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Oct082010
All Hallows Eve – Guest Author: Isaac Marion, author of zombie novel, "Warm Bodies" (+ Giveaway!)
by Carolyn • Posted in Uncategorized
I am very excited to welcome Isaac Marion to Book Chick City today to help celebrate All Hallows Eve. Isaac Marion was born in north-western Washington in 1981 and has lived in and around Seattle his whole life, working a variety of strange jobs like delivering deathbeds to hospice patients and supervising parental visits for foster-kids. His is not married, has no children, and did not go to college or win any prizes. “Warm Bodies” is his first novel..
I had never heard of this author before, but after reading “WarmBodies“, which I reviewed earlier today, Isaac is definitely an author I will be watching closely – I’m eager to see what his next book will be. Warm Bodies is Isaac’s brilliant new novel and will be released this month.
Please make sure you enter the international giveaway at the end of the post for your chance to win one of two copies thanks to Vintage!
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Halloween is that special time of year when parents dress their children as classic representations of evil and send them out to demand sugary taxes from their neighbors on threat of violence. But what a lot of kids don’t realize is that there is more to Halloween than just eating so much candy that you throw up and lie huddled in bed all night twitching and cursing God. Halloween is also an important cultural holiday for zombies, vampires, Spidermans, and other manifestations of our collective consciousness’ darkest dreams.
Although witches and demons have been part of our culture for centuries, and skeletons have been around since the early Paleozoic Era, Halloween is a relatively modern invention. After observing the successful creation of the African-American holiday Kwanzaa in 1966, an unnamed zombie proposed a similar celebration for his own people as a way to promote species awareness and acceptance, and also to make hunting easier by flooding the streets with costumed decoys. No one expected the holiday to catch on outside the undead community, but the ‘60s were a time of profound social upheaval, and since the youth culture had already begun to embrace monsters—who possessed an undeniable charisma and sinister cool that humans couldn’t help but envy and want to imitate—Halloween quickly exploded into one of the world’s most popular holidays.
Halloween is celebrated in all English-speaking countries and most Pashtu-speaking tribal lands, but the traditions associated with it vary from place to place. In my own city, Seattle, Halloween looks very different than it does in, say, London. The basic spirit is the same; our kids still go Trick-or-Treating and dress up as goat fetuses and schizophrenic hallucinations, but because of Seattle’s frequent, heavy rainfall, we must make some adjustments. Since October is our rainy season, the streets are usually not navigable by land, so on the morning of the 31st every family has a “Creepy Craft Party” where we help the kids build canoes out of paper and popsicle sticks. We then load the little rascals into their boats and set them adrift in the floodwaters, where the violent currents whip them through the streets until they eventually run aground on a random neighbor’s porch. From there, the Trick-or-Treating resumes more or less traditionally. The neighbors take the waterlogged tykes inside, dry them off, and perform any necessary CPR. The eager kids are then treated to an extravagant feast of generic bulk candy and put to bed in the garage if the neighbors have one, or under the sink if they don’t. The next morning, the neighbors look up their little guests’ barcode tattoos on www.kidcode.gov, find the parents’ addresses, and return the children home only slightly worse for wear. That is, of course, if they weren’t drowned or eaten by river vampires the night before.
All this may sound like an anxious night for the kids’ parents, but playing the odds—even with such morbidly high stakes!—is just part of the Halloween experience in Seattle. With over eight hundred casinos—more per square mile than libraries, schools, and coffee shops combined!—Seattle is known around the world as a gambling city, and the question of whether or not the children will make it home from Trick-or-Treating is the subject of much extravagant wagering. In 2009, an estimated forty million dollars changed hands via Halloween betting. Traditionally, parents will always bet against their own kid, so that if he or she does end up being eaten by river vampires, the parents will at least have their winnings as consolation.
Losing a child is always a hard thing, but the thrill of the risk—along with the joy of friendly competition between neighbors—is what that keeps Halloween interesting for Seattle’s adults, most of whom can no longer enjoy candy due to countless suppurating stomach ulcers. Some may call our holiday traditions inappropriate or even irresponsible, but after all, it’s Halloween. If you want songs, cider, and your children to be alive, you can go celebrate Christmas.
Thanks Isaac!
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Now for the GIVEAWAY!
I have TWO copies of Warm Bodies to give away to TWO lucky winners
All you have to to do enter is:
1. Read BCC’s Giveaway Policy
2. Fill out this form
3. Leave comment for author: how do you celebrate Halloween in your town?
4. Only one entry per person please
This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL and ends Oct 31st!
GOOD LUCK!
65 Comments
We usually have the kids go trick or treating in the early evening. I don't know if it is the economy or not, but I don't see alot of houses decorated this year.
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We don't have Halloween in my country! That's just sad!
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We don't :/
Sometimes we throw a party but is not like some traditional thing that everyone does.
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We don't have Halloween in my country. Only 1st of November – it's the day when we go to cemeteries to light candles for those who are not with us any more. Death seems to be even more scary when presented this way, i always wished that instead of adopting Valentine's Day, we adopted Halloween!
