{"id":8160,"date":"2022-10-26T20:11:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T00:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/?p=8160"},"modified":"2022-10-26T20:13:43","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T00:13:43","slug":"halloween-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/halloween-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween Beyond: Piercing the Veil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lisa Morton<\/a>, Kate Maruyama<\/a> and I collaborated on a trio of novellas that were just published as Halloween Beyond: Piercing the Veil<\/em><\/a> from Crystal Lake Publishing as part of their Dark Tide series. When Halloween Beyond stores appear across America, they intertwine the lives of three visitors in a web of mystery and magic.<\/p>\n

My novella New Blood<\/em> is about a 12-year-old girl named Maddie who is keen to celebrate Halloween. But when her stepfather moves them to a strange coastal town, a Devils\u2019 Night party forces her to face eldritch dangers that threaten her entire family.<\/p>\n

The Talking-Board<\/em> by Lisa Morton asks this question: Can ancient magic exist in the modern world? When Kayla\u2019s sister Hailey went missing in the nearby Ghost Woods on Halloween night, the last person to see her was the solitary, elderly Brigid. Kayla, who has long suspected Brigid of being involved with Hailey\u2019s disappearance, dreads the first anniversary of her sister\u2019s vanishing even as her best friend Sophie urges her to put the past behind her.\u00a0 Halloween nears and Kayla pays a visit to the pop-up Halloween Beyond store, where an enigmatic clerk named Maeve convinces her to buy a talking-board. Kayla begins receiving messages which claim to be from Hailey, but is it actually something more sinister calling out from beyond the veil? Brigid\u2014who may be a witch\u2014offers to lead Kayla into the Ghost Woods on Halloween in search of answers. Kayla discovers dark truths about herself as she and Brigid confront the terrifying supernatural forces that claimed Hailey.<\/p>\n

In A Gentleman’s Suit<\/em> by Kate Maruyama, Halloween Beyond<\/span>\u2019s inscrutable clerk finds the right costume that makes people see the nonbinary Lex for who they really are. It\u2019s Lex\u2019s last Halloween at home before college, and it had better be good. When Lex\u2019s father, Beto, known locally as the King of Halloween adds an enormous animatronic Death on a boat to the collection in his elaborate front yard haunt, Halloween night takes a deadly turn. Lex is having trouble letting go of old friendships, of home, of Halloween itself, but they now face the hardest kind of letting go.<\/p>\n

\"Halloween<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve written a lot of Halloween fiction, and I do mean A LOT,” says Lisa Morton. “When Crystal Lake Publishing approached me about the possibility of doing a Halloween novella … I realized I hadn\u2019t really explored witches and Halloween, at least not in a modern setting that acknowledges the truth about witches as healers and practitioners of white magic.”<\/p>\n

“I thought it would be interesting, then, to write about a contemporary witch but still incorporate folklore. I would use certain tropes \u2013 mainly the idea that Halloween night is when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest \u2013 but also add in our current obsession with paranormal activity. Mix in a few other Halloween standards \u2013 a party, costumes, trick or treat, a haunted wood \u2013 and my novella began to take shape,” Morton says.<\/p>\n

“Lucy, Kate and I also decided to tie our three novellas together, although they were all written separately. We created a pop-up Halloween store called Halloween Beyond, which would sell standard Halloween paraphernalia but occasionally slip in a magical item. My magical item would be an old-fashioned Ouija board; thus my title finally became
\nHalloween Beyond \u2013 The Talking-Board<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Kate Maruyama says, “Last year, I wrote a Halloween Haunts<\/a> about my favorite Halloween traditions at my friend Miguel\u2019s house, and how I missed it so much during the pandemic. Last winter, I wrote a novella set against that very Halloween, starring Beto, the King of Halloween, based on Miguel. The novella (Halloween Beyond: A Gentleman\u2019s Suit<\/em>) is part of a triptych of novellas by myself, Lisa Morton and Lucy A. Snyder. Each novella is its own story but all pass through a Halloween superstore called Halloween Beyond and all our protagonists encounter a tricksy clerk there, named Maeve.””<\/p>\n

