Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Our Halloween Stories #OurAuthorGang

Halloween stories by the Author Gang



Erika M. Szabo

My first Halloween in the US was a memorable one. I grew up in Europe where we celebrated all Saints day November 1st when the graves are cleaned, the gravestones are washed and adorned with flowers and wreaths. In the evening people gather at the graves, they light candles, pray for the dead and share precious memories about their lost loved ones.

Foto credit to www.dailynewshungary.com

On Halloween day the building where I used to live was buzzing with excitement. The doorman decorated the lobby and I got enough candy for trick or treaters to feed an army. In late afternoon the kids started ringing the doorbells demanding treats, so I was excited when the first trick or treater rang mine. I opened the door and saw an adorable little girl in pink tutu smiling at me and holding her pumpkin basket for treat. I held the candy bowl and let her choose when I noticed black, furry legs behind her. I lifted my eyes and scanned the hairy torso and my eyes reached all the way up around six feet a huge gorilla head.


The head bobbed and said, “Trick or treat!” in a deep voice. My stomach sank and I almost fainted. The gorilla sensing my distress reached up and took his head off, which instead of easing my distress added to it, revealing a handsome man behind the mask. He apologized and grabbing the hand of the little girl, they quickly left. After that when I heard the doorbell I looked out the peephole before I opened the door.


Rich Feitelberg

When I was a boy, growing up in a neighborhood of Boston, I dressed for Halloween as Spiderman and went out to collect candy. I went alone because I was old enough and times were different then. There was *much* less violence in the city. 

On the way home, I was stopped by a man dressed in a policeman’s uniform who asked me all kinds of questions about what I was up to. I was scared, to say the least, but explained that I was on my way home after trick-or-treating. He told me to get home because it wasn’t safe on the street alone. There were reports of mischievous pranks in this area.

He let me go, and I hurried home. I said nothing of this to anyone when I arrived. Later in the evening, I heard from my brothers there was a kid dressed in a police costume stopping children and taking their candy as punishment for some illegal activity. I felt like a fool because that was obviously who I had spoken to. He didn’t get my candy but I should’ve have known from the old style of the uniform, he wasn’t a real policeman.
That’s my one Halloween story.


Toi Thomas

Aside from the one time I dressed as a pumpkin for a Homecoming parade near Halloween, I always dressed as a black cat. The thing is, though, my family didn’t really celebrate Halloween. Often my mom would have to chaperone a school dance, so she’d dress up me and my sister and we’d tag along. I have many fond memories of dancing with middle and high schoolers who thought I was just adorable. Fast forward a few years to college and my black cat on the frat house dance floor wasn’t exactly adorable; the words sensual come to mind… Ah, the days of being young and sexy. I’d say the scariest time I’ve actually had on Halloween was when the cops broke up one of those parties and I was the token sober girl who kept the hosts out of jail… Yolo, as they say. 



Mary Anne Yarde

My parents were not big on Halloween. My mum like carving various root vegetables — swedes and turnips were a favourite for some reasons! So we always had a couple of Jack-O'-Lanterns. Living in the country, there wasn't much call for trick-or-treating. I only went trick-or-treating once, and that was when I was at my aunt's house. I didn't have a costume, so she cut some holes in a sheet, and I became a ghost!


Grace Augustine

(Photo courtesy of Pinterest)

As a child, I joined my neighborhood friends going door to door for candy on Halloween. It was the mid 60’s and northern Montana...you didn’t have to worry about all of the things today’s society brings to our children. We’d have Halloween parties at school, usually on the Friday afternoon before the holiday. We’d spend weeks planning what we were going to “be.”  More times than not I had a mask of some kind from the Ben Franklin store.

When I had children of my own in the early to mid 80’s, I dressed up and took them around the neighborhood. After we were finished, the boys would get into their pajamas and gather around the table as we dumped all the candy out and sorted it. It worked out great because each like different candy. What they didn’t like was given to us. 

(photo courtesy of history.com)

When my boys were 7 and 4 they decided it would be much more fun to stay at home and hand out the candy. They thought it was dumb to go begging door to door for something we could buy at the store.


Ruth de Jauregui

Halloween brings back memories of homemade popcorn balls, the fire crackling in the fireplace, a cold night and the few houses where we were allowed to trick-or-treat. Costumes were a mostly a plastic mask I couldn’t see out of or a sheet (or both) and a pillowcase for the treats. Flashlights carved streaks through the dark and children laughed as they trooped from one house to the next. And when we got home, chilled to the bone, hot chocolate, and a treat or two doled out by Mom. 


