Another Halloween comes and goes and it was a wonderfully creepy time!



Well, Halloween is over and with it the gruesome festivities have ended. There was decorating...



Wee Willie Wicked's brother Jack B. Wicked, a jester, made a couple of appearances and it was all well and good and great fun.



But, it was Willie who took second place in a local costume contest.



And, I submitted a tale to the Annual Daytona Beach News Journal Scary Story contest. It didn't win, nor did it even receive an honorable mention. And, to be frank, their choices weren't even scary at all. I suppose that's to be expected with a family oriented publication. Regardless, below is my entry...

Carving the Pumpkin

The carved face silently spoke to Johnny’s fractured eight-year-old mind, no longer distraught with fear and helplessness.

Good job pal.

***

With his mother remarried, Johnny was expected to embrace his new father as he had his real father and initially he tried. He also tried to tell her the horrible things that went on while she was gone too. She never believed, thinking the bruises always came from somewhere other than violence.

When she walked in with the large pumpkin as she always had this time of year, Johnny had already settled on a design, a design that was not too scary and not too happy.

With the pumpkin wiped down, centered on the table and awaiting, Johnny decided a larger knife would be in order this year and fetched the biggest one from the wooden holder by the sink.

“Be careful,” his mother’s concerned voice implied as she headed off to work. Soon after, the pumpkin lay smashed on the floor, the work of a bitter drunk during the angry throes of not having the whiskey bottle delivered fast enough.

Standing over the innards oozing cracked fruit, looking from blackening eyes filled with tears of rage, Johnny listened intently for snoring.

***

The carving complete, a content smile broke across Johnny’s face as he carried it to the front porch stoop, leaving streaks of red on the white door. Placing it proudly facing outward, he turned and went back inside to dispose of the body.

End



So, now that I've wasted time on gory and chilling activities, it's time to get back on the chopping block and hack away.

1) A couple of film reviews for Horror News Net (special thanks to Mike for allowing me the time to partake in Halloween events).

2) Submit a tale called All For Love (a bit of a misnomer that deals with love in a rather gruesome way).

3) Blogging (which you are reading now).

4) Finish a chilling Christmas tale called Snowball, a tale that deals with the materialism of the holiday season.

5) Dive back into my novel A Lawnly Existence. Currently I am on chapter 23 and suspect it to complete with chapter 25 or 26. Of course this remains to be seen though.

6) And, I'm also considering putting all my tales into a book collection, but that's open for more discussion.

What am I reading?



* October 2012 of Suspense Magazine (By the way, I'm expecting my tale The Sidewalk Ends to be included in a future issue)



* Issue 67 of Cemetery Dance



* The Association by Bentley Little



And so, in case you haven't noticed, the stores are invading full fledged with tinsel and lights and gifts...and while most folks view it full of joy (and for the largest part, I do too), there always seems to be some sort of demented and wicked side within my viewpoint and therefore, this is going to be a horrific holiday season! Maybe Santa will bring me something creepy and crawly.