Welcome back for day #5 of the Steamed! Author Invasion. We hope you’re having a good time with all the great Halloween posts and prizes. Keep coming back every day through Halloween for more great stuff.
October 28 — Young Adult Author Simone Elkeles
October 29 — Paranormal Romance Author Maggie Shayne
October 30 — Young Adult Author Ednah Walters
October 31 — Urban Fantasy Author Jeanne Stein
Today we welcome YA Author Simone Elkeles, who’s written seven books for teens including How to Ruin a Summer Vacation, Leaving Paradise, and Perfect Chemistry. She’ll be giving away a copy of one of her books to one lucky poster–your choice!
Simone Elkeles is the NY Times & USA Today bestselling author of over seven teen romance novels. She has won various awards and recognition for her books, including the coveted RITA award from the Romance Writers of America for her book Perfect Chemistry and being named Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. She was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Simone writes about teens because she was a teen in the 80’s (when spiked hair and blue eye shadow were “rad”) and she loves writing about those exciting teen relationships and romances.
The Scary House
by Simone Elkeles
Halloween is fun for kids, but do you remember “the scary house?” You know, the one you and your friends were afraid to go ring the doorbell because they might actually make you close your eyes and reach into a bowl of “eyeballs” in order to get your “treat?”
We had one of those houses in my neighborhood where I grew up. I can’t say I ever had the nerve to actually ring the doorbell. I just stood by the sidewalk all bug-eyed hearing the nervous chatter and fear coming from the kids who were brave enough to venture to the door and say “trick or treat” without knowing what was to come next.
I like my candy to come easy. Go to door, say, “Trick or treat!”, reach inside a huge bowl and pick my favorite choice. Then say, “Thank you!” and I’m on to the next house. It’s the no-hassle, no-fear Halloween for me.
Now that I’m a mom myself, I take my kids trick-or-treating in my neighborhood every year. Lo and behold, we have “the scary house” in my neighborhood, too. (it’s even dubbed “the scary house” all year long by every kid in school). But my neighbors (who I don’t know personally) have taken scary to the next level. The adults recruit their friends and they all dress up in scary costumes. They stand or lay down scattered on the lawn…one is laying inside an open casket (you don’t know he’s alive until you get close and he suddenly reaches out for you and freaks you out)…one is dressed as the Grim Reaper with a very real-looking weapon…one with fake blood dripping down his face with a real chainsaw buzzing.
I laugh when the young kids clutch their parents on the sidewalk. Most trick-or-treaters actually cross the street to avoid “the scary house”. Then you get “the brave trick-or treaters” – the older kids who puff up their chest and mock these dressed-up adults. They say these parents can’t scare them with a ten foot pole no matter how scary they look…well, until The Grim Reaper and Chainsaw Guy slowly start following them to the next house, and the next…those “fearless” kids run like heck away, screaming and laughing because they truly are scared…and they know next year they’ll try again.
If you’re brave enough to reach the front door (after passing yet another “corpse” who reaches out at you or witch who says you’re the perfect specimen for her next stew – they do have a big black pot of boiling water with smoke coming out of it), they have a plethora of great candy in a bowl to choose from since few people actually reach the front door.
I never went up to the scary house in my neighborhood when I was a kid. Now I’m older and know better. Nobody is going to hurt me. Nobody is going to hurt my kids. I laugh at the other scared trick-or-treaters…of course I do it at a very safe distance on the other side of the street.
Do you have “the scary house” in your neighborhood? Are you living in “the scary house?” Got any pictures to share?
~Simone Elkeles
www.simoneelkeles.net
One lucky commenter will win their choice of one of Simone’s books!
Nope, haven’t been in or seen a neighborhood scary house. Sounds like great fun though. I know my young one wouldn’t want to venture in. So, I would admire it from afar.
Yes, yes we do have that scary house. We do know them personally though, they stand at the bus stop with their kids every morning. Our kids play together. But they go CRAZY for Halloween. Last year the mother was a vampire and she was really truly scary. All the weird, scary and unexpected things they have outside are always startling even though we watch them set it all up they always manage to sneak some extra’s in there that we don’t know about.
candace_redinger at yahoo dot com
My family home is sitting directly across from a funeral parlor. I remember moving in and light switches randomly coming on or off with the passing of the wind. Radios would come on by themselves. Children laughing in the heating grate beneath our living room floor could be heard. Some may consider that scary, but we tried to give the dead their respect and ignored the odd occurences.
It’s been 14 years since I married and left home, but my brother still lives in that house and he claims that a few weeks back he saw a woman’s faded silhoute in the yard, passing from our house to the neighbors. Recently my Dad claimed to hear the children in the grate again and now believes the story I told when I was 17. Maybe it’s the time of year when the dead won’t rest and the living must endure.
For sure! Some good friends of ours had the “scary house” for Halloween…It was so fun watching kids come out screaming their heads off… even young adult (teens) came out screaming… now we moved and we only have 5 houses on our street and we are all in the scary woods, so let the kiddies dare come to our houses…goblins are hiding every where! (Ha!)
Dawn Chartier
http://www.dawnchartier.com
Oh my gosh, what a cool post! I totally know the “scary house” — the one on our street set up black lights everywhere, and as a child, I thought that alone was enough to terrify.
Simone, thank you so much for blogging with us today!
New neighborhood, and I kind of doubt anyone will have a scary house for the kids. We used to do a lot when our kids were little, but now our decorations are all inside. I love all the Halloween decorations and have been creating my own for months now.
Green olives in cold spaghetti (covered with vegetable oil so it didn’t stick together), chocolate pudding with a balloon filled with Jell-O, fish line streamers hanging from the doorway to the floor to pass through, and of course, the strob light flashing to the sound of a loud heartbeat to throw off your balance and raise your anxiety level. Then total darkness and silence. Amazing how long thirty seconds can last. Garnish the moment with a blood curdling scream and a monster jumping out with a flashlight on his face, and you can finally have a piece of candy to add to your bucket. You forgot your bucket? Dropped it somewhere in the “Tunnel of Horror”? Maybe when the hand reached out for your leg from under the table while you were feeling eyeballs and brains? Too bad. You’ll have to go back through to find it and hope it’s still there. Yep. My house was the “spooky” one. Hope I gave you some ideas. Happy Halloween. Love your books Simone. Keep on writing.
What a fun post! I can’t really think of the “scary house.” I lived out in the country and there weren’t too many houses near us. Usually we went to another neighborhood to do the trick or treating. But how very cool you have a scary house in your neighborhood. I think I’m jealous!
I remember my uncle took me trick or treating when I was a kid. One of the houses down the road had tricked out their garage for the holiday and you had to walk through it to get to the candy. I don’t think I went trick or treating after that year!
OMG, that house sounds scary as hell!
I mean seriously? They do that to the little kiddies? lol
I mean granted it’s Halloween but that would be enough to give a heart attack to a grown up, let alone a little kid! lol
Still it gives me nice ideas how to deal our own celebration in our country, Apokries, which is kinda similar, although you are allowed to dress up as anything, not just someone or something scary! lol
We used to have a scary house in our neighborhood, where weird sounds came out of it and no one wanted to visit, but after years we learned that it was just an old lady, who was motion-challenged, hence the noise (she used a wheelchair), but she wanted the company and was actually really nice! lol
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