Guest Post by Author Scott Nicholson

 Octoberness

By Scott Nicholson

http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/

October has always been my favorite month.

I’d like to think it’s a deep affection for the melancholy, the contradiction of all that is transitory in life, the deeper messages in going from green to brown, the frail and ephemeral nature of existence, the crisp, sparkly magic of frost and wood smoke and fairy forests of scarlet and ochre and umber.

But it’s not. It’s a candy Jones.

My daughter informs that, if you lined up all the candy corn in the world from end to end, it would circle the world four times. First, that sounds like a cool international arts project, especially the part about getting them to float across the oceans. Second, that sounds kind of disgusting.

Candy corn looks and smells wonderful, and its very brightness is sure to kindle the flames of sugar junkies everywhere. And the first few are spectacular, sweet, flooding sensations of oral delight. And then the stuff takes over, corn syrup seeping into every bone of your body like a zombie infection, until you want to throw a dirty sheet over your head and shamble through the neighborhood, moaning with your hand out.

So give me chocolate any day. I mean, GIVE it to me. Now.

If Halloween was every week instead of every month, I’d weigh 563 pounds and have to be pushed from door to door in a wheelbarrow. (Though the costumer would be simple: just drape a circus tent over me.)

I’m not a pure chocoholic, as I like the blends better. The little Snickers with caramel and nuts, or a Reese’s cup (we all say “Reese’s” in the South), or even one of those Mallomar things that are harder to find these days. A Heath crunch is fun, because I like a little texture, too, which is why a Milky Way is way down on the list, because you bite it and it squirts away before you get a good handle on it.

Occasionally, I’ll indulge in some organic chocolate, or dark chocolate, which is slightly bitterer but has some staying power. But combining two of my top addictions in one is the best way to juice up in October: some cocoa in my coffee, or a palm full of chocolate-covered coffee beans. Jack me up on some of that, I become a door-crashing fiend bent on plundering your house of every morsel of candy you have leaving little kids bawling on the sidewalk with empty plastic pumpkins.

Fear me, October! I am caffeinated and I am hell bent for chocolate. Give it to me NOW!

What’s YOUR favorite candy?

Got Zombies?

Scott Nicholson shambles into the zombie scene with Murdermouth: Zombie Bits, on sale for $1.99. Want to be drawn as a zombie in our Murdermouth comic? Simply donate $25 and you’re in…forever…

Scott Nicholson is author of The Red Church (on sale for 99 cents!), Drummer Boy, The Skull Ring, Speed Dating with the Dead, and nine other novels, five story collections, four comics series, and six screenplays. A journalist and freelance editor in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, he often uses local legends in his work. This tour is sponsored by Amazon, Kindle Nation Daily, and Dellaster Design.

To be eligible for the Kindle DX, simply post a comment below with contact info. Feel free to debate and discuss the topic, but you will only be entered once per blog. Visit all the blogs on the tour and increase your odds. I’m also giving away a Kindle 3 through the tour newsletter and a Pandora’s Box of free ebooks to a follower of “hauntedcomputer” on Twitter.

For each book that cracks the Top 100 in the Kindle store, I’ll throw in an extra Kindle 3 giveaway. So tell your friends and help out. Thanks for playing. Complete details at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm