October 2025

 October, while still a week from being over has been full of a number of things. I wrote a short story for my daughter in college, worked with Jen to get it illustrated, and the printed out a bunch of copies zine-style. And that was not the only story I worked on. 

I also read O Hole’y Night at Quiet City Books. It was my third time reading at this spooky story time for grownups and while I was still quiet and barely audible I still managed to get a few laughs in. A little weird to read a Christmas story in October but it was spooky, so it counted. I also met some new writers, and heard some other great stories. 

Some things I have read.

I read Witches, The History of Witches by Nigel Cawthorne. The name of the author sounds like he may have witch hunter ancestors. It was not a fun easy read. The history of actual witches is brutal and horrific and directly attributed to power, wealth accumulation, and primarily impacted women. In the States, we had the Salem Witch Trials and a sprinkling of that carnage but Europe... What the hell. It was a thing of nightmares that didn't stop until there was no money to be made or someone close to a king was accused and it was getting too close for comfort. I fully recommend this book and absolutely do not recommend this book.

I started reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer for the difficult book club and this one is a relief so far. I needed it after the history of Witches and Poverty by America. 

I’m also still reading Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez. Again it’s my bedtime read so it’s been very slow going.

Some Movies I watched.

It’s October and almost an official spooky movie month and I watched some good ones and some bad ones.

Bring Her Back - not as creepy as Talk To Me. Seemed to provide more gross out stuff

31 and The Lords of Salem - more gross out but Rob Zombie tried to keep it fun. 

Poltergeist - the original and it’s a very cool time machine that is still pretty spooky. For some reason I never connected it to Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper. 

Cobweb - dark but fairly creepy. The twist was not much of a twist but still entertaining.

Smile 2 - The Smile movies are never really fun. Its a hopeless kind of horror. Kind of like the Final Destination Movies but less campy. Watching both of these movies I’m like Charlie Brown with Lucy and that football. I’m hopeful they’ll find a way through it all and then nope. Charlie Brown is flat on his back and everyone is dead. 

Black Phone - A creepy mix of a van-themed kidnapping story with some ghosts and a supernatural twist. I have not read the original story by Joe Hill but it seemed like the director was going for Stephen King movie vibes. It was entertaining though. 

The Thing - the original and it had been long enough since my last viewing of this movie that it was fresh again. Very fun, kinda gross, and Kurt Russel’s hat wins all the awards

Weapons - While it was not as messed up as Barbarian Weapons was still a bit freaky and scary with a few nicely placed jump scares. Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys was perfect. I was avoiding anything about the movie and didn’t know that character existed until recently. It would have been nice to see her for the first time watching the movie. No spoilers but its a classic witch movie and it was a little weird after spending the past couple of weeks with the Witches book and the atrocities of women falsely accused of witchcraft and the things they were blamed for. Still. It was a good for a scare. 

A few notes about writing.

Finished a short story, edited and published it, zine-style this month. It's called The Summoning and it's got a demon, so that's fun. This months picture is the cover. It felt good to finish something all the way through. It’s not often I get to write, edit, and publish something within a couple of weeks. It helped to have a deadline of getting a copy off to my daughter before Halloween. If you would like a copy and you are in Lewiston, you can pick one up at Ellard Studios, Just above Forage Market.

If you’d like one mailed to you, reach out for a Venmo Link. Pay $7.00, provide your address in the notes and we’ll get a copy mailed out to you through the United States Postal Service - right to your mailbox. It will be mailed without packaging, without boxes, or bows. It will bear the marks of travel through the mail delivery system making it even more special. How cool is that. (If it arrives really messed up, let me know and we’ll fix it.)

We are working on something else for November and have a cool story idea I’m going to work through for Christmas. The promise of seeing these in their solid book/booklet form is super cool (at least for me).

That's it for October - Here’s a picture of the short story zine - a literary zine, if you will.  

The Summoning by Shawn White and Jennifer Gammon