New Story Up at Grievous Angel!

My flash horror story, I FORGOT TO LOCK THE DOOR, is now live over at the marvelous Grievous Angel Magazine!

This story was written towards the end of the summer in 2015, just a few months after we moved from Brooklyn to the suburbs. We knew nothing about our new town before moving here, except that the few people we met who'd heard of it said it was great for families. Low crime rate, excellent schools, people moved here just to raise their kids. Sounds good, right?

But we didn't really know anyone in the town when we moved. The kids were not going to camp. We didn't have a babysitter. No daycare. Because our former landlord screwed us over, we could not afford to join the town's community pool. So that meant a summer of just me and the kids finding things to do for nine weeks. We discovered a nearby skate park and my older son picked up skate boarding. We joined the nearby science center. I let the kids ride their bikes in the street. I set up kiddie pools in the backyard. None of this kept my kids amused for very long, and by the time the first day of school arrived in September I wept with relief.

I had this idea that when we moved in, suddenly families with kids would pour out of their houses on our street and my kids would be outside playing all day every day all summer long, but instead we met almost no one.

Things have changed, certainly. We have friends in town, the kids have plenty of play dates, we have babysitters, we've joined the community pool in the summer, and we know which camps the kids like. Our summers are now full of friends, camp, vacations, and spending long afternoons socializing poolside. But that first summer is burned into our psyches: long, empty days full of quiet and boredom. And that's where this story comes from.

Halloween Play List

Like many genre writers, Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love the spookiness, the creepiness, the embracing of all things other. I love the colors, the candy, the make-believe.

With small children in the house, it's easy to get into the Halloween spirit early on. Come October 1, our decorations go up and I create a Halloween station on Pandora. This year I also created a Halloween play list on YouTube for the kids. It's totally spooky but not scary -- an important distinction, especially in my house. My 6-year old and 2 1/2-year old love spooky, but have a low tolerance for scary. What's the difference? Spooky is cute, fun, funny, silly.

Child-appropriate spookiness

Scary is, well...

"Are there any little children I can eat?"

Since my husband and I don't enjoy staying up all night with terrified children, we emphasize spooky in our Halloween fun and try to minimize the scary as much as we reasonably can. Don't worry, we're not total sticks-in-the-mud about it: we still have plenty of glow-in-the-dark skulls and skeletons around the house.

All children have varying tolerance levels for scariness, and are scared of different things. I know my oldest can handle most of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," but would be totally freaked out by the kidnapping of Santa Claus. Ghosts and most monsters he can handle; bad things happening to people, though, disturbs him beyond reason. And he loves. Santa. LOVES Santa. 

Whatever your kids like, and whatever disturbs them, I hope you and your family all have a fun, spooky, and safe Halloween!

The López Family Halloween Play List 2014

My kids love this intro. So far it's all they've seen of the movie. Some day, when the older one won't be so frightened of Santa Claus getting kidnapped by the Oogey Boogey Man, I'll let him watch the whole thing.

This is another movie we haven't watched yet. Not because of the ghosts; my 6-year old prides himself on not only not being scared of ghosts, but actively liking them. No, it's because of the scene near the end when Dana and Louis turn into those creatures. See above, re: bad things happening to people. I know that would give him nightmares for weeks. They still like the video, though.

True fact: I have the Addams Family theme song as the ring tone on my phone for whenever my parents call me. I can relate to the Addams Family: they think they're normal. So does my family. 

Who doesn't love this scene from "Beetlejuice?" 

True fact: I went through a major "Rocky Horror" phase in high school. My friend gave me the cassette (aging myself!) with the entire movie on it, including all the audience Partici-Pation, and I knew it all by heart. Still know most of it. And now my 6-year old knows how to Time Warp and can sing the song. Hashtag: Geek Parenting Done Right. Damnit, Janet!

Don't pretend you didn't watch this movie, and don't pretend you don't remember this scene. I mean, for pete's sake, Tim Curry sings about his tambourine. COME ON!

Remember SJP before "Sex And The City?" 

Another thing I won't show my kids yet: the actual "Thriller" video. But the song is still a Halloween staple.

And finally, because the 6-year old has gotten a little bit into Harry Potter (we're still working our way through "The Sorcerer's Stone." I've promised him he can watch the movie when we're done.) the HP movie theme song with some random visuals.

What's your favorite thing about Halloween? What's your favorite way of celebrating?

New York Comic-Con 2014

Another year, another NYCC done. This year it was just the Juban Princeling and myself. We managed to get there shortly after the doors opened and stayed until just before they closed. That's a lot of Comic Con!

"This is not a democracy anymore!"

What the prep for my costume did to my hands. This photo was taken after 7 washings.

The Princeling generously donated some "grass stains" to my costume.

The Princeling's inspiration for his own costume was Sled, a boy winter fairy from "Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings," a movie that is on so much in my house right now I'm pretty sure we went through it three whole times in one day last week. (To be fair, my 2 1/2-year old, The Duke of Juban, is in love with that movie, too. It's the first thing he asks for every morning when he wakes up, right after "chocolate milk.")

That's Sled, the boy winter fairy, second from left.

Since I am no seamstress, and since the Princeling informed me two days before Comic Con that he wanted to go as Sled, I had to improvise a costume on the fly. I used some fake orchid leaves from IKEA, sewed them with a few stitches to a light blue shirt, cut off the shirt's sleeves, used one leg from some pre-teen size purple leggings as the belt, and trimmed some shiny blue leggings. And, of course, bought some fairy wings. Thank goodness Comic Con is in October, when the pop-up costume shops are open!

Now that the Princeling is in first grade, I've started reading him the first Harry Potter. Because of this, I promised to buy him his own wand at NYCC, which we managed to score just in time for the Harry Potter NYC Presents: The Art of Wand Dueling lesson in one of the family rooms.

Princeling, in the wings, ready to take his new wand for a test drive.

The Princeling may not have reached the part in the book with the Sorting Hat yet, but you can believe that, when asked which house he belonged to, my child answered without hesitating, "Ravenclaw." Blue and gold pride, w00t w00t!

House pride, y'all!

After lunch, in which I had to eat standing up because there were, literally, no seats available, we scoured the show floor and I bought him yet another light saber to add to his collection at home, because really, you can't have too many of those. He also had a great time at the Writopia Lab "Create Your Own Superhero" booth, which warmed the cockles of my writer's heart.

The Princeling also discovered the Mutant Mania booth
so hard we stayed there for 15 minutes. This is my "Let's wrap
it up and do, literally, ANYthing else" face.

We wrapped up with the Big Magic For Little Hands demo downstairs, which gave the Princeling another chance to show off his new HP wand.

This guy. Love it.

Lots of really good cosplay this year, as usual. Special shout-out to this young lady I found taking photographs at the wand dueling lesson, who should win some sort of award for Best TARDIS ever. Note the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey detail on the skirt.

She is the queen of TARDIS cosplay.

And, that's how you know you're Geek Parenting right: When you're at Comic Con dressed as a character from The Walking Dead, with a light saber in your bag on your back, holding the hand of your six-year old son who is himself in costume as a minor character from an obscure non-theatrical movie and carrying a Harry Potter wand.

Me and my kid at New York Comic Con FOR THE WIN.

Happy Birthday, Juban Princeling!

We'll return to our regularly scheduled blog tomorrow, but today I want to use this space to wish a very happy 6th birthday to one of the two best things I've ever created.

Hashtag: Mushygushyproudmama

October 8, 2008