First, a small confession: this was a card I lusted after for some time after first seeing it because it bore a startling resemblance to my cat Sylvia, who passed away in 2013:

For comparison, here’s Sylvia:

So what is it about black cats and Halloween? Why have they became such Halloween superstars?

The black cat has a long history that precedes Halloween; it’s been an object of superstition for centuries. Cats in general, of course, have also been tied to witches throughout the ages, likely for a factual reason: they served as companions and household helpers (keeping down the rodent population) to the elderly women who often lived alone and were accused of being witches.

However, black cats also have one other interesting tie to Halloween, and that’s via Edgar Allan Poe’s classic 1843 story “The Black Cat.” Although the story itself includes no link to Halloween, it was published shortly before the holiday became popular in the U.S., and it was frequently read at Halloween parties (hopefully the ones for adults, because this story is pretty gruesome!).

Read "The Black Cat"

By the time the 1900s arrived - when postcards like these became so popular - the black cat had been established as one of the main Halloween icons. In fact, it’s probably not outside the bounds of possibility to suggest that the combination of the orange jack-o’-lantern and the black cat were the source of the colors we associate today with Halloween.

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After sharing my short story “The End of the World Man” with you all - a story originally sold over a decade ago to a book that never happened - I remembered that I have another story with a similar fate, and I thought you might enjoy this one even more because it’s a ghost story.

Here’s the story behind the story: almost a decade ago I was invited …

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I know we’re only a few days away until my regular September newsletter, but there are some good things happening right now I wanted to let you know about.

First: if you need some great Halloween reading, you can get 20% off right now if you order directly from Crystal Lake’s website and use the code TREATTHEAUTHOR when you check out (in case you’re wondering why your 20% off is also a treat for the author, it’s because we get higher royalties if you buy directly from the publisher). Click the button below to see all of the books I have work in at Crystal Lake:

Lisa's Crystal Lake books

However, may I especially recommend this one:

I absolutely LOVE Lucy and Kate’s novellas in here, and all three of our novellas interconnect to make this book extra-special. You can order it in either a hardback or paperback, and don’t forget to use code TREATTHEAUTHOR! Side note: be sure to set your shipping address before you look at the shipping - it may quote you something high at first, but will go down to very reasonable when you input your address.

Next up: please consider heading over to Kickstarter and signing up to be notified on launch for Cinematic Obsessions — Reflections on Cult Films that Broke the Rules. I love working with Christopher McGlothlin on his film books, and…well, I won’t even tell you the title of the movie I madly scrawled 2,000 words on, but here’s an image:

Remember, just signing up to be notified on launch doesn’t cost you anything or obligate you to back the campaign when it goes live.

Notify me!

AND NOW FOR A FEW HALLOWEEN OBSERVATIONS

Every year I love visiting all the stores when the Halloween stuff goes out so I can break my wallet gauge the trends and hits for the year.

Trend #1 for 2026: ANIMALS. Everybody seems to be featuring animals this year. Heck, Spirit Halloween even has a mystery figural bag clip thing for “Latex Animals.”

Trend #2: ANTHROPOMORPHIC PUMPKINS. I know there are always plenty of jack-o’-lantern-headed characters introduced every year, but it seems like there are more than ever in 2026.

Hit #1: HOME DEPOT’S HUGE ANIMATED SPIDER. I’ve seen people in various online groups even removing these from the animations and just displaying them.

Hit #2: HOME DEPOT’S HALLOWEEN BUCKET. It really is adorable.

Hit #3: SPIRIT HALLOWEEN’S ALIEN FIGURE. The animation is kind of disappointing, but the size is really impressive.

Hit #4: PETCO’S HALLOWEEN AQUARIUM ORNAMENTS. I don’t think they’ve ever done this before. In fact, I’m pretty sure they haven’t ‘cause I have an aquarium and would totally have bought them (still anxiously waiting for mine to arrive - look out, fish!).

Weird Thing #1: MICHAELS’ DISCO GHOST. Although, truthfully, their Disco Candy Corn was even weirder.

Weird Thing #2: HOME GOODS’ CAKE-THEMED HALLOWEEN PIECES. One or two, sure…but a whole display of these?

Weird Thing #3: HOME DEPOT’S DEAD MIXOLOGIST DUDE. Okay, this is just…well, weird.

I hope your Halloween season is starting well, and I’ll be back soon with another installment of Halloween Postcard History and my regular September author newsletter.

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This is one of my favorite vintage postcards to share just because almost no one in 2026 knows what’s going on in this image from 1909:

If you were to step into a time machine (hey, why don’t we have those yet?) and head back to a Halloween from the past - let’s say, 150 years or so - what you’d find wouldn’t be costuming and trick or treat and haunted attractions; instead, it would be parties where young people would be playing fortune-telling games. Presuming this party is one attended mainly by young adults, those games would almost all be designed to reveal who you were destined to marry. Remember, this was a time when women were still likelier to end up in a marriage than a career, so the identity of your future intended tended to be uppermost in a lot of folks’ minds.

The lovely young woman in this postcard is engaging in one of those fortune-telling rituals. With this one, an apple was pared on Halloween night, and then the peeling was tossed back over one shoulder; it would then be examined to see if it had fallen in a way that resembled a particular letter. If, for example, it fell in a rough “O” shape and you happened to know a young man named Oscar…well, you better hope you actually like Oscar ‘cause this apple paring says he’s the one for you.

In regards to the the artwork, I like how the artist has formed the word “Hallowe’en” (and we’re going to talk about that apostrophe in the middle of the word in a future post!) out of apple peelings, and also worked in a jack-o’-lantern face for fun.

Myself, I’ve never tried this. Let me know if any of you have!

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Ahhh, yes, the Little People, the Good Neighbors, the Bright Folk…fairies. Or, as the ancient Celts called them, the sidh…

This 1909 card shows gaily dressed figures dancing with anthropomorphized vegetables. While there’s nothing clearly indicating these are fairies, there are a few solid hints:

First off, the Scottish and Irish believed in fairies, which were clearly descended from their Celtic ancestors’ sidh, and they believed those fairies could cross over into our world on Halloween night (or Samhain for the Celts). On that night, barrows - large hillocks dotting the landscape) - would open, and the unwary passerby might see the fairies within holding their wild Halloween revels. Any traveler who was foolish enough to try to join in would be found dead come morning, having been danced to death.

Over time, the fairies became far less malicious (think Tinkerbell), but the original sidh were nightmarish creatures that were capable of crossing over on Samhain night and causing major havoc: In one legend about the great hero Finn MacCool (more properly known as Fionn mac Cumhaill), a sidh crossed over every Samhain and burned the Celts’ palace down until Finn stood up against him armed with a magic shield and spear.

That definitely ain’t a Disney fairy!

