The Editor Known as Mr. Deathrealm. Author of BLUE DEVIL ISLAND, THE NIGHTMARE FRONTIER, THE LEBO COVEN, DARK SHADOWS: DREAMS OF THE DARK (with Elizabeth Massie), BALAK, YOUNG BLOOD (with Mat & Myron Smith), et. al. Feed at your own risk.
For the cover art, I picked up a royalty-free
photo of a Messerschmidt Bf109, took a photo of one of my Rodan monster figures, and did a little
Photoshopping.
This is the third Halloween in Martinsville for Brugger and me since we moved
into my old homeplace in 2023. The past couple of years, we had a fair number
of trick-or-treaters, but last night topped them all. When I was a young'un,
just about every household in this neighborhood had kids, so Halloween was
quite an affair. Nowadays, there aren't so many kids, but folks from all over
town head into the nearby, affluent Mulberry/Forest Park neighborhoods, and
many of them pass our place along their journeys. Last night, Brugger and I
decided to entice trick-or-treaters by setting up chairs down by the street
and lighting up the fire pit.
It worked. We started the fire just before sundown, and within minutes, the
kids started arriving. During the breaks between arrivals, we cooked
chicken/jalapeno sausages over the fire for our supper, which were pretty
danged good, along with delicious adult beverages to accompany—and of course,
Halloween candy for dessert.
As a kid, I loved dressing up and trick-or-treating for Halloween; and as an
adult, I probably love Halloween even more, especially when we make the night
something an event. I find giving out treats to be intensely satisfying, and
I'm happy to say that the kids were generally very polite and gracious. Almost
all of them wore cool costumes, several of which were quite elaborate.
I think the coolest thing we experienced during the evening was when it was
getting pretty late, and the trick-or-treaters were all done. We heard, far in
the distance through the woods, the faint chiming of a bell, numerous screams,
and what sounded like a werewolf howling. It came from well beyond any of the
nearby houses, so...talk about neat and a little creepy. Tis here (you need to
turn the sound up to hear the noises):
Over the past couple of weeks, I'd become a little concerned that Halloween
wasn't going to be as big a deal this year because fewer houses in the area
appeared to have been decorated. Happily, that wasn't the case. Best of all,
we have quite a bit of candy left over—and it's the good stuff!
For afters, we settled in and watched Bram Stoker's Dracula, which isn't necessarily our favorite Dracula filum, but we kind of felt in
the mood. And so we enjoyed it.
