Samantha Bryant's Blog, page 43

#11 of 31 Days of Halloween: My Family's Haunted Trail

My family--the larger, more extended one, especially my mother's side--doesn't do much for holidays. We get together. We eat. If there are gifts to be exchanged, we do so, money allowing.

But Halloween is an exception. Starting when I was in high school or maybe early college, we started having a Haunted Trail each year in the woods my grandfather bought back in the day. How elaborate it is depends on the time and energy my uncles and cousins have one any given year, but it's always worth seeing. I have some very creative family and friends of family.

I enjoy professional haunted houses and trails, too, but the one my family does is special, of course. Some highlights of past Haunted Trails:


Hell: There's generally a table where someone is playing poker in hell. Who it is varies according to what's going on in the world at the time. I still remember the Saddam Hussein one. Elvis is a frequent guest, too, probably more because we're fond of Elvis than that we think he belongs in HellGilly Monster: one year, one of my uncles made a gilly monster costume by sewing leaves and forest debris onto a poncho. He laid on the ground with this camouflage pulled over him and was invisible until he moved and grabbed my ankle. I'm not sure my heart ever came back down out of my throat. Scarecrow Forest: I have one famously skinny uncle, Traditionally, he's hidden among a line of stuffed scarecrows. No matter how hard I try, I can never figure out which one he is until he moves. Yikes!Bright Side: One year, "crucifixes" were built along one ridge, with little ledges to stand on. This came about because of a family-wide love of Monty Python, and was the site of a famous singalong. Zombie Pit: a trench covered with wood slats to look like graves. Costumed friends or family pop up creepy hands or sometimes even fully costumed zombies rise up. Always very spooky!It's not every year anymore. But it's always worth it to me to make trip back home and get my pants scared off with friends and family. 

#10 of 31 Days of Halloween: Pumpkins

I'm not quite so Basic a white girl as to be a connoisseur of all things pumpkin. My favorite latte of the moment is gingerbread, thank you very much. And I don't even like pumpkin pie, though I do like pumpkin bread from my local co-op.

But you know what I do love?

Actual pumpkins.

Jack-o-lanterns are fun, but I'm not that dextrous with a knife, so mostly I admire the handiwork of others in that regard. But I love pumpkins themselves.

I'm especially loving lately all the varieties I can buy. There are traditional orange ones in a variety of sizes (including adorable mini pumpkins, that are probably actually not pumpkins, but a squash of some kind), but there are also ghost white ones, gray ones, and wide flattish ones they're calling "fairy tale" pumpkins, presumably in homage to the one the fairy godmother transformed into a coach for Cinderella.

Pumpkins are the only produce I buy that I have no plans to make anything out of of. I buy them because they please me aesthetically. They feel so nice and solid in my hands. The perch there like mushrooms (which I also love unreasonably much). They smell of fall.

I had big plans this year to plant a pumpkin patch of my own, but didn't get off my butt in time (June is when I get lazy, right after school is out; and it's also when you're supposed to plant pumpkins if you want them in October). Maybe next year will be my year for my very own very sincere pumpkin patch.

#9 of 31 Days of Halloween: Pop-Up Halloween Stores

I hit my first pop-up Halloween store before it was even October this year. One took over the old Babies-R-Us near my daughter's orthodontist office and when we spotted it, we shared a gasp of delight. It almost made up for having her braces adjusted.

Mostly, I hate shopping. But shopping in a Halloween store is a totally different thing. Even when I can't buy anything, I get such delight from looking at the wares and imagining the possibilities.

The one near us is especially nice, selling both the cheapy costumes that are just a kind of plastic you tie on and things that are nicer, more like real clothing.

I bought my girl a Sally dress AND a Wednesday Addams dress because they were too too perfect.

We spent a long time in the props section, examining fake weapons and odd accoutrements and imagining who we might become if we were to put them on.

They'd even put together a little haunted house area out of their animatronic and motion-sensing wares. We took turns cuing them to growl and spin and glow at us and laughed in delight when they were able to startle us.

Yeah, I could spend my whole paycheck in a wonderland like that. Maybe it's a good thing they're only around a few weeks a year.

#8 of 31 Days of Halloween: Decor

You know how some people love to go shopping right after Christmas or on Black Friday, scoring great deals? Yeah. I'm not one of those people. In fact, I hate shopping.

Except for Halloween.

The day after Halloween I'm heading in to all the big box stores, looking for my deals on Halloween themed decor. That's how I got my cool tablecloth that has spooky words all over it like "Nevermore" and "Poison," how I acquired my Bride of Frankenstein serving platter and dessert plates, my sugar skull drinking glasses, and my glowing eyeball lights.

If I had the budget and time, you can bet my yard would look like something out of the Addam's Family intermixed with every other spooky thing I love.

This year, I'm coveting the motion sensitive animatronic figures from my local Halloween pop up store. I can't quite convince myself that it's okay to spend upwards of $100 on this kind of thing, but when it goes on sale afterwards? I'm there!

#7 of 31 Days of Halloween: Excitement

There are a few times of year where excitement vibrates in the air, maybe especially the air around children. A kinetic joy bubbles up and it's all we can do to move forward in the ordinary things we have to accomplish before our anticipation pays off and boom! It's Halloween.

The second October began, that half-crazy energy settled on the middle school where I teach. As the month goes on, it will build. Kids will make plans for costumes, parties, and pranks. They'll tell each other scary stories and wax poetic about the good old days when they weren't "too old" to Trick or Treat (some of them will still Trick or Treat this year, "too old" or not).

Sometimes adults catch it a little, at least some of us. The playfulness of it all is contagious. The "let's pretend" license that comes with a time of year where even adults often dress up as something scary, shiny, or just really different than whatever they usually are. 

