From the Editor

FROM THE EDITOR

There always seems to be some magic in the air in October. It’s when we typically feel autumn begin to set in – we look up, noticing the changing of leaves and crisping of mornings. It’s also traditionally when my mom would scare the living daylights out of me as a child. When we were young, my mom would host “Fright Night” on Friday nights in October. This is when we would order pizza, light candles, and invite the neighbor kids over for spooky stories. As I recall, it was a very popular occasion. Now, I was, and to a degree still am, a huge baby when it comes to scary things. And my mom bordered on professional in the way she could conjure a spooky ambiance; setting the lighting just so, speaking low enough that you had to lean in to hear the story, building suspense with a well placed dramatic pause. Her stories were always original and rarely planned out ahead of time. I recall a vampire story that made me wary of the mirror in my room. And a story about a little girl who picked roses that made me rather dislike a particular painting in our house. Whether the other kids on the block had nightmares or not, I couldn’t tell you, but I seem to recall our home phone getting a parental complaint or two. Still, even though the stories scared the bejeezus out of us, we always came back for another one.

—Genevieve