Obviously by the time this postcard was produced in 1909, the fairies had been reduced to creatures of playful whimsy, although many of the Scottish and Irish still called them things like “the good neighbors,” because it was once believed that calling the fairies something derogatory could make you their target…

Especially on Halloween.

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Today we’re taking a little side trip, though, through this lovely image:

What makes this card so interesting is not so much the Halloween history (although candles were part of a number of Halloween fortune-telling games, like using one to peer into a mirror at midnight in the hopes of seeing the face of your future spouse), but the artist.

Ellen H. Clapsaddle is one of the great heroes of American illustration. Born in South Columbia, New York in 1865, this prolific artist produced over 3,000 postcards in different subjects; I’m not sure how many she produced related to Halloween, but it’s probably safe to say she was one of the most popular artists related to the holiday. She is credited with having helped to establish postcards as a dominant means of communication just before telephones were introduced into American homes nationwide. Clapsaddle was also a painter of landscapes and portraits, and taught art as well.

From 1915 on, she resided in New York City, where she died at the Peabody Home for Aged and Indigent Women in 1932. Although half of her postcards depicted children, she never had any of her own.

Thankfully, though, she did leave us an extraordinary collection of beautiful art which remains sought after by collectors today, a century after most of the pieces were produced.

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Since one of you (hi, Miranda!) indicated on my recent poll that you’d like to see some more fiction, here’s a fun one for you today.

This story was originally written in 2010, for an anthology called Shocklines. Once upon a time, Shocklines was a message forum that was one of the go-to places for horror writers; we all congregated and jabbered t…

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Today we’ve got one that I’m guessing will be baffling to most…

This 1909 card shows a giant pumpkin man doing…uh…what, exactly? Petting a brain?

Nope - he’s pulling a head of cabbage from his garden on Halloween night. Why? Because he’s participating in an old fortune-telling game in which a head of cabbage was pulled on Halloween night and the stalk was examined to reveal clues about one’s future spouse. You can probably guess what things like a dirty stalk or a straight stalk foretold. The stalk was also cut and tasted in hopes of a sweet flavor.

Note also that the pumpkin man is dressed in plaid; this is a little hat-tip to the fact that this game was mainly practiced by the Scottish, and is described in the classic poem “Hallowe’en,” written by Robert Burns in 1785:

Then, first and foremost, through the kail1,
Their stocks maun a’ be sought ance;
They steek their een, and graip and wale,
For muckle anes and straught anes.
Poor hav’rel Will fell aff the drift,
And wander’d through the bow-kail,
And pou’t, for want o’ better shift,
A runt was like a sow-tail,
Sae bow’t that night.

Then, staught or crooked, yird or nane,
They roar and cry a’ throu’ther;
The very wee things, todlin’, rin,
Wi’ stocks out owre their shouther;
And gif the custoc’s sweet or sour.
Wi’ joctelegs2 they taste them;
Syne cozily, aboon the door,
Wi cannie care, they’ve placed them
To lie that night.

Yeah, I know - Burns’s Scottish is not easily parsed by modern American brains, but I think you get the general idea of how much fun this probably was.

Weird tidbit about my copy of this card: even though the card is dated 1909, my copy was mailed in 1921! I’d love to know whether someone bought this in 1909 and just waited twelve years to send it, if this just sat unbought in some dusty drugstore rack for twelve years, or if this was card was popular enough to be produced for twelve years. It’s one more Halloween mystery!

One last note about this card: I chose this one in part because of the bat that’s also prominently featured on it. Why? Because last week I recorded an episode of the podcast Framed by Fables about bats, and I had a great time! Can’t wait for that one to go live so you all can laugh along with us on the show.

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Halloween History 101

Let’s do something different this year, something that gives ya a way better visual than my jabberin’ mug: Halloween history via vintage postcards!

In case you don’t know: from about 1910 to about 1925, there were around 3,000 Halloween postcards produced. Most of these cards featured delightful, colorful images which both reflected on and helped to shape Halloween history. Combined with the marketing efforts of companies like Dennison’s, which, starting in 1909, published (almost) annual Halloween decorating guides called Bogie Books, it’s safe to say that American retailing created the holiday we cherish now. Without the postcards and the party supplies, would we have pumpkins, witches, black cats, bats, and owls decorating our homes every October?

I’ve been collecting Halloween postcards for a quarter-of-a-century now and have acquired over 150, so we’ve got a lot to talk about! Let’s start with a classic, one that features Halloween’s three main icons and one that has been reproduced a lot, so you’ve likely seen it already:

This card probably dates from about 1915. I’ve seen it sold in modern reproductions (I think shops in Salem offered it when I was there), and for good reason: it delightfully captures Halloween’s three superstars - the black cat, the witch, and the jack-o’-lantern - partying together.

Here are a couple of interesting historical points to note: each of those three icons had a famous short story from the 19th century that helped to secure their Halloween icon status: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.” Even though none of those stories directly names Halloween (although “Young Goodman Brown” may reference it obliquely as “this night…of all nights in the year”), all three became Halloween classics because they were so often told at parties throughout the 19th century.

I’m going to save commenting more on the witch for a later post (here’s a hint: just note that she’s wearing red, not black), and mention the pumpkin man: pay attention to the fact that he’s constructed out of various vegetables, with corn for arms, yams for feet, lettuce for a cap, and pumpkins for both head and torso. This tells us that Halloween back then often doubled as a harvest festival, something reflected in decorating guides from the time that suggest using corn, apples, and gourds to set the mood for your party.

Oh, and by the way: since these postcards are all in the public domain, feel free to share and re-use!

Happy Spooky Season!

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I’m taking a break from compiling stories of saints and demons (I’m not even kidding when I tell you I’ve just finished going through all 16 volumes of S. Baring-Gould’s 1899 The Lives of the Saints looking for accounts of demonic possession, and DAMN, did I come up with some whoppers) to say hi and chat a bit.

I’ve been thinkin…

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But things just aren’t gelling the way I’d hoped. My demonic possession book has proven to be a bigger challenge than I’d expected, I’ve got a looming deadline of 10/1, and I hate missing deadlines. I know a lot of writers are kind of nonchalant about deadlines, but I’m not one of them.

Anyway, the fact is that I need every spare hour now to finish this thing. If I go to Midsummer Scream, that’s at least three hours of driving time, a couple of hours at the show, and maybe even an hour just to park and get in (yeah, I know - a Halloween expert should be a VIP at a Halloween convention but welcome to reality), so that’s really a whole day gone. Also, Ricky wouldn’t be going (he’ll be in rehearsals for the new play he’s in), which means I’d be making the drive there and back alone, and probably coming home exhausted.

Note that last word, because it’s why I’ve been running behind on this book. Yeah, I’m perpetually really tired. It’s not because I’m getting older - I am incredibly lucky to still feel pretty good (just yesterday a lovely gentleman watched me juggling a tall stack of hardbacks and blurted out, “Wow, you’re strong!”) - but because of business at the Iliad Bookshop, where I’m employed full-time.

