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Always Halloween and Never Thanksgiving

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Halloween 2020, Day 29

This year I took part in the Ladies of Horror Fiction anniversary mini-readathon, and one of the titles I read may be the best book I’ve read in… well, ages and ages: the Shirley Jackson Award-winning novella Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand (2015). A key word there is novella; if you’re looking for a wonderfully chilling read for the season that won’t take days to digest, there’s still time to devour this atmospheric, Gothic, folk-horror beauty. (My 2021 plans now include reading lots and lots of books by Elizabeth Hand!)  Here is the official description: “When the young members of a British acid-folk band are compelled by their manager to record their unique music, they hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with dark secrets. There they create the album that will make their reputation, but at a terrifying cost: Julian Blake, the group’s lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen or heard from again. Now, years later, the surviving musicians, along with their friends and lovers—including a psychic, a photographer, and the band’s manager—meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened that summer. But whose story is true? And what really happened to Julian Blake? ”
And here is a brief excerpt, to give you a sense of the atmosphere.  - from Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand (2015) 
I discuss this novella in my recent Halloween-themed “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast, October 2020′s Episode 645, which you can listen to here.
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Halloween 2020, Day 28

(Art is “ Monstrosity #16 / 2019” by boris-markevich.)
Here are some folk horror viewing recommendations for your day. From Kieran Fisher for Film School Rejects: “10 Great Folk Horror Movies to Watch By Yourself in a Candle-Lit Woodland Cabin.” From William Wright for Alternative Press: “Here Are the Folk Horror Movies Every New Initiate Needs to Watch.” From Adam Scovell for the British Film Institute: “10 Great Lesser-Known Folk Horror Films.”  From Shane Scott-Travis for Taste of Cinema: “The 10 Best Folk Horror Movies of All Time.”  Today’s reading recommendation list is from Jo Furniss for Crime Reads: “10 Novels Based on Folk Horror.” This quote from the article above seems fitting for the spooky season: 

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Halloween 2020, Day 27

- from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)  We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a novel that’s been following and haunting me ever since I first read it. It is included among these other great Halloween-relevant reading suggestions from James Pate at Sublime Horror: “Mid-century horror, a reading list.” 
And here are a few more atmospheric quotes for the day. There’s this: “I can’t help it when people are frightened,“ says Merricat. "I always want to frighten them more.” And this: “I was pretending that I did not speak their language; on the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world.”
And this: I thought that we had somehow not found our way back correctly through the night, that we had somehow lost ourselves and come back through the wrong gap in time, or the wrong door, or the wrong fairy tale. - from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
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Halloween 2020, Day 26

I am so delighted and grateful that @OGOMProject put a vintage 1978 book on my radar this year: The Dracula Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from the Homeland of Count Dracula by Marina Polvay. I was able to find a copy in good shape, and it’s a treasure. If you’d like some festive and spooky mood reading, here is the introduction to the section on “Wines & Special Drinks”: And here are a couple of recipes, in case you like the warm, red stuff (but not in a vampiric kind of way):  The Count and the Bride seem to enjoy it. 
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Halloween 2020, Day 25

(Photo source is “Witch Girl 2″ by HauntingVisionsStock.)
Horror during a horrible pandemic? These links suggest that the one may help us cope with the other. I know my heart has been broken to pieces during this tragic time, and I’ve instinctively been seeking out horror to read.  Ellie Marney at CrimeReads explains “Why We Read Scary Stories During Covid.”  From Kayleigh Dray for Stylist: “Coronavirus: the psychological benefit of watching a traumatic horror film.” From Michael Marshall for New Scientist: “Horror Fans Are Better at Coping with the Coronavirus Pandemic.” From Corinne Sullivan for PopSugar “12 Sci-Fi Books About Pandemics That You Won’t Be Able to Put Down.” Earlier this year, I devoted one of my “Looking Back on Genre History” segments on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 613) to “Four Science Fiction Novels to Help Us Think about the Pandemic,” and you can listen to that here.  Here’s a favorite quote from a favorite novel, one I reference in the podcast segment above: The entirety of Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague (1912) is available online at Project Gutenberg. Here is an excerpt: - Jack London, The Scarlet Plague (1912)
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Halloween 2020, Day 24

In the past I’ve suggested some terrific podcasts that are perfect for this spooky season, and I stand by those recommendations. Read my past list here! In addition, just a few days ago Emily Stein contributed this list to CrimeReads: “8 Great Horror Podcasts and Their Spookiest Episodes!” Happy listening! Now here are several podcasts that are either new or new to me in 2020, and I highly recommend them!
1. Monster, She Wrote: Scholars Lisa Kröger  and Melanie R. Anderson are the authors of a book I thoroughly enjoyed, Monster, She Wrote, and now they are co-hosts of this wonderfully insightful and informative podcast about women in the horror genre. Don’t miss it! 
2. The Goth Librarian: Goths and librarians are two of my favorite kinds of people, and here’s a host who’s both. What’s not to love? “The Goth Librarian Podcast is a weekly podcast covering true crime, oddities, urban legends, haunted places, and other dark peculiarities.” Episode 37 on the “Spanish Flu” is a timely and topical place to start.  3. Bone & Sickle: This podcast “is a celebration of the intersection of horror, folklore, and history.  Every episode offers a bounty of frightful tales, fantastic legends, and macabre historical anecdotes harvested by eccentric artist, collector, and rogue folklorist Al Ridenour, author of The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas.  Co-host to the show is Sarah Chavez of The Cabinet of Curiosities and Death in the Afternoon. With acerbic wit and a scholarly penchant for the grotesque, Ridenour delves into a wide but carefully curated range of topics that have included: Faust’s deal with the Devil, classical necromancy, murder ballads, ghosts ships, the Victorian obsession with Pan (and mummies), Basque witchcraft, the evolution of gothic vampire literature, and tales of saints carrying their heads after decapitation…” Thanks to Aaron for this excellent recommendation! 4. The Strange and Unusual Podcast: I’ve just started listening to this one, and I’m hooked: “The unknown, it lies at the root of all fear, and has inspired legends, folklore, superstition, mythology, and even murder throughout history. Still today we feel the shadowy presence of our ancestors’ struggles to explain the mysterious in our lives, as we continue to keep fighting to keep our monsters in the dark. Welcome to The Strange and Unusual Podcast, a podcast with a focus on dark history.” 5. The Tomb with a View: This is another recent discovery for me. The official description goes like this: “A podcast about the history, preservation, and culture of American cemeteries hosted by Liz Clappin.” If you’re looking for a good starting place, I recommend the recent, insightful, and timely Episode 54: “Constantly Looking Back: The Gallows Hill Project, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, and Giving A Voice to Innocent Victims”: “Looking at how memorials can give a voice to innocent victims and how good historical research can help us to look back and understand what was previously unknown important facts about the past. The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 are still being learned about and interpreted today as we continue to come to terms with our difficult past.” And here are some of my favorite Halloween-appropriate podcasts that were new in 2019 and remain very much worth exploring! 1. Odd Things I’ve Seen: For years, I have recommended J.W. Ocker’s brilliant Odd Things I’ve Seen website, and now he has a podcast. As he explains, “I visit odd things, I tell their stories, and I tell you how to find them. It’s Odd Things I’ve Seen, but out loud.” Gothic, macabre, and spooky! 2. Ladies of Horror Fiction Podcast: “Ladies of Horror Fiction was created to bring about a multi-dimensional way to support women who either write in the horror genre or review in it.” Check out Episode 2 for “The History of Halloween, Vanishing Hitchhikers and Weeping Widows”!
3. The Full Price Podcast: “The Full Price is a podcast that takes a cultural journey, walking in the shoes of the legend of stage, screen and sound, Vincent Price.” Price is perfect for Halloween, and this podcast is perfect for Price fans! *** Parting thought for the day: “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” — L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908)

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Halloween 2020, Day 23

This year I took part in the Ladies of Horror Fiction anniversary mini-readathon, and one of the titles I read is going straight into my next class syllabus: Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul by Leila Taylor (2019). What a powerful, insightful, and beautifully written work this is! Highly recommended. Here is the official description: “Leila Taylor takes us into the dark heart of the American gothic, analysing the ways it relates to race in America in the twenty-first century. Haunted houses, bitter revenants and muffled heartbeats under floorboards — the American gothic is a macabre tale based on a true story. Part memoir and part cultural critique, Darkly: Blackness and America’s Gothic Soul explores American culture’s inevitable gothicity in the traces left from chattel slavery. The persistence of white supremacy and the ubiquity of Black death feeds a national culture of terror and a perpetual undercurrent of mourning. If the gothic narrative is metabolized fear, if the goth aesthetic is romanticized melancholy, what does that look and sound like in Black America?” And here is a sample of Taylor’s haunting prose: - from  Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul by Leila Taylor (2019)
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Halloween 2020, Day 22

