Fall in Massachusetts
I’m from Massachusetts and fall is by far my favorite time of year. There’s something about the beautiful red and yellow foliage and the changing of the light that turns everything gold. I love going apple picking and getting some many apples that you’re “forced” to make all kinds of apple treats–pies, bread, applesauce, baked apples, apple crisp, you get the idea. It’s the time of year to start hunkering down and getting ready for the long winter to come. There’s hot apple cider and pumpkins and hayrides and, of course, Halloween.
There’s a kind of magic in the air during fall, and particularly in October. You can almost feel like the walls between the worlds are growing thin and anything is possible. It’s a good time of year to get out the spooky stories. I recently read Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes as part of a group read on Goodreads. He’s a brilliant writer and he does creepy and psychological horror very well. I highly recommend it. Of course, almost as soon as I started the book our local carnival arrived. Yikes. I’m sure it was perfectly harmless, but I did not attend. Bradbuy’s October Country, the first book of his that I read, is a collection of deliciously eerie stories that are also perfect for this time of year.
I much prefer psychological horror to the gory kind. My imagination can scare me quite well. Authors like M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, and Algernon Blackwood have written some terrifying short stories. And “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs made me want to turn on all the lights after reading it (although there was a brilliant spoof on The Simpsons that takes away from some of the original’s power when I picture Homer holding the monkey’s paw to make a wish).
What are some of your favorite fall activities? And what do you read when you’re looking for a good scare?
Cindy Young-Turner 
We normally stick to Stephen King or Anne Rice when getting in the dark mood. We love everything about this time of year, me more specifically, Mathair prefers winter. So it’s hard for us to decide what we love about it. If we had to narrow it down it would be the weather and the food. Long live the candy apples and pumpkin pie. Great post, Cindy.
I love winter also so it’s a tough choice between the two! Stephen King and Anne Rice are also good choices, although sometimes King is too gory for me. Mmm, pumpkin pie!
Fall in New England is just the best–and I miss it! Sign me up for apple-everything and give me an opportunity to forget that we are the red headed step sibling of the Yankees and the Patriots actually have a shot at glory most of the of the time. Fall is the one time when death smells good and conjures images of playing in leaves and listening to them crunch under foot on the walk home from school, oh the exquisite beauty of the death of summer. But change is good, and fall brings that introspective time of year when we go inside our homes and inside ourselves. Close the door and open a book, or two or three, curl up with your favorite cup of whatever and just be, until next time.
I always get the urge to take a road trip this time of year. It’s when I miss New England the most. For those NE sports fans it’s glory or heartbreak with the Pats. Even though I don’t follow it I still get excited when we win. So true about being more introspective this time of year. Just being able to “be” is a good thing.
This is the time of year when I have to close my eyes during movie trailers on tv. I’m not a fan of horror. However, Fall is the perfect time to bake pumpkin pie and any excuse to wear a costume is alway great.
I can’t watch horror movies at all. I saw The Shining shortly after high school and it still freaks me out.