RHYS On HALLOWEEN

 RHYS BOWEN:  I confess, I’m in grumpy mood.  I am not a big fan of fall. To me it means the coming of winter, darker, shorter days. Less time spent outdoors. And pumpkin spice. I am also not a big fan of pumpkin spice although the world seems to be obsessed with it. I even saw an ad for a pumpkin-spice cosmetic serum today!  I’d rather put mud from the backyard on my face.

And my next confession: I’m not a big fan of Halloween. I suppose I didn’t grow up with it and I can see that little kids think it’s wonderful to dress up in scary clothes and get candy from everyone. When I was a child in England there was no such thing as Halloween. I think they always celebrated it in Scotland but I knew nothing of it until my first year in the US. I had recently moved into our first house, just had a baby and… there was a knock on my door one evening, shortly after dark.  I opened it AND there was a child dressed as a black cat standing there. “Trick or treat” she said.  I had no idea what she meant.  She had to explain that I was supposed to give her candy.  I had to search my purse for some quarters instead.

When I think back to my own kids and Halloween I loved the early years when they were happy with store-bought costumes: princess, witch, pirate. Then came the creative years. One year Clare wanted to be a tree. Do you know how hard it is to make a tree in which a child can breathe and move?  And one year one of them wanted to be a dragon. How to attach the tail so it didn’t fall off when they walked? Much late night sewing involved.

After that the scary years: costumes with fangs and dripping blood. Not my thing. But by then they were old enough to go trick or treating alone.  But who had to carve the pumpkins? That's hard work, folks.

And every year there was the triumphant return, the tipping out of candy for mommy to inspect and toss out anything that looked suspect. Then they were allowed to choose a few pieces to eat and the rest went into the pantry where it was soon forgotten and eventually tossed out.

I don’t think we ever got wholeheartedly into the thing, making bowls of fake eyeballs or spaghetti-guts the way some families did. Perhaps I am a person who scares too easily.

I’ve been to a few adult Halloween parties but never came up with brilliant costumes like Hank and Jonathan. Only one sticks in my mind. John had a dark beard at the time so we went as the devil and a fallen angel. We got lost on the way in a dark and leafy neighborhood and stopped a group of teenagers to ask for directions. A boy was happily pointing us in the right direction when he noticed John.  “You’ve got horns” he said in an alarmed voice.

                “Yes, of course. I’m the devil,” John replied as we drove off. That was fun!

So how about you? Did you enjoy Halloween as a child? Do you still enjoy it?  And what about Pumpkin Spice????

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Aw, thank you, Rhys!  I really remember being a princess, and my mother made a pointy hat out of silver cardboard, and put a pink scarf in the point so it floated down the back. Then I had a pink shower curtain as a cape. I’m telling you, I pranced around the house in that outfit for weeks. It was the perfect princess outfit. As an adult, I once dressed up as a teabag, in brown leotard and tights,  and put a clear plastic bag from my knees up to my chin. Then I filled it with scraps of torn up construction paper (brown, orange and black,) and then  tied a string around my neck and hooked a big Constant Comment tag at the bottom. It was pretty funny. ( I don’t think any pictures exist :-)  Thank goodness.)

Then there was the year when Jonathan and I dressed up as the Arcs, Joan of and Noah. Pretty funny. (Some people have no idea what I meant by this. I think I am hilarious, but maybe it’s just me.)

Pumpkin spice? Hard no. To all. Except pie. But that’s another blog.

LUCY BURDETTE: No pumpkin spice for me either! So funny you’d rather put mud on your face than ps serum, Rhys! I have been enjoying fall in New England–, the cooler weather, the colors, the earlier nights. Until I went to the acupuncturist and he said: “Fall always brings us around to death, doesn’t it?” Yikes, I suppose but I hate to think of that!

I do enjoy dressing up too–especially for an occasion like our previous Crime Bake banquets. Though I have to say I think Hank and Jonathan won EVERY ONE OF THOSE CONTESTS. Still, it was fun to think up a costume and know it would be appreciated by all those creative friends.

