Halloween writing prompts 2023

Mischief Night

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Experience Writng October 10th prompt is: Behind The Mask– this prompt asks what is behind the mask that people wear? Sometimes a mask isn’t always made out of plastic or paint and sometimes you don’t need to hide your face to give yourself the courage to hide your true intentions and cause a little mischief.

 

Every Halloween my Mom and  my Grandma Ginger and Grandpa Bert would take me and my brother to Woolworth’s to choose our Halloween costumes.

My Mom didn’t like shopping for Halloween costumes- well. She didn’t like shopping with me for costumes because unlike my brother, I looked at the rows and rows of plastic masks and I would freeze up.

Acutally I wasn’t frozen up. I just wasn’t crazy about the choices.

But one Halloween that all changed.

On this trip  to the store  my Mom was ready with my selections. ” What do you want to be, a Princess?  Look. Here’s a nice mask”

” Princess. ” my Grandpa Bert would snorted.

I looked over to him and he nodded at me and grinned.

” Princesses are dumb. Plus. They have to kiss boys- and frogs. I hate frogs. How come they can’t kiss  puppies instead? I like dogs.”

” That’s my girl. ” Grandpa Bert said.

My Grandma Ginger pulled a Gypsy Mask down. ” Look a Gypsy. They can curse people and tell the future. ”

” It’s very pretty. ” I said. ” Taking the box from her hand.

My Mom and Grandma Ginger smiled. They  were ready  to celebrate a job well done with a cigarette.

My Grandpa patted me on the head and  I held it up  over my head for him to see.

He snickered.

” My Granddaughter doesn’t need a mask to curse, do you Anita Marie? She does stuff like that at least twice a day by lunchtime. That’s not Halloween to her. ”

I handed the box back to My Grandma  and smiled- it was a sideways smile. It was my Grandpa Bert’s trademark smile.

My Mom and my Grandma didn’t always get along in those days, but they were on the same team on this day and they had had it with my Grandpa Bert’s shenanigans.

” What do you want to be? ” My  Mom demanded to know- her eyes were going all squinty so I knew things were ready to take a grim turn, ” A cat? ? What? You choose. Go on, You pick one out.”

” Okay. ” I put my arms out to my sides. I closed my eyes.

My Grandpa Bert spun me around a few times and  when he stopped me I pointed.

What do you know, I was pointing at a Devil Mask.

My Mom pulled the box down and she shoved it into my Grandpa Bert’s chest.

” The both of you – ” she was at a loss for words but my Grandma Ginger was not.

” The two of you should have been left in the woods to be raised by wolves. ” My Grandma Ginger spat at us. I mean, for real. She was mad.

We watched them stomp down the aisle and my Grandpa handed me the costume that  there was NO WAY my Mom and Grandma would have let me choose because it wasn’t pretty.

Walking behind them, because there was such a thing as overkill in shenanigans, me and my Grandpa Bert strolled to the check out stand with my Devil mask and a set of sideways smiles between us.

On The Corner of 216th Street

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For Experience Writing Halloween Photography Challenge: RITUAL

Photo A.M. Moscoso

When I was a little kid, I used to catch the bus to school with my friends.
Our bus stop was on the road, because at the time there was no sidewalks- in fact it wasn’t even paved yet, it was a gravel road.
About three feet behind us was a ditch, so when a car came racing down the road, we used to have to jump over the ditch and hang onto the fence ( the guy who lived on the other side of the fence was sort of crazy-) and he would yell at us to ‘get off his property NOW.”
One day we found a cat, which had not been as lucky as us when it came to diving out of the way of speeding cars, dead in the ditch. The ditch which was full of water because it had been raining a lot.
The rainwater was whooshing threw the ditch the way it was supposed to, but it wasn’t strong enough to take the cat.
So there we were, – about eight Elementary aged kids  on the lookout for cars standing  in front of a ditch with  the corpse of a poor dead water bloated cat for company trapped inside of it.
Some of us ignored the cat  and a few of us would look down into the ditch to see what state Sammy ( sure we named him ) was in.
I was one of the lookers and  when the water in the ditch went down I showed up with my best friends Ronnie and Darrin. We scooped Sammy up with a snow shovel and buried him in my backyard.
So where is my true childhood story going?
You may think that watching Sammy return to the Earth had something to do with the material I chose to write and read and even the field I worked in. But it didn’t
What happened was I started to develop a fascination with watching buildings, or cars even bill boards  and now because it’s all over the place- graffiti- deteriorate.
I can now look at organic matter as death strips it down and returns it to the Earth and I have a good feel for the time line and how the environment plays a role.
But when it comes to inorganic things breaking down, what affects it are random and nothing can bring more random elements to any situation like people. Watching this process has become  a ritual of mine and I have to say I am a serious practioner.

