Happy Hour at The Monster Club- mstrust's #5 (Autumn & Halloween)

It's my 7th annual Autumn and Halloween party!

Liar! I think I've done a pretty good job of stacking pumpkins and draping cobwebs around here.

I'm Jennifer, aka Scary Godmother, aka The Creepy One Who Eats the Fun-Sized Candy.
So. Another horrible year, huh? Yeah, I thought so. But to quote Doug Heffernen when his dinner was sprayed with pine cleaner, "You can't stop me." Autumn and Halloween will live here from now until November 1st.


Yes, we are! We'll have decorations, food and cocktails, movies, music and lots of seasonal books. Like last year, I'm going to keep the violence to a minimum. For September, we'll get sticky with maple syrup rather than gore, but things will get a little creepier as we get closer to Halloween. Still, I'm not going to scare the beejeezus out of you until you're walking out the door. I may cause the trauma but I ain't payin' for it, is what I always say.
Now, you may be asking yourself how you can help keep this house haunted. Glad you asked.

1. Join this month's ScaredyKit. The theme this month is "The Dead, Their Habits and Abodes", I'm hosting, and it's happening right now. Grab that non-fiction about Egyptian mummies or the horror story about graveyards and join in.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/334441#unread

2. Take part in my annual Halloween Card Exchange. It's fun, it's simple, and I won't do something horrible like sticking a spider in your card to surprise you. Probably. PM your address to me by October 1st if you want to join in.

3. Watch a seasonal movie or show and tell us about it. Doesn't have to be scary, just seasonal. I watch all the Halloween food competitions and love 'em.

4. Read a seasonal book and tell us about it. Just read something great and Halloweenie? Let us know. No need to include the book cover, the tombstones will allow everyone to check it out. And you can use my patented Scare Scale(TM) , which is known the world over for its accuracy in weighing the terror a book contains. This year's scale is a (decapitated head) nod to the final season of The Walking Dead.

The Scare Scale:
1 Walker: Not scary but maybe not intended to scare. Like a lone walker, this is easy to handle. Unless you're a Eugene.
2 Walkers: Has some tense moments. You can deal with two walkers if you're strong enough. Michonne could do it blindfolded.
3 Walkers: Pretty scary. Not everyone can survive. Three walkers is the Merle of books.
4 Walkers: That's just crazy. We're gonna call you Darryl. Read a 4 Walker book and I'll wipe the cobwebs off something and give it as a prize. It might still be haunted though.


Light a jack o' lantern. Ghosts are welcome, politics are not. I'll keep the candy bowls filled. Welcome to Autumn!

Autumn Reads

79. Mortuary Confidential- 3 stars
80. Let's Get Invisible- 4 stars
81. Death and Sweets- 3.5 stars
82. Tales From the Crypt #1 The Stalking Dead- 3.5 stars
83. Witching Hour Theatre- 4 stars
84. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?- 3.5 stars
85. Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer- 4 stars
86. Halloween Night- 2.5 stars
87. Fat Vampire- 4.5 stars
88. Fire in the Grove- 4 stars
89. Sugared Demise- 3.5 stars
90. Halloween Fiend- 5 stars
91. Son of Slappy- 3 stars
92. The Midnight Exhibit Vol. 1- 3.5 stars
93. Untimely and Tragic Deaths-3 stars
94. Alfred Hitchcock's Death Bag- 3 stars
95. Zombie Tales 4: This Bites- 2.5 stars
96. The Final Girls Support Group- 4 stars
97. Hoodoo- 3.5 stars

The candles are lit, the cocktails are ready. Welcome!

And here's the first ice breaker: name something you're looking forward to this season. Could be a certain event, being able to bake, or Halloween itself.

Happy new thread, Jennifer!

Still no fan of Halloween, despite all your efforts ;-)
Looking forward to cool autumn weather, and our vacation in October!

Thanks, Anita, and I'm waiting for cooler weather too. My mom and sister will be coming out in October to go to our state fair, which is an Autumn highlight for me.

79. Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt by Todd Harra and Kenneth McKenzie. True death industry stories collected by the authors, who are both funeral directors. Topics range from the humorous, such as one guy who got locked out of his hearse, and then the hospital, when he went to pick up a body one night. Others stories are contemplative, such as the sadness of having to deal with the body of a loved one, and other stories are in the "crazy" category, like the huge family brawl during the funeral.
3 stars
S.S.: 1 Walker

Happy new ghoulish thread !
I'm looking forward to brisk walks, leaves crunching, bonfires with friends, wine and smores. Sounds like Hallmark. ;0)

Oh my God I'm in! Bring the gore! Bring the funk! Bring the funky gore! I absolutely LOVE the intro, that was flipping epic.

I'm joining the Scardykit and the Halloween card exchange. And I flipping adore Halloween. It is the anti-Christmas, the high holy days of drag, and the season of great good fun. Love love love me some Halloween. I mean, hell, even my cat is black.

Oh, and I have two perfect October reads. The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck, and Devil Take the Blue Tailed Fly. I'm working on my phone and for whatever reason I can't insert touch stones.
Quel bummer. Both are classic chillers from back in the day that I've been meaning to read for a long time.

And speaking of chillers from back in the day, how about a big hand for the DC Metro area's horror host from back in the day, Count Gore Devol. Of whom there appears to be no relevant available clips currently on YouTube. Quell bummer redux. The count invited me to watch chiller theater on Saturday afternoons and again, having dodged all the safety measures my mother and father put in place to keep me from scary things up to and including a rather poorly thought out armed response, to watch even scarier movies, including Night of the living Dead, starting at 11:30 on channel 20. That's right, I watch the uncensored version of Night of the living Dead in my flipping cowboy PJs in my parents house sometime in the late 70s. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. And my life has not been pedestrian. When I saw that bloody skull with the eyeball at the top of the stairs I very probably wet myself. I mean, just thinking about it, I know that I wet myself so I'm assuming that I also did when I was a young child in cowboy PJs. Was that too much information? I mean, sometimes I have a thing about running on? We good, we're moving on?

But wait! Why am I even introducing horror hosts in someone else's threat? I must be out of my mind! Screw the Count! I know my HR teacher did! But it was the '70s and a very different time.

I want to read really scary things. I also don't like gore, but I do like being woken up at 2:00 in the morning absolutely certain that the inanimate objects in my house have somehow become sentient and are conspiring to kill me. Really, my potato peeler and I haven't spoken in a very long time. But maybe it's me I'm a people person.

Eeeeeew. The dead and their abode. I think I have a Kindle version of a book on the ancient cemetery is in London. I think it's perfect match.

But, MS, what is the abode of the dead? Did not the prophet foretell that one day hell would be full and the dead walk the face of the earth to feast on the living? Not just pretty words, my friend. Not just pretty words.

Happy new thread from the Malaysian pumpkin.

Charlie and I *love* fall and Halloween - we've been talking about it all summer while wilting in the heat. I love the chilly weather and that smell of...what?...dead leaves, I guess? Whatever it is, I LOVE IT. And Halloween - one of my very favorite things to do is making Charlie's costume each year. He hasn't decided what he'll be yet, but he has a couple of weeks to decide still.

Anyway, happy new thread!

Alright, my Halloweenie people are here!
>7 Carmenere: Hi, Lynda! Your Autumn really does sound like it was produced by Hallmark, and that's a good thing. You have a lot of fun things lined up!

>8 SomeGuyInVirginia: Larry! Hooray! Did you bring the key to the liquor cabinet?!
I'm so glad you've joined the ScaredyKit and the card exchange, the more the scarier. I already have your address!
I'm unfamiliar with either of your scary reads, The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck and Devil Take the Blue Tail-Fly. Now everyone can see your twisted taste in classics.
I'll see if I can come with anything on Count Gore Devol. Never heard of him but I love that regions across the country used to have local horror show hosts. My local host was Elvira, and she was shown in L.A. for a couple of years before going national.
Ha, I know the shot in Night of the Living Dead you're talking about! Romero must have been thinking, "Enjoy the therapy!"
And, yes, change out of your wet pajamas and we'll keep going.

>9 SomeGuyInVirginia: All good?
Here's the list of things that tend to become sentient in the dark, starting with the most homicidal.
1. Dolls- obviously.
2. Portraits- they contain about 8% less evil than dolls.
3. Easy chairs- don't overlook how often a dead person is found in an easy chair. Coincidence? I think not. It's murder.

An abode is anywhere the dead hang out, so if your neighborhood is full of walkers, your reading list has just opened up.

>10 PaulCranswick: Hello, Paul! Glad you made it!

>11 scaifea: Hi! Yes, the smell of fall leaves! There are candles scented to that, which vary in how closely they hit the mark. One of my favorite scents is the smell of a lit pumpkin, so I carve two pumpkins and have one inside on Halloween.
I'm sure Charlie has a great Halloween costume every year, the lucky guy!

