My most Halloween-suitable books
First, a quick piece of writing news: I recently finished the first draft of Ballad for Jasmine Town, my next book! It takes place on Eidolonia, the island of fae and witches where Lava Red Feather Blue is set, but you won't need to have read Lava Red Feather Blue to understand it. Each book can be read as a standalone. The manuscript is currently incubating undisturbed for a month or so before I open it up again for revisions, but I will of course have more to tell you about it in the future.
Meanwhile: we are almost to my favorite holiday, Halloween! In my opinion the US needs more holidays where we wear costumes, roam the streets at night, and exchange chocolate free of charge. Not to mention all the spooky movies and books we treat ourselves to this time of year.
This got me thinking that I should rank the top five most Halloween-suitable books among my own writing. Here is what I came up with, and I admit I am perhaps cheating since one of them is a three-book series:
5. Sage and King - Only scary if you have a phobia about spells that turn you or your body parts into plants. Assassin magicians can be mean that way. Overall mood is fluffy and steamy, though.
4. Lava Red Feather Blue - Not too scary on the whole, except for one scene involving a dark passage through a fae-realm forest of birch trees whose purpose in life is to terrify and/or kill anyone who enters.
3. The Persephone’s Orchard series - It is about the gods of the dead, after all, and there are some cruel murders and a dash of human sacrifice. (The Bronze Age; these things happen.) But said gods are basically lovely people in my version.
2. The Ghost Downstairs - This one has several traditional creepy haunted house moments, which I personally think are some of the spookiest scenes I’ve written. But it’s also essentially sweet and romantic throughout in terms of mood.
1. The Goblins of Bellwater - To me this novel isn’t truly scary, but I would say it’s my eeriest and most unsettling book, so moodwise it’s probably the best Halloween fit.
As for films, we have so far dusted off two old favorites for weekend movie nights, both of them comedy monster movies: Tremors and Young Frankenstein. Truly delightful!
Do you have any favorite reading or viewing for Halloween season? I want to hear about your costume too!
Be well and pace yourself on the candy.