And Nevie Rose Had a Great Halloween, Too...

Sawtooth Jack 2013

Hope all of you had a great Halloween. This fellow was part of the fun around here, and I think he might last a few more nights before he's called back to the pumpkin patch... who knows, these guys may be waiting.

At the Altar of the Great Pumpkin

The Mummy's Heart

A new novella, "The Mummy's Heart," is out in Paula Guran's Halloween: Magic, Mystery, and the Macabre. This one's camped out on the coffee table for the duration of the holiday season, as Ms. P has collected tales from some personal favorites (new and old): Stephen Graham Jones, the Tems, Jonathan Maberry, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, John Shirley, and Caitlin R. Kiernan. Not to mention two gents who (quite often) make me want to bust my pencils -- Laird Barron and Brian Hodge. And for bonus points: there's a WWII werewolf tale; first thing I've read by Carrie Vaughn (I'm late to the dance as usual). It was a good one. When it comes to sub-genres, WWII/spookerific mashups are a long-standing weakness of mine.

Anyway, I'll have more about "The Mummy's Heart" (and fictive mummies in general) in my next post, but for now I'll leave you with a taste of the tale itself:

The trail I'm talking about was cut by a mummy.

He did the job on Halloween night in 1963. He was mad as a hatter, and he came out of a pyramid that was (mostly) his own making. And no, he wasn't really a mummy. But that night, he was definitely living the part. Even in the autopsy photos, that shambler from the darkside was a sight to behold.

His name was Charlie Steiner and he was nearly twenty-three years old -- too big to be trick-or-treating. And Charlie was big... football-lineman big. If you know your old Universal Studios creepers, he was definitely more a product of the Lon Chaney, Jr. engine of destruction school of mummidom than the Boris Karloff wicked esthete branch. But either camp you put him in, he was a long way from the cut-rate dime-store variety when it came to living dead Egyptians.

Because this mummy wasn't playing a role.

He was embodying one.

Which is another way of saying: He was living a dream.

Charlie's bandages were ripped Egyptian cotton, dredged in Nile river-bottom he'd ordered from some Rosicrucian mail-order outfit. He was wound and bound and wrapped tight for the ages, and he wasn't wearing a Don Post mask he'd bought from the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland. No. Charlie had gone full-on Jack Pierce with the makeup. Furrows and wrinkles cut deep trenches across his face like windblown Saharan dunes, and the patch of mortician's wax that covered one eye was as smooth as a jackal's footprint... add it all up and drop it in your treat sack, and just the sight of Charlie would have made Boris Karloff shiver.

And you can round that off to the lowest common denominator and say that Charlie Steiner would have scared just about anyone. Sure, you'd know he was a guy in a costume if you got a look at him. But even on first glance, you might believe this kid was twenty-three going on four thousand.

Look a little closer, you'd see the important part: Charlie Steiner was twenty-three going on insane. There was no dodging that if you got close enough to spot the mad gleam in his eye -- the one he hadn't covered with mortician's wax. Or maybe if you spotted his right hand, the one dripping blood... the one he'd shorn of a couple fingers with a butcher's cleaver. And then there was his tongue, half of it cut out of his mouth with a switchblade, its purple root bubbling blood.

Charlie wrapped those things in a jackal's hide he'd bought from the back pages of a big-game hunting magazine with Ernest Hemingway on the cover. Who knew if that hide was real but Charlie believed in it, same way he believed in the little statue of the cat-headed goddess he added to the stash, along with a dozen withered red roses, his own fingers and tongue, and a Hallmark Valentine's Day card....

10/31: Bloody Mary

Yeah. I know. It's been a long time.

But: I figured a great way to revive American Frankenstein would be with a new story of the Halloween variety by yours truly, now available online courtesy of John Joseph Adams and Nightmare Magazine. So grab yourself a mug of spiced cider and click on over for "10/31: Bloody Mary." You can read or listen. Either way, Bloody Mary's waiting just for you... along with a post-apocalyptic cyclops, a fistful of goblins, and a whole lot of gunpowder thrown in.

So enjoy. After all, it's October. The Dark Season has begun. Let's kick things into gear... and I'll be back soon.

Halloween Roundup

Thanks to everyone who came out for our Halloweenebration at the Saint Mary's College Library (you can catch some pictures here). I had fun reading from Dark Harvest on the day itself. Biggest surprise -- how quiet it got in the building while I was behind the podium. I figured it was going to be pretty crazy reading in the lobby of a busy library as patrons wandered in and out, but you could have heard a pin drop. Or maybe I should say you could have heard small town badass Mitch Crenshaw drop when the October Boy nailed him with a pitchfork out there on the Black Road, because that's the part of the story I read.

My little girl Nevie Rose must have been inspired, because she came up with her own Halloween story, which I'm posting here for posterity: "Suddenly, the ghost heard a strange sound... and it was the KITTY! He was waiting for the ghost. Then they danced and danced! But the pumpkin was sad. Why was he sad? Because he lost his pumpkin slippers. But then he found them, and he was happy!"

Nevie's only two, but with a pair of writers for parents, I think she might just turn out to be a writer, too.

Could be it's the family curse.

Sawtooth Jack 2012

Here's the official 2012 October Boy that I carved up last night (note: I could probably explain the spirit-hand visitation in the lower right hand corner, but in keeping with the season I'll just say that some mysteries are best left unexplained). Not too many trick-or-treaters went nose-to-nose with this bad boy when he was encamped on the front porch, though. Rain rolled over the hill from Oakland early, and that (mostly) skunked the trick-or-treat action around here.

Hope you and yours had a great holiday. On the post-Halloween front, Joe Nazare of Macabre Republic is back in action, post-hurricane. He's posted an interview with me where we discuss Halloween, favorite Twilight Zone episodes, and Universal Monsters. As Joe says, "it's a cool six-pack to stave off any Halloween hangover," and you can check it out here.

Happier Halloween!

Nevie Rose had a good Halloween as a pumpkin/kitty/witch. She was the belle of the ball at Daddy's library reading, ate pizza for dinner, didn't stick her fingers in the blazing pumpkin, and made it all the way to the grand climax of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein before looking at me and saying: "Does this part make you nervous?"

Nevie Rose, w/ spirit orb!

Happy Halloween!

The big day has arrived. I'm dropping in with fistful of candy corn for all of you, plus an appropriately seasonal illustration whipped up by my buddy Kevin Nordstrom. Thanks, Kevin!

Also up for grabs: I'm the guest blogger over at October Country today, so check out my pick for Halloween reading. Enjoy!

Anyway, I hope one and all have a great holiday. And while I'm at it, I'll shovel one last reminder your way about my reading today at Saint Mary's College. Hope to see you there.

Last but certainly not least: To all our friends on the East Coast, we're hoping you're safe and sound in the shadow of Hurricane Sandy. Hang in there, and be safe.

Oh, the Horror!

Along with webslingin' librarian Sarah Vital, I've posted a Pinterest page with some cool horror stuff over at the Saint Mary's College Library website. If you want to catch my particular take on an oft-overlooked novel by Stephen King, plus standout work by Laird Barron, John Langan, and Glen Hirshberg, click on over to Oh, the Horror!.

And remember: Info on my Halloween reading (like: it's tomorrow!) can be found in the post below, so take a stroll and scroll on down the page for details or click here.

While I'm at it: Major thanks to my writing brothers-in-arms who've mentioned Dark Harvest as a Halloween favorite over at Blu Gilliand's October Country blog. I'm gratified that authors as fine as John Skipp, Kealan Patrick Burke, and Nate Southard gave props to the book. Gracias, gents! Tomorrow I will raise a pint of Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale and toast all three of you.

Halloween Hootenanny!

I'll be reading from Dark Harvest at the Saint Mary's College Library on October 31st (the day itself!) at 2 p.m. (not quite the witching hour, but I'll do my best to channel some appropriate vibes). There's a frightful feast of additional action on the library's menu that day, including a triple-play of movies* and a reading by my compadre Mike Jung, who has just published a knockout debut novel for young readers.

So come one, come all. Directions to campus can be found here. Hope to see you on the 31st... and since I work the night shift as a Circulation Supervisor at the aforementioned establishment, I might even tell you a ghost story or two about the library. It's haunted.


*Yes. We're showing Carnival of Souls at 9 a.m. We're serious horror fans around here, and we'll scramble your brains before breakfast.