I believe in having a happy, not a spooky Halloween.It was one of my favorite holidays as a child, because what’s not to like about candy, dressing up, and partying with your friends on a moonlit evening?
Halloween’s named for spirits — All Hallows Eve, a time for remembering those departed from us. I was thinking about my late brother when I began a novel featuring a guardian spirit, two sisters, and a gently haunted house in Italy. The Invisibles features the ghost of the 19th century poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who haunts with poetic lines and advice for getting along with your relatives.
DISCOUNTED THIS WEEK!
For one week only, The Invisibles is discounted to just $1.99! A good read for Halloween time, with a ghost who’s just a little scary, but turns out to be a member of the family. Some kind comments from readers:
- “This was an utterly charming and engaging story of two sisters.”
- “Engaging and enchanting!”
All Hallows Eve & Uplifting Fortune-Telling
This holiday has traditionally been celebrated as a scary evening, but when I was a child, it was more treat than trick. We’d go out in pairs or groups and knock on doors, free from parental supervision for the early evening. Thanks to kind neighbors, we came home with bags of candy! Our suburban neighborhood in San Pedro, California, was safe and receptive to trick-or-treaters.
I loved dressing up as a witch with layers of black gauze in a costume sewn by my clever mother. The idea of being a witch was benign. From my reading of the Oz books, there were bad witches and good witches. I knew I which one I was. One Halloween, my first crush went trick-or-treating with us. The glow of being around someone special was better than the candy, and the happiness that trailed around with us is palpable in memory.
Halloween can be a happy night for little adventurers to roam around, seeking fun and treats and playing dress-up. Where the holiday can be made safe and fun, it’s still a beloved evening for the little ones. For many years, I’ve helped with a gentle Happy Halloween party. This event’s goal is to transform the holiday, with a motto of “Love and Light make fear take flight!” At a fortune teller’s tent, children receive uplifting fortunes. Here are a few – feel free to pick your own fortune:
- Tonight, you feel very happy. Tomorrow you will be even happier. If you believe in sharing happiness, it just keeps growing.
- Someone will smile at you tomorrow, and you’ll smile back. You’ll find every smile you share is better, and you’ll want to give yours to everyone.
- When the sun comes up, it shines on everything. Be like those golden beams. Shine and be kind.
Progress on my new book — Return to Lerici
I’m in the editing stages of this sequel to The Invisibles. If you signed up to be an early reader, it should be coming your way soon, and I so appreciate your help.
The spirit of the poet Shelley makes a return in this book. He has one more member of the Greene family to put on a positive path. This new character has been separated from the family, having been adopted away at birth. But he’s searching for his natural family, and one of them is searching for him.
Here’s an excerpt, from the point of view of the half-brother who has finally met his natural family.
Letters. He wished he hadn’t written the threatening one to Elinor Greene. If only it went astray. While he’d been eating dinner with them, he’d watched her. He couldn’t of course tell whether or not she’d received the threat. She’d never mention such a thing to a handyman they’d been kind enough to invite to dinner. But the desire to know burned in his chest. The nicer they had been over the meal, the more he wanted to wait until they were out and search the house for it. But maybe Elinor had thrown it away, assuming she could ignore it.
Daniel felt the knotted-up frustration choking him to the point of having to move, to do something to push these conflicts aside. His life was one giant, tangled knot of problems. There was nothing he could do, pulling and poking at them, to sort them out. Nothing but music to soothe him. He strummed a chord and wished again the Greene family was his to claim.
Will they meet, and will it go well for Daniel? Stay tuned.