Just last night I said to one of my fellow booksellers there, “I think this weird ramping up of business this summer is here to stay.” He agreed.

Over the last few months, I’d guess our business has gone up nearly 20%. No, we don’t know why. It just has.

I know, I hear you all going, “Wow, that’s GREAT!” It is, but…it’s not so great if you’re one of the small number of workers trying to keep up with it all. We were already struggling at the beginning of the year; now we’re struggling even more.

Increased business doesn’t just mean it’s harder on the staff (although IT IS); it also means it’s harder on the customers. Our parking lot is full minutes after we open (sometimes before!), putting an extra burden on older or disabled customers. The number of donations coming in is overwhelming and we don’t have enough space or staff to process it all. If one person goes on vacation, that increases the workload even more.

Yes, we need to hire. And we just did…and THAT was absurdly hard. We advertised for a “permanent, full-time bookseller.” We got around 600 applications. I personally went through every one. We pulled out about twenty people to interview.

And during the interviews we got everything from “Oh, is it a problem that I can’t work on Wednesdays?” (we heard this from more than one - WTF is it with Wednesdays?) to…ummm…rather unspectacular results on a small literary test we give them. We got turned down. We got people who said “yes”…until they said, “Oh, sorry - no,” an hour later.

We finally found someone who I think is perfect, but of course can’t start for two weeks (she’s actually conscientious and so is giving her current employer - another bookstore - two weeks notice).

The point of all this is to say what I said above: I’m exhausted. Like, all the time. It’s taken me a while to realize I have to just say, “Fuck you, Exhaustion - I gotta write this book.” I’m up every morning early enough to spend a few hours working, because by the time I get home at night - which is almost 8 p.m. - I may not be lucid enough to get much done.

And I can’t afford distractions. It’s one thing to say, “No cons or movies or day trips!” It’s another to realize I just blew a valuable chunk of writing time on whatever scandal is currently raging across social media. I won’t give up certain time-eaters like mentoring writers or working behind the scenes on StokerCon, but I should step away from the social sites more. And we’re entering that time of year when my services as a Halloween expert are coming into demand. Tomorrow morning, for example, I’ll be leaving the house early to stop by a recording studio on my way in to work to record an episode of a popular podcast.

The good news is that I have settled into a solid groove with the book, and I love how it’s shaping up. I’m finding astonishing stories to include (c’mon, the 1844 exorcism by cookie - gotta love it!), I’m finding new things to admire in The Exorcist, I’m finding those crucial historical connections (aha! the first mention of vomiting during an exorcism!), I’m finding horrific tales of death-by-exorcism, and I’m even finding great illustrations, like this one, depicting a scene from the always-entertaining Book of Revelations of (yes, really) evil spirits being driven out of other evil spirits in the form of frogs:

I’m also already planning the next book. I’d hoped to avoid going right into another deadline, but my agent’s really excited by this one and wants to start shopping the proposal ASAP. Hey, there are worse problems to have…

Before you ask…no, I haven’t considered retirement because despite the difficulties I can’t imagine not being a bookseller. I love it - the books, the staff, the customers, the cats. Yeah, I probably love writing more…but as long as I can still manage to do both, I will.

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Now, here I am 52 years later, putting together a book on the history of demonic possession (and of course you gotta know this book was directly inspired by my love of The Exorcist), and re-visiting it in a very different light. Because now, more than half-a-century later, I see it as more than just an extraordinarily effective horror film; it’s unquestionably a massive cultural bombshell.

When you re-watch The Exorcist at this moment in time - the year 2026, when our leaders routinely dismiss science and grovel at the feet of a religion they don’t even begin to believe in - you have to squirm at how the 1973 film treats demonic possession as an oddity. We live in a time when megachurches exorcize 10,000 attendees at once, when every other horror film or book involves demonic possession, when Regan’s possessed face has become a Halloween icon to be found on coffee mugs and stickers…yet in the actual film, demonic possession has been (and this is a direct quote from the film) “discarded these days except by the Catholics, who keep it in the closet as a sort of an embarrassment.” We most definitely have come a long way, baby; unfortunately, we’ve gone a long way in the wrong direction.

I consider the late-1973 release of The Exorcist one of the two pivotal moments in the history of demonic possession; the other is the Biblical story of Legion, the man also known as “the Gerasene demoniac,” who is exorcized by Christ in (or near) a graveyard on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. That demoniac (and the others like him to be found in the New Testament) re-defined demonic possession from the classical world’s notion of demonic possession as disease; the New Testament also made Christianity into the first religion to thoroughly codify exorcism as a central tenet (seriously, Christ is exorcising people within twenty-three verses of the beginning of Mark’s gospel). By 1973, exorcism had faded into the background of nearly every world religion, but the film of The Exorcist brought it back (and it’s interesting to note that it was NOT William Peter Blatty’s bestselling novel that did that; it was certainly successful, but it didn’t impact readers the way the movie slammed into worldwide audiences).

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This is going out a little earlier than usual because there are two August 1st happenings to let you know/remind you about (see below).

How’s your summer going? Mine’s a mix of research deep dives, crazy heat day after day, and…well, weirdly enough, movie stuff. Yeah, a couple of potentially great things have kind of come out of nowhere. One is an adaptation of one of my short stories by some incredible filmmakers who I had a great meeting with; one is a possible consulting gig on a major feature; and one is the possible resurrection of something old of mine. Right now that’s all I’m going to say about any of these because nothing’s firm yet, but it’s nice to have multiple fun possibilities swirling around in the ether.

I’ve also been strategizing with my agent about the next book. Yes, here I am racing to make the October 1 deadline on My Name is Legion: The Strange and Terrifying History of Demonic Possession, and already planning what comes after. I’d actually hoped to take a break after delivering this book, but my agent got so excited about the next book that I agreed to try to get her at least part of it by the end of the year.

And then there’s the plethora of smaller pieces I owe various and sundry editors…

Well, hey, I like staying busy. Good thing, that.

Hope you’re all well, cool, and staying relatively sane.

Lisa

NEW STUFF I LIKE

"The Change is everything we could have hoped for from a new John Skipp novel: creepy, hilarious, smart, beautiful, wild, and weird AF. Just don't be surprised if it turns your consciousness into a column of blinding light."

That’s the blurb I gave my longtime pal Skipp for his incredible new novel. When you agree to read a novel for a friend, you always go in hoping it’ll be great…and this one more than lived up to it.

I want to mention one aspect of Skipp’s writing that he does spectacularly well: characters. He’s always had a gift for mixing realistically-eccentric characters into his barreling-forward plots. I am totally jealous of his skill at allowing the reader to intimately know a character without slowing down the action. I mean, you gotta love the hitman who hugs his friend, or the tough female doctors who can stand up to authority but are compassionate with their patients.

