The Coming Evil Trilogy: A Retrospective by Greg Mitchell

Today I hand the blog over to my pal and fellow Star Wars alumn Greg Mitchell, who just finished publishing his Coming Evil trilogy. With my own Merkabah Rider series drawing to a close, I thought it’d be interesting to hear what he had to say about completing a work that’s taken up so many years and so much effort.

Is it common for writers to experience “empty nest” syndrome?

For the first time in nearly fifteen years, I don’t have any more writing to do on The Coming Evil Trilogy. It’s done. Over. They’re all out now, available for your purchase. Some characters met their demise, some found their true calling. But there’s nothing left to say, no more battles left to write.

The books are finished. And I’m not sure where to go from here…

Here we are, a month after I released Dark Hour, the third and final installment in the Trilogy, and it’s only now slowly beginning to settle in that I finished what I started when I was twenty years old.

For the uninitiated, The Coming Evil Trilogy tells the story of the once-scenic Greensboro, a small town in its death throes thanks to the highway being moved a few miles to the left. The economy has shriveled up—the people have shriveled up. Their apathy has attracted the attention of the enigmatic “Strange Man” a gleefully sadistic demon with a leather fetish, and his army of pint-sized flesh-eating gremlins. The Strange Man has a bone to pick with Greensboro for banishing him over a hundred years ago, but his true sinister intent isn’t revealed until the very end of the series. For three books, we encounter a ragtag group of small town folk who must combat these hellish hordes with something that they’ve all forgotten—faith. And so begins the terrifying blood-soaked struggle to discover what is worth fighting for in their lives, what is worth hanging onto. At its core, The Coming Evil Trilogy is a coming-of-age tale, where boys become men and shoulder the mistakes of the previous generation while trying to decide how they will impact their world.

Not only is this a coming-of-age tale for my characters, but it’s been a bit autobiographical as well. You see, I had something to prove, too. I began writing the first book in the series—The Strange Man—back in 1998/99. I was a young screenwriter with a two-fold passion: I loved monsters, especially the creature features of the 1980s, and I wanted to work in Christian films. However, at the time, I noticed a depressing trend in the Christian Film Market. They were heavy on the message, or the “sermon”, but at the expense of things like characters, plot, action, subtext. It wasn’t surprising. At the time, Christian films were super low budget. They were only about a half-hour long and were made explicitly as “gospel tracks” to be viewed on Wednesday night Church Youth Group pizza parties. They weren’t meant for entertainment, but to get their message across in a short amount of time and serve as an ice breaker for future conversations.

But I was just out of high school and I wanted to be different. I wanted to blaze new trails! I wanted to prove that you could have your “message”, but that it could grow organically out of an engaging story with real, believable, relatable characters. I was convinced the story could be fun and exciting, all on its own! I was desperate to prove that I could write something (hopefully) enlightening, as well as entertaining. I also wanted to take it a step further—I wanted to write this Christian movie…as a horror movie.

Well, yeah, so that didn’t go over very well with the Christian Film contacts that I had. “No one wants to see that” was the general attitude. But I wanted to see it. I was often wrangled into those Wednesday night pizza parties when I was a teenager, and I would have killed to see one of those “gospel-tracts-on-film” as done in the style of “The Lost Boys” or “The Monster Squad”. Heck yeah! I was convinced that, if I wanted to see it, surely there was someone else who would appreciate it too. Hopefully a whole bunch of people.

I sat down and wrote a half-hour “Christian creature feature” entitled The Coming Evil, but it went nowhere. No funding, no interest, no nothing. But I began to love that little dude and I wanted to know what happened next in the story. So, I kept writing. And writing. Soon I realized that one movie could not hold all the ideas I had. In fact, three movies couldn’t hold the ideas I had. But, just maybe, a trilogy of novels could.