“A Gentleman\u2019s Suit<\/em> takes place in the first Halloween after the pandemic, in 2021 when the kids were so happy to be out again, but there was this air of caution. In the story, Beto, the King of Halloween has bought one animatronic piece too many for his yard. The rest of the characters are fully fictional, but I did gather all of the Halloween stories our gang of kids (six of them across three families, who celebrated Halloween at Miguel\u2019s house every year) and those stories appear as easter eggs (mini-pumpkins?) throughout the story. I had a lot of fun with it, capturing the feeling of Halloween in our specific neighborhood, the creativity of the local kids\u2019 costumes, and the creativity of the front yard haunts throughout,” says Maruyama.<\/p>\n

Crystal Lake\u2019s Dark Tide series will continue soon with more tales of Mystery Thrillers and Horror Books, including themes of Weird Western, Sherlock Holmes, Body Horror, Deadly Duos, and Psychological Thriller books.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lisa Morton, Kate Maruyama and I collaborated on a trio of novellas that were just published as Halloween Beyond: Piercing the Veil from Crystal Lake […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[156],"tags":[139,148,9,116,95],"class_list":["post-8160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-books","tag-cosmic-horror","tag-halloween","tag-horror","tag-novella","tag-short-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Hbeyond.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-27C","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5071,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/halloween-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":8160,"position":0},"title":"Halloween Season","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Halloween Season is my 4th book with Raw Dog Screaming Press, and my 10th short story collection overall. I created it for readers who told me that although they enjoy my horror stories, they really hoped I would return to writing humor, too. This collection has both! 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Snyder","date":"October 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The Southern Nightmares Reading Series is a monthly online event presented by the HWA Atlanta Chapter spotlighting Atlanta Horror Writers Association members and non-chapter members from around the world. The next reading will be this Thursday (October 22, 2020) from 8pm-9pm Eastern. It will be moderated by Alex Hofelich and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "horror"","block_context":{"text":"horror","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/horror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"HWAheader","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/HWAheader.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/HWAheader.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/HWAheader.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/HWAheader.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5312,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/book-launch-for-halloween-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":8160,"position":3},"title":"Book Launch for Halloween Season","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"September 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My publisher is hosting an online launch party for my book\u00a0Halloween Season\u00a0on October 5th at 7pm Eastern. I'll be giving a presentation on writing post-COVID horror, and cover artist Lynne Hansen will be on hand to answer questions. There will also be an online costume contest, virtual trick-or-treating, and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Books"","block_context":{"text":"My Books","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/my-books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Halloween Season Cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Draft2_HalloweenSeason_PaperbackWrap.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Draft2_HalloweenSeason_PaperbackWrap.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Draft2_HalloweenSeason_PaperbackWrap.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Draft2_HalloweenSeason_PaperbackWrap.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Draft2_HalloweenSeason_PaperbackWrap.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2254,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/what-october-brings\/","url_meta":{"origin":8160,"position":4},"title":"What October Brings: A Lovecraftian Celebration of Halloween","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"September 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Celeano Press just released\u00a0What October Brings: A Lovecraftian Celebration of Halloween. The anthology features fiction by me,\u00a0Storm Constantine, Arinn Dembo, Cody Goodfellow, Nancy Holder, Brian M. Sammons, Ann K. Schwader, John Shirley, Chet Williamson, and more. Here's the first part of my story, \"Cosmic Cola\": Millie leaned her forehead against\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "horror"","block_context":{"text":"horror","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/horror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/WhatOctober2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/WhatOctober2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/WhatOctober2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/WhatOctober2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3012,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/a-night-of-horror-at-the-bexley-public-library\/","url_meta":{"origin":8160,"position":5},"title":"A Night of Horror at the Bexley Public Library","author":"Lucy A. 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