From The Backlist: "Halloween Cometh" by Merrie Destefano

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We're into that month -- so we can think of no better way to herald Halloween than with a backlist post on that very topic. And from the wonderful Merrie Destefano, no less!

Enjoy!

Halloween Cometh

~ by Merrie Destefano

When I was a kid, Halloween was always my favorite holiday. Autumn came with brisk winds and falling leaves and carved pumpkins that lined everyone’s porches. Days grew shorter and shorter, as if soon it would be one continuous night. My neighborhood was filled with old, Victorian homes, tall houses with wrap-around porches and too many windows. It always seemed like some creepy person was watching me from behind the curtains, so that made trick-or-treating seem all the more dangerous.

For years, all of these elements stayed with me, through my teenage years and adulthood. Whenever Halloween approaches, my skin shivers and I expect something—insert sound of creaky old door opening here—unexpected, but slightly magical, to happen.

That was why I wrote FEAST: HARVEST OF DREAMS, and why I set it in a quiet mountain village, during Halloween. I wanted to share those emotions and expectations I had as a child. My main character, Ash—who is more than a little bit magical and possibly quite dangerous—even lives in a creepy, old Victorian house...

To read the original post, click here.

To check in on Merrie, who's written plenty more books since Feast, click on Merrie Destefano Home

Zombie Lovin': What's Up With The Undead? -- More 'From The Backlist' Goodness!

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With Halloween clearly on the horizon, what better time to feature a lil Zombie Lovin'? Namely, Terri Garey's microfiction that checks out what's up with the undead?

We loved it the first time around and bet you'll enjoy the fun just as much today. Sure hope so! :D

Terri Garey

Zombie Lovin': What's Up With The Undead? by Terri Garey

When did zombies become the new black? Zombies are everywhere these days, including zombie romance. When I first heard the concept, I was baffled; how could love, sex and romance work if you (or your partner) were one of the undead? What if you kissed and your lips fell off? (Just kidding! Kinda.)

Anyway, one day last year, just for fun, I took a moment to imagine how in the world one could mix love with lividity, and came up with this short little pre-Halloween, tongue-in-cheek tale I'd like to share with you.  I must warn you, if you haven't read my books yet, you're about to find out that I have a slightly weird sense of humor. :-) But if, like me, you don't mind a giggle or two at the expense of the undead, read away, and enjoy:

Zombie Love

LOVE STINKS, AND SO DOES YOUR BREATH by Terri Garey

“Is that a femur in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

Donna snuggled in closer to Derek, brushing the dark hair from his eyes with one hand. Unfortunately, a clump of it remained in her fingers, and she knew this particular boy toy’s time was limited. That was the problem with zombies—their shelf life was much too short, the pesky problem of decomposition being one she hadn’t solved yet.

Even embalming didn’t help, and she didn’t care for waxy buildup on her fingers any more than she did her floors.

“Brought you a present,” Derek murmured, with a lopsided grin, “for our two-week anniversary.” His breath reeked of blood and sausages, which made sense considering his job at the local meat packing plant. With a flourish, he whipped a hand from behind his back, and offered her his prize.

“How sweet,” Donna squealed. “It’s a heart!”

“Yeah, baby,” he answered smugly, blood dripping between his fingers. “A fresh one. Nothing but the best for my girl.”

“Awww,” Donna said, “I got you a present, too.” She let go of him long enough snatch her purse up from the bed. Digging inside, she brought up an object about three inches long. Picking off a piece of lint before handing it to him, she announced, “I usually wait at least a month before giving my boyfriend the finger!”

Derek and Donna both died laughing, which was long overdue, considering Donna had been dead for two centuries, and Derek for two weeks.

She eyed him with regret as she giggled, knowing his laughter would soon be a thing of the past, much like Horatio’s, the guy who’d gotten her into this fix. It had been Horatio’s idea to visit the cemetery in Edinburgh that night two hundred years ago. Bodysnatching had been a good way to earn some quick cash back then, unless your body happened to be the one that got snatched, of course.

