Two Spoons Tea (and rooibos)

 You may remember that I blogged before, back in February, about  Two Spoons Tea, a fairly local tea company I have been wanting to discover. Well, it turns out that this is the brand that one of our local coffee shops offers. So since then, I had the chance to drink their teas a couple of times. And their rooibos too, which I believe is what you can see on the picture. I drink rooibos for two reasons: it tastes strong like a black tea, but has no caffeine, so it does not trouble my sleep when I drink it late and my father-in-law is South African. I feel like I'm connecting to some of the culture of his country. Anyway, I now know another tea company to enjoy.

Le S'quatre Novembre au Soir

Je 'drais, voudrais vous dire que... Petit moment d'humour nostalgique, que les Québécois de ma génération reconnaîtront d'emblée. Je me rappelle encore l'avoir vu en première, ce qui ne rajeunit personne.

Skorpio for Noirvember

I have the perfect book to read for this year's #Noirvember: South African crime writer Deon Meyer's latest novel Skorpio. It's being released this month, for all I know it might be out already. The only problem is that it's in Afrikaans. So I will have to wait until it's translated. But hey, if there are any Afrikaans readers among my readers (you never know), buy it, lucky you, and enjoy it. Thankfully I have a big TBR list (well of course I do), so it's not like I have nothing to read at the moment. But there's just something about Meyer that just fits Noirvember perfectly.

Novembre: trop tôt pour Noël

J'ai lu un débat dans la grosse Presse hier: Pour ou contre: les lumières de Noël dès le 1er novembre. Entre Stéphane Dompierre et Rose-Aimée Automne T. Morin. Je ne connais aucune des deux personnes. Et ce n'est pas une question existentielle pour moi, alors je ne la poserai même pas. Pour moi, ça tombe sous le sens: je suis contre et c'est encore l'automne, alors non, non et non. Je suis donc fermement dans le camp de Dompierre. Néanmoins, faites-moi part de votre opinion sur le sujet dans les commentaires.

#Noirvember

There are many reasons why I made peace with the month of November. I used to dislike it, not so long ago. You can even read some of my posts from a few years ago on the subject. Well, not anymore. There are many reasons for it, as I said, but the most recent one is that it's #Noirvember. So I read crime fiction, I watch crime films and well, it's all about Noir. It is fitting for the month, of course, but since crime fiction is my favourite genre, it makes for a fine way to spend free time and enjoy the month. So if you have any reading or watching suggestions for Noirvember, tell me in the comments. And watch this space, as I should blog about it a good deal in the next few weeks.

Les Beaux Dimanches et moi

J'ai déjà blogué ici sur Les Beaux Dimanches, l'émission de Radio-Canada qui passait justement tous les dimanches soir. J'en ai rediscuté avec des amis il y a quelques temps et on s'est tous entendu pour dire que la musique d'ouverture de l'émission (vous pouvez l'entendre ici) nous rendait mélancoliques. Elle indiquait la fin de la fin de semaine et souvent le temps de se coucher. Sauf quand, parfois, on pouvait regarder le film ou l'émission avec nos parents. Mais quand même, il m'arrive parfois de m'ennuyer des Beaud Dimanches. Surtout que maintenant, j'ai l'âge pour les apprécier, étant pas mal dans la tranche d'âge du public-cible de l'époque.

Post. Halloween. Blues.

Today is All Saint's Day, which is of course the day after Halloween. I used to loathe November just because Halloween was over. This is no longer the case, however I still suffer from post-Halloween blues every first of November. It falls on a Saturday today, I'm not sure if it makes it better or worse. I have a whole weekend to enjoy, yet I also miss the anticipation, the eeriness, the spookiness, the everything. Don't worry: it used to take me a month or so to get through the dreary feeling, now it only lasts a day or two. I will blog more about what I love of November, so watch this space.

