by Cynthia Chow
Eight years ago, Erica Bloom fled Otter Lake in embarrassment, leaving behind her reputation as Boobsie Bloom, the daughter of a hippie and the girl who accidentally flashed an audience during the Raspberry Social. In Chicago Erica was able to blend in anonymously as anyone she wanted to be, whereas in New Hampshire she was the quick-tempered, stressed-out, daughter of a hippy. She’s put those issues behind her—mostly—and has returned for one week in the hopes of resolving her long distance relationship with former crush Sheriff Grady Forrester.
by Margaret Mendel
I don’t know of any fruit or vegetable that announces a changing season as does the pumpkin. When pumpkins show up in the market I know that Halloween is only weeks away and that soon there’ll be a range of festivities: family gatherings, friends coming together for food and drink, a time for gift giving, and then the year ends with champagne and an explosion of fireworks.
by Radine Trees Nehring
Hope you all enjoy this fun, Halloween mystery short story by Radine Trees Nehring. Pumpkin Jean’s Victims was first published in an anthology, Mysteries of the Ozarks, Volume III last winter. Pumpkin Jean is based on a real person who is a Halloween fixture at Ozark Folk Center State Park.
by Margaret Mendel
Pumpkins frequently appear in literature, too, and here are just a few instances. There is of course, Cinderella and her grand pumpkin carriage. For many years Charles M. Schulz delighted us with his Peanuts cartoon strip and Linus’ belief in the Great Pumpkin. There is the pumpkin throwing Headless Horseman in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hallow. And most recently pumpkins have appeared in the Harry Potter books and movies where the students of Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry partake of a favorite beverage, pumpkin juice.
