Home » Posts tagged "Halloween"

Book Review: Shallow Waters: A Flash Fiction Anthology: Special Halloween Edition edited by Joe Mynhardt

cover art for Shallow Waters: A Flash Fiction Anthology: Special Halloween Edition

Shallow Waters: A Flash Fiction Anthology; Special Halloween Edition Book 9 of 10) edited by Joe Mynhardt

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2022

ASIN:: B0BGYXGH4D

Available: Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

Shallow Waters, a monthly flash fiction contest hosted by Crystal Lake Publishing, collects stories with different themes each month. This volume presents 18 pieces of flash fiction centered around Halloween. While I enjoyed all of the stories in this anthology, there are a some that stuck with me long after I finished the book.

 

William Meikle is one of my favorite genre writers, and his “Tumshie” is my top pick in in this book. A drunkard of an abusive father refuses to let his son have a Halloween pumpkin, rather insisting on a tumshie, a carved turnip. When John discovers the secret of the tumshie, he embraces his new tradition.

 

I enjoy stories that aren’t told in a typical format. Letters, newspaper articles, and diaries lend stories a more intimate feel. “West Pennfield Township Newsletter, October 2021” by Tom Coombe presents a, well, newsletter to the township regarding “simple rules” that the townspeople need to follow lest The Judges be awakened. Another story told in a unique format is Francesca Maria’s “How to Create the Perfect Pumpkin.” Carving a fresh pumpkin can be so exciting, but there is something about this list of instructions that doesn’t seem right.

 

In “I Want Candy” by Larry Hinkle, Erik’s addiction to candy leads him to do the unthinkable when his wife and child come home from a successful night of trick-or-treating.

 

Rick Whatley’s “Let the Darkness In” comes from the perspective of two parties. Four Class of 2022 high school seniors set out to kill a witch. Behind closed doors and still in mourning, Edith doesn’t know what is coming.

 

In “The Pumpkin Fetch” by Tom Deady, the Halloween traditional of a pumpkin thieving contest ends in a different kind of harvest.

 

The chaos of a Halloween party where parents and children are in attendance results in an urban legend becoming a reality in “One Parent Survives” by Wil Dalton.

 

I have only read a few flash fiction collections, and I am impressed with how some authors can evoke fear in a reader with few words. Because of the impact this anthology had on me, I will be reading other volumes in Shallow Waters. Recommended

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on December 18, 2022 by , Reply

Haunted Travels: Salem, Massachussetts

photo of The House of Seven Gables, in Salem, Massachusetts,c. 1915, courtesy of the Detroit Publishing Co.

The House of Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts, c. 1915, courtesy of the Detroit Publishing Co. Available through the Library of Congress.

 

Most people who think of Salem, Massachusetts think of the infamous Salem Witch Trials (there’s a museum there, dedicated to the trials) and the city and its residents have definitely capitalized on that. There are additional museums, memorials, and tours of the area, including ghost walks, walking tours, food tours, and harbor cruises devoted to the topic. October includes two major festivals. Salem Haunted Happenings  is a celebration of Halloween that lasts the entire month, and Festival of the Dead focuses on spirits and the “mysteries of death”, witha Salem Witches’ Halloween Ball on October 30. Whether you’re visiting for a more secular celebration or something witchier, Salem has it for you, especially in October.

Salem is also the hometown of Nathaniel Hawthorne, best known for that required reading we all had to do in high school, The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne also wrote The House of Seven Gables, named for a real place, the House of Seven Gables (which actually does not have seven gables, but does have some unique architectural features, according to Duncan Ralston, the author of Ghostland). It has also been a settlement house for immigrants and is now a historic site and community resource. The historic site does have tours, and it’s suggested you book in advance. A look at the website shows that it is not nearly as creepy-looking as you’d expect from a hundreds-year-old haunted house.

There are a couple of ghost tours that visit the house, the Requiem for Salem Walking Ghost Tour , and The Ghosts of Salem Walking Tour.

If you want to see more than the spooky side to Salem, it’s been around long enough that many other historical people and places are associated with it, but October is the time for haunted travels there.

For some books you can take along on your trip, check out this book list.

Posted on October 2, 2021 by , Reply

Haunted Travels: North Bennington, Vermont: Shirley Jackson’s Hometown

Photo of Jennings Hall at Bennington College

Photo of Jennings Hall at Bennington College in North Bennington, Vermont, courtesy of J.W. Ockler.

America is a haunted country, and as we count down the days till Halloween, Monster Librarian plans to share some destinations for travelers looking to travel someplace special for the Halloween season.

North Bennington, Vermont might seem like a peaceful village, but it’s also where author Shirley Jackson, best known for her novel The Haunting of Hill House and her short story “The Lottery”, lived for most of her married life.  Jackson’s husband, Stanley Hyman, was a professor at Bennington College, and it is speculated that the inspiration for Hill House is the Jennings Music Building on the Bennington College campus. In her book Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life biographer Ruth Franklin suggests that the Everett Mansion near Old Bennington is a better candidate, but two creepy, potentially haunted buildings in the same area means she could have been inspired by both.  This article from Vermont news station NBC5 has some great photos of Jennings Music Building matched to quotes from The Haunting of Hill House, in case your only option for travel is via armchair.

There’s also a story that Jackson based the town square, where a truly monstrous community ritual occurs, in “The Lottery” on Lincoln Square in North Bennington. According to her, while walking through the square on her way home from the post office, she had the idea for the story and immediately wrote it down.  The Fund for North Bennington quotes Jackson’s writing to the San Francisco Chronicle about the story. Jackson writes:

Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story’s readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.

J.W. Ockler has written a little about both locations here.

Jonah Daniell has written up a walking tour of Jackson-related locations for Literary Bennington: in addition to visiting Jennings Hall and Lincoln Square, Jackson and her family lived in a house at 12 Prospect Street at first and later bought a house at 66 Main Street. Both of these are now private residences. Powers Market, where Jackson did her shopping, is still there, and if you visit the library, you can see a cat statue she used to own.  For such a noted writer, the town where she lived and wrote hasn’t done much to recognize her, although recently the local literary festival was renamed for her and the date moved to June 27, the date of the events in “The Lottery.” If you’re a Jackson fan and in or near Vermont, put North Bennington, Vermont on your bucket list.

 

Posted on October 1, 2021 by , Reply
12345 » Last