Tarowean

 "Je suis l'océan Pacifique et je suis le plus grand. On m'appelle ainsi depuis très longtemps, mais ce n'est pas vrai que je suis toujours pacifique. Je me fâche parfois, et alors je donne une raclée à tous et à tout. Aujourd'hui par exemple, je viens de me calmer mais hier, je dois avoir tout raflé sur trois ou quatre îles et autant de coquilles de noix que les hommes appellent bateaux... Celle-ci... Oui, celle que vous voyez ici, je ne sais pas comment elle a pu s'en sortir. C'est peut-être parce que le capitaine Raspoutine connaît son métier et que ses marins viennent des îles Fidji. Ou bien parce qu'ils ont fait un pacte avec le Diable. Mais cela n'a pas d'importance, aujourd'hui c'est "Tarowean", le jour des surprises, le jour de tous les Saints, le 1er novemvre 1913."

Nous sommes la Toussaint, par conséquent je cite le début de La ballade de la mer salée d'Hugo Pratt. C'est une tradition sur ce blogue. Il faudrait d'ailleurs que je relise le bouquin.

Trick or treat 2025 (a report)

 This is my report on trick or treat tonight and probably my last post for Halloween 2025. It goes way too fast. We didn't many rings on our door, but apparently there was one giant group that took a lot, or so my wife told me.They were about a dozen of them, which I have never seen since we moved here  I think trick or treaters tend to swarm: when they see one going somewhere, they follow. . Especially when they see a good Halloween display. I was pretty proud of mine. I suspect there will be more and more in years to come. I will decorate accordingly, making our own displau bigger. Wolfie got a fairly decent bounty, but our little town sure isn't where I grew up, although there are a few Halloween lovers out there. There's been a few genuinely spooky houses. Now trick or treat is over, but there's still a few hours of horror movies and horror stories to keep myself entertained until tomorrow.

Une observation sur l'Halloween cette année

L'une des citrouilles que j'ai creusées cette année. Design suggéré par Wolfie. Nous avons passé l'Halloween très brièvement, ça a duré une heure environ. Beaucoup d'Halloweeneux, mais pas autant de maisons que l'an passé, célébraient, ou alors nous ne sommes pas allés assez loin. Mais je compte couvrir plus de terrain l'an prochain.

Happy Halloween 2025!

 It is midnight where I am, the witching hour, it is the 31st of October, it is Halloween. So happy Halloween everyone. We made Jack O'Lanterns, this one is the best, or at least my favourite. Wolfie and I worked hard on it, it was team work: he designed most of the jacks, I did the carving. And later it will be trick or treat. I will try to blog again until the end of the day and evening. But until then, happy Halloween again.

L'Halloween sur le Plateau

 Mon frère PJ m'a envoyé des photos de l'Halloween sur le Plateau Mont-Royal. On n'y fait pas les choses à moitié, avec la Faucheuse et tout. Vraiment c'est magnifique...

Halloween, autumn and reading

These last few days, as it looks and feel very autumnal, I have been reading outside as much as I can. If a neighbour sees me, I guess I look like a monk with a rather sinister mind. So yeah, yesterday I took Halloween Folklore and Ghost Stories and I read it in the garden. I took a snapshot for the blog and the countdown. It was chilly, it had just enough sun, it was quiet, the leaves on the ground and the smell just enhanced the experience for me. So yes, it is my Halloween activity suggestion for today.

Une Dame Blanche à Chicoutimi?

 Mon père a pris cette photo il y a quelques jours. L'Halloween c'est demain, les fantômes sortent, il y a des Dames Blanches partout, même à Chicoutimi...

THE Scarecrow

So for today's countdown to Halloween post: scarecrows. So we went to the Scarecrow Festival two days ago.And there was a lot to love and blog about, but I wanted to share the best scarecrow we saw. This one. Many were cute and inventive, but I thought not enough of them were scary. Then, walking back to our car, cutting through the woods, we got slightly lost, then quickly found our way back to the village. And we saw this scarecrow. A Jack O'Lantern as the head, surrounded by actual crows, punpkins at its feet, the evening was falling down, a quintessential autumnal image... I could have watched it until night time. Then again, maybe he'd have started moving and chasing us. This scarecrow belongs to a horror story, which I hope to write one day.

Pâtisseries de fête

 C'était la fête de mon père récemment. Au lieu d'un gros gâteau, ils ont mangé des petits gâteaux (enfin, des pâtisseries), je crois qu'ils viennent de Mergeay. La plupart du temps, la Pâtisserie Mergeay était l'endroit où l'on achetait nos gâteaux de fête, quand ma mère ne les faisait pas. Souvenirs, souvenirs...