Joe Bonadonna

Halloween in Chicago, when I was a kid, was all-out warfare between the gangs hanging on different corners, and in different neighborhoods. But it was all in fun. Eggs, tomatoes, shaving cream, soap, toilet paper, Nair, cans of black spray paint . . . these were our weapons. When I was in high school, eggs were about 35-cents a dozen -- and we bought a lot! We’d buy them weeks in advance and keep them in very warm places. Every other corner in my Italian neighborhood had small grocery stores, and bushels of all kinds of vegetables were set out on the sidewalk. We’d help the owners carry the bushels in and out of their stores, get paid like 50-cents a week, and use that money to buy eggs and other things. In exchange for also making sure no damage would hit those stores on Halloween, the owners would save up all the rotten tomatoes for us. In high school, one guy’s father owned a butcher’s shop, and he had a small panel truck with no side windows in the back, and no business name on the truck at all. It was the perfect “troop transport.” We’d load that truck with bushels of rotten tomatoes and dozens of rotten eggs, not to mention shaving cream, soap, spray paint, and Nair. Then we’d put on these butcher’s aprons and smocks, drive all over the west side of Chicago, and wherever we saw other teenagers hanging out on the streets, we stopped the van, got out, and attacked. The Nair was saved for those we had a grudge against: we’d rub it in their hair, and you all know what Nair does. No doubt you also know what the soap, shaving cream, and toilet paper were for. As for the black spray paint? Wherever we saw a police car parked outside a restaurant and the cops eating dinner inside, we sprayed the windshields and back windows of the squads with black paint. We never got caught. Not even when we’d slash their tires. We didn’t much care for the police when we were kids: didn’t trust them. Still don’t. Ah, good Halloween memories. And NO one ever got hurt! 


COMMENTS

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Rich Feitelberg

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
Actually, I'm wrong, I have another Halloween story but it's about our house getting egged. Didn't think that was the one to share.
 
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Rich Feitelberg via Google+

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Ruth de Jauregui via Google+

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Ahhh, the Halloween memories!!!
 
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Toi Thomas

1 year ago  -  Shared publicly
 
These stories are so great. Happy Halloween everyone!
 
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Mary Anne Yarde

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I love reading all these stories!
 
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Joe Bonadonna via Google+

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Happy Halloween! Today A Small Gang of Authors brings you true stories and anecdotes about our own fondest Halloween memories. Check us out!
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Erika M Szabo

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Joe I'm glad I didn't live in your neighborhood in Chicago when I was a kid :)
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Oh, you would have had fun. We even threw a costume party now and then. Thanks for posting this for me.

Erika M Szabo via Google+

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Grace Au via Google+

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Monday, October 30, 2017

Color your world with diversity – Part Three

By Ruth de Jauregui



Today, I'd like to talk about adding diversity to your world. First, let me say that I don't expect any writer to change any character, especially established characters, to a person of Color. You may not be comfortable writing characters outside of your own life experiences. There is nothing wrong with that -- there's much to be said about writing what you know.

What I'd like to point out is that we don't live in a vacuum. When I lived in the San Francisco East Bay and out in West Sacramento, I was surrounded by all kinds of people. Native American, Latinx, Black, Asian, Sikh, Ukrainian, gay ― name a race/color/ethnicity/gender/sexuality/religion and I probably encountered someone of that group on a regular basis while I was out and about.

My first novel, a work in progress, is also set in a diverse world. Since my majors were fine and commercial art, color and form are important elements in my world, and that includes the people who reside there. Sacramento is diverse and so is the society that Bitter, my main character, moves through. The tamale man stops by to sell her a dozen tamales, her taxi driver is Sikh and the neighbors play music with a heavy bass rhythm. As a woman of Color, she also faces microaggressions both at work and off-duty based on her sex, age and color.

Small descriptive elements, such as the cop taking statements after a fender bender, add to the story and enhance the flow of the scene:

The blue taking statements looked up. "Out of the street and away from the accident." He pointed at the curb across the street. "You can film from there." 

"You can't―"

He straightened to his full height and looked down at the reporter. Sweat glistened on the blue-black highlights of his bald head. "Yes, I can. You can get out of the street and film from over there. Nobody is infringing on your right to report the news, so get over there before I have to notice you disobeying a lawful order."