JENN McKINLAY: I LOVE FALL!!! AND PUMPKIN SPICE!!! AND HALLOWEEN!!! Potentially, it’s because my well known immaturity really gets to shine during this season. Also, I grew up in the mountains of CT, where it was apple picking, pumpkin carving, and gorgeous colorful leaves dropping to the ground like autumn confetti. Glorious! What was it Anne of Green Gables says? “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers” or something like that. That’s me. 

I love the dressing up and the passing out of candy and spookifying the house. My fave memory was when the Hooligans went trick or treating on their own for the first time - H1 was death (black cloak and scythe) and H2 was a crash test dummy (you know, the yellow mannequin thingy) - anyway, I made H1 carry my cell phone as they didn’t have their own phones yet and when they were roaming the streets trying to be scary I called them from the landline to check on them and the cell phone piped up with its ringtone “Here Comes the Sun”. *snort*  H1 reported that I killed their creepy vibe. LOL. 

And Rhys the way you recall all of those Halloweens with your littles  - I can tell you had a blast :)  

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Fall is one of my favorite seasons. I suspect you’d feel differently about it if you lived in New England, Rhys - the spectacular color on century-old trees, the amazing blue sky that only occurs this month, the perfect (in my view) temperatures - crisp and chill in the morning, pleasantly warm in the afternoon.

However, I’ve never gone all-out for Halloween. Honestly, I’m don’t really decorate for any holiday other than Christmas. So I get a few pumpkins (they were carved when the kids were young) and set a couple candles in hurricane lanterns on the porch and call it good. What I did do was make home-sewn costumes, which then evolved into costumes created from our vast, three-trunk store of dress up clothes and accessories. Leopard, witch, Batman, Glamor Witch (that was the Maine Millennial, of course) Roman centurion (reused for the church Nativity pageant!) Old King Cole, sailor (that was prescient) and several princesses. I have no digital copies of any of these, so instead I’ll share a pic of Youngest and her Shih Tzu wearing matching Halloween costumes/jammies. 

HALLIE EPHRON: I love almost everything about Halloween… except pumpkin spice. My neighbors on both sides decorate to beat the bands. This year our neighborhood has sprouted plastic blow-up tableaus with ghosts and dragons and pumpkins. I love it when little kids show up at the door in their costumes.

Pumpkin carving–or watching Jerry carve a pumpkin–was always a special treat. The faces he carved were nothing short of amazing.

For some reason (maybe I was too cheap) I would not buy store-bought costumes for my kids. They claim this caused a major trauma. A homemade Superman outfit did not compare with her classmates whose parents had bought theirs, but we managed a pretty good witch.

 

As adults my daughters make fantastic costumes from almost nothing. One year one of them went as Cher in her TURN BACK TIME video. I leave it to your imagination. I can’t wait to see this year’s get-ups..

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm afraid I've always been a bit of a Halloween fail. My mother didn't make costumes so I had store-bought as a child. I didn't do much better by my own daughter, but thankfully she's broken that tradition and my granddaughter has had wonderful costumes. I can't wait to see this year's! 

 

I do like decorating for fall but skipped it this year, with spending almost the whole of October in the UK. I'm glad not to have to worry about disposing of the pumpkins!

 

Lots of Halloween decorations in London, however! Here's a wonderful house on Tite Street in Chelsea.

RHYS: Great pix everyone. So who is a fan of Halloween? Of pumpkin spice?

Our Characters Do Halloween

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Happy Halloween, everyone, from all of us Jungle Reds in Dallas! I think the only costumes we will be wearing today are our Jungle Red pashminas on our Jungle Reds panel. But as we'll be asking a lot of fun questions about our books, it occurred to me to wonder what our CHARACTERS would wear to a Halloween party. (And, yes, they do celebrate Halloween in England these days.)

My Superintendent Duncan Kincaid would go as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Arc, I'm sure of it. He has a brown leather bomber jacket. All he needs is the fedora and the whip! (And if you want to imagine Duncan looking like a young Harrison Ford, I'm okay with that.) 

