Happy Halloween

"You know it’s Halloween. I guess everyone’s entitled to one good scare." - Halloween (1978)

I hope you have your costume and are ready for whatever shenanigans you have planned for Halloween. I will be taking my son out into town tonight. I am looking forward to stealing some Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Regina Saint Clare, my Book Worms partner in crime, put together her Halloween short. You can check it out to get your day started.

Last week I said I would post the short story, The Fall & Rise of Judas Black, and I still intend to do that. As it turns out, I couldn’t help but edit it while attempting to post it. So I hope that this coming week I will finish with the edits and post it.

Puppet Master

I bet you are dying to know how far I got with the puppet. It won’t look like I accomplished much.

In the palm of each hand is the pocket for the rods that will move the arms. On one pair I have a suede material that I couldn’t get the sewing machine to penetrate, even with the heavy-duty needle. That is probably because of something I was doing wrong. So on the second pair, I took a canvas (I think that is the material) bag we had from LEGOLAND NY and I cut it to make two pockets. The sewing machine did a great job on those two. I then used contact cement to adhere the pockets to the palms. The final part was to attach a shoelace to the hand armature. The shoe laces I picked up at Acme while grocery shopping. They will be used to attach the arms to the body and give it a bit of extra strength.

The next step is creating the foam hands. The foam I will be using is 1/2” reticulated foam. Believe it or not, foam is not easy to acquire. And unless you have a place nearby, shipping is expensive. I did find a company on eBay that had free shipping. I am waiting to receive the foam in the mail. I am hoping it is the right stuff. More on that in my next newsletter.

Creepy Crate Unboxing

Check out my Creepy Crate Unboxing video on YouTube. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my channel.

Joyce Carol Oates

In my next YouTube video, I will give you my thoughts on the book The Doll-Master: And Other Tales of Terror by Joyce Carol Oates. It is a collection of short stories that are unsettling. I have been obsessed with the author since I read this book. I have to admit that I haven’t read anything by her but now I’m watching a documentary about her and am fascinated that she taught at Princeton right across the river from me. Have you read anything by her? Let me know.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the first annual Pencilween. I didn’t participate as I hoped but I was pleased to wake up every day to see what people came up with. I hope you join me next year for Pencilween 2024.

Have a wonderful Halloween. Eat lots of candy and be safe.

Peace,

James Ippoliti aka Dr. J