October is the month for scaring yourself out of your shorts...

The Autumn winds are howling and October will soon be here with longer nights, colder days, costumes and confections. What better way to celebrate the most wonderfully frightening time of the year than with the suspense and terror that only short stories can deliver?

I am a big fan of All Hallow's Read, Neil Gaiman's idea that you should share a scary book with someone for Halloween. Well, this year I want to do that in a big way by sharing two books of short stories with you... one from an author we know and love, and one from an author who is new and waiting to be discovered by us all.

Book #1:

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Neil Gaiman's "M is for Magic"

This is a well known collection of some of the most beloved scary stories of our generation. It has something for everyone. I know that my love for Mr. Gaiman knows no literary bounds, but this is an excellent collection, and you will have a wonderful time seeing little snippets of Gaiman's magic and trepidation found in its pages. It is available in most libraries, Amazon, and many small book sellers.

Book #2:

Tansy Undercrypt's "Small Towns, Dark Places"

Ms. Undercrypt is a new author, but her micro fiction has been published for quite some time at TansyUndercrypt.com. You can go back and read these tiny gems at your leisure. Her book was just recently published, and is available through many ebook formats (Nook, Kindle, etc.) Tansy is not only a new, independent author of dark fiction, but she is also a member and supporter of GGBC. Please feel free to spread the word about her and her book if you'd like... I love that GGBC is helping new authors find readers and slew of people who adore their words. Tansy will be no exception, you will be captivated and breathless by the places you will go in this dark and frightening town. Here is a link to the Amazon ebook: Small Towns, Dark Places and a hard cover copy will be available the end of September.

In the comments, please share with us what books you are going to share for All Hallow's Read... we can all use a gigantic list of scary stories, and this is the perfect time of year to read as many as we can get our clawed hands on.

As always, our read will start on the first of the month and will be discussed on the last Saturday of the month... so get ready to dig in to some dark places, but bring a lantern... because it will be black as pitch sometimes, and you need to come out eventually.