Creepster Cast 2013

Thank you everyone for your input on what creature might make a good sixth character for the Bindlegrim cast this year of 2013 Halloween! In fact, I have one character more than I had planned.. and so I have decided to do some special things, as far as numbering and availability... (Don't forget too that these portraits are just sneak peeks of what in future will be a four-sided candy-container lantern).

Spot #6 (regular cast member) is now taken by a creepy clown who, by one comment, appears from the sloppy make-up job to have been vivisected. This weirdo has also tarted itself up in baby blue, mauve and pink polka dots... a real carnival geek. Eek!

Extra #7 (not officially part of the cast) is a haunted house with a quartet of skeletons lurking about the premises. While in general I might decide on different production amounts, depending on what might sale best - (re: devils & witches don't do so well in some states, and a clown maybe not such a hot item for Halloween (?) while in reverse of that alot of folks loved the cat)... so I'm seeing the haunted house as a very limited run at a larger size compared to the smaller six. (And just perhaps it's their six faces that will appear on the transparencies)...

Well, more details to follow. Just so happy to get these characters down as a set for the coming year! I have an inkling that there may be a Bindlegrim 2012 vintage-style Halloween lantern with the six 2013 character faces on the panes... hmmmm....

Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe

Had an opportunity to visit the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe a day or so ago... and loved it, especially the huge collection (of designer Alexander Girard) which was full of those peculiar objects and figures that the holiday-art-minded would appreciate, or would serve as great mind-fodder to inspire a holiday folk artist. In fact, this seems like the perfect venue for a retrospective of past and present holiday folk arts! Anyone out there want to curate a show?

Endings and Beginnings....

Time is up! And our contest has drawn to a close here at Bindlegrim's cottage casita, with lots of goodies since sent, and new ones ready to go out the door. Thank you to all for your great comments and devoted visits to this blog during the past six weeks, and hopefully there were some enjoyable tidbits, if not by me, by those who commented on the author-note series for Tall Tales Shorter Days. Given the great turnout, Bindlegrim has decided to give away two lanterns (including this week's book winner) - and this will be announced just a tad later (below the next image). Who will it be?

*** GIVEAWAY WINNERS ***

1) These week's book winner is: Keya

2) Lantern #1 winner is: Keya

3) Lantern #2 winner is: wickKED
(3-18 update: a 9-sided geek die awards the prize...!)

P.S. If you like what you've read during the past weeks - the author heartily appreciates your Like or Review on Amazon for the book: (in print on Amazon or Etsy) or by e-book via Kindle/iPad.

And please, if we have yet connected to get you your book from past entries, please contact bumble (at) bindlegrim (dot) com. You can check either the end of the blog entry or in closing comments for entries linked below. (Note - for a review of contest details see previous author-note entries).

The Herbivorous Witch - Author Notes

Jitter - Author Notes

The Pumpkin Dream - author notes

Watrous & Valmora - author notes

Ballad of Papi Huesos - author notes

Let Rains Bring Toads - author notes

*** THANK-YOU! ***

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So ol' Bindle has had a great time on this book, and the contest, but he's a fidgety sort, and has been in the lab these past few weeks preparing for the coming Halloween holiday, unearthing some old designs for something stitched up and new to materialize around the corner...

Maybe you can help with a problem? The goal is to have at least 6 characters for a full set, but the skull just isn't working out, at least as of yet. Hmmmm. Maybe that's not the best character? What would you add to this set: 1) Pumpkin 2) Witch 3) Bogle 4) Cat 5) Devil and 6) ???

Let Rains Bring Toads - author notes

It's here! At the end of the week occurs the drawing from those who comment for a Bindlegrim vintage-style lantern. Yes, this is the final entry in the Bindlegrim blog comment contest (see below)*** of author-note series for the print & e-book Tall Tales Shorter Days, and looks like ol' Bindle will have to find something else to yak about for the next batch of entries...

This final story in On Stranger Winds is, as mentioned in The Ballad of Papi Huesos entry), a grim piece called Let Rains Bring Toads. And this would definitely be on the darker side of the book's various journeys.

In some ways the book is a travelogue. Since the first story was penned, I have moved from the rainy Seattle (Jitter, The Pumpkin Dream), past the snow-deep woods of Ichabod's Cottage (Herbivorous Witch, Watrous & Valmora), to desert environs, (Papi Huesos, Let Rains Bring Toads). This one was written during the monsoon season, when huge storms, like thundering animals lash with lightening, sweeping across the warm summer desert lands where you have little place to hide. The name follows one of these experiences, when one quiet night, after a tremendous storm, a nighttime canyon echoed with the calls of desert toads, perhaps like this one...(seen in this list of New Mexico amphibians)?

photo: list of amphibians - New Mexico (Wikipedia)

The story opens during a monsoon, upon a property of one particularly odd building. But this is not the adobe that the area is so famous (see wikipedia photo below). It is instead described as having a surface more like a termite hill. And as the view enters inside one of the small, thick border windows, that is where our tale begins...

photo: adobe - (Wikipedia)

So, at that, I'm ending this entry rather short, sufficing to say, that there is, as seems to be coincidental in all these stories, another spell-caster, who lives at this abode. And on this given night, a mob of towns people have entered very upset with her magic, and their choices in the past at their own questionable utilization of her magic. What follows is perhaps something like an old horror movie scripts that struggles with morality and mortality, or perhaps I was channeling such shows as The Outer Limits, One Step Beyond, or The Twilight Zone.

photo: vinegaroon - (Wikipedia)

Oh, and before I forget, last, but not least, there is a guest appearance by some skeletons, as well as some desert creatures in this story. The witch has a couple of acquaintance --- there is a shape-shifting coyote, and another creature involved in her spell-casting, the vinegaroon (whip-scorpion shown above), the latter of which I have yet to see in the wild, because they only come out at night. Imagine that crawling into your boots or tent. Yikes!