My characters have a great advantage in that Portobello Market has all sorts of vintage clothing stalls, so they would be spoiled for choice. Gemma might be Amelia Earhart, although she's not cutting her hair! She could tuck it up in her aviator's cap, and I think she'd look quite dashing on Duncan's arm. 

Melody Talbot? Well, Melody would let out her inner rock chick--thigh high boots, bare skin and sequins, gelled hair and LOTS of make-up.

And Doug Cullen? Well, that one's easy. Harry Potter, of course.

JENN MCKINLAY: I have too many characters to costume them all so I’ll just go with my Library Lover’s characters. I suspect Lindsey will dress as a female sleuth, perhaps as Rhys’s Lady Georgie or Julia’s Clare Ferguson! And her sidekick Beth Barker, the children’s librarian, will definitely be Mo Willems’s Pigeon from Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! LOL!

LUCY BURDETTE: Hayley snow Has to go for somebody in the cooking world, I’m thinking Julia child? Although that’s not really a cute costume. You can’t really dress like a food critic unless it was someone from the New York Times like Ruth Reichl, Tall and thin with a big mass of curly hair. And Miss Gloria? The more sequins the better! And by the way Nathan, no way is he wearing a costume of any kind. He’ll probably come as a key west police officer.

HALLIE EPHRON: Professional organizer Emily Harlow might go as an unmade bed. I see her business partner Becca going as Raggedy Ann.

RHYS BOWEN: I went to a Halloween party as Lady Georgie a couple of years ago but I think she might go as something naughty (a cancan dancer maybe) because she has been so pure in real life and her inner sexy lady is dying to get out.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Debs, this gave me furiously to think, as a friend of mine used to say. I can honestly say I never considered what the denizens of Millers Kill would wear for Hallowe'en! At first I thought Russ Van Alstyne might go as Jack Reacher, but that's a bit...vague. Who would know, unless he prominently displayed a folding toothbrush? Upon consideration, he'd dive into his love of upstate New York history, and go as one of Roger's Rangers, arguably the first special forces in America. He'd pooh-pooh the idea of making an effort with the costume, but wind up hiring a completely accurate 18th century uniform, complete with musket and powder horn.

Clare Fergusson, who loves Lindsay Davies' Marcus Falco mysteries, would love to dress up as a Roman matron, perhaps one going to her martyrdom in an arena. If it was too cold for a tunic and stola, she'd probably put on a jumpsuit and go as WASP, one of the brave women pilots who ferried planes and trained pilots in WWII.

Readers, share your inner fictional character with us!!

Halloween Help Line

DEBORAH CROMBIE: As much as I hate to admit it, I am a dreadful failure at Halloween. Not only can I not sew, but I have absolutely NO CREATIVE IDEAS FOR COSTUMES! Neither did my mom, although she sewed, so I was always the poor kid dressed in some awful store-bought costume. I would begin to think this was genetic, except that my daughter (who also can't sew) is pretty creative with costumes--at least once she got old enough to make her own. When she was little, she was the poor tyke wrapped in the ghost bed sheet...

Of course, now there's Pinterest, and I did find a board called HALLOWEEN IDEAS FOR LAZY GIRLS, so maybe if someone would invite me to a party....

Reds, are you costume whizzes? (I know you New Englanders have done some great things at Crimebake.) If you are, tell us where you get your ideas! And if not, join the Halloween Help Line Crew.


And tell us what you're doing for Halloween!

I think we're going to have a perfect crisp, cool night here in north Texas. I'm planning to sit on my front porch and hope for trick-or-treaters. I know I will have at least one!! Wren will be a little ghost, in tights and silver tutu, with a GHOST t-shirt made by a friend of her mom's. Her mom's t-shirt will say "Mummy" and her dad's "Deady." I can't wait!

And although she's not getting candy, I have a little raven finger puppet I saved for her from Bouchercon:-)

RHYS BOWEN: Debs, my kids WANTED store-bought costumes as soon as they went to school and there was peer pressure! But I remember Clare was once a tree! Now that was a challenge. John and I have been to various Halloween parties over the years. One year he had a dark beard and went as the devil with small red horns protruding from his head and upturned eyebrows. He looked very scary and when we stopped to ask directions of some kids they stared at us with big eyes. I was a fallen angel with black wings. One year I was Lady Georgie and John a 1930s aged seducer!  I'm amused that my sophisticated teenage granddaughters still like to do Halloween, even though they don't even eat candy. I suppose it's the fun of dressing up.

