Angela Brown, Gwen Gardner, Roland Yeomans and Tara Tyler are offering more chances for people to win something in their FROM THE GREAT BEYOND BLOG HOP!

On October 30, participants write a post about a famous deceased author or celebrity they’d like to contact in their séance.

Usually, I don’t get a thrill from getting the chills. But since it’s All-Hallows’-Eve, I’d like to use my séance to shine a light on the dark tales of Edgar Allan Poe, the American author known as the master of the macabre. Poe used the trademark elements of Gothic horror to explore the depths of human emotion like nobody’s business. It’s no mystery why the name Poe came to symbolize an entire genre! “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” are two of my most loved short stories to read, and I even have a T-shirt of his most famous poem, “The Raven.”  His career influenced loads of other writers, and I certainly hope he doesn’t quoth his character and tell me “NEVERMORE!” when I ask him for some writerly advice.

And of course there’s that scandal to ask him about, the one that most readers find very frightening indeed! That at the age of 20, Poe moved in with his aunt, uncle, and cousin after his father left and his mother died. It was there in Baltimore that he met his 7-YEAR-OLD cousin Virginia, who he fell madly in love with and married when she was only 13 (how unlucky!). She died 18 (well, I do LOVE that number) years later in 1847, and Poe died only 2 years after Virginia’s death . . . . So yeah, I’d like to know why he married someone within his family, and someone so young at that! Also, I find many conflicting reports on the subject of Poe and his wife, specifically their ages and if they were first or second or third cousins. So I’d like to clear that up for the students that I teach, too.

Now, I can’t let you leave without a treat! Otherwise, the spirits might haunt me, just as these questions about Poe do. Sooo, here’s Christopher Walken (a guy I find truly creepy) reading “The Raven”

*If you didn’t get a chance to participate, but still would like a prize, go visit the posts and comment and they’ll enter those, too. After haunting the blogs and reading the posts, the spirits will select winners from the commenters and from the posters, to be announced on October 31. The prizes will be frightfully good, including copies of books and more! Hopefully, you will join us for a ghostly good time!

So, who would you like to contact in a séance if you could? Have a Happy and safe Halloween! I’ll be busy doing an author visit at another local middle school. The librarian told me I’m their treat for the day! You think I can demand they pay me in candy if they want to buy 18 Things?!