#53: Let's go carve something nuts
Pumpkin-spiced microfiction, haunted postcard art, spooky creative updates
Does any artist feel ambivalent about Halloween? I haven’t met one yet. The Spooky Season kicks off a string of long-term projects and nesting at home with hot drinks and moody lighting and sweaters with no pants - all things I feel are integral to the artist’s life (although maybe the no-pants bit is just me).
A season dedicated to homemade art and costumes, to reading ghost stories and watching spooky movies, encourages us to flex our creative muscles before nestling in for the winter.
Last year I’d been in France for only a few months and didn’t feel like I could sink my teeth into the festivities; I was a little too fixated about getting my sea legs in a new culture. But this year? I’ve worn my devil horns around town, have two costumes planned for two Halloween parties, and now my chief concern is that we may have invited too many folks to our apartment for tomorrow night’s party.
And brimming with this pumpkin-guts zest for the season, today I’ll…
🎃 show ya the art I made for the Postcard Club and patrons,
🎃 share voting results for this month’s prompt,
🎃 dish up my flash historical fiction,
🎃 reveal next month’s snail mail theme,
🎃 and fill you in on my month’s creative news.
🎃 A month in postcard art
I think Halloween is the artist’s month. It’s the main holiday that asks you to flex the ever-loving hell out of your creative muscles, making a costume that is different enough to not be one of seven at a party, but still recognizable to at least a few satisfied folks. It’s the holiday of handmade decorations and ephemeral art like carving pumpkins! Needless to say, I was amped to make y’all Halloween cards, and I think they turned out pretty dang cool:
🗳 The votes are in
Patrons and full-access subscribers voted for this month’s postcard-fiction prompt:
Action: howling
Word: candy (the verb form)
Inspiration: Halloween, babyyyyy
The fiction is almost always directly related to the historical theme I researched for the month, but this month I opted to write you a Spooky Season special! To keep you in the spooky spirit, here’s a roundup I did last year of some of my favorite vintage Halloween postcards:
Each month after voting closes, I give myself a measly 48 hours to write you a story set in whatever slice of history we explored.
I think this one was probably definitely inspired by the fact that on the 30th, Rhody and I celebrated our EIGHTH YEAR OF MARRIAGE. What is time? Can somebody tell me? Being married to your best friend rules, let me tell ya.
🎃 39 anniversaries
Here’s the postcard I wrote on:
Here’s the story:
And here it is typed:
23: How we met was like something out of a movie people torch as unrealistic for being too perfect: Catching eyes across a packed bar littered with pumpkins and fake cobwebs, me dressed as Mona Lisa and you as Frida Kahlo. You looked so good. Still do! You bought me a caramel appletini, and within two hours we’d stolen a whole-ass pumpkin and hidden in the alley, carving it with my pocket knife. Best first date I ever had.
26: Our first Halloween party after moving in together was insane. Somewhere around forty of us sardined into that two-room apartment, howling like wolves as The Monster Mash played. God, bunny, our neighbors hated us.
34: You had a wicked flu that year. Or, no, you’re right – we were both sick! Yeah, and we’d busted our asses on those fruit bowl costumes but couldn’t go out. Remember wearing them around the apartment? God, we got hopped up on flu meds and coffee. You candied some apples we had lying around - like, conjured caramel out of thin air. We stuck the apples through with takeout chopsticks and rolled them in cookie crumbs. Still one of the most delicious messes I ever had.
44: The last Halloween party we hosted. Three words? Pumpkin martini pukefest.
52: Twoish years after my CFS diagnosis. I was – am – so tired my eyes burned. Burn. It’s OK. We always made it a point to at least get pumpkin lattes and go ape decorating for trick-or-treaters. Still did costumes, too. Thelma & Louise that year, remember? Only one mom shepherding kindergarteners door to door got it, but I felt proud anyway.
53: Trick or treaters. Lattes. Face paint zombies. I fell asleep by nine.
56: Trick or treaters. Lattes. Witch hats.
58: Trick or treaters. Lattes. No costumes.
60: Trick or treaters. No lattes. No costumes.
61: No costumes. But before the trick or treaters, you surprised me with lattes and kissed my cheek and sang, “I’m so in love!” Like staying home with tired, saggy me delighted you. Bunny, I cried that night about it. And the whole following year, that cheek kiss and your ditty buzzed in my skull.
62: How’s your latte? I know, it’s a cute café! And the costume? OK, good. I couldn’t get your measurements without spoiling the surprise. You still look so good as Frida. I’m serious! ‘
Yeah, I’m pretty tired, bunny, but it’s OK; I’m OK. That’s what espresso’s for, right?
Hey, later…if you’re game, I was thinking… there’s a new bar up the street from where the old one used to be. They have this massive pumpkin display outside, like two dozen stacked in a pyramid. I brought my pocket knife, and was thinking maybe we could... Really? Yeah? God, I love you. Let’s go carve something nuts.
Your turn: write some flash fiction!
This may be the last day of Spooky Season, but it can live on in your fiction! Write a story following the same prompts - Halloween/to candy/howling. Give yourself 72 hours or less to write it, and remember: the goal isn’t perfection! It’s putting your pen (cursor) to the page (screen) and making some art.
When you’re ready to share it with me, reply to this email, post it directly in the comments, or give it to a ghost and send them to Toulouse to haunt me.
(As always, if you’re feeling stuck getting started, here’s an article I wrote on microfiction fundamentals.)
👶 Next month’s theme
Whew! Y’all chose - and chose decisively. This month was a pretty straightforward win, a tale of how, if Americans can game a system, you bet your ass we will. November we’ll be learning all about…
👶 The era when people sent their kids through US mail 👶
If this sounds rad, then sign up to make sure voting stays on the right track! And if you’re thinking “oh god not another story about the US post,” then subscribe today and guarantee I’ll only talk about stuff you love, like haunted letters or Mesopotamian mail or finger paintings, from here on out.
🌍 Updates in my creative world
Somehow this month, I got about 25,000 words into a new novel project! I’m working via typewriter and I find the total lack of technology saves my eyeballs and keeps this overthinker from getting distracted. The plan’s to finish draft one by the end of November. My one-liner pitch for it is like The Hobbit x the 1860s wild west x Practical Magic; an agoraphobe kitchen witch is forced to leave her home when her train robber brother goes missing. It’s been a fucking blast.
I got great feedback from some writing friends on my sci-fi short story and it’s almost there! Just a few more tweaks thanks to my friends’ keen eyes and I’ll be ready to send it into the submissions void.
Jessica Sundstrom and I finished seven collaborative found photo pieces together to submit to Photo Trouvée Magazine’s collab issue. She’s such a talent and it was a collab 20 years in the making; about damn time, I say.
On that subject… I’m teaching my second photo embroidery workshop here in Toulouse on the 13th, this time from the comfort of my own home studio. Wish me luck!
Til next time, mes amis. Tell me what you were for Halloween and send me pics! For now, I’m feeling sappy and generous: here’s a bonus snapshot from our 2016 elopement.
All my love and stamps and goblin spirit,
Nikita, your Snail Mail Sweetheart