I wrote a blog about noir and got enough comments to read and answer that they made me think. A dangerous thing for me:) At least, that’s what my husband tells me. He says my brain stays switched on way more than normal. LOL. Maybe a common writing complaint? At least for spouses… Anyway, when I woke up in the wee hours of the morning, I had most of a noir type story plotted out in my mind.
I didn’t have time to write it right now. I’m just starting the new Jazzi and Ansel, and I don’t write noir, so I pushed it away. But it kept coming back, so I wrote down all the notes I could remember on Scapple to look at another day. Which I worried would come sooner than I expected because the story’s sort of making a pest of itself. And I was right. This last weekend, I wrote the darn thing just to have some peace.
I like short stories. I enjoy writing them. And at the moment, Staci Troilo is trying to write one a week for an eight week challenge. The site offers a prompt you have to use. You can check Staci’s stories out here: https://stacitroilo.wordpress.com/2021/08/09/bunch-of-bull/#comments
And that made me think that October will be here before we realize it, and October was MADE for short stories. C.S. Boyack wrote a short story once a week for his blog in October one year. Darn good stories, too. Horror, thriller, weird, and dark abound during Halloween month. My friend, Kathleen Palm, has written a story for the Midnight Society every year for 7 years, and she’s going for it again. I love her idea of creepy, but if you think you have a story in you, here’s the information if you want to give it a try. https://www.midnightsocietytales.com/2021/
If you DO write horror, etc., you might want to try out Teri Polen’s October promotions in Bad Moon Rising: https://teripolen.com/2021/08/06/calling-horror-thriller-and-paranormal-indieauthors-for-badmoonrising
And while I’m at it, I might as well do a shout-out for a blog friend of mine, Mary Angela, whose latest cozy is set at Halloween, and a witch is the murder victim:
I have favorite movies I like to watch in October: Hocus Pocus, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp, The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas, and Van Helsing with Hugh Jackson. What about you? Any movies you watch to put you in the mood? Books or short stories? Hope you have plenty of treats and no tricks.
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Judi Lynn 
Wow. You gave so many great shout-outs in this post. I’m honored to be among them. Thank you.
For me? Nothing gets me in the mood for Halloween like The Exorcist. If I can find a station playing a block of old horror movies (The Exorcist, The Omen, and Rosemary’s Baby), I’m settling in for the afternoon or evening.
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I liked both of the stories you wrote for the challenge. I’ve never gotten brave enough to watch The Exorcist. Just the advertisements were too scary for me.
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Thanks for the shout. I haven’t done Macabre Macaroni for a few years now, but they were always popular. Maybe I should resurrect it. I love the whole Halloween vibe. Not into splash movies, but everything else works from black and white all the way to a musical called Little Shop of Horrors.
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I bought Little Shop of Horrors, we like it so much. Never want to go to a dentist like Steve Martin:)
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I think he was nominated for an Academy Award, but didn’t win.
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P.S. I still remember two of the short stories on your blog–a girl in a barrel and a guy who buys a house that a ghost owns. Wouldn’t mind reading them again.
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Thanks. The girl in the barrel made it into the first Notebook. I loved that one, too.
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This was such a cool post with so many links and so many shout-outs. I love spooky reading at Halloween, more than watching TV, but Hocus Pocus is a movie I never tire of. Pumpkins and scares will be here before we know it!
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