The Dracula Puzzle

I an not a fan of jigsaw puzzles per se, that said I can enjoy doing one if the image on it talks to me. So I saw this one during my last visit in a Waterstones. I did not buy it: we already have many, many, many jigsaw puzzles and we seldom play with them, even though Wolfie likes them a lot. But I regret it and I just might buy it one day, just to have a Halloween-themed game to play during the countdown and because Dracula is, as you probably all know by now, my favourite horror novel. The puzzle shows quite a few key events of the book, albeit it has been tainted by the popular image of Dracula (the black and red cape for instance). All the same, I think it looks gloriously eerie and it deserves a place here among our games.

Soir macabre

 Photo prise par mon père cette année, lors de sa promenade dans Chicoutimi. J'aime particulièrement le mort-vivant chauve. Un zombie? Je vais finir par me réconcilier avec lemonstre. Ici, on a changé d'heure, le soir tombe plus vite. Et il n'y a rien de plus délicieusement macabre qu'un soir qui tombe sur un cimetière hanté, même si ce n'est pas un vrai cimetière.

The Lost Skull Mask

This photo dates back from... 2007. It is a picture of me, and don't tell me I looked much better then. No, but jokes aside I had bought this book on the cheap in a shop, as I was waiting for my visa to arrive. I first wore it when my wife and I went out to an evening of scary stories telling and enactment outdoor. It was great fun. Then I have been using the mask ever since on Halloween. I sed to put it on for trick or treat. Until last year, that is, as I lost it when I accompanied Wolfie trick or treating. I must have dropped it somewhere. As we walked a lot, I could not find it afterwards. I hope it was not picked up by an homicidal maniac or an evil spirit. I think there is a horror story to be written about this lost skull mask. I just need to work on it at some point.

L'automne sur le Plateau

Mon frère PJ a pris cette photo sur la rue Fabre il y a quelques jours. L'automne sur le Plateau, ben c'est beau.

The Jack O'Lantern and the Goose

 I blogged before about my parents pumpkin for this year's Halloween. Well, my father carved it recently. It's a bit early for my taste, I hope the pumpkin doesn't go bad, however I do like the design, very simple with its many triangles. With the goose in the background, it looks suitably spooky and autumnal.

St-Ambroise automnale

Photo prise de la page Facebook de McAuslan. Même si je ne suis pas un grand fan du design pâlot de leur ale à la citrouille, j'aime vraiment beaucoup cette photo toute automnale.

All Hallows Graveyard

Quick countdown to Halloween post, my third(!) of the day, but there is a lot to share until Halloween. For those living in England, especially in the South East, I wanted you to know that there is a All Hallows Graveyard in the lovely village of Wallingford. I took this picture in June 2023 quickly, to remind me that this place existed, promising myself to revisit it in autumn, near Halloween, where the atmosphere is at its best. I think this needs to be the setting of a horror story, a proper ghost story set on Halloween night. Or day. Seriously, this is on my go-to list next time we are in Wallingford.

Tarte aux bleuets (authentique)

Mes parents ont fait une tarte aux bleuets authentique. Je dis authentique car elle vient du Saguenay et les bleuets viennent du Lac. Aussi, la tarte a été faite par des Bleuets (dans le sens...).

Jack O'Lantorch

 For today's countdown to Halloween, I wanted to blog about a very useful item for trick or treat: a torch. I bought this one at Sainsbury's. It has a friendly looking Jack O'Lantern on top, that lights up when you press on. It also gives a spooky howling sound. We had a similar one a few years ago, but it did not make any light anymore, so I bought this one. I affectionately call it Jack O'Lantorch. It will make us see (and seen) (and heard) (yes, I know, lots of brackets, it's intentional) when Wolfie and I walk in darker paths on Halloween night for trick or treat.

Le portico et les chauves-souris

 Photo qui date de l'an dernier, c'est le portico chez mes parents. Comme quoi ils décorent pour l'Halloween eux aussi.

About the Great Pumpkin

I thought I would give my readers something heartwarming for today's countdown to Halloween. I found on YouTube this video giving quite a lot of information about It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.It tells you a few trivial facts, but also explains why it became such beloved Halloween classic for children and why it is so compelling, even today. I, of course, really love it.