Photo A.M. Moscoso

Below are two pictures.
One is a  a black and white picture ( I altered it to bring out the white image and burn marks) that used to be part of a bigger drawing.  It was formless and I think it was started out as a face, it really was hard to tell what it was supposed to be.
Recently a homeless lady has been sleeping  under it and she started burning away the stickers that people had stuck around it and on it. Before she did that it was a slow rot, but it was fun to watch it change from day to day.
This is what is left- I think it looks like a ghost. I don’t have a before shot because as I mentioned, a homeless lady was living under it so I didn’t take ‘before’ pictures.

Photo A.M. Moscoso

This was a sticker on a lamp post, it was pretty scary looking to begin with, but then someone to a marking pen and drew all over it, and the it rained.

That sticker went from scary to horrifying and sure- I am impressed.

Photo A.M.Moscoso

( this is what it looked like before )

Photo A.M. Moscoso

I suppose my hobby- my ritual doesn’t sound like the most exciting pastime one could participate in.

But I enjoy it.

Garvy Myles Fell

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Inspired by the Experience Writing Visual Prompt Dimensions” by Alex Andreev

Dimensions”
Artist: Alex Andreev

As Garvy Myles and his brick apartment building  fell from the sky and the world around him flipped and tumbled from side to side , Garvy Myles kept his balance, he remaind upright, Garvy Myles was as sure footed as a mountain goat and he remained steady and calm  on his own two feet.

Garvy Myles was very pleased for himself.

As the world crashed downwards, and it would keep crashing upside down for as long as  the Earth called the Universe it’s home, Garvy knew from his perch he would be safe, he would remain strong and steady on his own two feet.

But then something happened that shook Garvy Myles to his core.

Did this Earth shattering event happen an hour after the word  turned upside down and fell ? A month later?  A thousand years from now? Does the date matter ? I don’t  think it does. What is important is that there  came a day when Garvy Myles saw a car speeding below his perch.

The car was upright, it was moving forward, it was racing for it’s life , it knew where it was going even as the world crashed around it upside down and rained  chunks  of shattered homes ariound it.

Garvy held onto the railing, he leaned over as far as he dared and he willed his building-which in another life had been called View Ridge Heights- to dive now,  to move quickly- this instant -as the racing car passed directly beneath him.

As Garvy’s building continued to crash, upside down a little faster then it had been movie before,  he saw the car racing away from him.

It was upright, it was moving foward, it’s wheels  were holding firm to the road beneath it

Garvy watched the car until  it out of his sight. Then he feel to his knees and as he clutched the railing  he felt a little less steady on his feet. He definately felt a little less sure of himself.

Then  he wept and he bellowed in rage and he would keep raging until the Universe his world called it’s home was no more.

The Party

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Sometimes when you look at a prompt and just let the first thing that pops into your head as you turn it over in your mind, there’s no telling what you’ll get.

Here is a and image prompt provided by Experience Writing for their October 8th prompt-Connecting The Bones

My takeaway was strange- but fun.

Sometimes you have to get out of the way and let a story tell itself.

 

My Grandmother’s coffin looks shiny and new

even though we dug it up 14 days ago.

As we six drove her home, we wondered aloud,

will her bones smooth and white?

Are her rings still on her fingers, are her nails still painted red?

 

 

Will  her hands still  be clasped

upon her chest

did her wig fall off her head?

Is her mouth opened or closed, we’ve asked each again and again.

 

When we got my Grandmother home

and put her coffin upstairs

we didn’t just pop it open

we knocked on the lid with care.

 

And from inside we heard a tap

then we silently filed downstairs

to wait for Grandmother to join us in the Parlor

for tea

with the curtains drawn on all of our windows

of course.