I took that original script, re-branded it The Strange Man, and expounded it and adapted it into a novel that I first self-published in 2006, and then saw re-released by Realms Fiction (to stores!) in 2011. Whether for good or for ill, it still holds a bit of that original concept—of a (hopefully) entertaining Wednesday night Youth Group film. For the most part, I thought it was successful. But, beginning with Book Two, Enemies of the Cross, the Trilogy turned darker. The books grew up. I grew up. I was no longer content with the “evangelical approach”, but wanted to explore deeper matters of faith. About faith tested in the face of tragedy. Where is God when we lose a loved one? Why is God silent when we cry out to Him? Why should I even care? What does any of this “God stuff” matter at all?

Enemies of the Cross turned into my own journey through my doubts and my anger and my feelings that God owed me something in this life. The monsters became stranger, the violence turned more heated, and Greensboro—itself—became a nasty place. The Strange Man was winning. No one could be trusted. Out of the three novels, I think I learned the most about myself during Enemies. I was ashamed by some of my attitudes and realized that there was more to life than what I had been living.

But the story didn’t end there. Now, Dark Hour is out, and I’m proud to say it is the best thing I’ve ever written. It’s taken me almost fifteen years to get this story out, and it is, really, the result of reaching adulthood. At thirty-five I feel like I have a firmer grip on who I am, about my views on God, on humanity, and on the meaning behind it all. The book, like the journey, is sometimes ugly, sometimes beautiful, but I’ve found encouragement that there are things worth fighting for. Brotherhood, children, love, Truth. The odds have never been greater than they are in this final book, and the heroes will have to fight and claw and die for every inch of ground they earn back from the darkness, but they will fight. They will not give up.

Despite the ups-and-downs of this long journey, I never gave up. The Trilogy is complete. Now that it’s out of my hands and out in the world, I’m left in a new phase in my life. I still have more growing to do, more discovering to do—and I hope to write monster books about that too.

In the meantime, I hope you all check out the Trilogy. It was an eager young man’s bold experiment to fuse his favorite childhood monster movies with his blossoming faith. Looking back, was it successful? I suppose only you, the Reader, can answer that. But I’ll say this much:

I had the time of my life.

—-

Go check out Greg’s blog and/or pick up his books on Amazon.

He’s also running a Goodreads giveaway of Dark Hour until April 1st, so head over there and enter for a chance to win a free copy.

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/47795-dark-hour

 

 

Reality Hopping With Greg Mitchell: Rift Jump

Today I’m giving some space to fellow author Greg Mitchell, author of The Coming Evil Trilogy. Specifically, we’re talking about his new Young Adult time travel/multiverse skipping adventure novel Rift Jump from Splashdown Books. I’m fascinated by the notion of multiple realities, as is evidenced when you get deeper along into Merkabah Rider.

What is Rift Jump about?

From the back of the book:

“A sinister threat is growing in the void between realities, and teenager Michael Morrison has been recruited to stop it. Ripped from his own violent life, he is sent rift jumping to other worlds seeking out the agents of the Dark and putting them to an end by any means necessary. The love of his life, Sara, joins him as he battles Civil War spaceships, sea serpents, superpowered humans, and even his own duplicate from a parallel timeline.

But the darkness he fights is growing within him too, calling him to the same destiny as every other Michael from every other world. If he is to change his fate, he must learn to love, to forgive, to trust, and to let the man in the Stetson guide him to become the warrior of the Light he was always meant to be.”

What influenced you into wanting to write about a hero traversing multiverses?

I was in high school when I first came up with the idea of Rift Jump. I’ve never been the kind of writer who just imagines thousands of different story ideas. I’ve always wanted to create a concept or a character that I could get behind and one that could fit endless adventures. Back then, I was desperate to come up with my Big Idea. Michael Morrison was very much the product of my adolescence. He’s everything that I wasn’t—strong, fearless, street smart, confident with the ladies, etc. I really clung to him as an avatar for my teenage self. But I needed something for him to fight, and I couldn’t decide on a single mythology. Was it a mythology populated by super villains or monsters or aliens or criminals? All these years later I realize that I could have made a single story-world with all those types of characters, but back then I thought those different ideas were irreconcilable. Which led me to the idea of a multiverse. That opened up endless possibilities for the kinds of stories I could tell or the kinds of foes Michael could encounter. I was convinced that, that way, I would never get bored by settling on a single concept. Michael could fight vampires in one story, stop an alien invasion in the next, and then fight some Earth-grown terrorists. Not very inspired, mind you, just a way to amuse myself, really.

