Hello from warm and sunny Cleveland, where the streets are wide and the wind comes off Lake Erie with just enough force to remind you that winter is coming — and that when it does, it’ll come all the way across Canada from the Arctic. Bouchercon is just revving up. And I’ve finally realized what this convention is: summer camp for mystery lovers. It’s great fun.
One of the things I always do when I visit a city for the first time is read the local newspaper. So this morning I picked up Cleveland Scene. What surprised me the most were the pages and pages of ads for haunted houses.
Is this an Ohio thing? It’s four weeks till Halloween. Are terror tours really that big? Have I missed some cultural tidal wave of love for big-scale ghostifying? Granted, in the UK Halloween is not a major holiday. In fact, attempts to celebrate Halloween have gone poorly, and there’s a strong backlash against it. So maybe I’ve missed how huge it has become in the USA. Or maybe Cleveland is just Scary Central on October 31.
And now I must put on lipstick and try to look cool, because Bouchercon’s opening ceremony takes place at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Photos to follow.
Yes, I truly believe it’s an Ohio thing. I’ve never seen Halloween celebrated with so many haunted houses/mazes/cornfields/whatever than I have here! Kings Island has a big Halloween thing going on, too. Guess it’s big money!
Thanks, Stacy.
I had never considered the possibility of using cornfields for Halloween fright. But now I’m terrified.