"You're the Caretaker, Mr. Ape. You've Always Been the Caretaker."

Big thanks to Patrick Nottingham! Ape is very pleased! (He says the next best thing would have been having Jack Torrance snuggling him, but this was great, too!)


Chris Aype's Facebook page.

New Photos in the Shop!

 Available in 5 x 7 matted or 8 x 10 matted.


ShellHawk's Creations Etsy store.

Creepy

Via Jamaica Byles blog. Nice medical illustrations!

Hallowe'ens Past

Someday, I really am going to have to Photoshop Ape into that photograph.


Of course, I'll have to learn Photoshop, first...

Good Hallowe'en Reads

If you're one of those folks who is new to cruising the Hallowe'en blogs, or only cruise them at this time of year, you may have missed some of the best Hallowe'en literature out there. I've compiled a short list of Hallowe'en and spooky reading for you.


October Dreams has got to be one of the best compilations of personal stories and scary stories out there. I discovered this gem through Pumpkinrot's recommendation, and got it almost immediately. I'm really glad I did. The Official description says this: "Classic novellas, never-before-published stories, essays on the history, literature, and films of Halloween, and real-life memories of October 31st-from today's best practitioners of fear." With offerings from Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Poppy Z. Brite and Peter Straub, you are constantly entertained by the upper echelon of our passion.


One of the things I love about this book is that it is in that short-story style, so you can read a story and put it down for a little bit and not worry about forgetting where you were. I really recommend this!
The Halloween Tree, is a near-legendary Hallowe'en story by Ray Bradbury. For those of you who haven't had the chance to read this, now is really the time, because you can't call yourself a true Hallowe'en enthusiast if you haven't. Disneyland has gone so far as to build their own Halloween Tree and dedicate it to Mr. Bradbury. There's a video about The Halloween Tree and Disneyland with Ray Bradbury here. They dedicate and light the tree towards the very end, but it's worth watching the whole thing for some tidbits about Something Wicked This Way Comes and other Disney things...


I covered The Halloween Tree in Hauntcast 24, so if you want an engaging and incredibly intelligent synopsis, you should give that a listen! ;o) The book itself is a very articulate read, almost a poem in its rhythms, and the pictures it paints are fantastic.


Speaking of Hauntcast, by now you've downloaded the new show and heard all about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
In the show, I recommended you read the original classic for yourself. You can get the copy pictured for free and download it to the Kindle for PC app, or you can browse the other free apps for Kindle here. I can't stress enough what a joy it is to read the original text describing the mad ride of Ichabod Crane as he's pursued by the Headless Horseman. The buildup of tension is wonderfully creepy, and sure to give you vivid dreams!


Well, what are you doing here, still? Go read something!

Favorite Ghost Stories-The Captain

The next ghostly offering in the Favorite Ghost Stories Series comes from The Captain.

As a young boy The Captain was a Cub Scout. One of my favorite memories of Cub Scouts was going camping with multiple troops at the Boy Scout Jamboree each year. Of course being a spooky kid early on, my favorite part of the whole trip was the campfire at night and the scary stories that were told in the firelight.
 My wife and I recently took our 7-year-old niece, 8-year-old nephew, and 3-year-old nephew on their very first camping trip.  I wanted to give them the experience of the spooky fireside stories that I remembered so fondly from my childhood. I could vaguely remember this one story about two boys in a tent that had freaked me when I was a kid. So I search the Internet for almost a week trying to find the story that had stuck with me all these years, and then I found it!
 It’s not a Halloween story, but it is a ghost story of sorts, and it will stick with the kids. Every time I lay in a tent I think of this story that I heard as an 8-year-old Cub Scout. There are a few versions of this tale and I altered my version for telling to non-scouts, but you can easily change the beginning to suit your situation.
 Indian Graves. When I was a teenager we use to come camping right near here with the Scouts, but they don’t camp out here anymore. The last time I came camping out here we lost 2 scouts right near here. There used to be campsites over in that area, but its all closed to camping now (point to an overgrown area). They set up camp, had a campfire, and got ready for bed - 2 scouts per tent.

Around 2:30 in the morning, there was an awful, blood-curdling scream that echoed all across the campsite. Everyone woke up and I got on my shoes and ran over to the tent where the scream had come from and where I could hear someone crying hysterically. I opened the tent and there was one scout sitting there crying.

'Where's Randy?' I asked.

