Halloween is the time of year to huddle around a campfire in the middle of a dark forest while your friend eerily places the flashlight just beneath his face and tells a scary story thatâÄôll give you nightmares that night.  While none of these events are that dramatic, here are some ways to get your literary fright fix this Halloween weekend.

The LoftâÄôs Dead Writers Party

Saturday Oct. 29^th, 4-6pm

Kierans Irish Pub

601 1^st Ave N

Suggested donation: $10

The Loft Literary CenterâÄôs Dead Writers Party is a celebration of the living words of those currently six feet under.

âÄúFor the most part itâÄôs a gathering of people who are interested in celebrating their favorite dead writers,âÄù said Chris Jones, the LoftâÄôs marketing and communications director who was involved in the organizing of the event.

Guests are invited to dress up as their favorite dead authors.  Mark Twain âÄî with his disheveled white hair and that illustrious mustache âÄî and Sylvia Plath âÄî with her charming smile and that manic, suicidal twinkle in her eye âÄî were hits at last yearâÄôs party.  Costumed attendees can read excerpts from their favorite literature at the eventâÄôs open mic.

âÄúItâÄôs just an attempt to have a fun event around Halloween that touches on the spirit of [The LoftâÄôs] mission,âÄù Jones said.

Nightmare Fuel

Friday Oct. 28^th, 8pm and Saturday Oct. 29^th, 9:30pm

The Lyric

765 Hampden Ave S

$12

Rockstar Storyteller veterans Philip Lowe and Rob Callahan will be tag-teaming this musical storytelling phantasmagoria.  In addition to the pairâÄôs alarming tales, the event will feature a musical backdrop courtesy of Mayda and Byzantine Beatbox.

A common folly of storytelling is staring straight down at the page and mechanically regurgitating written words.  These seasoned storytellers have been drawing crowds throughout Uptown for years and are far too charismatic to make that mistake.

âÄúWe always have a script on a music stand but we hardly ever actually look at it,âÄù Callahan said.  âÄúThe script is really only there as a prop, if we do look at it itâÄôs just a quick glance.  So these are being told as opposed to being read.âÄù

Nightmare Fuel hearkens back to a pre-digital era, free of mindless zombies staring at an over-stimulating rectangle when they want to get scared.  Callahan and Lowe will bring that backwoods campfire suspense to The Lyric and ask the audience to fill in the visual gaps.

âÄúThis scales it back and takes away the graphics and implores the listener to rely on the theater of their mind,âÄù Callahan said.  âÄúYou can explore things in storytelling and in conversation that you canâÄôt explore in moving picture shows.âÄù

MinnesotaâÄôs most haunted locations with Chad Lewis

Sunday Oct. 30^th, 2pm

St. Paul Central Library

90 W 4^th St.

Free

Chad Lewis has spent the past 17 years relentlessly investigating the paranormal.  Though heâÄôs traveled far and wide in search of specters, phantoms, myths, and folklore, heâÄôs always spent a great deal of time flushing out MinnesotaâÄôs supernatural phenomena, publishing âÄúHaunted St. Paul,âÄù a guide to all things spooky in the Twin Cities.

The strength of LewisâÄô spooks lye not in his majestic prose or his dynamic narrative development, but rather in the sneaking suspicion that these tales, however outlandish, just might be, just could be, just may be true.

âÄúA lot of people would rather watch Paranormal Activity than hear about some of these cases,âÄù Lewis said.  âÄúBut as with most things in life, truth is weirder than fiction.  These things are in peopleâÄôs backyards.âÄù