You Only Get So Many Octobers
Halloween and Other Early Influences
I spent this past weekend doing exactly what October was made for.
On Saturday, I went bike riding with my lovely lady friend along the river trail that runs through this county. It was a picturesque fall day in New England, with clear skies, a cool breeze, and gorgeous foliage the color of flames. We spent nearly four and a half hours on the trails, making the most of the day by cycling a solid 30 miles. We stopped once for ice cream, and another time to eat Honeycrisp apples on the riverbank. By the end of the excursion, we felt like we’d gone three rounds with a young Mike Tyson, but the experience was more than worth the aches and pains.
Being over 40, I don’t go out much after 7pm. By nightfall, I prefer to be at home reading or watching something scary. But I make the occasional exception. On Sunday night, we went to Legends of Fear, an outdoor haunted attraction deep in the woods of Shelton, Connecticut. Instead of a haunted house, they have a haunted trail. You walk through the dark woods at night, going from one eerie location to the next (a graveyard, a slaughterhouse, a funhouse, etc.). My lady friend loves horror (I can’t abide a woman who doesn’t) but she’s also very jumpy, so the actors on the trail got her screaming a few times, which delighted me. This place also has a seriously bad ass haunted hayride with incredible props and scene design. But it’s being outside on an October night that really adds to the magic.
Biking during peak fall foliage and spending a night in the woods getting freaked out by vampires, evil nuns, and chainsaw-wielding clowns is my idea of wisely utilizing the season. I’d advise you to do the same. No matter what fall activities you prefer, just get outside and do them while you can. Call off work if you must. Ditch your responsibilities for a day. Just make sure you cherish the spooky season during its short window. This is the only time of year that all the normal people enjoy horror the way we gorehounds do. Let’s show ’em how it’s done!
October always makes me reflect on the things that helped shaped me to be not just a horror fan, but a horror writer. As a child, I scored a couple of action figures around Halloween time. The toys were like the old Star Wars figures in size and points of movement, but they were of famous monsters instead of space rebels or G.I. soldiers.
In the early ’80s, a company called Remco put out action figures of Dracula, Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Phantom of the Opera, and several others. Some even glowed in the dark—a mind-blowing feature when you’re a six-year-old. I didn’t just play with these in October. I played with them all throughout the year. The toys have long been lost to time, but my sentimentality for them will forever remain strong, because playing with these monsters and imagining scenarios for them were my first experiences creating scary stories in my head.
Come October, I’m also reminded of the books that started my fascination with all things spooky. Like every horror author of my generation, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was an enormous influence on me, as was the Crestwood House Monster books of the late ’70s. The latter were like movie novelizations for kids, showcasing classic horror films like The Mummy, The Blob, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, King Kong, and many others from the golden age of Hollywood horror. With their black and orange covers, these were Halloween staples at my school library, all those many full moons ago.
Of course, as I grew older, I started reading King, Barker, Matheson, and other scribes of terror, and my love for horror also played a role in my taste in music. The heavy metal of the late ’80s and early ’90s was practically married to the horror genre, having been led in that direction by pioneers like Alice Cooper and Glenn Danzig. These men and their music were huge influences on me, and I still listen to them to this day. Those first four Danzig albums are some of my favorite records ever made (listen to them if you haven’t) and they get even more airtime than usual when October creeps in, as does Cooper’s seminal album Welcome to My Nightmare (which featured Vincent Price seven years before Michael Jackson’s Thriller). You younger horror fans may consider this stuff dad rock, but it’s important to respect the genre’s roots!
In my early teens, the films of John Carpenter and Tim Burton also deeply affected me on a creative level. When it comes to seasonal viewing, Halloween and The Nightmare Before Christmas are clear favorites among the masses, but I like to pull out Beetlejuice and Prince of Darkness too (which features Alice Cooper in a small but scary role). Carpenter’s underrated classic In the Mouth of Madness helped solidify my goal of becoming a professional horror writer and Stephen King’s non-fiction love letter to the genre, Danse Macabre, only intensified my monastic obsession with fictional frights. I even credit the Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons as an early influence, and Disney’s 1949 animated short, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, an even earlier influence.
People often ask when I started writing. Well folks, I wrote some of my earliest scary stories when I was just seven-years-old. This being the ’80s, they were done in longhand, complete with childhood misspellings, and I also illustrated them, drawing werewolves and ghouls and so many jack-o’-lanterns that I can draw one with my eyes closed to this day. Even as I matured, my love for Halloween didn’t fade. I only went from trick-’r-treating to costume parties, some of which I hosted, and eventually graduated to turning my house into a haunted attraction for the neighborhood kids. I had a full graveyard, projector, fog machine, a shitload of props, and best of all—I chased them with chainsaw. Every year, more and more kids came around as word of mouth spread. The kids loved it as much as I did.
Simply put, Halloween has played a much bigger part in my life than it does most people.
Now that I live in an old farmhouse in the woods, I don’t get any trick-’r-treaters, so I don’t do the haunted house spectacle anymore. Sure, I miss it, but I value the isolation and privacy my place offers year-round, so it’s a necessary sacrifice. But when the air is cool and the leaves are crisp and there’s a bad moon on the rise, the tingles of Halloween joy ripple through me, returning yearly like an old friend. I’ll never stop loving the season of the witch. Though I’ve come to celebrate it in different ways over the years, I’ll never be too old to celebrate it. Horror writers don’t outgrow Halloween. In fact, I think we hardly grow up at all—at least on the inside. Within every horror writer is a little kid in a Halloween costume running through the streets on a dark and spooky night. In our writing, we’re forever chasing that sweet combination of fun and fear, and we’re always hoping to share it with you.
You only get so many Octobers.
Spend them wisely, my horror fiend friends.
In the spirt of the season, I’d like to recommend some of my books which are perfect for October. I’ve written two books that center around Halloween. One is my reunion horror novel That Night in the Woods. The other is my erotic horror novel about witches, The Long Shadows of October, which is one of my earlier works. But I have several other books I consider ideal for your seasonal reading. I consider The Prettiest Girl in the Grave my spookiest book, and Ex-Boogeyman is my loving tribute to the slasher films we all devour this time of year. Or if you’re looking for scary short stories to tell in the dark, check out my collections Blood Relations and my very first published book, Growing Dark.
These are all widely available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but they’re also available on my website, where they come signed and include sinister swag items. Right now I’m even tossing in free pumpkin stickers with every order. From now until October 31st, I’m offering a 10% discount, storewide. Just enter code SPOOKY at checkout. Snag some terrifying books for Halloween and support an indie author at the same time!
I have one last stop on my 2024 book signing tour.
October 19th: Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. Haverhill Public Library. Haverhill, Massachusetts.
The annual Halloween party for horror readers promises to once again be as lit as a jack-o-lantern! Guests include Joe Hill, Ronald Malfi, Bracken MacLeod, Rebecca Rowland, Larry Hinkle, Lynne Hansen, Clay McLeod Chapman, and many more!
I hope to see you there so we can kick off Halloween together.
Until next time, keep reading, and enjoy October.
Your pal,
Kris
I remember those toys and those books! I had both when I was a kid