What are YOU going to be for Halloween this year?

A writer?

I dress up every year for Halloween.  I like to make-believe.  I think this goes hand-in-hand with being a visual artist and storyteller.  Already, today, I was thinking about October 31^st.  It’s a Wednesday this year, the moon will be a waning gibbous and in the Taurus Zodiac sign.

Boo!

Wednesday is not the best day for Halloween.  I prefer Friday or Saturday, but there is one benefit: I will probably dress up the weekend before and on Wednesday, although I will try to only gorge myself on Reeses cups and candy corn one of these days. 

velma and shaggy

I usually like to have more than one costume.  Some years, we do family costumes, like we were the Peanuts’ gang.  I was Lucy.  My husband was Linus, and our son was Charlie Brown.  We were Shaggy, Velma and Scooby Doo.  Another year, our son was Batman, I was Batgirl, and my husband was Robin.  My husband’s costume was a wee too snug in the crotch which quite a few people noticed.  Insert laugh track.  Enough said.

Joan from MadMen

For years, I’ve wanted to be Madeline (from the children’s books), but my husband assures me that no one will know who I am.  Last year, I was Katy Perry in her Elmo shirt from Saturday Night Live.  The best story about the Katy Perry costume is that I was in NYC at one of those tourist shops in Times Square, looking at Elmo T-Shirts.  The saleswoman kept telling me, "No, that's too small for you.  No, no, you don't want that one."  She and I were tugging at the shirt.  I tried to explain, "It's a Halloween costume.  I want it to be small, really small."  She didn't get it, but she let me buy the shirt anyway.  

SNL Katy Perry character

*I was going to write about transitions, the narrative kind, but I’m in the midst of revising and trying to come up with transitions that enrich rather than mitigate my prose.  (I’m scrapping a lot and rewriting a lot.)  I don’t want my transitions to seem like Band-aids.   Blah, blah, blah!  If you’re a writer, you know all about this. 

Me and my sis, c. 1974 (I'm a lion.)

Instead, please enjoy some fun Halloween pictures, and if you’re so inclined, tell me, “What are YOU maybe possibly going to be for Halloween?”

Belly dancer?

Witch?

Banana?

p. s.  Check out my personal blog after 10/31 at http://micheleyoung-stone.blogspot.com for the costume of choice.  Maybe I'll be Madeline.  

Scooby!

St. Thomas Day School Halloween Celebration

Eddie and Christopher Robin as Pooh

The Bellevue Blue Jays

Michele Young-Stone is the author of the critically acclaimed debut, The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors.  Her next two novels are under contract with Simon and Schuster.  

I want to suck your blood!