Poor Horatio, she’d known him well, until that shovel had come out of nowhere, and smashed his head in. The doctor who’d done it hadn’t hit her hard enough, though, and she’d woken up in his laboratory to find him on top of her. After that, what was a ghoul to do except defend herself? It was only after she’d killed the doc with his own dirt-encrusted shovel that she’d found the secret book lying on his desk, in plain sight, and learned the ancient grimoire’s secrets about how to reanimate the dead.

“Hey, baby,” Derek said, interrupting her musings. “I got a perfectly good boner going to waste here.” He grabbed her hips and pulled her close again. “What say we get naked and put it to good use, hm?”

Donna smiled. She’d learned a few secrets about herself that night, too, including how her brush with death and her newfound ability to reanimate dead flesh left her with a taste for more of it. Immortality had cost her soul, but she was pretty sure she didn’t need it where she was going.

“Absolutely,” she answered, with a smile that revealed her own teeth, pearly white and perfect. Her eyes glowed red as she began to tug his shirt from his pants. “No use letting a good piece of meat go to waste."

...

To read the rest of Terri's post, including a link to the "Thrill the World" event (where people all over the globe join together at the same time to dress in zombie costume and dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller", in an annual attempt to break the Guinness World Record for "largest simultaneous Thriller dance"), click here.

To find out more about Terri Garey, including her fun & fabulous Nicki Styx series, go here.

Bookshop of Halloween Horrors

Halloween, born of the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, is nigh and we might all be looking for a good read to suit the occasion. I know I am!

If it's a book that goes bump in the night, there is a multitude to choose from, but there aren't all that many that weave Halloween into the pages.

Here are a few that spark my interest.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked is a classic from the archives of Ray Bradbury. If you haven't read it yet just imagine: two thirteen-year-olds, a traveling carnival and more jump-scares than the heart can handle. Oh yes, and spooky Halloween!


Another classic is Norman Partridge's Dark Harvest

Dark Harvest is set in the 60s, like Stranger Things, and packed with plenty of suspense. Why not when the town's teenagers comb the streets on Halloween, intent on killing the October Boy. The winner (aka murderer) gets the prize and leaves town, never to be seen again. Or so we think...

This one will set the stage for those trick or treat bangs on the door!


A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The first book in the All Souls Trilogy, be ready with book two if you don't want to dangle over the edge of the cliff. The story of an academic witch in denial, this is historical fantasy at its finest, with a splash of Halloween at the (cliffhanger) ending.


Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts

This is also the start of a trilogy - Three Sisters Island. Set on said island, the series has it all: a strong female character with a terrible past, a curse, a love true-blue and a loudly ticking clock. And yes, Halloween!


A Path Begins - by J. A. White

Book #1 in the Thickety series, this story is set in colonial times. Think a dark forest. Vicious beasts. Deadly plants. Spellbooks. Secrets. Mysteries. Witches, and a girl everyone hates...

Yes, it's marketed as a middle-grade book but some might feel the content is too disturbing for that age range. Are there Halloween themes? You bet, colonial-style!

I'd love to know what your fav Halloween books are and if you plan to curl up with one at the end of the month.

Let us know in the comments!

Trick or treat,

xxKim

* * *

Kim Falconer's New YA Fantasy Series is out March 2020 - The Crown of Bones. (Writing under A.K. Wilder)

Also, check her urban fantasy  - The Blood in the Beginning - and Ava Sykes Novel and the SFF Quantum Enchantment Series. 

You can find Kim on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or pop over and throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site.

Contact at kimfalconer.com

Halloween Is Coming!

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Halloween "is" Coming!

It may only be 1 October today, with Halloween way-aways at the end of the month—but having turned the seasonal corner into October and with the equinox already two weeks past, my mind is already turning toward jack o' lanterns and trick-or -treating. All the elements that make for a great Halloween!

As some or all of you may know, I live in the Southern Hemisphere, which means that Halloween here falls in spring. The festival does get celebrated, but I can't help feeling that Halloween goes so much better with its autumnal origins: there's something about ghost tales and the supernatural that fits perfectly with the nights drawing in, firesides and candlelight, and shadows dancing on the walls.

Exactly the conditions that are optimal for tall tales, spooky yarns, and "books that go bump in the night" as well—the latter being something of our raison d'etre, here on the Supernatural Underground. In fact, if you cast your eyes right to the sidebar, you'll find some great paranormal stories and undead tales right there!