If you’re looking for a contemporary vampire read, Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite is brand new, edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker with stories by an all-star lineup of authors including Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, Victoria “V. E.” Schwab, and Kayla Whaley.   
If you’d like to sample a taste from the collection, Tor.com has a spooky excerpt from Rebecca Roanhorse’s story “The Boys From Blood River” here.
Enjoy a couple of eerie snippets. Now let’s go old school… From “The Giaour” by Lord Byron (1813). (Art is “Vampire” by akelataka.)

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Halloween 2020, Day 21

(Photo by Elizabeth. See the original source here.)  - from “Since I Died” by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, originally in Scribner’s Monthly (February 1873), as published in Avenging Angels: Ghost Stories by Victorian Women Writers edited by Melissa Edmundson (2018)   
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Halloween 2020, Day 20

This year I took part in the Ladies of Horror Fiction anniversary mini-readathon, and one of the titles I’m very glad I selected was Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis (2020). This young-adult Gothic tale is a chilling and effective love letter to cult horror films and those who obsess over them, wrapped inside of a toxic family mystery, and topped with a clever framing narrative that pays off immensely in the end. Ellis allows her heroine self-discovery and hard-won empowerment and a realness I found to be very compelling. I would’ve devoured this with relish as a teen; as an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed every single line. Highly recommended! Here is the official description: “Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker–she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she’s quickly packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map–and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away. And there’s someone–or something–stalking her every move. The more Lola discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola’s got secrets of her own. And if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her.”
Ellis definitely has a wonderful way with words. Here’s an example.
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Halloween 2020, Day 19

(Art is “Halloween 2019″ by jackthetab.)
Sadie Hartmann has a fantastic suggested Halloween reading list here at LitReactor: “Halloween 2020 Reading List.”  Two other books to that deserve to be on any list include the new Weird anthologies from Handheld Press, British Weird: Selected Short Fiction, 1893-1937 edited by James Machin and Women’s Weird 2: More Strange Stories by Women, 1891-1937 edited by Melissa Edmundson. And guess what? Next week, you can take part in the book launch for these two volumes online for free! Weird book launch: Tuesday, 27th October 2020
At 19.30 UK time / 13.30 EST on Tuesday, 27th October, Handheld Press be hosting a Zoom book launch for our two new Weird anthologies, British Weird, edited by James Machin, and Women’s Weird  2, edited by Melissa Edmundson. Kate Macdonald of Handheld Press will be moderating. To sign up to attend this online book launch, go here for details! (Photo by Yours Truly.)
- from “‘Ghosties and Ghoulies’: Uses of the Supernatural in English Fiction” by Mary Butts (1913) in British Weird: Selected Short Fiction, 1893-1937, edited by James Machin
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Halloween 2020, Day 18

(Art is “Zbrush Doodle: Day 1750 - Festive Pumpkin” by UnexpectedToy.)
For today, here is the atmospheric opening of the short story “Haunted!” by Jack Edwards, originally published in The Weekly Tale Teller #83 (December 3, 1910), as found in Glimpses of the Unknown: Lost Ghost Stories edited by Mike Ashley (2018):  