Here's the 2021 Halloween schedule for Freeform: https://halloweendailynews.com/2021/09/freeform-31-nights-halloween-2021/

>12 mstrust: I can't wait to find out what Charlie wants to be this year for Halloween. He always has a deadline of his birthday (9/15) to tell me what he wants to do, so I have plenty of time to sort out the sewing details.

Speaking of Romero, I met him once and it was amazing. When I was a grad student in Columbus (Ohio), my friends and I used to go to this janky old movie theater all the time - Studio 35. There's a pizza joint next door which shares a wall and you can order pizza and take it into the movie with you and there's beer and it's old and sort of smelly and the floors are in a constant state of stickiness and it's just the most glorious place. Anyway, they do (or used to, I'm not sure if they still run it) a Halloween 24-hour movie marathon, and we went twice while I was living in the area. They always have a horror movie celeb there to intro one of their movies and then do a meet and greet. So that's how I've met Romero (he did a Q&A before a showing of NotLD) and another year I met Bruce Campbell, who intro'd Army of Darkness. So, so cool.

Wow, both Romero and Campbell! That's so cool!

>14 scaifea: yeah, that is a really amazing! Plus I love those old indie/art house movie theaters, and you perfectly described the few that I've been in. Thrilling venues with sticky floors.

>15 mstrust: >16 SomeGuyInVirginia: Honestly, I think you'd both love this place if you're ever in the area. Here's their website: https://www.studio35.com/

The meet-and-greets were great because it's a small theater and so there weren't tons of people there and it felt very cozy.

Nice! We have an old grand dame theater here called The Orpheum. We saw Dame Edna there once and also a Theda Bara movie. The theater has an organ from the silent era.

Wow, I *love* your thread!

...and again it is autumn and the nights are getting longer....
Happy new thread, Jennifer.
If it works out I will be at the North Sea on the Day of Days, I think I will find something suitable for the time and place, Cold Skin possibly.
In any case I will take A Night in the Lonesome October with me and read one of the 31 chapters each day - Roni gave me this great idea.

>18 mstrust: Ha! Well yours is *way* classier than the 35, I think, but it sounds wonderful!

Here's a YT that discusses the origins of apple pie and features a recipe from 1773. The guy has a YT channel that focuses on 18th Century cooking and Colonial American cooking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4gFHlRE3KM

>19 drneutron: Hey, Jim! Glad you like what I've done with the place. I hope to see you screaming down the hallways on a regular basis!

>20 SirThomas: Hello, Thomas! I liked Lonesome October a lot, and I happened to see the movie version of Cold Skin just a few weeks ago. I hope you have a good vacation. The North Sea sounds like a cold place, especially that time of year.

>21 scaifea: I didn't even think about that, but yeah, they do keep the floors of The Orpheum clean, ha!

80. Let's Get Invisible by R.L. Stine. Max, his younger brother Lefty, and a group of friends discover a hidden room in the attic that contains an old-fashioned full length mirror. Why would this be hidden away? The kids find that when you pull the light chain, the person standing in front of the mirror becomes invisible. The kids become obsessed with it, but fun comes at a price.
This is a good one, as the descriptions of what Max feels as he's invisible are worrisome, like a bad drug trip. Stine includes his tropes in spades here. The kids with the more dominant personalities push Max into doing what he knows is wrong, you have the character who wails, "Noooo!" (I wait for it in every book), and the kids are lacking even a spark of evil as they use invisibility to throw magazines around rather than burn the neighborhood down. 4 stars

Where is the book!? I'm the voice of your adoring public and we can be complete assholes. Yes, I was entertained by your Gersberns review, but we want the book! We want it now. We love you and we will not wait one more goddamn second. And by that I mean, where's the book?! Book book book book book book book book book book book book book book.

Okay fine. My better nature has just chimed in, as he always will thank you better nature, and let me know that I may not be doing things exactly in the right way. So. I understand you have parameters that you're working with. As a member of you're adoring public I am okay with that and will adjust my expectations accordingly.

I do blame you for this, however. If you were a huge, Taylor Swift style star, no, I would be all over Instagram just demanding the book now immediately in my face there we go blam the magnificence has blinded me.

Of course, that's me. I'm a people person.

Fine, whatever. I'm just going to go watch algae grow on the sides of the aquarium. No, really I'm okay. Sitting here, watching nature, grooving on life's celestial wheel. Wee! All of this has made me really happy that I did not major in Celtic poetry! Because, Celtic poetry and, let's face it, we're just waiting here for your editor to sign her initials and we are completely fine. So absolutely take your time Jennifer.

Good lord, you're on your way to an aneurysm. I wish I had a date I could give you, but when I checked this morning the proof still hadn't left the printer in South Carolina, I believe. I would have said that no one is more stressed about the time delay than I am, but I didn't factor in your ability to freak out at such a masterful level. If there's another delay I'm going to make you my PR director and give you the authority to call and threaten anyone you like.

Look! I freak out! Several of the largest tech companies in the universe have paid me to do exactly that! Beeeeererrkk!

Oh, I think I may have just peed a little bit in my PJs. Yes, completely unexpected but perhaps not unusual? Whatever. It's a quarter to 8:00 on the East Coast, I'm going to take a massive sleeping pill, I hope all the world is fine, and I will meet it with a big grim and welcoming arms in the morning. Or, with a mixture of emotions and a blind groping for the last dregs of the bottle of four roses and a quadruple espresso I'd order from Starbucks that is supposed to be... Right there. Where the f*** is my Starbucks! It's supposed to be right f****** here!

Fine, whatever. It could be any kind of f****** stimulant and a f****** pixie cap. I'm a freaking chambermaid and I do not give a rat's ass. If it's not coke, or caffeine, or meth, I will not pay more than a dollar for whatever is in that tooth glass. That's all I'm saying.

So, I just talked my family bookclub into reading Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Terror and Madness (touchstone doesn't list it). Our goal is to compare scary writing techniques and defend our favorite short story. FUN!!!

>29 SomeGuyInVirginia: I have no doubt that your ability to thrash on the carpet took you all the way to the top! And then security came.
Btw, how you feeling this morning? Little headache?

>30 Berly: A family bookclub! And one that will argue the techniques of Poe? You don't need to leave the house to find your peeps. And I think that counts for what you're looking forward to this season.

Let's go shopping with Wednesday Addams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXmpC0wpuso

81. Death and Sweets by Kate Bell and Kathleen Suzette. Stella, the grumpy Halloween hating owner of the only bakery in Pumpkin Hollow's Halloween district, has been murdered in her shop. The body was found by Mia, whose family owns the candy shop down the street. Stella was surly enough that she didn't have many fans, and this means multiple suspects, including Stella's husband, sister, and employee. Mia didn't like Stella much either, but she still sets out to help her police detective boyfriend by investigating under the guise of neighborly chats and offers of candy, even if she occasionally says just the wrong thing.

A short cozy that's full of Halloween, bakery and candy talk. Some of the dialogue can be clunky.
3.5 stars
1 Walker

Some Fall-ish things I've done over the last few days-

I've hung my Autumn garlands around the house, and put out a few decorative pumpkins.
Started my scary reads, both physical and on Kindle. I'm also waiting on a Caitlin Doughty hold from the library for the ScaredyKit.
Bought a package of paper bats to put up around the doorways.
Had pumpkin pie frozen yogurt from Yogurtini on Sunday. Excellent!
Made delicata squash for dinner last night. This morning I bought a red kuri squash and a fresh bottle of pumpkin pie spice at Sprout's.
We also ran over to La Mars this morning, something we hadn't done in over a year. They have their Fall flavors now, so I got an apple spice and a pumpkin spice. Plus a pumpkin spice latte. I don't do things halfway, people!
And I'm waiting on delivery of maple syrup and Autumn Harvest fragrance oils that I can use to make room and linen sprays.
Yeah, I'm off the deep end, but what Fall-ish thing have you done?

I *love* reading about your fall preparations! I've not done much yet because for us the Halloween/fall season doesn't officially start until September 16th (Charlie's birthday is the 15th). I am working on making new Halloween-themed placemats, though! I'll try to remember to share a photo when I'm finished with them.

Thanks! Of course I search for every bit of Fall I can get this early, probably has something to do with it being 106-109 around here.
Very cool project! Yes, do share a pic once it's done. See if you can keep it under 400x 400.

*My proof came last night and I've approved it! Just need a few days for it to go through the review process.

Yay! The proof's been proofed! Congratulations. Kitchens all over the world are going to smell a little bit better.

:-D Thanks!
I have to tell you, publishing a book is hard, even a little book like mine. When there's photography included, it's a lot of work.

Hi Jennifer, I have let too much slip by without checking your thread over here at the 75s! I love the Autumn and all things to do with Fall. Of course my October birthday has me counting the days - I love birthdays but don't look forward to adding another year on the multitudes that I already have!

>38 DeltaQueen50: Yes, you have been away too long :-D! How lucky to be an October baby, we have three in my family, including Mike.