It’s a great book, and I hope it does well for Skipp. He’s earned it.

Pre-Order The Change

THE HALLOWEEN SPIRIT

I guess I’ve become enough of a Halloween influencer (okay, I’m making myself laugh right now) that I’m on the official advance press release list for both Home Depot and Spirit Halloween, so let’s share some news:

First off, Home Depot is bringing back their Halloween bucket this year (how did I totally miss this last year?), and it’s adorable - a seasonal makeover of their usual big orange bucket:

Here’s their official blurbage: “Back by popular demand, this year’s 2-gallon Halloween Bucket features an all-new collectible design. Overwhelming consumer demand and social media buzz instantly turned this simple bucket into a viral, must-have collectible.

The buckets will retail for just $2.98 and begin rolling out in stores now and throughout August while supplies last. They will be sold online for the first time starting end of August.”

Meanwhile, Spirit Halloween is opening their flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, NJ, this Saturday. Obviously I won’t be there (since I live a mere 3,000 or so miles away), but if you live in the area and want to go…you can! Here’s their official info:

I’m sure you agree, the first sign of Halloween nearing is a Spirit Halloween store appearing! We’d love to invite you to a giant celebration and access to the flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, NJ, on August 1st as Spirit Halloween celebrates its official grand opening!

At the event, we’d offer you:

• Exclusive Store Tour: A walkthrough of brand new and beloved costumes, home goods & decor, and animatronics

• Chat with Spirit Halloween Representative: Learn more about the season’s latest and greatest straight from the source!

• Festive Fun: A chance to enjoy the festivities, which include food from local vendors, games, and more

Viewers who missed pre-registration can arrive on-site starting at 8:00 AM to join the General Admission lanyard line to have guaranteed store access.

You can find a full run of show below:

• 8:00 AM: General Admission check-in & outdoor festivities begin

• 10:00 AM: Official ribbon-cutting ceremony and store opening

• 12:00 PM: Outdoor festivities conclude

• 8:00 PM: Store closes

STRANGE DOINGS

I recently recorded the debut episode of a new podcast on ghosts found along highways, and the topic of conversation got onto Resurrection Mary, which was one I didn’t know much about, so let’s unpack this fascinating ghost together.

Resurrection Mary comes from Chicago, and is a classic example of the hitchhiking ghost. Her name derives from the fact that she’s said to be buried at Resurrection Cemetery, in Justice, Illinois, about a 30-minute drive southwest of Chicago. She’s mainly reported along Archer Avenue, where witnesses describe as being a young blonde woman dressed in a white dress, styled like something from the 1920s or ‘30s.

She’s got a couple of different origin stories, but probably the most common one says that, back in the Roaring Twenties, she went out with her boyfriend to the Oh Henry Ballroom, but she walked out after they had a fight. As she was striding along Archer Avenue, she was the victim of a hit-and-run. Her parents found the body, and, heartbroken, buried her in Resurrection Cemetery in her best dancing gown. Now she may show up outside the Willowbrook Ballroom – formerly the Oh Henry - ask for a ride, climb into the back seat, give the driver directions…and then vanish as the car passes the cemetery.

Researchers, including one who says he’s collected reports of no less than three-dozen encounters with Mary, have tried to establish her identity, but nothing has so far matched.

Mary may be known as Chicago’s most famous ghost, but over the years she has become quite the celebrity, with her fame spreading beyond the Chicago area: she’s been featured in songs, and on television shows like Unsolved Mysteries.

The interview was with my friend Jimmy Mac for a new podcast he’ll be launching soon, so follow his Substack to stay tuned!

BEHIND THE SCREAMS

Blurb for John Skipp’s The Change (see above)

I thought it might be fun to talk a little about crafting blurbs. I know some authors love doing it, some don’t, and some feel like they don’t know how.

I fall into the first group…provided I have the time to read what I’m being asked to blurb, because I take blurbing seriously. I’ve heard there are authors who just have pre-made generic blurbs they pass out like Halloween candy, but (if that’s true - I hope it’s not) that ain’t me. If I ever turn down your blurb request (or don’t make a deadline), know that it’s likely only because I didn’t have time to read your book.

I should also add that I don’t supply blurbs to books I don’t like. I may also decline a blurb request if the book’s a sequel and I haven’t already read whatever came before it, because I sure don’t have time to read more books for one blurb.

Here’s how it works: I read the book and then spend a few days thinking about what I want to say. With John Skipp’s new novel The Change, I figured most people reading the book will already have some sense of his reputation, and may wonder how this book lives up to that. I also wanted to play on a central visual motif in the book - people who transform into columns of light. Lastly, of course, I always want to load a blurb with superlatives, and with The Change in particular I wanted those adjectives to give a sense of how the book hops across genres.

If it sounds like just writing a blurb is actually work…it is, at least for me!

THE WRITE STUFF

I was recently hard at work on this new book when I started to wonder why it wasn’t going faster. I stepped away from it for a day, just thought about it from all angles, and found the answer:

I’d fallen down the dreaded research rabbit hold.

That’s a thing that’s an easy trap when you’re doing a lot of research: you read one small, interesting fact that you want to know more about, even if it doesn’t directly relate to what you’re working on, so you dig into that…and then that leads you to some other little factoid, and you dig into that…and on…and on…

And before you know it, you’ve spent hours or days or even weeks to amass a relatively small amount of information.

It took me a day to realize that was what had happened to me. At that point I sat down and just started organizing what I’d collected and actually writing, and ouila! The words started to flow, the word count went up, and the book started to look like a real book.

The moral of this story is: research is good, but too much research can stop your momentum dead, so beware the research trap.

NEWS & WORKS IN PROGRESS

This Saturday, I’ll be part of Christopher Golden’s Carry Me to Your Book Shelf Tour event at The Village Well in Culver City. Check out this line-up and schedule:

5:30-6:10 Darkness Bleeds – Horror, Crime, Thriller and Other Dark Fictions: Fruit of the Same Tree, with Caroline Kepnes, Rachel Howzell Hall, Kasey Lansdale, Keith Rosson, and Christopher Golden (moderator)

6:10 – 6:40 panelists sign

6:40 – 7:20 The New Golden Age of Horror, with Liz Kerin, Chuck Tingle, Monika Kim, Philip Fracassi, Catriona Ward, and Lisa Morton (moderator)

7:20 – 8pm panelists sign

How great is this guest list?! You do need to RSVP in advance, so just click the button (it’s free):

Reserve your spot

More interview news coming soon… ‘tis the season, after all.

And you know what I’m working on (“What an excellent day for an exorcism"), so that’s all the news for now!