The cameraman stepped back as the blue loomed over the pair. 

"To the curb. I'm sure there's witnesses you can interview while we take care of the accident."

"I want to know your name and badge number," the reporter blustered. Bitter noticed that his bald spot was turning pinker from rage or sunburn, she couldn’t tell which. She hadn't noticed it during his reports on the evening news.

So with those few words, we know that the officer is tall, dark complected, bald and not taking any lip from the reporter. We can also ascertain that the reporter is probably white, starting to lose his hair and hot-tempered. I say "probably white" because race and color are not always the same thing…

While I encourage adding diversity by peopling your world with the regular folks you meet while you're out and about in your real life, be careful to avoid stereotyping. For example, take a look at the original Hardy Boys series. The bad guys were all too often "swarthy" IE not white and people of color (POC) are portrayed in racist and ethnic stereotypes. That's not a trope I want to encourage.

Next time, I'll share the ways some of my favorite authors have introduced their characters as POC without dipping into the usual "mirror, mirror, on the wall" techniques.

My lovely daughter -- and the face of Bitter.


http://www.ruthdj.weebly.com

#ASmallGangOfAuthors  #Bitter  #CrimeMeetsUrbanFantasy #DiversityMatters

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Book in the Spotlight #OurAuthorGang

Book in the Spotlight  #OurAuthorGang


Mad Shadows II: Dorgo the Dowser and The Order of the Serpent
by
Joe Bonadonna

Cover and interior map by Erika M. Szabo

“This eagerly awaited follow-up volume to Joe Bonadonna’s classic, Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser, is exactly what I hoped for. This continuation of Dorgo’s chronicle is comprised of three novellas: “The Girl Who Loved Ghouls,” “The Book of Echoes” and “The Order of the Serpent.” This is razor-edged fantasy at its best. In the first tale, Dorgo has some romance going on in his life, with a witch. This is not a Harlequin romance. Bonadonna’s masterful prose is ripe with images, appropriately gothic, spooky as hell, and a delight for fans of classic fantasy-adventure fiction. I love Bonadonna’s world building. Laced with autumnal winds and lonely graveyards, Dorgo’s world is chilling and often deadly: “What little was left of Glacken lay to the south, between Widow’s Fell and Baloo Fen. The fire blackened ruins of Sahn Magnor, the old Estaerine church, stood on the outskirts of the ghost town. The cemetery lay behind the church and had been part of its once-sacred ground. I gave the supposedly haunted hamlet a wide birth, not wanting to encounter any demons or devils…” (p.30) I love this type of natural exposition where the writer can so deftly transport us into an imaginative and exotic locale. Dorgo never has an easy time of it, but I’m always rooting for him to overcome his tribulations. Bonadonna pits Dorgo against some fairly wicked creatures. In “The Book of Echoes” Dorgo learns about “The Book of Echoes” which seems to be on everyone’s mind. After being nearly killed, Dorgo learns that the book can open realms beyond time and space, and holds answers to all the riddles of the Echoverse, the secrets of life and death, and the Nine Levels of Attainment. But such knowledge has a price. Those who are pure of heart will become the Crystal Children, while those with evil intent will become Endarkened Ones. Bonadonna brilliantly structures the tale and populates it with plenty of weird characters, nasty monsters and rising tension. The third novella, “The Order of the Serpent,” ties it all together and pits Dorgo against a warlock, the leader of the Order of the Serpent. Engaging characters, artful construction, scenes dripping with mood, and a world of castles, goblins and wild monsters are all hallmarks of Joe Bonadonna’s Dorgo the Dowser tales. Impossible to put to down, Mad Shadows II: Dorgo the Dowser and The Order of the Serpent is a richly imagined collection. The great cover artwork is by Erika M. Szabo.” — Amazon review by Thomas McNulty, author of Showdown at Snakebite Creek, Trail of the Burned Man, Coffin for An Outlaw, Werewolves!, Wind Rider, and The Life and Career of Errol Flynn.

Magic, murder, mystery, monsters and mayhem all await you in Mad Shadows II: Dorgo the Dowser and the Order of the Serpent. Available in paperback, Kindle, and Nook editions.



#heroicfantasy  #swordandsorcery  #occult  #paranormal  #adventure  #horror


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