Ahh, October. Cool nights perfect for sleeping, painting tapestries of rich color across the landscape. But that’s not why writers should love October.
- A chance to use our sharpest pens to carve out a few scary stories. Ghosts, werewolves, zombies, and ax murderers are waiting in your imagination. If horror isn’t your usual genre, give it a whirl. Let your dark side paint the page with gore.
- Trick-or-treating dressed as your favorite literary character. Or choose to portray a graphic novel or comic book superhero. Be bold. Here’s your opportunity to pay homage to your favorite writer or put your spin on a character from a series you’ve read for years.
- Chocolate is on sale! Lots of chocolate and all other forms of sugar piled high on store shelves, just waiting for you to snatch them up and store all that snack goodness in your NaNoWriMo writer’s emergency kit.
- Only one month left until National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Go ahead and sign up now, you know you want to. It’s time to get your fingers toned up and tuned up for all that typing you’re going to be doing in less than thirty days.
Bonus Reason to Love October: It’s Mystery Month! Read a book written by your favorite mystery author. Discover a new author who writes in this genre and see if you can solve the mystery before the end of the book. Attend a murder mystery play at your local dinner theater. Write that mystery you’ve been mulling over for the past year.
Here’s a short list of inspiration for this month:
Contemporary Mystery
Murder on Edisto: Edisto Island Mysteries Vol. 1 – C. Hope Clark
Silent as the Grave (Eden House Mysteries Book 1) – Bill Kitson
A Walk Among the Tombstones (Matthew Scudder Mysteries Book 10) – Lawrence Block
Historical Mystery
A Curious Beginning: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery – Deanna Raybourn
The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 56 Stories & 4 Novels (Global Classics) – Arthur Conan Doyle
Mystery Thriller/Future
Devoted in Death – J.D. Robb
Mystery Thriller/Contemporary
The Perfect Murder (The Last Stand Book 6) – Brenda Novak
Mystery Paranormal
All Hallows Eve: A Krewe of Hunters Novella (1001 Dark Nights) – Heather Graham
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What would you add to this list of reasons to love October? Leave a comment and share what entices you to write when October rolls around. Share your favorite Halloween mystery reads.