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm no help at all when it comes to Halloween. Our kids had to make their own costumes... which they tell me was traumatic, showing up at pre-K in a homemade Superman when another kid had on the glossy plastic "real" thing. They have grown up to be fabulous Halloween celebrators and costume makers. Last year my younger daughter made a her one-year-old son a spider; and here's my two girls ready to trick or treat a few years ago. When I look at the picture it cracks me up! 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: In the long ago before Youngest was born, I still had my sewing machine set up in our "guest room." I wasn't great - I didn't try complicated princess dresses or stuffed dinosaur tails. But I could competently execute the leopard costume, a witch dress, royal cloaks and tabards, etc. On the grown-up front, I made a spiffy Robin Hood/Maid Marian get-up for me and Ross.

Then things started to slide...the sewing machine got tucked out of the way, I had three kids, and October became a crazy whirl of baking stuff for the class parties, decorating the car for "Trunk or Treat" and dealing with ever-changing and excruciating specific requests from the kids ("I want to be a dinosaur princess!") I started buying good-quality costumes (like Disney princess rigs and dress-ups from the expensive indy toy store) when they were heavily marked down after Christmas. Between those and my collection of old costumes/ old dresses, scarves and hats/ plastic wands and swords I wound up with a couple huge bins the children could plunder at will. I've passed along the child-sized costumes at this point, but the bins are still well-filled with adult outfits and accessories. The Hugo-Vidals stand ready for a Fancy Dress Party at a moment's notice.

INGRID THOFT: Julia, what is trunk or treat?

The only Halloween costume from my youth I can remember is that a Madonna-esque girl during the eighties.  Think a miniskirt with funky tights, loads of black rubber bracelets, and lots of glittery makeup.  A few years ago, we were invited to a Halloween party, and I wracked my brain trying to come up with costumes that would be easy to assemble yet memorable.  I decided on Hugh Hefner and an age-appropriate girlfriend. The hubby wore fancy pajamas with slippers and a pipe.  Glasses, gray hair, a house dress, and support hose transformed me into a woman in her late eighties.  A caricature, yes, since women in their eighties come in all varieties, but the point was made, and the costumes were a hit.

JENN McKINLAY: I sew and yet it never occurred to me to make the Hooligans' costumes because they always wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, Thomas the Tank Engine, Batman, or Spiderman. All way beyond my skill set. The teen years have been a bit more irreverent as they either wear rubber horse head masks or my personal fave was the year they went as Death and the Crash Test Dummy. As for me, I was the youngest of six. It was always a sheet with eye holes or whatever my mom could cobble together twenty minutes (plaid flannel shirt + straw = scarecrow) before it was time to go and a grocery bag for candy.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, as a kid all I wanted to be--depending on the year--was a princess or a cowboy. The princess outfit was a fabulous piece of silver cardboard stapled into a pointy hat  with a pink scarf coming out the top. Which I LOVED. Accessorized by a pink plastic shower curtain cape. Very flowy. I wore it for weeks afterward! Nothing like a pointy hat with a scarf coming out the top to give you confidence, not to mention the cape.
 
As an adult, I love thinking of costumes. One of my faves was a teabag: In brown leotard and tights,I  just stepped into a clear plastic dry cleaning bag, filled it up with torn brown and orange construction paper, and then tied it at the neck. I'd made a Constant Comment tag to hang from the string.  A few years ago, Jonathan and I were The Arcs: I was Joan, he was Noah. At CrimeBake, we've been Nick and Nora, and Sam Spade & Bridget O'Shaughnessy, and Harriet Vane & Lord Peter Wimsey. One of my faves was a few years ago: as you see in this photo, we were Albus Dumbledore and  Bellatrix Lestrange. 

