared at us.  Come on, it's just a little piece of candy!

Please go visit Not Now...I'm Reading! It's chock full of bookish goodness.

Contest:
~Jen is kindly giving away a book from the Book Depository valued up to $15.00.

To Enter:

~Fill out the Rafflecopter form.

~Extra entries are optional.

Rules:

~Winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter.

~This contest is international!

~Please note that this contest is being moderated by Jen D. from Not Now...I'm Reading!

Thank you for entering and good luck!

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop!

Welcome to Midnyte Reader's little corner of the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop, hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and co-hosted by The Diary of a Bookworm.

My contribution to the Hop is a $10 gift card from either Amazon or Book Depository, whichever the winner chooses.

Contest:

~Gift card goes to one (1) winner. 

To Enter:

~Leave your name and e-mail address on the Rafflecopter form.

~Extra entries are optional.

~If you are choosing to do extra entries, please read the questions/instructions CAREFULLY!  If you do not follow the instructions, I reserve the right to disqualify that entry.

Rules:

~Winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter.

~This contest is international!

~Please see my contest policy HERE.

~This contest ends on November 1, 2011 at 12:01am.

~If winner does not contact me within 72 hours (3 days) of my first e-mail, unfortunately another winner will be chosen.

Lesley Bannatyne lecture and signing

Author Lesley Bannatine made an appearance at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where she talked about her newest book, Halloween Nation and discussed Halloween in general.  I like to think I know a lot about my favorite holiday, its origins, its history, its traditions, but Lesley has so much information and insight into Halloween I was able to add a lot more fun facts to my Halloween library.

Many of you already know that Halloween stems from Samhain, All Soul's Day and All Saint's Day.  I used to think that Halloween was simply another name for Samhain, but it's more of a mixture of the three that combines traditions and is further compounded by name similarities.  "What's important to the history of Halloween is that there was a supernatural element to Samhain." Lesley points out.  During All Soul's Day, the church encouraged people to pray for their loved ones.  The harder you prayed and the more money you gave the more likely your dearly departed would get into heaven.  Maybe they would also give you information in a dream if you helped them this way. (A form of fortunetelling.)

Halloween was brought to the United States by immigrants, but more as folklore and tradition than a holiday.  The Halloween we are familiar with now came about because of a "perfect storm."

1) The Civil War.  So many people went missing during that time, their loved ones were desperate to know and to communicate.  Halloween was a perfect time to do that.

2) Cheap printing.  Magazines and newspapers were being produced in droves.  There were "Ladies Magazines," just as there are today, that featured Halloween and gave tips for hosting parties, costumes and games.  It's funny how many adults will say that Halloween is "for kids" because in Victorian times, it was an adult holiday.  Over time it morphed into something for children.

3) Exotic cultures.  People were interested in different countries and their cultures.  The public wanted to know "What's out there?"  Most Halloween traditions came from Scottish immigrants and although Scotland may not seem terribly exotic today, in the late 1800s it was glamorous and mysterious.  Lesley compared Halloween parties in the 1880s-1890s to the Cinquo de Mayo celebrations we have today in the U.S.  We may not all be Mexican, but we can all share the festivities. 

The reason why Hallowen is so popular in the U.S. now?

1) The internet.  Halloween has grown because people, companies, trade shows, Haunted Attractions, etc.,  can now communicate. 

2) Nostalgia.  Many people today long for the magical times of their childhood.  Halloween was the epitome of an innocent time.  You could run around the neighborhood without adults, be welcomed by the community and accept food from strangers.  Today people are more cautious and fearful, but the memories of those feelings and fun times on Halloween are something many adults want to hang on to and that's why they love the holiday.

3) Horror. I was very surprised when Lesley stated that Halloween was not always a "horror" holiday. When John Carpenter's movie Halloween came out, Hollywood "woke up" and helped move the holiday into something more for teens. The connotations of it being a holiday where you can talk to the dead also lent itself to being a frightening time.

Although in it's present incarnation Halloween is a fairly new phenomena, there is something about the holiday that feels "old" and mysterious to me. Maybe because of the historic origins, and the  supernatural elements, which lend itself to more primitive instincts.  Maybe because most events are at night when things go "bump."  Whatever the reason, the holiday has captured something ancient and magical that lets us all hold onto it, no matter how we celebrate. 

Lesley's books.

If you would like to learn more about Halloween, visit Lesley's website HERE and scroll down to her link titled "articles."

 

Contest:

~I am giving away one (1) signed copy of Halloween Nation and one (1) signed copy of A Halloween Reader to one (1) winner.   You can view my thoughts Halloween Nation HERE.

To Enter:

~Leave your name and e-mail address on the Rafflecopter form.

