Everyone has something to say and in this, the age of the personal computer, everyone has an audience. The World Wide Web, CD burners, word processing programs, and inexpensive laser printers have truly lowered the threshold into the world of publishing. Today, quite literally, anyone can see his or her ideas in print in one format or another. This can be good and bad; for words, like it or not, have power. It is, as they say, all in how you use it. Being human beings, some folks make good use of this power and share some great ideas. Again, being human, others use the power of their words to express some very disturbing ideas. Overall, however, I am of the opinion that the evolution of desktop publishing has turned out to be a good thing. There really are a whole lot of good folks putting out a whole lot of good ideas and products utilizing desktop publishing.

Ignoring poop.com and some of the illiterate hate-filled manifestos of narrow-minded extremists, I like to hear what folks have to say. I spend a fair amount of time reading and surfing websites just to see who's out there and what they're saying. One of the better websites out there is www.deviousconcotions.com. At this site, Webmaster and "phantasmechanic" Brent Ross has created a nice overview of the props he uses during the production of his home haunt. It is, to be blunt, one heck of a haunt. Truth be told, however, there are a lot of good haunts out there and a lot of sites that document them. What Ross did that made his work stand out, was not only to document his haunt on the web, but also publish a book on how he did it.

The DC Prop Builder's Handbook is one of those good things to come out of desktop publishing. In The DC Prop Builder's Handbook, Ross offers a variety of haunt projects that would appeal to a wide cross section of the haunted community. From the mechanically challenged to the Uberhaunter, Ross offers everyone a project to meet his or her level of expertise.

Truthfully, there are a lot of DIY and how-to haunt books out there on the market and quite frankly; each one does have at least something to offer. Few, however, offer as many detailed sets of instructions on creating props as The DC Prop Builder's Handbook. Ross has included a whopping 22 props, both static and animated. As I said before, there truly is something for everyone.

Each of the projects in The DC Prop Builder's Handbook is written out in great detail including a list of materials and a step-by-step series of instructions for building the prop. Also included are pictures that show the prop in various stages of construction. Are there enough pictures? Well, being a visually oriented fellow, I would have liked to see more pictures or illustrations detailing some of the more advanced props like the Skeletal Organist. Still in the long run, the text is nicely written and generally easy to understand so it makes up for some of the lack of pictures.

One aspect of Ross's work that makes The DC Prop Builder's Handbook stand out among the many how-to haunt books on the market is the detail put into the props. Many of these props are head and shoulders above the mass-market props you find in the "Halloween Super Stores" that invade our cities and towns every September and October. Ross's "Stump Jumper" has the sought-after startle potential that causes urinary incontinence and his Skeletal Organist and Pipe Organ will make even the most jaded visitor say "WOW." Properly placed and themed, the props illustrated within The DC Prop Builder's Handbook truly have the potential to bring a home haunt to its next level and perhaps save a commercial haunt some capital that could be better spent elsewhere.

Is The DC Prop Builder's Handbook perfect? Well, in a word, no. While it is one of the best pieces of desktop publishing on the field of home haunting, it does suffer from some of the common ailments with the species. First and foremost, Brent Ross is one heck of a phantasmechanic. He is however, not an editor, so the work suffers somewhat. Spell checks only pick up misspelled words, not improperly used words. This, however, should only bother the spelling police and the anal-retentive. Again, Ross is a great phantasmechanic, but he is not a technical writer. Some of the layout and presentation of instructions could be better, but his level of detail is superb, so in the end his plans balance out.

Editing and minor writing glitches aside, The DC Prop Builder's Handbook is a great resource for any home haunter or open-minded commercial haunter. It is a great example of how useful desktop publishing is and has definitely raised the bar for the next generation of home haunters. For both the novice and ambitious haunter, it is a fine addition to the Nightstand Library.

