Super excited about my latest piece of flash fiction! You Can Be Always is a Halloween themed piece, part of The Wicked Library’s Tricks and Treats Halloween collection. I’m proud to share this episode with many talented authors, both those I’m familiar with and those I’m not.
Tricks and Treats is an audio drama with 17 pieces of flash fiction told by a collection of phenomenal narrators, accompanied by awesome background music for ambiance!
Halloween 2017 was amazing! Had just enough candy, made some awesome Halloween themed treats, and the outdoor display was a real success!
Here are some of the treats we enjoyed this year.
But the real highlight of the snack table was the glass skull drink dispenser. We used dry ice to create the smoke effect pouring out from the top.
Here are some photos of the display in front of the house. People were stopping and taking pictures all evening!
I’ve got some much better photos coming in from a photographer, which I’ll be posting soon. Follow my blog for all things Halloween and horror!
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Thanks for reading!
∼ Lee A. Forman
Happy Halloween everyone!
It’s my favorite time of year, my most loved holiday. And I just happen to live in the perfect neighborhood to let my obsession go wild. Last year I got around 1,500 trick or treaters at my door. Having grown up here, it’s the neighborhood I went to for hunting candy throughout my childhood. I even took my own child here every year. Everyone in town comes to this neighborhood, and some even from neighboring towns with less dense residential areas. It’s the go-to spot in town for Halloween.
Thanks to a good friend, I had enough stuff to make a pretty good display not only outside, but in the house as well. Below is most of the Halloween decorations before unpacking them. (But this wasn’t all of it).
I also made some of my own decorations this year. I wanted to get creative, see what I could do. I wanted to make a graveyard and realized it would be a bit expensive to buy a bunch of those foam gravestones from a store. So I made a whole bunch for under $30.
I engraved the lettering and cracks with the tip of the handle of various sizes of paint brushes. Then, painted the whole thing with gray latex paint. I filled in the details with black acrylic paint, and finally gave it the worn and tarnished look using a damp sponge and black acrylic paint.
I also made some skeletons and eyeballs in glass jars. I got the skeletons from a garland Halloween decoration, glued their heads to the back of the jar so they wouldn’t move around, and used mixtures of fake blood, food coloring, and water to fill them with.
My new kitten, Ting Ting had a little too much fun getting into everything she could.
This little guy in a wheelchair will end up on the front porch for sure.
Here are a few shots of the indoor decorations.
Considering how many people trick or treat here I had to buy a hell of a lot of candy!
Follow my blog to get an update on my next post, which will include photos of the outdoor display I’ve set up as well as the Halloween themed foods and drinks I’ve prepared for the best holiday there is!
It’s that time of year when the full moon is most beautiful, and the trees dance in a cool autumn breeze, dressed in tones of coming winter. Darkness falls and zombies rise from their graves. Ghouls and ghosts roam the streets. Fear molds the imagination into an embrace of humanity’s love of being afraid.
Also, candy. People love candy.
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Ever since I was G.I. Joe back in the 80s (that’s the first costume I can remember wearing), I’ve adored the night of mischievous fun. It spawned my love for horror movies, which later grew into literature and all things one might call horrid and repulsive.
By a stroke of luck I ended up living back in the neighborhood I grew up in. In this area, it’s the hotspot for trick or treating every year. People travel from nearby towns just to come to this particular collection of streets. One is lined with huge Victorian homes. There’s even a funeral home that gives out candy. As kids we used to joke that they made the candy out of the cadavers.
Last year I got over 1,500 kids at my door. That’s a lot of candy to give out! But it makes the elaborate decorating outside of my house worthwhile. Last year the house across the street had a bit better display. But unless they worked some magic and had the determination of a 3rd generation horror fanatic I’m going to blow them out of the water this year.
And I have even bigger plans for next year! That will top the best house in the neighborhood. And because I grew up here, took my own child trick or treating here every year, I know exactly which house that is and how good their display is.
But enough maniacal babble about my Halloween pride.
Or maybe… More of it…
This year I decided to make some of my own decorations. I made my own tombstones because I want to turn the entire front yard into a cemetery. The ones you can buy at the store would add up to quite a bit compared to the number I can make for the cost of materials. I just bought some cheap foam from the hardware store, gray latex paint, and black acrylic paint.
And turned this, into this…
I cut the foam with a hobby knife and wrote the inscription in permanent marker. Then I used the tip of a paintbrush handle and a pen to engrave the words, cracks in the stone, and the skull on the bottom. After that I painted the whole thing in gray latex outdoor paint. After letting the paint dry, I used black acrylic paint to fill in the engraved letters and designs. I then used a slightly wet kitchen sponge with black acrylic paint to add the grainy look and darken areas around the edges and engraving.
To place the gravestones in the ground I’m using some one foot yard stakes I bought at a hardware store (and since I’m being Dracula for Halloween I may want to stay away from them). I hammered the stakes in the ground and used duct tape to attack the foam gravestone.
It took some time to do all of this, and I plan to make as many as I can. But it’s a great solution if you want to turn your front yard into a cemetery on a budget!
This idea I came up with out of nowhere. And all from stuff I already had around the house. Didn’t have to buy a thing to make these ‘Jars of Oddities’.
For the red one on the left I used some plastic cement to glue the back of the skeleton’s head to the inside of the jar to keep him from floating. I filled the jar with a mixture of water and a little fake blood. I painted the lid with matte black spray paint.
The one in the middle I used eyeballs I got at a dollar store, some food coloring, and water.
For the one on the right, I followed the same steps as the first one, but put only fake blood in without any water.
