All Hallows' Eve

by Hal L. O'ween, Zantippy Skiphop (Contributor)

“All Hallows’ Eve” – hear the whispering voices … began as a Halloween flash fiction writing contest on Facebook, sponsored by Sharon Van Orman.

Writer ‘friends’ joined in and produced the harrowing, spine-chilling short stories found in this collection.

The contest ran for the month of October and each week’s twenty-five entries were voted on with comments; the story with the most comments won.

The winning writers of the first four weeks competitions then competed for an ‘author’s dream’ prize package of free ebooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, gift cards and more.

But everyone agreed all the stories were excellent…

The Facebook thread exploded. Comments and new ‘friends’ were acquired … all with the same goal … writing!

This is not one person’s achievement, but a collective of people from around the block and around the world.

~*~

“Hal L. O’ween” is the pen-name of a group of writers from around the world that have joined together to ‘scare your pants off!’

Many thanks go to the following writers—without their involvement, this collection wouldn’t have been possible:

Devin Berglund, Brian Bigelow, Melissa Blume, Carol Bond, Michelle Patricia Browne, Jaleta Clegg, Richard Cotton, Russell Cruse, J. A. Cunningham, Toy Davis, Bella Doerres, Debra Elliott, Jiva Fang, Paul Freeman, Joseph Alan Gharagheer, Pamela Griffiths, Erik Gustafson, Rylee Hales, Denise Hemphill, Bruce Hesselbach, Rob Holliday, Katrina Jack, Gerald D. Johnston, Mel L. Kinder, Merita King, Pamela K. Kinney, Neil Leckman, Tracy Lesch, Rosemary Lynch, Ellen McKinney, Wolfen Lee McKoy, Shannon Marie Mead, Jason Mueller and C. L. Foster, Matthew Christopher Nelson, Sharon Van Orman, Patrick Ottuso, Cheryl C. Ramirez, Martin Reaves, Katherine Rochholz, Kincaid Savoie, Adam Sifre and Splinker, Gretchen Steen, Michael L. Turner, Rahima Warren, Richard A. Wentworth, Lisa Williamson, Sherill Willis, Stephen L. Wilson, Kay D. Ziegler.

Enjoy these spooky bits, for they are what makes Halloween special!

Genres: Horror, Halloween, Fantasy, Ebooks, Short Stories, Paranormal, Anthologies

381 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 25, 2012

Reviews

[Catastrophe Queen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the spirit of the Halloween season, I've been reading horror novels. I just love the thrills and chills that a good horror story brings even if it means I'll have a difficult time falling asleep.

Anyway, this is an anthology of Halloween themed tales. Some of the short stories were deliciously morbid, while others were quite average thrillers. I enjoyed the stone cold murders, the treacherous creatures, and the witty dialogues in this collection. I recommend this book to anyone with a wicked taste in books.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it!

This is a collection of stories contributed from all over the world. Lots of little Halloween stories. Some of the stories need editing, but this book was fun and will get you in the mood for Halloween . My favorite stories were Night Cache, Harvest Moon, Monster Bash and Eidolon Hunter.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some good stories in here, there were some that were not as good - but all in all, it was a great one to read because they were short stories so I could read one and then put it down.

My favorite story was still the first one. It really surprised me!

[Stephen Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved how the anthology came together. It was a fun project and I recommend the read to anyone out there. It is free, and available at Smashwords.

[Harri]

DNF @ 26%

A lot of these stories are poorly written or just not particularly interesting. The handful that are decent just aren't enough to make me want to keep reading.

[Butch · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are 77 very short stories within the book. It took awhile to get through the book. There were a few good stories. But most were too short, didn't make sense. And, there were only one or two that I would consider "scary".

[Shaynah Kowitz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't get through this. It's different writers, but it did not matter. It was like reading a compilation of crummy fan fiction or bad personal accounts shared by teenagers in a Facebook group. None of the stories made any sense.

[Nola Arganbright · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good accumulation of short stories ranging from giggle stories to frighten just a bit to hiding under the bed terror. Congratulations to the authors for a great read!

[Nan Silvernail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a lot of stories. They range from the very good to good ideas that totally needed an editor to possibly good ideas presented clumsily.

[Joanne Styers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible, didn't even finish it!