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

• August 1st, 5:30 pm to 8 pm: I’ll be part of CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN’S CARRY ME TO YOUR BOOKSHELF TOUR LOS ANGELES at Village Well Books & Coffee, along with Christopher Golden, Caroline Kepnes, Monika Kim, Philip Fracassi, Liz Kerin, Keith Rosson, Chuck Tingle, Rachel Howzell Hall, Kasey Lansdale, and Catriona Ward

• August 9th, 11 am to 12 pm: I’ll be at the HWA’s booth at Midsummer Scream, signing Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween and In the Shadow of Halloween

• November 1, 3 pm: I’ll be signing JACKsploitation: The Films of Jack Hill as part of a Dark Delicacies pop-up event at Emerald Knights in Burbank

• June 10 - June 13, 2027: I’ll be haunting StokerCon 2027 in Pittsburgh

THE WHOLE HAUNTED WORLD

My paid subscribers are getting sneak peeks at My Name is Legion: The Strange and Terrifying History of Demonic Possession, and will get a few other fun posts soon.

WHERE YOU CAN BUY MY BOOKS

• Amazon

• Barnes & Noble

• Bookshop.org

GIVEAWAY

Spirit Halloween gifted me with some great Summerween stuff, but I don’t have a pool so I’ll pass this on to someone else! Just click the button below to enter (it’s an email link), at the end of the month I’ll randomly choose a winner to ship this to, and good luck!

(Sorry, this is only open to residents of the U.S. because our postal system has so thoroughly effed up international shipping.)

I want the pool float!

Thanks as always for reading this far, and stay well!

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I got into stage magic when my sixth grade teacher, a giant (he gave his height as “five-eighteen-and-a-half”) named Jim Riley, held after-school magic classes. There were maybe half-a-dozen of us in the Magic Club, including my bestie Susan. Mr. Riley taught both stage magic and sleight-of-hand, but I wasn’t very good at the latter mainly because I had small, delicate hands (while Mr. Riley could hide a large orange in his palm). The only hand trick I was good at was one involving producing tiny foam rabbits because I could squish those up and they’d fit my grip.

But my size also made me a good fit (literally) for the larger stage illusions we did as a club, like the Snoopy’s Doghouse trick, in which a wooden doghouse is shown to be empty and then I popped out of it. The trick, of course, was an angled hidden space inside the doghouse, which I fit into easily.

Because I was an animal lover even then, I discovered that I adored dove magic. I acquired two birds, whom I named Ali and Abi (short for Alakazam and Abracadabra), and I saved up enough money to invest in a few of my favorite pieces of equipment, including a dove pan (a large metal pan which you actually poured alcohol into, lit on fire, put a lid onto, and then lifted it to reveal a dove) and a tray that held a large balloon that would burst to reveal a dove (that’s the trick I’m performing in the ancient newpaper photo above).

I was, frankly, never a great magician. For one thing, my ambitions tended to outstrip my skills or resources; I was always dreaming up grand presentations I couldn’t achieve. While I wasn’t especially nervous about performing, I also lacked the sheer showmanship of the great magicians.

I did magic for probably about five years, partnering with Susan to entertain at libraries, clubs, and birthday parties (the worst one ever: when we discovered the hard way that the housewife hiring us had a morbid fear of birds), and occasionally entering contests. The highest I ever got was third place.

The magic petered out after a cat got to Ali and Abi one night, and then when I went to college Mom sold all of my equipment.

I also think my interest in magic went in other directions, leading to my brief career as a Hollywood modelmaker and special makeup effects sculptor, but eventually taking me to the place where I was finally able to realize all those grand ambitions: writing.

That’s why, when I was accepting my Lifetime Achievement Award last month, Jim Riley was one of the people I thanked. I’m assuming he’s long gone by now, but I think of him often and am so grateful to have had him in my life.

What a difference in a life a great teacher can make.

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This account, which is found in the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), is about Jesus sailing across the Sea of Galilee and stepping onto the shore only to be met by a possessed man, who lives in a graveyard, is naked, and covered in self-inflicted cuts (he cuts himself with stones). When Christ asks his name, he gives it as Legion; his demons then beg not to be returned to “the abyss,” but sent into a nearby herd of swine. Jesus agrees, casts the evil spirits out of the man, and they enter the pigs - 2,000 in number - who then rush into the water to drown themselves. The man, now freed of possession, begs to go with Jesus, but instead Jesus tells him to go preach at the nearby cities. Meanwhile, the local townspeople, having heard from the swineherds of this miraculous exorcism, come out to see for themselves…and promptly order Jesus to leave, which he does.

Wha-HUH? Yeah, not the ending you were expecting, is it?

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There are two things I love about this:

1. Home Depot’s official press release (see below) is acknowledging that it’s no longer treating holiday as a single holiday but as a season.

2. They are adding the speaking ability of last year’s “Ultra Skelly” to the classic 12 ft. Skelly. I love the voice changing and recording ability and keep swearing I’m going to use it to tell 30-second stories (the recordings are limited to 30 seconds).

Because I keep thinking of a book about how Halloween has (remarkably) transformed in just the last ten years, this is a splendid piece of data that establishes both Halloween’s metamorphosis into a long-term event and how new technology finds its way into this old celebration every year.

Here’s Home Depot’s own release:

The Home Depot’s viral 12 ft. Skelly is officially back—and bringing some terrifying new friends.

Bigger, bolder, and spookier than ever, the highly anticipated collection is redefining seasonal decor by blending massive scale with impressive engineering.

The cultural shift is clear: Halloween has transformed from a single night of tricks & treats into a celebrated season of its own.

Highlights include:

• Skelly Finds His Voice: The iconic 12-foot skeleton is back and more interactive than ever, featuring lifelike servo motor movement, 20 animated eye designs, and a new app-controlled voice modulator to record custom phrases.

• New Companions: We’re introducing haunted-house-level thrills for every budget, including the new 5.5 FT Wicked Woods Animated LED Evil Pixie, 3 FT Animated LED Stitch, and 8 FT Wicked Woods Giant-Sized Animated LED Perilous Plant Monster.

• Curated for Everyone: A perfect balance of spooky, whimsical, and family-friendly items tailored directly from social trends and DIY community feedback.

They’re also leaning into licensed or famous characters, with an animated Stitch (Disney), a flying monkey (The Wizard of Oz), and Gremlins gremlins.

And while a couple of other retailers are leaning into carnival themes for their 2026 Halloween merch, I gotta say that Home Depot’s bar scene - labeled “Last Call” in the file name - is pretty inspired.

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Case in point: having grown up in Southern California, I’ve always thought I was privileged to have known diversity for my entire life. There have always been gay men in my life (my mother once told me that she’d realized the same thing about her childhood in Indiana), as well as Blacks, Latinos, and Asians.

But one thing I didn’t grow up knowing was people who were deeply invested in a religious faith. Although my parents weren’t card-carrying atheists, they had no religious belief whatsoever, and neither did any of their friends. I’ve since realized that maybe some of those friends were religious, but didn’t share that part of their lives with us.