Did you make a conscious effort to create a young adult hero or a story geared towards young adults?

Again, when I started thinking about Rift Jump, I WAS a young adult, so I didn’t see anything unique about it. As I got older and decided I wanted to dust off the concept and write it “for real”, I never considered making Michael an adult. Being a teenager is such a singular experience and completely integral to Michael as a character and to my mindset when I first created him. So, rather than dodging the fact he was a teenager, I wanted to explore the subject matter with as much honesty as I could. In the story, he starts rift jumping when he’s twelve. That was always in the original idea. Looking back, that was really stupid, but, hey, I was fifteen, what did I know? But instead of changing it, I decided to break it down. What WOULD it be like for a 12-year-old to be on his own in a multiverse, toppling evil empires for the next five years? How terrifying would that be? How lonely? Add to that a journey through adolescence and all the conflicting and wild emotions that come with that. I drew a lot from my own experiences as a teenager and the insecurities I felt. I didn’t write about those emotions back in high school because the wounds were still being inflicted and it was too personal, but as a (mostly) well-adjusted thirty-something adult with a beautiful and supportive wife and two great kids, I felt safe enough to go back and face all those teenage demons in full truth. At times it was very raw returning to those days, but cathartic. The writing is a lot more honest than I was capable of when I was a kid. Rift Jump is fairly unflinching in its portrayal of being a scared, confused, angry teenager. I didn’t really envision myself writing for a younger audience, but now that it’s out, I certainly hope that young adults can read this and relate to it and realize they’re not alone in what they’re feeling—but also see something to aspire to. When you’re a teenager, you can’t always see past that, but there’s a whole world and a whole life beyond high school. But we can so easily screw that life up by the impulsive decisions we make in our youth. We have the power to choose who we are going to be: that’s the entire thrust of Rift Jump.

Do you believe in the possibility of multiple, concurrently existing realities or timelines? Now I ask this solely because your other series The Coming Evil has a definite Judeo-Christian influence and you yourself are a Christian – do you think such a belief could be reconciled with faith in intelligent design in the universe?

Well, I don’t know if I’d stake my life on it, but I think it could be possible. And I certainly feel God would still be at the center of it all. I have a very big view of God. He’s infinite. Who knows what He has set up or what He’s maintaining right now. I do believe that God exists outside of space and time, which means He is in every moment at once—past, present, future. Does that mean He could also be existing in dimensions parallel to our own at the same time? I think He absolutely could. He’s God.

That’s one of the concepts I wanted to explore in the book. When I began writing Rift Jump, some of the questions I asked myself up front were, if there are multiple realities, are there multiple Gods? Multiple versions of heaven and hell? Ultimately I decided on God being a singular entity that exists outside of all realities. Likewise, there is only one heaven, one hell, one set of angels and demons, if you will. That’s where the concept came from for the “In-Between”, the space between the planes of reality where all the “supernatural” stuff exists, completely unaffected by the crude material world of the multiverse. Ultimately in my concept, the multiverse boils down to a construct of Choice. In the Bible, God gave us freewill to choose—so we have the option of following Him or rejecting Him, of being righteous or being wicked. So, just as you have one reality where you chose good things, there’s another reality where you chose bad things. That’s choice. In Rift Jump, God is present in all realities with full knowledge of all possibilities and outcomes—just as I feel would be the case if parallel realities actually exist.  The question then becomes, does one reality have to exist for the other to, as well? Can you REALLY “choose good” if there’s only one reality—one choice? Does there need to be a reality where you chose wrongly, in order for there to be a reality where you chose right? That was my thinking going into Rift Jump. As to whether or not I believe all of that is a factor in our real world—I wouldn’t totally count it out, but that’s above my pay grade. I strive to make good choices that honor God and make the most out of my particular plane of reality—but I do often wonder about that other Greg who might exist somewhere in the multiverse, who chose to go down all the wrong paths in life. I’m curious as to what his life might be like now. I don’t think I would want to meet that Greg in a dark alley.