~Extra entries are optional.

~If you are choosing to do extra entries, please read the questions/instructions CAREFULLY!  If you do not follow the instructions, I reserve the right to disqualify that entry.

Rules:

~Winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter.

~Sorry!  This contest is US and Canada only. 

~Please see my contest policy HERE.

~This contest ends on October 27, 2011 at 12:01am.

~If winner does not contact me within 72 hours (3 days) of my first e-mail, unfortunately another winner will be chosen.

Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon mini-challenge

This mini-challenge is hosted by LovelyLit. 

"For this challenge you will be making one sentence using only book titles. You cant add or leave out any words. You can use as many books as you'd like. Your sentence will probably be silly but that makes it even more fun! Just make sure its a real sentence." 


Here is my sentence:

Witches on the Road Tonight crossed the space between.

         

I'm usually terrible at mini-challenges.  But it is such a good idea I had to try it, so I just walked around and looked at all of my books and it was like it wrote itself.  I think it's a perfectly poetic sentence for the Halloween season.

To participate in the Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon click the graphic above.
To read about the mini-challenge click HERE.

I Want To Be A Cowboy (Guest post from Wag the Fox).

I Want to Be a Cowboy

by Gef Fox

When I was a little kid I always wanted to be a cowboy on Halloween. I had the boots, the vest, the hat, and even a gun.

The gun looked a helluva lot like a real six-shooter, but it was just a cap gun. My dad was adamant that I couldn't have any caps, but that didn't bother me because just holding what looked like a real gun was cool enough for me. It was the crown jewel every year for my Halloween costume. I must have gotten some looks too from folks in those early years, seeing a pint-sized kid walking around with what looked like a grown man's gun.

Dressing up as a cowboy for Halloween had a second appeal to me, too. It was probably the only costume suggested to me by my parents that didn't require wearing a mask. For reasons that elude me still, I had a genuine fear of covering my face with masks or hoods, especially with those cheap Halloween masks they sold at department stores. The kind of masks that had those tiny holes, about the size of pencil erasers, for your eyes and nostrils or mouth. I can still remember an almost claustrophobic reaction to putting one of those things on when I was four or five. After that, I wanted nothing to do with costumes that covered my face.

Becoming a cowboy for Halloween actually came about from having a tantrum when my mother tried to dress me up as a ghost when I was probably five or six years old. Halloween night at my grandparents place, we were getting ready to go trick-or-treating. We were in town for the first time, rather than back home in the countryside, so there were a lot more houses to hit up for candy. But I didn't have a costume, so my mom cut a couple of eyeholes in a bed sheet to make me into a ghost. I would have none of it.

I apparently put up enough of a fuss that my first cowboy costume was assembled thanks to donations from relatives and friends of the family. I was a pretty timid and well-behaved kid, but I must have been a real brat that night to get my family to scrounge a cowboy costume together for me. At any rate, it resonated with me, because I loved dressing up as a cowboy enough to do it every Halloween night until I was twelve.

When I hit my tween years I outgrew everything in my closet that looked remotely cowboy-ish. I didn't even have the cap gun anymore. It had fallen apart after so many years and lay forgotten at the bottom of my toy box. After a half-decade habit, I had to become something else for Halloween. I still hated masks and I wasn't too keen on face paint either--probably stemming from my loathing of clowns--so my options were limited.

I ended up sticking with the firearm motif and became a "candy hunter." I dressed in hunter's orange and got a couple belts used for holding shotgun shells, stuffed the loops with whatever candy would fit in them, and wore them crisscross over my chest. As for the gun, I settled on a homemade wooden rifle. I liked the costume, but it sure fell short of the mythical allure of being a cowboy.

I didn't dress up for Halloween very often after that. I was almost a teenager and thought the whole thing was childish. But every time I thought about dressing up, I knew exactly what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a cowboy.

A big thanks to Gef for participating in Halloween Hootenanny.  Please check out Gef's blog Wag The Fox, it's an ambitious site that delivers the scare!

Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-Thon (10/21-10/23)

Well, I was supposed to go away this weekend for some Halloween Haunted House goodness, but will not be able to.  So, that means I will have more time to read.  I really wish I could somehow get ahead with my reviews instead of blogging "book to post," so I thought I would try the Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon hosted by My Shelf Confessions and Kindle Fever.

I'm a pretty slow reader, so I'm going to keep my goal short and sweet, but let's not forget scary, because this is the Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon after all. 

My list:
~Books of Blood: volumes 1-3 by Clive Barker (need to finish).
~A Soul to Steal by Rob Blackwell.

If you'd like to join in, please click on the graphic above and it will take you to the sign up post.

Wish me luck!