The origins of Halloween go back a long way, at least as far as the Celtic era when the festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest season and the passage of the year out of summer and into the cold and dark of winter. As such, Samhain was also a “day of the dead,” when the spirits of those who had passed must be placated with offerings of food.

Art: PJ Fitzpatrick

Once Christianity became dominant, the 31 October/1 November date for the Celtic festival of Samhain was transformed into the religious festival of All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Day, followed immediately by All Souls. The Celtic traditions persisted, however, which is why Halloween is still a festival for "ghosties and ghoulies, long-leggetie beasties, And things that go bump in the night."

As a kid, one of my favorite Halloween stories was that of Tam Lin, a young mortal man stolen away by the fey, whose soul was to be lost to Hell on Halloween unless his lover, Janet, can win him back. I particularly liked the retelling in Rosemary Sutcliff’s children's book, The Armourer’s House, as recounted in the Chapter titled “A Tale for Hallowe’en."

Subsequently I have read several other Tam Lin retellings, including Pamela Dean's Tam Lin and Patricia McKillip's Solstice Wood (which won the 2007 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.)

Although not specifically set at Halloween, Raymond E Feist's Faerie Tale delves into the crossover between the mortal and supernatural worlds, while Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October specifically focuses on Halloween (with a cast of fictional protagonists and antagonists, such as Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, and Victor Frankenstein thrown in.)

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book also has Halloween overtones (aside from being set in a graveyard) when the living and the dead come together to dance 'the macabray' (the danse macabre.) 

And although I can't help but feel that Halloween itself best suits the autumn of its Northern Hemisphere origins, another great supernatural read that brings me back, not only to the Southern Hemisphere but to my home city of Christchurch, is the great Margaret Mahy's The Changeover.

These are just a few, Halloween-suitable reads that I've enjoyed over the ears. But with the eve of Jack O' Lanterns and ghosties coming up fast I'd love a few more recommendations for fireside tales.

So if you have a favorite, do tell me in the comments!

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Helen Lowe is a novelist, poet, and blogger whose first novel, Thornspell (Knopf), was published to critical praise in 2008. Her second, The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night Series, Book One) won the Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012. The sequel, The Gathering Of The Lost, was shortlisted for the Gemmell Legend Award in 2013. Daughter Of Blood, (The Wall Of Night, Book Three) is Helen's most recent book and she is currently working on the fourth and final novel in The Wall Of Night series. Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog and is also on Twitter: @helenl0we

w00t! We Have Halloween Giveaway Winners!

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It's been exciting, it's been spooky, you've all gone out and helped spread the word — but now it's time!

Rafflecopter has spoken and we have our 3 lucky winners. And they are:
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[Drum Roll!]
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Eileen R.

Melissa (.

Jennifer A.


Congratulations!

And  a big Supernatural Underground thank you  to everyone who participated.

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Eileen, Melissa, Jennifer: Terri Garey will be in touch so we can get your prizes to you, so don't forget to check your email for that.

Happy All Hallows Eve, everyone  — may it be spooky and may all your books go bump in the night!

All Hallows Eve

by PJ Fitzpatrick*

Samhain - All Hallows' Eve - Halloween; we celebrate the festival in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, but the trappings of the contemporary celebration—dressing up in scary costumes, jack o’ lanterns, trick-or-treating—are all activities that speak to the gathering dark of autumn nights, far more than the long, light-filled, evenings of the southern spring.

A quick look at the festival's origins also points north. Halloween derives from the Celtic festival of Samhain, which was associated with harvest end and the passing of the year from summer into the dark and cold of winter. From what I have read, it also had elements of a “day of the dead,” when “the hungry ghosts” had to be placated with offerings of food. Even the bonfires of Guy Fawkes, a few days later, echo the bonfire tradition of Samhain…

In the Christian era, Samhain became the festival of All Hallows Eve, comprising first All Saints' and then All Souls' Day—but whether a harvest festival, a celebration of All Souls, or a feast of the dead, Halloween clearly belongs to the dying season of the year rather than to spring.

