October Ghosts and Autumn Dreams

JOURNEY ONCE AGAIN TO THE DARKNESS AT SUMMER'S END...

In this brilliant follow-up to Past the Glad and Sunlit Season, K. A. OPPERMAN takes us to an enchanted autumnal land overflowing with candy—sometimes sweet, sometimes cursed by witches. Jack-o’-lanterns keep watch as we travel through Pumpkin Country, questing for the rich rewards that are to be found in contemplation of October’s pastoral and many-colored tapestry. These stories told in rhyme, and melancholy hearthside meditations, are sure to rekindle a yearning for the Halloween season in hearts young and old. Open this book, and chase October ghosts through a realm of autumn dreams.

The author has provided an extensive notes section which delves into his inspiration and creative process—and Halloween obsession—plus a brief essay on Halloween symbols, "Trick-or-Treat as Initiatory Rite, and Attendant Symbolism.

With an insightful foreword by Adam Bolivar and loaded with atmospheric full-page black and white illustrations by Dan Sauer.

“This book will cast its spell on your dark Halloween heart!” —MICKIE MUELLER, author of Llewellyn’s Little Book of Halloween

“This is a book to pick up anytime in the year when you need a dose of magic.” —LISA MORTON, author of Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween

“Open this book after dark, listen to the wind rage outside, and read—to yourself, to your children, to whoever might be listening in the shadows.”—LESLEY PRATT BANNATYNE, author of Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History

“KA Opperman’s October Ghosts & Autumn Dreams: More Poems for Halloween is an enchanting dive into all the beauty that encapsulates the autumnal spirit. From catchy rhythms to recite while carving jack-o-lanterns in ‘Carver’s Rhyme’ to a well-researched look into Appalachian customs in Appalachian Halloween, every line is beautifully crafted and sure to be appreciated by anyone who is a fan of the spooky season!” —HEATHER MOSER, Producer of Small Town Monsters

"K. A. Opperman captures the bittersweet joy of Halloween and the sadness of its passing. Here are poems of childhood and poems of its loss. Captured by a lyricist with a clear, pronounced love for his labor, October Ghosts is Opperman the most at home, spooky, haunted and candle-lit though that home may be. Here is the poet's joy, laid bare and generously shared for readers young and old alike —S. L. EDWARDS author of Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts

“Opperman's poems paint vivid pictures of autumn nights filled with nocturnal wonder. This collection is a heartfelt love letter to the season of dead leaves and glaring jack-o’-lanterns that imbues the reader with magical feelings of Halloweens past.” —CURTIS M. LAWSON, author of Devil’s Night

K. A. OPPERMAN is a poet and artist hailing from southern California. In addition to his Halloween poetry, Opperman is the author of two volumes of Gothic poetry: The Crimson Tome (2015) and The Laughter of Ghouls (coming in early 2021), both published by Hippocampus Press. His work has appeared in Midnight Under the Big Top (Cemetery Dance Publications, 2020), Black Wings of Cthulhu 6 (Titan Books, 2018), Spectral Realms, Vastarien, Weirdbook, Weird Fiction Review, The Audient Void, Eye to the Telescope, and many other venues.

DAN SAUER is a graphic designer and artist living in Oregon. In 2016, he co-founded (with editor/publisher Obadiah Baird) The Audient Void: A Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy, which features his design and illustration work. Since 2017, he has worked extensively on book covers and interior art for Hippocampus Press and other publishers. His art often takes the form of surreal collage and photomontage, as pioneered by artists such as Max Ernst, J. K. Potter and Harry O. Morris.

ADAM BOLIVAR is a poet of dark fantasy, a writer of weird fiction, and a marionette playwright with a particular interest in balladry and "Jack" tales-a folkloric tradition centered on a trickster-hero that dates back to medieval times and was preserved in isolated reaches of the Appalachian Mountains. His poetry has appeared in the pages of such publications as Spectral Realms and Black Wings of Cthulhu. "The Rime of the Eldritch Mariner," his ballad combining Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," won a Rhysling Award for long-form poetry. His collection of weird balladry and Jack tales, The Lay of Old Hex, was published by Hippocampus Press in 2017 and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. His collection of linked stories, The Ettinfell of Beacon Hill: Gothic Tales of Boston, was released in in 2021 by Jackanapes Press. His second collection of poetry, Ballads for the Witching Hour, is forthcoming from Hippocampus Press in 2022. Adam has written and performed in several original marionette plays performed by puppet troupes in Boston, Berkeley, Portland and Salem. A native of gambrel-roofed Boston, Adam Bolivar currently resides in the gloomy dreamlands of Portland, Oregon with his beloved wife and golden-haired son.