HALLOWEEN DEJA-VU

The image above is from last year’s Halloween post. A couple of weeks ago, I had a brainstorm about how to promote my book, The Poof! Academy, which was published last spring: Have education specialist Jane Ashley dress up as a witch and read one of my stories about the little witches of the Poof! Academy, while her daughter Emma records the whole thing on her phone—an entertainment for all those kids who will be staying home this Halloween. I had all the props—among them a spooky candelabra to provide atmosphere and a cauldron she could pull the book out of, claiming she’d conjured it up!

So, for the first time in many months, Ella and I headed over to our temporary storage room on the other side of the block, where most of our extra stuff is still stored. To our dismay, when we opened the door, we found that the floor was wet and the place stank, though the exterminators had long since come and gone. In a hurry to get out of there, I grabbed the cauldron while Ella  snatched the sack of Halloween paraphernalia, and we ducked out the door. Then she screamed and I spun around—too late  to see the latest rat leap out of the bag, graze her leg, and disappear behind some boxes. Still, it was worth it because Jane gave a lovely reading, which I’ll try to attach below.