Is there a possibility that Rift Jump will continue as a series, or is it intended as a standalone effort?

I’m working on a follow-up to Rift Jump right now that serves as a companion piece to this book. Rift Jump is Michael’s story, but its follow-up will mostly be about his true love Sara and the changes she goes through as a result of the things that happen in this book. Young love is a powerful thing, but even the Bible warns against waking it before it so desires “for love is as strong as death, and its jealously as unyielding as the grave.” That’s what the follow-up is about. It ties up all the loose ends from the first book into a pretty epic, tear-jerking conclusion. They make a nice set. After that, I don’t have any more planned, but in a multiverse of infinite possibilities, anything can happen, I suppose.

Rift Jump is available on Amazon/Kindle and all other digital formats on Smashwords. Here’s a link to the publisher’s site, which includes links to all formats:

http://www.splashdownbooks.com/darkwater/rift-jump

Hasta pronto!

A Sit Down With Author Greg Mitchell

So this week at DT, to kick of the Halloween season, which is a big deal over here obviously, I’m interviewing the coolest Protestant I’m not married to, Greg Mitchell, author of The Coming Evil Trilogy. I met Greg over on the Star Wars.com blogs when we both wrote winning entries for The What’s The Story contest they had going over there a few years back. His entry on The Dusty Duck, a beat up old star ship which appears in the background of The Phantom Menace ranked at number 79 in The Coolest Things About Star Wars…Ever! that ran in Star Wars Insider magazine.

Dusty Duck

But he hasn’t stopped there. Besides forays into comics and horror fiction, he’s also making headway as a screenwriter now.

Und now, on mit der probing qvestions!

 

 

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

I think I always wanted to be a storyteller—but the decision to be a writer took a little longer. I remember growing up and telling these sweeping war epics with my G.I. Joes. I’d have dialogue, cliffhangers, slam-bang action, heroic sacrifice. Of course it was all on my couch with no one around to appreciate it but me, but I still wanted to tell a story. As a small child, I wanted to be a Disney animator. In my adolescent years, I considered being a comic book artist. After high school, I largely put aside my drawing and wanted to focus on making movies. When that proved too expensive, I at last decided on converting my movie concepts into prose. Not that I’ve given up on film and comics, but right now novels are where I’m at.

 What made you decide you wanted to write horror specifically?

I’ve always been a fanboy, no doubt. I don’t think I chose to be that way, it just chose me. I was hardwired for the fantastic for whatever reason. But, as much as I was attracted to the weird, I never could get into hard science fiction like the other fanboys I knew. Star Trek never did a thing for me. I’ve never read Heinlein (I know, I know). I think it was about high school that I realized I was more of a horror fan. Why? In sci-fi, even in fantasy, you have to go somewhere. If you want to be where the action’s at, you’ve got to get on a space ship and go to some distant star system. Or you’ve got to go to the future, or travel to a mythical realm. But, being a broke kid living in a small Southern town, I wasn’t going to go anywhere. I wasn’t even going to go to college. But in horror, the excitement comes to you. You’re living your quiet life, then a werewolf jumps out of the bushes. You’ve got to face it; you’ve got to run or fight. That base characteristic of horror really appealed to me because anyone can become the star of a horror story. It’s just a matter of timing and some bad luck, perhaps :p

But, as I’ve said in other places, even as a little kid, I was subconsciously drawn to monsters. I wouldn’t realize this until much later in life, but all my favorite super heroes had a tinge of the supernatural or monstrous to them. All my favorite movies did, as well. I suppose all little kids love monsters to a certain extent, but my love never went away. Monsters—horror—gave me a way to face my real life fears. It’s a powerful cathartic release and I’m a pretty tightly wound guy. I need that. 🙂

How would you describe The Coming Evil?

