Hallow Evil: Prose and Poems for the 31 Days of October

By Chris Cook

October 31st. Its been called everything from Sowein, Samhain, and Mischief Eve to Devils Night and the Season of the Witch. Its most common moniker of course is Halloween. It is that mysterious night of the year when the veil between reality and that of the underworld grows so thin as to allow spirits of the dead to commune with the living. This compendium is a tribute to the entire month.

Hallow Evil is a darkly-delightful panoply of short fiction and poetry authored by master of horror, Chris Cook. Herein are thirty-one writings. This collection of peculiar poems, twisted tales and oft-times humorous pieces are designed to chill your bones on cool, fall evenings. They can be read throughout the month of October, one piece per calendar day. Or you may devour the book in one sitting.

However you digest these entrails, make Hallow Evil a new tradition in your home. When Octobers winds whistle through skeletal trees, dust off the hideous cover and crack open the spine like the creaky lid of a coffin in decay. Read by the flicker of a Jack-O-Lantern. Settle in for a long night of mystery and the macabre!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491808863

Book preview

Contents

P R O L O G U E   October Child

October 1St   Seedlings

October 2Nd   Tangleweed Blues

October 3Rd   Valerius’ Incant

October 4Th   A Shell Garden

October 5Th   There Was This Kid

October 6Th   The Promethean Progeny

October 7Th   Horror Of The Hollow

October 8Th   Time Expired

October 9Th   They’re Tryin’ To Git In!

October 10Th   Trickster Treat

October 11Th   Which Witch?

October 12Th   Snow Maiden’s Lament

October 13Th   Haystacks

October 14Th   Embers

October 15Th   Texting Tex

October 16Th   A Werewolf’s Warning

October 17Th   Hayride

October 18Th   Bones, Bones

October 19Th   An Unfortunate Homonym

October 20Th   Bog Breeders

October 21St   Epitaph From A Romanian Crypt

October 22Nd   Cult Of The Gourd

October 23Rd   Frigid Air

October 24Th   A Vampyre Noel

October 25Th   Something Dead In Mom’s Attic

October 26Th   The Tell—Tale Heart

October 27Th   Vampower

October 28Th   Five Limericks Of The Obsessed

October 29Th   Song Of Ghost Children

October 30Th   A Question Of Blood

October 31St   Houdini, 1926

The Author

THE COVER ART

The vivid and chilling rendering of a possessed pumpkin on the cover is entitled Trick-O-Lantern. The image was painted by visual artist, Bryan Crow. It is a piece of work Mr. Cook discovered after having penned the poem, Seedlings. The poem is a horror-fantasy told in first-person about an unfortunate soul who eats from the wrong batch of pumpkin seeds, then becomes a human-gourd. Through serendipity, Mr. Cook found Trick-O-Lantern. The author is honored to have Mr. Crow’s artwork grace the cover of this book.

*D I S C L A I M E R

The George Romero quote within this book was appropriated at a signing event in 2009. The venue was Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find, a comic book store in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mr. Cook gave Mr. Romero a complimentary copy of his published play, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Mr. Romero responded with the quoted words printed within. The blurb is intended to reflect Romero’s appreciation for the gift. It is not an endorsement specific to this publication.

C. Copyright, 2013 by Chris Cook. HALLOW EVIL, Prose and Poems for the 31 Days of October by Chris Cook, is restricted intellectual property. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and of all countries covered by the International Copyright Union (including the dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth) and of all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations.

All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, internet technologies including but not limited to the domain of the World Wide Web, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction such as information storage and retrieval systems, and photocopying, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. Particular emphasis is laid upon the question of readings, permission and terms for which must be secured in writing from the author.

The stage performance rights for the plays within HALLOW EVIL, Prose and Poems for the 31 Days of October by Chris Cook, are controlled exclusively by the author. No professional or non-professional performance of the plays may be given without obtaining in advance the express written permission of the author and paying the requisite royalty fees. All aforementioned regulations regarding this publication stated herein are hereby effective now, forever, in perpetuity throughout the universe.

All inquiries concerning performance/reading rights of the poems, prose or plays should be addressed to: Chris Cook 1625 Malcolm Drive, Columbia, South Carolina 29204. [e-mail].

SPECIAL NOTE

Anyone securing permission to produce any part of HALLOW EVIL, Prose and Poems for the 31 Days of October by Chris Cook as a live performance is required to give due credit to the author as the exclusive and sole writer of the performance piece in all programs, posters, flyers, and any and all other promotional printing. The same holds true for book signings, author appearances, and promotions regarding this publication alone. In all instances in which the title of the book appears for purposes of advertising, publicizing, or otherwise exploiting the performance and/or a production thereof; the name of the author must appear on a separate line, in which no other name appears, immediately beneath the title and in size of type equal to 50% of the largest letter used for the title of the play. No person, firm or entity may receive credit larger than that accorded the author.

For my daughter

who waits patiently upstairs,

while I build my monsters

piece by piece,

in the

cold,

dark,

cellar

below.

P R O L O G U E

October Child

Ever since I was a boy, there has never been a holiday as exciting to me as Halloween. As the thick and humid summers of South Carolinian Augusts gradually gave way to cooler, thinner days in September, my imagination would run wild. Random thoughts took me to treetops infested with witches, dark fields of demented pumpkins, and skeletons rattling like dry, clay chimes in the autumnal winds. The change in seasons was palpable. It portended the coming of times mysterious, magical, and haunting. As a child, I felt that no one in the world could love the month of orange and black as much as I. It wouldn’t take long before I became fully cognizant that there were other Children of October in the living world. And so it is, that I have assembled this anthology for all lovers of Hallow’s Eve.

My own Halloween traditions began during my most formative years. Octobers were