I’m back from my break, and what better way to return than to spend the day over at Teri Polen’s blog Books and Such.
Every year, through the month of October, Teri hosts short interviews with a Halloween theme. Swing on by if you want to learn my take on tarot cards and those apparitions that appear in the corner of the eyes.
And while you’re there, check out Teri’s books. She’s a fabulous YA sci-fi writer. I’ve read all her full-length books!
Susanna Leonard Hill is hosting her 8th Halloweensie Contest. Last year she got 235 entries. Wowza! To enter, write a kid’s Halloween story using no more than 100 words including cauldron, shiver, and howl. Visit her site for complete rules if you want to play along, but hurry.
pixabay compilation
“Beauty blood.” Grissella Ravenclaw squinted at the potion’s blurred label, shrugged her crooked shoulders, and poured. The cauldron burbled with a green, stinky goo. She wrinkled her warty nose and swallowed the goop down anyway. She’d be the queen of the Goblin’s Halloween ball.
Her stomach gurgled.
She shivered and burped.
Then her nose bulged into a toothsome snout, and her ears perked up. Gray fur covered her skin, ending in a fluffy tail… and itchy FLEAS! Her paws on the shelf, she read the label with wolf-sharp eyes. “Noooo,” she howled. “I wanted beauty blood. Not beasty blood! Aahhroooo…”
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Happy Halloween!
I read this post on Pam’s Roughwriting blog almost a year ago and saved it for the return of the Halloween. It’s THAT GOOD, and I couldn’t wait to share it with you. Pay attention to the costumes in the short video. It will fill up your heart. Happy Halloween.
by Pamela Wright
On one of my hold-my-breath-until-we-land flights a few months ago, I was the last passenger to enter the plane (my normal routine) and sat next to a nice-looking man who barely looked up.
But I looked him up and down, gauging how well the flight would go. Not garrulous, check. Not nervous, check. Not a drinker, check. All good to go.
But as I placed my purse under my seat and opened my book, I took offense. Perhaps this man – mid-30s – dismissed me already for being one of those things: a talker or a nervous flier or worse, just an “older woman” who was – dismissible.
I shrugged my shoulders and sank into my book. Almost two hours into the flight, after I’d been reading without a stop and my seatmate had been clicking on his laptop nonstop (yup, harried businessman, I told myself), the flight attendant made an announcement that caused me to laugh out loud and the businessman laughed too and then…we looked at each other.
Has that happened to you before? You think you know someone from their outside appearance (old, young, teenager, academic, businessperson, clergy, European, African, mid-Western, male, female) and then suddenly, eyes focus on each other, and you think: ohhhhhhhh….
(Continue Reading: Missed Perception)
Pixabay images modified by author
Mike Allegra suggested that I give Susanna Hill’s Halloweensie Writing Contest a try. The goal was to write a 100-word Halloween story appropriate for children (12 and under) using the words candy corn, monster, and shadow. Here’s my entry:
Darla scrunched her blanket under her chin. “You can turn off the light, mom.”
“You won’t be scared?”
“I’m okay. And you don’t need to check under my bed; there’s no monster.”
Her mother kissed her. “Honey, I’m so proud of you.”
Left alone, Darla clutched her trick or treat bag. A gnarled troll with pointy fangs crept from the shadows beneath her bed. Its orange eyes squinted and curved claws rustled in a paper sack. “I got chocolates,” it growled. “What did you get?”
“Taffy, licorice, and candy corn,” Darla whispered. “Want to trade?”
“Bah.” The monster giggled. “Let’s share.”
Myths of the Mirror 