From The Introduction:
The fall season has always been a special time of year for me. I carry wonderful memories of Halloween from my childhood in Ohio and of my mother relating the most amazing ghost stories to our family. Our house would be decorated for the season and she would begin her story-telling which truly brought out the magic for me and my siblings. I have to give her full credit for my love of this glorious time of year.
As the years went by I never lost my passion for the fall season and Halloween. If anything, my appreciation of it increased over the years. I would always find as much time as possible, starting in late September, to begin enjoying the fall season as it made its way towards Halloween. In the late 80's I started collecting some of the books that meant so much to me as a child. Helen Hokes' "Witches, Witches, Witches" and "Spooks, Spooks, Spooks" as well as Wilhelmina Harper’s "Ghosts and Goblins". These books left an indelible impression on me and I would check them out from the local library every Halloween when I was a kid. It was a tradition that I never forgot! Even though they have been out of print for years, I think you can still find them on eBay now and again.
Years passed and I felt I the need to write my own Halloween book. I began writing Halloween poems in the late nineties and would share them with family members at our annual Halloween parties. It seemed I had a natural affinity for this form of poetry and would find that the work would flow easily, especially during the fall season. After several years I had enough to start assembling this book but I didn’t want to publish it until I had illustrations to accompany the poems.
I felt I needed to do my own art and illustrations for this book. I loved those old Halloween books from my childhood that had great poems and stories with amazing illustrations. I would gaze at those old etchings and ink drawings over and over again as I read the poems and stories. The combination had an enchanting effect on me and added to all the Halloween magic in my life. I admired the simple black and white images because they were spookier and more powerful as Halloween illustrations. Maybe the publishers found it was much cheaper and a less risky venture to publish this way. whatever was the motivation for the mono color illustrations, I'm glad for their decision. And this was the direction I wanted to go with my little book.
But as often happens, years went by and finding time to work on completing this project was hard to come by, but it was always in the back of my mind. So luckily in 2013 a space opened up in my schedule and I was able to carefully create the artwork and put the book together.
My aim with these poems was to create an old-fashioned, eerie feeling for the reader. Some do, and others have a more contemporary flair still in keeping with this magical time of year. This book isn't just for children, but for anyone who has a true love of Halloween and the wonderful changes this season brings. I wanted to write a book with poems similar to the ones that meant so much to me when I was a boy, a mix of poetry reminiscent of my childhood favorites along with those that would appeal to devotees of all ages.
I hope you’re as happy with the result as I am.
Enjoy and Happy Halloween!
Richard Anderson 2013