The skeletons were from a skeleton garland. But I had to take their legs off for them to fit. But a torso in a jar is cool so it works!
I’m going to be making all sorts of Halloween themed foods as well! Including a graveyard cake, Jim Jones punch, jello brains, and lotion for the basket (vanilla pudding).
Thank you for reading!
Follow my blog to get an update on the next Halloween post!
Happy Halloween!
If you’re a fan of horror, then you probably love this holiday as much as I do (well maybe not because I’m slightly fanatical. Each Halloween has become a bit of a competition with a house across the street). But the amount of gushing you do for the unholiest of celebrations matters not. If you love Halloween, I love you. Well, maybe not. But I probably like you at least.
The unboxing of the Halloween decorations has begun…
It’s no easy task. I have to use an a hand truck and make about 6 trips from the basement door at the back of the house to the front door. Sometimes I wonder if I have too many decorations. But then I realize there’s no such thing, and I even have a list of things I’d like to add to the collection this year. (Summer yard sales are the best for getting lots of stuff real cheap, by the way).
Halloween is especially fun where I live. I counted last year and had over 1,500 trick-or-treaters at my door. No, I’m not joking. There really were that many. The neighborhood I live in has been the trick-or-treat ‘place to go’ even since I was a kid. People come from all the nearby smaller towns just to come to this neighborhood. So it adds up to a lot of freaking people.
So I really love to get scary, deck out the house as much as possible, and make at least one child cry with my costume. (I swear I don’t do it on purpose, but still consider it an achievement.)
Follow my blog for more updates on Halloween madness!
10 Best B-Movies for Halloween
This 1985 spoof of George A. Romero’s 1968 classic, Night of the Living Dead, takes the elements that make up a great zombie flick and puts a hilariously 80’s bad movie spin on them. Starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, and the infamous Linea Quigley, this film expands the story, adding its own elements to the original zombie masterpiece. A group of 80’s punks, conveniently named Trash and Suicide decide to break into the local cemetery for a night of fun. In a hardly believable mishap by the army, some of the zombies from the original outbreak in Night of the Living Dead have been sitting undisturbed in the basement of a medical supply warehouse located next to the cemetery. In a freak accident, one gets lose, and let’s just say it keeps getting better from there.
Released in 1988 and directed by Kevin Tenney, this film is another 80’s masterpiece perfect for your Halloween viewing pleasure. Linea Quigley stars in this film as well, including Amelia Kinkade, Hal Havins, and Phillip Tanzini, and many others. In this cult classic, a group of friends decide to have a party at an abandoned funeral home on Halloween night. You can only guess the fun that awaits them…
3. 976-Evil
This 1988 cult classic directed by Robert Englund and starring Stephen Geoffreys, Patrick O’Brian, and Sandy Dennis, is sure to offer some great fun for your night of Halloween horror. In this fun film dialing a mysterious phone number results in receiving supernatural powers, for better or worse.
Chopping Mall, directed by Jim Wynorski stars legendary Kelli Maroni, Tony O’Dell, and Russel Todd, was released in 1986. It features a group of mall employees who decide to stay after hours for a party (never seems like a good idea in a horror flick but they do it anyway). But the mall just implemented a new security system that features three robots as the guards. Let’s just say things don’t go as planned, and the kill-bots do their job a little too well.
In this 1985 vampire flick directed by Tom Holland, a vampire named ‘Jerry’ moves in next door to a teenager named Charlie. Charlie sees what looks like some suspicious activity outside his window and when no one believes him that a vampire lives next door, he goes and pleads his case to local TV host, Peter Vincent, Vampire Hunter, played by Roddy McDowall. This movie is full of cheesy fun and filled with memorable moments! The film also stars Stephen Geoffreys (also in 976-Evil), Chris Sarandon as “Jerry”, and William Ragsdale as Charlie.
This classic B-movie, released in 1990 and directed by Claudio Fragasso is an absolute hit when it comes to cheesy horror. As bad as it is, the whole movie maintains a creepy vibe that resonates with you long after watching. Starring Michael Stephenson, George Hardy, and Margo Prey, it starts with a family doing a house swap for a vacation that takes them to a little town called Nilbog, which incidentally is full of Trolls. Nice place to visit, just don’t drink the Nilbog Milk! Or eat any of that weird green food for that matter…
This amazingly produced hit contains everything you’d want from any B-movie. Monsters, zombies, serial killers, a psychologically damaged homicide detective, and plenty of boobies. Released in 1986, directed by Fred Dekker; and starring Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, and Steve Marshall, this film delivers with every topping on your horror menu.
In this 1984 classic directed by Thom Eberhardt a comet passes by Earth and wipes out most of the population. Two valley girls are left and must face the horrors that await them in a post-apocalyptic nightmare. Starring Kelli Maroni and Mary Woronov who are both in Chopping Mall, this fun film is sure to entertain in all its B-movie glory.
Released in 1980 and directed by Kevin Connor, this classic stars Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons, playing a twisted brother and sister who run a small motel. They capture and harvest guests and well…I don’t want to give away any spoilers! Give it a watch and you’ll have some good laughs as well as experience the creepy tone the entire film takes, finishing with a brutal ending fit for the best of B-movies.
This 1985 classic based on an H.P. Lovecraft tale, directed by Stuart Gordon, stars Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbott, and David Gale. This awesomely gruesome flick features a mad-scientist bent on his own experiments—bringing the dead back to life. The results aren’t what he expected, and with no moral compass to speak of, things go terribly wrong…
Lee Andrew Forman 