By Sully Sullivan from the Theater Cop series by J.A. Hennrikus

Running a theater company is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. The Cliffside Theater Company is wonderful, but there are a lot of strong personalities, our ambitions for each show are much higher than time and budget allow, and there's always something that throws us off course. This year, on top of everything else, there was a flood in the costume storage unit and all three ghosts and Marley have to be rebuilt for our Christmas Carol. Now, folks assume that the Ghost of Christmas Future is the toughest costume, but that's far from the truth. I could probably sew that costume, and at this rate I may need to. No, the other two ghosts are a lot more elaborate. There's the puppetry under the robes. . .well, I'll save that for a surprise during the show.

Suffice it to say, this was an unexpected budget expense. So, I've got to do a little fundraising to refill the coffers. Not sure of the best way to do that, so I'm burning the candle at both ends. Thankfully, it's Halloween season. No, not because we've got time before our show opens at the end of November, though I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful because with Halloween comes candy, and candy is my fuel while I'm writing grants. Bite sized bars are more fun, and make me feel a little more noble, like I'm eating less. That, of course, isn't true, naturally.

This season, I've become quite fond of the pumpkin shaped Reese's peanut butter cups. The ratio of peanut butter to chocolate is higher than in the normal cups, and I love them. I'm also stocking up on candy corn, and Hershey bars. Yes, I said stocking up. Dimitri mentioned that he wanted to have a two feet deep pool in the middle of the stage for next summer's production of HMS Pinafore. That, on top of the ghost costumes? I'm a grant writing machine who's looking forward to the candy sales on November 1.

How about you, dear readers? Do you indulge in Halloween candy? What's your favorite kind?

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J.A. Hennrikus writes the Theater Cop series. As Julianne Holmes, she writes the Clock Shop series. JHAuthors.com