Pure awesomeness.

 Okay, I’ll elaborate a little bit. The Coming Evil Trilogy—begun in The Strange Man, in stores now, and continuing in Enemies of the Cross, on sale in February—is the story of a small town under siege by a demonic horde led by the enigmaticStrangeMan. The first one to encounter the Strange Man is Dras Weldon, a twenty-two year old college dropout. His is a life of horror movies and video games, lived selfishly without any thought to those around him. When the Strange Man sets his sights on Dras’ best friend Rosalyn, the town loser has to grow up and discover what it is he believes in, in order to fight the Strange Man. That confrontation culminates in Book One, and Book Two is the aftershocks of his dramatic stand and how it impacts those closest to him. War is coming and no one can hide from it. But are there enough good people left inGreensboro to fight the devil?

To the chagrin of my publishers, I describe The Coming Evil Trilogy as a Christian Horror epic. Those are my two passions and they collide here, full force. It’s an exploration of my faith—almost a journal of my own spirituality—and it’s a B-movie monster extravaganza.

So, you know, pure awesomeness :p

What’s the plan for the series? How many installments?

It’s a trilogy. My publisher and I have got a special little surprise to go along with that trilogy, but I’m not ready to formerly announce it yet. I’ll be announcing it later next year. I always loved the Back to the Future trilogy and wanted to make my own three-part story, so that’s what I set out to do. Beyond that, I don’t know. I’ve got ideas for other books in The Coming Evil series but I suppose that’s up to God if I ever get around to writing them. They would be all-new stories with (mostly) new characters. We’d explore new corners of the mythology and see what bogles lurked there. Rest assured, though, that the story of these characters will be wrapped up in Book Three of The Coming Evil. I like cliffhangers, but at the close of a series, I like the lion’s share of my loose ends to be wrapped up. I need that closure. I want readers to walk away from the trilogy feeling really satisfied with where it ended, and if that’s all I ever get to write of The Coming Evil mythology, then so be it. It stands on its own.

You probably get this a lot, but you told me once you’ve gotten your fair share of flak attending horror conventions because of the Christian subject matter in your series. I’m curious about this because although I toy with it a little, there’s a definite monotheistic slant in Merkabah Rider, and it has turned a few reviewers off. Why do you think it is that some people don’t like their chocolate in their peanut butter, and what do you say (or wish you could say) to those detractors?

Well, it’s tough. Horror, by its very nature, explores good and evil, the divine and the profane. The Exorcist has got some hardcore pro-Christian elements! I don’t think horror fans have any problem with a little “power of Christ compels you”, or a fundamental belief that there’s one God, or that there’s a devil. Faith is not the enemy, here. Plus, you don’t have to believe any of that stuff to write it. Holding up a cross to repel a vampire is just a horror trope, by this point. But, when, as an author, you start showing that you actually believe in one God or Christ or whatever in real life, then people start to slowly back away from you.

Where I got into trouble was that my book goes deeper than the religious imagery and trappings of mainstream horror and we start talking about Jesus. We start talking about what the Bible actually says. Look, Jesus is a controversial figure, even now, two thousand some odd years later. I get that, totally. People just don’t want to talk about him. They get all sweaty and nervous and—even most Christians!—are waiting for the conversation to be over. I’ve been accused of hijacking horror as just a vehicle to spread my propaganda, which I find insulting. Every writer has a message that they’re trying to convey. Every human being has a worldview that guides their living. I’m not going to deny that I believe in Christ and that, in a book about monsters, I’m going to talk about how faith in Christ is your weapon against the devil. That’s the mechanics of my story. My demons are ripped right from the Bible, so naturally the way to fight them has to come from the Bible as well. That’s the “mythology” I’m using here. Beyond that, though, I’m writing a book about the Church. Sometimes it’s a celebration of the Church—a lot of times it’s an indictment of her shortcomings. But the majority of my cast are Christians dealing with struggles that Christians can relate to. They deal with doubt, faith, despair, hope, anger, mercy, rebellion, and restoration. They’re going to talk about Christ and how He relates to them and their struggle. That’s a part of their natural lives; that’s a part of my natural life. If I was writing a book about cancer survivors, we’d talk about cancer. If talk about cancer offends you, I don’t know what to tell you—that’s the nature of the book. It’s not my intention to write a preachy story to get people in a church pew. I’m trying to communicate my own faith journey openly. I don’t want to sugar coat anything in my book—not the horror aspects, not the “God” aspects. I’ve got to be true to myself. Some people are going to love that, some people are going to hate that. I’m naturally a kind of guy who wants everyone to like him, but that’s just not always going to happen.