Well, that's it - the final entry! A big thank-you to all have have visited the blog these past few weeks and participated, and I'm looking forward to the giveaway at the end of this week!

Bindlegrim books in need of a new home. PS - Cover art is by David Irvine

*** GIVEAWAY DETAILS ***

1) From March 10th to Mar 17th - leave a blog comment here about whatever you like... about witches, old movies or TV shows, weird architecture, big bugs, you name it...

2) For each author-notes blog entries, I will draw randomly at the end of that week to give the commenting visitor a signed printed copy of Tall Tales Shorter Days.

3) At the end of all six blog entries (occurring THIS week) I will draw from ALL comments (more commenting visits, more chances to win) for one Bindlegrim lantern - The Horrid Decor (Orange on Ghost Skin) seen below.

Note - Bindlegrim encourages and hopes, but does not require, readers might leave a Like or Review on Amazon for the book: (in print on Amazon or Etsy) or by e-book via Kindle/iPad.

*** GIVEAWAY DETAILS ***

Ballad of Papi Huesos - author notes

It's almost over! Here is the next to the last week in the Bindlegrim blog comment contest (see below)*** of author-note series for the print & e-book Tall Tales Shorter Days.

This fifth tale in On Stranger Winds was actually the last story penned for the book, and is very much a playful piece, a break in style that I needed following the darkness of penning Let Rains Bring Toads. For its part, Ballad is all fantasy, and a prequel of sorts (taking place in that whimsical world of Pumpkinheart). This time, humans make the small cameo appearances in a story that follows mummies, witches, ghosts, and a rabble of other strange things... like these...

SNEEK PEAK: Working character designs (Bindlegrim for Halloween 2013)

The story basically follows a boney mummified gent who is in process one Halloween night of composing a very personal biographical ballad. However, he is frequently interrupted by one thing or another, as when he becomes entangled in some Halloween thievery. Since Sr. Huesos never fully sings his ballad, from start to finish, in the book..., I thought I'd give a chance for the ballad to be seen here without disruption:

When as a mortal man I roamed
With more to me than crust and bones
I met, that day my life did end,
A lovely girl with cocoa skin -

Her eyes like coal from once great fires
Foretold the fate of my desire
For knowing not next morn I die
Vowed ne’er again to leave her side…

Yet as we dozed beneath the stars
A man appeared whose pride was scarred
In honor until death to fight
With naught but fists against his knife

And while the tears of my betrothed
In moonlight like the comets rolled
So too did I upon his blade
That carved my soul upon the grave

But ‘ere my journey to the deep
My love with charms did kiss this cheek
That guarded me in death by spells
To bar me from the gates of Hell

But in those years her soul did fade
My soul retook these old remains
And stood alone clawed from the dirt
As Papi Huesos here on earth

And should my love I fail to find
Upon this earth such years to pine
At least these old bones played a part
To keep the fires of Pumpkinheart

We lit the glow from bindles grim,
And charged the will o’wisp to mend
The embers bright we most esteem
That save good souls on Halloween

The ballad closes, with lyrics inspired by surrounding events. In this Pumpkinheart tale, a witch (perhaps the younger version from Watrous & Valmora?) is up to no good - trying to steal a powerful Halloween jewel. She is accompanied by a ghost. Could this too be the very same from Watrous & Valmora? The main character, most certainly new to the world of Pumpkinheart, is Papi Huesos (a name, in a more famous story, by which band members call a certain Jack Skellington if you watch with Spanish subtitles - the translation for Bone Daddy). Our emaciated skeletal gentleman, Sr. Huesos, gets stuck in the middle of the witch's plans.

To be revealed: Can you name the postcard described in the story's first scene?
Update 3-10-2013... And the answer is...

The opening scene,  (introducing the ghost and witch in the midst of heist capers), is actually based on visuals from one of two vintage postcards. This one featuring something we don't see much in modern Halloween - Veggie People. In this scene the Veggie People are at chase, doing their best to reclaim the Pumpkinheart. Can any vintage Halloween fans out there name that postcard? I will automatically give away a book to anyone who can point out that card in a book or on the internet.

To be revealed: Can you name the 2nd vintage postcard in a subsequent scene?

Update 3-10-2013... And the answer is...

This is something you probably need to read the book to know for sure... but I've offered some very definite clues. And I'll do the same for anyone who can name the second postcard that is described in this story - where, in a later scene, our main character views a very picturesque Halloween scene upon the water. As to that, I should likely give no more clues, since few vintage cards appear off dry land...

Well, that's it until next week, the final entry! I very much appreciate all who who may be enjoying their copies: (in print on Amazon or Etsy) or by e-book via Kindle/iPad.

Bindlegrim books in need of a new home. PS - Cover art is by David Irvine

*** GIVEAWAY DETAILS ***

1) From March 3rd to Mar 9th - leave a blog comment here about whatever you like... about mummies, witches, ghosts, maybe even Halloween pranks...?

2) For each author-notes blog entries, I will draw randomly at the end of that week to give the commenting visitor a signed printed copy of Tall Tales Shorter Days.

3) At the end of all six blog entries I will draw from ALL comments (more commenting visits, more chances to win) for one Bindlegrim lantern - The Horrid Decor (Orange on Ghost Skin) seen below.

Note - Bindlegrim encourages and hopes, but does not require, that readers might leave a Like or a Review on the Amazon pages for the book: print or e-book.

*** GIVEAWAY DETAILS ***