This is pumpkin patches and more. Click on your state to find the patches, corn mazes and other Autumn events near you.
https://pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/

Tales From the Crypt #1 The Stalking Dead. A collection of scary, sometimes gory, stories that date from 1970 10 2017. In "Die-Vestment", a very old and incredibly wealthy man finds poor people who will sell him their internal organs to help their families, but the old man doesn't honor the contracts.
In "Zombie Bank", the only two human employees at the bank are a mistreated gopher and the beautiful, flirty secretary. And then there's just one human employee. In "Undertow", we meet a grieving young mother, but this is a horror story, so it isn't as it seems.
3.5 stars
1.5 Walkers

Ha! Finally, my book is available on Amazon!
Here's proof- https://www.amazon.com/Maple-Motherload-Guide-All-Things/dp/B09FS6ZY18/ref=sr_1_...

Not shilling, just a feeling of triumph. See, all my complaining DID accomplish something! Hooray!

>41 mstrust: Yay again!

Trick or treat! Happy Halloween Thread!

>42 quondame: Double yays are always good!
>43 PaperbackPirate: Thanks!

Maple bacon cupcakes all round!


*fixed a broken link

>41 mstrust: awesome! Got any maple bourbon in that there book?

Happy weekend and happy new thread!

>45 drneutron: Thanks, Jim! In the liquor section, I have a list of brands that produce maple whiskey and bourbon, a list of maple beers, and another list of other maple flavored spirits. I don't have a recipe specifically for a maple bourbon cocktail, but I do have recipes for maple whiskey cocktails, and "The Nor'Easter", which is a bourbon and maple syrup cocktail.

>46 figsfromthistle: Thank you, and have a good weekend yourself!

I hit Trader Joe's for a big pumpkin haul yesterday. Here's the damage:
6 pack of Howling Gourds Pumpkin Ale- I tried one and it's really good, bit of nutmeg, nicely balanced.
Pumpkin Dog Biscuits- Tastes great. Kidding! I wouldn't tell you if I ate dog biscuits.
Frozen pumpkin waffles
Frozen Butternut squash mac & cheese- I bought this last year and really liked it.
Pumpkin tortilla chips- haven't tried it yet but both the cashier and bagger were saying how much they liked them. They also recommended the pepita salsa.
Pumpkin spice coffee k-pods- bought these all through the season last year.
Greek yogurt-pumpkin flavor
pumpkin butter- they have both pumpkin butter and pumpkin spread. The butter has less sugar and lots of spice.
a great big pumpkin- to sit on my dining room table.

Want to see some Fall stuff? Here's a nerdy yet likable little "haul" video by a teen and her mom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fAhVtHVhR4

>41 mstrust: Congratulations, Jennifer, I guess it feels great with your name on a published book!

It does indeed! Thanks!

>47 mstrust: Not pumpkin, but a newish thing at TJs are breaded ravioli. I heat up some oil to ~375 pop in the ravioli for a minute, spoon them onto paper towels, plate and sprinkle with grated cheese. Quite tasty especially with pesto dip. I even put the leftovers in the fridge and they made a great cold snack the next day.

>44 mstrust: MMM, treat for sure! Thank you!

>50 quondame: Sounds good!

>51 PaperbackPirate: You're welcome! Notice how generous I am with sweets ;-)

I know you were wondering where you'd find all the creepy candles you'll need in the coming weeks. Right here, at The Smell of Fear shop on Etsy. Stock up on candles that are scented to a Victorian library, vampires, and Wednesday Addams. Or fill your dining room with spinal cord-shaped candles and tell guests to guess what you're serving for dinner.
https://www.etsy.com/search?q=the%20smell%20of%20fear%20candle&ref=auto-1

83. Witching Hour Theatre by Jonathan Janz. Wilson spends three nights a week at the Starlight Cinema, from midnight to five am, because that's when they feature a triple billing of horror movies. Wilson prides himself on being such a horror fan that he stays til the end, but there's also the plus of getting to chat with Nicole at the concession stand.
Then, one night it looks like the fun will be ruined by a group of obnoxious frat boys who are harassing people and making Wilson question whether or not he will stand up for himself and the others, but this decision turns out to be the least of his problems.
This is a real horror story, with monsters, death and The Omen playing in the background. I recommend it, you'll get a real scare.
4 stars
3 Walkers That's a Merle-level scare!

>41 mstrust: Congratulations, Jennifer - and it is available in my region too - YAY!

Morning, Jennifer!

I finished up one of the placemats I mentioned earlier - you can find a couple of photos here.

>54 mstrust: Well how can I say no to that one?!

>55 SirThomas: Yay! I believe it took almost the whole 72 review board hrs for it to go up everywhere. On Friday it was showing live on one of our accounts but not the other, and on Saturday my sister in California said she couldn't find it even though all I had to do was type in "maple" on the dashboard and it came up. I'm so glad you can see it!

>56 scaifea: Morning, Amber! Very cool placemats, they look great!

>57 drneutron: You can't! I read it on Kindle, so I don't know if it's available in physical.

Awww yeah, I got your maple syrup. It's right here, in this recipe from my book. Freebie!

Maple Chess Pie

1 c sugar
1 tbs plus 1 tsp cornmeal
1/2 c butter, melted
1 tbs maple vinegar
1 tsp maple extract
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbs maple syrup
3 eggs, beaten
2 tsp maple sugar
1 unbaked 8 inch pie crust

Preheat oven to 350F.
Prepare the crust by rolling it in a tsp of the maple sugar sprinkled on the counter, the other tsp sprinkled on top of the dough. Arrange in a sprayed pie plate and crimp the edges. Place a pie ring or foil around the edges and bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the pie ring. Set aside.
Combine the first seven ingrients in a mixing bowl and mix well. Add the eggs and mix.
Pour into the prepared pie crust, replace the pie ring and bake 30-33 minutes, until medium golden on top and the center doesn't jiggle. *Remove the pie ring 15 minutes into the bake.

And here's a list of unusual maple cocktails from Food&Wine: https://www.foodandwine.com/drinks/7-maple-syrup-cocktails-fall-drinking

*absconds with the waffles in the photo*

This made me think of you immediately: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/you-can-now-ride-a-floating-tiki-bar-on-the-ottawa-riv...

Ha, I wish I'd thought of that! It looks like so much fun.

The Halloween Baking Championship on Food Network starts tonight!

84. Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty. Doughty, who owns a funeral home in L.A. and has created lots of Youtube explanation videos, answers questions about death, such as, What happens if you die on a commercial flight? What happens if an astronaut dies in space? Are bodies in the cemetery leaking into our drinking water? (You would hope for a resounding "no", but the answer is "some".) Will my beloved pet eat my dead body?
Doughty keeps things light and humorous while answering some pretty horrifying questions.
3.5 stars
S.S.: ummm, I'll go with a solid 2 Walkers

I'm having a caramel pumpkin iced coffee now, brought home from our local shop.
I've also made some great home/bed linen sprays in maple syrup scent and Autumn Harvest scent, which is like cinnamon and vanilla baking. I bought the bottles of fragrance oils on Amazon, put about ten drops each into plastic spray bottles with a little vodka.
I've watched Mars Attacks!, maybe the only Tim Burton film I'd never seen before. It's really fun.
And I have a museum in Vermont that will carry my book if I can get it to them by the first week of October. Since they haven't left the printer's yet, it's a race.
You feeling the Autumn yet?

I love the giant pumpkins. Watch this seed grow to a 60kg (1,322 lbs) pumpkin in just over a minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU7YXMAicK4

Awe, I wish we were still making our own maple syrup. I would have put your books on our table alongside our product. :(

Bad timing, eh?

85. Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer by Harold Schechter. Here's one I'd never heard of before.
In 1927, in a town outside Lansing, Michigan, a failed farmer and politician named Andrew Kehoe blew up a school, killing more than three dozen people, mostly children. No one had realized that Kehoe had been breaking into the school at night and setting up timer controlled bombs throughout the tunnels under the school. The bombs contained enough dynamite to wipe out the whole town. The bombs that went off (not all of them did) caused a wing of the two-story school to collapse. Kehoe's particular target was the school's young principal, as Kehoe believed it was the principal's demands for better educational equipment and his salary that caused Kehoe's financial problems. After the school collapsed, Kehoe arrived on the scene to find that the principal was alive, so he murdered the man and committed suicide on the scene, making it clear who was responsible for the carnage. Police later found that Kehoe had already murdered his wife and horses, and rigged his home to explode. He even put a bomb in the hen house, because the chickens were supposed to die too.
The author explores other major news stories of the day, the most significant being Lindbergh's Transatlantic flight, which are the reason this story got so little attention outside Michigan at the time.
4 stars
S.S.: 2 Walkers

>63 mstrust: The video was interesting. I went down a rabbit hole and watched the making of ancient Egyptian tiger nut cake, but your youtube suggestions are likely to be different.

>67 quondame: I have a lot of historical cooking on my main page too, a lot of Colonial American cooking. My MIL uses tiger nut flour sometimes but I've never tried it.

