Welcome to the next stop on The Woods trail of Zoraida Córdova’s Halloween Book Trail! I got to answer some fun questions about Halloween and desert islands and fear and all sorts of things. Check it out here and then continue on your journey through The Woods!

If your MC went trick or treating, what would they dress up as and why?

The last time Mariella went trick or treating it was in sixth grade. She and K.T. teamed up and they went as Antony (Mariella) and Cleopatra (K.T.). They made pretty much everyone treat them like royalty all week and everyone called them Tony and Cleo for the rest of the year.

Hudson didn’t go trick or treating much as a kid, but J.R. thought Halloween was amazing. The October before J.R. died, Hudson took him trick or treating for the first time. J.R. dressed up like Hulk—Hudson even painted the kid entirely green for the occasion—and he picked out Thor for Hudson. Since Hudson’s hair is so short, J.R. insisted on a wig. This insistence came in at the last minute so the only one Hudson could get was meant for young girls and was therefore too small for his head, too long, and had bangs. It looked ridiculous on him but it made J.R. happy and that was pretty much all that mattered anyway.

What scares the pants out of you?

Honestly, the intangible is more frightening to me than the tangible. And I’m not talking about ghosts. Spiders and heights and small, dark places are all less frightening to me than betrayal and abandonment. Those concepts and actions can do much longer lasting damage than a lot of other things worth being afraid of.

Do you legit believe in ghosts and things that bump in the night? (We won’t think you’re cray)

I’ve never seen anything, but yes! The universe is too vast and complex for there not to be things that we haven’t seen or can’t understand. What I don’t think is that any of it exists in the forms we have stories about. Vampires, werewolves, quasi-corporeal ghosts, etc. all may be based in something real, but most of that probably comes from the collective imaginations of humanity. Speaking of the human collective, the theory of universal consciousness is something I’m pretty much 100% sure is real.

If you were stranded on a deserted island or haunted house, what number are you to die and how?

Probably first. And it would be some stupid accident on my part or the fact that I exercise, like, never and am incapable of pulling myself up should I fall through broken floorboards or over a cliff or off a roof or something. Or, since I know nothing about shooting guns, I’ll misfire and hurt myself. Really, don’t trust me when things go to hell. I am not the person you want with you in a horror movie or zombie apocalypse or even on a deserted island.

What magical/supernatural creature do you secretly want to be?

I’ve never had an extremely strong desire to be a magical/supernatural/mythological creature (it seems like the cons really outweigh the pros most of the time; I would possibly make an exception for having the Gift out of Tamora Pierce’s Tortall world), but there are a few I would have loved to meet and/or have. Pegasus has always fascinated me as have fairies (the tiny, spritely ones, not the evil, manipulative ones). What I’ve really always wanted, though, is a dæmon out of The Golden Compass. I would jump on a chance to visit that world and meet my dæmon in a heartbeat!

 Want to continue on the trail? Next up is our fantastic hostess Zoraida Córdova! Visit her blog and study up! There will be a quiz. 😉