Happy October!

Welcome October! This is my favorite time of year. I love fall with the crisp air, the color changes in the leaves, and of course, Halloween! This year I’m in two Halloween collections that will be coming out in October. I’ll be posting about the other closer to Halloween once it comes out, but today I thought I’d talk about an anthology just released from Macabre Ladies Publishing. The Holiday Horror Collection has continued with its fifth book, Dark Halloween. I was able to get stories in the Dark Valentine and Dark Solstice books and I have loved working with this publisher.

I have one story in this anthology, a drabble titled “Carvings”. One of the things I love about Halloween is how creative people get with their pumpkin carvings. There are so many amazing pictures online of carvings that I could never have ever thought of. And because of places like Pinterest, there are so many different places we can go to find templates to make our own. (Check out my Pinterest carving board to see some amazing ones I found this year! )

My love of carved pumpkins (and my lack of skill at it) led me to think of a story of a woman who complements her neighbor on her scary pumpkin carvings. But what if it isn’t skill or talent? What if those pumpkins aren’t made from templates she got online? How else could she get these grotesque pumpkins that line her sidewalk to welcome her trick-or-treaters to the door?

And that question inspired me to write “Carvings”.

I hope you have a wonderful fall, and make the most of our glorious holidays (I am a sucker for Halloween and also Thanksgiving! You’ll hear more about that next month, of course). Check out my Pinterest page if you’re interested in seeing what sort of random things I save on there. And click the link below to learn more about Dark Halloween: Holiday Horror Collection.