In less than two weeks I'll deliver my entries to the fair. I've entered maple apple cake, pumpkin spice cupcakes with maple cream cheese and double chocolate cookies.
I hit Target yesterday for cleaning supplies, but of course I picked up Halloween candy and paper plates while I was there. And let me look for the very cool decoration I found that will fit into our tiki-ish den when we're done.
Here it is- a melon and dragon fruit stack of skulls that light up: https://www.target.com/p/light-up-dragon-fruit-and-cantaloupe-stacked-halloween-...;

Here's something great and scary. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, the classic short story by Joyce Carol Oates. Published in 1966, it was based on the true crimes of Charles Schmid, "The Pied Piper of Tucson".
https://www.cusd200.org/cms/lib/IL01001538/Centricity/Domain/361/oates_going.pdf

>65 mstrust: Aaaaah yeah appears that way. We sold all our equipment in 2019. It was sad but if only sap ran in warmer months I would have carried on the tradition.

>66 mstrust: That is frigtening!

>67 quondame: Also frightening but I'm holding out hope that that pooch is not Coral.

I am speechless. And to think there are only 4 left at my local Target.

Ha, no, that isn't my darling Coral. Her ability to get freaked out by the smallest change in routine means I would never attempt to dress her.
The melon skulls look so tiki that I had to grab it, though I may go back for the larger pineapple skull too. Seems like it was meant for us!

Oktoberfest starts today. Beer, brats, pretzels, beer, sauerkraut, beer, schnitzel, beer...


But there's another festival that should have started today too. The Mothman Festival in West Virginia was cancelled for the second year in a row, a real blow to the celebration of weirdness. But the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant is still open for business. Of course they sell t-shirts too.
https://www.mothmanmuseum.com/

>66 mstrust: I recently read Schechter's Hell's Princess , which was a page turner. I think I'll pass on this one, though....killing kids and horses would be too hard for me to read about. Belle Gunness preyed on gullible men, mostly, which is disturbing enough, but how she managed it was interesting.

It was hard to read of the kids and horses, but his wife was truly an unwitting victim too. Still, I have to say that Schechter did an excellent job, digging up lots of little-known information to give a picture of what kind of man Kehoe was before snapping (fyi, an arrogant wanna-be politician who believed he should be in charge even when he couldn't run his farm successfully.)
The Gunness book was so interesting. I felt sorry for the people she killed even more because back then they really had no idea that a woman would do such things. They seemed even more blindsided.

Reminder- if you want to take part in the Halloween Card Exchange, sign up ends October 1st. PM me your address!

>41 mstrust: YES! I just bought my copy! I'm so glad you shepherded your book through the process! And bus I get to eat maaaaaaaaapplee! (Think 'gooooool' but with maple.)

Ka-ching! Thanks for being a patron of the arts, Larry!
I actually want to apologize for the price. It's a couple of dollars higher than I wanted but Amazon set the minimum. Anyway, I hope you find it interesting. I'm going to order maple stuff from some of the producers in the book for at least three people on my Christmas list.

So, not hearing much movie/tv Halloween talk. What's up with that? Too busy binging whole seasons of Supernatural? You should know that Halloween Wars starts tonight. And the Wednesday episode of AHS is the finale for the first story.
I watched an hour of Malevolent, a Netflix Original. Seemed promising, I like haunted house stories and this was set in a Scottish manor, but the family dynamics dragged on and on, the scares were so minimal that I got bored and dropped it with just 30 minutes left. I'm halfway through The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, which I think is an old Nick original. Stars Brooke Shields and Victoria Justice.

Let's tour the deadliest garden in England, located at Alnwick Castle. "This one will kill you. That one will kill you."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tboW11dMeKs

86. Halloween Night by R.L. Stine. Drippy high school senior Brenda and her friends hate Brenda's cousin Halley. She's living with Brenda's family while her parents go through a bitter divorce, something that happens frequently in the Stine universe. Not only have Brenda's parents forced Brenda to give up her room to Halley, she also has to share her car and clothes with her cousin, who then helps herself to Brenda's boyfriend.
Brenda's rage makes her see the upcoming Halloween party as the perfect time to teach Halley a lesson, a final one.
Not a great story, but you finally get what you'd always wanted in these Stine teen stories, a character who goes from a doormat to a psychopath.
2.5 stars
1.5 Walkers

Yesterday was very busy. We went to Lowe's to look at bathroom cabinets, sinks, faucets and lighting, then to Home Depot and looked at all the same, bought the cabinet there. Went back to Lowe's and bought the faucet and towel bar there. We'll go to a lighting store another day.
Mike had finished painting the walls in the den on Saturday, so he knocked out all the trim and baseboards yesterday afternoon. I'll be moving my mysteries from the entertainment center today to some magical room somewhere in the house that I haven't found yet.
Now to rip out the cabinet from the upstairs bathroom so we can paint.

Odd Things I've Seen is in full swing for the Halloween season. New posts about weird things nearly every day.
https://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/

87. Fat Vampire by Johnny B. Truant. Reginald has always been remarkably overweight and picked on. Even now, as an adult, his co-workers make fun of him, and part of that is due to their company selling exercise equipment.
Then a new guy on the night shift, a teenage Goth, treats Reginald like he's normal, which leads to a night of bowling, which leads to Reginald being a new vampire. One who is stuck at 350 pounds for all eternity, too slow to hunt and likely to be destroyed by the Vampire Council when they see how bad he is at basic vampire stuff.
Fun and well-written, I knew the author had to be a pen name and I wouldn't be surprised if this was written by a successful screenwriter.
4.5 stars
2 Walkers

>79 mstrust: That one looks great!

I picked up The Lost Village from the library - calling it the first of my October scary reads since I probably won't get to it until close to the start of the month. It looks pretty good!

So my little granddaughters were taking a bath in orange, rusty looking water and that's how I learned of PUMPKIN SPICE BATH BOMBS.

There are a bunch on Etsy and other places.

>80 drneutron: I really liked this one, but it's strange that I've now read two books called Fat Vampire and liked them both.
I hope The Lost Village gives you a good scare! You'll have to let us know.

>81 nrmay: Yes, pumpkin spice bath bombs! I had one a long time ago, when I was in a relaxing-in-the-bath phase. There are also candy corn bombs, which sound scrumptious too.

A visit to the dentist this morning to be told I need another root canal.
Trader Joe's is carrying maple kettlekorn!
I watched Vampires vs. The Bronx on Netflix last night. Fun story about three smart boys who notice that the same real estate corporation is buying up all the small businesses in their neighborhood and they don't like it. The viewer knows that the businesses owners are becoming vampire snacks.

>82 mstrust: Off to TJs.... There was the time they had peppermint popcorn with chocolate drizzles. Yum.

First day of Autumn!

>83 quondame: I was looking for a return of the pumpkin seas salt caramels, but I guess that won't happen.

Now I will complain about Halloween Wars. No Jonathan Bennett, no pumpkin carvers, no Small Scare, and it's annoying how often the contestants are hamming it up for the camera. I could go on.

Here's a way to keep an eye on the coming Fall Foliage. EarthCam has live cameras pointed at the trees all over the country, but mostly the East Coast. You'll see a few areas that have already started changing.
https://www.earthcam.com/events/fallcams/

>84 mstrust: Gorgeous fall photo! thanks for the link. What a clever idea.

I check out the fall foliage cams every year, but this is the first year I'm using EarthCam. I think they have some really good spots for seeing the change. Enjoy!

If you're the DIY, crafty type, you may want to take on making your own Halloween yard props. Be the only one on your block with a portal to another dimension: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UrYxjRh5xM

Or a life-sized mummy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rw1xkyi4ok

Here are a few very easy indoor Halloween projects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3PbyxA8R7w

88. Fire in the Grove by John C. Esposito. On November 28th, 1942, a popular nightclub and restaurant in Boston was packed with around a thousand people. By law, there should have been half that. The many exits should have been unlocked and usable, but the majority were locked or blocked to keep guests from skipping out on their checks. The owner had even built a coat check room across one exit. The decor was supposed to be flame-retardant, but the fire started in one of the paper-mache palm trees and withing seconds spread to the thousands of feet of fabric draped across the ceilings. Within ninety seconds the fire had engulfed the basement lounge and spread to the main floor dining room, killing more than 50 servicemen and cowboy star Buck Jones.
The Cocoanut Grove Disaster is still the largest nightclub fire in American history, killing just under 500 people. It tested new theories in medicine and led to innovative treatment of surviving burn victims, including pinprick skin grafts.
This book includes the many trials of the owner and his employees, in which the extensive level of corruption among the Boston licensing boards, the fire department and even the mayor were exposed, yet really only the owner was punished.
4 stars
2 Walkers, because of the horror of the fire and the corruption among city leaders.

89. Sugared Demise by Kathleen Suzette. This is book five in the Pumpkin Hollow series.
On Halloween night Mia leaves her family's candy store to meet up with her boyfriend Ethan, who is a police officer and the town's part-time detective. Walking to her car, she hears a noise and looks down the alley to see a werewolf standing over a dead man. From there, Ethan, with Mia's unofficial help, investigate who would want the town's only lawyer dead. Turns out, lots of people.