Hauntorama's How to Haunt Your House, Volume One
Someone once wrote that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Now despite being a generally cantankerous character given to spitting on anyone unfortunate enough to be standing nearby, a camel is an animal eminently suited for what it does. It is, however, not a horse. A great deal of problems in the world could be solved or, better yet, avoided if folks just had a clear vision of what they were trying to accomplish. This fact is not unknown to the powers that be. People make very good money helping both the government and business have a clear vision. Few (if any) organizations haven't commissioned quality assurance and process improvement studies. All these studies have one thing in common: They help keep an organization on track and meet their goals in the smartest most efficient manner.

One would think if there are so many businesses out there with the express purpose of helping organizations meet their goals there would be fewer problems. Unhappily this is often not the case. All too frequently one part of a company has no idea what the other is doing. At the very least this can cause an organization to be inefficient or fail to provide the best product of which it is capable. In the worst-case scenarios we see the gross corporate misconduct that has been in the news of late. With so many folks wandering around in the dark, it is sometimes amazing that many businesses and government agencies are able to function at all.

With as many fumbling organizations as there are in the world today, the ones that work really stand out. It is these organizations that have a clear vision and plan that set an example for others to follow. One such organization is Hauntorama and its offshoot Child Quest International.

Hauntorama is a child advocacy group focused on the prevention and recovery of missing and exploited children and is the brainchild of Sterling Long-Colbo and his fiancée, Jane Riviere Knox. Hauntorama was born on Halloween night when Long-Colbo and Knox were walking home. A long time child advocate, Long-Colbo was inspired by a particularly well-executed home haunt. It occurred to him that Halloween in general and haunted houses in particular could be used as a medium to prevent children from being exploited or abducted. Long-Colbo and Knox realized that not only can the construction and operation of a haunted house provide a safe haven for children but that the very act of creating a haunted house could create a sense of family and community that would decrease the dangers inherent with childhood. Additionally, moneys generated from haunted houses could be used for programs educating the general public about the problems of child abduction.

One of the avenues Hauntorama took to achieve its goals was to publish Hauntorama's How to Haunt Your House, Volume One. (Thriller Press, ISBN 0-9713463-0-5, 205 pages) Edited by Long-Colbo, Rochelle Santopaolo, and Jeff Baham, Hauntorama's How to Haunt Your House, Volume One's goal is to provide a clearing house of information which will allow even the most novice haunter to create a haunted house. The book itself is a compilation of haunt-related articles and reprints from other books on home haunting. Its list of contributors reads like a dream team of haunting, including work from noted haunters like Joe Pfeiffer, Tim Harkleroad, and Leonard Pickel.

Creating a well-done "one-stop" book and in particular creating an anthology are often daunting tasks. In many cases "one-stop" resources for creating haunted houses are anemic works that fail to provide adequate information for producing a safe and credible haunted house. Alternately some "one-stop" books suffer from trying to accomplish too much. Also, too often compilations are frenetic mishmashes that have only a flimsy thread to grant real coherency. Happily, Hauntorama's How to Haunt Your House, Volume One suffers from little or none of these problems. The editors' vision is clear and their methods are sound. It is a well-edited and organized product and does an admirable job of being not only a one-stop resource for the novice but a valuable reference for the experienced haunter.

One thing that struck me about Hauntorama's How to Haunt Your House, Volume One was that it not only provides excellent ideas and plans for creating a haunted house, but also a wealth of background information to support them. From a Halloween primer by Rochelle Santopaolo to a History of Horror Makeup by Scott Essman, the book is a font of knowledge. While there are some other excellent books on creating a haunt from scratch (and many of them written by Hauntorama's How to Haunt Your House, Volume One's contributors) Sterling Long-Colbo, Rochelle Santopaolo, and Jeff Baham should be very proud indeed because they have just set the standard for future entry level haunt books. I can't wait to get my hands on Volume 2.

It has become more and more of a tired cliché to say "this book has something for everyone." I do hate to beat a dead horse, or a camel, as the case may be, but Hauntorama's How to Haunt Your House, Volume One falls directly into this category. The novice haunter will find this compilation an excellent start. The experienced haunter will find a host of tips and background information. This book is a "must have" for any Nightstand Library.

Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1
For the record, let's get one thing straight: I am not a makeup or special effects artist. While I have the interest in creating captivating works of art, I simply don't have the talent. Anything beyond simple foam latex appliances and airbrushing makeup is beyond me. This makes me more of a mechanic than an artist. Even a mechanic, however, can appreciate art.

My artistic limitations aside, in the grander scheme of things, I like to think of myself as a student rather than a mechanic. This is rather ironic since I spent the better part of my high school and college life as an apathetic student at best. I guess in college all the classes: psychology, physics, and chemistry etc… didn't mean a lot to me. I couldn't relate to the mish mash of formulas and doctrines and…stuff. Now in the context of haunting, things are making a little more sense to me. After all, what is haunting but psychology, anthropology, engineering, and a good measure of stagecraft? Psychological principals are cool because they help me scare people. Chemistry and good lab craft are important in making appliances.

Now of course the more I learn about haunting, the more I realize I don't know. At some point I hope to reach that Zen state where I know so much that I realize I know nothing at all. On that day maybe I will be able to snatch a piece of candy corn from Leonard Pickel's hand. Until that day comes I will keep poring over 'how to" books and websites on haunting and all subjects that pertain to it.

One excellent source for special effects-related information is www.monstermakers.com. This website is the electronic base of The Monster Makers, a Cleveland-based special effects supply service. Led by a talented special effects artist, Arnold Goldman, they provide a friendly, personalized and darn right reasonable one-stop shopping experience for most everything special effects related. About the only things I have found that they don't carry are circuit boards and pyrotechnics.

In addition to providing excellent products and personalized customer service, The Monster Makers also hosts educational seminars on a variety of special effects related topics. Realizing that not everyone can travel to Cleveland, Goldman has also begun to provide video training. His first product is a video titled Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1.

There are a lot of instructional videos out there on the market and, quite frankly, each one does have at least something to offer. Few, however, offer as focused and detailed instruction as Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1. Goldman should truly be proud of his first foray into video education. If his upcoming videos are all of this quality I, for one, will buy them all.

Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1 is a start-to-finish series of detailed instructions for creating dental prosthetics. It is well written and organized in a simple step-by-step manner. During the course of the video, Goldman goes into great detail for each phase of production and includes a list of materials necessary for each step. The camera work is professional and the viewer is given a clear picture of how each step is performed.

One aspect of Goldman's work that makes Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1 stand out among the many videos on the market is the little details. Goldman utilizes an "introduce, " "instruction," and "review" format that leaves the concepts clear in the viewer's mind. Goldman and his assistants also demonstrate good lab craft and safety, a fact that is often overlooked in many videos. This is a valid point, for most haunters and novice special effects artists forget that some of the chemicals and byproducts utilized in the field are darn right nasty.

As a manner of testing the effectiveness of Goldman's instruction, immediately after viewing Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1, I went to my workshop and attempted to produce a set of upper and lower prosthetics. Happily, the only difficulty I encountered was the fact that my family wanted to exile me from the house because the acrylic monomer utilized in building up the gum line was, to say the least, a bit pungent. Within several hours, most of which was spent waiting for the casting materials to set; I had a set of credible looking zombie teeth.

Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1 retails for $19.95. When combined with all the materials necessary to make several sets of full dentures, the buyer can expect to pay around $55.00. While it is possible to buy mass market teeth at a third of this price, true custom dentures made by a special effects artist will cost at least this much if not significantly more. Besides, some people, myself included, just like the challenge and satisfaction of creating their own personalized prosthetics.

