31 Days of Halloween: Revenge of the Links of Doom

So many exiting developments today!

Photo Credit: New York Public Library, via Bowery Boys

First and foremost, one of the single best things about autumn in New York City is almost here: the Bowery Boys' annual Halloween podcast airs next Friday! The Boys select and retell all the best Gotham ghosts in their inimitable witty style. An absolute must for anyone interested in the ghost stories of this city, from well-known classics to stories so obscure and surprising even I had to look them up!

Triumph for my own countryman abounds in Too Much Horror Fiction, which Books of the Dead called "the best horror fiction blog on the net." This awesome Canadian blog will show you things like French-language covers of Stephen King novels, and help you find that cheesy-but-impossible-to-forget cover art from your 1987 paperback edition of "Witch Child."

Speaking of cover art, I have to take a moment to recommend Scarlett Rugers Book Cover Design. If you're an indie writer, you'll have heard this advice before but let me add my voice here: do not skimp on paying a pro designer. Scarlett's redesign made my book look 100% more awesome:

Copyright Scarlett Rugers 2012

This next link isn't really scary, unless you consider the fearsome specter of gentrification scary... which I do, so what the hell, here's a list of NYC's best lost bars, including Mars Bar and Bill's Gay Nineties. The city recently lost Kenny's Castaways, which was basically history in a glass. Oh well, more room for places like Wicked Willy's pirate-themed bar.

William Hope/National Media Museum

Moving on to more cheerful topics, here's an array of photos of the dead. The supernatural photos of William Hope, who made a living superimposing "spirit" photos of departed love ones on top of regular portraits, exploited people's grief and put many a shilling in his pocket. Florence Cathcart would not have been amused.

Finally, a few suggestions for Friday night amusement. The BFI presents tales of Gothic horror and romance, to "electrify you with the pleasures and terrors of the irrational" (which most readers of this blog know I try to do at least on a daily basis) while Armand Rosamilla offers up free scary stories that should hopefully make everyone's Friday night frightening and uncomfortable. Which is something else I enjoy doing.