I really like this cozy series about a small town that celebrates Halloween year round to bring the tourists, with its talk of candy, costumes, the local haunted house attraction, and pumpkins. I could do without the phrase "it's a shame", which is used a lot throughout the story to describe both tragic deaths and bad behavior.
3.5 stars
1 Walker

Listen to the disco sounds of The Angry Aztecs singing about human sacrifice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGTc2PBFrW4

De-lurking (from the shadows) to say I'm enjoying your Halloween thread. And congrats on releasing a book! That's an amazing accomplishment!

Have you seen the Fear Street movies on Netflix yet? As a lifelong Stine fan, I wondered if they were worth checking out.

>92 LibraryLover23: Always great to have a lurker bang on the door and I'm glad you like my place!
I'm excited about the book but wish the printers moved faster. I have several shops back east that have placed orders and are waiting.
I've watched the first two Fear Street movies and will get to the third soon. They're good, especially the second. I will warn you that they are updated version of the book plot lines, so some gory deaths, swearing, drugs, sex... I think they just used the bare bones of Stine's plots.

On Saturday we bought new lighting fixtures, yesterday the electrician came over and put them in the laundry room, downstairs and upstairs hallways, my bathroom and the kitchen.
Today I'm baking my entries for the fair. We'll deliver them in the morning. Double chocolate cookies, pumpkin spice cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting and maple apple cake.

Did you watch the first season of Resident Alien on Syfy? It's hilarious and getting a second season. "Harry" is actually an alien scout who crashed near the secluded cabin of the real Harry, a nationally known doctor who had recently retired to this small town. He then murdered the real Harry and turned himself into a clone so that he could observe the locals, but he had nothing to do with the coincidental death of the town's longtime doctor. Got it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4tNBKSowTo

This gave me a bit of a chuckle - for just $2.5 M, you can have a great house!

https://www.realtor.com/addamsfamily2/

If only, huh? Thanks for the link. Here's one that was in the headlines a few days ago.
It's the house that inspired The Conjuring and they're asking over a million. Very cool house, I love it, but I can't help but think anyone living in the house should be paying rent.
https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2021/09/23/house-burrillville...

Oh, cool!

Isn't it? I'll bet that whoever buys it will rent it out non-stop for filming.

The cupcakes are cooling and the cake is in the oven. Then I'll make the cookies. The guy coming over this afternoon happens to be the one who loves it when Mike brings whatever I've baked to work and shares. He was here on Saturday ripping out the sink and toilet and reminded me that he wants whatever doesn't go to the fair.
Yesterday morning, Mike painted my bathroom, then the electrician came last night and put in the new lighting. Today, Steve will install the new sink and cabinet and help Mike with the new mirror. I may have a working bathroom by tonight!
Which reminds me to point out that if you haven't checked out OTIS back in >78 mstrust: and want to see an amazing bathroom, go through and scroll back about three weeks. He's a huge Headless Horseman fan, as am I, but he lives in a witchy looking black house in New Hampshire, so a black bathroom decorated with horseman stuff looks fantastic. But then, maybe I'm just the same level of weirdness.

>94 drneutron: The style is all wrong for 1804. It's not Federalist it's Gothic revival, and does look like something will need reviving!

>93 mstrust: I was so happy to hear there will be another season of Resident Alien. I love the kids. And "Harry."

I don't know when it will start but I'm so looking forward to it. I'd like to read the gn the show is based on too.

Halloween Fiend by C.V. Hunt. Barry is forty-five, overweight and has been employed at the town's general store for thirty years. He's never dated and lives with his dad, who claims to be confined to his motorized chair but Barry knows he can walk, he just likes to have Barry do everything for him. Barry's life is uneventful and dull during the day, but every night is filled with terror, as this small town is visited by Halloween, a shape-shifting presence that demands a live "treat" from every resident. Barry can't help but listen for Halloween on the porch, dreading the sounds he hears, but it gets even worse when Halloween begins taunting Barry through the doors and windows. And then the mayor brings in carnival rides for the town's Fall Festival, which brings carnies, and Barry doesn't know if the presence of outsiders after dark will make things better or worse for him.

If you have a Kindle and want a truly tense read, this is a good one with a strong nod to Shirley Jackson.
5 stars
3 Walkers

We'll be taking my fair entries over in a few hours. I won't know if I won anything til the 6th.

Here's the line-up for TCM's Halloween weekend. They usually go all out for the month, and I know they're playing blocks of scary movies here and there throughout the month.
https://halloweendailynews.com/2021/09/tcm-2021-halloween-marathon/

The Travel Channel and Food Network's line-up: https://halloweendailynews.com/2021/09/travel-channel-ghostober-2021/

This is the line-up for AMC's FearFest: https://www.halloweenmoviesontv.com/amc-fear-fest-schedule/

Here's a reminder that you have until October 1st to PM me your address if you're joining the Halloween card exchange.

I'm currently watching Matinee, with John Goodman playing a William Castle-type monster movie producer.

Got about 46 minutes to spare? Here's Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy in its entirety. It's a good one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkw8xF8sbgM&t=60s

>103 mstrust: I really should watch/read some Scary Godmother - I was on Kickstarter for the doll, and the author was exacting about its quality and details.

Power outage this morning. 🧟

>104 quondame: Huh, I didn't know they did merch for Scary Godmother. I guess the movies weren't as big as they expected, but I really like them.

Having a pumpkin cold brew this morning. I've spent two days sending out shipments of books, which has me in a nervous sweat.
I've started Fear Street: 1666 on Netflix. And The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix.

Corporate training session in Hell. Literally.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWsdRudesCI

>106 mstrust: It was a Kickstarter by Jill Thompson as an individual. It's a very detailed multi-jointed doll and took at least 2 years longer than scheduled to deliver. There is even a ghost cat.

It's October 1st!
Hey, if you're here you need to be making some noise. Scream, slam a door, somebody run the dishwasher because we need more glasses. The first batch of Halloween exchange cards are going out this morning.
Mike brought me apple spice and pumpkin spice doughnuts from La Mar's yesterday. And he did a little paint touch-up in my bathroom and installed the bulbs and light covers this morning.
My family arrives Monday and we'll go to the fair on Wednesday and see if I won anything.

>107 quondame: I checked it out and it's a very cool doll, so detailed. And you get multiple handbags.

October's Icebreaker- What's the favorite/best costume you've ever had?
I would have to say it was the year I dressed as a run-over pedestrian with tire tracks across my clothes, a bruised cheek, twigs in my hair and a license plate tied to my jeans. I met Mike at that Halloween party.

Have you ever heard of the urban legend of black-eyed children?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqfXej30Zzw&t=206s

91. Goosebumps Most Wanted: Son of Slappy by R.L. Stine. Jackson is such a good drip that he never gets in trouble and even volunteers at the youth center. He's a typical Stine doormat who is even bullied by his younger sister. But then Jackson and Rachel are packed off to spend a week at their grandpa's isolated mansion, and grandpa is not only a collector of ventriloquist dummies, he has a scary butler who warns the kids to stay away from one in particular, the evil Slappy. Guess which one Jackson takes home to do an act for the youth center fundraiser?
This one got better as it progressed and had a creepy ending.
3 stars
1.5 Walkers

Fingers crossed that you win all the prizes!

Have fun at the fair!

Who doesn't like extra blood with their cupcakes?

>110 rabbitprincess: I'm hoping!
>111 figsfromthistle: Thanks, I'm sure we'll stuff ourselves!

The Simpsons take a job at an isolated hotel during the off-season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyQukqhP0UA

Hi! I've been absent for a few days to attend Applefest in Pennsylvania. Perfect fall festivity.
Love those rice krispie mummies!
Lots of luck at the fair!
It's awesome Mike is redoing your bathroom.
Also awesome is your run over pedestrian costume. What a great way to have met Mike!

You lucky thing, getting to go to an applefest! That sounds like lots of fun. And I have to ask what you ate there.
Thanks, I'll be going to the fair Wednesday night. Sure hope I won something, but I'll have fried food no matter.
Mike is upstairs right now losing his mind while trying to install a shelving unit in the bathroom!
Yes, I went to the party as roadkill and Mike was in a conductor's tux, but everyone thought he was dressed as Ozzy, ha!

Perhaps the most Halloweenie sketch from Key & Peele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngk3VX405GE

92. Midnight Exhibit Vol. 1. A couple have a breakdown on an isolated road on their way home from a party. They're in a good mood from cocktails and don't really look at the guy who stops to help out until they're in his truck. The man, covered in what looks like heavy stage make-up, begins telling the couple some very disturbing stories. The first is about local teenagers who go missing, the second about a rapist who wakes up from a coma to a world run by women.
3.5 stars
2 Walkers

Hey Martha (LibraryLover23), thanks so much for that really fantastic Halloween card!