Now here I am as an adult, trying to understand everything from the Christian idea of the Holy Ghost to what exactly the kaballah has to do with being Jewish. My own lack of belief I think is actually a good thing when it comes to this kind of writing, because it allows me a measure of impartiality I might not possess (no pun intended) otherwise.

For my history of demonic possession, I’ve recently taken the deep dive into the world of Jewish mysticism to grapple with the real identity of the dybbuk. I’ve discovered how much of this school of metaphysical thought comes from the work of the 16th-century rabbi Isaac Luria, and I’m surprised to discover that there is a large body of Jewish demonology buried in the mystical texts (just as there is an extraordinary amount of demonology socked away in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, which has become a standard text among modern occult scholars).

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Two things I’ve discovered: all of these civilizations/belief systems incorporated demons (as in, hundreds of t…

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Because I was already a Lynch devotee when Twin Peaks first aired in 1990 (I even tracked down and devoured the screenplays for unrealized projects like Ronnie Rocket), I was glued to my television set…and I was mesmerized. The first episode of Twin Peaks was not just very good, it was downright revolutionary - for the first time, the broad American television audience was subjected to surrealism. Because Lynch and his collaborator Mark Frost had couched the weirdness within the framework of a night-time soap opera, viewers lapped it up. It was water-cooler heaven; before long, the entire country was obsessed with the question of, “Who killed Laura Palmer?”

Now, having acknowledged all that up front, here’s where I get down and dirty and suggest that the larger percentage of the long, strange life of Twin Peaks - which includes two seasons of the original series, the 2017 Showtime series (usually known as Twin Peaks - The Return), the 1992 feature film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and possibly the feature film version of the original 1990 show created for overseas markets - includes a lot of utter crap that’s just really, really bad. I mean, sure, every television series that runs for longer than a few episodes has its rough spots, but Twin Peaks occasionally (maybe even often) became an absolute cringefest.

I’m sorry, but it’s true.

Let’s break it down.

Season 1 of the original series consists of eight episodes. Lynch directed two episodes, #1 and #3, and these are easily the stand-outs. The first one - the pilot - set up the cast of characters, the style, and the murder mystery, creating one of the most iconic images of late-twentieth-century pop culture: the close-up face of the beautiful corpse of Laura Palmer, with the plastic her body has been wrapped in framing her artfully gray features.

Episode #3 took us into the Black Lodge, the alternate reality where FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) obtains clues both from a dancing little person and Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) herself. Season 1 ends with Cooper being shot while he continues to work on resolving the murder; meanwhile, bad girl Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) is over her head, having tried to assist Cooper by infiltrating a brothel where Laura worked, but being handed over to her own father, who is her unwitting first client.

Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off, as Cooper recovers from his shooting and returns to solving Laura’s murder. This season offers 22 episodes, with four directed by Lynch. The stand-out here is Episode 15, in which Laura’s lookalike cousin Maddy (also played by Sheryl Lee) is murdered and the killer is finally revealed as Leland Palmer, Laura’s father (Ray Wise), possessed by a demonic spirit known only as Bob. The murder is both dreamlike and brutal, as stunning a death as television had seen at the time. Two episodes later, Leland would be arrested, Bob would leave his body, and Leland would die, essentially ending the Laura Palmer murder investigation.

Twin Peaks, however, would continue on for another thirteen episodes, with new subplots that ranged from mildly amusing (the jovial villain Windom Earle, Cooper’s one-time partner), to utterly embarrassing (hunky biker James is hired by a rich woman to become her live-in mechanic). This is, for the most part, a waste of television space, with only one episode (#23) proving at least visually interesting, thanks to the direction of Diane Keaton. Lynch would direct the final episode, which was modestly intriguing, ending in Bob possessing Cooper. But it was, frankly, past time for Twin Peaks to end; it had completely lost what made its first season special, devolving into an uncomfortable mix of soap opera pastiche, unfunny comic bits, and surreal dark fantasy that felt increasingly forced.

Flash-forward to 2017, when Showtime (remember that service?) began airing Twin Peaks - The Return (aka simply Twin Peaks Season 3). This time we’d get 18 episodes, all written by Lynch and Mark Frost and all directed by Lynch. Great, right? The Man Himself would be in charge! Instant classic!

Except…that’s not how it played out. After a promising, eerie opener, the series settled into its main threads: in one, Dale Cooper is a shambling, empty shell, devoid of intellect and personality, living in Las Vegas as Dougie Jones, while his evil doppelganger goes on a crime spree, leaving a trail of bodies and weirdness in his wake. The series reaches its peak (no pun intended) with Episode 8, and there is no question that “Gotta Light?” is possibly the single most extraordinary hour of television ever aired, a cosmic trip into how the atomic bomb opened portals that admitted demons in the form of grimy woodsmen who demand that passersby light their cigarettes and then murmur spellbinding incantations into a radio station mike.

Here’s the thing, though: as brilliant as that one hour was, it was only episode #8…and the remaining ten episodes include a number that are among the worst hours of television ever. Yes, really. Endlessly long and pointlessly irritating conversations (especially excruciating are the ones between the middle-aged Audrey, once the naughty teenage bombshell and now a shrew, and her oddball husband) feel like padding, and the ongoing joke of no one questioning that Dougie is a walking infant wears incredibly thin. By the time this series ends, it feels less like a satisfying conclusion and more like a relief that you won’t have to endure any more of this (although I’ll grant that Laura Palmer’s final scream is one of the best EVER). Overall, this sequel series is a puzzler: why take an actor as fine as Kyle MacLachlan and a character as intriguing as Dale Cooper and render him down to a shuffling idiot? Who cares about these goofy Vegas thugs (the Mitchum Brothers) and Dougie’s insurance company and the extended musical numbers at The Bang Bang Club? I can only guess that the critics who raved about this series and called it one of the greatest forgot about almost everything that came after Episode 8.

Now, in case you thought I’d forgotten about the feature film that came in between the two series - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - I haven’t. Instead, I’m saving the best for last, because I consider this film to be a small masterpiece. Here are all the best parts of Twin Peaks - the horror, the quirkiness, the surrealism - boiled down into a concise 134 minutes, plus it doesn’t suffer from network television constraints or the need to continue a mystery plot that we already know the answer to. It’s a weird and wild trip, with an astonishing lead performance by Sheryl Lee as the doomed Laura Palmer (seriously, I’d stack this one up against Isabelle Adjani in Possession any day). It’s Lynch at his Lynchiest, with his television series distilled into a cinematic fever dream, and for me it sits just below Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. “Gotta Light?” notwithstanding, this is the apex of Twin Peaks.

Final note: yes, I’ve seen the international feature based on the pilot, in which Bob is revealed to be Laura’s (human) killer, but it’s nothing you need to concern yourself with unless you’re a Twin Peaks completist.

Share your Twin Peaks memories! Favorite scene? Episode? Character? Single image? Tell us!