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Halloween 2020, Day 17

If you’re looking for a truly beautiful and meaningful work to read this October, then try this first novel from one of my favorite authors, Lipan Apache wordsmith Darcie Little Badger. This is not a work about Halloween, but with magic and monsters, murder and ghosts, it’s perfect for the season.  In fact, it’s perfect, full stop. By page four, Elatsoe had me: “She could handle mundane dangers, like violent men with guns or knives, but every tunnel, bridge, and abandoned building in the city was allegedly home to monsters. She’d heard whispers about clans of teenage-bodied vampires, carnivorous mothmen, immortal serial killers, devil cults, cannibal families, and slenderpeople.” What genius is this? And don’t get me started on the scarecrows with real human eyes. Or Kirby the ghost dog, the best boy ever. Or the locals who stare at strangers. Or Teddy Roosevelt. Here is the official description of Elatsoe: “Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day. Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.” 
I can’t recommend this young-adult novel highly enough (for YA and adult readers alike). I laughed and I cried; I also punched the air in triumph three separate times. I want to foist this book on everyone I know.  Here is a taste: - from Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (2020)  You can read a longer excerpt from Elatsoe here and access a Q&A with Darcie Little Badger and see related videos here. You can also find links to some of Darcie Little Badger’s spooky online short stories on her website here. The book is gorgeously illustrated by artist Rovina Cai. 

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Halloween 2020, Day 16

It’s film time! Every year about this time I think about good Halloween films (not necessarily horror movies, and definitely not lame slasher pictures, but suspenseful, atmospheric films that put a chill up the spine) that are “off the beaten path” – that is, films that are independent, foreign, direct to DVD or VOD, or somehow under promoted, and thus might easily slip under the proverbial radar. Not the classics. Not the usual suspects.
I’ve already made a separate post in the past with recommendations of Anton Yelchin’s Halloween-friendly films, so I won’t repeat those here.
Now I have a few new recommendations to add to my list, based on this past year’s viewing. (We accessed nearly all of these via Netflix or Amazon streaming.) Here they are in reverse chronological order: Here are my 2019 recommendations: You Should Have Left (2020): This is a very effective troubled-family-on-vacation film, packed with layered characterization and psychological unease. The incredible chemistry between Kevin Bacon and Avery Essex makes a genuinely moving father-daughter relationship the heart of this film. It really works. 
American Hangman (2019): This is a powerful thriller with a lot of meaning. Even though Donald Sutherland’s genius is undisputed, it’s still stunning to watch him here. I’ll use the official description so I don’t give more away than I should: “Two men are chained up in a basement. The captor has cameras aimed at them and is streaming it on the internet – turning it into a ‘trial’ on the held, retired judge’s last court case. The viewers become the jurors.” The Color Out of Space (2019): This is an adaptation of one of my very favorite Lovecraft works, so I was braced for disappointment. Instead, this turned out to be one of our favorite films of the year. Sensitive, poignant, and genuinely scary, this film genuinely delivers on every level, including the pathos inherent to the story. I’m agnostic about Nic Cage – he doesn’t make or break a film for me – but his performance really worked here, as did that of the ever-capable Joely Richardson. It was delightful to see Q'orianka Kilcher and Tommy Chong in solid supporting roles, as well. Watch this one!    Doctor Sleep (2019): This is an adaptation of Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s interesting and visually stunning and packed with able actors. (Five words: Zahn McClarnon as Crow Daddy. I can’t stress this enough.) I’m sure many would find this crazy, but if given the choice right now, I would rather watch Doctor Sleep again than watch The Shining again. So there.   In the Tall Grass (2019): Is this the best Stephen King (more accurately, Stephen King and Joe Hill) adaptation ever? No. Did I enjoy every minute spent lost in the grass maze with over-the-top Patrick Wilson? Yes. Yes I did. Your mileage may vary based on your level of Patrick Wilson appreciation. Mine is high.    Midsommar (2019): Yes, I know this isn’t an “under the radar” film, but we really loved it, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say so.   Ready or Not (2019): Dark comedies are often hit or miss for me, but this newlywed-hunted-by-her-evil-in-laws-in-Satanic-ritual romp is a definite hit, both clever and funny. Vivarium (2019): This science-fiction mind-game of a horror film messed me up and continues to haunt me, and I mean that in the best possible way. I knew nothing about it going into the film, and I think that was for the best. Highly recommended.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2019): This is a very well crafted adaptation of a novel by Shirley Jackson that I love. I was prepared to be critical, but the film thoroughly won me over with brilliant visuals and performances – Taissa Farmiga and Alexandra Daddario are phenomenal – and a screenplay that emphasizes how relevant this story remains. Read the book first, but then treat yourself to this movie.    Delirium (2018): This isn’t a great film, but it keeps the twists and turns coming, and it uses the unreliability of the protagonist’s hallucination-laden point of view to good effect. You really need to suspend your disbelief to swallow the “young man released from twenty years in a mental asylum into house arrest at his dead father’s mansion” premise, but once you’re there, the oppressive isolation and sense of unreality are worth your time.    The Wind: Demon of the Prairies (2018): This slow-burn Western plays on the horror and desperation of solitude – especially for settler women – on the frontier. Women’s points of view are highlighted here in a refreshing and chillingly effective way.
Lost Child (a.k.a. Tatterdemalion) (2018): We were really enchanted and moved by this work of “hillbilly Gothic” or Ozark folk horror. When a combat veteran returns home with the scars of war on her psyche, she encounters a boy in the woods. Is he a lost child in need of her help, or is he the tatterdemalion of local lore, a demon who wants to feed on her very life? This is a quiet, haunting, compelling story of pain, superstition, and the people who fall through the cracks. 
Voice from the Stone (2017): This is a classic old-school Gothic film of the “new governess for troubled child after mother’s death” mold, and it delivers all of the lush atmosphere, claustrophobia, and passion needed. This is a beautifully disturbing movie. Kudos to Emilia Clarke for her compelling performance.   Bone Tomahawk (2015): Why on Earth did I wait so long to watch this Western horror film? More Patrick Wilson, more Zahn McClarnon, both tremendous pluses. Outstanding Kurt Russell content. Genuinely scary and less gratuitously gory than I’d feared.  Lake Mungo (2008): I’m so glad Mike Davis of The Lovecraft eZine recommended this film, which is a “mockumentary” about a family trying to come to turns with the drowning death of the daughter/sister. Are we witnessing how grief yields false hope and makes us vulnerable to charlatans, or is something supernatural taking place? This is a subtle work of slowly-mounting terror. Really delicious. Mike now tells me that if I loved this film, I need to read Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay, so I’m going to do that too!    Click below for my recommendations from previous years.  Read more …
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Halloween 2020, Day 15