Time to refresh your home? How 'bout some funeral stuff and spiders? Here's a tour of a friendly Goth's apartment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDjmgtstJpY&t=571s

Acquired this week:
From Mom-
Billy Summers
Professor Gargoyle
From Julie-
The Peach Keeper
Patty Jane's House of Curl
Shopping-
Lost Horizon
Winter's Bone
Flight
The Pistachio Prescription
The Dunwich Horror

93. Untimely and Tragic Deaths of the Renowned, the Celebrated and the Iconic by BH McKechnie. Brief bios of mostly actors and musicians, but also some regular people who happened to die in odd ways. There's Frank Zappa, Amy Winehouse, Carrie Fisher, and three of the Ramones. Both Hemingway and Geldof are misspelled. There are the strange, such as the death of Elisa Lam at L.A.'s infamous Hotel Cecil, and that of 60's star The Singing Nun, who was so crushed by the music industry that she left her order and died of a drug overdose. There's also the death of one doctor in Texas that seems to have come out of Final Destination.
3 stars
1 Walker

>113 Carmenere: Yup, the Applefest is always a good time. We had the usual applefest offerings which start off with apple pancakes with their yummy apple syrup. It was take out only this year so we had to eat it in the dining room of a Sheetz gas station, but other than that everything was pretty normal and the crowd was as huge as ever. Apple dumplings and apple fritters, wine tastings, maple glazed walnuts. All nearby restaurants add their own apple twist. As if we didn't have enough, we went to a cidery and enjoyed apple pie cider ala mode. Am i ready to start baking with all the apples i brought home? Aaaaa, No. they'll be fine in the fridge for a bit

Apple pancakes and syrup sounds pretty great, but so do fritters, dumplings and cider. Glad you had such a good time and made the most of it. I think I can say for sure that Phoenix will never have an applefest.
But I did have an Indian taco and a deep fried lemon bar at the fair the other night.

Here's "Usher II", a fun episode of Ray Bradbury Theater that stars Patrick Macnee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8h7KORDU_w

>121 mstrust: Thank you!
I love it

Glad you liked it too, I thought it was pretty good!

>1 mstrust: I love reading horror and decided for the month of October to read nothing but horror/sci-fi books, and last night, finished Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez. A werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost team up to battle zombies and other monsters to hopefully stop an apocalypse.

There's so much good stuff out there!

For the last few years I've gone into Autumn/horror mode for the entire season. Between my books on the shelf and Kindle offers, I'm covered for seasonal reads without even trying.
I have to put more effort into having Autumn because maple trees and brisk weather is thin on the ground around here ;-D

>121 mstrust:

USHER II is great!

>116 mstrust: You're welcome! And thank you for your card too!

>126 nrmay: Another fan! Glad you liked it!
It's nice to be hearing some feedback about my choices. Sometimes I think I'm either way off the mark and nobody likes what I'm posting or no one is checking the stuff out.

>127 LibraryLover23: Glad my card arrived!

Have you seen SurrealEstate on SyFy? It's about a real estate agency that specializes in removing spirits, then selling the formerly haunted houses. It isn't a comedy but it does have two actors from Schitt's Creek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBzopj8NWHk

94. Alfred Hitchcock's Death Bag. A collection of crime stories. I could see these as episodes for Hitchcock's tv series, though some were a bit dull on the page which is unusual for one of Hitchcock's books. I think the best story here was "To Avoid A Scandal" by Talmage Powell, originally published in 1958, about a very precise, quiet man who believes he's found a quiet woman who will fit perfectly into his ordered life, but after marriage she turns out to be less timid than expected.
3 stars
1 Walker

Happy Saturday! I've just started watching Squid Game on Netflix. So far, kinda gruesome. It's got me intrigued.

I’ve started My Heart is a Chainsaw today. Oh, yeah. Most definitely an October read!

Hey Nancy (nmay), thanks so much for the cool card, the bookmark, stickers and coaster! It was like a Halloween present!

>131 Carmenere: Happy Sunday, Lynda! I'll be getting to Squid Game soon, it's gotten a lot of buzz. I'm watching Midnight Mass, the third of the Haunting on Hill House trilogy. It's a slow start, introducing the characters, but I know that it'll get really scary. I've also watched Zombieland:Double Tap, which was fun and nice to catch up with those people again. Not as funny as the first, but that one was so extraordinary. I also finally watched the 2004 Dawn of the Dead. I'd seen bits of it here and there but had never watched it start to finish. Very good.
>132 drneutron: Looks like a really new one, and yes, a very Halloweenish read. Let us know what you think. He's become pretty prolific.

We're going way back to 1975 for "The Exorcist 2" with Richard Pryor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8dKnFU5LUE

Freaks and Geeks putting on their Halloween costumes. Well, just the geeks. The freaks were riding around breaking mailboxes with a baseball bat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ulr6K6qqlI

Cocktails! This is a strawberry chocolate cocktail inspired by Carrie, and just like her, it's messy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU8f8A4Zmq8

I'm feeling cheerful because I've just gotten my first check for a shipment of my books. The Vermont Maple Museum is carrying it!

And thank you to Kim (Berly) for the very funny Halloween card!

>137 mstrust: Yay for the check! A feeling of deserved accomplishment is fabulous, but a check is downright real.

>137 mstrust: Congratulations!

Thank you for your card! I'm going to do mine this weekend, don't worry.

Congratulations on the check, Jennifer!
Have you started building a money bin yet?

>138 quondame: Very nicely put!

>139 PaperbackPirate: Thanks! And glad your card arrived!

>140 SirThomas: Thanks! I don't have a money bin, but perhaps a money cup will do.

On Tuesday we had a temp of just 68F, which was exciting, and last night we dropped to 50F overnight. I slept with the bedroom window open.
We'll be warming back up to 91F in a few days, but right now I'm wearing a sweater, which I haven't done in about seven months.
Anybody watching Squid Game?

Here are a couple of Halloweenie podcasts that I'm enjoying. First, Bridgewater, this year's special series from Aaron Manke's Grim & Mild. It's the story of a college professor who teaches folklore and myths. His own father's disappearance forty years before is a local legend, but then new evidence turns up. Stars Misha Collins, Nathan Fillion and Hilarie Burton Morgan.
https://www.grimandmild.com/bridgewater

And season three of Full Body Chills is going on. These are short spooky stories, most about 30 minutes long.
https://fullbodychillspodcast.com/

95. Zombie Tales 4: This Bites. Graphic novel of many short stories by different artists and writers, all with a zombie theme. The art work is satisfying but most of the stories are too brief and need a few more pages to flesh them out.
2.5 stars
1 Walker

>142 mstrust: Nope, nope, nope.

The Twilight Zone or recent news?

>143 quondame: You'd probably be disappointed. I recommend The Walking Dead series for a more engaging storyline. Or maybe you're looking for something zombie-free? No, I don't believe that.

Check out Your Best Halloween Ever for crafts, lots of recipes and spooky short stories:
https://yourbesthalloweenever.wordpress.com/

And aren't these the greatest slippers? They're available on Etsy and look really warm and soft.

Someone has gifted me with a Halloween mystery.
In my mail today I received an autographed still from the 1962 movie Carnival of Souls. (If you haven't seen it, do so. It's so spooky and surreal.) The still shows the lead, Candace Hilligoss, standing in front of the dancing dead. It's signed "To Jennifer, Hauntingly Yours, Candace Hilligoss, "Carnival of Souls". I love it!
The envelope is from Hilligoss and has a Beverley Hills p.o. box. No note inside to tell me who has connected Ms. Hilligoss and I.
I'm wondering if some nice LTer is responsible because quite a few people have my address, and of course know that I celebrate Halloween.
Hopefully someone will let me know, but regardless, I'll send Ms. Hilligoss a thank you.

>144 mstrust: No zombies. Aside from feeling like I am living in a world overwhelmed with zombies as it is, as a horror trope zombies are even lower on my preference list than eldritch horrors and those are in the deep deep depths.

>145 mstrust: Well, that’s just cool! And weird - as is appropriate this time of year. 😀

>146 quondame: I love a good zombie story. But I think my favorite scary trope is a haunted house story.

>147 drneutron: Ha, it is cool! I appreciate the mystery but I'd also like to know who to thank.

Adding that I'm near the end of Squid Game which has me totally sucked in. I've also watched The Dead Zone. Never seen it before and enjoyed seeing a young Christopher Walken.

>145 mstrust: a real life mystery! Wasn't me, but I wish that it was!

I don't know what it is with the trees and Virginia but they haven't really started to turn yet. The past week has been unseasonably warm and that might be the reason. I'm totally looking forward to sweater weather.

O.k., I'll check you off the list. I'm waiting to ask my brother last. He lives in SoCal, but he's so nice that if I ask if he sent me a present and it wasn't him, he'll say, "I'm sending you a present now!"
We're heading up to Flagstaff tomorrow. The leaves are turning, we'll hike a bit and hit the farmer's market. The high will be 62.

