Get Your Ghoul On

Whoot! It’s my favourite time of the year. The leaves are turning colour. The wind is crisp. Coyotes howl in the woods behind our house. The sun is low and the moon is huge in the sky.

But best of all - Halloween stuff is showing up in stores!

For everyone else this is a time to purchase creepy decorations they’ll display for a few nights of the year. For me, it’s a time to hunt for more cool spooky items to beef up my office’s macabre feel. What can I say? I write paranormal young adult fiction – I have a thing for atmospheric settings, this one just happens to be a spare room in my house that could pass for a vampire-inhabited crypt. It’s filled with iron-work, a hulking, dark-stained desk, fake tombstones and skulls, as well as antique coloured-glass bottles and vials.

But it can always use more mood, right? Last week I found a particularly impressive fake tombstone. It features a Victorian woman’s portrait (a holograph) that shifts from fair lady to gruesome ghoul as you walk by.

Now, I cheated and purchased all my scares. But there are some incredible DIY projects out there that someday…..I’m going to get my husband to do. ;)

Here are a few you might like:

http://www.hectorturner.com/halloween/celtic.html - super realistic tombstones. And Celtic!

http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/ - an old looking website, but the projects! A 13 hour clock. A flying ghost. One of these days my hubbie’s going to be very busy. ;)

If you’re planning a theme party and are going to invest some moola in your ghoula, check out this fab site: http://www.darksidedisplays.com – special effects, costumes, props – I basically want to live here.

Enjoy!