I’ve contributed to the Kill Zone for around three years now. It’s a unique publishing platform where a regular contributor has free rein—carte blanche—to submit whatever they please provided they keep it clean and refrain from sex, religion, or politics. That’s it. Pretty wide open to decency.
Generally, we stick to the theme of thriller writing or somewhere in that arena. But sometimes we exercise creativity and explore whatever we like and feel others reading the blog would be interested in, too. Kind of a win-win/writer-reader relationship.
As a creative writer (read that someone who loves making stuff up), I’m acutely aware of the terms “great writing” and “great voice”. Being subjective, I leave that evaluation on my stuff up to readers, however I’m entitled to pass great writing and great voice judgements on others.
Trust me. I’m going somewhere with this.
The other day, I was e-yakking with another Kill Zone contributor. Let’s call her Debbie Burke. Debbie said, “You’re up for a post on Halloween. Are you gonna write something spooky?”
I gave that some thought. What came to mind was the spookiest true crime case I ever heard of. In fact, it happened to me when I was a homicide detective. This guy hid in his ex-girlfriend’s attic for two and a half days with an ax. He crawled down at 3:00 am and chopped her and her new lover to death.
I wrote a book on it. You can download In The Attic for free on all the e-tailers. It’s my lead magnet for an 8-part, based-on-true-crime series.
But that spooky work has already been done. As I tumbled the idea about the polisher of my mind, an earworm crawled in and wouldn’t let go. It was the tune and some of the words to Hallows Eve written and sung by Rachelle (Elle) Cordova, aka Reina del Cid.
If you don’t know of this lady with the great writing and the great voice, then you need to get to know her. Elle and Toni Lundgren started out as a cover duet. Now with over 400 Youtubes made, Elle is creating original work. In my humble opinion, aka IMHO, the writing in Hallows Eve is only outperformed by Elle’s song delivery. Here are the lyrics and a link to watching her video:
Note: Full attribution is given to Rachelle Cordova for the lyrics and performance. There is absolutely no financial or other gain on my part for posting this.
Throughout the year
We shrink from our fear
Hide from our demons
Till the daylight appears
But on one hallowed night
When the moon is just right
We seek out the darkness
Welcome the fright
chorus
On this Hallows Eve
I’ll make friends with the ghosts
I’ll gather the monsters
And raise up a toast
A feast for the ages and I’ll be the host
So come one, come all this Halloween
Come one, come all this year
verse
I’ll start with the monster
From under my bed
Though we haven’t spoken
Since I was a kid
And I’ll tell him to bring all his scariest friends
The famous and the feared
Come one, come all this year
verse
We’ll fling the message far
To the goblins where they are
From the vampires in the East
To the garden of the Beast
chorus
Now it’s Halloween night
And the ghouls have arrived
The werewolves of London
The ghosts of Versailles
If you invite Jekyll you also get Hyde
The demented and the dear
But come one, come all this year
chorus
Godzilla is picking a fight with King-Kong
And Medusa and Hydra just don’t get along
It so happens the Kraken is gifted in song
And he sings them all to cheer
Come one, come all this year
verse
The bogles and banshees are briefly ensnared
By the Boogeyman’s pageant of cheap party scares
And Rochester’s wife is descending the stairs
“My god,” she says through tears
“I’m not alone this year!”
chorus
The Sirens play guitar
For the gargoyles at the bar
They pass the spirits round
As the Triffids hand them down
Quasimodo is only a ringer of bells
And the witches of Salem don’t know any spells
Boo Radley would gladly just keep to himself
So let’s pour them all a beer
Come one, come all this year
bridge
Bigfoot and Grendel though transcontinental
Are sharing a moment that’s quite sentimental
And the great chupacabra lights his candelabra
And dances ’till first morning light
outro
Daybreak arrives with the fading of ghosts
And Count Dracula is the last one to go
I bid him farewell and I hand him his coat
And with a wink he says, “My dear
We’ll meet again next year, don’t you fear
Come one, come all next year!”
Kill Zoners — What do you think? Hallows Eve – Great writing & great voice or what?