Jeff C. Carter, author and lover of all things Halloween, returns to the show to once again nerd out about his favorite holiday, but also to show off his brand new book for middle grades and adults, Cold Spell: The Halloween Curse of Winterhill. This coming of age tale is a fun, fast-paced story of friendship and supernatural adventure that will appeal to fans of Hocus Pocus, Goosebumps, and anyone who believes there is magic just beyond the red and orange veiled woods.
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Do you know a young gay man or a teen in the LGBT community? Are they into ghost stories or spirit communication? Perhaps they’re just a general paranerd like most of us. If this young person fits into any of these categories, you really need to direct them to this book!
From the author’s website:
A lonely boy walking along a highway one autumn evening meets the boy of his dreams, a boy who happens to have died decades ago and haunts the road. Awkward crushes, both bitter and sweet, lead him to face youthful dreams and childish fears. With its cast of offbeat friends, antiques, and Ouija boards, Vintage is not your typical romance but does offer readers a memorable blend of dark humor, chills and love.
A finalist for the Andre Norton Award and Gaylactic Spectrum Award!
I think this was the original cover of Vintage, which matches the one that is on my shelf.
I read this book when it was originally published in 2007. As a 29-year-old, I was just getting into reading and went through a year of doing it obsessively. I’m still obsessed with it, but back then I was reading a book a week and clearly trying to make up for lost time. Vintage: A Ghost Story, which fits into the category of young adult fiction, is the kind of book that I really wish existed when I was growing up in those awkward teen years. Growing up gay or coming out of the closet is sometimes very lonely, and it’s hard enough without having to pretend that movies, TV, and books apply to your life. When was the last time you saw a major motion picture focused on a gay love story? Exactly. Sometimes I wonder if I would have started reading years ago if this book and others like it were around just 10 or 15 years earlier.
This book also found me in the very early stages of my developing paranormal interests and my “spiritual shift”. I remember I read it in the fall and enjoyed all its spooky elements, like the Ouija board, cemeteries, etc. Something else that stands out is that I had just started collecting old high school yearbooks from my home town of Lexington, Missouri at this time. Most of them are from the 1920s. Reading about a ghost boyfriend who died in an earlier time made going through that first yearbook very interesting.
Thank you, Steve Berman!
Book Notes on Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman (Literary Magpie)
Interview with Steve Berman (Reviews by Jessewave)
LGBTQ characters in YA fiction & LGBTQ YA Authors (Gay YA)
