Guest Post, Mysteries

Guest Post: Libby Klein

If you’ve had the joy of meeting/knowing/hanging out with Libby Klein, you know that she is an absolute delight. If you haven’t, it’s your lucky day as we welcome this fabulous author and awesome human being to the blog. Today, Libby gives us her true Halloween confessions.

Take it away, Libby!

I was a child of the seventies. In my day, few people celebrated Halloween like you see now. Yards were not decorated like the HOA was giving a prize. Stores were not packed floor to ceiling with spooky paraphernalia. And there was not a dedicated Spirit Halloween store that popped up in the mall only to vanish into the night by Thanksgiving.

Halloween was the kid high holy day of candy. We either had the drugstore plastic costume complete with hard shell mask where the eye holes were cut in the wrong places, or we had a homemade number. My husband was a ghost or a hobo every Halloween for ten years. My favorite costume was the year as a teenager I went as Raggedy Ann. It was part of a couples costume, and I had a Raggedy Andy with me, but I’m not allowed to talk about that because the Hobo doesn’t like to think about it.

 If you lived in a cold climate or had a neurotic mom, you had to wear your coat over your costume – thus destroying the magic of your glorious princess ensemble. And I don’t remember ever having a plastic pumpkin like my kids had to collect the booty. Every kid in my neighborhood had snatched their pillowcase right off their bed for maximum haul potential. And you needed a haul. Because candy wasn’t as free flowing to us minors back then as the kids today get. <insert old man shaking his fist at the whippersnappers here.>

We also knew to skip the big housing developments with their long sidewalks and expansive yards and head straight for the apartment complex. Apartments were the all you can eat buffet of penny candy. Rumors about weirdos sticking razor blades in chocolate bars kept our parents on high alert, so every kid knew they were supposed to wait till they get home to have their candy inspected before they could sample any. No kid out trick or treating on their own ever waited for that inspection. Partly because we also knew a high number of chocolate bars and Reese’s cups never made it back from the inspection station. If I had a Snickers in my bag it was sure to go AWOL. Those nasty Mary Jane’s and Bit-O-Honey I’d have till Christmas.

Growing up in Cape May, I was introduced to Mischief Night – the night before Halloween where kids went out to toilet paper the trees, egg the cars, and play ding dong ditch on your fifth-grade teacher who gave you a D on that math test. Or that old guy who keeps yelling for you to stay off his lawn. <insert old man shaking his fist at the whippersnappers again.>

At first, I thought the kids were making it up – punk the new girl. No way would adults let us get away with this. But sure enough, come Halloween morning on your way to school you were bound to pass a few sites sporting a delightful carnage of the Scot tissue variety. Mischief Night is such a big part of South Jersey culture that I knew it had to be the focus of my Halloween Cozy Mystery.

It’s spooky season, and gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are preparing some pranks for Cape May, New Jersey’s annual Mischief Night at their B&B. But jokes and games are pushed aside when a killer strikes…

Poppy is none too pleased when her B&B is coerced into participating in the Cape May Haunted Dinners Tour during Halloween season. Though her knack for finding dead bodies has given the place a spooky reputation, the Murder House is a completely undeserved nickname. At least it used to be . . .

While Poppy wrangles with some guests who can’t stop squabbling with each other—including a paranormal researcher, a very quirky pet psychic who freaks out her portly Persian, and an undercover tabloid reporter eager to catch her staff in a lie—one of them winds up facedown in a plate of tiramisu. And now she has bigger worries than getting her house TP’d . . .

I’m giving away a copy of Mischief Nights Are Murder to a lucky winner. To enter, let me know what your favorite Halloween costume was growing up. The winner will be announced tomorrow. US and Canadian entries only.

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the ’80s. Her classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Series by Libby Klein: A Poppy McAllister Mystery

49 thoughts on “Guest Post: Libby Klein”

  1. You Halloween wit made my morning, Libby! My costumes more time than not were vintage the hobo look (burnt cork beard and all). Congratulations on your latest book.

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      1. I did too! The burnt cork was the best part! Hobo was my favorite costume because I always wore my dad’s big fishing jacket so I was never cold and it completed my outfit AND more often than not, my mother bought me a bubble gum cigar as her contribution to the effort.

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  2. Oh geez Libby. You bring back such memories. My Halloween exactly! I really hated doing the trick or treating. Asking people for candy was so embarrassing! I was happy when I got old enough to just go to parties instead.
    Those plastic masks! Ewe! I couldn’t breathe. I think I made the first cardboard m&m costume to get out of the mask.
    My fav costume? My first alleged “grown up party”. I was about 1e or so? I went as a mom just out of bed, in pjs, bathrobe, rollers and hairnet. My partner went as my “baby”. I loved going as a pair. Much more creative.

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  4. When I was about 8 I dressed as Mother Nature from the Chiffon margarine ads, using an old white choir robe and paper flowers attached to a headband. I even had an empty container of margarine to stash some candy in!! (I am in your same age range for my Halloween experiences).

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  5. Oh, I remember the plastic shell masks. My mother would not let us have one. At all. Living in Western New York, I was one of those whose costume had to fit over a snowsuit. At least until I got older.

    And pillowcases for candy! My kids were horrified that I suggested one. “All the other kids will make fun of us.”

    Sadly, by the time I got to be a teenager, I was responsible for taking my younger siblings trick or treating. No going out with my friends for me. I think that pretty much killed my fondness for Halloween.

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  7. I loved Halloween as a kid, and would hide my candy from my brothers–who would eat all theirs within about two days–and make it last till around Thanksgiving.

    But now, with a dog who goes nuts with all the doorbells and kids in weird costumes, I tend to turn out all the lights and hide in the back of the house till it’s over.

