Happy spookiest day of the year, my dears! First, I need to announce the winner of the drawing from last Wednesday’s blog about Halloween costumes. I got such a kick out of your stories. Thank you for sharing them. You are a brave and generous bunch. Just know that the winner was chosen by a …Read More

  Feeling grim about my lost decorating energy, I challenged myself (and you!) to do a little something for fall and Halloween. Here are my pumpkin, mum, and porch decorations. If you’re buying chrysanthemums, make sure they’re well watered. The two giant ones I bought were on the dry side and I spent 30 minutes …Read More

Pumpkins, skeletons, and candy corn On Sunday it will be October first. When my kids were young, we loved to decorate for Halloween, and in the beginning I started early. It seemed perfectly normal to me to have a houseful of pumpkins and witches and black cats from the first week of October on. We …Read More

I’ve been waiting months to tell you that DEAD ENDS: Stories from the Gothic South is here–and it finally is! I’ve read every one of the stories, and even wrote one myself. I can’t wait for you to read this book–If you like your stories a little scary this time of year (or any time, …Read More

  I have friends who worry about Halloween, and I take their concerns seriously. If one has a strong sense that there is evil in the world, one usually wants to stay as far away from it–and to keep one’s children as far away from it–as one can. But the Halloween I see when I look …Read More

Me, as a zebra, 2009. I’ve never been a big one for costumes. As a writer, I tend to keep my fantasy in my head and on the page. Okay. That’s a lie. I costume myself every day. There’s the Laura, Field Trip Mom Turtleneck. The I Feel Icky Because I Ate too Much Cake …Read More

You know how I hate to send you away from here, but I’ve been busy at a couple of other places around town. The good news is that you can win goodies. Books, specifically. My books, very specifically! The Horror Writers Association is doing an entire month of Halloween blogs. Halloween Haunts kicked off on …Read More

Happy Halloween! I find myself a little stunned to realize that it’s Halloween already and we’ve come to the end of Octoberguest!. I’ve had so much fun this month and am very grateful to all of the wonderful writers who so generously contributed their work to the Handbasket. And I’d also like to thank everyone …Read More

Scary. Wild. Funny. Definitely over-the-top in the best way! That’s the only way to describe Mario Acevedo’s work. Mario writes the Felix Gomez vampire-detective series for Eos HarperCollins: The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, X-Rated Blood Suckers, and his latest novel The Undead Kama Sutra. I knew he’d be perfect to get us ready for the …Read More

P and I were saying this morning how much we looked forward to Halloween when we were kids. I loved the unbridled, wanton happiness of it, the unabashed drive to gather every scrap of chocolate I could, and the opportunity to be someone other than the child I was the other 364 days of the …Read More