In that spirit, one of my all-time favorite Halloween stories is the Scottish tale of Tam Lin, and my favourite retelling is found in Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Armourer’s House (Oxford Children’s Library, 1951), in the Chapter titled “A Tale for Hallowe’en.”  Here’s a small sample to give you a feel for why, even though it’s very much a kids’ retelling, I think it’s well worth a read:

… Oh, but it was wild and lonely up there, with the larks singing in the wide skies, and the whaups crying, and the land dropping away from her feet to the blue hills of the Border Country. And all at once Janot was afraid, and just for a moment she thought that she would take the gold pin from her gown and leave it for a gift to the Fairy Kind, and go home quickly, as she had come. But she was not one to turn away from a thing because she was afraid; so she bent forward across the well-curb, and broke off a long wild-rose spray that arched above it. There were two pink blossoms upon the spray, and as she broke it off, the petals fell from one of them, as is the way of wild roses when their branch is shaken. She leaned forward to watch the five petals floating in the dark water, and there was her own face looking up at her from the depths—aye, and another face looking over her shoulder! A thin face it was, and dark enough to startle any maid.

For the time that it might take your heart to beat twice, Janot never moved. Then she turned slowly from the well-curb, still holding the rose-switch in her hand. Close beside her on the green-sward stood a brave young gallant, clad all in green, from his close-fitting hose to his feathered bonnet. And oh, but he was bonny, despite his black hair and his wan, dark face; there was a cleft to his chin and a quirk to his eyebrow, and the eyes of him were bright and grey …

… I am called Tam Lin,” said the young man, and, as he spoke, he doffed his bonnet to her so low that it swept the fern …”

So that’s a very small excerpt from one of my favourite Halloween stories. What 's yours?

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* The etching in Jaransor, from The Heir of Night, from a series of images done by PJ Fitzpatrick who drew the Heir map, but the "feel" also suits the description of Carterhaugh: a "wild and lonely" place.

A Halloween Potpourri: A Combination of Incongruous Things

Giveaway ~ $25 Amazon Gift Card
The winner is Ash Wolf!
Thanks for your comments, everyone.

http://intothemound.blogspot.com/

If you think Halloween can be scary now, step back in time about 2,500 years when Halloween first
started. People believed things like this:

"Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced "sah-win"). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life ..." - http://www.halloweenhistory.org/

I'll be right there with a basket of candy for the little princesses and superheroes and preteens with fake knives embedded in their heads when the doorbell rings this coming Thursday night. I swear, one of these years I'm going to give those big groups of teenagers who come around before their parties some dental floss, but it would probably just get my house teepeed.

Relax, I can deal with it.

http://www.ivargault.com/kelterne/celts.html

It's those overlapping boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead that have me worried. With my luck, my house is probably built on a major fault line.

In keeping with the subtitle of this post, A Combination of Incongruous Things, here are some Celts doing something odd with a dead man and a dead pig. Plaid was popular then.

Bloody good!

Vampire Cookies
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
approx 1/2 cup red jam (raspberry/strawberry)

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg and extracts.
2. Add flour and salt to the bowl and mix them into the butter-sugar mixture at low speed until dough is just combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 325F.
4. Divide dough in half and keep the portion you are not using in the refrigerator.
5. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/8-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out 2-inch rounds.
6. Place rounds on a baking sheet, put a teaspoon of jam on each of them and cover with another round of dough. Press edges down lightly, pinching the edges onto the cookie sheet. Use a toothpick and poke two small holes (like a vampire bite) in the top of each cookie.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set.
8. Cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Dip a toothpick in some extra red jam and re-insert in the “bite” holes you made before baking to emphasize them, if not already red. Draw a blood trickle down from one of the bites with the jam, if desired.

How about a virtual trip down Amazon's aisles with a $25 gift card clutched in your hand? Just leave a comment below letting me know your favorite paranormal character from a book, movie, TV program, or cartoon (didn't want to exclude Casper the Friendly Ghost). Please make sure I have some way to contact you if your comment is drawn as the random winner. I'll do the drawing on the opening of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Friday, November 1, 2013. Then this lovely card will belong to one of you!

Remember, demons are a ghoul's best friend! (groan ...) 

Hugs,
Dakota ♥

Bonus
Everybody knows the lines:
Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Want to know all the icky ingredients in that cauldron? If so, click "more" to read the entire (long) passage from Macbeth.