 

"Le fantôme citrouille"

Autre photo prise par mon père de la figure gonflable de Jack O'Lantern, ou Jack à la lanterne, ou Jack la Lanterne, ou peu importe le nom qu'on lui donnait à l'époque. en fait oui, le nom qu'on lui donnait c'était "le fantôme citrouille". Il me fascinait et m'effrayait tout à la fois. Même adulte, j'ai écrit quelques histoires d'horreur ayant pour personnage Jack (vous les trouverez sur le blogue). Je compte en écrire d'aautres, parce qu'il n'y a pas grand-chose qui fait plus peur quede voir une figure à tête de citrouille quand le soir tombe.

The Grim Raker

For today's countdown to Halloween post, first, a bit of news: the annual Scarecrow Festival will start again soon, so get ready to see a lot of scarecrow pictures on Vraie Fiction. I took this picture last year at the very Scarecrow Festival. A Grim Reaper that truly is a Rake Reaper. I found it deliciously scary and perfectly autumnal, even if the rake gives it a comical touch. A lot of the scarecrows featured at the festival are funny, many are scary, some are both. I would love to write a story about this Reaper. Well, I'd probably change the rake for a scythe, but I would keep the white shroud and the pumpkin.

Jack au cimetière, au crépuscule

 Photo prise l'an dernier par mon père lors de sa promenade, un fantôme avec Jack O'Lantern. C'est tout.

Dracula and the Spook

For today's countdown to Halloween post, more on Count Dracula. As Dracula is my favourite horror novel, heck, one of my favourite novels, period, I think he deserves some exposure on this here blog. During our visit at the York Castle Museum last April, I saw this mechanical puppet booth (I think that's the term): you put a coin in it, a mechanism puts in motion a little dramatic scene with characters and sounds. I have seen then before, in other places, they usually display a scene with monsters or ghosts, or some kind of supernatural story. This one's title/name caught my attention.

I will try to add a video to it, because of course I videoed it. It was quite pleasantly spooky. There's just something about these old pieces of technology, they just work for scary stories. of course, Dracula looks like the lounge lizard he has been depicted in movies and nothing like in the novel, but it makes sense that I found Dracula and the Spook in York. The Count, after all, entered England in Yorkshire. Anyway, I hope you like the pictures.

Le clown sinistre

 Je partage une autre photo prise par mon père l'an dernier, celle d'un clown diabolique. Enfin, un clown normal. On voit son visage plus en détails et j'ai remarqué que ses boutons de chemise avaient l'apparence de citrouilles.

Bier-Balk and Corpse-Gate

 One of the traditions during my countdown to Halloween is the reading of  Edith Nesbit's Man-Size in Marble, a ghost story set on Halloween night. Since I first read it in The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories back in 2006 (I know, a long time ago), I have been fascinated by it. Now, I have at least four books with the story in it, most of them anthologies. And I have also been reading a good deal of critical analysis of the story. Recently, I watched its adaptation on BBC, stupidly retitled Woman of Stone, which was absolutely rubbish (no but seriously, it was bad and they just didn't get it). But I digress. From Man-Size in Marble, I also learned two terms that should be in the vocabulary of every fan of Halloween and Gothic horror: bier-balk and corpse-gate. A bier-balk or bierbalk is a path across a road to a church, sometimes across a field, taken by the funeral march. A corpse-gate, or lychgate (which is a way cooler and sinister sounding term) is the roof under which you put a corpse before the arrival of the clergyman. I often see lychgates near churches here in England. I will see them in a different light from now on, and will try to find bierbalks nearby too. And I hope one day to visit in a sort of Halloween pilgrimage the village of Brenzett, which inspired Edith Nesbit to write this most excellent ghost story and where the real ghostly statues are. Be that as it may, bier-balk and corpse-gate are your words of the day.

Cambriolage au Louvre

Je laisse mes chroniques habituelles le temps d'un billet afin de bloguer sur une nouvelle criminelle qui me fascine un peu: je parle bien entendu du vol de bijoux au Louvre. Au moment où j'écris ces lignes, l'enquête suit encore son cours et personne n'a été appréhendé. Quand même, c'est le genre de crime que l'on croit bon pour les polars. Je crois que ce sera la source d'inspiration pour nombre d'entre eux. Enfin bref, je sais que c'est pas drôle ce qui arrive, que c'est même catastrophique, mais ça ne m'empêche pas d'être fasciné par la nouvelle.

