Thursday, October 23, 2014

Coffin Hopping: How to Scare the Neighborhood Children

It's that time of year again...Yeah, baby! Zombies are coming, as well as vampires and werewolves, witches, ghosts, ghouls, demons and devils (and some pretty things, too, but those aren't nearly so much fun, are they?) In honor of the upcoming holiday, I've joined the Coffin Hop Web Tour again this year. In case you hadn't noticed by all the badges and banners...credit to atrtink for those, obvs I couldn't do something that cool...this is a huge event with artists and authors giving away hundreds of prizes on their sights. So hop on over to the list of horror authors and join us for some scartitivites.
 
As my family debated Halloween costumes this year, I got to thinking about the trendiness that Halloween has taken on. And more generally, the fall season. As soon as October begins, everyone is clamoring to post the first colored leaf photo, Tweeting about their pumpkin spice lattes (#PSL, of course) and instagramming pics of their newly dusted off Ugg boots and flannels. (Don't be offended, I'm poking fun at myself here, too). Fall is the hot new season, and it has been for several years now. Poor summer. So neglected.

When I was a kid, I don't remember adults dressing for Halloween. Perhaps my mom would find an old black skirt and a turtleneck, top it off with a straw hat, and call herself a witch, but the adult costumes were always kept to a minimum, made up of things they already had in the closet. Nowadays, Halloween is an all-ages event, with adult participation and enthusiasm (at least) as high as the kids'.

If you're not going to a party but stuck handing out candy, and you still want to dress up, consider scaring the neighborhood children. Oh yes. It might take a little more work than grabbing something off the shelf, but with the right makeup, face paint, and even items out of your closet, you can piece together a grim and gruesome costume.

You can go above and beyond and spend lots of money, but if you're like me, finances are tight this time of year with the holidays coming up. Zombies are still hot this year, as they have been for the past five or so years, and talk about a cheap and easy costume. Got an old t-shirt, a pair of ripped jeans and some dirt outside your house? All you need is some fake blood and maybe a makeup kit if you want to smear some white and black on your face. Smear the blood around your mouth, grime up your clothes a bit, dribble fake blood down the front of your shirt. Smudge some makeup (Halloween makeup or just regular old eyeliner) around your eyes, then go wait on your lawn. It's even better if you have a whole family or some friends willing to join you in this endeavor. When the kiddos start coming along your walk, begin lurching towards them (someone should also fall and army crawl, that's always a good one) growling and expressing your general desire for brains. If you want to go above and beyond, you could even make a few quick "coffins" out of scrap wood or pallets and have a couple people pop up out of those for effect. Then, watch the neighborhood kids scream in terror...just don't expect to be popular with the neighborhood parents!

 In case you were wondering, I still haven't decided on a costume, but I will definitely be in costume come Halloween night. Until then, I'll be hopping around reading scary stories on some of the author blogs over at the Coffin Hop, as well as giving away free copies of my own books. For the five days before Halloween, The Superiors will be free on Amazon, so pick it up if you like dark vampire stories (no explicit sex). And if you want to read the second book or third, I'll be giving away copies to Coffin Hoppers exclusively. The first person to comment each day this week will receive a free ecopy of any of my books. Just leave your name and contact info (email, twitter handle, fb, etc) and I'll get you a free copy.

Thanks for hopping in my coffin with me.

Edit: for length and relevance to topic.



19 comments:

  1. Thanks for the giveaway! I live to scare kids :)

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  2. I write about zombies. However, I'm sex-positive and an erotica writer, as well. So sexy costumes don't bother me. However, I laughed at your Ugg boots reference. Yeah, come fall, I dust mine off, for sure. LOL!

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  3. I'm wondering if a pair of "purgers" answering the door will scare anyone. Hubs and I are suiting up!

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  4. I've always loved Halloween and dressing costumes. One of my favourites was my injured hockey player costume, complete with bruises and bandages.

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  5. I won't be wearing a costume, because I don't need to ;)

    Happy hopping!!!

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  6. There's nothing better than watching a parent throw their child in front of them to escape a fright! We used to run a 9 room Horror House every year - the sound of a screaming child abandoned by Mom is a beautiful thing! Happy Hopping!

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  7. When we lived in town, we'd dress up in quite elaborate costumes to scare the kids when they came trick or treating. Of course, we gave out the best candy too, so there were plenty of kids to scare.

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  8. When I was younger and less afraid of public scorning, I used to dress up all the time with my friends and throw Halloween parties until we dropped. Now I'm just content with putting everything into my kids costumes. each year I think I'm more excited than them. =) Happy hopping!

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  9. Interesting

    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

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  10. I still enjoy coming up with costumes for myself. Halloween has just always been fun for me.

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  11. Thanks for stopping by, everyone! Remember to leave contact info if you want to win a book!

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  12. I don't know how I feel about adult costumes. I'm not a fan of "let's dress like a slut" costume for girls, and "Let's just dress like something so I can go to a party and be with the girls dressed as sluts" costume for guys. But hey who am I to judge? Nobody! I'm totally a fan of Halloween decorations though. Sign me up for the huge inflatable ghost in the backyard. Anyway... I had my share of Halloween parties that ended in a drunken stupor so now I'm more of a "I'm gonna sit back and enjoy the pumpkin carving" type of gal. ;) Happy Hopping!! Johanna aka The Manicheans

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  13. I love dressing up for Halloween; it's a real chance to indulge my goth side - I'm not sure my hubby was particularly keen the year I made him dress as Edward Cullen though - I found the cute grey shirt in the charity bag only last week - clearly he was in fear that I would make him relive the experience Haha. katiemjohn.com - contact

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  14. Haha, nice! My husband would probably love that!

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  15. LOL! We used to plan stuff all year to scare the little ones. We didn't consider it a success unless a parent told us we'd gone too far.

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  16. Hahahahaa, that's so cool! I would love to be there!

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  17. Thanks for the download of The Superiors. I'm thrilled I found out about the hop today or I would have missed my chance to grab it. My email is michelle_willms at yahoo dot com. I've become a follower - I've been looking for horror writers. I thought I was alone...

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