Being of Service Via Halloween
October 11th, 2010 by John WolfeWith October always being the site’s busiest month of the year, I figured this is probably the best time to post this entry. I’m looking for feedback from you, my valued visitors, as for ways I can continue improving Season of Shadows. However, I’m looking for feedback in one specific area more than any other – it’s the area that I feel matters most: How can the site be improved regarding ways and means for helping/uplifting others?
While I do consider myself to be a home haunter and someone who creates my own form of Halloween artwork (through prop building), that role takes a backseat to my goal of trying to be of service to this site’s visitors. Even though there may not be such a thing as the “Halloween hospitality industry,” that’s more of the path I like to follow than any other here at SOS.
Focusing on building props and haunting my yard is great, but to me, those things mean very little if I’m not also trying to contribute something even deeper via Halloween — something that gives people the feelings of being welcome, connected, inspired and hopefully uplifted.
In the last three years I’ve worked on adding features that are designed to do just that: I’ve hosted oodles of giveaways; added the Halloween radio and Halloween Webcam sections; brought in the chat box and I’ve shot lots of how-to stuff. I’m not sure I always succeed at my goal of providing good service, but that’s always my intention with Season of Shadows.
And while I already have plans for bringing more service-oriented things to the site in 2011 (including even more detailed how-to videos for corpse building, new items for giveaways, as well as a couple of other things), I’d really appreciate hearing any ideas you may have to help the site continue improving in this area too.
In a nutshell, I’m asking what it is about SOS that provides you with enjoyment, a feeling of being welcome and what keeps you returning, and if you have any ideas about what could be added or improved to expand on those feelings. Without you guys, everything I do would all be for not. I’m here to be of help in anyway I can and I truly value and appreciate your input.
On another note, but not an unrelated one, I’d like to congratulate all the winners in the Nox Arcana Giveaway: Matthew A. of Durham, NC won “Theater of Illusion.” Camile Coyne of Waxahachie, TX won “Blackthorn Asylum.” Ssflipo13 of Buffalo, NY won “Blackthorn Asylum.” Jacob Sinacola of Midland, MI won “Blackthorn Asylum.” And Goldie of California won “Zombie Influx.”
October 11th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Since I have come across this site a while ago. I have enjoyed many short films from around the world, Great how to videos , fabulous giveaways and the advice of a seasoned prop builder. The only other thing that I personally can think of that this sight may or may not need is probably a message board instead of clicking and scrolling through countless posts. I still haven`t got through half this sight yet. And may I add , I`m loving every bit of it. Oh and I can`t forget the gardening, Thanks for taking the time to share all of this with all of us.
one more thing, YES! I won a Nox Arcana Blackthorn Asylum CD! Sweet! thanks again I`m soooooo pumped!
October 11th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Keep doing what you do best! I love watching your creative process, particularly how you detail and paint your props. It has been fun to watch the Angel of Death grow from a couple of sticks to its present state! Just keep working on props and showing detail on how you do it.
October 11th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
John, my dear friend, this is an excellent posting and I look forward to what everyone has to say in response. Having said that, I “know” how you “know” I feel about SeasonofShadows and what we’ve shared so I’m going to leave it at that. In addition, if I were to fully answer this blog post I’m afraid my reply would turn into a small chapter. No it would transform into a book about just how deep your sensitivity, intelligence, compassion and thoughtfulness goes regarding not just the website but for all of your visitors especially. It shows! Just about 3 years now I’ve seen the changes first hand…..you know how I feel
As mentioned though, I do look forward to reading the comment replies soon. You have some of the best people who frequent here John so I consider myself blessed……and in more ways than one my friend 
(Big wink)
Now allow me to have this moment:
The Universe……such a sense of humor. Thank you so much for making this possible and for making all of your give-aways so incredible and for continuing to expand outward in all directions with SeasonofShadows.
YeeeeeeeeeeePeeeeeeeeeeee……Yaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooooooooo, for real, I won!!! Me? I won? Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, this is totally amazing John and I am so very very excited to be getting your package soon. I can’t wait to hear the CD and, lol, oddly enough the title of the album actually fits me and happenings around me most accurately
I am very excited for you (and for us) and I’m hugely proud of who you are as a person through and through and how your able to let that shine through SOS. Not many can do that. You can, and have, and continue to do so. THANK YOU and don’t ever stop being you!