LUCY BURDETTE: having seen Hank’s costumes at crIme bake, I have to say she is a master! And Hallie is no slouch either. I love Halloween and costumes, which is a good thing in Key West where costumes rule, especially if they involve tutus! (See yesterday's post for photos from this past weekend.) Some of my best costumes appeared during my graduate school days, where I suppose we needed to blow off steam. I sewed a very elaborate Kermit the frog – the problem was no one had any idea who was under the frog head so it wasn’t good at a party! Here was my favorite from those days – Lucy as wonder woman.

DEBS: Oh, my gosh, you are all fabulous!!! Rhys, so elegant!!! Hallie, your girls are adorable, and how cute to dress Jody as a spider! (Wren was a chicken. Here she is wearing last year's costume at her gym class last week.)

Lucy, you are the most adorable Wonder Woman, and Hank!!!! You and Jonathan take the cake. Who would have thought Beatriz Lestrange could look so glamorous? 
 


READERS, what about you? Are you fancy dress whizzes? And if so, what's your secret??? And how are you spending Halloween?

Oh, and, Julia, do tell. What is "trunk or treat"?

Halloween! Jungle Red style...

HALLIE EPHRON: Halloween is a big deal in our neighborhood. People decorate, more even than for Christmas. My neighbor across the street has a giant inflated pumpkin. Next door skeletal hands reach up out of the ground. 

This year my husband won't be doing an elaborately carved pumpkin, though the door of his office at the college celebrates the holiday in special fashion with one of his signature rats.

My daughters have always gotten into Halloween. I'm not clever at all and I'm cheap, so they had to make their own costumes. They still do. Brilliantly. Here's them a few years ago, doing me proud. I crack up every time I look at this photo.

This year Daughter #1 is dressing up as her cat. (See photo at the end of this post.)

So what goes on with the rest of you at Halloween?

LUCY BURDETTE: Well, okay, we are in Key West for Halloween, and that means a week called Fantasy Fest, leading up to the big parade on Saturday. The week starts out with an unofficial event called the zombie bike ride. (I wrote about all this in KILLER TAKEOUT, which was loads of fun. John and I commissioned a professional face painter to do our zombie looks. )

THEN, as the week goes on, the costumes get raunchier and skimpier. As I was doing research, I persuaded the boys to participate in nearly everything, including the tutu party.  

The Key West locals parade is on Friday night, and the creativity for that event is stunning! 

There are several blocks on Duval Street, designated as the "fantasy zone," and that's where the dearth of costumes other than body paint becomes notable. (I will not share those photos, but you can Google.)

I have always loved costumes and hence, Halloween, but I never imagined living in a place where costumes rule!

RHYS BOWEN: Not having grown up with Halloween I have never seen it as the big deal that my children and grandchildren have made it. In fact my first year in the US there was a knock on my door and a child in cat costume stood there. Trick or Treat she said. I had no idea what she meant! And of course I had no candy to give her.

I used to love dressing up. Now it seems like a chore.

We're going to a Halloween party and as I write this I'm trying to come up with clever costumes that take no work. I'm thinking of a black veil over a long black dress and a picture of Oprah Winfrey tacked to it. I'll be the Phantom of the Oprah. What do you think? And John can wear his usual suit with the letter C on it and be The Old Man and the C.

Any better ideas?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Rhys! You are hilarious. Perfection.  Jonathan and I--see here? Went a few years ago as the Arcs:  Joan, and Noah. 

 

And funnily enough, I was reading an old diary from seriously, more than 30 years ago. In it, I was swooning over a guy I had met at a Halloween costume party. Will he call, won't he, all that stuff. I was--35 maybe. Very very single. And here's the BEST and purest diary line of all times, seriously. I wrote:

"And how can I even be sure what he thinks? He's only seen me dressed as a teabag."

Honestly, I can barely type now, I am laughing so hard at that. I was being completely and totally serious.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank, that is the most hilarious line ever. Honestly, you could build an entire BRIDGET JONES-style novel around that one sentence (and of course, she has a costume disaster, when she shows up to a garden fete mistakenly dressed for a "Tarts and Vicars" party.)

