Tonia Brown pays a visit while on tour with Armand Rosamilia!

Armand is at it again; this time with a Halloween blog tour of super talented writers. It is my pleasure to welcome a writer that I have been familiar with for quite some time. (One of the first stories submitted to the first anthology I ever edited--Eye Witness Zombie--was written by this very talented lady.) SO please give a warm welcome to Tonia Brown...(just like Babs and Buster Bunny...no relation.)

Halloween Costume Ideas

From Tonia Brown

Hello there! My name is Tonia Brown and I am the author of several novels ranging from humor to horror to steampunk. My latest horror novel, Sundowners, just hit the interwebs. It’s a backwoods southern horror, all about the importance of family, the dangers of gossip and the nature of the artistic muse.

Halloween has always been a favorite holiday of mine. I think one of the reasons—aside from horror movies appearing on every channel and zombie themed decorations all over the place—is that it is the only acceptable time of the year for us to wear costumes. Sure, we can wear costumes any time we like, but Halloween is the time folks don’t wonder what is wrong with you when you do! Hell, my friends and I dress up for Ren Faire, or sometimes just for the hell of it, bit when we do we get asked the same question. Is it Halloween already?

I usually make my costume, as well as my husband’s. What? You always buy yours? Why on earth would anyone want to buy a costume? I know your thinking you can’t sew or perhaps you aren’t the least bit crafty. That’s okay. You don’t have to be crafty to be creepy. Put down the store bought costume and make something of your own this year. Here some ideas for a few simple and cheap costumes.

Spider: get a black vest, three pairs of black tube socks, some stuffing and some heavy-duty thread. Stuff the tube socks and stitch the open ends along the seam under the armhole of the vest, three socks on each side. Then stitch the toe ends together with a little space between each one so they move as one on each side. Sew the last ‘arm’ to a pair of gloves or an extra pair of socks and wear them on your hands. Between the six sock ‘arms’, your arms and your legs, you have eight legs! Button up the vest and instant spider.

 Six Shooter (from the Puppet Master series): Same as above, only use two pairs of white socks and be sure to wear a white button down and white gloves. Sew toy revolvers into the toe ends of the socks and carry one in each hand. A red bandana and black cowboy hat completes the look.

Zombie: it is a common misconception that you have to have fancy pants special effects makeup and weird assed contact lenses to do a good zombie costume. To this I say poppycock! The true basis to a good zombie is your clothes. Get a hold of an outfit you have no intention of ever wearing ever again in the history of ever. Rip it up a bit here and there, and then bury it. You heard me right. Bury it for preferably a week ahead of time, a month if you can plan it. Dig up them clothes, shake em out and enjoy the super aged and dead look. A little pale makeup to wash out your color, a touch of black under the eyes, a little green around the hairline and you will look all zombiefied in moments. You don’t even need buckets of blood. Just be sure to moan a lot and you should be good to go.

Titanic Victim: Similar to the zombie, only soak the clothes in salt water and leave them out in the wind and rain to let the elements tear them apart. Don’t worry if your outfit is period enough or not, just stick to a simple straight-line dress or a button down shirt and slacks and you should be safe. Opt for green, purple and blue makeup for that drowned, bloated and frozen look. You can dampen green crepe paper for seaweed, and drape it across your costume. Extra points if you can manage to make a life preserver that says Titanic and drag it around all night!

Little Dead Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf: This is a great couple’s costume. She should wear a white outfit (because white always shows up blood the best) with lots of blood down the front and if you can manage it a good sized wound around the neckline. (Liquid latex is pretty cheap and easy to work with.) If she can get a red cape then that’s good, but with all the blood, she is plenty red enough. He doesn’t need to do anything more than a little facial hair, some blood around the mouth and down the chest from where he’s been feasting, and lots of growling. After all, a werewolf isn’t a wolf all of the time. (Feel free to go whole hog and do some wolf makeup for him!)

There you have it, a few simple and cheap ideas that work wonders. You get a homemade costume you can be proud of, and your friends will be amazed by your ingenuity. We won’t tell them you read it here first.

Happy Halloween, and happy haunting.

Tonia Brown's short stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies. She has cranked out several books, including Sundowners, Badass Zombie Road Trip and the weird west series Railroad! Tonia lives in North Carolina with her genius husband and an ever fluctuating number of cats. When not writing she raises unicorns and fights crime with her husband under the code names Dr. Weird and his sexy sidekick Butternut.

You can learn more about her at: www.thebackseatwriter.com