(Artwork is “Coven” by  Sadist-Ka.)
― Helen Oyeyemi, White is for Witching (2009)
 ― Beth Underdown, The Witchfinder’s Sister (2017)
Relevant to both titles above, here is a reading recommendation list from Sublime Horror that’s perfect for the season: “Witches in fiction, a reading list chosen by Professor Marion Gibson.” This is another seasonal reading list from Margaret Kingsbury at BuzzFeed News: “13 Witchy Books That Will Keep You Spellbound.” Last, Erika W. Smith offers these suggestions for Cosmopolitan: “24 Witch Books That Belong on Your Bookshelf.” And here’s one more quote for your day:
 ― Katherine Howe, The Penguin Book of Witches (2014)  
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Halloween 2020, Day 14

For today I have some great lists of Halloween-appropriate reading for younger readers as well as scary-story lovers of all ages. First, from Angie Manfredi: “Shivers & Shudders: Scary Middle Grade Books.”
Second, from the Spooky KidLit site (“Celebrating the kids’ books that go bump in the night.”), two lists: “Celebrating Black Authors, Part 1″ and “Celebrating Black Authors, Part 2.” One of the stellar books recommended in two of the lists above is The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown (2019), and here’s a haunting little taste: You can read a longer excerpt from The Forgotten Girl here.  And here’s some great news! The Forgotten Girl is one of four books being adapted for television: “Scholastic Entertainment to Develop ‘JumpScare’ Kids Animated Horror Series With ‘Ben 10’ Team.”
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Halloween 2020, Day 13

(Photo is “Shiver My Bones002″ by bjfrenchphoto.)   Today I want to highlight two excellent reading recommendation lists from Sublime Horror that are perfect for this spooky season, both written by a scholar whose work I follow with great enthusiasm, literary historian Melissa Edmundson. Here they are: 1) “Ghost stories by Victorian women, a reading list chosen by Melissa Edmundson” and 2) “Supernatural novellas by Victorian women, a reading list chosen by Melissa Edmundson.” This is an excerpt from one of the supernatural novellas mentioned in the second list, the ghost story Cecilia de Noël, by Lanoe Falconer (1910): The entire novella is available online here from Project Gutenberg.
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Halloween 2020, Day 12