The giddy energy exceeds even Christmas in some ways. Maybe it's because it's more of an everyone holiday (less tied to religious traditions), and celebrating is less reliant on how much money is in your bank account than the more avaricious commercial side of that December festival.

It's there in the air. Have you caught it yet?

#6 of 31 Days of Halloween: ghost stories

I've loved ghost stories most of my life. I like the scary ones, the comforting ones, the silly ones. One of the first times I scared myself silly with a book, it was a short story about a ghost child who wanted a friend so badly they nearly killed another child to make her a ghost, too.


I like the non-professional ones, too--the ones people tell when you're sitting together in the right setting and something inspires such confidences. When someone you know and respect as a rational being admits that they've seen something they can't explain that left them feeling unsettled…well that's the best kind of chills!

A few of my favorites (from books and stories):

Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp was given to me by my middle and high school librarian. It might be responsible for my loves of evil children and gazing balls.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I'm pretty sure that same librarian gave me this one, or maybe something else by Shirley Jackson. The quintessential haunted house story, a book that set the tone for all the future ones.

Beloved by Toni Morrison. Written from events that haunt a person even if nothing supernatural is involved. I cried more than once reading this one.

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill. I read this one pretty recently and it made me a fan of Joe Hill's work. I loved the ghost and the vengeance plot as well as the living characters.

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe. This is one of those stories where you're not sure if there's a ghost or not. The narrator could also be misinterpreting events, or seeing through an unreliable lens. Sometimes I like this kind of story better than the ones with real for-sure ghosts.

Got a favorite ghost story I should check out? LMK in the comments.

#5 of 31 Days of Halloween: Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins

Reese's peanut butter pumpkins.

I love Reese's cups. Definitely too much. I love the traditional ones. I love the Reese's minis with that thicker edge of chocolate. The Big Cup that's practically a meal replacement. Those little ones in red and green wrappers you get in December. Reese's Puffs cereal.

Even the ones that aren't that great like Fast Break and white chocolate cups are still pretty good.



But the peanut butter pumpkins are the bestest of all.

My perfect proportions of chocolate vs. peanut butter.

The right size to give me a nice sugar zoom without a horrible crash thirty minutes later.

Smooth edges instead of the traditional hard-straight edges.

Plus, they're a sure sign that Halloween is almost here.

You got a favorite Halloween treat? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

#4 of 31 Days of Halloween: Classic Monster Movies

Classic monster movies.

I love to revisit old monster movies during this time of year. From the serious ones like Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Boris Karloff's Frankenstein to the campy ones with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. From the purposely comedic ones like Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy to the "little bit of both" ones like The Creature From the Black Lagoon.



My mom and I have always enjoyed old movies together and my dad and I like cult classics or just outright bad movies, and Halloween gives me the opportunity to enjoy all of that together in one bowl.

A local theater, The Carolina Theatre, has a long running retro film series and October is the best! Jam-packed with the full range of Halloween goodness. We also own a lot of these at home, so it's pretty easy to set myself up with a Halloween movie festival without even leaving my house.

I love more modern films, too, and I'll talk about them in another post, but there's something about the classic ones. Black and white is atmospheric in a completely different way and the storytelling style was more direct. Simple isn't always an insult. My love for these films is less complicated than the love I harbor for other movies.

Do you have any must-watch Halloween classics in your library? Got a favorite classic movie monster? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

#IWSG: Life and Writing

Welcome to October! It's the first Wednesday of the month which means it's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life. 
The October question - How do major life events affect your writing? Has writing ever helped you through something?
After you check out my post, be sure to check out the rest of the hop! Especially our co-hosts:  Dolorah @ Book Lover, Christopher D. Votey, Tanya Miranda, andChemist Ken!
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In my author bio, a line I often include is: "I write because it's cheaper than therapy."

I'm not really joking. Writing has been my main coping mechanism since I could write. Maybe even before that. I still kept a journal before I could write, it was just full of drawings. When I was mad at my mom as a child, she would find a long letter shoved under her door expressing all the way in which I'd been wronged.

Later some of this came out in poetry. My adolescent work is all pretty directly about the drama and pain of my teenaged life, though I was starting to make some attempt to write about it more universally.

As an adult, I still journal from time to time (especially during times of stress), but now that writing is separate from my fiction. That's probably good, because I'm fortunate enough to lead a pretty boring life: stable, full of love, and light on serious trauma. It makes a good life, but it would make a boring book.

Not that my issues don't come out in my fiction.

It's just less direct now. Sometimes I don't even know it until it's all written and I'm reading it afterwards.

Anyone reading my Menopausal Superhero series will see that I have a profound mistrust of the medical establishment, for example. I'll recognize relationship dynamics from my real life among my characters, showing me that I must have been working through my feelings through my art again. 

The subconscious is always processing things behind the scenes, and often the results are delivered to me in story form.

I'm grateful to have found an outlet that works for me and isn't dependent on my financial state or access to outside resources. I hold out hope that it will always be enough to keep me feeling balanced. 

#3 of 31 Days of Halloween: Costumes!

Costumes.

One of the great joys of Halloween is the opportunity to dress up, to be someone else for a few hours. I used to be that kid who decided what they were going to be for Halloween like the day after the previous Halloween.


A costume collection of Bryants and friendsI had elaborate plans. When possible, roping others into my vision, like the time I was Cleopatra and my friend Chris was a mummy. Or the year (much more recently) when my sister, brother-in-law, me, and my husband all did characters from True Blood. I got to be Sookie :-).

Now that I'm a writer and attend conventions regularly to promote my work and network with other writers, I get to enjoy costuming all year round from cosplayers.

But Halloween is special. It's when *everyone* does it (well, almost everyone).

What was your favorite costume experience? Do you dress up as an adult?