Notes on “Trick ‘Em All”

This story was written in a matter of days for Meghan Shena Hyden’s Halloween Extravaganza. Meghan is super-cool, and I was honored to be invited to join her production for the second year in a row.

I’d had a nasty flu and chugged lots of cough syrup that week, causing me to almost miss the deadline. I’d been so sick I hadn’t toyed with a single idea.

As I often do, I went for a long walk to clear my mind of clutter, which usually helps me bust through creative blocks. During my trek, I noticed a sullen hoodie-wearing teen on his porch, viciously carving a pumpkin while cursing and muttering to himself. It was both amusing and a bit troubling.

By the time I got back home, the idea of a pumpkin being murdered had lodged itself in my mind. The story grew its own legs from there, so to speak, and I wrote it in a mad frenzy of flying fingers.

I wanted this tale to have some bite, so I went full dark and the original idea twisted as it grew. Rather than murdering a pumpkin, the kid ended up killing and feeding his parents to the pumpkin instead. I have no intentions for a sequel, even though the open ending might suggest one is on the way. The story works fine as a stand-alone in my opinion, but who knows? Maybe I’ll dive down this rabbit hole again one day.