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
The Florida Writers Conference will be wrapping up tomorrow, and I'll be doing a blog post soon on the wonderful insights into writing about monsters from one of the talks. For now, I'll pretend I've got some Halloween cereal in my room for a late night snack.
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
When I was a teenager, my family lived in a farmhouse built before the Civil War. Rooms had been added on as the family grew and the kitchen was moved inside. It was a large and simple - the opposite of an antebellum manse - with a few oddly offset rooms. It was a perfect house to … Continue reading Throwback Thursday – 16 Days Until Halloween
Orange for pumpkins. For Halloween. For turning leaves and intense sunsets. For brightly colored creatures, beautiful and frightening. And black, to offset the orange. To bring on the longer nights.
Last year, a little girl in a princess costume walked down my driveway on Halloween with her mom trailing behind her. The little girl was transfixed by the orange lights and spooky decorations. Her mom was looking around nervously. "Nothing here will jump out at her," I told the mom from the candy table. "Really?" My skull … Continue reading Haunting The Yard – 19 Days Until Halloween
The dark hides all sorts of monsters. The boldest monsters show themselves in the daylight, too.
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
I listened to Sounds To Make You Shiver over and over as a kid. Blowing wind and hooting owls made me imagine empty places. Frankenstein's monster breaking loose was the very sound of havoc. But, goodness, look at that album cover! So. Many. Monsters. They are tumbling out of that castle! Frankenstein's monster is stomping towards … Continue reading Throwback Thursday – 23 Days Until Halloween
Victoria Nations 