'As I write, it is rapidly approaching Halloween here in the United States and the stores are now filled with discounted creepiness. Remaining novelties and adornments are everywhere, from the large grocery stores to the gas station ‘Grab-n-Go’ joints, from fast-food restaurants to university bookstores. Orange as a pumpkin, skeletal as the trees, the bare ash, the stark maple, the stick hickory and the grey elm, as dark as 6.00 in the morning. What was anticipatory is now spookily pending.' (Graeme Harper : Editorial introduction)