We live out in the country, and Halloween is so low key we've taken to leaving a big bowl of candy on the front porch - and there's always plenty left by the end of the night. There are a limited number of children around, and only the youngest go house-to-house in our area. Once they reach the age when they start calculating how much candy they could be getting, they're off to the suburbs or to Portland.

Hank, I too met a young man on Halloween, when I was at school in London. Not having packed any costume material when shipping a wardrobe overseas for seven months, my best friend and I rented outfits from a Fancy Dress Shop. First and only time I haven't made my own. Anyway, I went as a sort of Gay 90s Burlesque girl - satin corset with velvet drapery fore and aft, fishnet tights with a garter, and some sort of plume thing in my hair. 

HALLIE: JULIA, WE WANT PICTURES!!

JULIA: We went to our local pub and then on to three different parties, and I got more male attention that night than I ever have before or since! I chatted with and made a date with one nice fellow I met at a party. I think he was horribly disappointed when I turned up for dinner in my usual garb of frill-necked shirt, sweater, and Laura Ashley skirt (it was 1982, and every girl dressed either like Diana Spencer or Madonna.) Maybe if I had been in a tea bag, he would have had different expectations.



DEBORAH CROMBIE: You are all so cute! (And Rhys, you are hysterical...) Now I'm embarrassed to admit that I am a total bust at Halloween. My mom didn't do costumes, and I just never got the hang of it. My daughter learned pretty early to cope on her own. But I love seeing the little ones in their costumes. We don't get many trick-or-treaters, but I like to sit on the front porch with a bowl of candy during the prime time to welcome the few who come by.



But this year I'm in London, and am going to my friend's house in Chiswick (west London.) They have hundreds of trick-or-treaters! Halloween has taken over the UK. And there are Halloween-themed decorations everywhere here. 



Back at home, Wren is getting off to a good start in her first Halloween costume!

 
HALLIE: Please, share your Halloween traditions! And if you email me a picture, I'll add it to the post.

To get us started, here's my daughter as her cat....  Is she adorable or what?

Thanks for this, from Edith Maxwell: "For many years my best friend and I dressed up in complementary costumes for Halloween, often with face masks. We'd go together to parties and not speak to try to fool our friends. Here's one from the early eighties." I think everyone will agree, these are two scary babes.

And here's Denise Terry, who says: "A few years ago I went to a Cape Cod Writers Center event in this costume which not one person could identify!  Gertrude Stein!!" We would have guessed it. Thanks, Denise! (Her tag says: Rose is a rose is a rose)

Winter Is Coming...Look Busy

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: We've had a lovely, lingering September here in the Northeast, but it's over now, and autumn has definitely arrived. Nighttime temperature in southern Maine are dipping into the low forties and upper thirties, and you definitely want to wear a jacket morning and evening. At our house, Ross has done what he hopes is the last mowing, and instead we're raking leaves and hauling away the prodigious numbers of apples dropping from our trees. (Seriously, if you live near Gorham, ME and you want all-organic apples for jellies or sauce, let me know. It's like an apple avalanche here.)


We all know about Spring cleaning - and some of us may actually get around to it - but for me, Fall is really the time to get busy. Not with mopping and dusting and such, but with the serious work of preparing for winter. What's on my to-do list? I have to schedule the chimney sweep to clean our two wood stoves and two fireplaces. The furnace guy needs to come in and do the same for the furnace. We've got three cords of wood arriving on October 9th; all of it has to be hauled into the wood room and stacked, hopefully before the rains hit in November.

Somewhere out in the barn are the glass panels for our screen doors - hopefully they haven't been casually covered up with empty boxes or to-be-donated bags of clothing. We've thrown a lot of stuff in there since May...

Inside, I get through the big job of trading out summer wardrobes for winter clothes by doing one person at a time over a week or ten days. The oldest two mostly handle it themselves now, although The Boy will undoubtedly come to me looking for this sweater or that turtleneck. Ross, on the other hand, would have to live in polo shirts and light-weight khakis if I didn't haul his heavy things out from under the bed and down from the attic. He's always so amazed and grateful at the inexplicable reappearance of his seasonal clothing, though, I don't mind acting as his valet. Before putting the summer things in storage, I sort and toss - the Unutterably Awful go in the bin, the things no one has worn into the donation pile.