[Jerri · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a handful of decent stories in this collection but the lack of editing was so terrible that it was distracting and ultimately not worth the effort.

[Samantha Hawkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

🎃👻 Book #3 for #Halloween2021 🎃👻

"All Hallow's Eve" by "Hal L. O'ween"

"That's what it all comes down to. It's the choices we make, the ones we don't, and the ones we allow to be made for us. Then at the end, it would all be balanced on some consistent scale of good and evil. Hopefully on that day, you find yourself leaning more toward the good, rather than the other." — Michael L. Turner
Crestwood, Kentucky, USA

This is the perfect collection of stories to start off the spooky season! 👻 Many of the endings pack quite the unexpected punch! A few of my favorites included: "A Nice Pair of Shoes" by Sharon Van Orman, "The Unimaginable (Excerpt)" by Gretchen Steen, "Truth or Dare" by Carol Bond, "The Swamp Vine" by Matthew C. Nelson, "A Mother's Confession" by Joseph Alan Gharagheer, and "Candyman" by Neil Leckman. 3.5 🌟

[Alan Loewen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Needs A Good Editor

Missing words, a lot of grammatical errors, messed up punctuation, and logic problems expressed a severe need for an editor.

That aside, the stories vary widely in quality. Some are quite good, others are so-so. If the book is temporarily taken down and uploaded again after an editor gives the collection a good once-over, it would be a passable and entertaining read.

[deanna muse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories were OK

Some of the stories were scary, most were well written. EXCEPT the editors should be ashamed of themselves! There were mispellings and incorrect usages of the words; one example used 'heal' used instead of the correct 'heel". There were numerous ones.
If you can get past all that, the book is worth reading.

[Juanluis Díaznoriega · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most anthologies, this one has it’s ups an downs. Mostly they’re good stories, but also they’re too short and too many (77 stories in the book, can cause you to feel overwhelmed) But there’s one that I can’t read without Adam Sandler and his bunch of friends voices in my head. Anyway this is an good option for October reading .

[Stacey Coburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A some of the stories were interesting and entertaining. I gave it a 2 star rating because many of the stories are just "okay" and some of those needed additional editing before they were published. (Spelling errors & pronoun errors)

[Charlene (Char)🍁☕️📚 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Halloween read

It took me a while to read this book but it was really good. The stories submitted were really good. Some stories was just straight sinister but overall a good book for a Halloween.

[Felicia Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short stories

I really enjoyed this collection. Not too long and a great theme. Very well put together. I would recommend to horror fans.

[Vikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the short stories were good.There were only a few that didn’t stand up for me.
Keep up the good work.

[Michael Medlen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too many stories to get through; I read because a friend of mine was included. The book was also free through Kindle, so there's that...

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really good short stories in this book but quite a few had some horrible editing. I found myself completely distracted in a couple of the stories trying to figure out exactly what was going on as the sentences seemed to be combined with other sentences, words were missing or incorrect usage/tense. I didn't even finish one story as it was so bad I got frustrated but overall the stories had good plots, some were scary and it was enjoyable.

[☆Angel☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was free on Amazon and worth reading! I like the majority of these eerie short stories. I also love Halloween, so I may be a little bit biased. If your looking for some tales to get you in the Halloween mood, let me suggest All Hallow's Eve. It could use some editing, but it's not bad for a project started, for fun, on Facebook. Quick little tid bits of Halloween hi-jinks!

[sue burrows · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book

This book was very good. I enjoyed the short spooky stories and all the different writers from across the globe. I recommend this book to anyone that likes a good creepy tale.

[Emily Mathewes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good short stories

This is a nice anthology of Halloween themed short stories. It took me several months to read them all, partly because I am a school teacher and partly because there are so many.

[Trina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is hands down the worst collection of stories I've ever come across. It was a struggle to get through this. I hope I never run across any of these authors again. Avoid at all costs because it is (a) horror but not in the way you are expecting.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty good for getting in the Halloween spirit. Not all the stories are awesome but still most are pretty good.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the stories in this to be quite uneven, with some being incredibly well done, while others being not very well written at all.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love all the short stories in this creepy collection. However there were some that did give me the chills. Definitely perfect for Halloween.

[Tricia]

Jaleta Clegg - Soul Mates: This was a good short read

[Jina Crash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. Some good. Some not so good. But fun for shorts....