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Okay, there's no need to panic just yet. But we've been told, by the owners of our local vegetable stand, that the summer drought has affected the ... pumpkins! So far, we've only been able to locate a few over-priced, half-rotten ones, and that just won't do. Our entire Halloween tradition depends upon those orange gourds. 

We usually buy about a dozen. Their first stop is the front porch, alongside the hay and the cornstalks. We string orange and purple lights around the grouping, and sit back and enjoy the spooky ambience. Last week of October, we carry the pumpkins into the house and, while watching scary movies, we carve them into cool jack-o'-lanterns. Afterward, we sprinkle cinnamon on the inside of the lids, set a burning candle inside and close them up. Soon the flame licks the lid and emits a scrumpdelicious cinnamon/pumpkin aroma throughout the house. And that’s how we know Fall has arrived. 

On Halloween night, we return some of the jack-o'-lanterns to the porch. But we scatter most of them about the lawn. When the little ghosts and goblins and Harry Potters step into our yard, they see random bursts of glowing light wherever they look. And that makes for some excited little kiddies! 

Sure, we still have the fog machine, the cemetery, the scarecrow, the ghosts, the trees bathed in eerie green light and the frightening music spilling out from hidden speakers. But those things are simply miniature marshmallows atop the pumpkin pie. Without our original jack-o'-lanterns, we might as well pack up the …

UPDATE: Just got a call from the vegetable stand. Pumpkins have arrived! Where's my broom?

HORN-TOOTIN' TIME
Feel free to send in writing news you'd like to share with our readers.

Renee Holland Davidson has won the Here’s Looking at You contest. Her short story, which is published in this very issue, actually brought tears to my eyes. Aside from publication, she receives $100 cash and a signed copy of Orson Scott Card’s book, Characters & Viewpoints. Well done, Renee!

Literary agent, Kelly Mortimer, is writing a nonfiction proposal titled, The Perils of Publishing: Pithy Pointers to Protect Writers from Pitfalls, Punishment, and Pernicious Plights. For the chapter dealing with rejections, she's looking for the best ideas on turning a rejection into a happy time. She plans to include 1-25 winning entries in the book. Deadline is November 30, 2007. Complete details are here. 

Beginning October 1, author Cindi Myers will be giving away 30 books in 30 days to celebrate the tenth anniversary of her first sale. To enter, visit her website.

And now, without further ado ... turn the page.

Elizabeth Guy
Editor

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This issue 
was published 
under the musical 
influence of

DANNY ELFMAN
Sleepy Hollow
 Original Soundtrack