Halloween doesn’t need monsters chasing you through the darkness.
Sometimes the best ghost stories begin with something much smaller.
A light in the window of an abandoned house.
A motel key for a room that doesn’t exist.
A knock at the door long after the trick-or-treaters have gone home.
Or a photograph that somehow changed overnight.
Those are the kinds of unsettling moments at the heart of my new collection, DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS — Volume 1: Ghost Stories for Halloween and Other Dark Nights.
The Kind of Ghost Stories I Wanted to Tell
When I began putting this collection together, I wasn’t interested in filling the pages with blood and gore.
I wanted something closer to the ghost stories people have told for generations—the kind where the reader realizes something is wrong before the character does.
The fear comes from anticipation.
You know the character shouldn’t open the door.
You know they shouldn’t answer the voice.
You know they shouldn’t go back into that house.
But they do.
And you keep reading.
Six Journeys Into the Unknown
Volume 1 contains six original stories, each beginning with an ordinary situation that gradually becomes anything but ordinary.
The Woman in the Upstairs Window begins with an abandoned Victorian house and a figure who shouldn’t be standing in its window. But the mystery soon reaches beyond the house into missing photographs, family secrets, guilt, and memories someone tried to erase.
Room Thirteen asks a simple question: What would you do if a motel with only twelve rooms handed you the key to Room 13?
The Last Trick-or-Treater begins at 11:47 on Halloween night when a widower hears one final knock at his door.
Someone Is Sitting in the Back Seat takes one of those fears almost everyone has experienced—looking into the rearview mirror on a lonely drive home and wondering whether you really saw something behind you.
The House That Calls Your Name is built around a neighborhood rule every child knows: if the abandoned house whispers your name, keep walking. Never answer.
And in The Photograph, a family brings home an antique Halloween photograph from 1936. Then living members of their family begin appearing in it.
One by one.
Sometimes the Smallest Detail Is the Scariest
One thing I particularly enjoy about writing supernatural fiction is taking something completely ordinary and changing one detail.
Imagine finding a handprint on a window.
Nothing frightening about that.
Until you realize the handprint is on the inside.
Imagine looking at an old family photograph and noticing an empty space between two people.
You could swear someone used to be standing there.
Or imagine hearing someone you love calling your name from another room.
Then remembering…
you’re home alone.
That’s where these stories live.
An Outside Look at the Collection
Grok recently reviewed DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS and described it as:
“Solid seasonal horror for people who want to be unsettled rather than shocked.”
That may be one of my favorite descriptions of the book.
The review particularly highlighted The Woman in the Upstairs Window, noting that what initially appears to be a traditional abandoned-house story becomes something much more personal.
The supernatural threat doesn’t simply frighten its victims.
It understands them.
It knows their memories.
It knows the people they love.
And sometimes it knows exactly what they already blame themselves for.
That’s a much more interesting kind of ghost to me.
A Book for a Dark October Night
This isn’t a collection designed to explain every supernatural mystery.
Sometimes explaining the ghost destroys the ghost story.
Instead, these stories are about atmosphere, suspense, and aftermath.
They’re about finishing a story at midnight, putting the book down, and suddenly becoming much more aware of how quiet your house is.
They’re about walking past the dark hallway and deciding that maybe turning on the light isn’t such a bad idea after all.
And they’re about that wonderful Halloween question:
What if?
What if the house really isn’t empty?
What if Room 13 really exists?
What if somebody actually is sitting in the back seat?
What if the photograph changes again tomorrow morning?
Watch the Trailer
I’ve also created a short trailer introducing the six stories and the world of DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS.
Watch the DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS book trailer on YouTube
Halloween Is Getting Closer
If you enjoy haunted houses, paranormal mysteries, old photographs, strange voices, Halloween nights, and traditional ghost stories built around suspense rather than gore, DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS — Volume 1 was written with you in mind.
DON’T TURN OUT THE LIGHTS — Volume 1
Ghost Stories for Halloween and Other Dark Nights
By Bruce Goldwell
Get the Kindle edition on Amazon
There’s still plenty of time before Halloween.
But if you’re planning to read it after dark, I have one suggestion.
Check the hallway first.
Then settle in, start the first story…
and leave one light on.
Tags: Ghost Stories, Halloween, Horror Books, Scary Stories, Paranormal Fiction, Supernatural Fiction, Haunted Houses, Halloween Books, Bruce Goldwell, Don’t Turn Out the Lights
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