It’s hard to believe October is here. I love this time of year, with the snap-chill in the air, the skitter of drying leaves, the lengthening shadows as days surrender more to night. I’m an autumnal junkie, I guess. And it begins with pumpkins and scary things.

I don’t know how it happened but October means ghosts and pumpkin pie, hot chocolate and candy apples. Fall Harvest was a big event at my elementary school and there were scarecrows and hay bails, apple cider, and homemade fudge. My friends and I would gather together over Girl Scout campfires or over flashlights at slumber parties and tell the most frightening tales we could imagine. Thus, the writer, the storyteller began her early career.

That’s how I discovered Ray Bradbury. Ray wrote The Halloween Tree and I fell in love with it the moment I read it back in 1972. The story traces the history of Halloween and Samhain. A short synopsis:

A group of eight boys set out to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, only to discover that a ninth friend, Pipkin, has been whisked away on a journey that could determine whether he lives or dies. Through the help of a mysterious character named Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, they pursue their friend across time and space through Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Greek, and Roman cultures, Celtic Druidism, Notre Dame Cathedral in Medieval Paris, and The Day of the Dead in Mexico. Along the way, they learn the origins of the holiday that they celebrate, and the role that the fear of death, spooks, and the haunts has played in shaping civilization. The Halloween Tree itself, with its many branches laden with jack-o’-lanterns, serves as a metaphor for the historical confluence of these traditions.

Though it was a “teaching” story, there was tremendous suspense and foreshadowing within the tale, a sense of dread that “we” (I identified with the friends) might not save Pipkin and the mysterious and somewhat evil Moundshroud would keep him forever.  When the story appeared on television in 1993, the sense of dread was made real with animation and music and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Moundshroud (what a voice, what a laugh).

I learned the value of a good, scary story. How pacing and playing on emotions can help you draw a reader in. I learned that a tale that includes the reader can suspend reality and be fantastical if the reader connects and feels an emotional investment in the outcome.

And that’s what I want you to get from October. I want you to watch scary movies for fun, of course. But I want you to pay attention to when your heart beats faster, when you lean a little bit forward, when you hold your breath. I want you wrap yourself in the seasonal senses and know this holiday and the Autumn harvest surrounding it. Read short stories about things that go bump. About crimes and ghosts and dreams. You don’t have to celebrate Halloween to appreciate a good story, a delicious fright or believe in vampires to shiver at shadows. You don’t even have to be scared at all to dance in the moonlight or stare in wonder at the shifting stars in the heavens.

But this is a great time of year to hone your writing skills. There are tastes and sights, sounds and feelings galore. ‘Tis the season for fantasy, magic, hobgoblins and dreams. Let the writer in you begin to celebrate October — with pumpkins!

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Tell me what you are reading? What celebrates this season for you?

I highly recommend The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. Though the book is considered fantasy for ages 8-12 yrs, it is most definitely not written in a childish way. Adults will appreciate it.

Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

****The following items will always appear to keep you posted on activities.*****

WIP (Works in Progress): 
– first novel in the Evening Bower series, about vampires and other supernatural creatures
– fictional memoir
– four-part fairy story (part one complete)

On the Desk: (next reading): Halfway Hexed by Kimberly Frost (book 3)

Off the Desk (book just finished): Barely Bewitched by Kimberly Frost

Coming Soon:  Guest Author: Margie Miklas!