Also coming down from the attic: coats, scarves, mittens, gloves and boots. Some of them we hopefully won't need for a while, but it's easier to make the change-over all at once. All but a few lightweight jackets go into the front hall closet; out of the way but not inaccessible.

More raking, more picking up apples, more stacking wood. Ross is in charge of mulching and dividing bulbs and all the fall garden stuff (we long ago established that my role was that of ignorant laborer.) I'll buy some pumpkins and arrange them on the urns out front, and find the fall-leaves wreath (another trip to the barn) and hang it on the front door. Better call the oil man and get the first 200 gallons of the season delivered. Groan.

How about you, Reds? What's on your to-do list for fall?

RHYS BOWEN: Fall? What's that, she asked when the temperature is still 90. We actually don't have fall here. It's warm, sunny, delightful until some time in November and then like migrating birds we head south to Arizona. Such wimps, I know. And we don't do much to close up the house here as my son pops in all the time, my daughter sleeps over on their way to the city and there is generally traffic and house being used, which is great.

And as far as fall in the garden... alas this year there is no garden apart from our lovely lemon trees that keep on producing in spite of te drought. I planted nothing knowing we couldn't water. They are predicting a monster el nino this year so maybe I can put plants in again next year.... or maybe the existing ones will be washed away. We never know out here.


LUCY BURDETTE: Oh boy do I envy those apples, and especially the lemons! I have to do something with the last minute bumper crop of eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers. It seems a shame not to use them when John battled the woodchucks all season and finally won!

We'll be heading to Key West in November--always look forward to that! But it's not easy to try to remember to bring things we *might* need: passports, tax files, dog medicines, cat scratching post (because there's only in the world he'll use), etc. We always argue about this--

John: You're not bringing that!

Me: We've got all the room in the world.

and somehow it all fits:).


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Fall?  I cannot stand it. There is some horrible glitch in the time-space continuum that is making the time go by too quickly. It's still July, I know it is. I am sorry. I cannot face it. (The dahlias hardly bloomed, which is perplexing.  Jonathan is muttering something about taking out the air conditioners, and looking for storm doors, and I wore a sweater the other day..)  But I am ridiculously behind, and I am shocked by the Halloween candy in the store, and and and I will be all better when my book is finished.

And: I saw a leaf fall. I let out a huge wail. "Oh NO!"

"What?" Jonathan asked, all concerned.

"A falling leaf!" I yelped.

 (I'm not sure how he puts up with me.)


JULIA: You didn't get into the pool again this year, did you, Hank.

HALLIE EPHRON: Our heat came up last night... and my husband and I are sneezing. And I'm sitting here at my keyboard in a turtleneck and sweatshirt. Sure signs of fall. I'm wondering what kind of fall foliage we'll have because it's been so dry.

My husband rakes. And puts in the storm windows.  I nag. And I'm in charge of soup and bedding (our massive quilt needs washing). And we're all terrified that we're going to have another winter like the last.





SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: We live in a condo here in NYC, so there's not too much to do besides put the quilts on the beds and change out the light cotton spring/summer couch pillows for heavier needlepoint and velvet ones. I made a roast for the first time last week and am looking forward to using the crockpot for more soups and stews.

The big thing around our place is Halloween, what what Kiddo's costume will be this year — his ideas change daily. The latest I've heard was the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. But other contenders are: Jacob Frye from Assassins Creed (which he's NOT allowed to play), The Sorting Hat from Harry Potter, and Darth Maul from the Star Wars saga.Whatever he chooses, on the day of Halloween, he will undoubtedly change his mind, and then Hubby and I will scramble to put the new costume together..... (Oh yes, these are homemade costumes...)

JULIA: Okay, I'm beginning to get a hint of why it takes longer for me to write a book than the other Reds... although Susan, I have to admit I'm happy to be at the stage where my offspring put together their own costumes. Oh, the Octobers spent sewing up witch dresses, cheetah costumes and knights' tabards.