What about on the flip side? Do you have to defend your horror work to people in your church, or Christians in general? What do you say to them?

I got a little resistance from some of the Christians I knew initially, but as they got to know me better and what I’m trying to accomplish, they’ve become very accepting. The Christian reviewers who have read The Strange Man have run the gamut. I mean, no one’s called me “blasphemous” (I’d probably get more sales if they did :p), but a few of them thought the book was too dark or scary or gory or intense. A few months ago, I was the featured book for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour. At the time, I was told that I was the scariest book that ever made the rounds in their tour—which I take as a huge compliment! I’m hoping when Enemies of the Cross is released in February, I can return and see if I top my record 🙂

 

Who are some of your inspirations in both the Christian and secular communities?

I think, as far as writers go, one of the Christian writers I respect the most is Eric Wilson. That man is open and honest about his life—both the good and the bad—and he’s got a real heart for reaching out to the kinds of people that most “typical” churches shy away from. He’s got street cred, man, and he’s living it as well as writing it. And, really, I respect that about any Christian—writer or not. I’m looking for genuine people. There are so many bad examples of “Christians” plastered all over the news, but then I see some of the people of my own church. The world, at large, will never know their names, but I see them taking care of children, I see them going on mission trips to build homes for low income families, I see them feeding the homeless in soup kitchens, counseling young mothers. I see them reaching out. They’re not perfect. They struggle and they fall sometimes, but they are there for each other and they really want to just lead simple, hardworking lives and do something worthwhile with the time God has given them. The media won’t talk about them, but those guys are Christ’s legacy. Sometimes there’s a temptation to water down the faith aspect in The Coming Evil so I don’t offend anyone or so I can get more mainstream sales. But then I look at their hard work and sacrifice and it emboldens me. I can’t be ashamed of my faith when I look at them.

 Back to writers: I would be kicked out of the horror fanboy club if I didn’t mention Stephen King. Ray Bradbury. Richard Matheson. I really love John Carpenter movies. Steven Spielberg. Lovecraft is always great. And I’m hooked on author Bob Freeman. He’s like the prose version of a 1970s occult movie or a Hammer flick. I love it.

 You’ve had some success as a screenwriter as well. Anything you want to plug in the pike?

Yes! As a matter of fact my first movie is shooting as we speak! In quite the departure from my usual fare, it’s called Amazing Love: The Story of Hosea. I wrote it with Christian filmmaker Rich Christiano for the family film market. It’s a sweet little story about a church youth group going camping. They come from different backgrounds and don’t always get along. Their youth leader—played by Sean Astin no less!—tells them the Old Testament (I love the OT) story of the prophet Hosea, who was called by God to love an unfaithful woman. It’s a story about forgiveness and understanding and all those warm, fuzzy things. It’s very safe entertainment, designed to draw the same types of crowd that movies like Fireproof and Courageous do. It’s directed by Kevin Downes, who incidentally stars in Courageous. We’re looking at seeing it released early next year. Sadly no monsters in this one. Maybe next time.

What advice would you give to a screenwriter or writer just starting out?

