Greetings, Blog-o-weeners!
It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? We haven’t gotten together since last year’s festivities. If you recall (or you can just scroll down a couple of column inches, if your memory, like mine, isn’t what it once was), Blog-o-ween 2023 was all about short stories. We had 31 days of spooky tales by some of the best storytellers out there. We got together to read yarns by Daphne Du Maurier, H.P. Lovecraft, V. Castro, Elizabeth Hand, A.M. Burrage — the list was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.
I hope you got your eyes checked over the past twelve months and your prescription is up to date, because we are gonna hit the books again for this year’s Blog-o-ween! Only instead of reading 31 stories over 31 days, we are going to focus on just one story for the entire month of October.
As I’ve noted during previous Blog-o-weens, I spend every October reading the same book. I’m not exactly sure when this little reading ritual started, but I know that it’s been a part of my Samhain celebrations for at least the past decade. For my money, there isn’t a finer way to ease into the autumn part of the year than by reading Stephen King’s 1975 novel ‘Salem’s Lot, and this year I’d like all of you to join me.
So, consider this post your invitation — and your warning. Maybe you want to track down a copy of King’s novel at your local library now while you still have time? Maybe your local bookstore has a copy you can shell out some shekels for? Dig into your neighbor’s Little Free Library — there might be an old paperback hiding out behind the romance novels and picture books. Any which way you plan on getting your hands on an edition of ‘Salem’s Lot, I suggest you put that plan in motion now so you are ready to go.
Come back here next week. I’ll have a few words more about what you can expect from Blog-o-ween 2024 on 30 September. We will talk about my relationship to the book, why I think it’s important (in horror history and in King’s professional life), and what the reading schedule will be like. It’ll be like the first day of school when the teacher hands out the syllabus and pairs you up with a fellow student so you can ask them questions and then introduce them to the rest of the class. Come 1 October, class will be in session. We will, like the novel’s protagonist, Ben Mears, be traveling up the turnpike, heading north from Portland, Maine, until we get to Route 12…and ‘Salem’s Lot.
See you then, kiddies...and remember...
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