One of the fun things about writing is the chance to talk to new and interesting people, especially other writers, and contribute ideas they can share. Today’s US News and World Report has an article about (what else?) Halloween that I contributed to thanks to author Geoff Williams.
The downside is that due to word count and space restrictions only a small portion of my content was used. Here are more ideas for your Halloween decorating:
“… I love creative, alternative decor for Halloween and go wild for themes taken from literature like Alice and Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, and my favorite; an enchanted forest. My best tips for cheap decor are to incorporate lots of orange lights (buy off-season) or dramatic lighting; create uplights from cans and use things you have already have or find in thrift stores, think high-tide Halloween with a boat (real or a cardboard box painted to look like a dinghy) with fake holes, eerie lights, fog, tattered nautical flags referencing creepy shipwrecks or pirate raids. Or enchanted forest with fairy houses, trails of stones, fairy lights (t.p. rolls painted black with eye-shaped holes cut out; put light sticks inside) add signs,and strange sounds. I’d add a metal dress form with tattered white or gray thrift store dress, light the inside with black lights for a banshhee. Or grab dead branches, tumbleweeds, etc. (can you tell I live in the West?) Stuff a couple of prone or seated with their heads down in their arms “cowboys,” set up a fake campfire with cricket sounds and sad harmonica music. Mound dirt for a grave and put a pair of cowboy boots nearby with a clue about the demised – a rubber snake, a broken cattle brand…
The funny thing is that I personally don’t do creepy, but do love Halloween icons and alternative items like glowing orange beehives hanging from trees, pumpkins on posts of different heights, Wonderland tea parties with costumed guests. Novel or humorous decor is as much of a surprise as the macabre. Check thrift stores, your friends and best of all shop off-season for next year.”
Here are other articles that may be helpful in planning your festivities:
http://www.deseretnews.com/search/google?q=pam+mcmurtry
https://familyshare.com/authors/pammcmurtry
Need more? Download your A Harvest and Halloween Handbook from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
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