Saturday is laundry and scary movie day!

Congrats on your book being placed in the Maple Museum - that's quite the honor. Squid Game is on my agenda - I have heard so many comments (both good and bad) about it that I am intrigued. We are spoiled for choice with zombie tv shows right now as all three of the "Walking Dead" shows are airing.

Thanks, I'm pretty happy to have it in the museum!
I watched Squid Game because the ladies of "My Favorite Murder" were talking about it. The writing is so good. I was watching multiple episodes a day because I had to know what happens next. I'm happy to report that it's squid-free.

Happy Sunday, Jennifer.

As usual, love all the Halloween stuff here and congrats on your book being carried!! Whoohoo! Also glad you got my card--yours is proudly displayed on the kitchen shelf by my sink so I can see it everyday. : )

Dracula statue by Infinite Statue.

>153 Ameise1: Thanks, and I wish you a happy Monday!

>154 Berly: Thank you and thank you!
I was very happy to get an email last week from one of the maple producers featured in the book, letting me know that he'd read it and called it "wonderful". That was nice to hear.
I'm happy that I've contributed to your Halloween decor!

We went up to Flagstaff yesterday and it was in the low 50's in the morning. Sweet! We went to the farmer's market, where I loaded up on carrots, onions, basil and lettuces. And a big loaf of jalapeno cheese bread. We walked around downtown and saw that they have as many coffee places as Seattle. Not exaggerating.
The old buildings are beautiful. I went around the lobby of the historic Monte Vista hotel. We drove out to hike Fat Man's Loop but the trailhead was closed, so we went to breakfast instead. On the way home. we were slowed by a semi trailer on fire at the side of the road. Fire trucks and police were already there but the thing was sending out smoke that we'd seen miles away.
I have a few pics to post, including the LFL in the town square.

BTW- Still no word on who sent me the movie still.

The Weirdos have to clean their house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eKd2U3cbwk

96. The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. Lynnette isn't technically a Final Girl, as she played dead while her family was slaughtered in their home on Christmas Eve. To be a true Final Girl, she would have killed the murderer. But she's still been a member of the support group for sixteen years, led by famous therapist Dr. Carol, and their once a month meeting is one of the few things Lynnette leaves her secure apartment to attend. All the Final Girls are infamous, with books and campy slasher flicks based on the events they went through.
But then the group gets the news that their most beloved member, Adrienne, has been murdered in a very slasher-esque way. In quick succession, all the Final Girls are attacked, with Julia being shot by a sniper at Lynnette's apartment. Leaving her friend behind fills Lynnette with the same shame she felt when she kept quiet years ago as her family died, but she runs for her life. A few days later, she realizes that all these attacks could happen only with insider information.

I'd say this was a thriller with an 80's slasher background. There are passages about the horrible crimes of the past, but the majority of the story is cat and mouse. Thank you for sending this, Larry!
4 stars
2 Walkers

We went for a walk around the neighborhood this morning while it was cool, and saw some fun Halloween decorations. One house down the street is growing pumpkins right in their front yard. The ones that were peeking out from the leaves looked to be about 15 lbs.
Another house is being attacked by life-sized rotting skeletons, with two crouched by the lower window and two scaling the porch eaves.

I finally found a Trader Joe's pumpkin cheesecake yesterday, and yes, it's nearly half gone now. I've drizzled some maple caramel sauce from Sucererie de la Montagne on top. It's pretty awesome.

Here's a full episode from Season 1 of Creepshow. Two really strong stories, "All Hallow's Eve" and "The Man in the Suitcase". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlaO7wBQV98

>156 mstrust: Great review, Jennifer. I put it on my list.

I'm glad you liked the book! I did, too, And would have given it the same rating you did.

I know there has to be one out there somewhere already, but yesterday I was thinking how cool it would be to get a doorbell that rang the first few notes from the Addams family theme song. Also, if it's not too expensive, I'd like to get one of those neon-like signs for the dining room that reads, 'We gladly feast on those who would subdue us'. And sure, for Halloween. Whatever.

Oh oh oh! Guess what I bought today that I may have only bought once before my life, if ever? Okay, what's your second guess? The answer is organic maple syrup! Great a robust dark. True, product of Canada and the US so kind of schmaltzy, but still you're an influencer! Oh my God. Jennifer - Maple influencer.

>158 Ameise1: Why, thank you, and I hope you like it too!

>159 SomeGuyInVirginia: I did like it! I'm used to Hendrix's books having some kind of supernatural angle, so this was very different.
Ha, yes, get yourself an Addams Family doorbell! You're worth it.
>160 SomeGuyInVirginia: I'll happily accept that title. I will encourage your maple purchases, of course, and I agree with the robust grade. I like the stronger flavor too. What producer did you go with?
In a week or so I'm going to start ordering syrups and other maple stuff for Christmas.
And do you know what my precious Coral did yesterday? While we went shopping, she pulled the loaf of jalapeno cheese bread that we'd gotten in Flagstaff off the counter and made it disappear. We searched the house, under the furniture, behind cushions and all over the backyard but found no sign of it. Mike found the packet of seasonings Coral stole from my sister two weeks ago, buried next to the house, but no sign of the bread or the plastic bag. The loaf was huge. She followed us around to watch us hunting.

Bookclub with my family tomorrow night to discuss Edgar Allen Poe short story collection, especially: The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of Red Death, The Black Cat, and William Wilson.

Boo-ha-ha-ha!!

>162 Berly: That sounds like a fun Halloweenish night! Will you being trying to out-creep each other? You'll have to come back and tell us how Poe Night went.
My sister and I have occasional reads together, my mom refuses to be tied to anything resembling a plan, and Mike only reads blueprints and Zillow. Oh, but Larry (SomeGuyinVirginia) and I have read the same books within a short space of time, so that's sort of a book club, ha!

So, yeah, let's hear some scary book and movie chatter around here. I watched Squid Game, which was fantastic, and Midnight Mass, which as Wade pointed out, if they'd cut out even some of the sermonizing, would have been two episodes less. It's heavy with Catholicism and the creeps don't really start until the third episode. Julie loved it, I liked it but not nearly as much as the first two seasons.
For the second time I attempted to watch the remake of Thirteen Ghosts, the one with Tony Shalhoub. It's so awful that I didn't get more then 15 minutes in. The original is black and white and cheap and so much better.

The annual Squishing of the Squash at the Oregon Zoo was just a few days ago. It's great to see the elephants having so much fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szVrbGn0jxY

97. Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith. Hoodoo is the name of a twelve year old boy living in Alabama in the 1930's. It's also the word for the African folk magic his family practices, though Hoodoo has yet to discover any talent for hoodoo himself until he visits a fortuneteller at the fair. When her prophecies begin appearing, Hoodoo is terrified to realize that it's all leading up to him having to fight the demonic stranger the old woman warned him about.
A spooky story of demons and ghosts set among African-Americans in the South. Running a close second to that main plot is all the Southern food and the cooking and eating of it.
3.5 stars
2 Walkers

It's Mike's birthday today, so he gets a fabulous cake here!

But no real cake, by request. He has presents though and has already been out for a hike. I'll be nice to him today ;-D

I've been getting presents this week too. First the mysterious signed movie still, and now Mike's aunt has sent me a quart of robust maple syrup from Brookside Sugar House in Vermont.

Happy birthday to Mike! Nothing like bloody dismembered fingers beside a cake.
Wow, look at you getting prezzies. So nice, especially when they're unexpected.

Nice swag! That reminds me, I need to make pancakes this weekend so I can try the maple syrup out I got at Sam's Club. I'm sure it's not high-end stuff but I tasted it and it tasted pretty good.

>166 Carmenere: Thanks, Lynda! I think he had a decent birthday even though he had to work. Really, he whooped it up by eating pizza and wings. Who knows, maybe he would have gnawed on some fingers if they'd been there.
Yes, unexpected presents are very welcome!

>167 SomeGuyInVirginia: Are you saying they were giving out maple syrup samples?!

Teachers vs the cootie-ridden students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ9JOrG0mUM

I actually liked the movie The Cooties!

I did too! Lots of fun.

I almost forgot that today is my brother David's birthday! What's wrong with me?

He bought a house in the French Quarter a few months ago so he's spending his birthday there. He mentioned this morning that beignets may be in his future.

Thank you to Nicole (PaperbackPirate) for the super cool Halloween card and doggies in costumes stickers! Glad you joined the card exchange!

>170 mstrust: Well that's a way to make a birthday happy!

It sounds good to me too!

>170 mstrust: Mmmmm beignets!

>168 mstrust: Pizza and wings top cake most days for me, Jennifer, especially if rounded of with beignets (>170 mstrust:).

Have a lovely weekend.

>170 mstrust: Mmmmmm… beignets!

It's birthday time everywhere!! Tell those guys to make some wishes!

>171 mstrust: Yay! Happy Halloween!

The 2021 Halloween Hunt is up!

