Editor: Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish
Artist: Stacy Drum
Page Count: 660
Pub. Date: 2000
ISBN: 1-58767-019-4

Rating:  (Rate It!)

Status: Out of Print

October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween
edited by Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish

At more than 660 pages, this oversized volume is one of the best (and biggest) collections of Halloween material ever published!

Contents include: 22 short stories of spooky Halloween fiction (eleven brand new, never-before-published tales specially-written for October Dreams and eleven classic reprints); dozens of authors and artists have contributed short pieces recalling their own favorite and very personal memories of Halloween; essays detailing the "history" of Halloween, Halloween in the movies, and Halloween in literature; special Halloween artwork scattered throughout the book; plus almost all of the contributing authors will autograph the signed editions; a total of several dozen autographs.

Finally, for the Lettered Edition only, there will be a separate, specially-commissioned Halloween Art Portfolio, featuring twelve full-pages of stunning artwork inspired by classic Halloween images! Artwork by Cemetery Dance favorite Glenn Chadbourne!

Contains:
"The Black Pumpkin" by Dean Koontz
"Lantern Marsh" by Poppy Z. Brite
"Conversations in a Dead Language" by Thomas Ligotti
"Yesterday's Child" by Thomas F. Monteleone
"The Whitby Experience" by Simon Clark
"In-between" a poem by Ray Bradbury
"Gone" by Jack Ketchum
"Yesterday's Witch" by Gahan Wilson
"A Short History of Halloween" by Paula Guran
"Mask Game" by John Shirley
"Out of the Dark" by David B. Silva
"Heavy Set" by Ray Bradbury
"Boo" by Richard Laymon
"Masks" by Douglas E. Winter
"A Redress for Andromeda" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
"The Circle" by Lewis Shiner
"First of All, It was October" by Gary A. Braunbeck
"Pay the Ghost" by Tim Lebbon
"Buckets" by F. Paul Wilson
"Orchestra" by Stephen Mark Rainey
"Eyes" by Charles L. Grant
"Deathmask" by Dominick Cancilla
"Some Witch's Bed" by Michael Marshall Smith
"The Trick" by Ramsey Campbell
"Pork Pie Hat" by Peter Straub
"Trick-or-Read" by Stefan Dziemianowicz

Plus “My Favorite Halloween Memory" reminisces from:
Elizabeth Engstrom
Rick Hautala
Steve Rasnic Tem
Gary A. Braunbeck
Jack Ketchum
Hugh B. Cave
Christopher Golden
Alan M. Clark
Poppy Z. Brite
Tom Piccirilli
Jack Cady
Robert Morrish
William F. Nolan
Michael Cadnum
Douglas Clegg
Ray Bradbury
Stanley Wiater
Richard Laymon
Yvonne Navarro
Kim Newman
Owl Goingback
Dennis Etchison
David B. Silva
Kelly Laymon
Simon Clark
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Wayne Allen Sallee
Edward Gorman
Peter Crowther

Available in three states:
Trade Edition bound in full cloth ($40)
Slipcased Limited Edition of 450 signed and numbered copies bound in leather ($150)
Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 signed and lettered copies bound in leather, with a satin ribbon page marker, and also includes a separate, specially-commissioned Halloween Art Portfolio, featuring twelve full-pages of stunning artwork inspired by classic Halloween images ($400)

Customer Reviews	Add Your Review
A must have for Halloween fanatics!,	11/14/2008 - by Justin Woodwell from Syosset, NY US
At a whopping 660 pages, this Halloween anthology offers more great stories than not and is versatile enough to keep even the most jaded reader turning those pages. Admittedly, I am a Halloween junkie. I'm the one who waits all year long for the month of October to arrive; I'm the one whose house is "the" Halloween house in town. Maybe I'm a little biased towards this book, but I don't think so though... If I were completely biased I would say that every single one of the almost 700 pages has something amazing on it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Even though I gave the book as high a rating as you can give on here, there are still some clunkers buried in this tome. But the reason for the 5 star review is that when the stories are good, they're really good and there is far more to enjoy in this book than to dislike. Not only does the book offer up great, interesting stories but it also offers up various author's Halloween memories and a list of Halloween related movies and literature. Personally, I had a hard time putting the book down as my interest was more than held by stories like "The Black Pumpkin" by Dean Koontz (an author I don't usually like), "Lantern Marsh" by Poppy Z. Brite (a great kids in turmoil tale), "Boo" by Richard Laymon (one of the creepier stories in the book about who may be out there in the night trick or treating with you), "Pay the Ghost" by Tim Lebbon (a man's year long search for his missing daughter takes a supernatural twist), "Buckets" by F. Paul Wilson (perhaps the cleverest tale in the book about a ghostly downside to abortion), "Eyes" by Charles L. Grant (a heartbreaking story about a father's guilt over his mentally inferior son's accidental death). But the entertainment comes to a grinding halt with some of the book's lesser stories (some of which border on the unreadable): "Mask Game" by John Shirley (a mess of a story which should have been told in half the length), "A Redress for Andromeda" by Caitlin R. Kiernan (a tedious, H.P. Lovecraft-wannabe that makes you wonder if the author had spent less time trying to channel the difficult, unique spirit of Lovecraft and more time trying to be unique herself, would a better story have come out of this instead of a tired clone?), "Orchestra" by Stephen Mark Rainey (a story that, while well written, makes you wonder why its even included here since it essentially has nothing to do with Halloween) and "The Trick" by Ramsey Campbell (a confusing, uninteresting jumble of a story that is probably best left out of a largely American Halloween book). Overall, I highly recommend this book to horror and Halloween lovers alike. You can celebrate Halloween all year long by picking up this book on a nightly basis and immersing yourself in many of its great stories. The fact that Cemetery Dance doesn't play by the rules of the usual anthology and they actually give you more than just fiction makes OCTOBER DREAMS a book that stands on its own merits and one that deserves a read.
Savor it	08/13/2008 - by John McLean from Charlottesville, VA US
I am a Halloween nut and devourer of short horror fiction. I was sated with this big slice of Halloween pie. Very lengthy...I really enjoyed chewing it over a period of time. (Okay, I'm a slow reader.) These thematically linked stories feature a wide range of voices and tones > from sweet-nostalgic to knuckle-gripping/pants-pooping.