October is the Month of . . . Back to Blog

Update: The winner is…Kate N. (Yzhabella)! Congrats!

Thanks so much to Cynthia for inviting me to her Halloween blog party.

What does October symbolize to you? I was thinking about that the other day because I have a brand new release and it’s . . . can you guess? A Christmas anthology – The Naughty List. Okay, I love this because I’m in a book with Cynthia Eden and Donna Kauffman! But, hmm, Christmas stories, coming out at the beginning of October? That’s just a little too early for me (actually, it’s about 2 months too early for me!)

For me, October means a lot of things, and Christmas isn’t one of them. LOL. It’s the month when I can no longer fool myself that it’s still summer. The red and gold autumn leaves and the chill in the air won’t let me forget it’s autumn. I’m Canadian, so it’s also the month of Thanksgiving. (We Canadians are so much more sensible about that. We get a long weekend in October, and we get to eat turkey in October then again in December, rather than twice right in a row.)

Of course October is also the month that ends with Halloween. When I was a kid I so looked forward to that special evening. I’m not so much a spooks and goblins girl, but I did love planning a costume and, for one evening of the year, transforming myself into someone else. (Cowgirl was one of my favorites.) It was so much fun joining up with another family for fireworks – and yes, I’m old enough that we had fireworks and even firecrackers. I wasn’t so keen on the things that went bang, but I loved sparklers. Fairy wands!! And of course it was so terrific to be out after dark, trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and collecting sacks of candy.

But for me, the very best part was what happened after those bags were full. I always trick-or-treated with my best friend Anne, and afterwards we’d lug all our loot to the kitchen of one of our houses and empty our bags on the table. Then we’d share. Because, you know, sometimes different things go into each bag and neither of us wanted to come out better than the other. Aw, isn’t that sweet? I can’t believe what nice little girls we were. And then, of course, she liked some treats better than I did, and vice versa, so we’d swap those off. (I still, to this day, don’t understand the point of milk chocolate. I’m sorry, but if you want chocolate, eat the real stuff – the rich, super-dark, exotic, orgasmic . . . Oops, off on a tangent there. Excuse me a minute while I go grab a slice of a Terry’s dark chocolate orange . . .)

So, anyhow, after childhood experiences like those, is it any wonder that, when I began to write fiction, friendship was one of the themes I just had to write about?

What’s your favorite memory of Halloween – be it spooky or sweet? I’ll do a random draw and one person who comments will win a copy of The Naughty List, with a bookplate autographed by Cynthia, Donna, and me. (And, if you’re like me and have trouble thinking about Xmas before Halloween, then don’t even open the package when it arrives, just save it to put under your Xmas tree.)

Susan Lyons/Susan Fox  http://www.susanlyons.ca

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75 responses to “October is the Month of . . .”

  1. elaing8 – you deserved all the goodies for venturing out in the snow. Bet the cowards were envious when you showed up at school for the next weeks with candy in your lunchbags.

  2. Viki, that’s pretty funny. I can just imagine the pre-teen with the giant and very damp bosom.

  3. jennifer mathis says:

    my hubs decorates the house every year for halloween . He has a bit of a morbid sense of humor so then I get to explain to the rest of the town why their is a babydoll singing at the bottom of the wishing well and things like that

    meandi09@yahoo.com

  4. Mu favorite memory of Halloween is the first time I took my daughter out! Her eye were as wide as saucers all night! Form the ghost and ghouls to the treats and tricks my darling daughter weathered it like a champ!

    mleger0546(@)rogers(dot)com

  5. Kelly Thrash says:

    There was this year when it was raining cats and dogs and my friend and I went out anyway. We were like the only ones out and so we got a ton of candy cause everyone was trying to get rid of it! 🙂 It was the best Halloween ever!!!

    Kelly
    kittykelly28@hotmail.com

  6. Jennifer, your guy sounds like a great one for keeping life interesting and unpredictable.

  7. Kate, I bet your daughter was really happy to have your hand to hang onto that night.

  8. Kelly, another great story of being rewarded for weathering the weather. LOL.

  9. JoAnna says:

    Ok, I have a not so nice memory. We were getting ready to take my daughters, while waiting for my oldest daughter’s friend to arrive, my youngest took off running. She managed to get her foot caught in a toy and fell into my metal filing cabinet. She was more upset about missing trick or treat than the possibility that she might have stitches. While we waited for the pediatrician to call us back we took her out to a few houses. So she was happy and then we went to the ER for stitches. It’s a halloween I will never forget.

