HOLLYWOOD, CA (October 17, 2012) _ The 2012 Halloween Book Festival has named Lisa Morton’s “Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween” (Reaktion Books Ltd.) as the grand prize winner of its annual competition honoring the best and scariest books of the holiday.
The first book to examine the history and origins of the holiday while exploring its global popularity, “Trick or Treat” also examine’s Halloween’s effect on popular culture.The book is an eye-opening and comprehensive examination of a commercial holiday that has only truly mushroomed into a global phenomenon in relatively recent times.
Morton will be honored at a private awards ceremony on October 29 at the W Hotel in Hollywood as part of the Aliens to Zombies Convention.
Other winners in the competition:
SCIENCE FICTION
WINNER: The Bane of Yoto – Joshua Viola
RUNNER-UP: The Death of Eve – Shaun Penney
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Sequence – Kenneth Rogers Jr
- Dark Princess – Al Allison
- The Immune – Doc Lucky Meisenheimer
- Fractured Persona – Harry J. Krebs
WILD CARD
WINNER: Memoirs of a Violent Sleeper – Matt Micheli
RUNNER-UP: The Book of Paul – Richard Long
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- First Death: A Vampire Shadower Novel – Kyona Jiles
- Plant Teacher – Caroline Alethia
- Tesseract 3am – Vicki Ebeling
GENERAL FICTION
WINNER: Dominance – Will Lavender
RUNNER-UP: Cure – Belinda Frisch
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- How To Represent a Ghost – Becky Ann Bartness
- Radio Belly – Buffy Cram
- Murder Under the Microscope – Jane Bennett Munro
- Becoming Mona Lisa – Catherine Holden Robinson
- Legends of the Vacara’s – John Fennell
- The Abel Conspiracy – Gary D. Henry
YOUNG ADULT
WINNER: Freek Show – Steve Burt
RUNNER-UP: The Fifth Kraut – Jeff Kohmstedt
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
WINNER: Horrible Hauntings – Shirin Bridges
RUNNER-UP: The Most Amazing Halloween Ever – Kevin Kremer
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Z is for Zombie – Merrily Kutner
- Broomsticks: The Halloween Spirit – Sean McHugh
- The Halloween Spectacle – Lesley Hershman
- Horrifa’s Magic Makeover, “Witch Way” – Susan L. Krueger
- Broomsticks: The Halloween Spirit – Sean McHugh
GENERAL NON-FICTION
WINNER: Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween – Lisa Morton
RUNNER-UP: Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America’s Fright Night – Lesley Bannatyne
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Halloween Law – Victoria Sutton
- Murder & Mayhem: 52 Crimes That… – Michael Barry
- The Case of the Unwanted Pounds – Patricia McGarvey
FANTASY
WINNER: Relations That Suck: The Story of Eva: Heather Papp/Marilyn Yu
RUNNER-UP: La Femme Fatale – Heather Papp/Marilyn Yu
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- The Bane of Yoto – Joshua Viola
- The Sylvan Horn – Robert Redinger
- The World Within – Marielba Cancel Olmo
- All Hallows’ Eve – Janet C. Parrish
UNPUBLISHED
WINNER: Karloff as the Invisible Man – Philip Riley
HORROR
WINNER: The Years of Magic – John Hickman, Jr.
RUNNER-UP: Dragon’s Ark Thomas Burchfield
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Outer Darkness – Bart Brevik
- The Movies That Make You Scream! – R. David Fulcher
- Chiral Mad – Michael Bailey
- Zombie Tube – Mike Mankoff
- Driven – W.G. Griffiths