October 12th, 2010 at 12:16 am
Hey John. Oh, good news–I am a semifinalist (1 of 13 out of thousands) for the Kreepy Krawlys essay contest. The cool thing–a Haunted attraction in Ohio is based upon the winning story. I am so stoked! And, they even make a mold of my face for a character. Wicked cool! So far as your blog goes, I love what you do. I think that your strengths are making these items and your speaking voice and way of explaining things. I would love to see you do some short vids that you just explain some basics, like how you mix your maiche and what you use to mold it to and maybe do a little thing here and there that we can see you doing it. You could even explain other ways this technique could be used to make other things. I really some day wish to see you doing a voiceover and hands in camera view kind of DVDs that explain how to make Halloween Haunt stuff and sell them on Amazon. Well, I think that’s a fantastic use of your abliities. I know there’s a lot of younger haunted house freaks out there working in their teens to make their houses rock, but having some simple how to’s would be awesome.
October 12th, 2010 at 4:05 am
John, you really are a great guy. I was recently thinking about what I could do to help improve Halloweens image as I have been hearing a lot of negative of late. I know that is not what you are talking about exactly, but it could be nice to have an organized effort at getting Halloween’s reputation improved. As far as what this site gives me personally? I love to come on here and get inspired by your work, I love talking to all of you, and I like learning about products and events that have somehow made it under my radar. There are a lot of Halloween websites out there, but this one is the most personable and inviting of the ones I have visited.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
ssflipo13,
Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback and for sharing what interests you about the site. Funny you should mention a message board as that’s one of the possibilities on the horizon for 2011, but it’s still just an idea as of right now. Though there are tons of forums online, I’d love to have something here at Season of Shadows where visitors could take an even bigger step in connecting and communicating with one another, because that’s very important to me. Nothing makes me happier than to see you guys talking back and forth with one another in blog comments or in the chat box. I love it!
Plus, having actual members create accounts to join a forum would take out the middle man (me) in approving comments like I do in the blog. Taking out my need for approval of each comment would open up an even greater channel for conversation and flow of ideas, making it more convenient for visitors to communicate. Of course, I’ll continue blogging as well, but a forum in conjunction with the blog would give visitors even greater capabilities of interacting with one another.
Congrats again on your Nox Arcana win! I just got in from mailing all the packages a few minutes ago, so you should receive it in a couple of days.
Curious,
Thank you so much for your kind response and input. I promise everything you mentioned is definitely going to continue as part of the site and my blog entries. In fact, when considering the possible project I mentioned in my comment above to ssflipo13, and the fact I want to create even more props during the off-season in 2011, my blog entries may shift more in the direction of progress reports and how-to vids than anything else. With all of these upcoming projects consuming a lot of my time, I’ll probably drop my blogging frequency from what’s usually been five to six postings per week during the off-season to two to three times per week following this Halloween as I immediately start on these new ideas, after cleaning up my haunt, of course.
Goldie,
No worries, I totally understand where you’re coming from and I appreciate all the great feedback you’ve given me in the past concerning the site and its direction. Thanks for the kind things you said in your comment, and when it comes to the Season of Shadows visitors — you’re absolutely right — they’re some of the best folks around!
You’re very welcome about the giveaway, Goldie! Honestly, it’s my pleasure. I love hosting them and with tons of Halloween knickknacks available in stores now, I love adding lots of other goodies to the packages as well. I’ve totally stocked up on orange and black tissue paper, mini-skulls, plastic spiders, etc. to include in my giveaway boxes throughout the year.
autumnforest,
Congratulations on being a semifinalist in the Kreepy Krawlys essay contest! That sounds awesome! Your stories totally rock. And thanks so much for taking time to give your feedback. I appreciate it. Those are great ideas and I’m absolutely going to work on more how-to vids. Some basic corpse building how-to stuff is available in my Haunter’s Reality videos, http://seasonofshadows.com/halloween-videos.htm but I do have plans to create an entire series, mapping out every detail from start to finish on building, adding mache and painting a groundbreake corpse this coming off-season.
Speaking of voice-over stuff, that’s another area I’d love to continue exploring in creative Halloweenie ways. Based on the comments I receive on You Tube pertaining to my Season of Shadows vids as well as my Wind of the Soul vids, people are quite willing to share their opinions about my voice, both kind and not-so-kind. But at least my raspy, flinty throat gets people talking I guess.
