October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween

by Various, Richard Chizmar (Editor), Robert Morrish (Editor)

Overview

Classic novellas, never-before-published stories, essays on the history, literature, and films of Halloween, and real-life memories of October 31st-from today's best practitioners of fear:

Dean Koontz * Peter Straub * Poppy Z. Brite * Rick Hautala * Steve Rasnic Tem * Elizabeth Engstrom * Thomas Ligotti * Gary A. Braunbeck * Jack Ketchum * Thomas F. Monteleone * Hugh B. Cave * Simon Clark * Christopher Golden * Ray Bradbury * Jack Ketchum * Alan M. Clark * Gahan Wilson * Paula Guran * John Shirley * Tom Piccirilli * Jack Cady * David B. Silva * Robert Morrish * William F. Nolan * Michael Cadnum * Richard Laymon * Douglas Clegg * Douglas E. Winter * Stanley Wiater * Caitlín R. Kiernan * Lewis Shiner * Yvonne Navarro * Tim Lebbon * Kim Newman * F. Paul Wilson * Owl Goingback * Dennis Etchison * Stephen Mark Rainey * Charles L. Grant * Kelly Laymon * Dominick Cancilla * Kristine Kathryn Rusch * Michael Marshall Smith * Wayne Allen Sallee * Ramsey Campbell * Ed Gorman * Stefan Dziemianowicz * Peter Crowther

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451458957
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/03/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	656
Product dimensions:	6.07(w) x 9.03(h) x 1.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Richard Chizmar is the World Fantasy Award-winning editor of Cemetery Dance magazine and numerous anthologies. He is also the author of more than forty published short stories, as well as the recent hardcover collection Midnight Promises.

Robert Morrish is a writer whose work has appeared in Cemetery Dance magazine.

Table of Contents

	The Black Pumpkin	1
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	25
	Lantern Marsh	31
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	45
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	53
	Conversations In A Dead Language	61
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	77
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	79
	Yesterday's Child	81
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	95
	The Whitby Experience	99
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	119
	In-Between (Poem)	123
	Gone	125
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	133
	Yesterday's Witch	139
	A Short History of Halloween	149
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	163
	Mask Game	167
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	203
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	211
	Out Of The Dark	217
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	233
	Heavy Set	239
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	251
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	257
	Boo	261
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	283
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	287
	Masks	289
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	305
	A Redress for Andromeda	309
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	323
	The Circle	331
	"First Of All, It Was October..."	341
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	371
	Pay The Ghost	375
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	403
	Buckets	413
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	437
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	441
	Orchestra	443
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	469
	Eyes	473
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	485
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	493
	Deathmask	495
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	507
	Some Witch's Bed	513
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	517
	The Trick	521
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	541
	Pork Pie Hat	545
	Trick-or-Read	621
	My Favorite Halloween Memory	639

Editorial Reviews

The most enjoyable horror anthology of the year, this jumbo goody-sack disguised as a book is stuffed with Halloween-themed fiction and nonfiction edited by the founder/editor of Cemetery Dance (Chizmar) and the editor of the respected but defunct nonfiction horror mag The Scream Factory (Morrish). The book contains 55 entries (not counting original artwork), including nearly two dozen stories (half original), a novella reprint, about 30 original essays on "My Favorite Halloween Memory," a new poem by Ray Bradbury and three original essays on, respectively, the history, literature and cinema of Halloween. The list of contributors gathers just about every important writer in the field (other than King and Barker): Dean Koontz, Hugh B. Cave, Douglas Clegg, Richard Laymon, Poppy Z. Brite, Dennis Etchison, F. Paul Wilson, Ed Gorman, Peter Crowther, John Shirley, Douglas E. Winter, Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell and Peter Straub (with the novella, "Pork Pie Hat") are just a few. The insightful essays are by Paula Guran of e-newsletter Dark Echo fame ("A Short History of Halloween"), author Gary A. Braunbeck ("`First of All, It Was October...' An Overview of Halloween Films") and critic/anthologist Stefan Dziemianowicz ("Trick-or-Read"). The fiction is uniformly good, sometimes superb. The most seductive aspect of this book, however, is the Halloween memories, often potent snippets of childhood epiphanies (Elizabeth Engstrom remembers being abandoned, and growing up, one Halloween night in a junkyard filled with rats; Douglas Clegg recalls seeing, at age four, a witch fly across the face of the moon) that will bring back to every reader the autumnal magic of All Hallow's Eve. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A behemoth about Halloween, with over 50 contributors, and for horror/fantasy fans an absolute necessity, well worth the heavy price. Chizmar and Moorish had the inspired idea to ask leading authors in the field to write a Halloween story and also reveal in a personal companion piece"My Favorite Halloween Memory." Gathered here are original tales and some outstanding reprints by Dean Koontz, Poppy Z. Brite, Peter Straub, Thomas Ligotti, F. Paul Wilson, Gahan Wilson, Ray Bradbury, William F. Nolan, Kim Newman, Thomas F. Monteleone, Douglas Clegg, Douglas E. Winter, Jack Ketchum, and Richard Laymon, among others. Someone must have drugged and handcuffed Laymon since his body count herein falls horribly to only one skull being hatcheted in half. Don't miss Kim Newman's"Halloween 25," a nonfiction diary describing 25 of his Halloweens.

Kirkus Reviews