Reese's for Halloween

 At last! I was getting desperate since the start of the countdown: I could not find any Reese's chocolates for Halloween. I mean yes, I could find some, but not the one with pumpkins, just normal ones and (shudder) Xmas ones. The latter have no place on the shelves right now. However, a short trip to the nearest Aldi changed it: not only do they have bags of Halloween Reese's, but they have loads of different figures: the usual Jack O'Lanterns, bays and ghosts. I'm in high protein and sugar heaven. It's not Halloween without Reese's. It is a brand I rediscovered in adult age, but for some reason I really got hooked on it.

Fantôme et citrouilles

 Photo prise par mon père lors d'une promenade il y a quelques jours. L'Halloween à Chicoutimi.

The White Lady of Hohensalzburg Fortress

For today's countdown to Halloween post, a bit of a ghost story, in fact an account of true haunting, Salzburg. To be more specific, the Hohensalzburg Fortress.Of course a place like this needed to be haunted by a ghost or two. You can read more about the White Lady here. This is of course an image of her, as sadly we did not see her when we went there. Maybe because it was daytime? When I learned about the White Lady of Hohensalzburg Fortress, I knew I had one blog post for the countdown. White Ladies are a fairly common type of ghosts in old places, they are both elegant and eerie. Maybe you have one White Lady haunting a historical landmark near you?

L'Halloween chez Première Moisson

  Photo prise sur la page Facebook de Première Moisson. Rien que pour dire qu'ils ont toute une gamme de produits pour l'Halloween.

Halloween in Vienna

For today's countdown to Halloween post I come back to my very first post of the month, when I shared the picture of a display window in Vienna. Because the display was gorgeous, for one, also because I was so glad to see that Halloween is getting traction on the continent. Austria is a great place to celebrate Halloween, I thought, but I also always thought Austria and Vienna especially are great places for old fashioned horror stories. It has been in the past, of course, I know of at least one anyway. Because of the architecture, the history, the atmosphere (not to mention the music), the city deserves its own critters and iconic supernatural villains. When I was in Vienna, I could not help but imagine what I could do with the setting, imagining malevolent presences and hapless victims. What do you think? And do you know of any horror stories, old or new, set in Vienna?

Danse Macabre

Comme à chaque année, tradition de l'Halloween, je partage ici la Danse Macabre de Camille Saint-Saëns. Une vieille, vieille, vieille version vinyle... Accompagnée d'une photo prise par mon père. L'Halloween, c'est aussi de la musique dans les cimetières.

Zombie Siege

 For today's countdown to Halloween post, I want first to qualify what I said on my Thursday post. I said I never liked zombies much as antagonists in horror stories. Too one note, too gross, too slow. Maybe I am being unfair. As I enjoy a good zombie attack, which can create genuine suspense as much as terror. Zombies are good for minions, if nothing else. The zombie attack, or zombie siege, was used to great effect in Where the Shadows Stalk of the Forbidden Gateway  gamebook series. Okay, so they are called mutants, but they truly are zombies, in any way, shape or form. There is one episode of the gamebook where these creatures attack the house of Professor Charles Petrie-Smith in the middle of the night. It's a great moment in the game, scary and tense. And it also brings back the zombies to their initial function in tradition: they are not the main antagonists but servants of evil entities. One of the many reasons why I love the Forbidden Gateway gamebook series, which was tragically short lived.

Passer l'Halloween aux Bouquinistes

Petite annonce régionale en ce qui concerne l'Halloween au Saguenay, plus précisément à Chicoutimi: j'ai appris sur la page Facebook des Bouquinistes que vous pouvez y passer l'Halloween pour les friandises. Profitez-en donc pour acheter un bouquin.

Fear the Witch

For today's countdown to Halloween post, another witch, because Halloween is truly their season. You might remember last year, I blogged about a scary witch on a lawn. Well, the witch is back, by a bonfire that has not been lit just yet. There's no cauldron yet either, but I suspect she is preparing the fire to cook something, or... someone. Seriously, there are some great Halloween props that could be used as inspiration for horror stories. This is one of them.

