The Halloween shelves are shrinking with the last of the cackling skeleton brides and tombstones. There are some turkeys overlapping them, but Christmas and winter holidays are coming on strong. I see you, giant nutcrackers and elves, just on the other side of the shelf. Halloween is almost here, our last revelry of this spooky season, … Continue reading Christmas Is Creeping Up Behind You – 1 Day Until Halloween
In the movie Crimson Peak, Lucille Sharpe (the dark sister who holds the keys to the family manse) tells the gothic heroine, "It is a monstrous love. And it makes monsters of us all." Her version of love is menacing and possibly mad, as the best monsters are. My favorite monsters pursue their victims with a … Continue reading A Monstrous Love – 4 Days Until Halloween
The Little Man by Victoria Nations There's a little man crouching by the fence past the stop sign. He's bald and wearing a shapeless coat, and he reminds me of Uncle Fester, but he's grinning a little too wide. His teeth are very long. And he looks much too menacing to be an Addams. He’s … Continue reading The Little Man – 6 Days Until Halloween
Doll Of Found Objects by Victoria Nations Doll of found objects Fabric from her dress, a tooth The last stitch pulled tight (visit Wolf's Museum of Mystery to see this lovely doll in person)
NaNoWriMo begins at midnight on November 1. I’m often up then, closing down the house after the last trick-or-treaters and eating Halloween snacks in front of a late night horror movie. I’ve usually gotten most of the makeup wiped off, and I’ve transitioned to ghost socks. I’ll be dreaming of starting my NaNoWriMo story. I’ve … Continue reading Hallow-WriMo – 11 Days Until Halloween
I grew up reading Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, and I still adore them. Some day their language is overblown, but I love how their lavish descriptions overwhelm me. Their stories are more horrifying for how they make me feel crushed beneath moldering walls and surrounded by alien angles. Something monstrous is usually threatening to overtake … Continue reading Quiet Horror – 12 Days Until Halloween
Two of my favorite sessions at the Florida Writers Conference were today. I spent the morning delving in to how characters respond to supernatural elements and geeking out over writing horror so it fills a reader with dread. But there was time this afternoon to check off a Halloween task: pumpkins! They were so bright, so huge, … Continue reading Sunday Chores, Again – 13 Days Until Halloween
It is an amazing feeling to write a scene, even a sentence, that gives you a little thrill. I enjoy writing spooky stuff, and those thrills come when I feel like I've written a scene that is particularly gruesome or I've managed to capture a character's reaction to the horrific thing that is happening. It makes me pull away from the … Continue reading October Is For Writing Conferences – 15 Days Until Halloween
We have cats. We also have animals skulls, mink skins, a preserved alligator head and piranha, and vials of insects. I have a coin purse made out of a Bufo marinus, complete with head, front legs and googly eyes, but she's at work. Now that it's Halloween time, there are all sorts of additional creatures … Continue reading Creatures In The House – 21 Days Until Halloween
I was raised to love graveyards. I was raised on classic horror movies and their eerie graveyards, filled with rolling mist. My parents bought me horror comics and introduced me to Edgar Allen Poe and Stephen King in elementary school. We had the full encyclopedia of Man, Myth, and Magic, and I would lean against the bookshelf for hours, reading and marveling … Continue reading Writing In Graveyards – 22 Days Until Halloween
Victoria Nations 