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    1. No one has come to my house in 15 years. I keep buying candy just in case, but unless I can hide it well it never lasts until Halloween. You should dress the pup up like a T-Rex and put a sign in your yard that it’s guarded by dinosaurs.

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  8. How much do I love this?! The memories. The photos!

    I have very few memories of Halloween costumes from my childhood, don’t ask me why. Halloween spooked me too much. But I do remember one beautiful pink satin princess costume my mom made me, with a shawl of the same fabric. Very streamlined 60s style. I remember mostly because there was a pic of me – the only Halloween one ever – and my mother pulled my hair into a bun so tight I still remember how much it hurt.

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  9. Ah, Halloween. Our cousins and I used to try and change up our plastic masks to fool our parents (never worked).

    When I take the kids out now, they’re still interested in getting a haul of candy. But now they just circle back home to dump out candy & get more. Oh, and the math teachers are using Halloween as a tool to teach math (counting and such).

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    1. I have identical twins and they tried to trick us a few times by swapping clothes. That never worked either. If we’d circled home to dump the first load, the chocolate and Reeces would have mysteriously disappeared.

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  10. As a child of the 80’s, we had the plastic buckets for candy, and we only went to houses we knew. Even then, Mom would complain about all the candy in the house afterwards. But I agree, it seems like it is exploding more and more every year. (No need to enter me in the giveaway.)

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    1. By the time my kids were old enough to trick or treat we noticed a lot of families opting out of the whole thing. I took my kids to the movies one Halloween night thinking we’d be the only ones there. It was packed

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  11. It was 1976, our 200th birthday and in town we had all kinds of celebrations. my grandmother made me a pilgrim costume that I wore to activities, in school for plays. And of course since I was very proud of my grandmother’s handy work I also wore it for Halloween. I really miss those days 🙂

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  12. I could have written this post, Libby … my memories are exactly the same! When I told my kids we used a pillowcase they thought it was genius and immediately grab theirs. Everyone can tell it holds more candy.

    I wasn’t a huge fan of Halloween as a kid—even then I was pretty lazy, content with my 5c Jolly Roger apple stick (remember those??) that would last me all week—and less so as an adult. But hubs and I do get invited to parties so I have to do the costume thing. I can only remember two, though. Once I made jester costumes and once we went as a s’more. It made more sense when we were dancing ….

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  13. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing information about you,Libby. Everything you write about is so relatable, and that makes it fun and funny at times. I grew up in Chile, and we did not have Halloween then, but really got into it when I moved to the US. My fondest memories of this holiday are with my son, trick or treating, and then with my grandkids. Now it is one of my favorite holidays. I am really enjoying reading the Poppy McAllister series, and can’t wait to start reading MISCHIEF NIGHTS ARE MURDER before Halloween 🎃 Thank you so much again for sharing your brilliant writing skills with us readers.

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    1. Those sound like wonderful memories with your son. That’s the nicest thing about holidays when you have kids. You get to enjoy them for the first time all over again.

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  14. I didn’t have any particularily cool costumes as a kid, but I did one as an adult I was rather proud of. I went to work as a trick-or-treat bag. I took apart and attached back together a couple paper grocery sacks, decorated them, and taped mini candy bars all over. I let the staff and residents pick candy off me and my co-worker was following me around all day!

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  15. Fun post, Libby! I remember being a pirate with a charcoaled mustache and paper eye patch, wearing my older brother’s clothes. As an adult, I had a fancy restaurant dinner ruined because our server was a Zombie with gooey hanging flesh. I lost my appetite.

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  16. Unfortunately I was never allowed to celebrate Halloween because my parents are a bit religious. I do remember one time going to a church function on Halloween, though, and the kids dressed up as Bible characters. I was Queen Esther complete with a rhinestone crown made out of construction paper 🙂 I remember the grownups doing some kind of game they called a cake walk..lol..That was the only time as a kid that I can remember actively being involved in Halloween..

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  17. Your description of the store bought costumes matches my memories of not being able to see through those little slits either. We usually had those or very simple homemade costumes like a ghost made from an old sheet. My favorite costume was being a witch with a black cape my grandma made (which was used for witch and vampire costumes for years with 4 kids in the family

    ). I even got to wear it to play the Wicked Witch of the West in the 4th grade production of The Wizard of Oz! So that cape had lots of good memories associated with it.

    I am enjoying the fact that there are a number of cozies coming out now that are set at Halloween. Your latest book sounds like a blast.

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    1. Thank you so much, Sue. I do love a prop. I had an automatic umbrella once that I used for Mary Poppins and I thought I was the coolest. Playing the Wicked Witch sounds like great fun.

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  20. Forgive the late weigh-in, Libby, but oh my gosh, your post had me laughing and reminiscing! I had all manner of hard shell masks (a hideous Cinderella was a mystifying favorite), and, yes, my mom made me wear my coat over my costumes.

    My favorite costume IDEA was my son’s. When he was about five, he wanted to dress up as a glass of milk and hold his baby sister’s hand, who would be a cookie. Adorbs.

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    1. So happy to have you here, Libby! Sorry I’m beyond late to the party–I was on the road and had a few tech…glitches, shall we say. But what a fabulous post, thank you!

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  24. Ah, Mischief Night. TP and shaving cream, check. But it was also when the Bad Boys smashed all the jack-o’-lanterns and mailboxes. My mom put our jack-o’-lantern on a TV tray on the patio outside my window, but they got that one, too. Always a challenge not to slip on pumpkin guts the next morning on the way to the bus stop. At school we were encouraged to trick or treat for UNICEF in lieu of candy–but usually we ended up with both. Of course, the Bad Boys returned in ski masks to steal our candy AND every penny in the little UNICEF cartons. Wonder where they are now…Hmm…

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