How about you, dear readers? Are switching velvet for cotton? Putting up storm windows? Planning to flee to warmer climes? (Lucky you!) Tell us what's on your autumn to-do list!

The Lure of the Masquerade, a guest post by Tasha Alexander

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I have long suspected that writers of historical fiction must not-so-secretly long to live in other ages. Not really-real historical times -- who wants to be without modern dentistry, antibiotics and washing machines? But the past that lives in our imagination and in our senses. Folks go to Renaissance Faires, join the Society for Creative Anachronism, reenact Civil and Revolutionary wars, attend steampunk conventions. Most of all? Young or old, they celebrate Hallowe'en.What's the common thread?

That's right. They get to dress up. Wear costumes. Pretend to be someone else.

Nobody knows this better than Tasha Alexander, whose much-loved Lady Emily series gives us all the chance to live a far-flung, romantic, exciting and mystery-filled 19th century life (while still listening to music on our ipods while we read.) Here's the description of her latest, THE COUNTERFEIT HEIRESS:

After an odd encounter at a grand masquerade ball, Emily becomes embroiled in the murder investigation of one of the guests, a sometime actress trying to pass herself off as the mysterious heiress and world traveler Estella Lamar. Each small discovery, however, leads to more questions.  Was the intended victim Miss Lamar or the imposter?  And who would want either of them dead?  

As Emily and Colin try to make sense of all this, a larger puzzle begins to emerge:  No one has actually seen Estella Lamar in years, as her only contact has been through letters and the occasional blurry news photograph. Is she even alive?  Emily and Colin’s investigation of this double mystery takes them from London to Paris, where, along with their friends Cécile and Jeremy, Duke of Bainbridge they must scour the darkest corners of the city in search of the truth.

How does Tasha feel about being an historical author? Well, for her, every day gets to be Hallowe'en!

Few holidays offer the guilt-free indulgences of Halloween. There’s nothing to cook, no presents to buy, no family drama to anticipate. Instead, we can choose to dress up in whatever costume strikes our fancy—silly, serious, sexy, scary—and give and get candy in all but unlimited amounts. What’s not to like, particularly when you consider the fact that no one is going to pressure you to involve yourself in Halloween if you’re not interested? It would not be so easy to forgo Thanksgiving.

For me, costumes have always been the most appealing part of Halloween, partly because I can take or leave candy. If Trick or Treating involved getting something spicy instead of something sweet, I might revise my position just a bit, but the real reason the costumes matter the most to me is because they remind me of reading. Sounds crazy, right?

From the time I was a little girl, I felt as if I had been born in the wrong century. I wanted to be a pioneer, setting off in a covered wagon, ready to find the perfect homestead in the west. Or Cleopatra, who never needed a translator when dealing with foreign emissaries because she was fluent in seven languages. 

Or an ancient Athenian, listening to Socrates in the Agora (yes, that one only works so long as you willfully ignore the fact that girls in ancient Athens weren’t hanging out in the Agora; I have no trouble doing that). Or Scarlett O’Hara, deciding who could bring her dessert (but you know now that if I were Scarlett, she’s be looking for more barbeque and less dessert). 

 

As it is all but impossible to do any of the above in real life, I lived out these fantasies through reading. Books let you enter another time and place, and let you to feel what it would have been like to be someone else. Is there anything better than the sensation that the world around you is disappearing and being replaced by another one, first with words and then with the vivid details your mind fills in as you read page after page after page?

Of course, you don’t ever actually get to BE the characters in books, which can be something of a drag. As I teenager, I would have gladly switched places with Elizabeth Bennett, but on the other hand, I never felt the urge to join Ishmael on the Pequod. Still, a holiday like Halloween gives us the opportunity to don the togs of our favorites. So tell me, what would be your ideal literary costume for October 31?

One lucky commentor will win a copy of THE COUNTERFEIT HEIRESS!

You can find out more about Tasha, and read excerpts of her Lady Emily novels, at her website. You can also friend her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter as @talexander.