Category Archives: Halloween

A Happy Howardian Halloween: A Guest Post by John Bullard

It being that time of year when night starts coming earlier and earlier, ghoulies and ghosties start showing up in the stores, and Texas finally starts to receive cooler temperatures, I thought it would be fun to look at some of Robert E. Howard’s favorite supernatural and horror tales that he was told or learned about. Not horror fiction, but the “real” ghost tales and weird stuff that folks tell around a campfire. The old “a friend of a friend heard this” stuff. Of course, during Howard’s life, Halloween had not yet begun to develop its modern traditions of kids dressing up and going door to door begging for treats, or adults having parties. He never really wrote or told something as a “Halloween” story as it was just a day of the week to him. However, as most Howard fans know, he did write of “things that go bump in the night” in his correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, trading tales and legends with each other in an unofficial “can-you-top-this” way. Most of us know that Howard’s “Pigeons From Hell” and “Black Canaan” yarns came from spooky stories he had been told as a child from relatives and family friends, but there are several other tales he talks about with Lovecraft that you may not know of, and which fit in perfectly in getting you ready for Halloween. Continue reading

Halloween Greetings

This is bit late, but at least I haven’t missed the date completely. I have been traveling today and really haven’t had a chance to post anything of substance. I hope everyone has a safe Halloween evening.

The minion jack o’lantern pretty much sums up my thoughts after learning of Sean Connery’s passing this morning.

But things are gloomy enough. Have a safe and happy evening, everyone.

This is Halloween

This is Halloween
James A. Moore
Trade Paper $14.95
ebook $2.99

This collection of ten terrific stories came out a year ago, but my copy didn’t arrive until the first few days of November, so I saved it for this year.  Long-time readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of James A. Moore’s fantasy novels.  Part of what appeals to me about his fantasy is the elements of horror he includes.

That’s hardly surprising since he started his career as a horror writer.  This is Halloween collects ten stories showcasing his talents in the arena of dark fiction. Continue reading

What the Family Plots

The Family Plot
Cherie Priest
ebook $2.99
paperback $15.99

Here’s a little something seasonal.   And by little, I mean the length of the review, not the length of the book.

Cherie Priest is someone whose work I’ve reviewed here before, namely the Borden Dispatches, Maplecroft and Chapelwood.  Before I started this blog, I’d read Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Wings to the Kingdom.  So I knew Ms. Priest could write ghost stories and do them right.

The Family Plot is a stand-alone novel, but it’s one I could see becoming a series, depending on what happens after the final sentence…

Chuck Dutton owns Music City Salvage, and times are lean.  He needs a big score.  So when the elderly Augusta Winthrop walks in and makes him an offer that sounds too good to be true, Chuck doesn’t question things as much as he should. Continue reading

The Office Ghost Has Been Active

Something seasonal to share with you.

If I’m the first one at work, and lately I have been, I’ll make the first pot of coffee for the department.  The coffee pot is in the work room between the departmental office and the conference room.  Because I don’t have a key to the departmental office (only the department chair and the staff who have offices in that suite have keys), I come in through the conference room.

Twice last week I unlocked the door to the conference room and walked in.  I didn’t turn on the light because there was enough light from the windows opposite the entrance for me to see.  So everything was in some degree of shadow.  The door to the workroom was in the middle of the wall to the left and was closed or nearly so.

The door swung open as I approached.  When it was about halfway open, it began creaking.

There was no one else there.

The joke has been that there was a ghost, and it was opening the door for me.  This wasn’t the first time that has happened to me.  Do I think there’s really a ghost?  Probably not.  Every time this has happened, at least to me, the door has not been completely closed.  I think it’s just the vibration of my walking across the room the makes it move.  As for the creaking, that’s nothing that a little WD-40 can’t fix.

On the other hand, my building does have a reputation for being haunted.  After all, three murders have occurred in it, including a decapitation…

A Look at Halloween Carnival Volume Two

Halloween Carnival Volume Two
Brian James Freeman, ed.
Hydra
ebook only $2.99

I’d like to thank Brian James Freeman for the review copy of Halloween Carnival Volume Two.  As anyone who has read many of Mr. Freeman’s anthology will know, he puts together a good set of stories.

This is the second of five Halloween themed anthologies, each released on a Tuesday, with the final volume becoming available on Halloween. You can read my review of the first volume here.  I’ll attempt to review as many as possible by then.

Here’s a quick survey of the contents of this volume: Continue reading

A Look at Halloween Carnival Volume One

Halloween Carnival, Volume One
Brian James Freeman, ed.
Hydra
ebook only $2.99

I’d like to thank Bryan James Freeman for the review copy of Halloween Carnival, Volume One.  This is the first of five volumes.  It was published on October 3 of this year (2017).  The remaining volumes will be published a week apart.  As of this writing the third volume dropped yesterday.  I hope to be able to read and review all of them before Halloween.

If the packing on the book reminds you of the Dark Screams series, that shouldn’t be surprising.  They from the same publisher and have the same editor. If you’ve read any of that series, then you know they are going to contain some quality fiction.

Here’s what you get with this volume. Continue reading

When The Halloween Children Come Knocking

The Halloween Children
Brian James Freeman and Norman Prentiss
Hydra
hardcover $24.95
ebook $2.99

I’d like to thank Cemetery Dance Publications for providing me with the review copy.  Told by multiple narrators, none of whom are entirely reliable, this novel chronicles the events in an apartment complex when the complex’s Halloween party is canceled.

Harris is the on-site handyman for the Stillbrook Apartments.  He and his wife Lynn have two children, Matt and Amber.  Lynn’s job as tech support allows her to stay home.  They are a dysfunctional family, with both parents playing favorites with the children (Harris and Matt, Lynn and Amber) while their marriage is slowly unraveling.  Most (but not all) of the chapters are from one of their viewpoints.  Neither have a good grasp of things going on in their home. Continue reading