There is little if anything to be critical of in Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1; however, being a critic I suppose I am obligated to devise something critical. There were some times during the video when the lighting was not consistent, but this in no way detracted from the content. Oh, and maybe Goldman could have suggested wearing a dust mask while grinding down the acrylic. Those are really the only two criticisms I can offer, lame as they are. Regardless of criticisms, I cannot recommend Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1 enough. It is the best video on the market for any home haunter or budding special effects artist who wishes to learn how to create his or her own horror dental appliances. No haunter who likes DIY projects should be without Fantastic Dentistry Volume 1 in their Nightstand Library.

The Dollars and Sense Of Small Market Haunting
How often during the course of a week have you heard or read the news and thought "what were they thinking?" or "that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of?" I'm fairly sure the capacity for human folly has been well covered by other writers, so I won't belabor the point. Suffice to say there are a lot of folks in the world who all show an astonishing lack of common sense. Take the time to read the Darwin Awards, consider why George Lucas created Jar Jar Binks, or make a visit to your local emergency room and I'm sure you will agree.

It would seem that most of the time common sense is at a premium, so much so that when you do see folks doing the smart thing it is like a breath of fresh air. It is all too rare today when one is able to say "that's a great idea, I'm glad someone thought of that." Proof that there are still smart people left in the world is found in Ricky and Karen Dick. Ricky and Karen are the owners of Castle Blood, a small commercial haunt located near Pittsburgh in Beallsville, Pennsylvania. Being generally too self-involved and busy with my own home haunt, I must confess to never having made the pilgrimage to visit Castle Blood. Each and every year, I always give myself a kick in the hind side for not having gotten there, because every year I hear from lots of folks about what a great place it is. In fact, I have yet to hear a bad word about the place. This is proof enough for me that Ricky and Karen must be doing something smart.

I was pleasantly surprised when Fed-Ex delivered material that needed review and found that Ricky and Karen had taken the time to produce a book on haunting: The Dollars and Sense Of Small Market Haunting. While I would love to read about how they create their amazing show and costumes, I was pleased to see that they had taken on a subject that really needs addressing; how real people market their haunt.

Let's face it; the vast majority of haunters in America are small businesses - very small businesses. Large grandiose media campaigns to get the word out about their haunts are just not practical for the average haunter. The question arises, "how do I make the community aware of my haunt?" In The Dollars and Sense Of Small Market Haunting, Ricky and Karen Dick share some of their common sense experience on how to do just that.

The Dollars and Sense Of Small Market Haunting is one of those simple books that have information from which every haunter can take something away. It is a simple book that is full of simple ideas that just make sense. Too often to mention I found myself nodding my head or muttering, "That makes perfect sense, why didn't I think of this last year?" Nothing in the book is truly an "out of the box" type concept. On the contrary, the wisdom that Ricky and Karen preach is the sort my late grandfather was apt to give me: "concentrate on what you're good at" or "don't be blinded by envy, be inspired."

Not only does The Dollars and Sense Of Small Market Haunting contain a lot of sound wisdom, but it also provides real and concrete plans on how to market your haunt. Ricky and Karen go into depth about how to find and keep sponsors. They also cover some of the finer points of salesmanship to include the often-overlooked art of trade and barter. Although they do go over some of the wisdom of utilizing national sponsorship programs and paid advertising, a lot of the information that Ricky and Karen provide is on the grass roots level.

The information and writing is both simple and practical. The only fault to be found in The Dollars and Sense Of Small Market Haunting are the usual ones encountered when faced with desktop publishing. The layout lacks the level of sophistication that Ricky and Karen exhibit in their haunt and costumes. This in no way takes away from the information presented, but the reader is always aware that this book is a homegrown product. Pictures of the various principals of the Castle Blood cast and extended family are scattered throughout the book. The printing really doesn't do them justice and disappointed me slightly.

It is an overused cliché, but The Dollars and Sense Of Small Market Haunting is truly one of those books that has something for everyone. From the home haunter to the target audience of the small to mid-level haunter, The Dollars and Sense Of Small Market Haunting provides both universal wisdom and concrete plans for real world promotion. Any haunter would do well to read this refreshing and smart work and it should definitely be an addition to everyone's Nightstand Library.

