Spooktober 2025

Welcome to my Spooktober 2025 page! This is my first year participating in this challenge, but I love all things spooky and Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I can't wait to sink my (vampire) teeth in!

Since I've completed the 13th prompt, I've rearranged this page to its final form with the prompts on top and my ramblings underneath. As with Summer Camp, my reflection of the challenge is posted in the righthand sidebar.

Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! \^^/

Prompts

You'll notice I have "type" of article even though all Spooktober articles are generic. If there's a Type other than Generic listed, that means I'll be deleting the current generic article to eventually make an article of that type for that prompt. At some future time. Like, next year. =_=

First Spooktober!

First, let me say that I adore the prompts all being chosen out of Lord of the Rings because I've loved that story since my youth. Unlike some other book series *coughHPcough* I adored back then as well, this one has stayed with me and I feel myself taking new lessons and experiences away from every reread of the series (or rewatch of the Jackson films, let's be real). Anyway, I just really love the series and the world that Tolkien created, so I'm pleased it's been incorporated into my first Spooktober!

This page is first going to contain some ramblings from me about my current journey in Willowmoor, where I'm heading for the last fourth of the year, and how I can incorporate Spooktober into all those plans.

Willowmoor: The Present Journey

I spent the summer rewriting the first two books in the original Willowmoor trilogy, and then moved on to the third, starting almost completely from scratch in that case (I only kept much of the original prologue and some exposition from chapter one). I'm currently over halfway through that final book of the trilogy, which I intend to finish at some point over the course of Spooktober.

The first book in the trilogy, Finding Willowmoor, told the journey of a group of survivors during a modern day, world-ending post apocalypse, and how they find the location where they'll build the titular village of the series. Its whole first act takes place in a crowded arena near the formerly American Rocky Mountains, then the rest of the story takes place in a caravan that travels north to an unspoiled place of safety.

The second book in the trilogy, How We Built Willowmoor, told exactly that: how the survivors built a village that they didn't even know would end up standing for centuries to come. Of course, it was all drafty log cabins when it was first built, but it was loved nonetheless... Even as one of their own began to haunt them with a series of murders. Yes, a Whodunnit? serial killer murder mystery unfolds for our poor survivors as they're building their new society. Bummer!

In the final book in the trilogy, Rescuing Willowmoor, our survivors have become largely isolationists, to their own peril. They'll be forced over the course of the story to change their ways, learning that forging bonds with the other budding settlements around them - and even taking in new residents - actually helps their survival instead of hurting it. They also must finish the unfinished business of Book II; the Willowmoor Ripper escaped the area, but it's likely he'll return before the trilogy's end...

Year's End: NovelEmber & WorldEmber

Though I have been working on the Willowmoor Series since late May (or the Month of Blossoming) of this year, and I never stick with a single project for more than a couple months at a time (historically), I've decided to stay in Willowmoor to close out the year. I already listed some mid-year resolutions on my Reading Challenge 2025 page for world building, but let's get detailed and talk about the final big events of the year...

NovelEmber

Last year I participated (quietly) in my first NovelEmber, and I loved it. As someone who participated in NaNoWriMo going back to, like, 2006 or something, it seamlessly took over, and I'm fully prepared to do NovelEmber every November (or Month of Fire) for the rest of my life!

That said, this year I'm writing the story that takes place a few years after our original Willowmoor trilogy ends. It's a much darker tale with some main character deaths that are absolutely gutting, and our protagonist power couple suffers so much that it makes me cry to think about it! It's an important story in terms of the history of the world that builds itself around Willowmoor (or does Willowmoor build the world around itself?), so it must be told. Making it the NovelEmber project sounds like a good way to get that first draft down on paper!

WorldEmber

I have never participated in WorldEmber before, so this will be my first year, and I'm so excited to join in the fun!

My original Willowmoor trilogy and the story a few years later are sort of prequels to the big world building event, which is the series that takes place hundreds of years later when history has become settled, main characters from the trilogy have become legendary, and a new "modern world" has developed to replace the post-apocalyptic landscape of the original setting.

So, that's the world I'll be focusing on for WorldEmber: the future that springs up around Willowmoor hundreds of years after its painstakingly written-about founding. This future includes other settlements (in fact, the humble village of Willowmoor has become a thriving city-state), as well as new nations with new alliances and rivalries, and so on. All of it with roots in the original trilogy and following story, even if some of those roots are obscured or twisted...

Willowmoor Meets Spooktober

So, taken with all this knowledge of the novel-writing side, how will I be incorporating the Spooktober prompts into my Willowmoor series? It seems to me the best way to keep my focus where I want it would be by weaving the prompts into world building that's specific to the period of time between when the Ripper is finally caught and the end of my NovelEmber story.

Furthermore, I want each prompt to encourage me to explore not only the spooky aspects of Willowmoor, but its darker and shadier sides. To throw out a few examples of the types of questions I'll be asking myself...

• Does Willowmoor have a Black Market?
• Who's the "shadiest" character in town?
• Aside from the Ripper, are there other local terrors?
• What about cryptids?
• Are there any underground "gangs" or equivalent organizations?
• Is there a "bad crowd" and what does that look like?
• What kind of ghost stories are told in Willowmoor?
• Is there a "seedy" part of town?
• Are any professions looked down upon like those who practice them are lesser-than?
• What are the Hallows Eve* traditions?