  10. susan leech says:

    One year we took all four kids and went out trick and treating and my hubby was dress like a woman and I had men’s clothes on/ One person didn’t know any of us but SHE then saw my hubby’s legs and guessed us right aways. Many times after that I would tease her about knowing his legs and how did she seem so familiar with his legs. It was a standing joke for years..sad to sad she is gone now but she was such a nice lady and a good friend and neighbor to all of us. susan L.

  11. Oh, too bad, JoAnna. I bet you won’t forget that one. I hope your little one healed quickly and without a scar.

  12. Sad to hear she’s gone, Susan, but it’s a pretty cool story. We’ll assume she’d seen him in shorts, right? And that’s how she recognized his legs. I love the idea of doing gender-switching costumes.

  13. Casey says:

    I have a Christmas memory that is ALWAYS told all the time. (Seriously, whenever my family is together and we’re talking about the past, this story comes up). Anyway, one Christmas, many, many years ago, my two sisters and I were decorating our Christmas tree. My Dad had set up the video recorder (ancient times, I know :D) and then, for whatever her reasoning was, my older sister stomped on my foot then fell over screaming in pain about how I stomped on her foot! Of course I had fallen over in pain too and for awhile no one could figure out what happened. But then when we watched the video everyone saw that I was the victim. We laugh about it now but we never did figure out why she stomped on my foot in the first place.

  14. Pam P says:

    I do like reading Christmas stories during the season, but will sometimes read them other times of the year.

    One sister goes all out for Halloween, baking, decorating the house and yard, having her kids and friends go around her neighborhood for all the loot. They all get into decorating their yards, lots of fun. My brother is gone now, but the kids loved him showing up every year in his gorilla costume to escort them around the neighborhood; though one year, a relatively new niece got scared and cried when he showed up.

  15. Casey, I wonder if your sister even remembers why she did it? If so, she should darned well confess, after all these years, and solve the mystery.

  16. Pam, I’m sorry to hear about your brother. That must have been so much fun for the kids, once they realized it was him and not really a big, scary gorilla!

  17. Jane says:

    I don’t have one favorite memory. Halloween is always a fun time, but I guess one of the best ones is when we took my niece trick or treating for the first time. She was only two years old and wearing a chicken costume.

  18. Jane, your niece sounds adorable. I bet she got lots of treats.

  19. Clio says:

    I am originally from Brazil where we don’t celebrate Halloween like you do here in the US- I live in New England now- so to me, I’ve been here for 28 yrs now- every Halloween is special…now that I have young children, I love to watch them carve pumpkins with my hubby- who is American and LOVES Halloween. So every Halloween, I just sit back, watch them get huge pumpkins, we grew our own this year- GIANT ones- that some bears just ate a few, really…I am in the country- so to watch them get those huge pumpkins, get some cider, tools and make designs and carve them out are the best!!
    Clio

  20. Clio, I used to love pumpkin carving with my dad. He had some artistic talent and a good imagination, so we had some fun ones. How great to be able to grow your own.

  21. Caffey says:

    Hi Cindy! Hi Susan!!
    Every year I so adore these Holiday anthologies from Brava. I crave the holiday stories! I think with just the four of us and no where to go, I get the holiday with the four of us here and my reads!!

    As for Halloween, I too enjoy it through the reads now that my kids are older!! My favorite one was when my son was about 8 and a friend of mine had a son about same height at that time so we decided to do trick or treating together. They ended up being dressed the same and we kept taking the hands of the wrong child and laughing so hard with them when we did! They absolutely do not look the same in person but so do in how we dressed them up! We still laugh about it today! I never was one for Halloween but loved it for the kids! Now I need to wait for grandchildren, smile.

    cathiecaffey @ gmail.com

  22. Hi Caffey! Cute story about the two kids – kind of like having twins for the night. I’m assuming you moms each went home with the right child? LOL.

  23. Kate N, congrats on your win. I’ll email you to get your snail mail. Hope you enjoy The Naughty List.

  24. Woot Woot! Thank you!
    =)
    Happy Halloween!

  25. You’re very welcome, Kate, and the same to you.