The Monster Makers Mask-Maker's Handbook
I may have mentioned it before, but I like latex masks. Not the kind with zippers for mouths or built in ball gags, mind you. I like latex monster masks, the scarier the better. In retrospect, though, the ones with the zippers and gags are pretty scary too, but they are a disturbing kind of scary and not something I like to associate with Halloween. Regardless, latex masks appeal to the kid in me. One of my earliest childhood memories of Halloween was of one of our neighbors dressed as a flapper wearing a leering skeleton mask. It made a great impression on a child of six, I will assure you.

Latex masks in the early seventies and the latex masks being constructed today are two very different animals. Well, maybe not different species, but the masks of today have evolved more into art than just costumes. Talented sculptors are producing high-quality products that are real collectibles. They are indeed a far cry from the masks I remember as a kid. While you can find a few books on the market detailing the evolution of latex masks (David Lady's come to mind), one of the best resources for finding high quality masks is the World Wide Web. Visit www.monstermakers.com or www.deathstudios.com and you'll see some really fine works of art and some excellent how-tos.

Mask making itself is not a terribly complicated process. With a minimum amount of supplies and tools, the beginner can produce his or her own latex monster mask in a minimum amount of time. Of course, the beginner needs to be mindful that creating many of the high quality masks requires a combination of practice, true sculpting talent, and a minimum of 50 to 60 hours work time. Not every mask you create will be a masterpiece, but all should be a fun and creative process.

There are numerous suppliers of mask making material available on the web. One that I have had great success with in terms of speed and outstanding customer support is The Monster Makers, based in Cleveland, Ohio. The owner of Monster Makers, Arnold Goldman, a talented sculptor and mask maker himself, has put together several levels of complete mask making kits beginning at around $100.00. For those who are a little daunted by the initial cost, they can get their feet wet and learn all about constructing a latex monster mask by purchasing The Monster Makers Mask-Maker's Handbook written by Goldman.

In The Monster Makers Mask-Maker's Handbook Goldman takes the reader through a simple step-by-step process from start to finish on how to create a latex monster mask. Beginning with design tips and finishing with the actual painting of the mask, Goldman provides all the information a novice mask maker should need to avoid most of the pitfalls associated with mask construction. He does this through a combination of clear writing and a series of step-by-step photographs. Goldman also clarifies his instructions with the helpful addition of a glossary of mask making terms and a troubleshooting guide included at the end of the book as appendices.

The Monster Makers Mask-Maker's Handbook really could be used as a stand-alone book for the beginner. Not only does Goldman provide clear and concise instructions on the mechanics of the process, he provides a great deal of personal insight as to why he does things the way he does. He also provides some valuable advice about both the sculpting and painting process, something that is not included in other mask making books, such as Thurston James's Mask Maker's Handbook, or David Lady's Extreme Mask Making: A "How-To" Guide for Humans. About the only mask making process Goldman does not cover is the addition of hair to the mask.

The Monster Makers Mask-Maker's Handbook is a steady and calm book and the writing style typical of a well-done "how-to" book. It is not as lively as David Lady's Extreme Mask Making: A "How-To" Guide for Humans, nor is it written in the textbook fashion of Thurston James's Mask Maker's Handbook (both of which are excellent books in their own right). Graphically speaking, Goldman's serial photographs of the mask making process are unique and do much to make this one of the best books for the novice mask maker on the market today. My only complaint would be that only the photographs, which detail the painting process, are printed in color. It is a minor detail of aesthetics, not a problem with the book.

For the curious novice, The Monster Makers Mask-Maker's Handbook is probably the most inexpensive, focused, and complete product on the market. The writing style, information and photographs should allow even the most nervous beginner to create a latex monster mask. For the more experienced mask maker it should provide some good tips on design, sculpting and painting. For these reasons, Monster Makers Mask-Maker's Handbook is a fine addition to one's Nightstand Library.