Halloween! (Also a Dusted Freebie Event)

Halloween is a great time for paranormal books and, I figure in the spirit of the season, Dusted will be free to get October 25-26 and again October 31 through November 2.

I love Halloween for multiple reasons. Autumn is my favorite season being a big part of it, another is that I love costumes. Most of my favorite holiday memories are Halloween related (Thanksgiving and Christmas are a mixed bag since I have some rather...ahem, "eccentric" relatives): My brother and I once went trick or treating as bunches of grapes (purple and green balloons pinned to our coats), my mom sewing gigantic candy bags for us, going to a friend's school for a party and bobbing for apples for the first (and only) time, going through a corn maze. After every Halloween my brother and I would dump our two bags together and marvel at how much we had, feeling just a little bit like Scrooge McDuck.

Later, when my brother and I stopped trick or treating, we would just buy a whole bunch of candy and watch The Simpsons Halloween episodes. As time has gone on and I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate some of the more traditional aspects of the holiday. I love the harvest; seeing the hard work that has gone into crops that are finally ready. Apples, potatoes, cuttings of hay, pumpkins. Beautiful, natural colors of orange, red, and yellow. It's a time when people really use their hands to make things, and lets us show a little bit of who we really want to be.



Even if that want is to be a sexy Tootsie Roll.

It's a very loosely-interpreted holiday, considering its origins as both a Celtic pagan holiday and a Christian day of vigil. Either way it does boil down to one aspect: The passing of life into death. Americans have gotten so afraid of death that they've become scared of even aging  Halloween lets us face that fear, and other fears, with a bit of whimsy.



Like the fear of giant Tootsie Rolls.

And, of course, let's not forget Jesusween, a word that instantly causes me to devolve into a 14 year old snickering boy.





LOL

So have a fun, safe Halloween everyone! (You ever notice no one says "Have a safe Christmas"?) And remember,  Dusted will be free to get October 25-26 and again October 31 through November 2 (You can get Dusted Here)