It's Halloween, the holiday of ghouls and goblins, masquerade parties, jack o' lanterns, and haunted houses. I love this time of year. Maybe it's because I refuse to outgrow the holiday. Maybe it's because I like autumn and candy and carving pumpkins and seeing children enjoy the tricks and treats. Maybe it's because I write paranormal horror, and I like things that go bump in the night.
Or maybe I like Halloween for the same reasons I like to read a good novel.
Sound like a stretch? Think about this. When you're caught up in a novel, isn't it often because you relate to a main character? You feel that character's emotions, understand her motivations, like her friends, despise her enemies, face her obstacles. Or maybe you enjoy the setting or atmosphere the novel creates. Perhaps it's the situation that draws you in, but for whatever reason, reading lets you slip into a character or time or place or storyline, at least until you reach the end.
A bit like putting on a costume and acting out a part for one night, isn't it?
Plot twists are tricks, a satisfying ending is a treat, and you're presented with all sorts of characters and get to decide just who they really are (and these characters don't make you answer the door and then stroll off with your candy).
The parallel between Halloween and reading a good novel strengthens if the novel contains an element of fear or the supernatural. Over at Once Upon a Bookstore, Lyrical Press offers a wide variety of stories to satisfy your paranormal cravings, including my recent release, Dark Knowledge. So head on over to the Lyrical Press bookstore, download a book or two, and treat yourself to a little Halloween fun any night of the year.
And as long as I'm on the subject of paranormal cravings, I'll leave you with a short piece about this horror writer's paranormal cravings. Trick or treat?
A HORROR WRITER'S HALLOWEEN CRAVING
May this Halloween fulfill what you desire most, be it candy or eternal youth, but be careful. With either satisfaction comes a price: empty calories or an empty soul.I can satisfy either of your desires, but you must choose which. Don't rush your decision. First, acknowledge your hungers. Listen to their moans but also understand hunger is the only the ache of desire. Feel the ache. Follow it inside yourself, look upon your true desires, and then choose which hunger to feed.
I'll abide by your decision. Come scare me on my doorstep, and I'll give you chocolate. Summon me, and I'll satisfy both of our deeper cravings.
Don't be shocked to learn of my Halloween feedings. When you think about it, satisfying this craving isn't all that different from what I do every other day of the year. The characters in my novels don't change beyond the pages. If I leave them at twenty-two, they remain twenty-two forever, ageless and immortal--unless I kill them in edits or delete their entire existence, evaporating them like they were never born. The only difference on Halloween is that the immortals left behind aren't created, they're transformed. They are, however, still mine.
So I ask you again to understand your true desires. If mortality has become a burden, if endless youth beckons, this is the night I can help you. No need to call. Once you decide, just concentrate on the pulse in your neck. Close your eyes, and drown out all other thoughts until you hear the blood surge with each pump of your heart.
When you feel my presence, you have a choice to make. No, not the one you're thinking. You've already made that decision. But you can choose whether to experience your transformation or not. Open your eyes and look into mine, and I'll make sure you remember it only as a vague dream.
But to experience the full pleasure of the change, keep your eyes closed when you feel my hot breath on your neck, my tongue tasting your skin. There will be some pain upon penetration--I can't help that--but then I'll begin sucking. It'll be over before you want it to be. I promise.
Keith Pyeatt
Horror with Heart
Paranormal thrills, real emotion
** Thanks to Cullan Hudson of Fresh Eire Designs for vampirizing my picture.**
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