Halloween, Hoodoo, & Dead Writers

I love Halloween, a holiday that doesn’t belong to a particular religion, or even a particular culture. I love the changing leaves, slanted autumnal light, and getting into costume. I created some great costumes over the years, but here’s one of my favorites.Scan 1 Scan 2Scan 3

My colleague (in white) and I collaborated for many years. Her AVID students were placed in my freshmen English classes.

This Halloween I feel dizzy with excitement–so many events. Not only do I have the Mausoleum reading in Santa Rosa (previous post), but my fellow misterio press author, Kirsten Weiss, is hosting a blog party for her upcoming Hoodoo Detective, set in New Orleans. In honor of the event, I offer here what is probably my spookiest Halloween costume. I was going for forest nymph, but the mask, which I made in a workshop, is plain creepy.

ScanAnother upcoming event, the Dead Writers Costume Party, a fundraiser for the Santa Cruz Young Writers Program on Oct. 24, will allow me the opportunity to reprise my Emily Dickinson outfit. 20060308_0216I haven’t used it since I retired from teaching four years ago. When I taught Dickinson’s poetry, I would come to class dressed as the poet and try to remain in character for the whole class in spite of all the pesky questions like, “Are you a virgin?” and “What’s it like to be dead?” I may find out the answer to the latter at the party where four local writers will conjure a dead writer with an Ouija board.  Can’t wait!

11 thoughts on “Halloween, Hoodoo, & Dead Writers”

  1. Vinnie:

    Love the forest nymph costume! And I’ll bet you’ve got some awesome Halloween doings in Santa Cruz. Do they do any “Lost Boys” themed stuff there?

    Reply
    • I’ve proposed to Kass that I write about the experience for our next post. (This #%!@$ auto-correct refuses to let me write the name of our press.) So for people who don’t know, it’s “mister io” press, written as one word, so take that, computer!

      Reply
        • Thanks, Kass. It’s funny how my laptop insists on the autocorrect, whereas with my desktop computer I can override it. To the best of my knowledge, they are running the same programs.

          Reply

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