Halloween 2025

October means Halloween! Totally the holiday I own the most decorations for.

Unfortunately, I decided on no party this year due to several factors. Right about now, I'm glad I made that decision because this week has been a nightmare between jury duty, a car that needed fixing, and the thermostat in the house failing. More fuel for future Fractured Fairies stories, right?

No party, but I still decorated! Acquired a couple new items this year, as well. I seriously need more room to store Halloween decorations.

So here come some pictures! Carved pumpkins aren't happening until Friday, so no pics of those this year.

This last pic is of one of my favorite new decorations. The bowl is super creepy and neat, plus it reminds me of the cover backgrounds of Do Not Go Gentle and Dead As Dreams. Yeah, so I put a copy of the latter in it for the pic. Shameless self-promotion? XD

I hope everyone has an awesome Halloween! Don't forget to grab a handful of good horror books to read during spooky season.

Halloween 2024

I hope everyone's been enjoying spooky season this year. I know I have!

We haven't thrown a party since 2019 (due to Covid, a trip to New Orleans, and then we had to cancel last year for other reasons), but we finally did this year. And for once, I wasn't terribly behind in prepping the house for the party, so I actually got to enjoy putting out my decorations.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take more pictures of some of my newer deco. Oops. I was having too much fun running a haunted house tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) that I wrote for us. Heh.

I did grab a couple pictures, at least. Enjoy the spookiness!

Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween! OK, I know it's tomorrow, but our annual party and Trick or Treating with the kids has already come and gone (and I get a day off tomorrow -- 16th wedding anniversary). So, I shall regale you all with pictures. You like pictures, don't you?

This year, I cosplayed another one of my own creations! The idea grabbed hold of me when I was writing Hell On Wheels. Yup, I decided to dress up as Moira, stuck unhappily in her Welcomer garb. Well, my costume wasn't quite as skimpy as what she has to put up with (I couldn't bring myself to squeeze into a sequined bikini). What do you think? Did I do her justice? Maybe next year I should play Grinka from the Fractured Fairies series. Aqua hair? I'd have to pass on playing Tamara the fairy -- I'd be too cold, and I don't think my guests would appreciate me flitting around naked.

Per usual, I was rushing to get the house ready for the party, so I didn't get to spend a lot of time on my pumpkin (I always wish I had more time to do something fancy). This year, I decided to do a monster face, mainly because of my youngest's little googly-eyed monster headband we got her to play with (she was not a monster for Halloween, though, but Rainbow Dash). My eldest did the flying kitty (since that's what she also dressed up as), and I carved the ghost into my youngest's white pumpkin. Per usual, my husband did a simple face -- he's not much for pumpkin carving, but he still does it with us!

The kids also painted some of those pumpkin gourds and the teeny tiny pumpkin my youngest picked out at the pumpkin farm when she went with her preschool.

One picture of the decorations from the party! I didn't take many because of the major rushing this time. Once everyone started arriving, I pretty much collapsed into a chair, chattered, and ate.

And I thought this was a cute picture, so I'm going to post it, even though I am careful not to post many pictures of my kids publicly. Trick or Treating! I love it that the last couple of years we've all went together. (Don't worry, we still put a bowl of candy out for the other Trick or Treaters.)

Finally, look at all this candy that my kids got this year. Notice the pitchfork resting on top of it all? Yeah, Mama Tax. >:)

I hope everyone had a great Halloween this year!

Oh, and as a reminder, you can still get the Monster Maelstrom anthology with my Fractured Fairies flash story, "Monster in the Room", in it for FREE! Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Smashwords, iBooks, and GooglePlay!

Halloween 2015

We interrupt your regularly scheduled chapter posts of Chains of Nect for...

HALLOWEEN!

There will be a chapter up next Wednesday. Promise.

Anyway, Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. Unless there is some major life event getting in the way, I throw a party every year. This is as social as this hermit writer ever gets. The rest of the year, you'll find me forcing myself to interact outside the house.

This means I decorate every year. I had some help from a friend this year, since I was pretty sick in September and beginning of October, so I was behind on a lot of things (though, I fully admit, I'm always decorating last minute - I'm always running at least a little behind).

I figured I should start posting a few pictures every year. So, here they are!

BEWARE of the MOAT! We had to have the sidewalk ripped out on the side of our house because it was putting pressure on the foundation. Clearly we haven't done anything with the hole that was left from that. I went with it.

Pumpkins. Yes, the small one says Pika. My toddler is obsessed with Pokemon. She even has a stuffed Pikachu she carries around. Pikachu was her first 3-syllable word. I wasn't about to carve the whole name into her pumpkin, though, so she got the short version.

The altar! This is a yearly must. Though this year, I was missing a chalice (still packed away from the kitchen remodel - oops). That skull candle there is supposed to look like it bleeds. It kind of does. Sort of.

Clearly I don't like showing off pictures of myself too often, but I'll give in this time. I was a Walking Halloween Cliche with my cat ears/tail, fairy wings, and Ouija Board shirt. Hey, look, you can even catch a toddler head in the corner. Little Photo Bomber!

I hope you all have a Happy Halloween (and Blessed Samhain for us Pagans)!

Dream of the Dead - A Poem

Dream of the Dead

Dream of the dead on Samhain

Touch the thinning veil
Shadow of the other side
Where souls wait
To be reborn

Dream of the dead on Samhain

Faces lost
But not forgotten
Outlines in the fog
Memory blurs at the edges

Dream of the dead on Samhain

* * * * *

NEXT UP: NaNoWriMo 2014

Magic Is Reality, Reality is Magic: Samhain

Magic is Reality, Reality is Magic is a series that highlights aspects of religions, particularly Paganism. We pull things from everyday life to use in our fiction. Magic is one of the key attributes of fantasy. Why not explore the realm of magic that many people already have in their lives?

Picture By Fredde 99 Most people know of Halloween! October 31 (or sometimes November 1, depending on who you talk to) is also Samhain, the Sabbat (holiday) that Halloween was derived from. Samhain is also considered the Witch's New Year. It's the end and beginning of the Wheel of the Year. This is the final harvest festival before winter begins. It is also the time of year when many Pagans and Wiccans believe that the veil between this world and the spirit word is thinnest.

Some symbols of Samhain are the jack-o'-lantern, the witch's besom (broom), food made from pumpkins, ghosts and skeletons, the cauldron, bats, black cats, owls, spiders, and so many other things that have been incorporated into Halloween throughout the years. As a religious holiday, Samhain is the best day of the year to honor the dead.

If you'd like to explore some more websites on Samhain, here are a few suggestions: Samhain History, Samhain Lore and Samhain.

Further Reading Suggestions:

Dunwich, Gerina. The Pagan Book of Halloween. New York: Penguin Compass, 2000.

RavenWolf, Silver. Halloween. St. Paul: Llwellyn Publications, 1999.

I hope you found this tidbit interesting! If you would like me to touch on a particular topic that fits in this series, please don't hesitate to contact me with suggestions.

NEXT UP: NaNoWriMo and Monthly Update (a small one)