Trick or Le Chocolate?

Le Chocolate

As we roll along to the month's end, we near the witching hour, the night of the living dead, samhain, AKA Halloween. What we actually celebrate these days is an ancient pagan ritual with a modern twist. All the ingredients are there - food, family, friends, mumming, divination, spirits and . . . chocolate.

In honor of the night, I thought it would be fun to 'guess that book quote'. Here are some one liners from books that all share a certain bend toward the Theobroma cacao shrub. How many do you recognize? (I threw a film in there too. Couldn't resist!)

1)  “Will looked horrified. "What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?”

2)  “Strength is the capacity to break a Hershey bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces.”

3)  “Can I come back and see you sometime?"
     "Long as you bring me some chocolate," Gramma said, and smiled. "I'm partial to chocolate."
      "Gramma, you're diabetic."
      "I'm old, girl. Gonna die of something. Might as well be chocolate.”

4) “Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”

5)  “Chocolate says "I'm sorry" so much better than words.”

6)  “A Kiss is a terrible name for a piece of chocolate shaped like a water droplet, because kisses are  hot and would melt chocolate—even if it is wearing an astronaut suit made out of tinfoil.
”

7)  “Like magic, she felt him getting nearer, felt it like a pull in the pit of her stomach. It felt like

hunger but deeper, heavier. Like the best kind of expectation. Ice cream expectation. Chocolate expectation.”

8) ...Seashells. Chocolate seashells, so small, so plain, so *innocent*. I thought, oh, just one little taste, it can't do any harm. But it turned out they were filled with rich, sinful...

9) “Don't wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. Chocolate isn't like premarital sex. It will not make you pregnant. And it always feels good.”

10) “ . . .(she) opened the box of chocolates. The dog looked at them longingly.
      "Would you like one?" she asked the little dog.
      "Yes, please," whispered the dog. "Only not toffee ones. They make me drool."
      "I thought chocolates weren't very good for dogs," she said, remembering something Miss   Forcible had once told her.
      "Maybe where you come from," whispered the little dog. "Here, it's all we eat.”

Recognize any? Have one of your own? Pop them in the comments please!

And, if you need a permission slip to indulge, remember, dark chocolate is full of antioxidants, anti-aging properties and hormone regulators. It keeps your heart and cardiovascular system running smoothly, lowers blood pressure, lowers orchestral, and slows down the clotting cascade (prevents stroke). It also stimulates endorphins and increases seritonin, the happy brain messengers. Seriously, what's not to love? Enjoy, everyone!

Kim Falconer is a Supernatural Underground author writing paranormal romance, urban fantasy, YA and epic science fantasy novels.

You can find out more about Kim at kimfalconer.com or on the 11th House Blog. She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month. Her latest release is"Blood and Water" in Supernatural Underground: Vampires Gone Wild.    

Tis the witching hour: The one irrational fear of Amanda Arista

As you know, we are a blog dedicated to the sexy things that go bump in the night. So it really shouldn't surprise you that most of us aren't really afraid of the dark. We have demons, vampires, werewolves, and fey running through our heads most of the time. And those are the good guys. Each year, I take months to plan what scary little devil I'm going to be for Halloween.

With this new series that I am still working on, I've discovered that it takes a lot to scare me. If you've read the blog before, I grew up on a steady diet of serial killers and exorcism movies growing up. I'll take a good haunting any day. Doesn't phase me much.

Even it comes to the real world, I'm pretty much the same. No fear of flying. Heights don't bother me. I'm the girl who picks up the bugs in the office and takes them outside. I used to be squeamish around needles, but working in a hospital for eight years got me over that. I love deep water, have no problem with pitch black rooms, and don't mind being in a big crowd.

However, Hollywood has finally revealed to me what I am afraid of:

LARGE HORDES OF FAST-MOVING ZOMBIES

At least I can say it outloud now.

I had nightmares after seeing the first trailers of World War Z.

And its not that I don't love the zombie craze right now. I've watched every episode of The Walking Dead. Seen 28 Days Later. Read a few outbreak books including the book that the movie is named after (seriously, check out Cordyceps by Ian Duncan). Nothing stuck with me like the clip from the trailer of the zombies piling up on each other like ants.