'I don't know. He's just gone!' said Joey Marshall. 'I just heard some weird scraping sound and then Randy screamed and was gone.'

Looking around with my flashlight, I saw Randy's sleeping bag torn to shreds. There was also some blood on it. But, there were no rips in the tent and Randy's shoes were still sitting by the door just fine. But, looking again, I noticed the floor of the tent had a large rip in it under Randy's sleeping bag.

I told the other scouts that had gotten up to go in pairs and check around the campsite looking for any clues, but to not go more than 50 feet out. I ran to the park ranger's cabin for help.

About 5 minutes later, the ranger and I were running back here when we heard another awful scream. When we got here, all the scouts were crowded around the campfire - all except Joey. The scouts said the scream came from Joey's tent but none of them wanted to go near it. They said they had heard some scraping noises and then Joey's scream and then silence.

I opened the tent flap and Joey's sleeping bag was ripped up just like Randy's and the floor of the tent was shredded.

The park ranger called 911 and in about an hour, just around dawn, the sheriff was here with dogs. They searched the entire camp - not a trace of either boy.

The local newspaper ran a story about the tragedy and the investigation continued for weeks. The boys' folks were heartbroken and our scouts had a rough time of it too.
A couple days later, I got a call from an archaeologist expert in local Indian history. He said that the tribe of Indians that used to inhabit this area were especially ruthless and fought the white man's invasion to the very last brave. Their burial grounds were protected with many signs and curses and he believed that there was a burial ground somewhere on the campground property. I contacted the park ranger and he told me that he and the expert spent a week exploring the area where we had camped.

After some digging, sure enough, they found some bones, arrowheads, and knives. He also found a pocketknife and compass - they were marked with R.R. - Randy Roberts. These were found in an Indian grave 4 feet underground directly under where Randy and Joey had pitched their tent. They quickly filled in the excavation and then the ranger closed off that part of camp and seeded it with nettles, poison ivy, and brambles to keep everyone away.

To this day, I'm a very light sleeper when I’m out camping. When I lay down, if I feel the slightest rock or root under my tent it will keep me awake remembering how Joey and the other boys described the scraping sounds – I’ll lay there listening for scraping and wondering if it is really just a root, or maybe it’s a boney finger.

They were so buying it!

Ruder Than Ever. Almost. Hauntcast 35!

Seriously? 35 shows? YES! This one is the best evah, so give a listen to Hauntcast 35! 


Those of you with kids who are concerned about content and language should probably let them get back to their rated M XBox games. Just sayin'.

Hasta Los Huesos

Click on the image to watch.

Hallowe'en Finds

 One of the nifty things about being up at Jack Russell is there are other vendors who are also artists.


One of them is a glass blower, who actually does live glass blowing demos. I had a moment of quiet at my booth, and wandered over to where he was working away and scanned over the many pieces he had on display. He made some gorgeous goblets that had me thinking about vintage vaseline glass, in addition to a number of other pretty, shiny things. I was actually really impressed with what he'd made, and once again wished I could get into glass blowing (and iron work, too), but one more thing on my plate is simply not an option!


Then something caught my eye.


SCORE! Spider apothecary jar! Fill with plastic spiders and life is good, baby! I asked him to set it aside for me until I made a few sales and could pay him for it. Doesn't it look fantastic? I can't wait to see how it looks in my setup.


Another find were these fun drink charms. I never seem to have enough of these at any time, so when I found them on tartx's Etsy store, and found they were Hallowe'en and Dia de los Muertos themed, I had to have them!


They came quickly and are fairly reasonably priced, I have to say that these pictures don't really do them justice. They're much nicer in person!


These are really going to make a splash at my annual Hallowe'en party.


Oh, and while we're somewhat on the topic of drinks, I had a drink testing get together with the girls last week, and discovered that the Black Lagoon Cocktail from Martha Stewart's site is just fantastic. It does take some prep work beforehand, but it is so worth it. I'm going to have to start making the ice cubes for the party here pretty soon, just so I know I have enough. One of my neighbors has been kind enough to give me some extra ice cube trays; who has those anymore, with built-in ice makers so available? I love the effect the melting of the black ice cubes gives the drinks, and the whole concoction is really tasty. I'm glad BevMo and Costco are close by, that's for sure!

Cocktails, anyone?

New Jacks in ShellHawk's Creations Etsy Store!

Don't let the warts fool you. He's a great guy!

 ShellHawk's Creations on Etsy.