Happy Halloween!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! Halloween is my favorite holiday. True, getting candy is nice, but I love dressing up in costumes and seeing everyone else's costume. I love scary movies, books, and music. It's a fun, mystical, mysterious time, and I look forward to it each year. True, this Halloween I have no plans (except perhaps to still try to finish writing my post-apocalyptic story "They"), but I'm still excited for the season. I even wore my Halloween shirt, socks, and devil horns when we went grocery shopping and up to Mill Mountain Star for my research on Saturday.

Costumes
I love costumes. My profile picture I use on this blog is actually me at Halloween last year. I went as a dead flapper/1920s girl. Yes, there is something sad to think that my best picture was one of me dressed up. I love getting dressed up in costumes, and I particularly love masks. There is something powerful about wearing them. I think that is why I enjoyed theatre so much. The becoming someone else to be more yourself thrilled me. Yes, I understand the paradox of it, but it's how I felt when acting or dressing in costume. I enjoy wearing costumes more as an adult than as a child because I have money to buy nice costumes, if I want, instead of cheap ones.

Horror Books
I love horror books. Stephen King is the KING. I tell you. He's awesome. I believe the scariest book I've ever read was his novella, The Mist. Bentley Little's The Return was particularly scary as well, and I thoroughly enjoyed The Hollows by Ben Larken. The Hollows is up for an EPPIE award for best horror novel, and he won previously with his horror novel Pit-Stop. He has a new novel coming out today called Pillar's Fall. I can't wait to buy and read it and Pit-Stop. Click here to find out more about these Ben Larken books. And, if you like a sort-of urban legend horror, you should check out my ebook Once Upon a December Nightmare. You can find it on Amazon.com, OmniLit, BookStrand, and Wild Child Publishing. Yes, I had to plug my own horror book. *winks* Also, for horror anthologies, check out Pill Hill Press's collection. They have some great horror stuff there. And, if you want to go with scary bugs, read Nate Kenyon's Sparrow Rock. I didn't like bugs beforehand, but now I'm really creeped out by them!

Horror Music
I love scary music, and horror movies have the best horror music. The scariest theme song is the one from the Poltergeist. Nothing is scarier than creepy children singing. Seriously. I love the Halloween theme song. It's my ring tone, and nothing beats the X-Files theme music. Of classical music, my favorite is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. If you want scary music, you must have it in a minor key. Add creepy children, and it's SCARY! 

Horror Movies
And, of course, you can't think of Halloween without horror movies. I've always loved horror movies. My favorite is the Halloween series (pre-Rob Zombie versions, sorry, just don't care for the stupid reasoning why Michael Myers is Michael Myers). I just love watching them. I even own most of them. I'm still trying to figure out how Halloween 3: Season of the Witch fits in with them, even though they say it doesn't. I like to think they are connected. With Halloween movies, you can have zombies, vampires, werewolves, witches, demons, and anything else you can think of. Now, although I love the Halloween movies, I don't find them particularly scary. The scariest movie I've ever seen would be Signs by M. Night Shyamalan. The reason I found it scary was because it made a lot of sense. Seriously. I keep a glass of water by my bedside because of it. And, in general, I don't mind gory movies, but I don't find gore scary. Want to scare me, give me some psychological horror and make it seem very real. And, for some fun, child friendly movies, I recommend Ghostbusters. I love Ghostbusters. Hmm...should I watch Ghostbusters or Halloween tonight?

So, I do wish everyone a spooky yet safe Halloween!