(Photo is “Spooky Woods” by GypsyMist.) Do you consider crime thrillers and murder mysteries good reading fare for the Halloween season?  I do. And I’m glad that we’re in a time when crime fiction by Indigenous American writers is increasingly recognized and celebrated. Here’s a terrific article by Lakota author David Heska Wanbli Weiden for CrimeReads: “Why Indigenous Crime Fiction Matters.” He also contributed this useful reading list for The Strand: “Seven Essential Native American Crime Novels.” Speaking of David Heska Wanbli Weiden, I read, thoroughly enjoyed, and highly recommend his gripping 2020 novel Winter Counts, which is a (to borrow the official description) “groundbreaking thriller about a vigilante on a Native American reservation who embarks on a dangerous mission to track down the source of a heroin influx.” A tense and engrossing read.  And speaking of his essay on “Why Indigenous Crime Fiction Matters,” I was very glad to see Cherokee novelist John Rollin Ridge mentioned front and center. Earlier this year in my monthly “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast, on Episode 628, I discussed how we can trace parts of Batman’s origin back to John Rollin Ridge and his fiction. 
(Photo by Yours Truly.) Perhaps my favorite discovery this year is the wonderful Cash Blackbear mystery/crime series, including Murder on the Red River (2017) and Girl Gone Missing (2019), by White Earth Nation author Marcie R. Rendon. Set during the Vietnam Conflict, these books follow 19-year-old Cash Blackbear – “aged-out foster child, girl pool shark, truck driver from Minnesota’s White Earth reservation” – who asks questions, has dreams, and regularly helps out her friend Wheaton, the cop who is her family by choice rather than blood, as he solves crimes. These books deliver on mood and atmosphere while also telling difficult, important, meaningful stories. Here is one of Cash Blackbear’s vivid and haunting dreams:
- from Marcie R. Rendon, Girl Gone Missing (2019)
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Halloween 2020, Day 4

Halloween 2020, Day 4 – from The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf (2020) This year I fell in love with the middle-grade novel The Girl and the Ghost, which is based on Malaysian folktales about the pelesit, a shape-shifting spirit bound to serve a single master. In the novel, young Suraya inherits such a ghost from her witch grandmother and learns that this pelesit is loyal – and jealous. Hanna Alkaf offers genuine chills as well as laughs, but most importantly she delivers a thought-provoking, heart-warming, life-affirming story of loss, grief, friendship, and family. The characters feel so real!  Don’t let the middle-grade classification of this story fool you; The Girl and the Ghost has much to offer readers of all ages, including plenty of ghosts, graveyards, and spookiness. You can read a longer excerpt from The Girl and the Ghost here or listen to sample from the audiobook here.     View the full article  
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Halloween 2020, Day 11

(Photo by Yours Truly. Skulls from Toscano.) Today I bring you several recent articles that are perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit.  1. From Danielle Trussoni for The New York Times: “Grisly Slabs of Gothic Horror.”  2. From Marc E. Fitch for CrimeReads: “Literature Is Built on a Foundation of Horror.”   3. From Dr. Sam Hirst for Tor.com: “More Thrilling than Fiction: The Real Life Heroines of the Early Gothic.” One of the heroines mentioned in the article above is Mary Darby Robinson (1758-1800). Here is an excerpt from her poem “The Haunted Beach” from Lyrical Tales (1800): Read the complete poem here.
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Halloween 2020, Day 10

(Artwork is “Autumn” by lunarhare.)
Today’s reading recommendation list is “Joke’s on you: Five parodies of the ghost story” by Lewis Hurst for Sublime Horror. In Hurst’s words, “I used to avoid ‘funny’ ghost stories. Humour seemed at odds with the effect I sought from reading about the supernatural. It dispelled the atmosphere, leaving the stories, and the reader, disenchanted. Later on, I learned that horror could be funny, and that funny things can be horrific.”
And here is an excerpt from one of the stories Hurst mentions, “The Open Window” by Saki (1914):   The short story is online (in Saki’s collection Beasts and Super-Beasts) here at Project Gutenberg.  
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Halloween 2020, Day 9 (Star Wars!)