Les provisions pour l'Halloween

Photo prise l'an dernier par mes parents, les friandises offertes aux enfants qui ont passé l'Halloween dans leur coin. Aussi appelés au Québec Halloweeneux. J'ai commencé à faire des réserves moi même, même si on ne reçoit pas autant de monde. Et ça ne sera pas aussi bien présenté que ceux préparés par ma mère, avec des petits sacs pour les enfants que mes parents connaissent. Dans tous les cas, l'achat de friandises est l'un des rituels de l'Halloween qu'il me faut souligner chaque année sur ce blogue.

Time at the pumpkin patch

There is one annoucement I wanted to make for the countdown to Halloween: we have so far five pumpkins for the jack o'lanterns. Three we bought in supermarkets, two were acquired at a pumpkin patch this weekend. We go to a near(ish) petting zoo that makes great family activities every Halloween. Among them, of course, is pumpkin picking in a "pumpkin patch". On a sunny but cold autumn day, there's nothing better. Wolfie was enthusiastic and gave his mother a new Wolfism, when she told him we should stick to one pumpkin this year: "Well, I'd like to choose a little bit more than just one pumpkin!" I think two is very reasonable.

Zombie

For today's countdown to Halloween, let's talk about zombies. My dad took this picture about a month ago, in Chicoutimi, because people from my home town take Halloween seriously and they start early. I'm proud of being a guy from Saguenay. Anyway, on this display, there was this zombie. Usually, I am not a fan of zombies. Of all the horror and Halloween critters, I must confess that I find them the least inspiring. I tend to get bored by horror stories featuring them. But this one looks genuinely scary, not merely gross, and he is suitably ghoulish.

La Baie en automne

Ma cousine Amy l'artiste-photographe de la famille est allée au berceau familial à La Baie et m'a envoyé des photos. J'en partage une ici, avec sa permission. Les couleurs sont magnifiques.

More Halloween Tea

For today's countdown to Halloween post, let's talk about tea. I am a bit of a weirdo for an autumn and Halloween lover: as I don't like coffee, I don't care about pumpkin spice latte. Instead, I go for autumn teas, which are just as suitable. So recently, I was looking for new pumpkin and autumnal teas available here in the UK' and I found out that Whittard has a Spiced Pumpkin Chai. Just my kind of thing. We had a Whittard in town, but it closed down more than 15 years ago.I promise to revisit the next Whittard shop I come across and stock myself.

Vision d'épouvante

Mon frère PJ m'a envoyé des photos de la bédé Les Nuits de l'Épouvante. Le bouquin devrait faire partie de toute liste de lecture de l'Halloween. Mais enfin bref, j'ai choisi de partager aujourd'hui une image qui donne une idée de l'esthétique de l'album, avec quelque chose de terrifiant et d'onirique à la fois. Ils faisaient dans la vision de cauchemar un brin freudienne, le démon qui attaque Sir Leo étant aussi son Dopplegänger. 

Cimetière

 Autre photo de l'an dernier prise par mon père. En octobre, bien des terrains deviennent des cimetières.

Halloween Folklore

 I try never to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes I buy one just because of a good cover. So anyway, for my countdown to Halloween, I an reading at the moment, among other books Halloween Folklore and Ghost Stories. Because, yes, this cover. I love how sinister, macabre yet very old fashioned it looks like. And also because it is as much a history of Halloween and its traditions (especially but not exclusively in England and the British Isles), as it is a series of bona fide ghost stories. My reading will overlap with next year's Halloween season, most likely. But I have already learned a lot from it and it might have given me inspiration for a few scary stories of my own.

Fantôme

 Photo prise l'an dernier par mon père lors d'une de ses promenades. Un fantôme souriant, amical et sympathique. J'essaie d'en publier le plus possible d'ici à l'Halloween.