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We donøt have halloween either…
On a positive note: I LOVE the cover of Warm Bodies, it is so cool!
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As far as I can see we don't really 'celebrate' Halloween… Yes there's all the fancy dress things and plastic decorations in the supermarkets, and there's the seasonal variations on candy (Cadbury's Screme Egg – coloured green rather than orange), but that seems to be as far as it goes. I'd never have dreamt of 'trick or treating', it just seems rude somehow to turn up on strangers doors and demand sweets. There's really no strong tradition of celebrating Halloween that I'm aware of, and whatever is appearing seems to be 'borrowed' from America.
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I don't have kids and I'm not sure what families do for Halloween where I live. I just know I had to stop buying candy to give out because no one ever came. So I just order or make pizza and watch horror movies all night.
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We're much more reserved about halloween in the UK. A few years ago I might have not even got any callers – mind you more sweets for me
But I sort of wish it was like the US as it looks really good fun!
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well.. some times we take kids to trick or treat-ing, but usually they go out early and always go with an adult (You know.. streets may be a little wild these times)… sometimes we organize costume parties (last year i was a chuby-home-made version of batman´s Harleey-Queen… believe me, you dont want to see that xD)
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I have 3 kids so we do trick or treating until about 7 and then we go home and sort through all of the candy and the kids do alot of trading. It is an exhausting night lol but we enjoy it.
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DAMN he's cute =)
I LOVE Halloween. My town has a half dozen or so Halloween shops open for the month of October. Of course they mostly sell your typical slut and ho outfits, but they do have some nice decorations as well.
Kids still trick or treat here, we have a few pumpkin patches and a local store sets up a corn maze every year.
This year I'm heading to Long Beach Comic Con for Halloween weekend, should be a blast =)
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I never did trick or treating growing up – but I used to love Bonfire or guy fawkes night. I used to make a guy fawkes dummy with old newspaper and clothes and asking for 'a penny for the guy' outside my local library.
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I absolutely love Halloween! My family decorates our house and hands out candy while we have on old horror movie marathon (the old Universal films from the 30s and 40s). I also like to dress up in costume and carve a pumpkin to set outside. And I watch The Nightmare Before Christmas during this time, since it's my all time favorite movie.
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There'll be trick or treating all over the place by little kids right up to almost adult teenagers! Lots of parties in pubs and clubs and stuff! Dressing up! Etc!
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Hm, we are not that into Halloween here in Brazil Which is sad, it looks cool (okay, I probably watched Hocus Pocus too many times!).
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we usually watch a lot of scary movies and give out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that come out this way. the week before we hit the haunted house attractions…
k_sunshine1977 at yahoo dot com
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The trick-or-treating happens in my parents' neighborhood where I go hang out every year — we used to get a lot more kids, but we don't have as many kids in the neighborhood so it's pretty quiet. I always like to see what the kids are dressed up as. And here's the secret at our house: the older you are, the more candy you get. My mom and I like it when the big kids come out. So all you high school kids, stop by our place and will give you lots of candy. We like to see kids staying kids!
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Depends. There is a lot of diversity around so some celebrate it, do the old trick or treating, partying, haunted houses (one is in a field), or even church. We have something for everyone.
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When i was young we would go 'guising' (i think its either NE of Scotland or general scottish thing' it was similar to trick or treating.
Since i had children i've found that people tend to have parties more rather than going out, most of my neighbours don't have young children and if we were to go round the houses of people we know then we'd be walking for miles all round town (not very practical for a four and two year old).
I really enjoy going to the kids parties, its nice to see them all dressed up and gives me an excuse to eat lots of chocolate without the hassle of getting dressed up myself!
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i don't trick or treat, i'm the one giving out candy =)
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I hand out candy every year! tWarner419@aol.com
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Halloween is the best. I am not above dressing dress my kids up and force them to work the streets. And to take half of their loot when they get home. They don't pay rent, giving me their Twix bars isn't to much to ask.
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WE DO have Halloween but over the years its just not celebrate like it used to be we dont get many kids dressed up anymore its just to dangerous to go out alone but last year i was lucky enough to be in Florida with my kids so they got to experience it the proper way
i am in uk by the way
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My son,daughter-in-law and I take their son trick or treating. They all dress up, but I don't.
mom1248(at)att(dot)net
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We usually get dressed in our costumes and take pictures out by the Halloween decorations and then go trick-or-treating hitting all of the awesome houses and then end by going to my neighbors haunted house!
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We don't have Halloween in my country. so no celebration when it comes
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i give out candy and stay up late watching spooky movies! there is usually a candy corn induced coma at some point as well
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Occasionally people throw costume parties where I'm from and of course, trick-or-treating is really big for the kids. My grandparents are entomologist though, so we decorate our house for Halloween using our pinned insect and live scorpions, tarantulas, madagascar hissing cockroaches, etc (all in cage) on the front porch. That way when kids come to get candy they can even see the creepy crawlies. It's pretty fun actually.
