Summerween: Halloween Pre-Season

August 1st and we've entered the spooky season warm up. Are you ready?

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

I swear it was just yesterday I was commenting at how quickly we’d reached the halfway point of 2024. Now look at us. It’s practically fall.

Consider this my brutal attack in the Holiday Wars. You’re going to put lights up and start playing carols before October 31st? I’m adding August to the Halloween calendar.

Summerween, baby.

I’m in the DC metro area for a bit of traveling, surrounded by green, humidity, and mosquitos, and all I can think about is that crisp turning of the season (I have to imagine it in Los Angeles, but so what), candles, decorations, and horror movies. There’s something about being back at my parent’s house that brings back all those 90s Halloween memories that were so formative. It was back when people trick-r-treated. Makes me think of The Blair Witch Project and renting movies at Blockbuster. Popcorn and dry leaves.

Nowadays, I’m lucky enough to live next door to Burbank, a Los Angeles neighborhood/incorporated city filled with studio professionals. Every Halloween, they go all out for decorating and you get to drive around slowly, checking out their displays. Some have websites, they’re so big and popular. One even has an FM station playing Halloween music you can tune into while perusing their front yard.

Still, the last few Halloweens have felt lacking. The pandemic, my mental health, the state of the world… I’ve let all that distract me.

This year, armed with a membership to a movie rental store and a desperate need for nostalgia to protect me from current events, I will be leaning into the 90s vibe that was so important to my growth. I will decorate. I will eat Halloween treats.

I will celebrate Halloween ‘24 like it’s ‘94.

What are you going to do for this Halloween season?

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Community Voices

My friend Pedro Iniguez just revealed the cover of his upcoming speculative fiction poetry collection, Mexicans on the Moon, forthcoming from Space Cowboy Books. I wanted to share it with you all here. Have a look:

From Space Cowboy Books: “Weaving science-fiction, Mexican folklore, and magical realism, this 50-poem collection explores the wonders and pitfalls of humanity in a future yet to come. Experience a faraway world where sapient flora sing melodic tunes; behold orbit-plunging taco trucks as they make planetfall; observe as El Cucuy becomes a stowaway on a space shuttle; witness a neurologically-enhanced lobster become President of the United States; bear the agonizing wave of shrink-ray-gun violence plaguing public schools. All these sighs and more await in Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future!”

Be sure to follow both Pedro and Space Cowboy Books so you can get notified when the pre-order link goes up.

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Update

I have yet to hear back regarding the piece I wanted to post a month+ ago, Polymer Degradation, so I will just go ahead with my plan to release a 2024 version with my own edits. I will be doing the same with my story The Ghosts on the Telephone Wires Won’t Stop Screaming, since that was accepted at Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine two years ago and they still haven’t sent a contract or scheduled it for release.

I’ve also had a non-fiction essay pitch accepted and will be working on that over the next few weeks. Once the final draft has been accepted, I’ll share where it’s being published.

Finally, I am slowly but surely making progress with my final revisions on Sorrow Lake. Helen has been waiting patiently and I can’t wait to see what she thinks so I can share more about it with you.

But for now…

Be well, stay safe, love each other.