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Wow, what a month…

StokerCon in Pittsburgh was incredible (you can read my account of it here). It was a mix of looking back (that happens when you’re a Lifetime Achievement Award winner, I guess), partying in the present, and planning ahead (there were multiple conversations about possible future projects). I got to hang out with dear old friends and make a few dear new ones (hi, Ann!).

The rest of the month has been busy, too, with great events like the Goats and Ghosts fair in Arcadia, some surprise movie things sparking (more when I can talk about ‘em), and a backyard full of adorable baby skunks (who, it turns out, are tiny fearless bullies - they literally just walk up and steal food from the feral cats).

I’ll end this here so we can get to the good stuff. Stay chill, have a great 4th, and see ya around.

Lisa

NEW STUFF I LIKE

While digging to find movies about demonic possession that pre-dated The Exorcist, I stumbled across mentions of something from 1963 called Il Demonio. It turned out it was free to watch on Tubi (although it was also included in the 2022 folk horror DVD box set All the Haunts Be Ours), so I settled in with it…

It blew me away. I soon discovered I wasn’t the only one who thinks this is an undiscovered gem; horror film experts like Tim Lucas and Steve Haberman call it a masterpiece.

Directed by Brunello Rondi, who worked with Fellini on films like La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2 (and who was also a published poet), the film begins by crediting Professor Ernesto de Martino, an Italian anthropologist who studied religion and folk beliefs in southern Italy. What follows is indeed steeped in folk horror; the film’s take on religion and patriarchy was also controversial enough to lead to its banning by Italian censors.

The protagonist is a woman named Purificazione (“Purif” for short) who lives in a small village in rural southern Italy. When Purif is spurned by Antonio, who she’s in love with, she tries a spell to enchant him but it fails. From that point on, Purif’s life becomes a nightmare of family abuse, torch-bearing mobs, and sexual assault. She allows the villagers to convince her that she’s demonically possessed, and they drag her to a church for an exorcism that looks more like another sexual assault.

The film is brutal, shot in the neo-realist style that was popular in Italy at the time, and Lavi’s performance as Purif is nothing less than astonishing (it has earned comparisons to Isabelle Adjani’s batshit performance in Possession). It’s also one of the absolute best folk horror films ever made, steeped in strange beliefs and rituals that feel (and likely were) absolutely real.

Oh, and did I mention you can watch it for free on Tubi? I’ll even give you a link. Check it out.

Watch Il Demonio at Tubi

THE HALLOWEEN SPIRIT

My friend Miranda - also known as Spooky Little Halloween - has something devilishly cool coming! If you’re not already following Spooky Little Halloween, it’s just the best - follow along here, or be one of the first to find out about Miranda’s new Halloween treat by signing up here!

In the meantime, here’s a completely ridiculous selfie of me in Spirit Halloween’s Summerween gear.

STRANGE DOINGS

Last week I was invited to judge live ghost story performances at a delightful event called Goats and Ghosts, because…well, there were goats and ghost stories! Alongside fellow judges Tawney Lewis and Tammie Merheb-Chavez, I got to hear four incredible accounts of real life ghost stories. All four were superb and we had a hard time picking a winner, although we ended up giving our top prize to a woman who told us her grandfather’s story from his childhood in Mexico, when he found out two of his best friends had been in a terrible accident…from a ghost!

But here was what struck me about the four true accounts we heard: two mentioned hearing an unseen couple having a terrible, shouting argument when no one was there. I thought this was a fascinating coincidence because I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered that before. In both cases, the performers mentioned living in a haunted place where other things were also encountered; one of the situations involved a neighbor who had heard the arguing sounds coming from the very apartment where our performer was living happily and quietly.

That got me wondering how common it is to hear phantom sounds of arguing, so I started digging. It’s not incredibly common, but it does appear from time to time, is often accompanied by sounds of sobbing, and relates to some known past tragedy. Are these residual hauntings, in which some past trauma just randomly replays on its own?

There’s also a practical possibility, too, and this one surprised me: hearing loud sounds like screaming or arguing can be a symptom of sleep paralysis. I thought sleep paralysis, in which your body kind of gets stuck at that halfway stage between sleep and being awake, was just an inability to move and maybe a sort of dreamlike hallucination. Well, it turns out the hallucinations can be auditory, too.

I also wonder about ducting in old houses, though. I’ve stayed in places where the ventilation system carried sounds in pretty weird ways.

Have you ever had an interesting auditory occurrence you couldn’t explain? Leave a comment below!

BEHIND THE SCREAMS

“The Naxon Plan” from Abandoned: Asylum (now funding on Kickstarter)

A few years ago, while researching the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum for a Ghost Report, I realized something strange: that I’d seen the exact history of this place show up in regards to other haunted locations.

Turned out there was a reason for that: many 19th-century hospitals and institutions were built around something called the Kirkbride Plan. As created by Thomas Story Kirkbride, the idea was to revolutionize these kinds of facilities by transforming the horrible poor houses and asylums of the time into light, airy places that promoted compassion and healing instead of misery and imprisonment. The Kirkbride Plan called for the structures to be surrounded by acres of land that could be turned to farming, providing the residents with job training, natural therapy, and a way to become self-sufficient.

There were at least 73 places built according to the Kirkbride Plan. And many of them had a weirdly similar history: for a few decades after construction they were successful, but by the time the 20th-century came around they began to decline, becoming overcrowded and understaffed. By the 1950s and ‘60s they were places of horror, decaying and crammed full of neglected, abused patients.

When I was invited to write a story for a book based on an abandoned asylum in Brooklyn, I knew immediately that I wanted to write about a place built on the Kirkbride Plan. I created my own version of it, called the Naxon Plan, and decided I’d center my story around paranormal investigators breaking into the ruins of one of these places. Once there, they would discover the terrible truth: that the Naxon Plan was designed to do much more than provide shelter for a few unfortunates…

You’ll get to read “The Naxon Plan” in Abandoned: Asylum when it’s published. Just enter at your own risk!

THE WRITE STUFF

Here’s something interesting about my discovery of Il Demonio, which I discussed above:

I found it via Reddit. Not Wikipedia, not some critic’s evaluation, not some list of great movies about demonic possession, not some academic book on obscure horror films, but Reddit.

I’ve recently been finding that I use Reddit more and more for research. With its seemingly infinite number of topics, nearly anything you can think of has discussion always flying back and forth. Sure, you have to weed through ill-informed crap (which seems to be true of nearly everywhere, after all), but if you use some common sense and check sources, you can usually pull something useful out of there.

I found both Il Demonio and 1937’s The Dybbuk (which I already had on a to-be-watched list) via a Reddit board on demonic possession films. I frequently get good stuff for my weekly Ghost Reports via stories and tidbits I find at Reddit.