Shivers.

It just freaks me out. And I don't know why. Its not like its actually going to happen. And if it does, I'll be the first to admit that I'm zombie bait. So why worry, right?

I have no idea!!

Just the thought of a horde of them, running after me, filling the street behind me as they stumble and crush others to get at my sweet meatiness just creeps me out!!

So there you have it. Hordes of Fast-Moving Zombies. Thank you Brad Pitt for showing me exactly what I'm afraid of and that even an alpha male like yourself can barely out run the threat (at least according to the trailers, 'cuz I'm never seeing that movie, or even reading the Wikipedia page).

--------------------------------------------------

Amanda Arista

Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther series

www.amandaarista.com

Coming Up on 1 November: An Interview with Merrie Destefano

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Just a heads up that on 1 November I'll be featuring an interview with fellow Supernatural Underground author, Merrie Destefano – primarily talking her YA paranormal Fathom, but also generally chatting about her experience as an author and the paranormal genre.

Fun stuff, so I hope you'll check out the goodness an maybe and join in the conversation with a comment. Merrie and I would love to have you on board! :)

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Halloween Giveaway

In the meantime, just a reminder re our all-out Supernatural Underground Halloween giveaway of 24 books by Harper Collins authors affiliated with the blog – if you haven't already signed up for this then it's not too late: just click here to join in via the rafflecopter. 

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YA Giveaway

If you like giveaways and YA, I'm running a giveaway for three great YA novels on my blog this week: Rae Carsons Fire and Thorns, Kristen Cashore's Bitterblue, and Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper: Mastiff.

I run giveaways like these from time to time when a few good books come my way and all you have to do is post a comment to enter – just click here.

(PS It's international.)

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Otherwise, see you all again on the 1st for my interview with Merrie Destefano! :)

Happy Halloween!

(who vows to help Sophie break into Blogger before her post next month)

*** Contest is over and the winner is: Jolene Alcock and Family ***

Oooh, Scary

How many of you are like me right now? Full of excitement and awe during this time of year? I don’t think there is any better time to be an avid paranormal writer/reader/film goer!

This is the time of year when it’s expected to let ourselves wander strange and creepy paths. Not only can we dress up as our favorite paranormal creature (cough … dragon), we can put tombstones in our yards, get our fill of creepy movies, listen to spooky music on the radio, and wear t-shirts with skulls on the front and not get a funny look! Right now I have two ghosts hanging from trees in front of my house, casting eerie shadows through the stained glass of my front door. LOVE!

I can promise the weekend will not pass without at least three horror movies. As far as reading goes, several books wait on my bedside table to satisfy my Halloween spirit. Vampire novels mostly, maybe even a zombie book or two.

The Prize

So what about you? What are your Halloween plans? And what do you think is the best paranormal creature to dress up as? I’m still all for the dragon. Just plop on a red wig, a pair of wings, play with your make-up and wamo! You have Jacinda!

In the spirit of Halloween, here’s a TREAT:

One commenter will win a signed copy of my paranormal YA debut, FIRELIGHT. Be sure to check back and see if you’ve won.

Again, Happy Halloween!
All best,
Sophie Jordan

Bringing Sexy Back

All right, ladies, let's keep this short and sweet, shall we?

(Gentlemen, pull up a chair and add your assent, won't you? I think the ladies will appreciate it.)

I have, on and off for the past ten years or so, worked at a Halloween store. Not this year, but I do go in now and again to lend a hand and the mancandy likes to dress up at any given opportunity and go hang out to drive sales. So! I have experience, y'all. I know what I'm talking about. For this brief moment in time, I am The Expert.

And the Expert is telling you ladies to quit waiting for Halloween to bring the sexy on.

Are you listening?

Here's how this goes: Every year, I saw beautiful women—and I'm talking, like, normal, everyday women who just so happen to be beautiful because they're like you—come rushing into the store and ogle the sexy costumes. And every year, I'd watch the Leg Avenue costumes fly off the shelves.

Okay, I know some of them are totally skankalicious, but there are some gorgeous Leg Avenues out there. Their pirate collection is especially lovely.