Ethan,
That’s very kind. Thank you. I totally agree with you about getting Halloween’s reputation improved and I think it does tie-in with what I was mentioning in this post. While what’s occurring at Season of Shadows (not just what I’m doing, but including everything you and all the other visitors provide as well), isn’t an organized effort in the strictest sense of the word, I believe being of service and showing kindness through Halloween does help to remove some of the negative commentary the holiday wrongfully receives.
A lot of people seem to think since Halloween is primarily about darkness that means it’s inherently negative or evil, but I find tons of love and light in what others choose to perceive as evil. I think Halloween can be a wonderful conduit for sharing, being joyful, generous, friendly, helpful and considerate. I know I’m probably pretty naive to most, but I think these very traits and energies I just mentioned — the very ones that are always being exchanged here through all of you guys when you interact with one another — are what helps to show Halloween isn’t a negative thing at all.
Actually, Ethan, your input about Halloween’s image is spot on and it’s a perfect way to sort of underscore what I hope Season of Shadows can help to accomplish. And I think the primary way it can be accomplished is through respectful, sincere communication and generosity of spirit channeled through all things related to October 31st. While that may not change the opinions of some, at least we’re embodying the change we’d like to see ( to paraphrase Gandhi). I bet no one has ever talked about Gandhi and Halloween in the same paragraph before.
Thank you so much for your kind words and feedback. I absolutely appreciate it.
October 12th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Oh John, how can I even begin this without 1)singing your praises and 2) repeating almost verbatim, what Goldie said! Goldie, Dearest, you took the words right out of my mouth! And expressed them in a much clearer way than I ever could.
John, I wonder if you even know your own power sometimes. You have taken something that was, for me, a great love and you have taken all the very best things having fellow online haunting friends offers and you have created this amazing community that has taken on a most wonderful life of it’s own! You have taken the internet world of the home haunter and made it a personal place where we can come and be inspired and know that we aren’t just another number or one more member in a group of thousands of other haunters.
The other big sites are great and all, don’t get me wrong, but coming here is such a different and personal experience. To feel that our support of you is valued is such an unusual and awesome thing! Maybe it’s that you do such thoughtful things like responding to EVERY SINGLE comment personally, maybe it’s your sense of humor, maybe it’s how personable you are, maybe it’s that you are a natural teacher, maybe it’s that people are naturally drawn to you… Most likely, it’s all of these that work in harmony but whatever the formula is, please keep it! Add to it, let it grow and prosper and please also know that you have a group of people who are so pleased to share your journey!
I can’t think of a single, real life change or suggestion to offer. In the best of all possible worlds (said Don Quixote..) we’d all live close enough to share all this goodness in person but barring that, keep up the marvelous work!
I can’t wait to see more of the responses from folks and to see how SOS grows and becomes even more my favorite place online to be!
all the best to you, my friend!!
Oh, and Golly Tamale!!! It’s so exciting that we won a CD!! That’s just cooler than cool!!!! A million thank yous!!!!!
October 12th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
LOL with John about his comment to Ethan… I didn’t see your reply to Ethan before I sent my comment above but I figure if I can invoke Don Quixote and Halloween in the same paragraph you are more than right to put together Gandhi and Halloween!! LOLOL!!!!
October 12th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Camile,
I’m so thrilled to hear Season of Shadows provides a personal experience for you! You’ve absolutely summed up all of the things I’ve been hoping I’m conveying to visitors. I always want each one of you to know how appreciative I am that you’ve taken the time to visit. I respect each of you, your opinions and your time. And having all of you share those valuable items with me is a privilege I won’t ever take for granted. No matter how much the site grows, I always want to do my best to retain that same personal feeling.
And what’s just as important to me is something you mentioned about your sharing in the journey with me. I honestly feel like this journey is as much yours (and everyone who visits) as it is mine. All of you guys are integral to the website and you make this place what it is. I never have to concern myself with receiving horrible comments or extremely mean or cruel responses aimed at me or anyone else. Working with and on Season of Shadows is such a joy of mine because it blends Halloween and helping people together, but you guys are all so special that it makes it even more fun than I ever imagined it could be three years ago when I started the site.
Thank you for everything you shared, my friend and for your continued kindess. Your feedback has helped me to know as long as I continue having sincere appreciation and respect for my visitors, it doesn’t ultimately matter what features are added to the site — as long as they carry that same personal, welcome feeling, they’ll only serve to enhance what’s already here.