NEWS & WORKS IN PROGRESS

As I write this, Abandoned: Asylum (the book that includes my story “The Naxon Plan,” mentioned above) just funded on Kickstarter, hurrah! If you haven’t yet backed it, there’s still time and you’ll help unlock stretch goals; if you have already backed it, hey - maybe add on something extra to your pledge. Thanks!

Abandoned: Asylum at Kickstarter

My long-time pal Michael Marshall Smith recently invited me into a mutual-interview chat, and we had so much fun! Check it out:

So Here’s a Thing

In Conversation With: Lisa Morton

I’m delighted to present another of the In Conversation series, this time with Lisa Morton. Not only one of the horror genre’s finest fiction writers, she’s also one of its sharpest non-fiction minds — in addition to running the fabulous Iliad Bookstore…

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2 months ago · 19 likes · 9 comments · Michael Marshall Smith

I just recorded an episode of the podcast Blondes, Books and Campfire Tales which you can find here.

And I had a poem accepted into HWA’s next volume of its annual Poetry Showcase!

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

• August 1st, 5:30 pm to 8 pm: I’ll be part of CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN’S CARRY ME TO YOUR BOOKSHELF TOUR LOS ANGELES at Village Well Books & Coffee, along with Christopher Golden, Caroline Kepnes, Monika Kim, Philip Fracassi, Liz Kerin, Keith Rosson, Chuck Tingle, Rachel Howzell Hall, Kasey Lansdale, and Catriona Ward

• August 9, 2026 - I’ll be at HWA’s booth at Midsummer Scream signing from 11 am to 12 noon

• June 10-June 13, 2027 - I’ll be haunting StokerCon 2027 in Pittsburgh

THE WHOLE HAUNTED WORLD

My paid subscribers are getting sneak peeks at My Name is Legion: The Strange and Terrifying History of Demonic Possession (coming up next: the story of The Dybbuk), and will get a few other fun posts soon.

WHERE YOU CAN BUY MY BOOKS

• Amazon

• Barnes & Noble

• Bookshop.org

GIVEAWAY

Last month I said I’d give away two e-books of In the Shadow of Halloween. Well, I was a little naughty…and gave one to everyone who entered!

This month, I’ll just pull out one short story to share, to get you all in that Summerween mood: “All Tricks” is one of the shortest pieces in the book, and originally appeared in my collection of short-shorts, Spine Tinglers. Enjoy!

“ALL TRICKS”

Brad stepped out of his house, walked to the sidewalk, clutched his empty pillowcase, and stopped to breathe in the Halloween smells: dead leaves, opened pumpkins, and something else…

Fear. That was his favorite scent.

It was just after eight, and the street still resounded with the shrieks and giggles of kids dressed as monsters, princesses, and superheroes. Brad smiled at a family that passed him; the two kids, dressed as a ninja and a mermaid, didn’t even notice him. Their parents frowned.

He didn’t let that bother him, because tonight was his night. He’d always loved Halloween, that one night of the year when he was free to be someone else. When he was little, his mom had gone out with him, accompanying her pint-sized soldier or hobo or vampire as they traipsed from house to house. After his mom left (for good, without even a note or a final kiss), he’d gone out alone. It was still the one night when other kids didn’t know who he was behind his mask, when they didn’t laugh at his frayed, ill-fitting clothes and call him “Brad the Sad”, when teachers didn’t invite him to stay after class so they could hear his story about how the latest goose egg was because he was clumsy, he’d tripped, he’d accidentally walked into a door.

On Halloween he could be Brad the Bad.

He knew that at 15 he was too old to trick or treat; he also knew that his costume wasn’t much—just a hoodie with the hood pulled up, which was how he usually wore it anyway. That made him stop and think: since it was Halloween, maybe he should push it back and let everyone see his bruised face. They’d probably think the black eye and purple nose were really good make-up.

Reaching up, Brad pulled the hoodie back and paused to consider his mission. He was no ordinary trick or treater, no kid out for candy and the praise of adults.

He knew that this night, when the gates between worlds opened, had brought demons to earth. Some of them were here, on his street.

Closing his eyes, Brad let his thoughts drift away as his senses focused, seeking out the nearest unearthly visitor. After a few seconds his eyes popped open; he was staring at the house of Mr. Bohringer, on the other side of the street three houses down.

That was where he’d start, then.

Brad’s adrenaline began to ramp up as he crossed the street. Mr. Bohringer—Dean, to his friends—sometimes came over to drink beer with Dad. Since Mrs. Bohringer had died last year (lung cancer, thanks to her three-pack-a-day habit), Dean had hung out a lot more with Brad’s father. Just last week they’d sat together in lawn chairs in the backyard, killing two six-packs. When Dad had slugged Brad in front of the neighbor for knocking over a half-full bottle, Mr. Bohringer had just looked away, said nothing.

Ever since Dad had knocked his son out with a piece of two-by-four last year, Brad’s life had changed. He’d become aware of things he hadn’t known about before; he could glimpse the things that moved in the shadows, he could hear them whisper to each other. He’d listened as they’d made plans for Halloween; now they were here, and he was the only one who knew.

Mr. Bohringer’s lights were off; there was no cheerful, grimacing pumpkin glowing on his porch steps. The families walked by his house to the next, but Brad strode right up the front walk, pulled the tattered screen door back, and knocked loudly on the door. When there was no response, he pounded again.

The door was flung open and Mr. Bohringer stood framed there, his face twisted in rage. “What the fuck’s wrong with—” He broke off as he saw Brad standing there. “Oh, it’s you. What do you want, kid? Everything okay with your dad?”

Brad nodded, but when he tried to answer he found his throat suddenly too dry to form sounds, because he saw the demon hiding inside Mr. Bohringer’s skin, wearing it like a cheap store-bought Halloween costume.

It was now or never.

Reaching into his pillowcase, Brad pulled out the kitchen knife he’d brought from home and drove it into the demon’s chest.

The thing that was disguised as Mr. Bohringer gasped and fell back, clutching at the knife. As it tumbled to the floor, Brad watched, his heart beating so hard he thought his own chest might explode. He waited, stepping away from the blood that fountained up, feeling satisfaction as the demon convulsed and finally died. It was only then that he reached down, yanked the knife free and wiped the blood on Mr. Bohringer’s shirt before returning the blade to his pillowcase. He hadn’t done a very good job with the first demon of the night—some of his demon-Dad’s blood had gotten on the white pillowcase—so he’d learned from that.

He walked away from Mr. Bohringer’s house but paused in the street to watch two young pranksters hurl eggs at the dark windows before fleeing. Apparently Brad wasn’t the only who knew about Mr. Bohringer. He wondered if any of the eggs might have hit the demon corpse, his second of the night, cooling in a pool of its own blood just inside the open front door.

The night is all tricks, Brad thought, smiling. Then he turned to the left, heading for the next demon. The night was young, and he had so much to do.

(Click the cover image above to buy a signed copy from the Iliad Bookshop)

Thanks as always for reading this far, and stay well!

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