But I always think: Halloween. Ghoulish, ghostie delights. It's the one time a year you can dress up really scary and weird and fantastical (unless you're a con professional or, you know, actually a zombie). It's the day and night when no one will think twice if you're covered in blood, growling around and threatening to eviscerate children (Trust me, I know...)

So why do all these ladies keep going for the sexy time costumes?

Look. I'm not trying to tell you how to do your business, but I have a proposition for you. Are you listening? Here, have some tea. Okay, here's the deal:

There are 364 other days (probably not including the days you attend Church or something, so use your own judgment here) when you can dress as sexy as you like. It might not be as in-your-face as a Leg Avenue costume, but there is a sexy that is not just encouraged in public, but just drop-dead-gorgeous. There are 364 days to be confident, gorgeous, show a little leg or flash a red-lipped smile. To let your hair down. To wear a skirt and a wedge heel or a pair of jeans and a sweater that hugs just so, and make every eye in the room turn to you with a silent, Wow.

But only one when you cover yourself in blood and stagger through the streets.

At least without psychiatric evaluation to follow.

So come on, ladies. Join me in this: I think we should bring sexy back, every day. Or at least every day we bother to leave the house. It takes work to look as good as we do, after all—we should get the occasional day off. (Says the oh, so glamorous author sitting in her robe and slippers...)

And on Halloween, we should go all out: blood, gore, fangs, flesh, whatever. And you know what? If you want to be sexy on Halloween too, I'm all for it. Let's just add a little supernatural flair—fangs, bloody aprons, meat cleavers. The Black Widow who temps her loves and devours them in her web, I can get behind that.

But let's embrace the spirit of Halloween, which isn't to dress up in a way you could every day (sexy, ladies, you know it), but as someone or something you're not.

And every lady is sexy. You just have to tap into it, is all.

So who's with me? Who wants to being sexy back?

A Life in Lyrics

Hello! The Heather half of Sable Grace here. Happy October!

Ok, so I have a confession to make. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not ashamed, either. I have ABBA on my Zune. That's right. You read correctly. ABBA. Why would someone in her early thirties have the Swedish (they are Swedish, aren't they?) gods and goddesses on her play list? Simple. For everything I do, I seem to have a soundtrack to accompany it. Growing up, the rare occasions when I cracked open my ever-locked bedroom door to venture into the rest of the house, ABBA was inevitably playing while the scents of Lysol and floor wax clogged my pores. I'd groan and moan, eager to get back to the Bangles or Bon Jovi that was blaring in my bedroom, but secretly, I hummed along to Mama Mia. Dancing Queen and such were my mother's soundtrack for house cleaning, and since, has become mine. There's something about listening to Fernando that makes dusting feel less like work and more like an excuse to shake what God gave me while singing slightly off tune.

Cleaning aside, I have a play list for just about everything. Jason Mraz for joy riding in my husband's Jeep. Girl power boppers like Lily Allen and Avril Lavigne for waxing my eyebrows or dying my hair. Cooking dinner? Gavin DeGraw or Gavin Rossdale. Then there's writing. A little Breaking Benjamin for the Sable Grace Dark Breed series. Movie scores for my historical romances. And the best song for writing love scenes? Damn, by Leann Rimes. I don't care if you don't like country music. It's the sexiest "romance book" song I've found to date.

But this time of year brings up one particular soundtrack. The kind that, every time you hear it, you get a shiver and the need to check under the bed before slipping under the covers. For me, a horror movie fanatic, that soundtrack is the theme score to the movie Halloween. Just those first few notes make the hairs on the back of my neck raise and perhaps even need to pee a little. I won't confirm that last bit. My pride forbids it. My husband has a similar reaction (maybe not the pee thing) to the Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams, which I play as often as possible in hopes of one day hearing him squeal like a girl. Hasn't happened yet, but I keep trying. I think a childhood incident is responsible for his hatred for that song, but in my opinion, my fear of Halloween is a bit more understandable, right? RIGHT??

I can't be the only one whose day-to-day living is accompanied by task-specific music. Please tell me I'm not a freak. Although, even if I am, I'm okay with that. I'm sure I have a play list somewhere that will cheer me up.

If there's a song that evokes a specific emotion in you, what is it? I'm dying to know!