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Great post! My husband takes the kids out for trick-or-treating, and I stay home and watch gross horror movies on TV. I love it! I turn out all the lights in the house and light candles, then pass out candy while my wiener dog barks with delight. It's very festive!
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Kids dress up and go trick or treating in the evening. Tore923@aol.com
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We do some trick or treating…maybe sweating in our costumes or packed under snow…just depending on the weird weather.
I hear the ghosts control it as a means of amusement. 
-Lauren
lauren51990 AT aol DOT com
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Yep the usual trick or treating with the grandson who is still young enough for grand folks. Will have a small family party before he runs up the street.
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I put on my costume and me and my friends go around with candies and cookies to give them to the little kids.
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We like to just kick back and relax, while having a large stash of lollies by the door and watching scary movies.
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We don't celebrate Halloween (or anything similar at all) in my country
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My grandchildren come all dressed up for trick or treating. I used to take my kids out but they are now taking thiers out trick or treating so I can stay in watching horror movies. I have a large amount of candy for the trick or treaters though.
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Unfortunately Halloween is not as celebrated in our country as to other countries. But would love to do it sometime though.
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We don't have Halloween in our country but if we do, I think it will be heaven for kids and me too =)
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I live in a country where we don't celebrate Halloween at all.
When I was younger and lived in England, Guy Fawkes night (5th November) was much more important.
So I've only been to a couple of Halloween parties and I've never been trick or treating.
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We celebrate Halloween all month long! We go to several parties, go to a scary camp-out and then end the month with trick or treating in our neighborhood!
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Halloween, which I also refer to as "Beggars Night", is celebrated in the Pit of Hell, aka Arizona, pretty much the same as it is everywhere else in the world. When I was a kid, it was more fun than it is now as we dressed up at school that day and then went trick or treating at night, usually forcing one of our parents to accompany us only to carry our pillowcases when our candy haul got too heavy. Now, for obvious safety reasons, kids have organized trick or treating at malls or churches or schools, which probably isn't as fun as what I got to experience, but you can't miss what you don't know, right?
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Around here we usually have costume parties but that's pretty much it. It's not a very big holiday around here :S
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My parents started a fabulous family tradition of setting up a haunted garage and scaring the crap out of all the kids in the neighborhood…..
Sadly I got in trouble for that last year and have theoretically been banned from the "safe house" list by the neighborhood moms. Which is just ridiculous! I didn't even incorporate the chainsaw wielding psychopath.
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Due to the overwhelming amount of taking-seriously I'm seeing in these comments, I feel like I need to point out…this blog is for comedy. We don't actually feed our kids to vampires in Seattle for Halloween. We're nice people. Okay thanks.
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Halloween is usually not celebrated in my
country, but it would be lovely to go
trick or treating!
regards,
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Halloween is not much raved about in my country.
But I do see some stores selling halloween costumes which are always stocked.
=P
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We live in an old mining town and the community is pretty tight nit and are all about family activities. Every Halloween they have Trunk 'O' Treat on Main street. All the stores stay open late and hand out candy and older classic stlye cars participate and park their cars on Main Street and pop the trunks and decorate them all spooky and fill them with candy so the kids can go from car to car and store to store. It's cute and fun and the kids love it
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We go trick or treating and all dress up and go to the local park where all the kids are in fancy dress
In the evening we usually have a small family party – everyone in costume including the adults!!
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This year my group of friends and I are celebrating by having a party. The city does some events too that are kid and pet friendly with pumpkin patches and the like.
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We don't celebrate Halloween here. But, I have to say that I just read Book Chick City's review of Warm Bodies & it sounds really great!
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Religiously!
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In Australia not many really celebrate Halloween…=/ but sometimes we just have a dress-up party…and that's it really…I wish that it was celebrated here more enthusiastically though!
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I live in a rural area in the UK so there is not much celebration of Halloween. People put up lovely lights on their houses for Christmas though
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As in most places in the UK, there isn't much going on in my town at Halloween. Some of the younger people may use it as an excuse to get drunk – although they don't usually need an excuse!.
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My kids love to trick or treat all day. They have way more stamina than I do.
lizzi0915 at aol dot com
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Unfortunately we don't really celebrate Halloween in my country. :S
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Thanks so much for a brilliant giveaway!!
We don't celebrate Halloween here
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We don't really celebrate it here. The last few years there have been some costume parties, but that's all.
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my town is primarily retirees, so there's hardly any trick-or-treating (at least in our part of town), but we usually go to a haunted house, pumpkin patch, and watch scary movies all halloween while eating goodies!
k_sunshine1977 at yahoo dot com
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Now that my son is older we don't really celebrate it at all. I do buy in lots of sweets for the kiddies chapping the door in their costumes
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Just moved to a small town. Not sure what's happening yet. Guess we'll find out tomorrow.
dorcontest at gmail dot com
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We don't celebrate Halloween that much — although I know there are some parties here and there and a posh village near my house celebrates it!
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The children from two years upwards go out trick and treating and the adults dress up and party later.
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The kids dress up and go trick or treating.
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