Tis the Month for Ghouls, Ghosts and Wickedly Witches

I love, love, love October!

As a child, no month on the calendar could quite compare to the crisp, fallen maple leaf smell of October. Growing up in Michigan, the fall really was the most wonderful time of the year. Only a month into the new school year and the Halloween decoration were up on the bulletin boards, recess talk was about costumes. Weekends were devoted to apple picking at orchards and watching the mills make cider in the press. Fires in the fireplace were usually the norm as the days grew colder. Huge piles of leaves in the front yard that were perfect for jumping in. With memories like those, is it any wonder that I grew up to love this month of changing colors?

But it's more than that. I've always loved a good ghost story. I can't seem to help myself. The mere thought that people can come back from the other side and communicate with the living is one that has been with me all my life. See, I grew up in a haunted house. My mother, who really isn't a firm believer in anything paranormal--a stark contrast from my father who believed in everything paranormal--saw shades of people who may have once lived on our property. Not the house itself since from the way she described the clothing of the man she saw leaning against a mantle that wasn't like ours, it was a spill over from another era. But something about that man, saw into our world, our time and he looked directly at my mother and smiled then faded away.

Ghosts have followed me all my life. I don't think I've ever not lived in a haunted place, though in all fairness they are benign spirits who make more noise than nuisance of themselves. I'm fine with that. And given recent theories of time-space, whose to say that time isn't curled in on itself and the past and present, along with the future do not touch along some great cosmic helix. If that's the case, they have as much right to be in my house as I do--though I wished they'd do a little more around the house and perhaps help pay the mortgage.

At this time of year, I like to curl up with a scary book and read about ghosts, ghouls and wickedly witches. It's that same little kid in me wanting to relive my childhood and drink mulled apple cider with cinnamon sticks and sit in front of a fire. I do love scary movies, but sometimes nothing beats a great scary book on a cold autumn night.

By the way, I am looking for recommendations. Let me know if you have any. I'm about ready to get my Halloween TBR pile together. Oh, and the story doesn't necessarily have to be set around Halloween, but it does help.

Until next week,

-Kate