One of the fun things about being a professional writer is that reading fiction suddenly counts as work! That fact is a blessing in itself, but today it was extra joy, because I got to read every story submitted by my talented fellow Codexians for the Halloween Contest (see other posts below or click the Halloween tag). And while some of those were really great, the majority was really good… So good, in fact, that my previously reported insecurity about my own submission has grown into mortal embarassment. What was I thinking? Oh well – at least my story is the only one involving traditional suburban trick-or-treating. And it was none other than Kevin J. Anderson who taught us at the WotF workshop to ‘dare to be bad’! Got that one down…