Quit. If you can’t quit, then don’t quit. The writing business, to me, has always been like a game of Jenga. You’ve got this tower of blocks and the goal is to take the blocks from the bottom and stack them on top. You want to see how many blocks you can stack on top before the whole thing comes crumbling down. That’s not the writer part though :p The writer part is that, when you go to move a block, you test it first. Because of the distribution of the weight in the tower, some blocks are wedged in and you’d be a fool to press it, because the whole thing is balanced on it and it’ll just fall over. You want to find a block that’s already loose. Then you can easily slide it out from underneath the weight and lay it on top. But you have to test them. You tap, tap, tap at each block until you find one that moves. That’s writing. You tap each story until one starts moving. Then when you want to get published, you tap each publisher. Some are locked in solid and will not budge. Don’t fret. Just keep tapping until you find one that moves. Besides, as the weight shifts, some of the blocks that were solid before become pliable. It’s all about timing and seizing the right opportunities.

I would say to write from your heart. I would also say finish. So many people talk about being a writer and say they want to write. But writers write. More than that, they actually finish a story. Finish a lot of stories. Just write it until the thing is done. Worry about if it’s good or not later.

What was your favorite Halloween costume ever?

My mom made a homemade Wizard of Oz scarecrow costume for me one year, using yellow yarn for straw. It was pretty rockin’. I think I was in a parade that year?

What’s the worst thing you ever got in your candy sack? What was the best?

Anytime I get Whoppers or Butterfinger, I make a “yak” face. No good. Best thing would probably be gummies of some sort. My kid and I wrestle over who gets the gummy eyeballs.

What bit of horror scared you the most as a kid? What scares you now?

Two things: Well, okay three things:

Chickens. My uncle chased one for me to pet and it was running and sqwaking and going ballistic, and by time he caught it, I was terrified.

The fictionalized Joan Crawford from Mommy Dearest. No joke, that was my “monster in the closet”. I lived in fear of Joan Crawford busting out of my closet with her cake makeup on shouting, “No more wire hangers!” I have never watched that movie, but I caught a commercial for it on HBO when I was a wee boy, and was traumatized.

Peeping Toms. I had a deathly fear (still do, a little bit) of someone watching me through my bedroom window. I actually had a couple neighborhood kids do that to me as a prank when I was a child and I was scarred for life. Coupled with that is the nightmarish scene in the amazing movie Lady in White, where this creepy old woman is watching little Frankie sleep. Yeesh. I’m still fearful of looking out the window at night, dreading that I might see something staring back at me.

What scares me now, well not to be put a damper on our fun talk here, but losing my kids. As much as I was afraid growing up, I didn’t know real fear until I had children. Something happening to them is by far more horrific than anything I could cook up in my mind.

What are your Halloween plans?

I really want to dress as Dracula this year! Like, old school Bela Lugosi Dracula. A cheap cloak from Wal-Mart, some fake fangs, and a flimsy plastic medallion if I can find it. I’m really excited about it! I’ve never been Dracula before.

Halloween is a big deal in my family. We always bring out a mixed CD of spooky songs to listen to while we dance around the house, putting up our decorations. On Halloween night, we play the music from a stereo in the window so all the kids can listen while they trick-or-treat. I’ll put on a classic Universal Monster movie on the TV so that, when folks come to our door, they can catch a peek at a good old fashioned monster movie before they go on their way. My wife usually stays behind to pass out candy for awhile, and I’ll take my daughters door to door. Our goal is to be outside as long as possible. After the trick-or-treating is done, we’ll come back and sit on the steps and enjoy the night, watching all the kids in costume until everyone goes home.

Halloween really doesn’t get any better than when you have kids. And when they’re little, it’s like you don’t have to pick just one costume – you can pick as many as you have bods to throw ’em on! I don’t want to say it was the reason I had kids, but I won’t say it wasn’t a factor either. 

Thanks to Greg for stopping by DT to chew the rag. Don’t fail to visit his blog over at http://thecomingevil.blogspot.com/ to keep up with his latest news.  He’s also been a good enough egg to let me take over his space for a couple days, and I’m going to give away some .pdf copies of my short Lovecraftian blues story The Crawlin’ Chaos Blues over there, so if you missed reading my ramblings, take a gander.