Star Wars is all about Halloween! Are you in the mood for some Star Wars Halloween goodness?
1. If you’re feeling crafty, learn how you can make a creeptastic Darth Maul bookmark here! 
2. Check out the General Grievous Halloween audiocast! This was an audiocast recorded by Matthew Wood as General Grievous and released on StarWars.com for Halloween of 2005. It was re-released on October 31, 2014. Today you (or your trick-or-treaters) can feel the Force of fright! Download this free audiocast to bring Star Wars scares to your October!
3. Did you know that Halloween was part of the classic Star Wars Expanded Universe? According to Wookieepedia,
4. Check the official Star Wars site’s Halloween Hub for a “ghoul-actic collection of articles, crafts, and more”! In particular, don’t miss the chance to hang around with mynocks!  5. In 2018, Star Wars knocked it out of the ballpark with new publications Are You Scared, Darth Vader?, one of the best Star Wars picture books I’ve ever read (and a terrific tribute to Halloween!), and the Tales from Vader’s Castle limited comic series, inspired by classic Hammer Horror films. I can’t recommend these enough! Last year, we got the Return to Vader’s Castle series. This year, both Tales and Return will be combined into the single-volume Beware of Vader’s Castle! 
But wait, there’s more! October is the annual Star Wars Reads celebration. Star Wars Reads combines the love of a galaxy far, far away and the joy of reading. Star Wars Reads Printable Activity Kit and Posters: Plan your own Star Wars event with this amazing party kit, complete with party invitations, posters, and activities for kids to adults. Click here for goodies!
There will be events around the world sponsored by Star Wars publishers, so keep your eye on the Star Wars Reads Facebook page for more information.
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Halloween 2020, Day 8

(Artwork is “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” by theycallmedanyo.) For today I have an article/reading recommendation list to share by T. Marie Vandelly for Crime Reads: “Domestic Horror: A Primer.” 
And here are some atmospheric quotes from some of the novels that appear in the list: “It’s bad when the dead talk in dreams,” said Odessa. ― Michael McDowell, The Elementals (1981)
“The origins of the bottle tree were African, Helen had once told her; it was a folk tradition brought to this country by slaves, who, working with whatever materials were at hand, devised a crude method of catching and trapping malevolent spirits, to prevent their passage through human doors.” ― Attica Locke, The Cutting Season (2012)
“In folktales a vampire couldn’t enter your home unless you invited him in. Without your consent the beast could never cross your threshold. Well, what do you think your computer is? Your phone? You live inside those devices so those devices are your homes. But at least a home, a physical building, has a door you can shut, windows you can latch. Technology has no locked doors.”
― Victor LaValle, The Changeling (2017) 
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Halloween 2020, Day 7

(Photo by Yours Truly. Poe by Dellamorteco.)  On this day in 1849 – 171 years ago – Edgar Allan Poe died at the age of forty under mysterious circumstances. For more information, read “Mysterious for Evermore” by Matthew Pearl, an article on Poe’s death from The Telegraph. Pearl is the author of a fascinating novel about the subject, The Poe Shadow. (Photo by Yours Truly.) The following are some of my favorite links about Edgar Allan Poe:
PoeStories.com: An Exploration of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe (I highly recommend this book by J.W. Ocker, and I suggest that you enter “Poe” into the Search feature at his Odd Things I’ve Seen site, as well, for many Poe-riffic posts!) The Poe Museum of Richmond The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore Hocus Pocus Comics is Poe-centric to the max, and I invite you to visit the site! In addition, check out this beautiful time-lapse video of David Hartman drawing an exclusive Kickstarter cover for The Imaginary Voyages of Edgar Allan Poe – and subscribe to the Hocus Pocus Comics YouTube channel while you’re at it!   The Caedmon recordings – that’s 5 hours of Edgar Allan Poe stories read by Vincent Price & Basil Rathbone – are now available on Spotify (download the software here). (Thanks, Jessica!) And now, here is one of my favorite readings of Poe: Gabriel Byrne’s narration of the pandemic-relevant and all-too-timely “The Masque of the Red Death.” – from “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe (1842). Read the complete story here. 
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Halloween 2020, Day 6

(Art is “The Innocent Abandoned” by ExDolore.)
For today’s spooky reading recommendation list, check out “Five Haunted House Books Written By Women” by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson for Tor.com.  Here is an eerie snippet from one of the novels in the list, The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike (U.S. edition 2016). A longer excerpt is available online from Macmillan here.
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