LOL! Yeah, Don Quixote and Gandhi in the same group of comments — that’s a quite a combination with Halloween!
It’s great!
October 12th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Camile, your to much to sweet and modest. John has known for a few years now how I have felt about SeasonofShadows but more importantly about him. If it were NOT for John, and his beautiful Mom for giving birth to him, we would not have him here with us NOW both in a personal way and professional, yet playful, regarding this website. It’s funny that you even mention how I took the words right out of your mouth because after reading YOUR post, YOU my dear, took the words right out of my mouth just now. I always love to see what you’ve written as a comment because often times, in cases like this, you and I think very much alike. I can relate to everything you share regarding your passion and appreciation for John and the site. Thank you for expressing it in the manner that you did darling
I’ve always considered SOS a jewel of a find because I’ve been a Halloween fan for decades on end and in the past decade or so I’ve been looking for just the right Halloween website for me. I’m different than most when it comes to Halloween. I’m more on the old fashioned and earthy side of it. I celebrate Halloween as a PART of the harvest season, the change of temperature in the air and so forth. Never has blood, gore, body parts in such manners ever held any meaning for me regarding Halloween. Finding SOS, especially how different the site was in 2008, was a great blessing in my life. AT LAST someone else out there understood Halloween the way that I did and appreciated it MORE than most do in a fleeting moment of dressing up and dripping blood to party through the night.
John has embraced, and brought to us, that exact same deep almost spiritual connection to not just Halloween but to October and the change of season into fall. Sort of like what Ethan was saying in his comment in this section: Halloween is still known to most as some form of darkness, almost in some satanic sort of way and that’s absolutely what Halloween is NOT about. I think there are those of us that “get it” and those of us out there that don’t “get it” and continue to choose to live in fear instead of celebration of the turn of the seasons.
Lastly, I just wanted you to know how correct you are about the joy of being part of the process that is SeasonofShadows. As I’ve shared, I’ve been here a couple/few years and I have first hand experienced, through John, the many changes, thoughts, ideas and comments along the way that make SOS what it is today. Just as you are a very lucky woman to have your son Kieran in your life and being a special part of the process of watching him grow into a young man, I sort of feel like I’ve seen SOS when it was just a baby…..and it’s grown so fast and in so many directions that I am beyond proud of John for being so committed to US, the website and especially the quality of the website. Those larger websites you spoke of seem to be more concerned about quantity than quality and again that’s where John differs greatly…with everything he does. You’ve seen this first hand, Kieran can feel it, Ethan noticed right away and many more. I’m glad John did this posting because I’m sure it’s nice for a change to hear from other people what he hears from me all the time. LoL, I must sound like a broken record at times
I loved reading your comment Camile and I agree: I have ZERO suggestions for the site. I LOVE all of it. However, I do agree with you and you have my vote easily, the only way we can improve on “something” is if we could all live near by each other. Not to mention at this rate, John is going to need a team of SOS specialists around him come Halloween 2011!!
LoL….John, you know me…..I read Camile’s comment and had to share back
Sorry it got so long.
October 13th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Goldie,
I don’t mind a bit. I enjoy having such great communication going on between you guys. And I’m guessing people will probably think I’m wearing blush after reading your comment.
Though I know your response was for Camile, I just wanted to sincerely thank you. Thank you, my friend.
October 27th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
I believe it is the sign of a great heart that it doesn’t consider how much love it’s getting, but how much more it can give. I’m inspired by your desire to do more, particularly considering how much you do already. Your thoughtful replies to each post, your generosity & patience in explaining what you do & how you do it, & your appreciation of those around you– that’s more than most can manage. & you want to do more. Well, I like Autumnforest’s idea of more instructional vids & how-to info, but on the whole I would tell you not to worry about it too much. If YOU want to do more, you will find ways. It is the nature of a great heart.
October 30th, 2010 at 2:36 am
themadblonde,
Thank you so much for your kind reply and for your wonderful suggestions about continuing in the vein of more how-to info. I honestly mean it when I say that it’s you guys who inspire me. I love everything I get to do at Season of Shadows and having such tremendous support from great people like yourself, along with knowing I am helping, even if it’s just a little bit, means the world to me.
Thank you as well for the great advice about essentially trusting in the process and the ways to be of service will eventually be revealed. I believe you’re absolutely right.
Have a great Halloween!