How Hating Halloween Helped Me Get Over Professional Jealousy

An Eerie Realization

My friends,

Hello. Halloween is over. Happy Dia de los Muertos. May the veil be ever thinner for you and yours. I am not a spooky season person. I love candy very, very much, but I do not like fake blood, cotton cobweb decorations, or jump scares. I do not like costumes, face paint, or walking around in uncomfortable shoes/accessories. I support my kid’s enjoyment of the holiday, which starts on September 30th, and am happy to buy them any costume the want, within reason. (This year I nixed Pennywise. No characters from movies you’re not old enough to see, I said.)

I’m also pretty crafty. We have several craft cabinets in our house, and recently I taught my 8-year-old how to crochet. I’ve made simple clothes for stuffies, and one improvised a sash from some fabric scraps just because they wanted it. I have no problem doing a last minute school assignment that requires the hot glue gun and am happy to save many cardboard boxes for random creative play. I made quilted placemats for Thanksgiving for 16 place settings and hand-sewed a Christmas Tree skirt out of felt on a whim one year.

You will notice that none of these things are Halloween costumes. I have Halloween costume trauma.

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Ok, interrupting my own post here to direct you to read this amazing interview by Choire Sicha with Scott Hawkins, author of The Library at Mount Char. So many people have recommended this book to me, and it’s currently on my TBR. But more than that, these questions and Hawkins’ answers represent the most reasonable, open-eyed, open-hearted, honest, and realistic look at being an author. He muses about having one successful book, and the uncertainty of the next. Read this immediately.

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So one year, when I was young and anxious and desperate to be cool in my 20s, I went to a Halloween party with a boy I liked and left my costume to the last minute because I was so worried I wouldn’t have any good ideas and I didn’t want to just go as a Sexy