Why read Gibbet Hill for Halloween

I have blogged last Saturday about horror stories of Bram Stoker, recomending that you read them this year for Halloween. I mentioned the recently rediscovered Gibbet Hill. This Halloween 2025 has been for me, so far, the year of Gibbet Hill. Because it is the perfect read for Halloween, for many, many, many reasons, which I have listed here:

• It's set in mid-October, so it's already both autumnal and of course fittingly in the Halloween season.
• The autumn atmosphere is brilliantly rendered by Stoker. 
• Gibbet Hill is a real place in Surrey, for added authenticity. Also, you can actually visit it, if you live in England, for a sort of scary pilgrimage.
• It has snakes in it. Seriously, snakes deserves a more prominent place among Halloween critters.
• It features a strange and mysterious cult, practiced by two Indian girls and a blond boy. It's not merely a ghost story witha single antagonist, Stoker gives us a glimpse of something larger scale, a threat to civilisation. He will develop this in Dracula, of course, see this post from 2024.
• In the end, nothing is fully explained or rationalised, which adds to the unease. 
• There's just something about an old ghost story set in late XIXth century. 

 So yes, if you have to read one horror story this Halloween, it has to be Gibbet Hill.

"Merci pour les raisins"

Au Qu.bec, c'est le lundi de l'Action de grâce. Tradition oblige, je partage cette chanson de de La fin du monde est à 7 heures. C'est de circonstances aujourd'hui:

A Fallen Angel

 For today's countdown to Halloween post, I thought I would blog about one of the Halloween critters I don't see too often these days: devils. My father saw this one on a garage door recently and I thought it looked so magnificent that I had to blog about it. With his ash coloured burned skeleton, his burning amber eyes and his bat wings, he looks very much like a fallen angel. I love it. Like I said, I don't see devils very often now, as decorations or even in horror stories. Correct me if I'm wrong. He gets outshined by ghosts, vampires and witches. But demons are at the top of the malevolent chain, so to speak. They are the most powerful of all the evils and most likely the hardest to defeat. So they should show up more often. I'm glad someone got inspired and put this one on display. I might try to write a story about a demon.

La Faucheuse ou un fantôme?

Mon père a pris cette photo lors d'une promenade à Chicout. Je n'aime pas les trucs gonflables en général pour l'Halloween, mais celui-ci est vraiment génial. Mais je me pose une question: est-ce la Faucheuse sans sa faux, ou simplement un fantôme avec une crâne comme tête. Les mains sont fantômatiques, dans tous les cas, mais la robe noire est celle que l'on voit pour la Mort. J'adore cette créature, dans tous les cas et elle mérite sa propre histoire d'horreur.

All Souls Night by Edith Wharton

Here is the reading of a poem by Edith Wharton, set on Halloween night. Not to be confused with a short story of the same writer, with the same name. which I have blogged about here. Nevertheless, the poem is also a sort of ghost story (a ghost poem?) and it is quite eerie in its own right, if not a tad scary. Tell me if you shiver listening to it.

Pâté à la truite

 Mes parents ont fait un pâté à la truite pour la fête de mon frère PJ. Une excellente idée. J'y pensais récemment: il y a des années, c'était de la fondue chinoise, de la fondue suisse ou de la pizza que l'on mangeait à notre fête. Quand on est adulte, les mets sont plus sophistiqués.

Bram Stoker for Halloween

For tonight's countdown to Halloween reading suggestion, this book, a small collection of short stories by Bram Stoker. Not for The Burial of the Rats of the title, which is maybe not purely a horror story (although since I'm scared of rats, it's pretty much one for me), but for the other ones: The Squaw, The Judge's House, Dracula's Guest (well of course) and Gibbet Hill. The latter being the recently rediscovered ghost story and worth the purchase in itself. It's a genuinely scary ghost story, with creepy, cruel children and snakes, fittingly set in mid-October. I will blog more about it later in the month, but otherwise, the other stories, particularly The Judge's House and Dracula's Guest, are really great Halloween reads. You get the ghost of a hanging judge, more rats, a vengeful cat, weird cults, creepy children, an iron maiden and, well of course, vampires. My happy discovery this year, even though I read them all same one. And you can't go wrong with Stoker.

Vampires, sorcières, zombies, etc.

Photo prise par mon père il y a quelques jours. Je partage parce que c'est vraiment superbe. Bon, il y a une faute à zombie et je crois que les autres créatures devraient être écrites au pluriel, mais bon. C'est une belle danse macabre (je vais d'ailleurs en partager une bientôt). Alors donc, morale de l'histoire (de la photo?): on fête l'Halloween proprement au Saguenay.