I normally write normal stories (sort of), but this time of year I haul out my memories of reading such classics as “the Veldt” by Ray Bradbury or “the Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe and pen my own creepy tales for friends. It wasn’t until I started gathering all my short stories together in an anthology that I realized just how many of these chilling stories I have typed up over the years.

But enough about that. Here’s a creepy fact for Halloween: Charles Dickens, who wrote an inspirational Christmas story using ghosts, had a pet that he once featured in a short story. It was this pet that inspired Edgar Allen Poe to write his own classic poem which served as his breakout piece and put his name securely on the legendary creepy writers list (if such a list existed).