It’s not actually Halloween yet, but it is what we Northeasterners call Cabbage Night, or Mischief Night. This is the night you hide your jack o’lanterns in the house so that  teenage pranksters don’t smash them on the street.

Once, when I was 3 years old, my parents failed to do this. Both of their pumpkins as well as my older brother’s were smashed when we got home from the Halloween Parade–but mine was intact! Thirty years later I still think about that and wonder why. Did the kid see how pathetic the little carved face was and feel sorry for me? Did he know it was the jack o’lantern of a tiny little girl and take pity? This is a small mystery I will never know the answer to…

I love autumn and Halloween, especially in New England. It feels and looks and smells different than any other time of the year. It seems indescribable, but some of my all time favorite authors, including Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving, perfectly capture the feeling of the season in their works. I have been (re)reading their short stories this month and it has been inspiring me to write a fall/spooky story of my own!

I don’t know if I can do it. While dialogue and character development are my strengths, penning colorful descriptions and interesting narrative is something I suck at. I feel like those are KEY elements to writing a proper spooky story, so failure is a distinct possibility.

Still, I might give it a shot one day. Who knows! Might be fun. Might be torture. We’ll see.

It’s too late for this year, however, because if you’re anything like me, the day after tomorrow means CHRISTMAS BONANZA! No, I don’t “skip” Thanksgiving. Since the real “First” Thanksgiving story is a load of bull, I like to think of Thanksgiving as the opening act for Christmas. The Christmas Kickoff Event, per se. Once Santa Claus flies that sleigh down 42nd Street, it’s the official start of the holiday season in my house… and that happens fairly early in the morning on Thanksgiving so…. Case in point.

Will there be a Christmas story in my future? Probably not. Christmas romance plots might be beyond me, at least in this point in my life. I do have an adorable Christmas scene in Lucid Dreaming, so that will have to do for now…

Happy Halloween and Merry Start of the Christmas Season, everyone! I leave you with a beloved Halloween poem from my childhood by Jack Prelutsky:

It’s Halloween

It’s Halloween! It’s Halloween!
The moon is full and bright
And we shall see what can’t be seen
On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,
Grinning goblins fighting duels,
Werewolves rising from their tombs,
Witches on their magic brooms.

In masks and gowns
We haunt the street
And knock on doors
For trick or treat.

Tonight we are
The king and queen,
For oh tonight
It’s Halloween!