Halloween and NaNo tomorrow

Happy Halloween.
Had I gotten my act together, one of these would have been my costume...

Can't decide which monster it would have been, but either way I believe I would have looked quite well.  Clearly, the facial expressions of the one on the right are the more engaging, but the kaiju on the left has that beaker-thing sticking out of its face that would have been fun to use.  In costume terms, I mean.
Now if I had been really industrious, I would have studied and implemented this diagram...

In all honesty, I think that Giger's alien has yet to be topped in the "terrifying creature" category.  Plus, I would get to jut a second set of jaws out at party-goers or whip my spiky tail at wayward trick or treaters.
Then again, why look to fiction for examples of scary monsters and super creeps when nature provides for us...

I don't know what that thing is, but comes from a link on John Shirley's Facebook wall.  It is decidedly Lovecraftian and suitably tentacle-ly.  Check out that mouth in the center.  Definitely not a costume for the pusillanimous. 
But why stop with a costume for yourself?  Why not dress up your car as well?

This fellow clearly has the right idea.  While I think that this shot was taken of someone on their way to Burning Man, it could still work for Halloween.  Call it "the monstermobile" or whatever suits your style.  As indicated in the fine print of the pic, the photo is not mine.

I know that it is too late for this year, but perhaps I can help you get a jump on the next Halloween season.  This link from Wired provides eight printable DIY decorations and the like.  Skulls, bats, pumpkins, you name it.  All done with your home PC.

The inclusion of computers got me thinking.  What would a cyberpunk Halloween be like?  In a Blade Runner-esque environment, it seems like the supernatural would have no place.  Ghosts and goblins would pale in comparison to the real life horrors of the every day.  Perhaps Halloween would become less about kid activities and spooky goings on and more an accent on and escalation of the criminal tendencies that arise this time of year.  Rather than simply soaped windows and vandalism, we get full-tilt rioting and destruction by those who feel marginalized.  Think of the film version of The Crow.  There's a story in this somewhere.  Maybe.

Speaking of writing, that's what this night is really all about for me.  Halloween really doesn't interest me.  It's the fact that NaNoWriMo begins tomorrow.  Well technically, just under two hours from now CST.  If you're a writer, you no doubt recognize that acronym as National Novel Writing Month.  The challenge is to have 50,000 words written towards a novel by the end of November.  This year, I'm thrilled to be doing NaNo in conjunction with members of the campus literary magazine.  We will be having write-ins, read-ins, coffee-ins, and other "ins" during these fabulous thirty days ahead.

What am I writing?  A sequel to last year's book.  I usually spend my writing time struggling to infuse my work with psychologically compelling characters and plots with literary merit.
Not this time!  Just like last November, this book will have ninjas, secret societies, cowboys, Batman-like technology, military aircraft, action, guns, fire, hard cases out for revenge, car crashes, and sex with women who are hot on a pornstar level. 


Oh boy is this great!




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