>174 rabbitprincess: I'll bet lots of people say that as they eat them :-D

>175 PaulCranswick: He was pretty happy with his dinner, and as a bonus, he took more wings with him to work the next day. Personally, birthday cake is one of my favorite things in the world, but he's so good and disciplined. Not me.
You have a great weekend!

>176 drneutron: Mmmm! You know about sopapillas, right? Not all Mexican restaurants make them, but a hot sopapillas is the closest to a beignet as we can get.

>177 Berly: I know, we're a rather small family so it's weird that Mike's is the 21st and David the 22nd. Even stranger is that my sister was married to a guy for 18 years and his birthday was the 22nd too.

>178 PaperbackPirate: Just eight days to go!

>179 quondame: I've played a little and have found seven so far. There are a few each hunt that are books I've never heard of before.

I watched Bingo Hell on Prime. It's a good vs evil story starring a cast of mostly elderly actors who fight a demon bingo hall owner. I also watched Scream 2.

Here's the opening scene from Netflix's Fear Street 1994. If you watched Stranger Things you'll recognize her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyQb5FG9Q1A

98. Professor Gargoyle by Charles Gilman. Robert's school district was restructured, which means all his friends attend his old school and he has to go to the new Lovecraft Middle School, where the only kid he knows is his bully, Glenn. Robert soon meets Karina, a girl who seems annoyingly concerned with getting Robert to stand up to Glenn. She also knows more about hidden rooms of the school than the staff. When two of his classmates disappear, tentacles try to pull Glenn into a school locker, and Robert sees the science teacher eat a hamster, he starts to think something strange is going on at the new school.
The cover is a very cool hologram that shows a normal, grim man, and then a grinning demon.
3.5 stars
1.5 Walker

One week til Halloween!
I started on a bag of York peppermint patties last night. Let's not talk about the Snickers.
Today we'll be going to Old Town Scottsdale to find some jewelry for Aunt Kath's birthday. Yes, another birthday, but this one is in November.

From AHS Red Tide, meet the town's second hand shop owner/tattoo artist/dentist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgqNwQnYlYo

>180 mstrust: Oh, I’ve downed a few sopapillas in my day! They do quite nicely. 😀

Oh good! A big lump of fried dough is delicious, whether topped with sugar or honey.

>180 mstrust: >183 drneutron: Whenever my mother got the deep fryer out, we'd make wedges of flour tortillas and fry them for dessert.

>170 mstrust: Yummy!

So what are your plans for Halloween this year?

>185 quondame: We did that too! They really tasted good even though it was so bad. And she's asked for an air fryer for Christmas this year.

>186 figsfromthistle: This year will be a repeat of last year, but hopefully I get more trick or treaters. I'm going to decorate outside, watch G-rated scary movies and answer the door. That's my big night. Oh, but I'll have a jack o'lantern lit on my coffee table so I can smell it. I started carving two a few years ago.

I had to throw away one pumpkin a few days ago because the side had rotted. I've never had one go bad before Halloween.

We found Kath a pair of earrings in Scottsdale yesterday, and a bag of prickly pear popcorn. A bag of coffee beans for me, roasted by the Salt River Tribe, which is local. The brand is called Native Grounds Coffee.
We also hit The Poisoned Pen to pick up the latest Longmire novel for Mom and bought lots of hot sauces, bags of salsa seasonings and candy for stocking stuffers. That's right, I've started.
I picked up a bag of mango habanero sugar for margaritas. Julie brought me a bottle of small batch smoked honey margarita mix from Texas so I'll use the sugar with that.
And if you're a coffee drinker and think maple coffee sounds at all tempting, hurry and get Trader Joe's Autumn Maple while it's in stores. It comes in both ground and k-pods, and it's delicious. A rich buttery maple flavor and scent. I've stocked up.

I watched Suck, as it was added to Prime recently. It's been a few years but I enjoyed it as much as the last time. It's a horror comedy about a rock band that becomes successful once they're beautiful vampires. Stars Jessica Pare right before she started on Mad Men, Alice Cooper, Dave Foley, Iggy Pop, Alex Lifeson from Rush, and the funniest casting is Moby as a heavy metal singer.

From Black Summer. The guy on the roof was one of our heroes in Season 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbH-vHPzg1A

>170 mstrust:

I could go for a plate of beignets right now!

Anytime's a good time!
Pretty cool that so many countries and cultures agree that fried dough is awesome.

Four days away! I had a pumpkin donut this morning, whoopee! We walked the neighborhood while it was cool, and once again I saw the newer model white car that has been covered front to back in bloody handprints.
My 2022 Category Challenge is up, and big surprise, it's a cocktail lounge theme. https://www.librarything.com/topic/336276#unread

Stark Raving Mad Studios is on Etsy, where they have cornered a particular market. Send them a photo and they make a realistic shrunken head of you, complete with a stitched up mouth.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/216938188/custom-realistic-shrunken-head-replica

One last Halloween read--I started Fledgling by Octavia Butler which is about a genetically modified Vampire!! It also explores identity, race and science. Off to a good start...

>190 mstrust: Not something I see an urgent need for in my decore.

>191 Berly: Hope it's a good one! Looking at the cover would never have given me a clue that it's a vampire story.

>192 quondame: Just think of the Zoom calls, Susan. It would pay for itself.

The mystery of the Carnival of Souls movie still (>145 mstrust:) has finally be solved. It was indeed an LTer who had it sent! I'd given up on finding out.

Ok, fine. BOO was it?!!

>194 SomeGuyInVirginia: It's an LTer named Mark. I'd be very surprised if anyone here knows him as he doesn't participate in threads, just updates his reading. We met here about ten or eleven years ago and have kept up with each other fairly often, but he wasn't even on my list of possible culprits. You were, as Ms Hillingoss seems to be quite the jetsetter and I was thinking of all the people I know who could have run into her, but even though she's in her 80's she's very active on FB and selling signed pics and posters through her website. She's still really beautiful and fashionable.

I saw The Omen yesterday, the original. I'd never seen it before. Verifies that children are evil.
My sister gave me a bottle of Barbecue Wife smoked honey margarita mix when she was here a few weeks ago. I rimmed a glass with mango habanero sugar I got from a spice shop, and that was an excellent margarita, the smoked honey flavor really comes through.

Here's Weird U.S., a site that visits cemeteries, creature and UFO sightings and other strange places. You can search for something weird by state or category.
http://www.weirdus.com/index.php

I know, I'm running very late today. But, I did promise music for Halloween and I'm here to deliver. Let's move the furniture.

The Misfits covering "Science Fiction Double Feature" from Rocky Horror- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk8lkWQ2vBk

Messer Chups is a horror rockabilly band with a Russian singer that's been around for a very long time. "Call Me Zombie"-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7L5V5v9aqY

The Groovie Ghoulies covering "Ghoulies Are Go!"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc8FD0BJseI


Here's a special one. The Hives performing "Blood Red Moon" live with Benny Andersson from ABBA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stXkcMRRiCM

And to really get you dancing, here's "Tubular Bells", aka the theme to The Exorcist- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN6jIvKiYOs

We went back to the fair last night. We had corn dogs and a banana nilla wafer funnel cake. We came home with a slab of rocky road fudge. And it was demolition derby night, which was fun until three cars got hooked together and it took a long time to get them off the track.


And these are a couple of pics from our day in Flagstaff a few weeks ago.

This is the lobby of the historic Hotel Monte Vista downtown, which opened in 1927 with donations from Zane Grey.


Part of a large mural that includes the pioneers and Route 66.

Less than 10 minutes long, but an award-winning fright, here's Post Mortem Mary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEtnmblohY8

Thank you to Larry! Your fantastic Halloween card arrived today!
And that concludes the 2021 Halloween card exchange. Thanks to everyone who participated, I do believe this was the highest number of participants. Hooray!

Who's going to ring your doorbell? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlyYKUAM0hI

Happy Halloween, Jennifer!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! May it be spooktacular!

Boo! Happy Halloween

>201 SirThomas: >202 LibraryLover23: >203 figsfromthistle: >204 Carmenere: Happy Halloween to you all! Our night is just starting and I hope some kids come to the door. Otherwise, more candy for me.

I don't really celebrate Halloween but it would be churlish not to give you greetings on the day! My last surviving Auntie was born on October 31st and the family have always pondered the suitability of the date.

I hope the night was a good one! Welcome to November…

>206 PaulCranswick: I know that most of the world doesn't celebrate, it's a thoroughly American holiday. Oh dear, is your Auntie aware that she scares people? :-D

>207 drneutron: It was a pretty good day, thanks! I hope you had a good night. Yes, today is our 18th anniversary! We got each other nothing!

We decorated the yard a bit and the front window with a big glowing spider. Ended up with five actual kids and another five teenagers. I think that's the most we've ever had.
We watched The Dead Don't Die and ate big Tootsie Rolls.
This morning we went to the fairgrounds and picked up two photos we'd bought from the art exhibit. I'll post pics.

Come see me at my new thread!